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The Caped Crusade: Batman and the Rise of Nerd Culture
By Glen Weldon. 2016
A witty, intelligent cultural history from NPR book critic Glen Weldon explains Batman's rises and falls throughout the ages--and what…
his story tells us about ourselves.Since his creation, Batman has been many things: a two-fisted detective; a planet-hopping gadabout; a campy Pop-art sensation; a pointy-eared master spy; and a grim and gritty ninja of the urban night. For more than three quarters of a century, he has cycled from a figure of darkness to one of lightness and back again; he's a bat-shaped Rorschach inkblot who takes on the various meanings our changing culture projects onto him. How we perceive Batman's character, whether he's delivering dire threats in a raspy Christian Bale growl or trading blithely homoerotic double-entendres with partner Robin on the comics page, speaks to who we are and how we wish to be seen by the world. It's this endlessly mutable quality that has made him so enduring. And it's Batman's fundamental nerdiness--his gadgets, his obsession, his oath, even his lack of superpowers--that uniquely resonates with his fans who feel a fiercely protective love for the character. Today, fueled by the internet, that breed of passion for elements of popular culture is everywhere. Which is what makes Batman the perfect lens through which to understand geek culture, its current popularity, and social significance. In The Caped Crusade, with humor and insight, Glen Weldon, book critic for NPR and author of Superman: The Unauthorized Biography, lays out Batman's seventy-eight-year cultural history and shows how he has helped make us who we are today and why his legacy remains so strong.The Art of Warfare and Fantasy Writing
By Nadia Hleb, Ricardo Cebrián Salé. 2016
This is not one of those books that suggests reading Sun Tzu's The Art of War even on the toilet,…
but rather gives practical tips to help inexperienced writers with their battles… With the help of various acclaimed authors and real historical examples, you’ll learn: *What to keep in mind when designing a battle *What types of weapons exist and why they’re used *Different real tactics that you can apply *Different options for narrating a battleThe Amputated Memory
By Marjolijn De Jager, Michelle Mielly, Werewere Liking. 2007
"....An expansive, eclectic, and innovative novel."--Women's Review of BooksA modern-day Things Fall Apart, The Amputated Memory explores the ways in…
which an African woman's memory preserves, and strategically forgets, moments in her tumultuous past as well as the cultural past of her country, in the hopes of making a healthier future possible.Pinned between the political ambitions of her philandering father, the colonial and global influences of encroaching and exploitative governments, and the traditions of her Cameroon village, Halla Njokè recalls childhood traumas and reconstructs forgotten experiences to reclaim her sense of self. Winner of the Noma Award--previous honorees include Mamphela Ramphele, Ngugi wa Thiong'o, and Ken Saro-Wiwa--The Amputated Memory was called by the Noma jury "a truly remarkable achievement . . . a deeply felt presentation of the female condition in Africa; and a celebration of women as the country's memory."Since 1978, Cameroon-born artiste extraordinaireWerewere Liking has been living in the Ivory Coast, where she established the Village Ki-Yi, a self-supporting center for the performing and fine arts. A singer, dancer, actor, playwright, songwriter, and author of two titles previously published in the United States, Liking has been honored across the globe for her writing and theater work; she has performed at such venues as The Kennedy Center.Marjolijn de Jager teaches French, Dutch, and literary translation at New York University and works as an independent literary translator, most recently on Assia Djebar's Children of the New World.Michelle Mielly received her PhD from Harvard University and is now teaching in the Department of Comparative Literature at Pennsylvania State University.The Present Moment
By Valerie Kibera, Marjorie Oludhe Macgoye. 1987
Published in conjunction with the award-winning Coming to Birth, this novel is the first U.S. release of a major force…
in East African literature. Of her ability to both empathize with her characters and capture their complex levels, the Weekly Review said, "Macgoye's major virtue as a writer and social critic is the inclusiveness of her vision. Nothing human is alien to her. She refuses to bestow virtue or villainy along ideological or gender lines."The Present Moment tells the story of seven unforgettable Kenyan women as it traces more than sixty years of turbulent national history. Like their country, these women are divided by ethnicity, language, class, and religion. But around the charcoal fire at the Refuge, the old-age home they share, they uncover the hidden personal histories that connect them as women: stories of their struggles for self-determination; of conflict, violence, and loss, but also of survival. As they reflect upon their tragedies, they also become aware of the community they have formed--a community of collective history, strength, humor, and affection. A chronology by Jean Hay provides U.S. readers with context on Kenyan history."Marjorie Macgoye paints a group portrait colored by deep respect, compassion, and admiration."--Commonwealth Today (Great Britain)"With the vividly specific economy of the best poetry . . . [Macgoye] confers a stature and significance on humble lives; or, rather, shows that behind the most unpromising human façades lurk lives of extraordinary courage, enterprise, and resilience."--Sunday Nation (Kenya)Marjorie Oludhe Macgoye is the award-winning author of Coming to Birth, as well as many other novels and volumes of poetry. The first African woman writer to receive the Sinclair Prize in 1986, she lives in Nairobi, Kenya.Valerie Kibera has taught European and African literature at Kenyatta University, Nairobi. She is editor of An Anthology of East African Short Stories.Jean Hay teaches history at the African Studies Center of Boston University.Yekl and the Imported Bridegroom and Other Stories of the New York Ghetto
By Abraham Cahan. 1970
Yekl (1896), the first novel upon which the much acclaimed film Hester Street was based, was probably the first novel…
in English that had a New York East Side immigrant as its hero. Reviewing it, William Dean Howells hailed Cahan as "a new star of realism."Bloody Mary: A Novel
By Sharon Solwitz. 2003
After her debut with the widely praised stories in Blood and Milk, Sharon Solwitz offers us her first, darkly radiant,…
full-length novel. Bloody Mary, which takes its title from the childhood game, tells the story of socially adept, 12-year-old Hadley and her protective mother. They live a privileged life in the Chicago neighborhood of Lakeview, but soon find themselves in a state of chaos and flux.Writing with her signature, edgy prose and ironic humor, Solwitz demonstrates that happiness "isn't our birthright" and that "we have to work for it and even then we can't be sure." We are led to consider our own degree of complicity in the hard times that seem to fall from nowhere."A flair for dark comedy and the ability to turn on a dime are prized qualities for these unpredictable characters; time and again, their intrepid investigations lead them into uncharted territory where bizarre dramatic action seems to be the only possible move. Solwitz's fine-toothed examinations of complex emotional states are dead on...."--The New York Times Book Review Sharon Solwitz's first collection of stories, Blood and Milk, won the 1998 Carl Sandburg Prize from Friends of the Chicago Public Library, the prize for adult fiction from the Society of Midland Authors, and was a finalist for the National Jewish Book Award. Her short stories, published in such magazines as TriQuarterly, Mademoiselle, and Ploughshares, have won numerous awards, including the Pushcart Prize, the Katherine Anne Porter Prize, and grants and fellowships from the Illinois Arts Council. Currently, along with her husband, poet Barry Silesky, she has worked as fiction editor of Another Chicago Magazine. She teaches fiction at Purdue University in Lafayette, Indiana.The Department of Missing Persons: A Novel
By Ruth Zylberman. 2017
A startling debut novel about the burden of Holocaust memory and the implacable zest for life. Thirty-six years after her…
mother was liberated from Bergen-Belsen, the unnamed narrator lives a comfortable life in Paris. Her mother sees ghosts at every turn, longing to find the family that disappeared behind the miasma of the Holocaust, but she cannot reconcile her mother’s trauma to the cheery bustle of daily life that surrounds them. The pain of memories that are not hers haunt her, weighing all too heavily until she is incapacitated by them, unable forge her own future. As our narrator becomes further entrenched in the past, a letter is sent by the Department of Missing Persons suggesting that her grandfather is not dead, though details of his survival and current situation are unknown. Along with her mother, the narrator begins a desperate hunt, fighting through the past and present, love and loss, and her own vulnerabilities to find the truth and rid them both of their lingering ghosts.Chickaloon Wild
By Ingrid Shaginoff. 2017
Imagine living deep in the Alaska wilderness where survival depends on your ability to hunt, fish, and gather. A place…
where as far as you can see is dense forest, rivers and sparkling lakes, set against a backdrop of majestic, snow covered mountains where the only sounds are those of nature; the caw of a raven, the lonesome howl of a wolf, or the sharp cry of the loon. In this place education means pulling the brush up around your snare to prevent the rabbit from going around it, or knowing to remove the scent glands from the beaver before you roast it. It means recognizing and following a track through thick brush. This is the ways of their Athabascan ancestors and the only way the Shaginoff family knew. With the Colonists moving into the Matanuska Valley as part of the New Deal their world is about to change forever.Law, Cinema, and the Ill City: Imagining Justice and Order in Real and Fictional Cities (Law, Language and Communication)
By Anne Wagner, Le Cheng. 2020
This book uses film and television as a resource for addressing the social and legal ills of the city. It…
presents a range of approaches to view the ill city through cinematic and televisual characterization in urban frameworks, political contexts, and cultural settings. Each chapter deconstructs the meaning of urban space as public space while critically generating a focus on order and justice, exploring issues such as state disorder, lawlessness, and revenge. The approach presents a careful balance between theory and application. The original and novel ideas presented in this book will be essential reading for those interested in the presentation of law and place in cultural texts such as film.The Lost Book of Adana Moreau: A Novel
By Michael Zapata. 2020
A Boston Globe Most Anticipated Book of 2020A Most Anticipated Book of 2020 from The Millions“A stunner—equal parts epic and…
intimate, thrilling and elegiac.”—Laura Van den Berg, author of The Third HotelThe mesmerizing story of a Latin American science fiction writer and the lives her lost manuscript unites decades later in post-Katrina New OrleansIn 1929 in New Orleans, a Dominican immigrant named Adana Moreau writes a science fiction novel. The novel earns rave reviews, and Adana begins a sequel. Then she falls gravely ill. Just before she dies, she destroys the only copy of the manuscript.Decades later in Chicago, Saul Drower is cleaning out his dead grandfather’s home when he discovers a mysterious manuscript written by none other than Adana Moreau. With the help of his friend Javier, Saul tracks down an address for Adana’s son in New Orleans, but as Hurricane Katrina strikes they must head to the storm-ravaged city for answers.What results is a brilliantly layered masterpiece an ode to home, storytelling and the possibility of parallel worlds.The New Spice Box: Contemporary Jewish Writing
By Ruth Panofsky. 2020
The New Spice Box includes short fiction, personal essays, and poetry by Jewish writers from a broad range of cultural…
backgrounds. Fresh and relevant, profound and lasting, this anthology features works by acclaimed short story writers David Bezmozgis, Mireille Silcoff, and Ayelet Tsabari; groundbreaking memoirists Bernice Eisenstein and Alison Pick; and award-winning poets Isa Milman, Jacob Scheier, and Adam Sol. The driving force behind The New Spice Box is the desire to uncover the twin touchstones of original expression and writerly craft, and to balance the representation of genres, styles, and authorial perspectives. Here, authors summon the past as they probe their cultural inheritance and move forward into the future. The New Spice Box shows that Jewish literary tradition, Jewish experience, and Jewish identity can be expressed in innumerable ways.The Slaughterman's Daughter: Winner of the Wingate Prize 2021
By Yaniv Iczkovits. 2020
A SUNDAY TIMES MUST READS PICK"Boundless imagination and a vibrant style . . . a heroine of unforgettable grit" DAVID…
GROSSMAN"A story of great beauty and surprise" GARY SHTEYNGARTThe townsfolk of Motal, an isolated, godforsaken town in the Pale of Settlement, are shocked when Fanny Keismann - devoted wife, mother of five, and celebrated cheese-maker - leaves her home at two hours past midnight and vanishes into the night.True, the husbands of Motal have been vanishing for years, but a wife and mother? Whoever heard of such a thing. What on earth possessed her?Could it have anything to do with Fanny's missing brother-in-law, who left her sister almost a year ago and ran away to Minsk, abandoning their family to destitution and despair?Or could Fanny have been lured away by Zizek Breshov, the mysterious ferryman on the Yaselda river, who, in a strange twist of events, seems to have disappeared on the same night?Surely there can be no link between Fanny and the peculiar roadside murder on the way to Telekhany, which has left Colonel Piotr Novak, head of the Russian secret police, scratching his head. Surely a crime like that could have nothing to do with Fanny Keismann, however the people of Motal might mutter about her reputation as a vilde chaya, a wild animal . . .Surely not.Translated from the Hebrew by Orr ScharfThe Nanny and the Iceberg: A Novel
By Ariel Dorfman. 1999
Conceived the night of Che Guevara's burial in 1967, Gabriel McKenzie is inextricably bound up in the history and politics…
of his native Chile. Twenty-four years on, and still a virgin, Gabriel returns from Manhattan exile to confront his legacy: a Don Juan father and a country preparing for the five-hundredth anniversary of America's "discovery." Into Gabriel's quest for manhood and identity enter one iceberg, a faithful if eccentric nanny, and a whole host of fantastical characters.A Naked Singularity
By Sergio De La Pava. 2012
NOW A MAJOR FILM STARRING JOHN BOYEGA, OLIVIA COOKE AND BILL SKARSGÅRD"The Wire written by Voltaire" Sunday Times"Crime and Punishment…
as reimagined by the Coen Brothers" The MillionsCasi is a hotshot public defender working on the front line of America's War on Drugs. So far he's on the winning side. He's never lost a case. But nothing lasts forever, and pride like his has a long way to fall. Funny, smart and always surprising, A Naked Singularity speaks a language all of its own and reads like nothing else ever written. Casi's beautiful mind and planetary intelligence make him an inimitable and unforgettable narrator. In De La Pava's hands, the labyrinthine miseries of the New York Justice System are as layered and diabolical as Dante's nine circles of Hell. But the Devil doesn't hog the best lines. There are plenty here to go around.The Four Symbols: The Black Sun Series, Book 1 (The Black Sun Series #1)
By Giacometti, Ravenne. 2019
From multi-million copy bestselling authors Giacometti & Ravenne comes a Nazi spy thriller for fans of Dan Brown, Steve Berry…
and Wilbur Smith"I couldn't put it down ... the authors write like Dan Brown!" -Anthony, 5-Star NetGalley reviewer*** RATED 5 STARS BY REAL READERS *** *** GET BOOK 2, GOOD & EVIL, NOW: https://amz.run/3tyl ****** PREORDER BOOK 3, HELLBOUND, NEXT: https://amz.run/3tyk ***A secret Nazi organisation.Four swastikas with occult powers.A spy.What readers think:"I can't wait to read the next book in the series!" -Sens Critique"A spellbinding read from start to finish." -5-Star Amazon Review"There are twists aplenty" -5-Star Netgalley Review"A real page turner." -Art Six Mic"If you like books with lots of action and cliff hangers, this is for you." -5-Star Netgalley Review"The authors' best book so far." -5-Star Amazon Review"A book full of action and mystery." -Au Detour d'un LivreIn a Europe on the verge of collapse, the Nazi organisation Ahnenerbe is pillaging sacred landmarks across the world. Their aim is to collect treasures with occult powers, which will help them establish the Third Reich. The organisation's head, Himmler, has sent SS officers to search a forgotten sanctuary in the Himalayas, while he tries to track down a mysterious painting. Which ancient power do the Nazis believe they hold the key to?Meanwhile, in London, Churchill has discovered that the war against Germany will also be a spiritual one: their light must fight the occult if they are to win . . .The Spider (The UNDER THE NORTHERN SKY Series, Book 2)
By Leo Carew. 2019
After the critically acclaimed epic fantasy THE WOLF comes THE SPIDER, book two in Leo Carew's UNDER THE NORTHERN SKY…
seriesA battle has been won, but the war still wages on . . .Roper, the Black Lord of the northern people, may have vanquished the Suthern army at the Battle of Harstathur. But the greatest threat to his people lies in the hands of more shadowy forces.In the south, the disgraced Bellamus bides his time. Learning that the young Lord Roper is planning to invade the southern lands, Bellamus conspires with his Queen to unleash a weapon so deadly it could wipe out Roper's people altogether.And at a time when Roper needs his friends more than ever, treachery from within puts the lives of those he loves in mortal danger . . .WHAT REVIEWERS ARE SAYING ABOUT THE BREATHTAKING WORK OF LEO CAREW:'The next George RR Martin' - Mail on Sunday'Imagine Game of Thrones rewritten by John le Carré . . . A marvellously accomplished debut' - Guardian'A work of extraordinary imagination and perhaps the most captivating first novel I've ever read' - Michael Dobbs, author of House of CardsWhat's Left of Me is Yours
By Stephanie Scott. 2020
A BOOK OF THE YEAR FOR THE DAILY MAIL AND WOMAN AND HOMEA New York Times 'Editor's Pick'One of the…
Observer's Ten Best Debut Novelists of 2020Shortlisted for the Author's Club First Novel AwardLonglisted for the Jhalak PrizeLonglisted for the CWA John Creasy New Blood Dagger'Enrapturing... This richly imagined novel considers the many permutations of love and what we are capable of doing in its name' New York Times'A brilliant debut' Louise Doughty, author of Apple Tree Yard'You'll have the heart rate of an Olympic hurdler' Sunday Express'I read it with my heart in my throat' Sara Collins, author of The Confessions of Frannie Langton 'An exquisitely crafted masterpiece you'll be pressing into the hands of others' Woman & Home 'An intoxicatingly atmospheric mystery' Daily Mail'Dark, addictive and eye-opening, this is a brilliant debut' StylistA gripping debut set in modern-day Tokyo and inspired by a true crime, What's Left of Me Is Yours follows a young woman's search for the truth about her mother's life - and her murder.In Japan, a covert industry has grown up around the wakaresaseya (literally "breaker-upper"), a person hired by one spouse to seduce the other in order to gain the advantage in divorce proceedings.When Sato hires Kaitaro, a wakaresaseya agent, to have an affair with his wife, Rina, he assumes it will be an easy case. But Sato has never truly understood Rina or her desires and Kaitaro's job is to do exactly that - until he does it too well.While Rina remains ignorant of the circumstances that brought them together, she and Kaitaro fall in a desperate, singular love, setting in motion a series of violent acts that will forever haunt her daughter Sumiko's life.Told from alternating points of view and across the breathtaking landscapes of Japan, What's Left of Me Is Yours explores the thorny psychological and moral grounds of the actions we take in the name of love, asking where we draw the line between passion and possession.Six Stories and an Essay
By Andrea Levy. 2014
Andrea Levy, author of the Man Booker shortlisted novel THE LONG SONG and the prize-winning, million-copy bestseller SMALL ISLAND, draws…
together a remarkable collection of short stories from across her writing career, which began twenty years ago with the publication of her first novel, the semi-autobiographical EVERY LIGHT IN THE HOUSE BURNIN'.'None of my books is just about race,' Levy has said.'They're about people and history.' Her novels have triumphantly given voice to the people and stories that might have slipped through the cracks in history. From Jamaican slave society in the nineteenth century, through post-war immigration into Britain, to the children of migrants growing up in '60s London, her books are acclaimed for skilful storytelling and vivid characters. And her unique voice, unflinching but filled with humour, compassion and wisdom, has made her one of the most significant and exciting contemporary authors.This collection opens with an essay about how writing has helped Andrea Levy to explore and understand her heritage. She explains the context of each piece within the chronology of her career and finishes with a new story, written to mark the centenary of the outbreak of the Great War in 1914. As with her novels, these stories are at once moving and honest, deft and humane, filled with insight, anger at injustice and her trademark lightness of touch.Small Island (Nhb Modern Plays Ser.)
By Andrea Levy. 2004
Small Island by bestselling author Andrea Levy won the Orange Prize for Fiction, as well as the Commonwealth Writers' Prize…
and the Whitbread. It is possibly the definitive fictional account of the experiences of the Empire Windrush generation. Now a major BBC drama starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Naomie Harris, its enduring appeal will captivate fans of Maya Angelou and Zadie Smith. 'A great read... honest, skilful, thoughtful and important' - GuardianIt is 1948, and England is recovering from a war. But at 21 Nevern Street, London, the conflict has only just begun. Queenie Bligh's neighbours do not approve when she agrees to take in Jamaican lodgers, but Queenie doesn't know when her husband will return, or if he will come back at all. What else can she do? Gilbert Joseph was one of the several thousand Jamaican men who joined the RAF to fight against Hitler. Returning to England as a civilian he finds himself treated very differently. It's desperation that makes him remember a wartime friendship with Queenie and knock at her door. Gilbert's wife Hortense, too, had longed to leave Jamaica and start a better life in England. But when she joins him she is shocked to find London shabby, decrepit, and far from the golden city of her dreams. Even Gilbert is not the man she thought he was...Fruit of the Lemon
By Andrea Levy. 1999
A unique novel full of humour, wit and passion from Andrea Levy, critically acclaimed author of the Orange Prize winning…
SMALL ISLAND and the Man Booker shortlisted THE LONG SONG.Faith Jackson fixes herself up with a great job in TV and the perfect flatshare. But neither is that perfect - and nor are her relations with her overbearing, though always loving family. Furious and perplexed when her parents announce their intention to retire back home to Jamaica, Faith makes her own journey there, where she is immediately welcomed by her Aunt Coral, keeper of a rich cargo of family history. Through the weave of her aunt's storytelling a cast of characters unfolds stretching back to Cuba and Panama, Harlem and Scotland, a story that passes through London and sweeps through continents.