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Coventry: essays /
By Rachel Cusk. 2019
The author's first collection of essays about motherhood, marriage, feminism, and art both offers new insights on the themes at…
the heart of her fiction and forges a startling critical voice on some of our most urgent personal, social, and artistic questions. 2019.Before I was a critic I was a human being / (Essais series #no. 7)
By Amy Fung. 2019
Fung takes a closer examination at Canada's mythologies of multiculturalism, settler colonialism, and identity through the lens of a national…
art critic. Following the tangents of a foreign-born perspective and the complexities and complicities in participating in ongoing acts of colonial violence, the book as a whole takes the form of a very long land acknowledgement. Taken individually, each piece roots itself in the learning and unlearning process of a first generation settler immigrant as she unfurls each region's sense of place and identity. 2019.Truth Telling: Seven Conversations about Indigenous Life in Canada
By Michelle Good. 2023
#1 NATIONAL BESTSELLERA bold, provocative collection of essays exploring the historical and contemporary Indigenous experience in Canada.With authority and insight,…
Truth Telling examines a wide range of Indigenous issues framed by Michelle Good’s personal experience and knowledge.From racism, broken treaties, and cultural pillaging, to the value of Indigenous lives and the importance of Indigenous literature, this collection reveals facts about Indigenous life in Canada that are both devastating and enlightening. Truth Telling also demonstrates the myths underlying Canadian history and the human cost of colonialism, showing how it continues to underpin modern social institutions in Canada.Passionate and uncompromising, Michelle Good affirms that meaningful and substantive reconciliation hinges on recognition of Indigenous self-determination, the return of lands, and a just redistribution of the wealth that has been taken from those lands without regard for Indigenous peoples.Truth Telling is essential reading for those looking to acknowledge the past and understand the way forward.Ordinary Wonder Tales
By Emily Urquhart. 2022
A journalist and folklorist explores the truths that underlie the stories we imagine—and reveals the magic in the everyday. “I’ve…
always felt that the term fairy tale doesn’t quite capture the essence of these stories,” writes Emily Urquhart. “I prefer the term wonder tale, which is Irish in origin, for its suggestion of awe coupled with narrative. In a way, this is most of our stories.” In this startlingly original essay collection, Urquhart reveals the truths that underlie our imaginings: what we see in our heads when we read, how the sight of a ghost can heal, how the entrance to the underworld can be glimpsed in an oil painting or a winter storm—or the onset of a loved one’s dementia. In essays on death and dying, pregnancy and prenatal genetics, radioactivity, chimeras, cottagers, and plague, Ordinary Wonder Tales reveals the essential truth: if you let yourself look closely, there is magic in the everyday.Full of Hot Air: Launching, Floating High, and Landing
By Gary Paulsen. 1979
Utopia's Debris: Selected Essays
By Gary Indiana. 2008
Gary Indiana is one of America's leading cultural critics-a public intellectual who has written key essays on every aspect of…
American culture. Utopia's Debris comprises selections of his very best work, revealing him to be an enormously acute, frequently scabrous, and always brilliant observer of the best and worst America has to offer.His writings range from popular culture-trash novels, architectural wonders and horrors-to appreciations of the best of modern literature, art, and cinema. They include his convincing (and highly entertaining) debunking of fashionable conspiracy theories, a spirited and contrarian defense of Bill Clinton's autobiography, a Mencken-like examination of the rise of Arnold Schwarzenegger and the politics of celebrity in what Indiana calls the Age of Contempt.A postmodern Emerson, Indiana wields scalpel-sharp wit and a fealty to logic on issues in which, all too often, irrationalism and emotionalism hold sway. At times rigorously serious, at other times whimsical, Indiana's most conspicuous feature is skepticism-his wildly satirical contempt for conventional wisdom.Near-Death Experiences . . . and Others: And Others
By Robert Gottlieb. 2018
A new collection of immersive essays from the most acclaimed editor of the second half of the twentieth centuryThis new…
collection from the legendary editor Robert Gottlieb features twenty or so pieces he’s written mostly for The New York Review of Books, ranging from reconsiderations of American writers such as Dorothy Parker, Thornton Wilder, Thomas Wolfe (“genius”), and James Jones, to Leonard Bernstein, Lorenz Hart, Lady Diana Cooper (“the most beautiful girl in the world”), the actor-assassin John Wilkes Booth, the scandalous movie star Mary Astor, and not-yet president Donald Trump. The writings compiled here are as various as they are provocative: an extended probe into the world of post-death experiences; a sharp look at the biopics of transcendent figures such as Shakespeare, Molière, and Austen; a soap opera-ish movie account of an alleged affair between Chanel and Stravinsky; and a copious sampling of the dance reviews he’s been writing for The New York Observer for close to twenty years. A worthy successor to his expansive 2011 collection, Lives and Letters, and his admired 2016 memoir, Avid Reader, Near-Death Experiences displays the same insight and intellectual curiosity that have made Gottlieb, in the words of The New York Times’s Dwight Garner, “the most acclaimed editor of the second half of the twentieth century.”From his impoverished childhood to his feat of becoming one of the most successful entertainers of all time, this fascinating…
biography presents a memorable portrait of magician and escape artist Harry Houdini. Guidelines for 21 fun magic tricks are also provided, including how to stick a needle into a balloon without popping it, how to step through a note card, and how to make a coin vanish. Illustrating the science and logic behind many of Houdini's most notable acts, the magic-based activities also explain his famous Milk Can Escape through an accessible water displacement experiment and demonstrate simple mathematics with his Odd Number Trick. Touching on his time as an actor, an aviator, and possibly even a spy for the U.S. government, this thoroughly entertaining biography also features a time line, curriculum links for educators, and books and websites for further exploration.Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera: Their Lives and Ideas, 24 Activities (For Kids series)
By Carol Sabbeth. 2005
Children will find artistic inspiration as they learn about iconic artists Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera in these imaginative and…
colorful activities. The art and ideas of Kahlo and Rivera are explored through projects that include painting a self-portrait Kahlo-style, creating a mural with a social message like Rivera, making a Day of the Dead ofrenda, and crafting an Olmec head carving. Vibrant illustrations throughout the book include Rivera's murals and paintings, Kahlo's dreamscapes and self-portraits, pre-Columbian art and Mexican folk art, as well as many photographs of the two artists. Children will learn that art is more than just pretty pictures; it can be a way to express the artist's innermost feelings, a source of everyday joy and fun, an outlet for political ideas, and an expression of hope for a better world. Sidebars will introduce children to other Mexican artists and other notable female artists. A time line, listings of art museums and places where Kahlo and Rivera's art can be viewed, and a list of relevant websites complete this cross-cultural art experience.A First Cookbook for Children
By Christopher Santoro, Evelyne Johnson. 1983
Finally, a beginning cookbook designed especially for children -- and one that adds the fun of coloring to the joy…
of cooking. A First Cookbook for Children contains a wide variety of yummy, mouth-watering recipes that kids love and love to fix: cheeseburgers, chicken, pizza, salads, sauces, desserts, dips, and much more.Assuming no previous cooking experience, the author gently guides the reader from start to finish with special sections on muffins, cakes, meat loaf, chicken, dips & dunks, corn bread, scalloped potatoes, biscuits, salads, hamburgers, fish, cookies, macaroni & cheese, pancakes, candies, dressings, pizza, baked ham, crudités, and rice.Simple, easy-to-follow instructions plus clear explanations of ingredients and utensils take a child through each step of food preparation and actual cooking. A helpful introduction includes lists of necessary equipment and basic ingredients along with five sample menus. A fun first cookbook for kids ages 10 and up, this volume offers 60 sure-to-please recipes.Bermuda Shorts
By James Patterson. 2010
In clothing, Bermuda Shorts are a kind of casual formal wear - and in this collection of essays, Bermuda Shorts…
is the perfect metaphor for James J. Patterson's fundamentally serious but playful literary style. Patterson writes like the love child of Henry Miller and Mary Karr, with all the contradictions that implies -- a philosopher who thinks best over a glass of fine wine; an ex-Catholic still haunted by the image of the Crucifixion; an irreverent political satirist whose patriotism flies the flag of another iconoclast, Thomas Paine. Patterson grew up with a foot planted in each of two worlds -- one in Washington DC, the Capital of the Empire as he calls it, where the wheels of power spin, and one in rural Ontario, where his Canadian mother insisted the family spend their summers. His father, one of the wizards of twentieth century newspaper publishing, introduced him to the city's wheels of money and power, which he would later navigate as an entrepreneur, starting his first business at 20. But those Canadian summers introduced him to a different world - one where a cedar strip boat was better than any car, and where the ghosts of those who'd previously inhabited the family's island house floated out over the water of Lovesick Lake. It is those two worlds that blend in this collection, in reflections both serious and playful, on what it means to be a man, an artist, an iconoclast, a patriot, a lover, as the 20th century rolls over into the 21st.Seek!: Selected Nonfiction
By Rudy Rucker. 1999
The essays and memoirs collected in Seek! trace Rudy Rucker's trajectory through the final decade of the second millennium. His…
topics include artificial life, chaos, the big bang, Pieter Brueghel, the church of the subgenius, live sex, mathematics, science fiction, and TV evangelism. A computer scientist and programmer, Rucker is an articulate, engaging guide to the world on either side of the computer screen.Great American Artists for Kids: Hands-On Art Experiences in the Styles of Great American Masters
By Kim Solga, Maryann F. Kohl. 2008
Fun and easy art-appreciation activities abound in this resource that features 75 American artists from colonial times to the present.…
A brief biography for each artist tells why his or her work is important, and a kid-tested art activity tries out the artist's approach. For Georgia O'Keeffe, the activity is a desert painting; for Frederic Remington, a face cast; for Leroy Nieman, a sketch of athletes; and for James Whistler, a clay engraving. Projects stress the creative process and encourage kids to try unusual techniques such as block printing, soak-stain, and stone carving as they learn about architecture, drawing, painting, photography, and sculpture. A resource guide provides a glossary of art terms, a list that groups the artists by style, a list of the artists' birthdays, an index of art supplies, and websites for viewing art online.How to Make Origami Airplanes That Fly
By Gery Hsu. 1992
Pure origami is an ancient and elegant art, whereas making paper airplanes is often considered a relatively modern recreation. Origami…
focuses on beauty, while the performance of a paper airplane is usually its most important attribute. This clearly written, carefully illustrated how-to book combines the two activities to produce an up-to-date innovation: artfully constructed origami airplanes that actually fly.The author first shows you how to construct the Jet Tail, an important basic feature that is needed for many of the more difficult models diagrammed later. This is followed by detailed, step-by-step directions and diagrams for creating each of 12 different models: space shuttle, futuristic shuttle, flying wing, delta wing-jet, fighter plane, interceptor, double tail fighter, dart plane, fighter plane with engines, futuristic fighter, and two different jets.The projects progress in level of difficulty; as you master the simpler models you will be developing the skills you need to assemble the more complicated craft. The book also includes valuable suggestions about types of paper to use, useful hints that help ensure success, and solutions to common problems paperfolders may encounter.Best Food Writing 2016
By Holly Hughes. 2016
For sixteen years, this annual anthology has served up the cream of each year's crop of food writing. The 2016…
edition continues the tradition with a dynamic mix of writers, from seasoned journalists and authors to star chefs and up-and-coming bloggers. Provocative journalism, intriguing profiles, moving memoir, and more-Best Food Writing 2016 hits the spot for the foodie in all of us.The Impossible will Take a Little While: A Citizen's Guide to Hope in a Time of Fear
By Paul Rogat Loeb. 2014
What keeps us going when times get tough? How do we keep on working for a more humane world, no…
matter how hard it sometimes seems? In a time when our involvement has never been needed more, this anthology of political hope will help readers with the essential work of healing our communities, our nation, our planet--despite all odds. In THE IMPOSSIBLE WILL TAKE A LITTLE WHILE, a phrase borrowed from Billie Holliday, the editor of Soul of a Citizen brings together fifty stories and essays that range across nations, eras, wars, and political movements. Danusha Goska, an Indiana activist with a paralyzing physical disability, writes about overcoming political immobilization, drawing on her history with the Peace Corps and Mother Teresa. Vaclav Havel, the former president of the Czech Republic, finds value in seemingly doomed or futile actions taken by oppressed peoples. Rosemarie Freeney Harding recalls the music that sustained the civil rights movement, and Paxus Calta-Star recounts the powerful vignette of an 18-year-old who launched the overthrow of Bulgaria's dictatorship. Many of the essays are new, others classic works that continue to inspire. Together, these writers explore a path of heartfelt community involvement that leads beyond despair to compassion and hope. The voices collected in THE IMPOSSIBLE WILL TAKE A LITTLE WHILE will help keep us all working for a better world despite the obstacles.My First Book About Space: A Question and Answer Book
By Dinah L. Moche. 1982
The Neoconservative Persuasion: Selected Essays, 1942-2009
By Irving Kristol. 2011
My Bookstore: Writers Celebrate Their Favorite Places to Browse, Read, and Shop
By Richard Russo, Emily St. John Mandel, Leif Parsons, Ronald Rice. 2012
In My Bookstore our favorite writers-from Elin Hilderbrand, to John Grisham, to Dave Eggers-express their adoration and admiration for their…
favorite bookstores and booksellers. The relationship between a writer and her local bookstore can last for years or even decades. Often it is the author's local store that supported her during the early days of her career and that works tirelessly to introduce her work to new readers. But authors are also readers and customers, just like us. For them, as for most of us, bookstores serve as the anchor for our communities, the place that introduces us to new ideas (and new neighbors), and that sets our children on the path to becoming lifelong readers and lovers of books. Brimming with original, deeply moving, funny, and exceedingly well-crafted tributes to bookstores, from Longfellow Books in Portland, Maine (Ron Currie, Jr.) to Powells City of Books in Portland, Oregon (Chuck Palahniuk) and everywhere in between, My Bookstore is a joyful celebration of our bricks-and-mortar stores and a clarion call to readers everywhere at a time when the value and importance of these stores should be shouted from the rooftops.The Quotable Hitchens: From Alcohol to Zionism -- The Very Best of Christopher Hitchens
By Martin Amis, Windsor Mann. 2011
Over the past few decades, the bestselling author of Hitch-22 has crisscrossed the globe debating religious scholars, Catholic clergy, rabbis,…
and devout Christians on the existence of God--appearances that have attracted thousands of people on both sides of the issue. He has been invited to talk shows and events to discuss everything from the death of Jerry Falwell to the sainthood of Mother Teresa, from U.S. policy in the Middle East to the dangers of religious fundamentalism and beyond. And he is always armed with pithy discourse that is as intelligent as it is quotable.The Quotable Hitchens gathers for the first time the eminent journalist, public intellectual, and all-around provocateur Christopher Hitchen's most scathing, inflammatory, hilarious, and clear-cut commentary from the course of his storied career. Drawn from his many TV appearances, debates, lectures, interviews, articles, and books, the quotations are arranged alphabetically by subject--from atheism and alcoholism to George Orwell and Bertrand Russell, from Islamofascism and Iraq to smoking and sex.