Smith, has already managed to captivate millions of viewers with its unique mix of immortal romance and very human drama.In A Visitor’s Guide to Mystic Falls, YA authors—led by Red and Vee of premier Vampire Diaries resource Vampire-Diaries.net—take a closer look at Mystic Falls: its residents (both alive and undead) and its rich, inescapable history.• Claudia Gray delves into the events of 1864 and how they’ve shaped not just Mystic Falls but the success of the show itself• Sarah Rees Brennan tells us what it takes for a girl to hold her own against a vampire boyfriend (or two), placing Elena squarely between fellow vampire-daters Buffy and Bella• Jennifer Lynn Barnes takes Mystic Falls to task for poor treatment of Caroline Forbes• Jon Skovron examines the male-female vampire dynamic, in history and in The Vampire Diaries• Plus a guide to the book series for tv fans looking to visit The Vampire Diaries’ literary inspiration, and moreWhether you’re a new visitor or a long-time fan, you won’t want to continue your tour of Mystic Falls without it.

    HENRY OF AMERICAN JOURNALISM Simply the best storyteller around, Weingarten describes the world as you think it is before revealing how it actually is—in narratives that are by turns hilarious, heartwarming, and provocative, but always memorable. Millions of people know the title piece about violinist Joshua Bell, which originally began as a stunt: What would happen if you put a world-class musician outside a Washington, D.C., subway station to play for spare change? Would anyone even notice? The answer was no. Weingarten’s story went viral, becoming a widely referenced lesson about life lived too quickly. Other classic stories—the one about “The Great Zucchini,” a wildly popular but personally flawed children’s entertainer; the search for the official “Armpit of America”; a profile of the typical American nonvoter—all of them reveal as much about their readers as they do their subjects.

    In The Cross of Redemption we have Baldwin discoursing on, among other subjects, the possibility of an African-American president and what it might mean; the hypocrisy of American religious fundamentalism; the black church in America; the trials and tribulations of black nationalism; anti-Semitism; the blues and boxing; Russian literary masters; and the role of the writer in our society. Prophetic and bracing, The Cross of Redemption is a welcome and important addition to the works of a cosmopolitan and canonical American writer who still has much to teach us about race, democracy, and personal and national identity. As Michael Ondaatje has remarked, “If van Gogh was our nineteenth-century artist-saint, Baldwin [was] our twentieth-century one.”

    Aided by artists, writers, cartographers, and twenty-two gorgeous color maps, each of which illuminates the city and its surroundings as experienced by different inhabitants, Solnit takes us on a tour that will forever change the way we think about place. She explores the area thematically—connecting, for example, Eadweard Muybridge’s foundation of motion-picture technology with Alfred Hitchcock’s filming of Vertigo. Across an urban grid of just seven by seven miles, she finds seemingly unlimited landmarks and treasures—butterfly habitats, queer sites, murders, World War II shipyards, blues clubs, Zen Buddhist centers. She roams the political terrain, both progressive and conservative, and details the cultural geographies of the Mission District, the culture wars of the Fillmore, the South of Market world being devoured by redevelopment, and much, much more. Breathtakingly original, this atlas of the imagination invites us to search out the layers of San Francisco that carry meaning for us—or to discover our own infinite city, be it Cleveland, Toulouse, or Shanghai.CONTRIBUTORS:Cartographers: Ben Pease and Shizue SeigelDesigner: Lia TjandraArtists: Sandow Birk, Mona Caron, Jaime Cortez, Hugh D'Andrade, Robert Dawson, Paz de la Calzada, Jim Herrington, Ira Nowinski, Alison Pebworth, Michael Rauner, Gent Sturgeon, Sunaura TaylorWriters and researchers: Summer Brenner, Adriana Camarena, Chris Carlsson, Lisa Conrad, Guillermo Gómez-Peña, Joshua Jelly-Schapiro, Paul La Farge, Genine Lentine, Stella Lochman, Aaron Shurin, Heather Smith, Richard WalkerAdditional cartography: Darin Jensen; Robin Grossinger and Ruth Askevold, San Francisco Estuary Institute

    This is what I've always thought it meant to be a writer. Writing, knowing in part that no matter how trivial your words may seem, someday, somewhere, someone may risk his or her life to read them." — Create DangerouslyIn this deeply personal book, the celebrated Haitian-American writer Edwidge Danticat reflects on art and exile, examining what it means to be an immigrant artist from a country in crisis. Inspired by Albert Camus' lecture, "Create Dangerously," and combining memoir and essay, Danticat tells the stories of artists, including herself, who create despite, or because of, the horrors that drove them from their homelands and that continue to haunt them. Danticat eulogizes an aunt who guarded her family's homestead in the Haitian countryside, a cousin who died of AIDS while living in Miami as an undocumented alien, and a renowned Haitian radio journalist whose political assassination shocked the world. Danticat writes about the Haitian novelists she first read as a girl at the Brooklyn Public Library, a woman mutilated in a machete attack who became a public witness against torture, and the work of Jean-Michel Basquiat and other artists of Haitian descent. Danticat also suggests that the aftermaths of natural disasters in Haiti and the United States reveal that the countries are not as different as many Americans might like to believe.Create Dangerously is an eloquent and moving expression of Danticat's belief that immigrant artists are obliged to bear witness when their countries of origin are suffering from violence, oppression, poverty, and tragedy.

    Each essay charts some experience or remembrance of the past through the sieve of Tony Judt s prodigious mind. His youthful love of a particular London bus route evolves into a reflection on public civility and interwar urban planning. Memories of the 1968 student riots of Paris meander through the divergent sex politics of Europe, before concluding that his generation was a revolutionary generation, but missed the revolution. A series of road trips across America lead not just to an appreciation of American history, but to an eventual acquisition of citizenship. Foods and trains and long-lost smells all compete for Judt s attention; but for us, he has forged his reflections into an elegant arc of analysis. All as simply and beautifully arranged as a Swiss chalet—a reassuring refuge deep in the mountains of memory.

    . . a sort of David Sedaris-like take on knitting. Laugh-out-loud funny most of the time and poignantly reflective when it's not cracking you up." Library Journal on Yarn HarloInside All Wound Up, New York Times best-selling author and self-proclaimed Yarn Harlot Stephanie Pearl-McPhee spins her third yarn on knitting for the 60 million knitters in North America who collectively spend $45 billion a year on knitting-related merchandise.In her trademark style, McPhee talks about knitting, parenting, friendship, and--gasp!--even crocheting in essays that are at times touching, often hilarious, and always entertaining. Fans of her popular blog at www.yarnharlot.ca/blog/ will adore this all-new collection of tales of the woolen and silky skein, which follow the Yarn Harlot's previous exploits chronicled inside Yarn Harlot and Free-Range Knitter.

    How does Jane Goodall’s relationship with her dog Rusty inform her thinking about our relationship to other species? Which time and place would Jared Diamond most prefer to live in, in light of his work on the role of chance in history? What does driving a sports car have to do with Steven Weinberg’s quest for the “theory of everything”? Physicist and journalist Stefan Klein’s intimate conversations with nineteen of the world’s best-known scientists (including three Nobel Laureates) let us listen in as they talk about their paradigm-changing work—and how it is deeply rooted in their daily lives. • Cosmologist Martin Rees on the beginning and end of the world • Evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins on egoism and selflessness • Neuroscientist V. S. Ramachandran on consciousness • Molecular biologist Elizabeth Blackburn on aging • Philosopher Peter Singer on morality • Physician and social scientist Nicholas Christakis on human relationships • Biochemist Craig Venter on the human genome • Chemist and poet Roald Hoffmann on beauty

    As Ebert noted in the introduction to the first collection of those pieces, “They are not the greatest films of all time, because all lists of great movies are a foolish attempt to codify works which must stand alone. But it’s fair to say: If you want to take a tour of the landmarks of the first century of cinema, start here.Enter The Great Movies III, Ebert’s third collection of essays on the crème de la crème of the silver screen, each one a model of critical appreciation and a blend of love and analysis that will send readers back to the films with a fresh set of eyes and renewed enthusiasm—or maybe even lead to a first-time viewing. From The Godfather: Part II to Groundhog Day, from The Last Picture Show to Last Tango in Paris, the hundred pieces gathered here display a welcome balance between the familiar and the esoteric, spanning Hollywood blockbusters and hidden gems, independent works and foreign language films alike. Each essay draws on Ebert’s vast knowledge of the cinema, its fascinating history, and its breadth of techniques, introducing newcomers to some of the most exceptional movies ever made, while revealing new insights to connoisseurs as well.Named the most powerful pundit in America by Forbes magazine, and a winner of the Pulitzer Prize, Roger Ebert is inarguably the most prominent and influential authority on the cinema today. The Great Movies III is sure to please his many fans and further enhance his reputation as America’s most respected—and trusted—film critic.

    From Esther Martin, owner of the scariest bar in Baltimore, to the playwright Tennessee Williams; from the atheist leader Madalyn Murray O'Hair to the insane martyr Saint Catherine of Siena; from the English novelist Denton Welch to the timelessly appealing singer Johnny Mathis--these are the extreme figures who helped the author form his own brand of neurotic happiness. Role Models is a personal invitation into one of the most unique, perverse, and hilarious artistic minds of our time.

    There is perhaps no more demanding or important critique available to contemporary citizens than Berry’s writings — just as there is no vocabulary more given to obfuscation than that of economics as practiced by professionals and academics. Berry has called upon us to return to the basics. He has traced how the clarity of our economic approach has eroded over time, as the financial asylum was overtaken by the inmates, and citizens were turned from consumers — entertained and distracted — to victims, threatened by a future of despair and disillusion.For this collection, Berry offers essays from over the last 25 years, alongside new essays about the recent economic collapse, including “Money Versus Goods” and “Faustian Economics,” treatises of great alarm and courage. He offers advice and perspective that should be heeded by all concerned as our society attempts to steer from its present chaos and recession to a future of hope and opportunity. With urgency and clarity, Berry asks us to look toward a true sustainable commonwealth, grounded in realistic Jeffersonian principles applied to our present day.

    Each volume’s series editor selects notable works from hundreds of magazines, journals, and websites. A special guest editor, a leading writer in the field, then chooses the best twenty or so pieces to publish. This unique system has made the Best American series the most respected—and most popular—of its kind. The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2011 includes Atul Gawande, Jonathan Franzen, Deborah Blum, Malcolm Gladwell, Oliver Sacks, Jon Mooallem, Jon Cohen, Luke Dittrich, and others

    How can recklessness guide the poet, the artist, and the reader into art, and how can it excite in us a sort of wild receptivity, beyond craft? "Poetry is not a discipline," Young writes. "It is a hunger, a revolt, a drive, a mash note, a fright, a tantrum, a grief, a hoax, a debacle, an application, an affect . . ."

    This book is the record of her experiences. It’s a stunning collection of carefully observed accounts of her life—tracking otters on the beach, cooking breakfast in the desert, canoeing in a snow squall, wading among migrating salmon in the dark—but it is also a profound meditation on the healing power of nature.

    Dalloway, Virginia Woolf details Clarissa Dalloway’s preparations for a party of which she is to be hostess, exploring the hidden springs of thought and action in one day of a woman’s life. Paired here with A Room of One’s Own, a masterful and provocative essay on women’s role in society, this beautiful hardcover edition will be a welcome addition to the library of any Woolf scholar or fan.

    From a Harvard law school student tackled by a security guard on the streets of Manhattan, a federal prosecutor detained while walking in his own neighborhood in Washington, DC, and a high school student in Colorado arrested for "loitering" in the subway station as he waits for the train home, to a bike rider in Austin, Texas, a professor at a Big Ten university in Iowa, and the head of the ACLU's racial profiling initiative (who was pursued by national guardsmen after arriving on the red-eye in Boston's Logan airport), here are true stories of law-abiding Americans who also happen to be black men (Publishers Weekly).Cumulatively, the effect is staggering, and will open the eyes of anyone who thinks we live in a "post-racial" or "colorblind" America."Powerful." --Jet"This is raw testimony intended to vividly capture the invasions of privacy and the assaults on dignity that always accompany unreasonable government intrusion." --Kirkus Reviews

    King’s speeches on labor rights and economic justice Covering all the civil rights movement highlights--Montgomery, Albany, Birmingham, Selma, Chicago, and Memphis--award-winning historian Michael K. Honey introduces and traces Dr. King's dream of economic equality. Gathered in one volume for the first time, the majority of these speeches will be new to most readers. The collection begins with King's lectures to unions in the 1960s and includes his addresses made during his Poor People's Campaign, culminating with his momentous "Mountaintop" speech, delivered in support of striking black sanitation workers in Memphis. Unprecedented and timely, "All Labor Has Dignity" will more fully restore our understanding of King's lasting vision of economic justice, bringing his demand for equality right into the present.

    Based on the bestselling book be Ilene Beckerman.5W (doubling, flexible casting)

    Calling poets away from civilization, back towards the wilderness, Lasky brazenly urges artists away from conceptual programs, resurrecting imagination and faith-in-the-uncertain as saviors from mediocrity.

    His own corner of the world, the desert borderlands between the United States and Mexico, is Bowden’s prime focus, and through books, magazine articles, and newspaper journalism he has written eloquently about key issues roiling the border—drug-related violence that is shredding civil society, illegal immigration and its toll on human lives and the environment, destruction of fragile ecosystems as cities sprawl across the desert and suck up the limited supplies of water. This anthology gathers the best and most representative writing from Charles Bowden’s entire career. It includes excerpts from his major books—Killing the Hidden Waters, Blue Desert, Desierto: Memories of the Future, Blood Orchid, Blues for Cannibals, A Shadow in the City, Inferno, Exodus, and Some of the Dead Are Still Breathing—as well as articles that appeared in Esquire, Harper’s, Mother Jones, and other publications. Imbued with Bowden’s distinctive rhythm and lyrical prose, these pieces also document his journey of exploration—a journey guided, in large part, by the question posed in Some of the Dead Are Still Breathing: “How do we live a moral life in a culture of death?” This is no metaphor; Bowden is referring to the people, history, animals, and ecosystems that are being extinguished in the onslaught of twenty-first-century culture. The perfect introduction to his work, The Charles Bowden Reader is also essential for those who know him well and want to see the whole panorama of his passionate, intense writing.

    From meditations on peacekeeping to praise for the toothpick, The Vinyl Cafe Notebooks runs the gamut from considered argument to light-hearted opinion. Whether McLean is visiting a forgotten corner of the Canadian Shield, a big-city doughnut factory, or Sir John A. Macdonald's gravesite, his observations are absorbing, unexpected, and original. With thought-provoking proposals about the world we live in and introductions to the people he meets in his extensive travels across our country, The Vinyl Cafe Notebooks is informed by McLean's intimate relationship with Canada and Canadians. Yet the collection is also an intriguing look at the writer himself—his past, his present, and his vision of the future. Sometimes funny, often wise, and always entertaining, The Vinyl Cafe Notebooks is sure to provide a wealth of reading pleasure that fans will return to again and again.

    As well as extracts from well-known books such as 'Down and out in Paris and London' and 'The Road to Wigan Pier', this volume includes classic articles such as 'Killing an Elephant' and 'Good Bad Books, ' as well as lesser known pieces. Whether or not readers are familiar with his work or sympathatic to his views, they are sure to be seduced by Orwell's logical mind and lucid prose in this handsome new edition of his wide-ranging and stimulating essays. Contents: The Spike; A Hanging (1931); Bookshop Memories (1936); Shooting an Elephant (1936); Down the Mine (1937) (from "The Road to Wigan Pier"); North and South (from "The Road to Wigan Pier") (1937); Spilling the Spanish Beans (1937); Marrakech (1939); Boys' Weeklies and Frank Richards's Reply (1940); Charles Dickens (1940); Charles Reade (1940); Inside The Whale (1940); The Art of Donald Mcgill (1941); The Lion and the Unicorn: Socialism and the English Genius (1941); Wells, Hitler And The World State (1941); Looking Back On The Spanish War (1942); Rudyard Kipling (1942); Mark Twain - the Licensed Jester (1943); Poetry and the Microphone (1943); W. B. Yeats (1943); Arthur Koestler (1944); Benefit of Clergy: Some Notes on Salvador Dali (1944); Raffles and Miss Blandish (1944); Antisemitism in Britain (1945); Freedom of the Park (1945); Future of a Ruined Germany (1945); Good Bad Books; In Defence of P. G. Wodehouse (1945); Nonsense Poetry; Notes on Nationalism (1945); Revenge is Sour (1945); The Sporting Spirit; You and the Atomic Bomb (1945); A Good Word for the Vicar of Bray; A Nice Cup of Tea (1946); Books vs. Cigarettes; Confessions of a Book Reviewer; Decline of the English Murder; How the Poor Die; James Burnham and the Managerial Revolution; Pleasure Spots; Politics and the English Language; Politics vs. Literature: an Examination of Gulliver's Travels; Riding Down from Bangor; Some Thoughts on the Common Toad; The Prevention of Literature; Why I Write (1946); Lear, Tolstoy and the Fool; Such, Such Were the Joys (1947); Writers and Leviathan (1948); Reflections on Gandhi.

    Known throughout the world for his metaphysical fantasies, Borges studied not only Christian mysticism but much Eastern philosophy and religion, including the works of the Sufis, Buddhist doctrines, and Raja, or classical yoga. To bring all these ideas together, his widow, Kodama, and Levine (Spanish & Portuguese, Univ. of California, Santa Barbara) have edited this small but powerful collection of prose, poetry, and essays. Many reveal Borges's obsessions with finding one's true "I," the nature of God, and the illusive nature of words, dreams, and other mystical states. This work also presents, for the first time in English, many of his brief essays that appraise other authors and philosophers. Key features are the well-known stories "The Library of Babel" and "The Aleph," along with the ironical "Poem of the Gifts," about his love of books and his increasing blindness. VERDICT A good introduction to Borges for both students and interested general readers.—Nedra Crowe Evers, Sonoma Cty. Lib., Santa Rosa, CA About The Author: About The Author: Jorge Luis Borges was born in Buenos Aires in 1899 and was educated in Europe. One of the most widely acclaimed writers of the 20th century, he published many collections of poems, essays, and short stories before his death in Geneva in June 1986. In 1961, Borges shared the International Publishers' prize with Samuel Beckett. In 1971, Columbia University awarded him the first of many degrees of Doctor of Letters, honoris causa, that he was to receive from the English-speaking world -- eventually, the list included both Oxford and Cambridge universities. In 1971 he also received the fifth biennial Jerusalem Prize and in 1973 was given one of Mexico's most prestigious cultural awards, the Alfonso Reyes Prize. In 1980 he shared with Gerardo Diego the Cervantes Pri

    Whether he’s recalling the cold-water artists’ flats of Paris’s Left Bank or the sun-worshipping eccentrics of Tangier, Paul Bowles imbues every piece with a deep intelligence and the acute perspective of his rich experience of the world. Woven throughout are photographs from the renowned author’s private archive, which place him, his wife, the writer Jane Bowles, and their many friends and compatriots in the landscapes his essays bring so vividly to life.With an introduction by Paul Theroux and a chronology by Daniel Halpern

    Each conversation represents a different stage in Walker’s artistic and spiritual development; taken together, they offer an unprecedented angle of vision on her career as well as on her personal and political development. Noted literary scholar Rudolph Byrd sets Walker’s work into context with an introductory essay, as well as with a comprehensive annotated bibliography of her writings.Includes Alice Walker in conversation with the following:John O’Brien (1973) on her early writing career and inspirationsClaudia Tate (1983) on being part of the emerging coterie of black women writers in the 1970sEllen Bring (1988) on her animal rights activism and its importance to her world view and writingClaudia Dreifus(1989) on politics and fiction writingPaula Giddings (1992) in EssenceJody Hoy (1994) on her personal philosophyTammy Simon from Sounds True Recordings (1995)Evelyn White from Ms. (1998)Pema Chodron (1998) on the importance of Buddhisim to her work and writingWilliam R. Ferris (2004) on being a black female writer from the SouthMargo Jefferson A Conversation from LIVE FROM THE NYPL (2005) on her success with The Color Purple and being a celebrityAmy Goodman (March 2006) on her politics and activismGeorge Galloway (November 2006) on why she supports CastroMarrianne Schnall from feminist.com (December 2006)Howard Zinn on her Mississippi years, experiences with Zinn as a student, role of the civil rights movement in her work.

    A collection of stories from Vanity Fair magazine about the current financial crisis by some of the country’s best business journalists, including Michael Lewis (Moneyball, Liar’s Poker), Bryan Burrough (Barbarians at the Gate), and Mark Bowden (Black Hawk Down), edited by Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter, and with an introduction by Cullen Murphy (Are We Rome?).

    It examines the very nature of our lives, from cinema and books to history and religion.

    With its pioneering introduction, this collection provides a comprehensive history of the development of the prose poem up to its current widespread appeal. Half critical study and half anthology, The Field Guide to Prose Poetry is a not-to-be-missed companion for readers and writers of poetry, as well as students and teachers of creative writing.

    Designed as though Chin Music Press/Broken Levee Books intends to singlehandedly resurrect the art of bookmaking, Where We Know is a book you'll want at your bedside and on your coffee table." —Lucia Silva, NPR"Rutledge (English, Univ. of New Orleans) shows himself, in an introduction both touching and sincere, to understand fully the city and its struggles, to love New Orleans for what it is and what it can be, what it means both to those who decided to stay and those who left." —Library Journal"Where We Know is a must for anyone who wants a more excellent understanding of the tenacity of the people of New Orleans." —The Midwest Book ReviewFive years after Katrina, New Orleans is still limping. This second book of a planned trilogy looks at both those who stayed on and rebuilt their lives in New Orleans and those who had to say goodbye. It also weaves in historical references and quotes from Louis Armstrong, Lafcadio Hearn, and many others. What emerges is a book that shows how lovers of New Orleans have always battled with its darker side, and how the people's knack for celebrating an impromptu second line goes hand in hand with their acknowledgment of the ghosts in their midst.

    Since its inception in SFGate.com nearly 10 years ago, Morford’s hyperliterate, often controversial, smartly unhinged “Notes & Errata” column has achieved an avid cultlike status, and is regularly one of the most read and emailed works on the entire site. The book contains nearly 100 columns, 50 pieces of nicely shocking hate mail, with fresh commentary added to every column, along with photos, snippets, banned work, and various journalistic sacrilege that all points to one undeniable fact: There's simply no other opinion columnist quite like Morford in American media today. Please undress accordingly.

    This book asks the question: How did a country with so much promise—a stellar education system, a growing middle class of professionals, a sophisticated economic infrastructure, a liberal constitution, and an independent judiciary—go so wrong?In their own words, they recount their experiences of losing their homes, land, livelihoods, and families as a direct result of political violence. They describe being tortured in detention, firebombed at home, or beaten up or raped to "punish" votes for the opposition. Those living abroad in exile or forced to flee to neighboring countries recount their escapes, of cutting through fences, swimming across crocodile-infested rivers, and entrusting themselves to human smugglers. This book includes Zimbabweans of every age, class and political conviction, from farm laborers to academics, from artists and opposition leaders to ordinary Zimbabweans: men and women simply trying to survive as a once thriving nation heads for collapse.

    Though Herbert is very much an Eastern European writer, the urgency, vitality, and relevance of his work extend far beyond the borders of his particular region and his particular time. His fascination with other subjects--from painting to all things Dutch--enriched the scope and depth of his poetry, and made for compelling explorations in his essays and short prose pieces.The first collected English edition of his prose work, this outstanding volume consists of four books--Labryinth on the Sea, Still Life with a Bridle, King of the Ants, and Barbarian in the Garden. Brilliant and erudite, dazzling and witty, these essays survey the geography of humanity, its achievements and its foibles. From Western civilization's past, as witnessed through the Greek and Roman landscape, to musings on the artistic that celebrate the author's discriminating eye, poetic sensibility, and gift for irony, humor, and the absurd; from a sage retelling of myths and tales that became twentieth-century philosophical parables of human behavior to thoughts on art, culture, and history inspired by journeys in France, Italy, and the Netherlands, Collected Prose is a rich compendium that celebrates the mastery and wisdom of a remarkable artist.

    His Nobel Lecture is a resounding tribute to fiction’s power to inspire readers to greater ambition, to dissent, and to political action. “We would be worse than we are without the good books we have read, more conformist, not as restless, more submissive, and the critical spirit, the engine of progress, would not even exist,” Vargas Llosa writes. “Like writing, reading is a protest against the insufficiencies of life. When we look in fiction for what is missing in life, we are saying, with no need to say it or even to know it, that life as it is does not satisfy our thirst for the absolute—the foundation of the human condition—and should be better.” Vargas Llosa’s lecture is a powerful argument for the necessity of literature in our lives today. For, as he eloquently writes, “literature not only submerges us in the dream of beauty and happiness but alerts us to every kind of oppression.”

    Allard was a pioneer of color photography with a style that called for entering people's homes and hearts; by winning their confidence he was able to capture "off guard" moments, and reveal the depth of human nature as never before seen in the pages of National Geographic. Always in search of "what is happening at the edges," his work reveals beauty, mystery, and a sense of adventure. Part photography retrospective and part personal memoir, this book paints a full picture —through images and narrative —of the life of a globe-trekking photographer over the past half century.

    At age fifteen he became a sports reporter for his Ocean City High School newspaper; four years later, as sports editor of the University of Alabama's Crimson-White, he began to employ devices more common in fiction, such as establishing a scene with minute details-a technique that would later make him famous.Later, as a sports reporter for the New York Times, Talese was drawn to individuals at poignant and vulnerable moments rather than to the spectacle of sports. Boxing held special appeal, and his Esquire pieces on Joe Louis and Floyd Patterson in decline won praise, as would his later essay Ali in Havana, chronicling Muhammad Ali's visit to Fidel Castro. His profile of Joe DiMaggio, The Silent Season of a Hero, perfectly captured the great player in his remote retirement, and displayed Talese's journalistic brilliance, for it grew out of his on-the-ground observation of the Yankee Clipper rather than from any interview. More recently, Talese traveled to China to track down and chronicle the female soccer player who missed a penalty kick that would have won China the World Cup.Chronicling Talese's writing over more than six decades, from high school and college columns to his signature adult journalism- and including several never-before-published pieces (such as one on sports anthropology), a new introduction by the author, and notes on the background of each piece-The Silent Season of a Hero is a unique and indispensable collection for sports fans and those who enjoy the heights of journalism.

    Featuring brilliant reportage and analysis, profound profiles of pros, and tributes to the amateur in all of us, The Only Game in Town is a classic collection from a magazine with a deep bench. Including such authors as Roger Angell and John Updike, both of them synonymous with" New Yorker" sportswriting, The Only Game in Town also features greats like John McPhee and Don DeLillo. Hall of Famer Ring Lardner is here, bemoaning the lowering of standards for baseball achievement--in 1930. A. J. Liebling inimitably portrays the 1955 Rocky Marciano-Archie Moore bout as "Ahab and Nemesis . . . man against history," and John Cheever pens a story about a boy's troubled relationship with his father and "The National Pastime." From Tiger Woods to bullfighter Sidney Franklin, from the Chinese Olympics to the U.S. Open, the greatest plays and players, past and present, are all covered in The Only Game in Town. At "The New Yorker," it's not whether you win or lose--it's how you write about the game.

    Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Chapters: A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again, Consider the Lobster, Everything and More. Source: Wikipedia. Free updates online. Not illustrated. Excerpt: A Supposedly Fun Thing Ill Never Do Again is the title of a 1997 collection of non-fiction writing by David Foster Wallace. In the title essay, originally published as "Shipping Out" in Harper's, Wallace describes what he sees as the middlebrow excesses exhibited during his one week trip aboard a cruise ship (MV Zenith, which he rechristens the Nadir) in the Caribbean. His ironic displeasure with the professional hospitality industry and the "fun" he should be having unveils how the indulgences of the cruise turn him into a spoiled brat, leading to overwhelming internal despair. Wallace uses footnotes extensively throughout the piece for various asides. Like much of Wallace's work, the essay is written in post-modern style. Another essay in the same volume takes on the vulgarities and excesses of the Illinois State Fair. This collection also includes Wallace's influential essay "E Unibus Pluram" regarding television's impact on contemporary literature and the use of irony within American culture. Essays collected in the book: The following excerpt from the title essay illustrates Wallace's style and use of footnotes: ..". advertisement that pretends to be art is, at absolute best, like somebody who smiles warmly at you only because he wants something from you. This is dishonest, but what's sinister is the cumulative effect that such dishonesty has on us: since it offers a perfect facsimile or simulacrum of goodwill without goodwill's real spirit, it messes with our heads and eventually starts upping our defenses even in cases of genuine smiles and real art and true goodwill. It makes us feel confus...More: http: //booksllc.net/?id=133657

    In Danger is the first anthology in English devoted to his political and literary essays, with a generous selection of his poetry. Against the backdrop of post-war Italy, and through the mid-'70s, Pasolini's writings provide a fascinating portrait of a Europe in which fascists and communists violently clashed for power and where journalists ran great risks. The controversial and openly gay Pasolini was murdered at the age of fifty-three; In Danger includes his final interview, conducted hours before his death.

    Haney shares a series of personal essays on his life, struggles, and artistic evolution; from punk-rock malcontent in 1980s New York, to B-movie actor in the films of Roger Corman; to screenwriter on Friday the 13th Part VII; to expatriated American writer in Serbia; to author of the celebrated underground novel Banned for Life. Consisting of material originally published by the popular online literary magazine The Nervous Breakdown, Subversia is written with the bracing candor and lyrical beauty that have earned Haney a well-deserved cult following worldwide. "Subversia is an excellent collection of autobiographical short pieces, original and often raw...Haney is what you could call an authentically authentic voice—he comes out of the mold of beat-punk Kerouac worship, which has inspired enough writing and music making that it should be considered genre, and judged by its own standards...but, if such a genre exists, then Haney rises above it easily. He is a near-master of the final sentence, the one that pulls it all together and adds a dimension to the whole piece..." - L.A. Observed"...a fast ride on the wild side...Subversia is an accounting of real life in perfect focus..." - The New York Journal of Books"Frequently heartfelt and personal, Haney interweaves tiny details with weighty subjects deftly, through articles smartly ordered for just the right balance of thematic lilt and interest-holding lurch...[he] writes in a way that is infectious and gimmick-free...his enthusiasm for people, creativity and the whole world, is bottomless...[Subversia is] a joyful read on depressing subjects, and the consistency and precision of the writing makes it work." - PANK Magazine"...whether he’s fantasizing about killing his talkative girlfriend (and then sharing that thought with her) or taking a shower for his camp counselor’s private Kodak moment—no matter how ugly, Haney just puts it out there without care or thought to judgment." - BookFetish "Drug abuse, wild punk rock concerts, a short-lived James Dean icon phase, a car accident that nearly killed him, all of the shitty side jobs he worked and screenplays he wrote to keep a dollar in his pocket... it's all in here...Subversia reads like a conversation between two very close friends." - The Next Best Book Blog "...a series of vivid episodes—formative and destructive, hilarious and heartbreaking—that illuminate the mind of an intense soul whose charisma is outshined only by his unrelenting honesty." - Richard Cox, author of Rift and The God Particle"D.R. Haney may very well be the illegitimate love child of Henry Rollins and David Sedaris." - Jeff Martin, author of My Dog Ate My Nobel Prize and editor of The Customer Is Always Wrong: The Retail Chronicles"Haney's blend of intoxicating content, sharply selected language, and unexpected humor is better than all the heroin in Serbia." - Lenore Zion, author of My Dead Pets Are Interesting"Haney is absolutely compelling. You'll want to read his pieces over and over, and each time you'll marvel at how he took you someplace utterly different than the time before." - Robin Antalek, author of The Summer We Fell Apart"It is a tribute to Haney's immense charisma, brutal honesty, and charming prose that in spite of everything he confesses, one can't help but fall hopelessly in love with him." - Jessica Anya Blau, author of The Summer of Naked Swim Parties and Drinking Closer to Home "The man writes a book. It is a great book of fiction. How will I ever top this? he says. He walks around, and sits and thinks. Then he writes a great book of essays." - Ben Loory, author of Stories for Nighttime and Some for the Day

    Hyde; The Domino Lady worked with The Black Bat, The Avenger, and Airboy; Batman variously teamed up with The Shadow, Captain America, The Spirit, and Sherlock Holmes; Philip Marlowe had a brush with the Deep Ones and later worked with Sam Spade; the Nyctalope teamed up with Professor Quatermass; Bulldog Drummond combined forces with Richard Hannay for one last adventure; Nero Wolfe, Ellery Queen, Lord Peter, Perry Mason, and Mike Hammer solved a murder; and Vampirella teamed up with or fought just about everyone... ...To the Twenty-first Century, when Frankenstein's Creature battled Dracula and Mr. Hyde, and traveled to the Lost World; Witchblade and the Darkness joined forces with Vampirella; the worlds of Boston P.I. Spenser, Sheriff Jesse Stone, and detective Sunny Randall came together; and a modern-day Van Helsing went up against the current incarnation of the Black Coats... ...To the far-flung future, when Spock claimed Holmes as an ancestor and Ishmael flew with the wind whales... Crossovers is a massive timeline of crossover stories in which characters, situations, or universes are linked together in order to build the Crossover Universe. Lovingly compiled by crossover and Wold Newton expert Win Scott Eckert, Crossovers lists upwards of 2000 crossover stories, with innumerable additional timeline entries which outline the secret history of the land of fiction. With an introduction by Jess Nevins, this volume is illustrated with over 300 book and magazine covers, and contains an appendix covering Kim Newman's Anno Dracula series.

    This is a communal effort by the Pushcart Press staff, contributing editors, and hundreds of small presses. For this edition distinguished poets Julie Sheehan and Tom Sleigh served as poetry editors. The result is an introduction to a literary world that few readers have access to, where much of today's important new writing is published, far from the commercial influence of the conglomerates. In reviewing last year's edition, Donna Seaman of Booklist commented: "A brimming, vibrant anthology-the perfect introduction to new writers and adventurous new work by established writers . . . extraordinary in its range of voices and subjects. Here is literature to have and to hold." The Pushcart Prize has been chosen for the Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement recognition by the National Book Critics Circle and the Writers for Writers award from Poets Writers / Barnes Noble.

    Nonfiction. Allison Cobb wanders Brooklyn's famous nineteenth-century Green-Wood Cemetery and discovers that its 500 acres hills and ponds, trees and graves mirror the American landscape: a place marked by greed, war, and death, but still pulsing with life. The book is a testament to what survives and an elegy for what is lost, the long dead, the landscape itself, but especially those who died in the Twin Towers and in the United States's ongoing wars."

    The book concludes with The Moral Equivalent of War, one of the greatest anti-war pieces ever written, perhaps even more relevant now than when it was first published. In between, in essays on The Dilemma of Determinism, The Hidden Self, Habit, and The Will; in chapters from The Principles of Psychology and The Varieties of Religious Experience; and in such pieces as On a Certain Blindness in Human Beings, What Makes a Life Significant, and Philosophical Conceptions and Practical Results, we witness the evolution of James s philosophical thinking, his pragmatism, and his radical empiricism. Throughout, Richardson s deeply informed introductions place James s work in its proper biographical, historical, and philosophical context.In essay after essay, James calls us to live a fuller, richer, better life, to seek out and use our best energies and sympathies. As every day is the day of creation and judgment, so every age was once the new age and as this book makes abundantly clear, William James s writings are still the gateway to many a new world.

    You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.

    Curious and funny, tender and scathing, O'Faolain's columns were never less than trenchant and were always passionate. "I was blinded by the habit of translating everything into personal terms," she writes apologetically, but this is the power of her journalism. Through the prism of casual, everyday encounters, O'Faolain presses her subject, reaching beyond the prompting of the moment to transcend topicality. The result is a cumulative historical narrative, an inadvertent chronicle of a transformed Ireland by one of its sharpest observers and canniest critics.Praise for A Radiant Life:"This book is a gift." -The Boston Globe

    The poetry and essays by more than fifty contributors offer the reader glimpses into places as diverse as a forest in West Africa, the moors of Ireland, the canyons of the Sonoran desert mountains, and the fields of New England, and they reflect the varied perspectives of field biologists, hunters, farmers, environmental educators, wilderness guides, academics, writers, and artists. The collection is an intimate portrait of the natural world drawn through the wisdom, ecological consciousness, and open hearts of these exceptional contributors. The Wildbranch Writing Workshop, cosponsored by Orion magazine and Sterling College, has encouraged thoughtful natural history, outdoor, and environmental writing for more than twenty years. The Wildbranch faculty has included its founder E. Anne Proulx, the essayists Edward Hoagland, Janisse Ray, and Scott Russell Sanders, the poet Alison Hawthorne Deming, and many other notable authors. Many have work included in the anthology. Winner of the New Mexico Book Association's Southwest Book Design & Production Awards for Excellence in the category Trade Books: Non-illustrated.

    Cheryl Unruh tells about growing up in a small town and about living in a place that has more sky than land.Flyover People: Life on the Ground in a Rectangular State received the 2011 Kansas Notable Book Award.

    As with his music, the use of chance operations--in particular via the Chinese Book of Changes, or I Ching--was central to Cage's approach to visual art, determining technique, the placement of forms and even tonal values. Every Day is a Good Day provides the first broad assessment of Cage's art, and is fully illustrated with plates of his drawings, watercolors and prints, including series such as Where R=Ryoanji (1983-92). Cage's working methods and philosophies are brought to light in new interviews with key collaborators: printmaker and writer Kathan Brown, founder of Crown Point Press; Laura Kuhn, Director of the John Cage Trust; artist Ray Kass; and Julie Lazar, curator of Cage's composition for a museum, Rolywholyover: A Circus. Extracts from a 1966 interview between John Cage and critic Irving Sandler are also reproduced. At the heart of the book is a "Companion to John Cage," a selection of quotes by Cage and notes on key themes and influences, all of which make it essential reading on this important figure of the twentieth-century avant garde.

    . . to stand on the meeting of two eternities, the past and future." At this bewildering convergence, Slouka asks us to consider what it means to be human and what we must revive, or reject, in order to retain our humanity in the modern world. Collected over fifteen years, these essays include fascinating explorations of the relationship between memory and history and the nature of "tragedy" in a media-driven culture; meditations on the transcendent "wisdom" of the natural world and the role of silence in an age of noise; and arguments in defense of the political value of leisure time and the importance of the humanities in an age defined by the language of science and industry. Written in Slouka's supple and unerring prose, celebratory, critical, and passionate, Essays from the Nick of Time reawakens us to the moment and place in which we find ourselves, caught between the fading presence of the past and the neon lure of the future.

    Thematically organized, it presents women’s writing on such issues as intertribal and interethnic conflicts, the degradation of the environment, polygamy, domestic abuse, the controversial traditional practice of female genital cutting, Sharia law, intergenerational tensions, and emigration and exile.    Contributors include internationally recognized authors and activists such as Wangari Maathai and Nawal El Saadawi, as well as a host of vibrant new voices from all over the African continent and from the African diaspora. Interdisciplinary in scope, this collection provides an excellent introduction to contemporary African women’s literature and highlights social issues that are particular to Africa but are also of worldwide concern.  It is an essential reference for students of African studies, world literature, anthropology, cultural studies, postcolonial studies, and women’s studies.  A Choice Outstanding Academic BookOutstanding Book, selected by the Public Library AssociationBest Books for High Schools, Best Books for Special Interests, and Best Books for Professional Use, selected by the American Association of School Libraries

    Feldman (1926-1987) was deeply immersed in the milieu of New York Abstract Expressionism, and found analogies in sound to the materiality of Pollock, the gravitas of Rothko and the hesitant, venturing brushstrokes of Guston. Taking as its departure point an exhibition Feldman curated in 1967 titled Six Painters, Vertical Thoughts considers the impact that postwar American art had on Feldman's own compositions. It features works by the six painters -- Guston, Kline, Mondrian, de Kooning, Pollock and Rothko -- and by other artists whom Feldman admired, such as Kitaj, Rauschenberg and Twombly. Also reproduced are works from Feldman's own collection, including his Middle Eastern and Asian rugs, archival photographs and ephemera, musical scores and record covers of compositions dedicated to artists such as Guston and Rothko, besides interviews with and writings by Feldman himself.

    Drama. Poetry. Art. Literary Nonfiction. ENCYCLOPEDIA is a serial hardcover book project that presents a wide variety of approaches to narrative. Part reference book, part literary journal, each volume appropriates the form of the encyclopedia from columns to cross-referencing as a space for publishing new, innovative literary and visual works. This volume features over 209 entries by 193 talented folk, including "Fair" by Ronaldo V. Wilson, "Gonzalez Torres, Felix" by Amra Brooks, "Hir" by Eleni Stecopoulos, "Inference" by Derek White, "Jumper" by Samiya Bashir, "Korea" by Sueyuen Juliette Lee and much more! The full-color Artist Portfolio includes Tammy Rae Carland, John Caserta, Krista Franklin, Sam Lopes, and Amy Trachtenburg."

    "Unconcealment" is the idea that what entities are depends on the conditions that allow them to manifest themselves. This concept, central to Heidegger's work, also applies to worlds in a dual sense: first, a condition of entities manifesting themselves is the existence of a world; and second, worlds themselves are disclosed. The unconcealment or disclosure of a world is the most important historical event, and Heidegger believes there have been a number of quite distinct worlds that have emerged and disappeared in history. Heidegger's thought as a whole can profitably be seen as working out the implications of the original understanding of unconcealment.

    The centerpiece of the collection is his signature work, “The Death and Life of Dith Pran,” which appeared in the New York Times Magazine. This became the foundation of Roland Joffé’s acclaimed film The Killing Fields (1984), which explored the Khmer Rouge genocide in Cambodia during the late 1970s. Although Schanberg may be best known for his work on Cambodia, he also reported on the India-Pakistan war that ended Pakistan’s brutal attempt to crush the Bangladesh freedom movement in the 1970s. His striking coverage of the Vietnam conflict recounts Hanoi’s fierce offensive in 1972 that almost succeeded. Years later, citing official documents and other hard evidence that a large number of American POWs were never returned by Hanoi, Schanberg criticized the national press for ignoring these facts and called for Washington to release documents that had been covered up since 1973. As the media critic for the Village Voice, Schanberg offered a unique and searing viewpoint on Iraq, which he called America’s “strangest war.” His criticism of the Bush administration’s secrecy brings his war reportage into the present and presents a vigorous critique of what he considers a devious and destructive presidency. Beyond the Killing Fields is an important work by one of America’s foremost journalists.

    Kicked Out brings together the voices of current and former homeless LGBTQ youth and tells the forgotten stories of some of our nation's most vulnerable citizens. Diverse contributors share stories of survival and abuse with poignant accounts of the sanctuary of community and the power of creating chosen families. Kicked Out highlights the nuanced perspectives of national organizations such as The National Gay & Lesbian Task Force and The National Alliance Against Homelessness, and regional agencies, including Sylvia's Place, The Circus Project and Family Builders. This anthology, introduced by Judy Shepard, gives voice to the voiceless and challenges the stereotypical face of homelessness. To learn more, visit us online at KickedOutAnthology.com.

    Church-camp sing-alongs gone horribly wrong, infatuation with Christian contemporary music, teenage love set to indie rock soundtracks, playing rock music in churches and church music in rock clubs, betrayal by Christian rock bands—Sects, Love, and Rock & Roll is a book about how listening to music makes us who we are, and it's an exploration of the intersections between the evangelical church and the pop music scene. In these essays, Joel Heng Hartse, a youth group dropout turned music critic, combines laugh-out-loud humor with thoughtful reflection to describe how his obsession with rock and roll has shaped him, and how living in the shadow of God and guitars can transform us all.

    In An Extraordinary Year of Ordinary Days, best-selling mystery novelist Susan Wittig Albert invites us to revisit one of the most tumultuous years in recent memory, 2008, through the lens of 365 ordinary days in which her reading, writing, and thinking about issues in the wider world—from wars and economic recession to climate change—caused her to reconsider and reshape daily practices in her personal life. Albert’s journal provides an engaging account of how the business of being a successful working writer blends with her rural life in the Texas Hill Country and the Sangre de Cristo Mountains of New Mexico. As her eclectic daily reading ranges across topics from economics, food production, and oil and energy policy to poetry, place, and the writing life, Albert becomes increasingly concerned about the natural world and the threats facing it, especially climate change and resource depletion. Asking herself, “What does it mean? And what ought I do about it?”, she determines practical steps to take, such as growing more food in her garden, and also helps us as readers make sense of these issues and consider what our own responses might be.

    She is hailed as one of America’s preeminent writers about gastronomy. But to limit her to that genre would be a disservice. She was passionate and well-traveled, and her narratives fill over two dozen highly acclaimed books. In this collection of some of her finest works, we learn that Fisher’s palette was not only well trained in gastronomical masterpieces, but in life’s best pleasures as well. Love in a Dish . . . and Other Culinary Delights by M.F.K. Fisher is an instructional manual on how to live, eat, and love brought together by prolific researcher and culinary enthusiast Anne Zimmerman. With great care she has selected essays that sometimes forgive our lustful appetites, yet simultaneously celebrate them, as in “Once a Tramp, Always . . . ” and “Love in a Dish,” which guides us down the path to marital bliss via the family dining table. It is through this carefully chosen selection, which includes two essays never before collected in book form, that we encounter Fisher’s bold passion for cuisine and an introduction to her idea of what constitutes the delicious life.

    Abstract Expressionism is a fresh and authoritative examination of one of the greatest art movements of the twentieth century, featuring works by Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, Mark Rothko and many others.

    Madden muses on the origins of human language, the curative properties of laughter, and the joys and woes of fatherhood. Sparked by considerations of selling garlic, washing grapes, changing a diaper, or chipping a tooth, his essays are an antidote to the harried hullabaloo of talk-show and tabloid culture—and a reminder that we are surrounded by wonders that whisper to the curious and attentive.Ingenuous and erudite, and with a beguiling wit, Madden examines the intricate tapestry of ordinary life in its extraordinary patterns. His book is a poetic and engaging exploration of the unexpectedly wide scope of our everyday existence.

    Published in collaboration with Piet Zwart Institute, Willem de Kooning Academy in Rotterdam, the book galvanizes central themes Verwoert has been developing in pursuit of a language to describe art’s transformative potential in conceptual, performative, and emotional terms. He analyzes the power of public gestures to constitute communities as well as the pressure to perform that governs the sphere of creative labor, in order to show how particular artists perform gestures and invoke community differently. Exploring the emotional power games that shape social relations, Verwoert looks for an alternative ethos of action and feeling, asking: How can a modernist approach to artistic form as a means of social critique be expanded to fully avow its subliminal affective undercurrents, and produce a pleasurably crooked form of criticality in art and writing?“If we perceive the pressure to perform to be innately linked to the regimentation of options, to imagine the ethos of a resistant practice implies an exploration of the conditions, situations, and potentialites that lie beyond the option menus and the exclusivity of the yes and no. In artistic practice this dedication to imagining other ways to perform and other ways to enjoy consumption means claiming the imagination and the aesthetic experience as a field of collective agency where workable forms of resistance can be devised.”Co-published with Piet Zwart Institute, Willem de Kooning Academy

    And for Berry, what is “local, fully imagined, becomes universal,” and the “local” is to know one’s place and allow the imagination to inspire and instill “a practical respect for what is there besides ourselves.” In Imagination in Place, we travel to the local cultures of several writers important to Berry’s life and work, from Wallace Stegner’s great West and Ernest Gaines’ Louisiana plantation life to Donald Hall’s New England, and on to the Western frontier as seen through the Far East lens of Gary Snyder. Berry laments today’s dispossessed and displaced, those writers and people with no home and no citizenship, but he argues that there is hope for the establishment of new local cultures in both the practical and literary sense.Rich with Berry’s personal experience of life as a Kentucky agrarian, the collection includes portraits of a few of America’s most imaginative writers, including James Still, Hayden Carruth, Jane Kenyon, John Haines, and several others.

    The pieces are animated by his passion for the ordinary and the everyday - from laundry to toothache, from cats to cleaning windows - his love of language, his lyrical observations of the world and above all his humanism."

    Alternating between the various addresses of a restless life on two continents, A Lesser Day is a memoir in which part of the story takes place between the lines, untold. In the freezing studios and working-class flats of Kreuzberg, we meet Sabine from across the bleak courtyard, a sturdy mother of four who disappears one day and whose adolescent daughters gradually grow wild; Martin, the charismatic boy with an alcoholic stepfather and his own hidden streak of cruelty; Ivo, a Croatian car mechanic who returns home to fight in the war as the landlady’s nine-year-old son sets about throwing rocks at the windowpanes of his workshop. When the narrator travels to New York to attend her father’s funeral shortly after Nov-ember 9, 1989, the day the Berlin Wall fell, a period begins in which her hold on reality grows increasingly tenuous. Hiding away in her studio with her father’s journals, her pain-tings building up inch by inch in a fruitless attempt to come to terms with human mortality, she sets about deciphering her father’s encoded script. Addressing a continually shifting “you” in a search for emotional understanding initially directed at the author’s dead father and then merging into a blur of intimate others, A Lesser Day explores the mechanisms of memory and suppression in an era of political upheaval. Little escapes the author’s scrutinizing eye as she locates meaning in the passage of time as it inscribes itself into the myriad things around us: the mute, insentient witnesses of our everyday existence.

    Field’s illuminating essays, or stories, in poetic form, place scientists, philosophers, animals, even the military, in real and imagined events. Her open questioning brings in subjects as diverse as pigeons, chat rooms, nuclear testing, the building of the Kennedy Space Center, the development of seaside beaches, Konrad Lorenz, the American author and animal trainer Vicki Hearne, and the Swiss zoologist Heini Hediger. Throughout, she intermingles fact and fiction, probing the porous boundaries between human and animal, calling into question “what we are willing to do with words,” and spinning a world where life is haunted by echoes. Story and event survive through daring language, and the elegies of history.

    The memoir begins in 1975, with author Richard Goodman's arrival in New York, an intimidated newcomer. It follows him through the years as he encounters some of the remarkable people one meets in New York, while harkening back to the inspiration the city provides, especially for artists and young writers. The memoir follows the author as he witnesses tragedies and then ruminates on growing old in New York. It tells of the joys and the difficulties of living in this remarkable city. A New York Memoir is, essentially, a long love letter to the city. Like all great loves, this volume reflects passion, promise, hope, pain, regret and, ultimately, the author's pride. This includes true stories of love, work, marriage, raising a child, becoming a writer, death, and friendship. Most of the stories in this effort take place there; those that do not are highly influenced by New York. The author has seen New York at its best and at its worst, when was it rich and freewheeling and when it fell on hard times and almost collapsed. He's seen it grievously wounded, and seen it pick itself back up again with the help of the entire world and with its own limitless moxie. This is a very personal story set against the backdrop of a massive city of unmatchable energy and of sheer, brute authority and inspiration. The book ends with a long remembrance of the author's mother who came to New York after many travails and was rescued by the city. This is the story of Richard Goodman's encounter with New York. **See Richard Goodman read an excerpt from A New York Memoir titled, "Elegy for an English Bike," here."http: //www.youtube.com/watch?v=zS9sMJXJ1L8"

    He celebrates the poets of Puerto Rico, imprisoned for espousing the cause of independence, and the poets of the Bronx, writing bilingual poems in the voices of the dead.Espada writes of forgotten places and reminds us of the poet's responsibility to remember, as Pablo Neruda remembers the anonymous builders of Machu Picchu or Sterling Brown remembers the slave uprising of Nat Turner. He argues that poets should embrace the role of Shelley's "unacknowledged legislator" in their work as writers and in their lives as citizens. He challenges the conventional wisdom that poetry and politics are mutually exclusive, and rejects the poetics of self-marginalization, in keeping with Adrian Mitchell's dictum that, "most people ignore most poetry because most poetry ignores most people."Martín Espada has published seventeen books as a poet, editor, and translator. The Republic of Poetry, a collection of poems, received a Paterson Award for Sustained Literary Achievement and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. Imagine the Angels of Bread won an American Book Award and was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. He has received numerous fellowships and awards, including a Guggenheim Fellowship and the National Hispanic Cultural Center Literary Award. Espada is a Professor of English at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst.

    This conversational and comprehensive guide--written in an easy-to-read Q and A format--also features practical tips for developing your spirit communication skills. "A valuable contribution to the literature of Spiritualism and mediumship. Moving, fascinating, and most of all, informative."--Raymond Buckland, author of Buckland's Book of Spirit Communications "Rose Vanden Eynden helps open a door to a whole new world that embraces, guides, and loves."--Sharon A. Klingler, co-author of Secrets of Success: The Science and Spirit of Real Prosperity

    In Facing the Center, Harry Denny unpacks the identity matrices that enrich teachable moments, and he explores the pedagogical dynamics and implications of identity within the writing center.  The face of the writing center, be it mainstream or marginal, majority or miority, orthodox or subversive, always has implications for teaching and learning. Facing the Center will extend current research in writing center theory to bring it in touch with theories now common in cultural studies curricula. Denny takes up issues of power, agency, language, and meaning, and pushes his readers to ask how they themselves, or the centers in which they work, might be perpetuating cultures that undermine inclusive, progressive education.

    Shortlisted for the Booker Prize for his novel about James's life, The Master, Tóibín brilliantly analyzes James from a novelist's point of view.Known for his acuity and originality, Tóibín is himself a master of fiction and critical works, which makes this collection of his writings on Henry James essential reading for literary critics. But he also writes for general readers. Until now, these writings have been scattered in introductions, essays in the Dublin Times, reviews in the New York Review of Books, and other disparate venues.With humor and verve, Tóibín approaches Henry James’s life and work in many and various ways. He reveals a novelist haunted by George Eliot and shows how thoroughly James was a New Yorker. He demonstrates how a new edition of Henry James’s letters along with a biography of James’s sister-in-law alter and enlarge our understanding of the master. His "Afterword" is a fictional meditation on the written and the unwritten.Tóibín’s remarkable insights provide scholars, students, and general readers a fresh encounter with James’s well-known texts.

    When he died in 1993, Middleton left behind a legacy rich with mountain streams, wild trout, and fishermen’s dreams.In That Sweet Country is a fresh, exhilarating collection of a renowned fishing writer’s previously published works. A recognized name in outdoor writing, Middleton brings us inspiring selections such as “An Angler’s Lament” from Southern Living (1987), “Spring on the Miramichi” from The Flyfisher (1991), “A Haunting Obsession with Brown Trout” from the New York Times (1992), and many more. Readers who love Middleton’s work will cherish this compilation, while novice fishermen will gain a view of the world as Middleton saw it: “There are so few left, so few who believe the earth is enough.”Skyhorse Publishing is proud to publish a broad range of books for fishermen. Our books for anglers include titles that focus on fly fishing, bait fishing, fly-casting, spin casting, deep sea fishing, and surf fishing. Our books offer both practical advice on tackle, techniques, knots, and more, as well as lyrical prose on fishing for bass, trout, salmon, crappie, baitfish, catfish, and more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to publishing books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked by other publishers and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.

    This is an essay about our story-telling minds. It is about the psychological power of stories, and about what the ability to enjoy stories tells us about the fundamental nature of mind.An essay by Tom Stafford«I discuss psychological research into how we understand, how we make choices and moral reasoning. This research, I argue, is incomplete or misleading if we don’t recognise that moral choices require an extra step, not just of making the correct choices based on a description of the world, but of also realising that there are many possible ways to describe the world».

    Since then, the Iranian-born artist has continued to explore difficult subjects: the boundaries between East and West, men and women, the sacred and the profane, exile and belonging. Her work is marked by its graphic boldness and stirring imagery: photographs of women cloaked in black veils with excerpts of Farsi poetry inscribed across the surface; videos of clans of men and women in barren landscapes chanting or groups of men and women listening to rousing moralistic sermons in a public hall; and, as in her most recent projects, magical realist works in which women fly or plant themselves in gardens to ensure their fertility.Renowned art critic and historian Arthur C. Danto explores the entirety of the artist’s rich and varied oeuvre, from the earliest photographs to her latest work, the film Women Without Men. Her first feature film, for which she was awarded the prestigious Silver Lion for Best Director at the Venice Film Festival, is based on the novella of the same name that was banned in Iran; it has taken nearly seven years to complete. In addition to the important essay by Danto, the book includes a foreword in the form of a letter by artist Marina Abramović and commentaries for each series of work by Neshat herself, allowing a glimpse into the creative process of one of the most unique artists of her time.

    Drawing on history, criticism, memoir, fiction, poetry, and parody, editor Laurence Senelick presents writers with the special knack “to distill both the immediate experience and the recollected impression, to draw the reader into the charmed circle and conjure up what has already vanished.” Through the words of playwrights and critics, actors and directors, and others behind the footlights, the entertainments and high artistic strivings of successive eras come vividly, sometimes tumultuously, to life.Observers from Washington Irving and Fanny Trollope to Walt Whitman and Mark Twain evoke the world of the nineteenth-century playhouse in all its raucous vitality. Henry James confesses his early enthusiasm for playgoing; Willa Cather reviews provincial productions of Uncle Tom’s Cabin and Antony and Cleopatra. The increasing diversity and ambition of the American theater is reflected in Hutchins Hapgood’s account of New York’s Yiddish theaters at the turn of the century, Carl Van Vechten’s review of the Sicilian actress Mimi Aguglia, Alain Locke’s comments on the emerging African-American theater in the 1920s, and Ezra Pound’s response to James Joyce’s play Exiles and theatrical modernism. Enthusiasts for the New Stagecraft, such as Lee Simonson and Djuna Barnes, are matched by champions of pop culture such as Gilbert Seldes and Fred Allen. S. J. Perelman lampoons Clifford Odets; Edmund Wilson acclaims Minsky’s Burlesque; Harold Clurman explains Stanislavski’s Method; Gore Vidal dissects the compromises of commercial playwriting. A host of playwrights—among them Thornton Wilder, Arthur Miller, Tennessee Williams, Lorraine Hansberry, Edward Albee, Wendy Wasserstein, David Mamet, and Tony Kushner—are joined by such renowned critics as Stark Young, George Jean Nathan, Brooks Atkinson, and Eric Bentley.

    This year's selections, chosen from National Magazine Awards finalists and winners, include David Grann's article from the "New Yorker" on the execution of a possibly innocent man; Sheri Fink's report from the "New York Times Magazine" on the alleged euthanization of patients during Hurricane Katrina; and Fareed Zakaria's compelling take from "Newsweek" on Iran's weakening regime."The Best American Magazine Writing 2010" also includes absorbing profiles, arresting interviews, personal essays, and entrancing fiction. "Esquire"'s Mike Sager recounts a promising quarterback's shocking descent into drugs; "Vanity Fair"'s Bryan Burrough shares the confessions of the year's other major Ponzi schemer, and, from "McSweeney's Quarterly," Wells Tower weaves a transporting tale of elemental desire. "GQ"'s Tom Carson offers his critique of America's current vampire craze; Mitch Albom rediscovers Detroit's indomitable spirit in "Sports Illustrated"; and Garrison Keillor sings an ode to the homegrown joys of state fairs in "National Geographic." Additional contributors include Atul Gawande, Megan McArdle, and many others commenting on a range of issues, from health care and the national debt to war movies and the controversy over circumcision. Altogether the writing collected here proves the rich pleasures waiting in the best magazines.

    When he was subjected to 'one thousand days of solitary confinement' during 1985-89 in Secunderabad Jail, a leading national daily invited him to write about his prison experiences. While prison writing is a hoary tradition, no writer has had the opportunity to publish his writings from jail. VV, however, did meet the demands placed on him as a writer, despite constraints of censorship by jail authorities and the Intelligence section. He decided to test his creative powers in jail on the touchstone of his readers' response and expressed himself in a series of thirteen remarkable essays on imprisonment, from prison.

    In the process, the fleet-footed and motormouthed fighter became King of the Ring and more: a cultural icon who dominated headlines, generated controversy, and enthralled even those audiences uninterested in the sport.  Learn the fascinating facts about this dazzling champ:   -How he began boxing at only age 12—and the trainer who first knew he was something special - His involvement in the controversial Nation of Islam - What happened when he refused to fight in the Vietnam War - Round-by-round coverage of his “Rumble in the Jungle” and “Thrilla in Manila” matchups with George Foreman and nemesis Joe Frazier - His present-day battle with Parkinson’s Syndrome

    Peter Clothier is a long-time student of the dharma and a meditation practitioner. In this context he examines the qualities of compassion, perseverance, and discernment in his reflections on the artist s predicament in a world that judges success in terms of celebrity and material reward. Persist explores ways today's artists in any medium can find fulfillment, a sense of purpose, and joy in alternative and more lasting values.

    

    The bookstore or library is half full of that kind of crap. What you're holding here is a collection of quips and observations with a refreshingly gloomy, sometimes twisted, always funny take on life. Or lack thereof.With illustrations by renowned artist Brian Andreas, this book is a glimpse inside the humorously askew mind of a writer whose witticisms have been featured on NPR, printed onto t-shirts, performed on stage in Germany, and posted online at the Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, and New York Times. He's been named one of the top funniest people on Twitter by the likes of Maxim, MSNBC and Mashable.

    A Companion to Michael Haneke is a definitive collection of newly-commissioned work that covers Haneke's body of work in its entirety, catering to students and scholars of Haneke at a time when interest in the director and his work is soaring.Introduces one of the most important directors to have emerged on the global cinema scene in the past fifteen years Includes exclusive interviews with Michael Haneke, including an interview discussion of The White RibbonConsiders themes, topics, and subjects that have formed the nucleus of the director's life's work: the fate of European cinema, Haneke in Hollywood, pornography, alienation, citizenship, colonialism, and the gaze of surveillance Features critical examinations of La Pianiste, Time of the Wolf, Three Paths to the Lake and Cache, amongst others

    Alongside Christopher Porche West's alluring black-and-white photographs, New Orleans' culture bearers pay tribute to the city they call home.

    This unique volume zooms in, translating the work into nearly 100 pages of detailed, legible reproductions.

    Her reflections—complete with the Sanskrit verses that are the source of her studies, as well as the English transliteration and translation—are at once poignant and practical, and both minutely observed and expansive in their implications for our inner and outer lives. These teachings on yogic principles open up the emotional and spiritual pathways that allow us to deepen our yoga practice and go to the essence of the ancient wisdom contained within.

    Fitzpatrick. Unlike previous works, this book will include both high quality drawing collage images accompanied by corresponding essays produced over a sixteen-month period. Part memoir, part urban narrative, part socio-political commentary, each piece is a deeply personal and intellectual contemplation of a broader American story. Fitzpatrick is without a doubt the contemporary voice of the workingman, following strongly in the tradition of both Nelson Algren and Studs Terkel. This Train: An Artist's Journey is the culmination of a nearly two-year meditation on the ideas and experiences that bind us to this land; it is a treatise on the American view from the bottom up.

    The author reveals extensive narratives of Jíbaro Indian resistance and cultural continuity on the island of Borikén. Since the epistemological boundaries of the early history and literature had been written through colonial eyes, key fallacies have been passed down for centuries. Many stories have been kept within family histories having gone “underground” as the result of an abusive past. Whole communities of Jíbaro people survive today.

    This is a brilliant and original work that should be mandatory reading for any student of race and history."—Danzy Senna, author of CaucasiaAfter Canaan, the first nonfiction book by acclaimed African Canadian poet Wayde Compton, repositions the North American discussion of race in the wake of the tumultuous twentieth century. Written from the perspective of someone who was born and lives outside of African American culture, it riffs on the concept of Canada as a promised land (or "Canaan") encoded in African American myth and song since the days of slavery. These varied essays, steeped in a kind of history rarely written about, explore the language of racial misrecognition (also known as "passing"), the failure of urban renewal, humor as a counterweight to "official" multiculturalism, the poetics of hip hop turntablism, and the impact of the Obama phenomenon on the way we speak about race itself. Compton marks the passing of old modes of antiracism and multiculturalism, and points toward what may or may not be a "post-racial" future, but will without doubt be a brave new world of cultural perception.After Canaan is a brilliant and thoughtful consideration of African (North) American culture as it attempts to redefine itself in the Obama era.Wayde Compton's previous books include the poetry collections 49th Parallel Psalm and Performance Bond. He teaches English in Vancouver, BC.

    

    

    These essays correspond to the themes that organize the original set of essays: "Decolonizing the Territory," "Performing Politics," "Configuring Identities, and Remapping the World." The revised edition documents the foundation of Chicano studies, testifies to its broad disciplinary range, and explores its continuing development.The contributors are Eric Avila, Maxine Baca Zinn, Gilberto Cardenas, David Carrasco, Angie Chabram-Dernersesian, John Alba Cutler, Karen Mary Davalos, Adelaida R. Del Castillo, Shifra M. Goldman, Juan Gomez-Quinones, Deena J. Gonzalez, Ramon A. Gutierrez, Jorge A. Huerta, Jessica E. Jones, Chon A. Noriega, Americo Paredes, Fernando Penalosa, Rafael Perez-Torres, Beatriz M. Pesquera, David Roman, Robert Chao Romero, Rosaura Sanchez, Chela Sandoval, Alex M. Saragoza, Denise A. Segura, Marian E. Schlotterbeck, Adaljiza Sosa-Riddell, Kay Turner, and Steven S. Volk.

    The Body Reader is a compelling, cutting-edge, and timely collection that provides a close look at the emergence of the study of the body.From prenatal genetic testing and "manscaping"; to televideo cybersex and the "meth economy," this innovative work digs deep into contemporary lifestyles and current events to cover key concepts and theories about the body. A combination of twenty one classic readings and original essays, the contributors highlight gender, race, class, ability, and sexuality, paying special attention to bodies that are at risk, bodies that challenge norms, and media representations of the body. Ultimately, The Body Reader makes it clear that the body is not neutral--it is the entry point into cultural and structural relationships, emotional and subjective experiences, and the biological realms of flesh and bone.Contributors: Patricia Hill Collins, Karen Dias, H. Hugh Floyd, Jr., Arthur Frank, Sander L. Gilman, Gillian Haddow, Richard Huggins, Matthew Immergut, L: ea Kent, Kristen Karlberg, Steve Kroll-Smith, Mary Kosut, Jarvis Jay Masters, Lisa Jean Moore, Tracey Owens Patton, William J. Peace, Jason Pine, Eric Plemons, Barbara Katz Rothman, Edward Slavishak, Phillip Vannini, and Dennis Waskul.

    Giving a voice to an often misunderstood community, this record includes personal stories, persuasive research, heartfelt criticisms, and sincere advice. Informative and dynamic, this volume strives to debunk the myths and prejudices surrounding the Roma and to examine how Romani identity has been formed in the course of their long history.

    Faulconer s work as a philosopher and his abiding faith as a Latter-day Saint. Faith is the starting point, and philosophy is its supplement rather than competitor. Faulconer writes, The confidence of my faith, a confidence that came by revelation, has allowed me to hear the questions of philosophy without fear, and philosophy has never asked me to give up my faith, though it has asked questions about it. These essays ask what it means to remember (as our faith often calls us to do), how faith and reason are related to each other, what the place of theology is in revealed religion, and how we should think about scripture. The intent behind the book is to help the reader see how faith, philosophy, and scripture can be part of a whole life, each helping make sense of the others, with faith as the ground and center of them all.

    Its contributors include a mix of writers, scholars, and fans, among whom number Nisi Shawl, Nancy Jane Moore, Andrea Hairston, Jennifer Pelland, JoSelle Vanderhooft, MJ Hardman, and Beverly Friend. It also, notably, includes a handful of short stories. And as with previous volumes, it does not shy away from controversy.

    Featuring contributions by John Luther Adams, Monique Buzzarte, and Stuart Dempster.

    These 21 prose pieces reflect her inimitable ability to make the critical essay an art form that engages both the sensual and the cerebral, the aural and the visual, the analytic and the intuitive nature of her readers. Many of these are essays or talks written in response to invitations to discuss the works of writers and artists such as Hans Christian Andersen, Robin Blaser, Edmond Jabès, Mina Loy, Lorine Niedecker, George Oppen, Stanley Whitney, and Christa Wolf. Each offers Cole's unique appreciation of what it means to read, to interact with a work of art, to write, or to translate, and to perceive each activity as a way to attune oneself anew to the world that is both within and beyond our expected methods of understanding.

    But to the residents of South Buckinghamshire he is a weekly voice of sanity in a world that seems intent on confounding him.Marking the 15th anniversary of his regular feature in the Bucks Free Press, this compilation includes over 100 of his most entertaining columns, from 1995 to 2009, complete with new linking material. With fierce intelligence and a wicked sense of humour, Colin tackles everything from the absurdities of political correctness to the joys of being an actor, slipping in vivid childhood memories, international adventures and current affairs in a relentless rollercoaster of reflections, gripes and anecdotes.Pulling no punches, taking no prisoners and sparing no detail, the ups and downs of Colin life are shared with panache, honesty and clarity, and they are every bit as entertaining and surreal as his trips in that famous police box... for a world that is bewildering, surprising and wondrous, one need look no further than modern Britain, and Colin Baker is here to help you make sense of it all, and to give you a good laugh along the way.

    What unites all the work is a clarity and precision of expression. Through both his designs and his writings Max Bill has long been a major figure of reference in the German-speaking world.

    Revered for his bold, expressionist paintings, he is also admired as a prodigious and eloquent letter writer. His correspondence displays a remarkable literary gift and an ability to communicate his ideas and feelings about nature, art, and life in direct, emotive language.Illustrated with works of art and letters that demonstrate Van Gogh’s abiding preoccupations--the role of color in painting, the cycles of nature, and friendship, for example--this fascinating book explores the correspondence as a self-portrait of the artist and the man. The letter-sketches that Van Gogh used to describe completed works or those in progress are reproduced here alongside the finished paintings or drawings, providing a unique insight into his artistic development. Drawing on new and extensive research, leading authorities on Van Gogh reveal how the letters enhance and shape our view of this modern master.

    In this new collection, Jacobs offers essays for companionable wayfaring. To be a Christian, he says, is to be a wayfarer, to move hopefully towards a cherished goal. These essays are a wayfarer’s notes, a record of ideas and experiences encountered on the pilgrim path. Gathered here are pieces serious and comic, eloquent and interesting. Jacobs muses on the usefulness and dangers of blogging, the art of dictionary making, the world of Harry Potter, and an appreciation of trees. He also includes several book reviews, including a wickedly witty poem. With Wayfaring, Jacobs continues his tradition of exploring Christian theology and experience by way of the essay, bringing serious musings within reach of us all.