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The New Bloomsday Book : A Guide Through Ulysses Revised Edition by Harry Blamires - Paperback USED
Since 1966 readers new to James Joyce have depended upon this essential guide to Ulysses. Harry Blamires helps readers to negotiate their way through this formidable, remarkable novel and gain an understanding of it which, without help, it might have taken several readings to achieve.
The New Bloomsday Book is a crystal clear, page-by-page, line-by-line running commentary on the plot of Ulysses which illuminates symbolic themes and structures along the way. It is a highly accessible, indispensable guide for anyone reading Joyce's masterpiece for the first time.
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On Writing : A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King - Paperback
Immensely helpful and illuminating to any aspiring writer, this special edition of Stephen King’s critically lauded, million-copy bestseller shares the experiences, habits, and convictions that have shaped him and his work.
"On Writing had more useful and observant things to say about the craft than any book since Strunk and White's The Elements of Style."—Roger Ebert
“Long live the King” hailed Entertainment Weekly upon publication of Stephen King’s On Writing. Part memoir, part master class by one of the bestselling authors of all time, this superb volume is a revealing and practical view of the writer’s craft, comprising the basic tools of the trade every writer must have. King’s advice is grounded in his vivid memories from childhood through his emergence as a writer, from his struggling early career to his widely reported, near-fatal accident in 1999—and how the inextricable link between writing and living spurred his recovery. Brilliantly structured, friendly and inspiring, On Writing will empower and entertain everyone who reads it—fans, writers, and anyone who loves a great story well told.
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Eroticon by Yoryis Yatromanolakis Translated by David Connolly - Paperback
Only 1 left in stockYorgi Yatromanolakis is a professor of ancient Greek, and is regarded as one of Greece''s most important 20th century novelists. His third novel, The History of a Vendetta, was awarded the First Greek National Prize for Literature '
Eroticon ($13.99 paperback original; Jun. 24; 190 pp.; 1-873982-88-7): A very amusing (and imperturbably retrograde) imitation of the classical oriental love manual, from a celebrated contemporary Greek novelist (A Report of a Murder, 1995, not reviewed) whose casual sexism is obviously calculated to elicit strong reaction. Its straightforward categorization of the ``five types of women'' available for seduction will surely offend; then again, where else are you likely to learn how ``the spotted eels of the South Seas laboriously copulate? Advice on sexual strategies and positions is helpfully interspersed throughout by an ingenuous narrator whose grave and reverend, and studiously circumlocutious, lewdness nostalgically evokes the worlds, and words, of Rabelais and Boccaccio. Urbane, provocative, and highly (as well as lowly) entertaining. -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
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Erotism Death & Sensuality by Georges Bataille - Paperback
Only 1 left in stockTaboo and sacrifice, transgression and language, death and sensuality—Georges Bataille pursues these themes with an original, often startling perspective. He challenges any single discourse on the erotic. The scope of his inquiry ranges from Emily Bronte to Sade, from St. Therese to Claude Levi-Strauss and Dr. Kinsey; and the subjects he covers include prostitution, mythical ecstasy, cruelty, and organized war. Investigating desire prior to and extending beyond the realm of sexuality, he argues that eroticism is "a psychological quest not alien to death."
" . . . one of the most original and unsettling of those thinkers who, in the wake of Sade and Nietzsche, have confronted the possibility of thought in a world that has lost its myth of transcendence."--Peter Brooks, New York Times Book Review
"Bataille is one of the most important writers of the century."--Michel Foucault
"[An] urgent, thrusting book about love, sex, death and spirituality by Georges Bataille."--Mark Price, Philosophy Now
Georges Bataille (1897-1962) was a French intellectual and literary icon who wrote essays, novels, and poems exploring philosophical and sociological subjects such as eroticism and surrealism. City Lights published more of Bataille's works including The Impossible, The Tears of Eros, and Story of the Eye.
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The 100 Best Romance Novels by Jennifer Lawler - Paperback
Only 1 left in stockThe 100 Best Romance Novels : From Pride and Prejudice to Twilight, Books to Fall in Love—and Lust—With by Jennifer Lawler
"My feelings will not be repressed. You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you." --Mr. Darcy, Pride and Prejudice
The taboo affair of Jane and Mr. Rochester.
The (literally) timeless love between Edward and Bella.
The improbable pairing of Grace and Josh.
Climb between the covers with The 100 Best Romance Novels, collected here for the very first time.
Avid fans of the romance genre, the ladies at Crimson Romance know a thing or two about igniting scintillating passion. They've not only collected 100 of the best romance novels of all time, but also provided delicious summaries for each of their picks.
From tempting classics like E.M. Hull's The Sheik to adrenaline-pumping contemporaries like Jennifer Crusie's Bet Me, this collection of romance novels is sure to melt your heart! -
Welcome to the Writer's Life : Designing Your Writing Craft by Paulette Perhach - Paperback
Always wanted to be a writer? Stop wasting time and start your writing life today!
“Paulette Perhach is a teacher you can trust. She knows the creative writing process from hard work and constant practice, and everything she says about it rings true. Funny and wise, filled with examples of the joys and sweet agonies of the creative process, Welcome to the Writer's Life is a book both veterans and beginners will enjoy.”
—Charles Johnson, author of The Way of the Writer and Middle PassageWith warmth and humor, the author welcomes you into the writer’s life as someone who has been there on the other side looking in. Like a freshman orientation for writers, this book includes an in-depth exploration of all the elements of a writer's life, from your writing practice to your reading practice, to your writing craft and the all-important and often-overlooked business of writing. Harness the powers of crowdsourcing and social media to grow your writing career, and use the most current research on success, gamification, and lifestyle design to take your writing life to the next level. Complete with writing exercises, tools, checklists, infographics, and behind-the-scenes tips from working writers of all types, this book offers everything you need to jump-start a successful writing life.
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NLP For Writers by Bekki Hill - Paperback
NLP for Writers is the only creative writing book that uses NLP techniques to help writers improve the stories they create. This unique guide employs case studies and exercises to explore how NLP concepts can be used to develop better mastery of character, plot and story and to create writing that engages audiences more strongly.
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Novelizations : How to Adapt Scripts Into Novels for Screenwriters and Authors by Rene Gutteridge and Cheryl McKay - Paperback
Novelizations - How to Adapt Scripts Into Novels A Writing Guide for Screenwriters and Authors
- Are you an author who wants to explore the business of adapting screenplays into novels?
- Are you a screenwriter who'd like to see your unproduced script written as a novel, to help get your film made?
- Are you a screenwriter who wants to adapt your own script into a novel?
This book is for you.
Novelizations used to pump business for existing movies and TV shows, but now a fast-growing trend has publishers contracting authors to pen novel adaptations based on scripts that haven't been produced--yet. At least until the novel raises awareness about the script and gives it a life of its own. It's a win-win for all creative writers.
If you are a novelist, you can benefit from learning the craft of adapting scripts into books. You may just end up penning a novelization that will one day be a film. There is an art to this form of adaptation that may differ from starting a novel from scratch.
If you're a screenwriter who is sitting on a gem of a script, what are you waiting for? We'll give you tips on how to team up with a novelist. Or you, too, can learn to adapt your screenplay as a novel. Just like screenwriting, there's a craft to be honed. With the whole story and characters of that script already in place, you're half way there.
Want to learn the trade secrets of this burgeoning business? Look no further. Using specific, side-by-side examples that compare script pages to novel pages, writing team Cheryl McKay (the screenwriter) and Rene Gutteridge (the novelist) share their experiences, tips, and know-how on adapting scripts into novels. Covering everything from creative technique to collaborative contracts, Novelizations: How to Adapt Scripts Into Novels is an invaluable tool for both screenwriters and novelists to successfully master this highly specialized art form.
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RENE GUTTERIDGE is the one of the go-to authors for novelizations. She has written Old Fashioned, Heart of the Country, and Just 18 Summers for Tyndale. CHERYL MCKAY, screenwriter of The Ultimate Gift (which Gutteridge also novelized), has worked with Gutteridge on the novelizations for her scripts, Never the Bride for Random House and Greetings from the Flipside for B&H Publishing. They won a Carol Award (ACFW) for Best Women's Fiction for Never the Bride.
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Hot Topics covered in this book include: Adapting scripts into books, what is a novelization?, challenges novelists face, script changes, word count, book length, how to paint in the setting, point of view, characters, story expansion, how to structure & plot a novel based on a script, how to handle backstory, interior monologue, characters and dialogue, and forming writing partnerships.
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Literary Trips : Following in the Footsteps of Fame by Victoria Brooks, editor - Paperback
Only 1 left in stockSip martinis with Noel Coward and Ian Fleming on a Jamaican beach. Fish for marlin with Ernest Hemingway in Cuba. Ride a streetcar through New Orleans's French Quarter with Tennessee Williams. Surf Australia's king-size waves with Bruce Chatwin. Hang on tight on a camel with Lawrence of Arabia in Jordan. Climb a Swiss Alp with Mary Shelley, Frankenstein's mother. Search for magic and mystery in Ireland with W.B. Yeats.
Whether you're an armchair traveler or a seasoned globetrotter, this unique tour through the lives of some of the world's most noteworthy writers will enchant you and provide practical information and tips with a literary spin on many of the most exotic and must-see destinations on the planet.
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English Romanticism : Greenhaven Press Companion to British Literature - Paperback USED Like New
Only 1 left in stock"Greenhaven Press has produced a series of books on Literary Movements and Genres designed to enhance the reader's understanding of and appreciation for the various literary movements and their impact on society - and the impact that society and history have had upon the writers of different eras." -- Eclectic Book Reviews
In reaction to the Enlightenment's stress on reason and intellect, Romanticism emphasized the emotional and the imaginative. The 18th century movement gave rise to such luminaries as Wordsworth, Coleridge, Blake, Keats, Byron and Shelley.
"An extensive study. The introduction places the genre in its historical and literary context, and is invaluable as a touchstone for the essays that follow. The selections are by a wide range of writers and scholars...The chapter headings are annotated so that their contents are easily recognized and accessible. In fact, each article can stand alone as a study of the individual topic. Together, however, the essays can be read for a complete and fascinting study of the genre. An excellent resource to learn the trends and modes of the genre from the broadest sense to the most particular."
-- School Library Journal (November 2001) (School Library Journal 20011101)
"In general, the essays cover an idea, a philosophy, or a literary technique shared by several authors of the period. Most information on works and authors comes in small pieces wthin essays, which often proves entirely sufficient for students needing support for a research topic."
-- Booklist (March 2000) -
How to Talk About Books You Haven't Read by Pierre Bayard - Paperback
Only 1 left in stockWith so many important books out there, and thousands more being published each year, what are we supposed to do in those inevitable social situations where we're forced to talk about books we haven't read? Pierre Bayard argues that it doesn't really matter if you've read a book or not. (In fact, in certain situations, reading the book is the worst thing you could do.) Championing the various forms of "non-reading," How to Talk About Books You Haven't Read is really a celebration of books, for book lovers everywhere to enjoy, ponder, argue about-and perhaps even read.
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The Oxford Essential Guide to Egyptian Mythology - Mass Market Paperback
Only 1 left in stockFeaturing illustrations, a map, and an in-depth index, an authoritative guide delves into the intriguing world of Ancient Egypt, providing entries--each written by a renowned Egyptologist--on deities, burial practices, cults, demons, animals, magic, oracles, sacred writings, festivals, and much more.
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Sex, Drugs, Einstein, & Elves by Clifford Pickover - Paperback USED Nonfiction
Only 1 left in stockWorld-renowned science writer Cliff Pickover explores the borderlands of science in his latest and greatest work. Part memoir and part surrealistic perspective on culture, Pickover gives readers a glimpse of new ways of thinking and of other worlds as he reaches across cultures and peers beyond our ordinary reality. Unlock the doors of your imagination with topics ranging from fugu sushi and zombies to Proust, psychedelics, quantum theory, New York literary agents, strange Bibles, and the wisdom of Holiday Inn founder Kemmons Wilson.
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How to Read Literature Like a Professor by Thomas C. Foster - Paperback USED Criticism
Only 1 left in stockWhat does it mean when a fictional hero takes a journey?. Shares a meal? Gets drenched in a sudden rain shower? Often, there is much more going on in a novel or poem than is readily visible on the surface—a symbol, maybe, that remains elusive, or an unexpected twist on a character—and there's that sneaking suspicion that the deeper meaning of a literary text keeps escaping you.
In this practical and amusing guide to literature, Thomas C. Foster shows how easy and gratifying it is to unlock those hidden truths, and to discover a world where a road leads to a quest; a shared meal may signify a communion; and rain, whether cleansing or destructive, is never just rain. Ranging from major themes to literary models, narrative devices, and form, How to Read Literature Like a Professor is the perfect companion for making your reading experience more enriching, satisfying, and fun.
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How to Read Literature Like a Professor : For Kids by Thomas C Foster - Paperback
The go-to bestselling guide to help young people navigate from a middle school book report to English Comp 101
In How to Read Literature Like a Professor: For Kids, New York Times bestselling author and professor Thomas C. Foster gives tweens the tools they need to become thoughtful readers.
With funny insights and a conversational style, he explains the way writers use symbol, metaphor, characterization, setting, plot, and other key techniques to make a story come to life.
From that very first middle school book report to that first college course, kids need to be able to understand the layers of meaning in literature. Foster makes learning this important skill fun and exciting by using examples from How the Grinch Stole Christmas to The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, from short stories and poems to movie scripts.
This go-to guide unlocks all the hidden secrets to reading, making it entertaining and satisfying.
From School Library Journal
Gr 6-9-This companion to the author's adult titles is geared toward young people who want to get a bit more out of J.K Rowling or Dr. Seuss. Foster uses both of these authors, along with Shakespeare and Homer (not Simpson), to illustrate various approaches to literature. He argues that there is really only one story, that of a journey or quest, and that it takes shape in many forms, in novels, plays, and poems. The book also delves into symbolism, irony, and the political and geographical aspects of literature. Readers will enjoy seeing Green Eggs and Ham from Foster's perspective of how food is often more than just a meal. Of course, he also touches on how the Bible, folk and fairy tales, and ancient literature form the basis of many of our favorite stories. His passion for literature is evident, and the text is readable and encouraging. While it would be a rare reader who would be familiar with every title the author cites, the arguments that he poses are solid and the examples are always apt. Students won't find literary research here, but they will find some valuable guidance on how to read critically and hopefully be inspired to read more widely.-Carol Fazioli, Barth Elementary School, Pottstown, PAα(c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc.
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How to Read Novels Like a Professor by Thomas C Foster - Paperback
How to Read Novels Like a Professor : A Jaunty Exploration of the World’s Favorite Literary Form by Thomas C Foster
Of all the literary forms, the novel is arguably the most discussed . . . and fretted over. From Miguel de Cervantes's Don Quixote to the works of Jane Austen, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, and today's masters, the novel has grown with and adapted to changing societies and technologies, mixing tradition and innovation in every age throughout history.
Thomas C. Foster--the sage and scholar who ingeniously led readers through the fascinating symbolic codes of great literature in his first book, How to Read Literature Like a Professor--now examines the grammar of the popular novel. Exploring how authors' choices about structure--point of view, narrative voice, first page, chapter construction, character emblems, and narrative (dis)continuity--create meaning and a special literary language, How to Read Novels Like a Professor shares the keys to this language with readers who want to get more insight, more understanding, and more pleasure from their reading.
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How to Read Literature Like a Professor by Thomas C Foster - Paperback Revised Edition
A thoroughly revised and updated edition of Thomas C. Foster’s classic guide—a lively and entertaining introduction to literature and literary basics, including symbols, themes and contexts, that shows you how to make your everyday reading experience more rewarding and enjoyable.
While many books can be enjoyed for their basic stories, there are often deeper literary meanings interwoven in these texts. How to Read Literature Like a Professor helps us to discover those hidden truths by looking at literature with the eyes—and the literary codes-of the ultimate professional reader, the college professor.
What does it mean when a literary hero is traveling along a dusty road? When he hands a drink to his companion? When he’s drenched in a sudden rain shower?
Ranging from major themes to literary models, narrative devices and form, Thomas C. Foster provides us with a broad overview of literature—a world where a road leads to a quest, a shared meal may signify a communion, and rain, whether cleansing or destructive, is never just a shower-and shows us how to make our reading experience more enriching, satisfying, and fun.
This revised edition includes new chapters, a new preface and epilogue, and incorporates updated teaching points that Foster has developed over the past decade.
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On Photography by Susan Sontag - Paperback Nonfiction
Winner of the National Book Critics' Circle Award for Criticism.
“A brilliant analysis of the profound changes photographic images have made in our way of looking at the world and at ourselves over the last 140 years.” ―Washington Post Book World
One of the most highly regarded books of its kind, On Photography first appeared in 1977 and is described by its author as "a progress of essays about the meaning and career of photographs." It begins with the famous "In Plato's Cave"essay, then offers five other prose meditations on this topic, and concludes with a fascinating and far-reaching "Brief Anthology of Quotations."
“Every page of On Photography raises important and exciting questions about its subject and raises them in the best way.” ―The New York Times Book Review
“A book of great importance and originality . . . All future discussion or analysis of the role of photography in the affluent mass-media societies are now bound to begin with her book.” ―John Berger
“Not many photographs are worth a thousand of [Susan Sontag's] words.” ―Robert Hughes, Time
“After Sontag, photography must be written about not only as a force in the arts, but as one that is increasingly powerful in the nature and destiny of our global society.” ―Newsweek
“On Photography is to my mind the most original and illuminating study of the subject.” ―Calvin Trillin, The New Yorker
About the Author
Susan Sontag is the author of four novels, The Benefactor, Death Kit, The Volcano Lover and In America; I, Etcetera, a collection of stories; several plays; and five works of nonfiction, among them Illness as a Metaphor and AIDS and Its Metaphors. In 2001 she was awarded the Jerusalem Prize for the body of her work.
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Against Interpretation : And Other Essays by Susan Sontag - Paperback Nonfiction
“Susan Sontag's essays are great interpretations, and even fulfillments, of what is really going on.” ―Carlos Fuentes
Against Interpretation was Susan Sontag's first collection of essays and is a modern classic. Originally published in 1966, it has never gone out of print and has influenced generations of readers all over the world. It includes the famous essays "Notes on Camp" and "Against Interpretation," as well as her impassioned discussions of Sartre, Camus, Simone Weil, Godard, Beckett, Levi-Strauss, sceince-fiction movies, psychoanalysis, and contemporary religious thought.
This edition has a new afterword, "Thirty Years Later," in which Sontag restates the terms of her battle against philistinism and against ethical shallowness and indifference.
“A dazzling intellectual performance.” ―Vogue
“Susan Sontag is a writer of rare energy and provocative newness.” ―The Nation
“The theoretical portions of her book are delightful to read because she can argue so well. . . . Her ideas are consistently stimulating.” ―Commentary
“She has come to symbolize the writer and thinker in many variations: as analyst, rhapsodist, and roving eye, as public scold and portable conscience.” ―Time
About the Author
Susan Sontag wrote four novels, The Benefactor, Death Kit, The Volcano Lover, and In America, which won the 2000 National Book Award for fiction; a collection of stories, I, etcetera; several plays, including Alice in Bed; and eight books of essays, among them On Photography, which won the National Book Critics Circle Award for criticism. Her books have been translated into thirty-two languages. In 2001, she won the Jerusalem Prize for the body of her work. She died in New York City in 2004.
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Styles of Radical Will by Susan Sontag - Paperback Nonfiction
“[Susan Sontag] is one of the most interesting and valuable critics we possess, a writer from whom it's continually possible to learn.” ―Richard Gilman, The New Republic
Styles of Radical Will, Susan Sontag's second collection of essays, extends the investigations she undertook in Against Interpretation with essays on film, literature, politics, and a groundbreaking study of pornography.
“She has come to symbolize the writer and thinker in many variations: as analyst, rhapsodist, and roving eye, as public scold and portable conscience.” ―Time
“Miss Sontag emerges from Styles of Radical Will . . . as an open and vulnerable intellect, a consciousness in process of transformation . . . Her first essay, 'The Aesthetics of Silence' is a brilliant and important account of Western tradition of artistic revolt against language, against thinking, against consciousness.” ―Robert Sklar, The Nation
“It should be remembered that Miss Sontag has now written four of the most valuable intellectual documents of the past ten years: 'Against Interpretation,' 'Notes on Camp,' The Aesthetics of Silence,' and 'Trip to Hanoi.' In the world in which she's chosen to live, she continues to be the best there is.” ―The New York Times Book Review
From the Publisher
In her second essay collection, Sontag "displays an enlightened, energetic intellect exploring the margins of contemporary consciousness."--The New York Times
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Illness as Metaphor and AIDS and Its Metaphors by Susan Sontag - Paperback
In 1978 Susan Sontag wrote Illness as Metaphor, a classic work described by Newsweek as "one of the most liberating books of its time." A cancer patient herself when she was writing the book, Sontag shows how the metaphors and myths surrounding certain illnesses, especially cancer, add greatly to the suffering of patients and often inhibit them from seeking proper treatment. By demystifying the fantasies surrounding cancer, Sontag shows cancer for what it is--just a disease. Cancer, she argues, is not a curse, not a punishment, certainly not an embarrassment and, it is highly curable, if good treatment is followed.
Almost a decade later, with the outbreak of a new, stigmatized disease replete with mystifications and punitive metaphors, Sontag wrote a sequel to Illness as Metaphor, extending the argument of the earlier book to the AIDS pandemic.
These two essays now published together, Illness as Metaphor and AIDS and Its Metaphors, have been translated into many languages and continue to have an enormous influence on the thinking of medical professionals and, above all, on the lives of many thousands of patients and caregivers.
From Publishers Weekly
"In Illness as Metaphor , Sontag argues that the myths and metaphors surrounding disease can kill by instilling shame and guilt in the sick, thus delaying them from seeking treatment," wrote PW. She sees, and discusses provocatively, a similar process at work in the case of AIDS.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc. -
The Origin of Others (The Charles Eliot Norton Lectures) by Toni Morrison - Hardcover
America’s foremost novelist reflects on the themes that preoccupy her work and increasingly dominate national and world politics: race, fear, borders, the mass movement of peoples, the desire for belonging. What is race and why does it matter? What motivates the human tendency to construct Others? Why does the presence of Others make us so afraid?
Pulitzer– and Nobel Prize–winning novelist Morrison analyzes the language of race and racism and the classification of people into dehumanizing racial categories in American culture… Lyrically written and intelligently argued, this book is on par with Morrison’s Playing in the Dark: Whiteness and the Literary Imagination and The Black Book.--Publishers Weekly (starred review) 2017-07-24
Drawing on her Norton Lectures, Toni Morrison takes up these and other vital questions bearing on identity in The Origin of Others. In her search for answers, the novelist considers her own memories as well as history, politics, and especially literature. Harriet Beecher Stowe, Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner, Flannery O’Connor, and Camara Laye are among the authors she examines. Readers of Morrison’s fiction will welcome her discussions of some of her most celebrated books―Beloved, Paradise, and A Mercy.
If you’ve ever wanted to take a peek into the brilliant mind of Toni Morrison, look no further than her latest book. In The Origin of Others, Morrison dissects all the thematic elements that frequent her work, and sheds light on what inspires her and what keeps her up at night. Based on her Norton Lectures, the renowned novelist delves deep into how literature has shaped society’s perceptions of race over the years, as well as how some of her most beloved books came to be. Plus, it has a brilliant introduction from Ta-Nehisi Coates!--Gina Mei Shondaland 2017-09-18
If we learn racism by example, then literature plays an important part in the history of race in America, both negatively and positively. Morrison writes about nineteenth-century literary efforts to romance slavery, contrasting them with the scientific racism of Samuel Cartwright and the banal diaries of the plantation overseer and slaveholder Thomas Thistlewood. She looks at configurations of blackness, notions of racial purity, and the ways in which literature employs skin color to reveal character or drive narrative. Expanding the scope of her concern, she also addresses globalization and the mass movement of peoples in this century. National Book Award winner Ta-Nehisi Coates provides a foreword to Morrison’s most personal work of nonfiction to date.
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Thrill Me : Essays on Fiction by Benjamin Percy - Paperback
Bold new essays on how to craft a thrilling read--in any genre--from the bestselling author of The Dead Lands
“[A] lively, helpful guide. . . . [Percy] provides precise advice concerning basics like suspense, setting, and style. . . . His evocative personal anecdotes invigorate even familiar material. . . . In each essay we glimpse an industrious Percy at the daily grind of writing, rereading and editing his fiction. . . . . Beyond craft or theory, and perhaps more helpful than any advice, this book serves as a reminder that writing is hard work.”―The New York Times Book Review
Anyone familiar with the meteoric rise of Benjamin Percy's career will surely have noticed a certain shift: After writing two short-story collections and a literary novel, he delivered the werewolf thriller Red Moon and the postapocalyptic epic The Dead Lands. Now, in his first book of nonfiction, Percy challenges the notion that literary and genre fiction are somehow mutually exclusive. The title essay is an ode to the kinds of books that make many readers fall in love with fiction: science fiction, fantasy, mysteries, horror, from J.R.R. Tolkien to Anne Rice, Ursula K. Le Guin to Stephen King. Percy's own academic experience banished many of these writers in the name of what is "literary" and what is "genre." Then he discovered Michael Chabon, Aimee Bender, Cormac McCarthy, Margaret Atwood, and others who employ techniques of genre fiction while remaining literary writers. In fifteen essays on the craft of fiction, Percy looks to disparate sources such as Jaws, Blood Meridian, and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo to discover how contemporary writers engage issues of plot, suspense, momentum, and the speculative, as well as character, setting, and dialogue. An urgent and entertaining missive on craft, Thrill Me brims with Percy's distinctive blend of anecdotes, advice, and close reading, all in the service of one dictum: Thrill the reader.
“[Benjamin Percy] peppers his observations of today's literary scene with homey, witty anecdotes, and he couches his analysis in no-nonsense wisdom. . . . Not only does he frame the ins and outs of the writing process with warm, wry reminiscences drawn from his own life, he refuses to lapse into stereotypical preciousness or pretentiousness. He talks bluntly and amiably about how stories work and why they matter, an approach that doesn't take a fellow writer to appreciate.”―NPR Books
“[Benjamin Percy] demonstrates he’s one of contemporary fiction’s sharper critical minds, an author with a rare talent for explaining his craft. . . . Thrill Me is packed with concise, practicable counsel.”―Star Tribune (Minneapolis)
“[Thrill Me] is a fine choice for readers and writers looking for a holistic take on writing that spans genres and styles.”―Tor.com
“Percy dives in head first, and his enthusiasm, in conjunction with his eye for substance and style and his skillful explication, prove a heady mix. . . . Thrill Me is comprehensive in its scope, touching on most of the important pieces of storycraft from stylistic choices to character development . . . with character and vigor, and with a joyful populist tone.”―Electric Literature
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Do the Movies Have a Future? by David Denby - Hardcover Nonfiction
Only 1 left in stockThe New Yorker critic, one of our most important film writers draws from a selection of his published pieces over a dozen years to examine the art, business, and future of what used to be America’s primary popular entertainment and is now an endangered species.
In the second decade of the twenty-first century, the movies, once America’s primary popular art form, have become an endangered species. Do the Movies Have a Future? is a rousing and witty call to arms. In these sharp and engaging essays and reviews, New Yorker movie critic David Denby weighs in on “conglomerate aesthetics,” as embodied in the frenzied, weightless action spectacles that dominate the world’s attention, and “platform agnosticism,” the notion that movies can be watched on smaller and smaller screens: laptops, tablets, even phones. At the same time, Denby reaffirms that movies are our national theater, and in this exhilarating book he celebrates such central big movies as Avatar and The Social Network as well as small but resonant triumphs like There Will Be Blood and The Tree of Life.
Denby joyously celebrates what remains of the shared culture in romantic comedy, high school movies, and chick flicks; he assesses the expressive triumphs and failures of auteurs Quentin Tarantino, the Coen brothers, Pedro Almodóvar, and David Fincher. Refusing nostalgia, he mines the past for strength, examining the changing nature of stardom and the careers of Joan Crawford, Otto Preminger, and Victor Fleming, and the continuing self-invention of Clint Eastwood. And he recreates the excitement of reading two critics who embodied the film culture of their times, James Agee and Pauline Kael.
Wry, passionate, and incisive, Do the Movies Have a Future? is both a feast of good writing and a challenge to fight back. It is an essential guide for movie lovers looking for ammunition and hope.
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Exploring Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials by Lois H. Gresh - Paperback
Only 1 left in stockExploring Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials : An Unauthorized Adventure Through The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife, and The Amber Spyglass by Lois H. Gresh
His Dark Materials is one of the most popular, award-winning fantasies of all time, a bestselling trilogy hailed as "a modern classic" by The New York Times.
Now, for the first time ever, Lois H. Gresh helps young readers examine Pullman's intricate universe with Exploring His Dark Materials, the ultimate companion guide. Gresh's fun, interactive book explores the complex science, religion, and fantastic elements of His Dark Materials in a way that's both informative and fun for younger readers. Exploring His Dark Materials is filled with sidebars, history, facts and an in-depth analysis of the books, answering questions like:
*What are daemons?
*Why is dust important to the series?
* Is Dark Material real and how does it relate to our universe?
* What are the origins of ghosts and shapeshifters?
*And much more!
Exploring His Dark Materials is a thrilling and essential guide for young adults to help them explore this fantastic and challenging fantasy world. -
Introducing Critical Theory by Stuart Sim & Borin Van Loon - Paperback USED Nonfiction
Only 1 left in stockThe last few decades have seen an explosion in the production of critical theories, with deconstructionists, poststructuralists, postmodernists, second-wave feminists, new historicists, cultural materialists, postcolonialists, black critics and queer theorists, among a host of others, all vying for our attention.
The world around us can look very different depending on the critical theory applied to it. This vast range of interpretations can leave one feeling confused and frustrated. Introducing Critical Theory provides a route through the tangled jungle of competing theories. It provides a context for these recent developments by situating them within the longer-term tradition of critical analysis going back to the rise of Marxism. The essential methods and objectives of each theoretical school are presented in an incisive and accessible manner. Special attention is paid to recurrent themes and concerns that have preoccupied a century of critical theoretical activity.
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Clues to Christie : An Introductory Guide to Agatha Christie's Mysteries - Paperback
Only 1 left in stockDying to read Agatha Christie for the first time or to re-read one of her classic mysteries but don’t know where to start? This fully authorized and comprehensive guide to the Queen of Mystery includes an introduction by award-winning Agatha Christie expert John Curran with features on each of her classic detectives including Miss Marple, Hercule Poirot and Tommy & Tuppence; guides to reading each of her series and her stand-alone novels; and an A to Z of Agatha Christie. Interspersed throughout are quotes from Christie, a list of the Christie novels that were her personal favorites and three of her classic short stories: The Affair at the Victory Ball, Greenshaw’s Folly and A Fairy in the Flat.
Clues to Christie Table of Contents: “Agatha Christie: An Introduction” by John Curran; The Hercule Poirot Mysteries; “The Affair at the Victory Ball”; The Miss Marple Mysteries; “Greenshaw’s Folly”; The Tommy and Tuppence Mysteries; “A Fairy in the Flat”; Agatha Christie’s Stand-Alone Mysteries and Short-Story Collections; The Queen of Mystery’s Personal Favorites; Ten Other Ways to Read Agatha Christie; “On Agatha Christie and Poisons”; The A to Z of Agatha Christie
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Six Myths of Our Time by Marina Warner - Paperback Mythology
Only 1 left in stockIs Jurassic Park a work of covert misogynist propaganda? Does romanticizing childhood lead to abusing children? What secret correspondence links Mary Shelley's Frankenstein to video games and Shakespeare's Caliban to Hannibal Lecter? in what ways do our culture's most hallowed legends inform the current debates over single mothers, the men's movement, and animal rights?
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Negotiating with the Dead : A Writer on Writing by Margaret Atwood - Paperback
An ambitious inquiry into the art of writing and an unprecedented insider’s view of the writer’s universe, from the beloved author of The Handmaid’s Tale.
What do we mean when we say that someone is a writer? Is he or she an entertainer? An improver of readers’ minds and morals? And who, for that matter, are these mysterious readers? In this wise and irresistibly quotable book, one of the most intelligent writers working in English addresses the riddle of her art: why people pursue it, how they view their calling, and what bargains they make with their audience, both real and imagined. To these fascinating issues Booker Prize-winner Margaret Atwood brings a candid appraisal of her own experience as well as a breadth of reading that encompasses everything from Dante to Elmore Leonard.
About the Author
MARGARET ATWOOD, whose work has been published in over thirty-five countries, is the author of more than forty books of fiction, poetry, and critical essays. In addition to The Handmaid's Tale, her novels include Cat's Eye, shortlisted for the Booker Prize; Alias Grace, which won the Giller Prize in Canada and the Premio Mondello in Italy; The Blind Assassin, winner of the 2000 Booker Prize; and her most recent, Oryx and Crake, shortlisted for the 2003 Booker Prize. She lives in Toronto with writer Graeme Gibson.
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Distrust That Particular Flavor by William Gibson - Trade Paperback
A collection of New York Times bestselling author William Gibson’s articles and essays about contemporary culture—a privileged view into the mind of a writer whose thinking has shaped not only a generation of writers but our entire culture...
“Though he’s often lauded as a big-picture man, these pieces make one thing clear: He’s even better with the little details.”—A.V. Club
“[Gibson’s] new collection of nonfiction shows that his secret strong suit is with the here and the now.”—Los Angeles Times
“The most startling pieces here crackle with his excitement at discovering some unexpected aspect of the new.”—The Globe and Mail (Canada)Though best known for his fiction, William Gibson is as much in demand for his cutting-edge observations on the world we live in now. Originally printed in publications as varied as Wired, the New York Times, and the Observer, these articles and essays cover thirty years of thoughtful, observant life, and are reported in the wry, humane voice that lovers of Gibson have come to crave.
“Gibson pulls off a dazzling trick. Instead of predicting the future, he finds the future all around him, mashed up with the past, and reveals our own domain to us.”—The New York Times Book Review
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The Wordsworth Dictionary of Mythology - Paperback Reference
Only 1 left in stockThis guide includes gods from ancient civilizations such as Aphrosire, Quetzacoatl and Vishnu and legendary heroes from Achilles to Visvamitra. It provides information on the genealogies and pantheons of the gods and their sanctuaries and cults.
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In the Beginning...was the Command Line by Neal Stephenson - Paperback
This is "the Word" -- one man's word, certainly -- about the art (and artifice) of the state of our computer-centric existence. And considering that the "one man" is Neal Stephenson, "the hacker Hemingway" (Newsweek) -- acclaimed novelist, pragmatist, seer, nerd-friendly philosopher, and nationally bestselling author of groundbreaking literary works (Snow Crash, Cryptonomicon, etc., etc.) -- the word is well worth hearing. Mostly well-reasoned examination and partial rant, Stephenson's In the Beginning... was the Command Line is a thoughtful, irreverent, hilarious treatise on the cyber-culture past and present; on operating system tyrannies and downloaded popular revolutions; on the Internet, Disney World, Big Bangs, not to mention the meaning of life itself.
From Publishers Weekly
After reading this galvanizing essay, first intended as a feature for Wired magazine but never published there, readers are unlikely to look at their laptops in quite the same mutely complacent way. Stephenson, author of the novel Cryptonomicon, delivers a spirited commentary on the aesthetics and cultural import of computer operating systems. It's less an archeology of early machines than a critique of what Stephenson feels is the inherent fuzziness of graphical user interfacesAthe readily intuitable "windows," "desktops" and "browsers" that we use to talk to our computers. Like Disney's distortion of complicated historical events, our operating systems, he argues, lull us into a reductive sense of reality. Instead of the visual metaphors handed to us by Apple and Microsoft, Stephenson advocates the purity of the command line interface, somewhat akin to the DOS prompt from which most people flee in a technophobic panic. Stephenson is an advocate of Linux, the hacker-friendly operating system distributed for free on the Internet, and of BeOS, a less-hyped paradigm for the bits-and-bytes future. Unlike a string of source code, this essay is user-friendlyAoccasionally to a fault. Stephenson's own set of extended metaphors can get a little hokey: Windows is a station wagon, while Macs are sleek Euro-sedans. And Unix is the Gilgamesh epic of the hacker subculture. Nonetheless, by pointing out how computers define who we are, Stephenson makes a strong case for elegance and intellectual freedom in computing. (Nov.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.