Best of
Books-About-Books

2015

Book Scavenger


Jennifer Chambliss Bertman - 2015
    A found cipher. A game begins . . . .Twelve-year-old Emily is on the move again. Her family is relocating to San Francisco, home of her literary idol: Garrison Griswold, creator of the online sensation Book Scavenger, a game where books are hidden all over the country and clues to find them are revealed through puzzles. But Emily soon learns that Griswold has been attacked and is in a coma, and no one knows anything about the epic new game he had been poised to launch. Then Emily and her new friend James discover an odd book, which they come to believe is from Griswold and leads to a valuable prize. But there are others on the hunt for this book, and Emily and James must race to solve the puzzles Griswold left behind before Griswold's attackers make them their next target.

How to Read a Story


Kate Messner - 2015
    (A good one.)Step Two: Find a reading buddy. (Someone nice.)Step Three: Find a reading spot. (Couches are cozy.)Now: Begin.Accomplished storytellers Kate Messner and Mark Siegel chronicle the process of becoming a reader: from pulling a book off the shelf and finding someone with whom to share a story, to reading aloud, predicting what will happen, and—finally—coming to The End. This picture book playfully and movingly illustrates the idea that the reader who discovers the love of reading finds, at the end, the beginning.

The Whisper


Pamela Zagarenski - 2015
    As the pages turn, her imagination takes flight and she discovers that the greatest storyteller of all might come from within. A celebration of reading and the power of the imagination, Pamela Zagarenski's debut as an author reminds us that we each bring something different to the same book.

A is for Arsenic: The Poisons of Agatha Christie


Kathryn Harkup - 2015
    The popularity of murder mystery books, TV series, and even board games shows that there is an appetite for death, and the more unusual or macabre the method, the better. With gunshots or stabbings the cause of death is obvious, but poisons are inherently more mysterious. How are some compounds so deadly in such tiny amounts?Agatha Christie used poison to kill her characters more often than any other crime fiction writer. The poison was a central part of the novel, and her choice of deadly substances was far from random; the chemical and physiological characteristics of each poison provide vital clues to the discovery of the murderer. Christie demonstrated her extensive chemical knowledge (much of it gleaned by working in a pharmacy during both world wars) in many of her novels, but this is rarely appreciated by the reader.Written by former research chemist Kathryn Harkup, each chapter takes a different novel and investigates the poison used by the murderer. Fact- and fun-packed, A is for Arsenic looks at why certain chemicals kill, how they interact with the body, and the feasibility of obtaining, administering, and detecting these poisons, both when Christie was writing and today.

The Fellowship: The Literary Lives of the Inklings: J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Owen Barfield, Charles Williams


Philip Zaleski - 2015
    Tolkien and C. S. Lewis C.S. Lewis is the twentieth century’s most widely read Christian writer and J.R.R. Tolkien its most beloved mythmaker. For three decades, they and their closest associates formed a literary club known as the Inklings, which met weekly in Lewis’s Oxford rooms and in nearby pubs. They discussed literature, religion, and ideas; read aloud from works in progress; took philosophical rambles in woods and fields; gave one another companionship and criticism; and, in the process, rewrote the cultural history of modern times.In The Fellowship, Philip and Carol Zaleski offer the first complete rendering of the Inklings’ lives and works. C. S. Lewis accepts Jesus Christ while riding in the sidecar of his brother's motorcycle, maps the medieval and Renaissance mind, becomes a world-famous evangelist and moral satirist, and creates new forms of religiously attuned fiction while wrestling with personal crises. J.R.R. Tolkien transmutes an invented mythology into gripping story in The Lord of the Rings, while conducting groundbreaking Old English scholarship and elucidating, for family and friends, the Catholic teachings at the heart of his vision. Owen Barfield, a philosopher for whom language is the key to all mysteries, becomes Lewis's favorite sparring partner, and, for a time, Saul Bellow's chosen guru. And Charles Williams, poet, author of "supernatural shockers," and strange acolyte of romantic love, turns his everyday life into a mystical pageant.Romantics who scorned rebellion, fantasists who prized reality, wartime writers who believed in hope, Christians with cosmic reach, the Inklings sought to revitalize literature and faith in the twentieth century's darkest years--and did so in dazzling style.

The Book Lovers


Victoria Connelly - 2015
    Finding Owl Cottage in the tiny village of Newton St Clare, Callie determines to give up on love and throw herself into her work. But fate seems to have other ideas and she soon has two very different men vying for her attention. First there's Leo who likes to live on the wild side which usually means taking his dates foraging in the local woods for their supper. Then there's Sam Nightingale, owner of Nightingale’s bookshop. Sam, recovering from a divorce, has also vowed to embrace the single life. That is, until he meets Callie. But is Callie willing to risk her heart again and, if she is, will she make the right choice?

The Highest Mountain of Books in the World


Rocío Bonilla - 2015
    He spent hours watching birds and airplanes in flight and tried to design his own sets of wingsmany times. But each time they failed. He wrote letters to Santa, pleading for help, but was disappointed with the toy wings and capes he received. Then one day something magical happened, without him even knowing it. His mother put a book in his handsand Lucas began to fly. And fly. And fly. Bonilla celebrates the wonder of books and their power to transport us to places beyond our imagination.

Reading Picture Books With Children: How to Shake Up Storytime and Get Kids Talking about What They See


Megan Dowd Lambert - 2015
    Using classic examples, Megan asks kids to think about why the trim size of Ludwig Bemelman's Madeline is so generous, or why the typeset in David Wiesner's Caldecott winner,The Three Pigs, appears to twist around the page, or why books like Chris Van Allsburg's The Polar Express and Eric Carle's The Very Hungry Caterpillar are printed landscape instead of portrait. The dynamic discussions that result from this shared reading style range from the profound to the hilarious and will inspire adults to make children's responses to text, art, and design an essential part of storytime.

The Good Little Book


Kyo Maclear - 2015
    . . until, one day, the book is lost. Will the boy get back his good little book?Will the good little book survive on its own without a proper jacket? Open up this good little book to find out.

The Shakespeare Book: Big Ideas Simply Explained


Stanley Wells - 2015
    Every comedy, tragedy, history, and poem of Shakespeare's is collected here in this comprehensive guide.Shakespeare's canon comes to life with images, idea webs, timelines, and quotes that help the reader understand the context of Shakespeare's plays and poems. Each play includes a glance-able guide to story chronology, so you can easily get back on track if you get lost in Shakespeare's beautiful language. Character guides are a handy reference for casual readers and an invaluable resource for playgoers and students writing reports on Shakespeare. The Shakespeare Book includes the best of Shakespeare, and it's set to become a staple for theater lovers, Shakespeare students, and Shakespeare fans because its information is delivered in such an understandable and inspirational way.

Ink and Bone


Rachel Caine - 2015
    Alchemy allows the Library to deliver the content of the greatest works of history instantly—but the personal ownership of books is expressly forbidden. Jess Brightwell believes in the value of the Library, but the majority of his knowledge comes from illegal books obtained by his family, who are involved in the thriving black market. Jess has been sent to be his family’s spy, but his loyalties are tested in the final months of his training to enter the Library’s service. When his friend inadvertently commits heresy by creating a device that could change the world, Jess discovers that those who control the Great Library believe that knowledge is more valuable than any human life—and soon both heretics and books will burn…

The Little Free Library Book


Margret Aldrich - 2015
    Free is always a good thing, and the project has a nice give-and-take feel to it. Here's hoping we bump into literature when we turn the next corner—before we have time to resist!"—Billy Collins"Take a book. Return a book." In 2009, Todd Bol built the first Little Free Library as a memorial to his mom. Five years later, this simple idea to promote literacy and encourage community has become a movement. Little Free Libraries—freestanding front-yard book exchanges—now number twenty thousand in seventy countries. The Little Free Library Book tells the history of these charming libraries, gathers quirky and poignant firsthand stories from owners, provides a resource guide for how to best use your Little Free Library, and delights readers with color images of the most creative and inspired LFLs around.Margret Aldrich is a freelance writer and editor. Her articles have appeared in the Utne Reader, Experience Life!, and elsewhere. She lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota, with her family.

Book


David W. Miles - 2015
    And perhaps it is until you learn to look closer . . . and closer . . . and closer . . . and you re suddenly in a world that only you can imagine.With soft, warm storytelling and stunning, whimsical illustrations, Book embarks the reader on an imaginative journey through the literary lands of fact and fiction, a world where passwords, viruses, and broken screens can't stop a young boy's earnest quest for truth. Join in this celebration of literature, scrape the skies of opportunity, traverse the forests of what-could-be, free the powers of knowledge, and discover once again why the humble book is anything but ordinary.

How Dante Can Save Your Life: The Life-Changing Wisdom of History's Greatest Poem


Rod Dreher - 2015
    Dreher found that the medieval poem offered him a surprisingly practical way of solving modern problems.Following the death of his little sister and the publication of his New York Times bestselling memoir The Little Way of Ruthie Leming, Dreher found himself living in the small community of Starhill, Louisiana where he grew up. But instead of the fellowship he hoped to find, he discovered that fault lines within his family had deepened. Dreher spiraled into depression and a stress-related autoimmune disease. Doctors told Dreher that if he didn’t find inner peace, he would destroy his health. Soon after, he came across The Divine Comedy in a bookstore and was enchanted by its first lines, which seemed to describe his own condition. In the months that followed, Dante helped Dreher understand the mistakes and mistaken beliefs that had torn him down and showed him that he had the power to change his life. Dreher knows firsthand the solace and strength that can be found in Dante’s great work, and distills its wisdom for those who are lost in the dark wood of depression, struggling with failure (or success), wrestling with a crisis of faith, alienated from their families or communities, or otherwise enduring the sense of exile that is the human condition. Inspiring, revelatory, and packed with penetrating spiritual, moral, and psychological insights, How Dante Can Save Your Life is a book for people, both religious and secular, who find themselves searching for meaning and healing. Dante told his patron that he wrote his poem to bring readers from misery to happiness. It worked for Rod Dreher. Dante saved Rod Dreher’s life—and in this book, Dreher shows you how Dante can save yours.

A Bestiary of Booksellers (Cometbus #56)


Aaron Cometbus - 2015
    Big ol' softie Aaron Cometbus is back to tell us a tale about a group of crusty, grumpy and loveable New York City booksellers.

Weatherland: Writers & Artists under English Skies


Alexandra Harris - 2015
    Before the Norman Conquest, Anglo-Saxons living in a wintry world wrote about the coldness of exile or the shelters they had to defend against enemies outside. The Middle Ages brought the warmth of spring; the new lyrics were sung in praise of blossoms and cuckoos. Descriptions of a rainy night are rare before 1700, but by the end of the eighteenth century the Romantics had adopted the squall as a fit subject for their most probing thoughts.The weather is vast and yet we experience it intimately, and Alexandra Harris builds her remarkable story from small evocative details. There is the drawing of a twelfth-century man in February, warming bare toes by the fire. There is the tiny glass left behind from the Frost Fair of 1684, and the Sunspan house in Angmering that embodies the bright ambitions of the 1930s. Harris catches the distinct voices of compelling individuals. “Bloody cold,” says Jonathan Swift in the “slobbery” January of 1713. Percy Shelley wants to become a cloud and John Ruskin wants to bottle one. Weatherland is a celebration of English air and a life story of those who have lived in it.

The Brontë Cabinet: Three Lives in Nine Objects


Deborah Lutz - 2015
    By unfolding the histories of the meaningful objects in their family home in Haworth, Lutz immerses readers in a nuanced re-creation of the sisters' daily lives while moving us chronologically forward through the major biographical events: the death of their mother and two sisters, the imaginary kingdoms of their childhood writing, their time as governesses, and their determined efforts to make a mark on the literary world.From the miniature books they made as children to the blackthorn walking sticks they carried on solitary hikes on the moors, each personal possession opens a window onto the sisters' world, their beloved fiction, and the Victorian era. A description of the brass collar worn by Emily’s bull mastiff, Keeper, leads to a series of entertaining anecdotes about the influence of the family’s dogs on their writing and about the relationship of Victorians to their pets in general. The sisters' portable writing desks prove to have played a crucial role in their writing lives: it was Charlotte's snooping in Emily’s desk that led to the sisters' first publication in print, followed later by the publication of Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights.Charlotte's letters provide insight into her relationships, both innocent and illicit, including her relationship with the older professor to whom she wrote passionately. And the bracelet Charlotte had made of Anne and Emily's intertwined hair bears witness to her profound grief after their deaths.Lutz captivatingly shows the Brontës anew by bringing us deep inside the physical world in which they lived and from which their writings took inspiration.

Improbable Libraries: A Visual Journey to the World's Most Unusual Libraries


Alex Johnson - 2015
    Undaunted, librarians around the globe are thinking up astonishing ways of reaching those in reading need, whether by bike in Chicago, boat in Laos, or donkey in Colombia. Improbable Libraries showcases a wide range of unforgettable, never-before-seen images and interviews with librarians who are overcoming geographic, economic, and political difficulties to bring the written word to an eager audience. Alex Johnson charts the changing face of library architecture, as temporary pop-ups rub shoulders with monumental brick-and-mortar structures, and many libraries expand their mission to function as true community centers. To take just one example: the open-air Garden Library in Tel Aviv, located in a park near the city’s main bus station, supports asylum seekers and migrant workers with a stock of 3,500 volumes in sixteen different languages.   Beautifully illustrated with two hundred and fifty color photographs, Improbable Libraries offers a breathtaking tour of the places that bring us together and provide education, entertainment, culture, and so much more. From the rise of the egalitarian Little Free Library movement to the growth in luxury hotel libraries, the communal book revolution means you’ll never be far from the perfect next read.

Slaughterhouse 90210: Where Great Books Meet Pop Culture


Maris Kreizman - 2015
    By matching poignant passages from literature with popular moments from television, film, and real life, Maris' work instantly caught the attention (and adoration) of thousands. And it's easy to see why.Slaughterhouse 90210 is subversively brilliant, finding the depth in the shallows of reality television, and the levity in Lahiri. A picture of Taylor Swift is paired with Joan Didion's quote, "Above all, she is the girl who 'feels things'. The girl ever wounded, ever young." Tony Soprano tenderly hugs his teenage son, accompanied by a line from Middlemarch about, "The patches of hardness and tenderness [that] lie side by side in men's dispositions." The images and quotes complement and deepen one another in surprising, profound, and tender ways.With over 150 color photographs from some of popular culture's most iconic moments, Kreizman shows why comparing Walter White to Faust makes sense in our celebrity-obsessed, TV-crazed society.

Harry Potter for Nerds II


Kathryn McDanielHayley Burson - 2015
    Rowling's messages about political and social repression, and about the empowering qualities of empathy, invisibility, and transformative love, will discover inspiration in the latest compilation of essays from editors Kathryn N. McDaniel and Travis Prinzi. Fans of the first Harry Potter for Nerds will find this second volume packed with literary studies of favorite characters, like Remus Lupin, Dobby, Nearly Headless Nick, and the Weasley Twins. And they will also encounter political, economic, and philosophical analyses that explore the problems of our world and point to Rowling's belief in the "power of the powerless" when it comes to solving them. From Squibs to house-elves, from ghosts to young wizards-in-training and even wands and Snitches, the authors in this volume find power in unexpected places. Most of all, they demonstrate the power of expert readers to apply fantasy to the real world in ways that liberate, delight, and inspire.

Good Night, Mr. Wodehouse


Faith Sullivan - 2015
    A complicated marriage to a boorish husband; an early widowhood spent longing for her congressman lover; the loss of her child, a shell shocked WWI hero — her road has not been easy. But somehow she manages to find moments of grace, more often than not through the genial voice of P.G. Wodehouse, the beloved British novelist. Spanning the first half of the twentieth century, Good Night, Mr. Wodehouse celebrates the power of great novels — from Austen to Chekhov — to transform, console, and teach us the value of friendship and love.We first traveled to Harvester, Minnesota, twenty-five years ago in the bookclub favorite and New York Times best-selling novel, The Cape Ann. This new book, which brings us home to that small town on the prairie along with all of the wonderful characters who live there, is sure to be a classic.

Edward Gorey: His Book Cover Art and Design


Edward Gorey - 2015
    Today, his prodigious output of hundreds of dust jackets and paperback covers evidences his distinctive flair for design and his extraordinary ability to portray the essence of the books that came his way. Edward Gorey: His Book Cover Art & Design features a broad selection of his work, created from 1953 to 2000.In his essay, Steven Heller offers an insightful overview of Gorey's book cover art and design. He writes, "Successful cover design requires the expertise of an artist, typographer, poster designer, and logo maker. Many book design specialists were incapable of designing a cover or jacket with the same Gorey aplomb, even if they tried."

The Nearest Thing to Life


James Wood - 2015
    He argues that, of all the arts, fiction has a unique ability to describe the shape of our lives, and to rescue the texture of those lives from death and historical oblivion. The act of reading is understood here as the most sacred and personal of activities, and there are brilliant discussions of individual works – among others, Chekhov’s story ‘The Kiss’, W.G. Sebald’s The Emigrants, and Fitzgerald’s The Blue Flower.Wood reveals his own intimate relationship with the written word: we see the development of a provincial boy growing up in a charged Christian environment, the secret joy of his childhood reading, the links he makes between reading and blasphemy, or between literature and music. The final section discusses fiction in the context of exile and homelessness. The Nearest Thing to Life is not simply a brief, tightly argued book by a man commonly regarded as our finest living critic – it is also an exhilarating personal account that reflects on, and embodies, the fruitful conspiracy between reader and writer (and critic), and asks us to re-consider everything that is at stake when we read and write fiction.

H.P. Lovecraft: The Mysterious Man Behind the Darkness


Charlotte Montague - 2015
    P. Lovecraft—the master of modern horror fiction. Part of the Oxford People series, this book dares you to explore the hidden secrets of your own imagination through the life of a man whose writing was inspired by nightmares. H. P. Lovecraft was virtually unknown during his lifetime and only published his stories in pulp magazines such as Weird Tales and Astounding Stories. He died a recluse in poverty and obscurity, aged just 46. Consumed with self-doubt, despair, and monstrous inner demons, his nightmares inhabit every page of his writing. H. P. Lovecraft and the universe he created are part of an astonishing cultural phenomenon. Lovecraft's reputation has been revived to the point of reverence, and he now occupies a position of great respect within American literature—as one of the most significant horror fiction writers of the twentieth century. His dark grotesque creations have inspired authors such as Stephen King and Clive Barker, as well as film directors John Carpenter, Sturart Gordon, and Roger Corman. Dark forbidden knowledge is always a central theme in Lovecraft's stories, with protagonists who dare to discover hidden secrets which, in the end, completely destroy them.Explore the depths of H. P. Lovecraft's own dark secrets, and discover some things about your own.

Jane Eyre's Sisters: How Women Live and Write the Heroine's Story


Jody Gentian Bower - 2015
    Yet while many have written about the "heroine's journey," most of those authors base their models of this journey on Joseph Campbell's model of the Heroic Quest story or on old myths and tales written down by men, not on the stories that women tell.In Jane Eyre's Sisters: How Women Live and Write the Heroine's Story, cultural mythologist Jody Gentian Bower looks at novels by women--and some men--as well as biographies of women that tell the story of the Aletis, the wandering heroine. She finds a similar pattern in works spanning the centuries, from Lady Mary Wroth and William Shakespeare in the 1600s to Sue Monk Kidd, Suzanne Collins, and Philip Pullman in the current century, including works by Jane Austen, the Brontë sisters, George Eliot, Elizabeth Gaskell, Charles Dickens, Kate Chopin, Virginia Woolf, Doris Lessing, J.R.R. Tolkien, and Alice Walker, to name just a few. She also discusses myths and folk tales that follow the same pattern.Dr. Bower argues that the Aletis represents an archetypal character that has to date received surprisingly little scholarly recognition despite her central role in many of the greatest works of Western fiction. Using an engaging, down-to-earth writing style, Dr. Bower outlines the stages and cast of characters of the Aletis story with many examples from the literature. She discusses how the Aletis story differs from the hero's quest, how it has changed over the centuries as women gained more independence, and what heroines of novels and movies might be like in the future. She gives examples from the lives of real women and scatters stories that illustrate many of her points throughout the book. In the end, she concludes, authors of the Aletis story use their imagination to give us characters who serve as role models for how a woman can live a full and free life.

How To Read A Book A Day: The Ultimate Guide To Quickly Retain And Absorb Information


Thomas Dev Brown - 2015
    Instead you'll be able to absorb the most important content and begin applying it immediately after just one day!

Haunted By Books


Mark Valentine - 2015
    He presents the author who was always being told he had nearly written a masterpiece, and the genius of the short story who brewed his own cider and lived in a railway carriage. Then there’s the figure of the 1890s, praised by Max Beerbohm, who liked to wander around London wearing horns and chewing railings, and the young man in the 1930s who tried to sell his poetry door to door. There are also new angles on key figures: the strange case of Robert Aickman, sailor and philosopher; the book that Sax Rohmer really wanted to write; the enigma of Walter de la Mare’s ‘Seaton’s Aunt’. And there are literary mysteries; what was the MS in a Red Box? Who wrote Shakespeare’s Gunpowder Plot? What became of Dr Ludovicus? Other essays celebrate neglected writers worth discovering, such as Mary Butts, Claude Houghton, and Vernon Knowles, or offer fresh perspectives, looking at Lewis Grassic Gibbon’s fantasies, Malcolm Lowry’s reading in occult fiction. There are even studies of books that were never written. Haunted by Books will delight all readers and book collectors who like to leave the beaten path and wander in the wild woods, forgotten lanes and lonely houses of literature.

Unlocking Worlds: A Reading Companion for Book Lovers


Erini S. Allen - 2015
    In Unlocking Worlds: A Reading Companion for Book Lovers, Allen deftly weaves personal stories with fifteen thematized, annotated, and illustrated reading lists for what to read next. By sharing some of the treasures in her library and the secret lives they reveal, she gives us permission to embrace the shameless book lover inside each of us. Unlocking Worlds is a testament to how reading passionately—and compassionately—can unlock the world beyond our back yard. Celebrating books and those who read them, Allen shows how the solitary act of reading can be a powerful thread that creates community and connection. Thought-provoking and eloquent, Unlocking Worlds: A Reading Companion for Book Lovers is a must-have for anyone who can’t leave the house without a book in hand.

The Millionaire and the Bard: Henry Folger's Obsessive Hunt for Shakespeare's First Folio


Andrea Mays - 2015
    Recently one sold for over five million dollars. It is the book that rescued the name of William Shakespeare and half of his plays from oblivion. The Millionaire and the Bard tells the miraculous and romantic story of the making of the First Folio, and of the American industrialist whose thrilling pursuit of the book became a lifelong obsession.When Shakespeare died in 1616 half of his plays died with him. No one—not even their author—believed that his writings would last, that he was a genius, or that future generations would celebrate him as the greatest author in the history of the English language. By the time of his death his plays were rarely performed, eighteen of them had never been published, and the rest existed only in bastardized forms that did not stay true to his original language.Seven years later, in 1623, Shakespeare’s business partners, companions, and fellow actors, John Heminges and Henry Condell, gathered copies of the plays and manuscripts, edited and published thirty-six of them. This massive book, the First Folio, was intended as a memorial to their deceased friend. They could not have known that it would become one of the most important books ever published in the English language, nor that it would become a fetish object for collectors. The Millionaire and the Bard is a literary detective story, the tale of two mysterious men—a brilliant author and his obsessive collector—separated by space and time. It is a tale of two cities—Elizabethan and Jacobean London and Gilded Age New York. It is a chronicle of two worlds—of art and commerce—that unfolded an ocean and three centuries apart. And it is the thrilling tale of the luminous book that saved the name of William Shakespeare “to the last syllable of recorded time.” -

Reading in Bed


Brian Doyle - 2015
    It will make you laugh and snarl and ponder the endless pleasures of books and their creators. This is a must for real book lovers.

The Very Soil: An Unauthorized Critical Study of Puella Magi Madoka Magica


Jed A. Blue - 2015
    In a mere twelve episodes, this series explored themes of hope, despair, cosmic destiny, and individual fate, all against the backdrop of a magical-girl retelling of Faust.Now this new book studies precisely what the series did, how, and even why, from Buddhist belief and paper theater to Walpurgisnacht and the commedia dell'arte. Covering the original television series, three of its manga spinoffs, and the sequel film Rebellion, this is a must-read for fans and scholars alike!

Thug Notes: A Street-Smart Guide to Classic Literature


Sparky Sweets - 2015
    Inside, you'll find hilarious plot breakdowns and masterful analyses of sixteen of literature's most beloved classics, including: Things Fall Apart, To Kill a Mockingbird, Hamlet, The Catcher in the Rye, Lord of the Flies, Pride and Prejudice, and more!  The series Thug Notes has been featured on BET, PBS, and NPR and has been used in hundreds of classrooms around the world. Whether you’re a student, teacher, or straight-up literary gangster like Dr. Sweets, Thug Notes has got you covered. You'll certainly never look at literature the same way again.www.wisecrack.co/book

Bound: Over 20 Artful Handmade Books


Erica Ekrem - 2015
    With her novel approach to traditional techniques, and the use of repurposed materials, Ekrem has devised creative fun for book artists of all levels. Choose from three categories: Vintage, Nature, and Leather. Make books from mason jars and seashells, a classic leather-bound photo album, and other works of art.

Mark Twain's Notebooks: Journals, Letters, Observations, Wit, Wisdom, and Doodles


Carlo De Vito - 2015
    Fascinating and often hilarious, this is a complete record of the thoughts, ideas, and observations of the father of American literature. A national treasure and a cultural and literary icon, Mark Twain was called "the father of American literature" by William Faulkner. His beloved works include The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Tom Sawyer, and 26 other books. His inimitable prose seamlessly weaves together humor, insight, vivid details, and memorable characters. Along with these published works, Twain, who was also a journalist, produced approximately 40 to 50 pocket notebooks and wrote countless letters, essays, travelogues, and lectures in his lifetime.Mark Twain's Notebooks is the first collection to gather these writings and combine them with dozens of Twain's rarely seen sketches, doodles, and diagrams, as well as facsimiles of his original journal pages, letters, and essays. The result is page after beautifully designed page of some of the best, yet little-known, writings of Mark Twain. Organized by topics such as science, literature, health, family life, and food, the collection also includes intimate letters that describe the home he built in Hartford, Connecticut; his travels across Europe, the Middle East, and the United States; and his agony over the death of his favorite daughter. The writing and art is selected by book and publishing veteran Carlo De Vito, who provides fascinating commentary and insights into the material throughout the book.

No Two Persons Ever Read the Same Book: Quotes on Books, Reading and Writing


Bart Van Aken - 2015
    Inside of a dog it's too dark to read" - Groucho Marx- "We can destroy what we have written, but we cannot unwrite it" - Anthony Burgess Bibliophile Bart Van Aken has been collecting quotes about reading for several years. This book contains his own personal selection. Including such declarations of love as "Reading is that fruitful miracle of communication in the midst of solitude" (Marcel Proust), surprising, witty statements like "Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read" (Groucho Marx) and wise statements to mull over, including "We can destroy what we have written, but we cannot unwrite it" (Anthony Burgess). Every quote is presented in a unique, original and tailor-made design by Dooreman, with an adapted font or special letter shapes. Where applicable, the quote has also been provided in the original language alongside the English, with a brief explanation, such as the author and context. Also available: Attractive Things Work Better ISBN 9789460580659 $19.95 Dooreman studied free-form graphics at Sint- Lucasinstituut in Ghent. He started out his career as an illustrator. Over time, however, his activities veered towards typography and design. He creates the covers of all of the books for the Belgian author Tom Lanoye and has designed posters for various theatres. He also works as a designer and typographer for almost all of the Flemish and Dutch publishers. Dooreman has received several awards, including the Henry Van de Velde Award for his entire career. He is also a musician.

The Natural World of Winnie-the-Pooh: A Walk Through the Forest that Inspired the Hundred Acre Wood


Kathryn Aalto - 2015
    Delve into the home of the world’s most beloved bear! The Natural World of Winnie-the-Pooh explores the magical landscapes where Pooh, Christopher Robin, and their friends live and play. The Hundred Acre Wood—the setting for Winnie-the-Pooh’s adventures—was inspired by Ashdown Forest, a wildlife haven that spans more than 6,000 acres in southeast England. In the pages of this enchanting book you can visit the ancient black walnut tree on the edge of the forest that became Pooh’s house, go deep into the pine trees to find Poohsticks Bridge, and climb up to the top of the enchanted Galleons Lap, where Pooh says goodbye to Christopher Robin. You will discover how Milne's childhood connection with nature and his role as a father influenced his famous stories, and how his close collaboration with illustrator E. H. Shepard brought those stories to life. This charming book also serves as a guide to the plants, animals, and places of the remarkable Ashdown Forest, whether you are visiting in person or from the comfort of your favorite armchair. In a delightful narrative, enriched with Shepard’s original illustrations, hundreds of color photographs, and Milne’s own words, you will rediscover your favorite characters and the magical place they called home.

Story Girl


Paul Mosier - 2015
    So her novelist father begins writing a story for her age range. Maggie enjoys watching the protagonist, thirteen year old Shawnee, suffer through a variety of story genres. Then Maggie learns a heartbreaking truth that makes Shawnee a much more sympathetic character. Is Shawnee just a character in a novel, or something more? And can Maggie help her to live a life of her own choosing?

A Confederacy of Dunces Cookbook: Recipes from Ignatius J. Reilly's New Orleans


Cynthia Lejeune Nobles - 2015
    Reilly is never short of opinions about food or far away from his next bite. Whether issuing gibes such as "canned food is a perversion," or taking a break from his literary ambitions with "an occasional cheese dip," this lover of Lucky Dogs, caf au lait, and wine cakes navigates 1960s New Orleans focused on gastronomical pursuits.For the novel's millions of fans, Cynthia LeJeune Nobles's "A Confederacy of Dunces" Cookbook offers recipes inspired by the delightfully commonplace and always delicious fare of Ignatius and his cohorts. Through an informative narrative and almost 200 recipes, Nobles explores the intersection of food, history, and culture found in the Pulitzer Prize--winning novel, opening up a new avenue into New Orleans's rich culinary traditions.Dishes inspired by Ignatius's favorites -- macaroons and "toothsome" steak -- as well as recipes based on supporting characters -- Officer Mancuso's Pork and Beans and Dr. Talc's Bloody Marys -- complement a wealth of fascinating detail about the epicurean side of the novel's memorable settings. A guide to the D. H. Holmes Department Store's legendary Chicken Salad, the likely offerings of the fictitious German's Bakery, and an in-depth interview with the general manager of Lucky Dogs round out this delightful cookbook.A lighthearted yet impeccably researched look at the food of the 1960s, "A Confederacy of Dunces" Cookbook reaffirms the singularity and timelessness of both New Orleans cuisine and Toole's comic tour de force."

Skies of Parchment, Seas of Ink: Jewish Illuminated Manuscripts


Marc Michael EpsteinBarbara Wolff - 2015
    Skies of Parchment, Seas of Ink offers the first full survey of Jewish illuminated manuscripts, ranging from their origins in the Middle Ages to the present day. Featuring some of the most beautiful examples of Jewish art of all time—including hand-illustrated versions of the Bible, the Haggadah, the prayer book, marriage documents, and other beloved Jewish texts—the book introduces readers to the history of these manuscripts and their interpretation.Edited by Marc Michael Epstein with contributions from leading experts, this sumptuous volume features a lively and informative text, showing how Jewish aesthetic tastes and iconography overlapped with and diverged from those of Christianity, Islam, and other traditions. Featured manuscripts were commissioned by Jews and produced by Jews and non-Jews over many centuries, and represent Eastern and Western perspectives and the views of both pietistic and liberal communities across the Diaspora, including Europe, Israel, the Middle East, and Africa.Magnificently illustrated with pages from hundreds of manuscripts, many previously unpublished or rarely seen, Skies of Parchment, Seas of Ink offers surprising new perspectives on Jewish life, presenting the books of the People of the Book as never before.

A Christian Guide to the Classics


Leland Ryken - 2015
    But for those of us who remain a bit intimidated or simply want to get more out of our reading, this companion to Crossway's Christian Guides to the Classics series is here to help.In this brief guidebook, popular professor, author, and literary expert Leland Ryken explains what the classics are, how to read them, and why they're still valuable. Written to help you become a seasoned reader and featuring a list of books to get you started, this guide will give you the tools you need to read and enjoy some of history's greatest literature.

The Daemon Knows: Literary Greatness and the American Sublime


Harold Bloom - 2015
    Now he turns at long last to his beloved writers of our national literature in an expansive and mesmerizing book that is one of his most incisive and profoundly personal to date. A product of five years of writing and a lifetime of reading and scholarship, The Daemon Knows maybe Bloom’s most masterly book yet. Pairing Walt Whitman with Herman Melville, Ralph Waldo Emerson with Emily Dickinson, Nathaniel Hawthorne with Henry James, Mark Twain with Robert Frost, Wallace Stevens with T. S. Eliot, and William Faulkner with Hart Crane, Bloom places these writers’ works in conversation with one another, exploring their relationship to the “daemon”—the spark of genius or Orphic muse—in their creation and helping us understand their writing with new immediacy and relevance. It is the intensity of their preoccupation with the sublime, Bloom proposes, that distinguishes these American writers from their European predecessors. As he reflects on a lifetime lived among the works explored in this book, Bloom has himself, in this magnificent achievement, created a work touched by the daemon.

The Cookbook - a novel


Cass Tell - 2015
    She is falling in love with the ideal man while advancing in her professional career. Then her neat and ordered life crashes. She receives a strange email from her deceased grandmother. Coupled with this, her apartment is burgled and her cookbooks are stolen, the ones she was instructed to preciously guard. After hiring a quirky private detective she goes on a quest that leads to an impossible truth. This exciting action thriller is interlaced with memories of tastes, smells and laughter in the kitchen, and how a grandmother lovingly prepared a young girl to face enormous challenges. Not only did Kate learn the craft of cooking, but also values from old-world traditions. These savoury breaks in the story provide unusual twists not typically found in bestseller action-thriller novels. Those lessons passed from one generation to the next give Kate the strength to face powerful forces. While solving mysteries she is led on a journey of self-discovery, having to ask hard questions. What is this disconcerting game that her grandmother is playing and for what purpose? Is her past just an illusion? And, why are these malevolent people intent on extracting some unknown truth from her? There are unique and unexpected rewards with this book. Recipes for dishes in the novel are found on the author’s website, thereby prolonging the pleasant memories of the story. Kate is a gourmet cook and you can recreate her delectable delights, whether for a special candlelight dinner for two or for an entire family. ‘The Cookbook’ carries themes of romance and love, and of faith and hope as it explores the limits of how much trust one can give to others. When everyone is against you, how can you stand up with toughness and tenacity against the world? One reviewer wrote, “This book is like a superb meal. It’s a wonderful mix of the pleasures of cooking and the enjoyment of an action read. One can only say, ‘Bon Appetit!’” If you love an adrenaline driven escape found in a fun action story, this is it.

Bibliophilia: 100 Literary Postcards


NOT A BOOK - 2015
    This collection of 100 postcards showcases bold graphic interpretations of 50 of the greatest literary quotes of all time. From Virginia Wolf to Oscar Wilde, from Brontë to Poe to Austen, each piece will spark your imagination and kindle your creative spirit.

A Stone for Bread


Miriam Herin - 2015
    The authorship controversy that followed cost Henry his university teaching position and forced him into decades of silence. Thirty-four years after the poems’ publication, Henry breaks that silence and begins telling grad student Rachel Singer about his year in Paris, how the naïve young American became entangled with fiery right-wing politician Renard Marcotte, his love affair with the shop girl Eugenié and his unnerving encounter with the enigmatic René, the man who purportedly gave Henry the disputed poems. The novel moves back and forth in time from 1997 North Carolina to post-World War I France, to Paris in the mid-‘50s and into the horror of the Mauthausen concentration camp in Austria. Even as Rachel wonders how much is true, Henry’s story forces her to examine her own life and the secret she has never acknowledged.

A Wizard of Their Age


Cecilia Konchar Farr - 2015
    Catherine University kept finding errors in the available scholarship. These students had been reading Harry Potter for their entire literate lives, and they demanded more attention to the details they found significant. “We can do better than this,” they said.Konchar Farr, two undergraduate teaching assistants, and five student editors decided to test that hypothesis. After issuing a call for contributions, they selected fifteen thoughtful academic essays by students from across the country. These essays examine the Harry Potter books from a variety of perspectives, including literary, historical, cultural, gender, mythological, psychological, theological, and genetic—there is even a nursing care plan for Tom Riddle. Interspersed among the essays are brief vignettes entitled “My Harry Potter Story,” where students write about their personal encounters with the novels.Although a quick Internet search yields a dazzling number of books about Harry Potter, few are as deeply invested or insightful as A Wizard of Their Age. Written and edited by—and for—members of the Harry Potter generation, these essays demonstrate this generation’s passionate engagement with the Harry Potter phenomenon and provide numerous critical insights into the individual novels and the series as a whole.

The Golden Age of Murder


Martin Edwards - 2015
    Now an Edgar Award Nominee!This is the first book about the Detection Club, the world’s most famous and most mysterious social network of crime writers. Drawing on years of in-depth research, it reveals the astonishing story of how members such as Agatha Christie and Dorothy L. Sayers reinvented detective fiction.Detective stories from the so-called “Golden Age” between the wars are often dismissed as cosily conventional. Nothing could be further from the truth: some explore forensic pathology and shocking serial murders, others delve into police brutality and miscarriages of justice; occasionally the innocent are hanged, or murderers get away scot-free. Their authors faced up to the Slump and the rise of Hitler during years of economic misery and political upheaval, and wrote books agonising over guilt and innocence, good and evil, and explored whether killing a fellow human being was ever justified. Though the stories included no graphic sex scenes, sexual passions of all kinds seethed just beneath the surface.Attracting feminists, gay and lesbian writers, Socialists and Marxist sympathisers, the Detection Club authors were young, ambitious and at the cutting edge of popular culture – some had sex lives as bizarre as their mystery plots. Fascinated by real life crimes, they cracked unsolved cases and threw down challenges to Scotland Yard, using their fiction to take revenge on people who hurt them, to conduct covert relationships, and even as an outlet for homicidal fantasy. Their books anticipated not only CSI, Jack Reacher and Gone Girl, but also Lord of the Flies. The Club occupies a unique place in Britain’s cultural history, and its influence on storytelling in fiction, film and television throughout the world continues to this day.The Golden Age of Murder rewrites the story of crime fiction with unique authority, transforming our understanding of detective stories and the brilliant but tormented men and women who wrote them.

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland Decoded: The Full Text of Lewis Carroll's Novel with its Many Hidden Meanings Revealed


David Day - 2015
    But it turns out we have only scratched the surface. Scholar David Day has spent many years down the rabbit hole of this children's classic and has emerged with a revelatory new view of its contents. What we have here, he brilliantly and persuasively argues, is a complete classical education in coded form--Carroll's gift to his "wonder child" Alice Liddell.      In two continuous commentaries, woven around the complete text of the novel for ease of cross-reference on every page, David Day reveals the many layers of teaching, concealed by manipulation of language, that are carried so lightly in the beguiling form of a fairy tale. These layers relate directly to Carroll's interest in philosophy, history, mathematics, classics, poetry, spiritualism and even to his love of music--both sacred and profane. His novel is a memory palace, given to Alice as the great gift of an education. It was delivered in coded form because in that age, it was a gift no girl would be permitted to receive in any other way.     Day also shows how a large number of the characters in the book are based on real Victorians. Wonderland, he shows, is a veritable "Who's Who" of Oxford at the height of its power and influence in the Victorian Age.     There is so much to be found behind the imaginary characters and creatures that inhabit the pages of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. David Day's warm, witty and brilliantly insightful guide--beautifully designed and stunningly illustrated throughout in full colour--will make you marvel at the book as never before.From the Hardcover edition.

Anne of Green Gables, My Daughter, and Me: What My Favorite Book Taught Me about Grace, Belonging, and the Orphan in Us All


Lorilee Craker - 2015
    “Anne of Green Gables,” My Daughter, and Me is a witty romp through the classic novel; a visit to the magical shores of Prince Edward Island; and a poignant personal tale of love, faith, and loss.And it all started with a simple question: “What’s an orphan?” The words from her adopted daughter, Phoebe, during a bedtime reading of Anne of Green Gables stopped Lorilee Craker in her tracks. How could Lorilee, who grew up not knowing her own birth parents, answer Phoebe’s question when she had wrestled all her life with feeling orphaned—and learned too well that not every story has a happy ending?So Lorilee set off on a quest to find answers in the pages of the very book that started it all, determined to discover—and teach her daughter—what home, family, and belonging really mean. If you loved the poignancy of Orphan Train and the humor of Mennonite in a Little Black Dress, you will be captivated by “Anne of Green Gables,” My Daughter, and Me. It’s a beautiful memoir that deftly braids three lost girls’ stories together, speaks straight to the heart of the orphan in us all, and shows us the way home at last.

Giambattista Bodoni: His Life and His World


Valerie Lester - 2015
    The first English bio of the ambitious and incomparable printer Giambattista Bodoni (1740-1813). Born to a printing family in the small town of Saluzzo, he left his comfortable life to travel to Rome in 1758 where he served as an apprentice of Cardinal Spinelli. There, under the sponsorship of Ruggieri, his close friend, mentor, and protector, he learned all aspects of the craft. Even then, his real genius, lay in type design and punchcutting, especially of the exotic foreign alphabets needed by the papal office to spread the faith. His life changed when at age 28 he was invited by the Duke of Parma to establish and direct the ducal press. He remained in Parma, overseeing a vast variety of printing, much of it glorious. And all of it making use of the typefaces he personally designed and engraved.

Infinite Fictions: Essays on Literature and Theory


David Winters - 2015
    His widely-published work maps the furthest frontiers of contemporary fiction and theory. The essays in this book range from the American satirist Sam Lipsyte to the reclusive Australian genius Gerald Murnane; from the "distant reading" of Franco Moretti to the legacy of Gordon Lish. Meditations on style, form and fictional worlds sit side-by-side with overviews of the cult status of Oulipo, the aftermath of modernism, and the history of continental philosophy. Infinite Fictions is indispensable reading for anyone interested in the forefront of literary thought.

Rare Books Uncovered: True Stories of Fantastic Finds in Unlikely Places


Rebecca Rego Barry - 2015
    In Rare Books Uncovered, expert on rare and antiquarian books Rebecca Rego Barry recounts the stories of remarkable discoveries from the world of book collecting.Read about the family whose discovery in their attic of a copy of Action Comics No. 1--the first appearance of Superman-saved their home from foreclosure. Or the Salt Lake City bookseller who volunteered for a local fundraiser--and came across a 500-year-old copy of the Nuremberg Chronicle. These tales and many others will entertain and inspire casual collectors and hardcore bibliomaniacs alike.

The Sound of Culture: Diaspora and Black Technopoetics


Louis Chude-Sokei - 2015
    Beginning in the late nineteenth century and moving through to the twenty-first, the book argues for the dependent nature of those histories. Looking at American, British, and Caribbean literature, it distills a diverse range of subject matter: minstrelsy, Victorian science fiction, cybertheory, and artificial intelligence. All of these facets, according to Louis Chude-Sokei, are part of a history in which music has been central to the equation that links blacks and machines. As Chude-Sokei shows, science fiction itself has roots in racial anxieties and he traces those anxieties across two centuries and a range of writers and thinkers--from Samuel Butler, Herman Melville, and Edgar Rice Burroughs to Sigmund Freud, William Gibson, and Donna Haraway, to Norbert Weiner, Sylvia Wynter, and Samuel R. Delany.

The Medieval Manuscript Book: Cultural Approaches


Michael Johnston - 2015
    The Medieval Manuscript Book redresses this by focusing on aspects of the medieval book in its cultural situations. Written by experts in the study of the handmade book before print, this volume combines bibliographical expertise with broader insights into the theory and praxis of manuscript study in areas from bibliography to social context, linguistics to location, and archaeology to conservation. The focus of the contributions ranges widely, from authorship to miscellaneity, and from vernacularity to digital facsimiles of manuscripts. Taken as a whole, these essays make the case that to understand the manuscript book it must be analyzed in all its cultural complexity, from production to transmission to its continued adaptation.

Munari's Books


Giorgio Maffei - 2015
    Primarily produced in large quantities for the general public, his more-than-sixty publications—from design manuals and manifestos to visionary tactile children's books—displayed all the beauty and technical ingenuity of works of art.Munari's Books, the first English-language monograph to focus on his remarkable achievements in publishing, examines in detail his seventy-year legacy in print, from his pioneering work as a graphic designer and collaborations with major publishers to his experimental visual projects and innovative contributions to the fields of painting, sculpture, design, photography, and teaching. Featuring critical essays and a wealth of color illustrations, this long-overdue monograph is a visually rich introduction to Munari's remarkably multifaceted career.

Slightly Foxed 47: Curioser and curioser


Gail Pirkis - 2015
    

Ravenclaw Reader: The St Andrews University Harry Potter Conference


John Patrick PazdzioraSiddarth Pandey - 2015
    Each chapter is conversation, with the main argument followed by a reply from another critic. Representing a wide range of critical and cultural voices, the discussion includes questions about the portrayal of education in the book, the role of Snape, the landscape around Hogwarts, the structure of the series, the Wizarding World as dystopia, the problem of the Dursleys, and the canonization of Neville Longbottom. Perceptive, incisive, and thought-provoking, this in-depth conversation will engage fans, students, and academics alike. Ravenclaw Reader sets a new standard for Harry Potter criticism. Developed from the historic St Andrews University Harry Potter Conference, Ravenclaw Reader features contributions by Jessica Tiffin, John Granger, Amy H. Sturgis, Maria Nilson, Vinita Chandra, Joel Hunter, Travis Prinzi, Gabrielle Ceraldi, Joshua Richards, Amy Sonheim, and more.

Loan Some


Megan McLachlan - 2015
    She lost the job she loved as a librarian and ended a comfortable and seemingly reliable relationship. So when her eye catches a job ad for a company that boasts "a library of characters for every occasion," impulse (and the word "library") compels her to respond.Shortly thereafter, Vera has accepted her first assignment from Loan Some, a business that rents out people who play parts at special occasions. Need a mourner at your funeral or a pretend girlfriend to make your ex-wife jealous at a comic book convention? Look no further.The rules are strict: hide your identity, and no fraternizing with the clients. But as Vera begins relaxing into her new role-or rather, litany of roles-she finds herself attracted to several men, including the charming and flirtatious Greg Goodman as well as Cole, the sizzling nephew of the Loan Some CEO.Vera's comfortable, if unusual, existence comes to an abrupt halt when she finds herself face-to-face with the woman she's been tracking for the last thirty-or-so years-the mother who abandoned her.Will Vera be able to maintain her alias amid the family she never knew she had?

The Reader's Mini-Guide to New Russian Books: A Catalog of Post-Soviet Literature


Grigory Ryzhakov - 2015
    But what better way to discover Russian mentality than by reading Russian books? Considering the country’s controversial political image, it is strange that contemporary Russian literature is still in the shade compared to its classical and Soviet counterparts.So who are the modern Russian authors and what have they been writing about? This guide to new Russian books is the first concise encyclopaedia to cover post-Soviet Russian literature. Over a hundred authors and two hundred titles are reviewed. For the convenience of readers, the mentioned books are categorized in sixteen chapters according to their themes/genres:• Modern Russia: 1990s, Putin’s era and office prose• Debut (modern fiction by young authors)• The Soviet Period• Women and Love• Family Life• Psychological Novel• Religion• Humor• Prison Life• Biography• Military and War• Political Fiction• Utopia and Dystopia• Science Fiction and Fantasy• Mystery, Crime, Adventure• Postmodernism, Magic Realism, Philosophical and Metaphysical FictionAt the end of the book there is a table of all the titles together with their ISBN numbers so readers can search for them online (e.g. on Google or Amazon) or in libraries. Also, a list of additional useful online resources about Russian literature is included.This guide is primarily aimed at readers who are interested in learning about modern Russia and its literature. It will also be useful for students and scholars of Russian literature, publishers and translators.Now you can easily discover your new favorite authors in Russia.

The Journey of the Penguin


Emiliano Ponzi - 2015
    Arriving at last in London in 1935, he encounters the chance of a lifetime: auditions are on to find the face of a brand new publishing house. The penguin wins, of course, and so begins an adventure that takes him on to New York and into the hearts of readers around the world.In 'The Journey of the Penguin', award-winning graphic artist Emiliano Ponzi delivers a boldly illustrated, wildly imaginative, and terrifically fun story — told entirely through image — that brings to life the “dignified yet flippant” bird chosen eighty years ago by Allen Lane as the name and icon of his revolutionary publishing business. With cameo appearances by legendary Penguin authors including Jack Kerouac, Arthur Miller, and Dorothy Parker, this exquisite, one-of-a-kind book celebrates the enduring appeal of storytelling.

The Flame Ignites


Donna Fletcher Crow - 2015
    Elizabeth is beginning her academic career and recently widowed Richard is stuck in the family business. They should be able to help each other but their meeting strikes sparks and raises old ghosts, possibly even the ghost of Richard's dead wife. When Elizabeth finds an academic coup within her grasp for her thesis on the beloved American novelist Elswyth Thane, Richard stubbornly throws up barriers, but why? Rudyard Kipling, William Beebe, Charles Lindberg, Edna Ferber and a host of celebrities from an age past fill the pages of Elswyth Thane’s letters, but where is Elizabeth to find clues to the mystery haunting Richard? A nostalgic return to an earlier, now-vanished time, The Flame Ignites charmingly evokes a long-distance relationship between a young woman just testing her wings and a celebrated American novelist. But what about the smoldering relationship between Elizabeth and Richard?

Collected Short Stories: Dermot Healey


Dermot Healy - 2015
    Healy s stories are set in small-town Ireland and its rural environs, and in the equally suffocating confines of the Irish expat communities in London. Throughout these texts, Healy demonstrates a deep sense of compassion towards the marginalized and the dispossessed, without ever becoming sentimental or cliched. The language is earthy and imagistic by turn, and he continually seeks to extend the formal boundaries of the genre.Gathering all of Healy s stories together for the first time, this collection includes the long prose-drama 'Before the Off' and Healy's final short works, 'Along the Lines' and 'Images'.

The Library of Panopticon


Alexandria V. Nolan - 2015
     Julian Cole has lived a marvelous life. Up until his parent's death, the wide world lay spread before him. He traveled far and often, admired great art in the grandest museums and filled his mind with every book he could get his hands on. Since their death, however, the world has gone dark. He is unsure of his place, uncertain where he truly belongs. Until he finds the book. Or, rather, the book finds him. The book whose pages spring open to reveal a hidden world that Julian could have never imagined. A magical place where stories are alive and the characters within them live and breathe. And love. A place where Julian's skills and experiences are the greatest hope against a force of evil. From the sweeping history of turn of the century Detroit, to fantasy tales made real, his journey will lead him to unbelievable adventures. Armed with a clear mission and new allies, Julian must find the path through the dark opposition that seeks to destroy his destiny.

C. S. Lewis's List: The Ten Books That Influenced Him Most


David Werther - 2015
    S. Lewis's answer to the question, “What books did most to shape your vocational attitude and your philosophy of life?” Lewis responded with ten titles, ranging from Virgil's Aeneid to James Boswell's The Life of Samuel Johnson and from George Herbert's The Temple to Boethius's The Consolation of Philosophy.C. S. Lewis's List brings together experts on each of the ten books to discuss their significance for Lewis's life and work, illuminating his own writing through those he most admired.

Disney Infinity: Character Encyclopedia


D.K. Publishing - 2015
    As readers discover more about each heroes' and villains' vehicles, gadgets, weapons, home worlds, and animals they can learn about the endless mash-ups and unlikely pairings they'll be able to create while playing the game. Filled with some great game-playing tips along the way, DK's new Disney Infinity: Character Encyclopedia is a perfect companion to the game.

What Middletown Read: Print Culture in an American Small City


Frank Felsenstein - 2015
    Frank Felsenstein and James J. Connolly have mined these records to produce an in-depth account of print culture in Muncie, the city featured in the famed “Middletown” studies conducted by Robert and Helen Lynd almost a century ago. Using the data assembled and made public through the What Middletown Read Database (www.bsu.edu/libraries/wmr), a celebrated new resource the authors helped launch, Felsenstein and Connolly analyze the borrowing choices and reading culture of social groups and individuals. What Middletown Read is much more than a statistical study. Felsenstein and Connolly dig into diaries, meeting minutes, newspaper reports, and local histories to trace the library’s development in relation to the city’s cosmopolitan aspirations, to profile individual readers, and to explore such topics as the relationship between children’s reading and their schooling and what books were discussed by local women’s clubs. The authors situate borrowing patterns and reading behavior within the contexts of a rapidly growing, culturally ambitious small city, an evolving public library, an expanding market for print, and the broad social changes that accompanied industrialization in the United States. The result is a rich, revealing portrait of the place of reading in an emblematic American community. - See more at: http://www.umass.edu/umpress/title/wh...

Literary Paper Dolls: Includes 16 Masters of the Literary World!


Kyle Hilton - 2015
    William Shakespeare, Ernest Hemingway, Virginia Woolf, and more come to life in illustrator Kyle Hilton's playful style, accompanied by bookish trivia and scholarly accoutrements. This is literature brought to life!

Holy Ghosts: The Christian Century in Modern Japanese Fiction


Rebecca Suter - 2015
    Yet Christianity is ubiquitous in Japanese popular culture. From the giant mutant "angels" of the Neon Genesis Evangelion franchise to the Jesus-themed cocktails enjoyed by customers in Tokyo's Christon caf�, Japanese popular culture appropriates Christianity in both humorous and unsettling ways. By treating the Western religion as an exotic cultural practice, Japanese demonstrate the reversibility of cultural stereotypes and force us to reconsider common views of global cultural flows and East-West relations.Of particular interest is the repeated reappearance in modern fiction of the so-called "Christian century" of Japan (1549-1638), the period between the arrival of the Jesuit missionaries and the last Christian revolt before the final ban on the foreign religion. Literary authors as different as Akutagawa Ryūnosuke, Endō Shūsaku, Yamada Fūtarō, and Takemoto Novala, as well as film directors, manga and anime authors, and videogame producers have all expressed their fascination with the lives and works of Catholic missionaries and Japanese converts and produced imaginative reinterpretations of the period. In Holy Ghosts, Rebecca Suter explores the reasons behind the popularity of the Christian century in modern Japanese fiction and reflects on the role of cross-cultural representations in Japan. Since the opening of the ports in the Meiji period, Japan's relationship with Euro-American culture has oscillated between a drive towards Westernization and an antithetical urge to "return to Asia." Exploring the twentieth-century's fascination with the Christian Century enables Suter to reflect on modern Japan's complex combination of Orientalism, self-Orientalism, and Occidentalism.By looking back at a time when the Japanese interacted with Europeans in ways that were both similar to and different from modern dealings, fictional representations of the Christian century offer an opportunity to reflect critically not only on cross-cultural negotiation but also more broadly on both Japanese and Western social and political formations. The ghosts of the Christian century that haunt modern Japanese fiction thus prompt us to rethink conventional notions of East-West exchanges, mutual representations, and power relations, complicating our understanding of global modernity.

PLOTINUS Ennead V.1: On the Three Primary Levels of Reality: Translation, with an Introduction and Commentary


Eric D. Perl - 2015
    It addresses in condensed form a great many topics to which Plotinus elsewhere devotes extended discussion, including the problem of the multiple self; eternity and time; the unity-in-duality of intellect and the intelligible; and the derivation of intelligible being from the One. Above all, it shows that the so-called “three hypostases”—soul, intellect, and the One—are best understood not as a sequence of three things additional to one another, but as three levels of possession of the same content, so that each lower level—soul in relation to intellect and intellect in relation to the One—is an “image” and “expression” of its superior. Plotinus exhorts the human soul to overcome its alienation from its own true nature and its divine origin by first recognizing itself as superior to the body and the same in kind as the animating principle of the entire cosmos, and then discovering within itself the still higher levels of reality from which it derives: intellect and, ultimately, the One or Good, the supreme first principle of all things. To do so the soul must redirect its attention inward and upward to become aware of the divinity which is always within it but from which it is distracted by the clamor of the senses.

They Said That For Real? Customers in my Caribbean Bookshop


Petra SavonDuJour - 2015
    It's the absolute fulfillment of an addiction that previously only had its expression in several thousand books at home. Many of my customers have become friends and led me to many books I would not otherwise have discovered. But some of them are... unusual and interesting individuals which is a polite way of saying really weird. In this book are some of the things these people say. Some of the stories are in the comments too.All contributions of people who work in bookshops or other retail on your customers are welcome!

Pride & Preju-knits: Twelve Genteel Knitting Projects Inspired by Jane Austen


Trixie Von Purl - 2015
    Darcy, Emma Woodhouse, and more with this delightful collection of twelve knitting projects from the famed craftsman, Austen enthusiast, and author of Knit Your Own Kama Sutra, Trixie von Purl.Knitting maven Trixie von Purl helps knitters and Austen fans create the world of Jane Austen like never before with this inventive and unique craft book. Featuring a high-class art, Pride & Preju-knits gathers together the best sassy heroines and brooding heroes from all six of Austen’s beloved and widely acclaimed novels, including Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy, Emma Woodhouse and Mr. Knightley, and Marianne Dashwood and Mr. Willoughby.Following the complete pattern instructions for stitching each character, knitters can also recreate scenes involving these handsome Regency ladies and gentlemen. Capture Mr. Darcy’s proposal to Elizabeth, the Netherfield Park ball, and Willoughby rescuing Marianne in the rain. Engage your yarn skills to fabricate extravagant stately homes, opulent tea parties, the rolling English countryside, and other genteel settings that are the essence of Austen. Pride & Preju-knits also features a wide-variety of additional patterns for bonnets, breeches, lacy parasols, and other charming accessories.Each scene featured in Pride & Preju-knits is accompanied by Trixie’s own hilarious interpretation, clear, easy-to-follow knitting patterns, and instructions to guide readers through every stage of the project. Specially commissioned photographs accompany the instructions throughout so that readers can easily visualize every step.

The Cambridge Companion to Women's Writing in the Romantic Period


Devoney Looser - 2015
    Literary history is only now giving them the attention they deserve, for the quality of their writings and for their popularity in their own time. This collection of new essays by leading scholars explores the challenges and achievements of this fascinating set of women writers, including Jane Austen, Mary Wollstonecraft, Ann Radcliffe, Hannah More, Maria Edgeworth, and Mary Shelley alongside many lesser-known female authors writing and publishing during this period. Chapters consider major literary genres, including poetry, fiction, drama, travel writing, histories, essays, and political writing, as well as topics such as globalization, colonialism, feminism, economics, families, sexualities, aging, and war. The volume shows how gender intersected with other aspects of identity and with cultural concerns that then shaped the work of authors, critics, and readers.

We'd Rather Be Writing: 88 Authors Share Timesaving Dinner Recipes and Other Tips


Lois WinstonBeverley Bateman - 2015
    Because they need to find time to write, they look for ways to save time in other aspects of their lives. Cooking often takes up a huge junk of time. In We’d Rather Be Writing: 88 Authors Share Timesaving Dinner Recipes and Other Tips you’ll find easy, nutritious recipes for meat, poultry, pasta, soup, stew, chili, and vegetarian meals. All of the recipes require a minimum of prep time, freeing you up to read, exercise, garden, craft, write, spend more time with family, or whatever. Within the pages of We’d Rather Be Writing: 88 Authors Share Timesaving Dinner Recipes and Other Tips you’ll be introduced to authors who write a wide range of fiction—everything from mystery to romance to speculative fiction to books for children, young adults, and new adults—and some who write nonfiction. Some of the authors write sweet; others write steamy. Some write cozy; others write tense thrillers. Some are debut authors with only one published book; others are multi-published and have had long publishing careers. Some are New York Times and USA Today bestselling authors who may or may not be familiar to you, but being a bestselling author doesn’t mean they still don’t have to juggle their day job along with their writing. The authors who contributed to this book are a rather creative and resourceful bunch when it comes to carving out time from their busy lives. So in addition to timesaving recipes, within the pages of this book you’ll find timesaving and organizational tips for other aspects of your life. And if you happen to be a writer, you’ll also find a plethora of great ideas to help you organize your writing life. Authors who contributed to this book include: Lisa Alber, Reggi Allder, Judy Alter, Krista Ames, Rose Anderson, Cori Lynn Arnold, Judy Baker, Beverley Bateman, Donnell Ann Bell, Paula Gail Benson, Kris Bock, Maureen Bonatch, Ava Bradley, Susan Breen, Lida Bushloper, Michelle Markey Butler, Ashlyn Chase, Judy Copek, Maya Corrigan, Mariposa Cruz, Melinda Curtis, Lesley A. Diehl, Conda V. Douglas, Nancy Eady, Helena Fairfax, Jennifer Faye, Flo Fitzpatrick, Kit Frazier, Shelley Freydont, Mariana Gabrielle, Rosie Genova, Marni Graff, Joanne Guidoccio, Margaret S. Hamilton, L.C. Hayden, Linda Gordon Hengerer, Heather Hiestand, R.Franklin James, Kathryn Jane, M.M. Jaye, Elizabeth John, Stacy Juba, Gemma Juliana, Carol Goodman Kaufman, Melissa Keir, Kay Kendall, A.R. Kennedy, Lynn Kinnaman, Marie Laval, B.V. Lawson, Claudia Lefeve, Alice Loweecey, Cynthia Luhrs, Sandra Masters, Lisa Q. Mathews, J.M. Maurer, Sandra McGregor, Kathy McIntosh, Claire A. Murray, Ann Myers, Tara Neale, Stacey Joy Netzel, Jayne Ormerod, Alice Orr, Laurel Peterson, Irene Peterson, Pepper Phillips, Caridad Pineiro, Kathryn Quick, Renée Reynolds, Josie Riviera, Elizabeth Rose, C.A. Rowland, Cindy Sample, Sharleen Scott, Terry Shames, Susan C. Shea, Judy Penz Sheluk, Joanna Campbell Slan, Karen Rose Smith, Lynette Sofras, Kaye Spencer, Skye Taylor, Lourdes Venard, Lea Wait, Regan Walker, Lois Winston, and Aubrey Wynne.

The Town Musicians of Bremen


Gerda Muller - 2015
    A beautiful new edition of a classic Brothers Grimm fairy tale, from much-loved illustrator Gerda Muller.Four unlikely animal companions set off on an adventure to become musicians in the town of Bremen.When night falls and they're cold and hungry, the friends find a cabin in the forest where they could rest and eat -- if it wasn't home to a band of robbers! Can the animals work together, and use their musical voices to chase the robbers away?Children will love braying along with the donkey, barking with the dog, purring with the cat and crowing with the rooster as the animals eventually find a new home.Gerda Muller's beautiful detailed illustrations bring this classic Brothers Grimm fairy tale of animal friends to life.

The Cambridge Companion to American Science Fiction


Eric Carl Link - 2015
    The Cambridge Companion to American Science Fiction explores the relationship between the ideas and themes of American science fiction and their roots in the American cultural experience. Science fiction in America has long served to reflect the country's hopes, desires, ambitions, and fears. The ideas and conventions associated with science fiction are pervasive throughout American film and television, comics and visual arts, games and gaming, and fandom, as well as across the culture writ large. Through essays that address not only the history of science fiction in America but also the influence and significance of American science fiction throughout media and fan culture, this companion serves as a key resource for scholars, teachers, students, and fans of science fiction.

Samuel Pepys and His Books: Reading, Newsgathering, and Sociability, 1660-1703


Kate Loveman - 2015
    This study uses his surviving papers to examine reading practices, collecting, and the exchange of information in the late seventeenth century. Offering the first extensive history of reading during the Restoration, it traces developments in the book trade and news transmission at a time when England was the scene of dramatic political and religious upheavals. The investigation goes beyond Pepys's famous diary of the 1660s, employing a variety of sources to explore the role that reading played in Pepys's life and in the lives of his contemporaries. It begins by examining what it meant to be a reader in Restoration London: the skills, the people, and the places involved. Pepys's wide-ranging interests serve as starting points for considering news exchange and the reception of major literary genres in the Restoration. Particular attention is given to conduct books, histories, religious works, and recreational reading (romances, drama, and novels). The appeal that these works held for readers was not always what we might expect -or, indeed, what the authors and publishers had expected. Additional chapters explore the social interactions surrounding information gathering: the ways people acquired oral and written news in London; the experience of book-buying; and the acquisition of manuscript and print through social networks. Analysed alongside other records, Pepys's papers provide unrivalled insights into literary and cultural developments in the second half of the seventeenth century.

The St Cuthbert Gospel: Studies on the Insular Manuscript of the Gospel of John


Claire Breay - 2015
    Now dated to the early eighth century, the manuscript contains a beautifully written copy of the Gospel of John in Latin and is famous for the craftsmanship and condition of its contemporary decorated leather binding. Found in Cuthbert's coffin when it was opened in Durham Cathedral in 1104, the Gospel was acquired for the national collection in 2012 after a major fundraising campaign. This new collection of essays is the most substantial study of the book since the 1960s. It includes detailed commentary on Cuthbert in his historical context; the codicology, text, script, and medieval history of the manuscript; the structure and decoration of the binding; the other relics found in Cuthbert's coffin; and the post-medieval ownership of the book.This book significantly revises the existing scholarship on one of the British Library's most recent acquisitions which is now one of its greatest treasures.

Wonderfully Wordless: The 500 Most Recommended Graphic Novels and Picture Books


William Patrick Martin - 2015
    It is an indispensable resource for parents and teachers who love graphic storytelling or who recognize the value of these exceptional books in working with different types of students, particularly preschool, English as a Second Language (ESL), and special needs, and creative writers. Every age group will benefit from Wonderfully Wordless, from babies and toddlers encountering their first books, to elementary age children captivated by the popular fantasy and adventure themes, to teenagers attracted to graphic novels because of their more intense content and comic book format. Even adults who are not yet readers will benefit from this uniquely authoritative resource because it will provide a bridge to literacy and give them books that they can immediately share with their children. Wonderfully Wordless is the ultimate guide to wordless and almost wordless books. Its 500 exemplary titles are a composite of 140 sources including recommendations from reference books, award lists, book reviews, professional journals, literary blogs, and the collections of many of the most prominent libraries in the United States and the English-speaking world. The US libraries include the Boston Public Library, Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, Denver Library, New York Public Library, and Seattle Public Library, as well as the academic libraries at Bank Street College, Miami University, Michigan State University, Penn State University, Stanford University, and University of Chicago. The international libraries include the University of Oxford, British Council Library India, British Library, Hong Kong Public Libraries, National Library of the Philippines, Toronto Public Library, Trinity College Library (Dublin), Vancouver Public Library, and the National Library of New Zealand. The 500 books included here are generated from a database with 7,300 booklist entries. In essence, the ranked list emerging from this compilation will constitute “votes” for the most popular titles, the ones most experts agree are the best. By pooling the expertise from the US and other English-speaking countries, Wonderfully Wordless is an unrivaled core list of classic and contemporary titles. This authoritative reference book conveys not the opinion of one expert, but the combined opinions of a legion of experts. If a single picture is worth a thousand words, then a multitude of the picture-only texts is worth a compendium.

Those Who Write for Immortality: Romantic Reputations and the Dream of Lasting Fame


H.J. Jackson - 2015
    They will survive the test of time. We remember authors of true genius because their writings are simply the best. Or . . . might there be other reasons that account for an author’s literary fate?   This original book takes a fresh look at our beliefs about literary fame by examining how it actually comes about. H. J. Jackson wrestles with entrenched notions about recognizing genius and the test of time by comparing the reputations of a dozen writers of the Romantic period—some famous, some forgotten. Why are we still reading Jane Austen but not Mary Brunton, when readers in their own day sometimes couldn’t tell their works apart? Why Keats and not Barry Cornwall, who came from the same circle of writers and had the same mentor? Why not that mentor, Leigh Hunt, himself?   Jackson offers new and unorthodox accounts of the coming-to-fame of some of Britain’s most revered authors and compares their reputations and afterlives with those of their contemporary rivals. What she discovers about trends, champions, institutional power, and writers’ conscious efforts to position themselves for posterity casts fresh light on the actual processes that lead to literary fame.