A consummate entertainer—few storytellers are as dependably funny—he was also a clear-eyed critic of American life. Among the targets of his ridicule were the exploiters, the despoilers, and the soulless parasitic moneymakers, but he reserved his hottest anger for that tribe of scientists and merchants of war who conjure up genies of mass destruction without a thought to what happens once they’re out of their bottles. Yet his works are remarkably free of villains, being rich instead in dangerous, not-quite-unlovable sinners who may yet be redeemed.This volume, the first in a multi-volume edition of his enduring fiction, captures Vonnegut at the pyrotechnic height of his powers. It opens with Cat’s Cradle (1963), perhaps his most exhilarating performance, in which a would-be historian of the bombing of Hiroshima finds himself a privileged witness to the icy end of the world.God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater (1965) chronicles the alcoholic unraveling and spiritual rebirth of a good-hearted dreamer tormented by the question “What are people for?”Slaughterhouse-Five (1969)—the book that earned Vonnegut worldwide fame, and one of the great antiwar novels in literature—is the jump-cutting saga of Billy Pilgrim, who, having come unstuck in time, is doomed to relive continually both the destruction of Dresden and his abduction by space aliens.In a text enhanced by the author’s spirited line drawings, Breakfast of Champions (1973) describes the fateful meeting of a luckless science-fiction writer and an unhinged Pontiac dealer who disastrously believes that everyone but himself is a robot.Rounding out the volume are three brilliant short stories—including the classic fantasy “Welcome to the Monkey House”—and moving autobiographical accounts of Vonnegut’s experience of war that shed light on events imaginatively treated in Slaughterhouse-Five.

    • A Kindle Bestseller • One of the Best-Selling MJ Books• Has Earned the Most ReviewsWhy did 7,745 people download this book from “Kindle Free eBooks” within 24 hours? Read it to find out why.... " If you want an eye-opening portrayal of the real Michael Jackson - delivered in a rare blend of disclosure, respect, insight, and passion - this is it! " -- THOMAS A. MESEREAU [MJ's Defense Attorney]MORE THAN a Michael Jackson Biography -- AN EMOTIONAL JOURNEY...Today, in spite of volumes of printed material and a world of cyberspace about Michael Jackson, there is little truthful published information about the real, flesh-and-blood man from first-hand witnesses. Until now.Revealed in this biography are Michael's last four mysterious years: where he and his children went, what he did, and how he spent his time.An in-depth portrayal of Michael Jackson -- the global "King of Pop" -- Defending A King ~ His Life & Legacy discloses new information and unique insights into this "king of a man." This book explains his torturous life with an emphasis on his triumphs over his adversities and challenges.More controversial in life and in death than anyone else, Michael Jackson's goodness has been mostly ignored. This volume needs to be affixed to the legacy of his genius and greatness."Bizarre circumstances demand bizarre behavior." Dr. Moriarty leads her reader through the maze of stunningly bizarre circumstances in which Michael lived and struggled, through private joys and suffering as a real person ... at the absolute pinnacle of human existence. .......................................What you will discover & learn ... in 19 chapters ...• "The Back Door"• Protecting Mr. Jackson• Michael Jackson the Man• "Daddy" • Michael Jackson & His Family• Michael Jackson's TSUNAMI: The Trial• The Back Story: Surprises• The Morass of Michael Jackson's Finances• Flypaper: Sticky Lawsuits & Such• Nothing But the Facts• Healer & Humanitarian• Artist & Entertainer• "Bizarre Behavior"• The Paragon of Paradox• Michael Jackson & His Fans• The Unwanted Chapter• The Legacy of Michael Jackson• Ruminations

    Whether books are your addiction or your phobia, Lit! offers up solid advice to help you think about reading in fresh ways.With all the practical suggestions built on a firm gospel foundation, this book will help you flourish in the essential skills necessary for a balanced reading diet of Scripture, serious works of theology, and moving devotional works, but without overlooking the importance of how-to books from expert practitioners, the storytelling genius of historians, and rich novels written by skilled artists of fiction.Literature scholar Leland Ryken calls Lit! “a triumph of scholarship,” but mostly it’s a practical and unpretentious book about the most urgent skills you need to enjoy a luminously literate life in honor of God.

    Chesterton was a master essayist. But reading his essays is not just an exercise in studying a literary form at its finest, it is an encounter with timeless truths that jump off the page as fresh and powerful as the day they were written.The only problem with Chesterton's essays is that there are too many of them. Over five thousand! For most GKC readers it is not even possible to know where to start or how to begin to approach them.So three of the world's leading authorities on Chesterton - Dale Ahlquist, Joseph Pearce, Aidan Mackey - have joined together to select the "best" Chesterton essays, a collection that will be appreciated by both the newcomer and the seasoned student of this great 20th century man of letters.The variety of topics are astounding: barbarians, architects, mystics, ghosts, fireworks, rain, juries, gargoyles and much more. Plus a look at Shakespeare, Dickens, Jane Austen, George MacDonald, T.S. Eliot, and the Bible. All in that inimitable, formidable but always quotable style of GKC. Even more astounding than the variety is the continuity of Chesterton's thought that ties everything together. A veritable feast for the mind and heart.While some of the essays in this volume may be familiar, many of them are collected here for the first time, making their first appearance in over a century.

    Leaf Storm, Story of a Shipwrecked Sailor, One Hundred Years of Solitude, Of Love and Other Demons, Love in the Time of Cholera, Living to Tell the Tale, Strange Pilgrims, Chronicle of a Death Foretold,Clandestine in Chile, others.

    A memorable gift at any time of the year.

    19 pages of summaries and analysis on Night by Elie Wiesel. This study guide includes the following sections: Plot Summary, Chapter Summaries & Analysis, Characters, Objects/Places, Themes, Style, Quotes, and Topics for Discussion.

    Written in the 1890s, during a period of relative isolation, his best stories—included in this selection—recreate vivid images of life and landscapes. They depict the human condition in its many forms: innocence and childhood; love and loss; the city and the village; the natural and the supernatural. Tagore is ’s great Romantic. These stories reflect his profoundly modern, original vision.

    Now, having died herself, she finds that it is not so easy to move on. She is terrified that her 37 years of life were meaningless, error-ridden, and forgettable. So Helena haunts-- and is haunted by-- the life she left behind. Meanwhile, David, her shattered attorney husband, struggles with grief and the demands of caring for her houseful of damaged and beloved animals. But it is her absence from her last project, Cindy-- a chimpanzee who may unlock the mystery of communication and consciousness-- that will have the greatest impact on all of them.When Cindy is scheduled for a research experiment that will undoubtedly take her life, David must call upon everything he has learned from Helena to save her. In the explosive courtroom drama that follows, all the threads of Helena's life entwine and tear as Helena and David confront their mistakes, grief, and loss, and discover the only way to save Cindy is to understand what it really means to be human.

    This rare early play is available now for the first time in digital format.

    It is a groundbreaking meditation on war, memory, imagination, and the redemptive power of storytelling. In the Lake of the Woods is an unforgettable novel of love and mystery. When long-hidden secrets about his past come to light, John Wade—a Vietnam veteran and recent candidate for the U.S. Senate—retreats with his wife to a cabin in northern Minnesota. She mysteriously vanishes and several explanations, all of them disturbing, rise to the surface.

    Created by author Edgar Rice Burroughs, the ape man character of Lord Greystoke continues to enthrall and captivate readers and audiences, the world over. This compilation contains all 25 of the Tarzan novels written and published by Burroughs during his lifetime, and is formatted with an active table of contents by title and chapter for easy navigation:Tarzan of the ApesThe Return of TarzanThe Beasts of TarzanThe Son of TarzanTarzan and the Jewels of OparJungle Tales of TarzanTarzan the UntamedTarzan the TerribleTarzan and the Golden LionTarzan and the Ant MenTarzan, Lord of the JungleTarzan and the Lost EmpireTarzan at the Earth's CoreTarzan the InvincibleTarzan TriumphantTarzan and the City of GoldTarzan and the Lion ManTarzan and the Leopard MenTarzan's QuestTarzan and the Forbidden CityTarzan the MagnificentTarzan and the Foreign LegionThe Tarzan TwinsTarzan and the Tarzan Twins and Jad-Bal-Ja the Golden LionTarzan and the Castaways

    These stories about daring exploits, compassion, and challenging discoveries were written outside the confines of books and were published by magazines. Here the author has given free reign to Hornblower - creating unique circumstances to further the development of his character. A potential mutiny thwarted, an Irish uprising out foxed, help to hundreds, managing a healthy sea voyage for an ailing monarch, and meeting once again Napoleon Bonaparte - very different insights into this complex man Hornblower.

    Includes: The Castle; The Trial; Metamorphosis and Other StoriesAlternate edition of ISBN-13: 9781840227260

    The Hall of Uselessness forms the most complete collection yet of Leys’ fascinating essays, from Quixotism to China, from the sea to literature.Leys feuds with Christopher Hitchens, ponders the popularity of Victor Hugo and analyses the posthumous publication of Nabokov’s unfinished novel. He offers valuable insights into Mao’s Cultural Revolution and the Khmer Rouge, and discusses Orwell, Waugh and Confucius. He considers the intertwined nature of Chinese art, culture and history alongside the joys and difficulties of literary translation. The Hall of Uselessness is an illuminating compendium from a brilliant and highly acclaimed writer – a long-time resident of Australia who is truly a global citizen.

    The novel became an instant classic and has been adapted into a film and musical. Paired here with The Temple of My Familiar, which the author describes as “a romance of the last 500,000 years,” this edition brings together two works that established Walker as a major voice in modern fiction.

    

    Rita Dove, Pulitzer Prize-winning poet and former U .S. Poet Laureate, introduces readers to the most significant and compelling poems of the past hundred years. Selecting from the canon of American poetry throughout the twentieth century, Dove has created an anthology that represents the full spectrum of aesthetic sensibilities-from styles and voices to themes and cultures-while balancing important poems with significant periods of each poet. Featuring poems both classic and contemporary, this collection reflects both a dynamic and cohesive portrait of modern American poetry and outlines its trajectory over the past century.

    But as he immerses himself in a routine so tedious and repetitive that new employees receive boredom-survival training, he learns of the extraordinary variety of personalities drawn to this strange calling. And he has arrived at a moment when forces within the IRS are plotting to eliminate even what little humanity and dignity the work still has.The Pale King remained unfinished at the time of David Foster Wallace's death, but it is a deeply compelling and satisfying novel, hilarious and fearless and as original as anything Wallace ever undertook. It grapples directly with ultimate questions--questions of life's meaning and of the value of work and society--through characters imagined with the interior force and generosity that were Wallace's unique gifts. Along the way it suggests a new idea of heroism and commands infinite respect for one of the most daring writers of our time.

    In this eclectic and compelling collection of stories about discovering the incarnated Spirit of God every time he turns around, often in the most unlikely of people, places, and things. In 37 short snapshots, he captures the spiritual essence of everyday life from the perspective of a committed Catholic who loves his faith, his family, his community, and his church, even with all their warts and failings.

    In print together for the first time in many years, and here in one volume, are all eight of Nancy Mitford's sparklingly astute, hilarious and completely unputdownable novels, with a new introduction by India Knight. Published over a period of 30 years, they provide a wonderful glimpse of the bright young things of the thirties, forties, fifties and sixties in the city and in the shires; firmly ensconced at home or making a go of it abroad; and what the upper classes really got up to in peace and in war. 'Entirely original, inimitable and irresistible' Spectator 'Deliciously funny' Evelyn Waugh 'Utter, utter bliss' Daily Mail Nancy Mitford (1904-1973) was born in London, the eldest child of the second Baron Redesdale. Her childhood in a large remote country house with her five sisters and one brother is recounted in the early chapters of The Pursuit of Love (1945), which according to the author, is largely autobiographical. Apart from being taught to ride and speak French, Nancy Mitford always claimed she never received a proper education. She started writing before her marriage in 1932 in order 'to relieve the boredom of the intervals between the recreations established by the social conventions of her world' and had written four novels, including Wigs on the Green (1935), before the success of The Pursuit of Love in 1945. After the war she moved to Paris where she lived for the rest of her life. She followed The Pursuit of Love with Love in a Cold Climate (1949), The Blessing (1951) and Don't Tell Alfred (1960). She also wrote four works of biography: Madame de Pompadour, first published to great acclaim in 1954, Voltaire in Love, The Sun King and Frederick the Great. As well as being a novelist and a biographer she also translated Madame de Lafayette's classic novel, La Princesse de Clèves, into English, and edited Noblesse Oblige, a collection of essays concerned with the behaviour of the English aristocracy and the idea of 'U' and 'non-U'. Nancy Mitford was awarded the CBE in 1972.

    A hard drinker, largely absent, he doesn't show concern for much else. Esch and her three brothers are stocking food, but there isn't much to save. Lately, Esch can't keep down what food she gets; she's fourteen and pregnant. Her brother Skeetah is sneaking scraps for his prized pitbull's new litter, dying one by one in the dirt, while brothers Randall and Junior try to stake their claim in a family long on child's play and short on parenting. As the twelve days that comprise the novel's framework yield to the final day and Hurricane Katrina, the unforgettable family at the novel's heart—motherless children sacrificing for each other as they can, protecting and nurturing where love is scarce—pulls itself up to struggle for another day. A wrenching look at the lonesome, brutal, and restrictive realities of rural poverty, "Salvage the Bones" is muscled with poetry, revelatory, and real.

    From back-alley gyms and smoke-filled arenas to star-studded casinos and exotic locales, they have chronicled unforgettable stories about determination and dissipation, great champions and punch-drunk has-beens, colorful entourages and outrageous promoters, and, inevitably along the way, have written incisively about race, class, and spectacle in America. Like baseball, boxing has a vivid culture and language all its own, one that has proven irresistible to career sportswriters and literary essayists alike.This gritty and glittering anthology gathers a century of the very best writing about the fights. Here are Jack London on the immortal Jack Johnson; H. L. Mencken and Irvin S. Cobb on Jack Dempsey vs. Georges Carpentier, the first “Fight of the Century” that captivated the world in the 1920s; Richard Wright on Joe Louis’s historic first-round knockout of Max Schmeling; A. J. Liebling’s brilliantly comic portrait of a manager who really identifies with his fighter; Jimmy Cannon on Archie Moore, the greatest fighter of the 1950s; James Baldwin and Gay Talese on Floyd Patterson’s epic tilt with Sonny Liston; George Plimpton on Muhammad Ali and Malcolm X; Norman Mailer on the Rumble in the Jungle; Mark Kram on the Thrilla in Manila; Pete Hamill on legendary trainer and manager Cus D’Amato; Mark Kriegel on Oscar De la Hoya; and David Remnick and Joyce Carol Oates on Mike Tyson. National Book Award–winning novelist Colum McCann (Let the Great World Spin) offers a foreword.

    "Sonnet 18" is one of the best-known of the 154 sonnets written by the English playwright and poet William Shakespeare.

    Everyday their dad battles the unpredictable ocean to make a living. He is a hard man, a bitter drinker who harbours a devastating secret that is destroying him. Unlike Joe, Harry and Miles are too young to leave home and so are forced to live under the dark cloud of their father's mood, trying to stay as invisible as possible whenever he is home. Harry, the youngest, is the most vulnerable and it seems he bears the brunt of his father's anger...

    He and his family live an idyllic life of peace and solitude, punctuated by afternoon tea, long strolls in the garden, and summer showers. Or would if they weren't in a Wodehouse story.The apple of Lord Emsworth's eye is the Empress of Blandings, a splendid Berkshire sow who has twice won honors in the Fat Pig class at the local agricultural show. Besides keeping his pig in shape, Emsworth must deal with his sister's snobby demeanor, his brother's crazy memoirs, and a rival pig whose bulk might dash the Empress's hopes of another medal. Throw in a few young lovers and you have yourself a perfect brew of hilarious adventures. Included in this omnibus are Summer Lightning, Heavy Weather, and Blandings Castle. Evelyn Waugh once said, "The gardens of Blandings Castle are that original garden from which we are all exiled. All those who know them long to return."

    He continued to write the column for almost 20 years, using it as a workshop in which to develop ideas for his later books. Yet over the course of this time, the prolific writer allowed many uncollected gems to fade into obscurity. More Notes of a Dirty Old Man: The Uncollected Columns gathers many of these fugitive pieces, unseen in decades, into a single volume. Filled with his usual obsessions—sex, booze, gambling—More Notes features Bukowski's offbeat insights into politics and literature, his tortured relationships with women, and his lurid escapades on the poetry circuit. Highlighting his versatility, the book ranges from thinly veiled autobiography to fictional tales of dysfunctional suburbanites, disgraced politicians, and down-and-out sports promoters, climaxing with a long, hilarious adventure among French filmmakers, "My Friend, The Gambler," based on his experiences making the movie Barfly. From his days at the post office through his later fame, More Notes follows the entire arc of Bukowski's career, making it a valuable addition to his oeuvre.

    It was selected by Deb Olin Unferth as the winner of the 2010 Caketrain Chapbook Competition and is currently available from Caketrain Press.

    M. Coetzee's majestic trilogy of fictionalised memoir, Boyhood, Youth and Summertime.Scenes from Provincial Life opens in a small town in the South Africa of the 1940s. We meet a young boy who, at home, is ill at ease with his father and stifled by his mother's unconditional love. At school he passes every test that is set for him, but he remains wary of his fellow pupils, especially the rough Afrikaners.As a student of mathematics in Cape Town he readies himself to escape his homeland, travel to Europe and turn himself into an artist. Once in London, however, the reality is dispiriting: he toils as a computer programmer, inhabits a series of damp, dreary flats and is haunted by loneliness and boredom. He is a constitutional outsider. He fails to write.Decades later, an English biographer researches a book about the late John Coetzee, particularly the period following his return to South Africa from America. Interviewees describe an awkward man still living with his father, a man who insists on performing dull manual labour. His family regard him with suspicion and he is dogged by rumours: that he crossed the authorities in America, that he writes poetry.Scenes from Provincial Life is a heartbreaking and often very funny portrait of the artist by one of the world's greatest writers.

    But the romances happening inside of it are even hotter!Candy has the body of a goddess, the most expensive cars and exclusive fashion that money can buy, Her business is the envy of every woman she knows-and the ones she doesn't, too. It should be enough, but Candy wants more than money, and more than lust.She wants love.When Rich one of Harlem's most powerful drug dealers becomes a fixture in Candy's shop, he ignites a fire inside her salon that might just burn it all down-because he and Candy have their eye on the same woman, a beautiful bohemian stylist named Vanessa. And just outside of their three-way battle, the other stylists of Candy's Shop are taking sides and setting their sights on their own prey. This hurricane of sex lust and love might just destroy everything Candy's worked so hard to build. It might even take her life.When jealousy, anger, and lust combine, it's more flammable than a match and a can of hairspray. Will Candy be able to win over the lesbian lover of her dreams? Will Vanessa succumb to Rich's slick-talking ways? And what happens if all three of them try to find their own Harlem happily-ever-after together?Fans of lesbian romance, LGBTQ+ romance, and menage romances hot enough to melt the pages will love this. If you crave drama, romance and lovers who have to fight for their happy-ever-afters, you won't be able to put this one down!One-Click to start reading Lickin' License today!

    Collected in this giant book is the collective works of Anne, Charlotte, and Emily Bronte (along with their father Patrick Bronte). Included in this edition: Agnes Grey, Jane Eyre, Cottage Poems, The Professor, Shirley, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, Villette, Wuthering Heights and many others.

    Political prisoner Bruno Matei, a puppeteer of Italian ancestry, has been released from jail a broken man, suffering from amnesia. An uneasy relationship forms between Matei Brunul and Bojin, the secret policeman who keeps him under constant surveillance. Gradually, the secret police will try to remould Matei s mind by rewriting his past, turning the puppeteer into a puppet of the new totalitarian order. In parallel, a harrowing second narrative reveals Matei s prison experiences: the story of an innocent man physically and mentally crushed by the totalitarian system, which explodes the manipulative fictions of the secret police one by one. “. . . exquisitely comic and movingly tragic by turns, while its shifting perspectives in time and narrative point of view keep the reader constantly involved in the story. It is a remarkable achievement by a writer who was born in 1975 and had no personal experience of the era it describes, bearing comparison with classics of the genre such as Milan Kundera’s The Joke.” (David Lodge)

    Drawing on Larkin's four collections and on his uncollected poems. Chosen by Martin Amis.'Many poets make us smile; how many poets make us laugh - or, in that curious phrase, "laugh out loud" (as if there's another way of doing it)? Who else uses an essentially conversational idiom to achieve such a variety of emotional effects? Who else takes us, and takes us so often, from sunlit levity to mellifluous gloom?... Larkin, often, is more than memorable: he is instantly unforgettable.' - Martin Amis

    Governments and mass media bombard us with words and images: desert radicals, -rogue states, - jihadists, WMDs, existential enemies of freedom. We labor beneath myths that neither address nor describe the present situation, monstrous deceptions produced by a sound bite society. There is no reckoning of actuality, no understanding of the individual lives that inaugurated this echo chamber.In the summer of 1999, Mohamed Atta defended a master's thesis that critiqued the introduction of Western-style skyscrapers in the Middle East and called for the return of the -Islamic-Oriental city.- Using this as a departure point, Jarett Kobek's novel ATTA offers a fictionalized psychedelic biography of Mohamed Atta that circles around a simple question: what if 9/11 was as much a matter of architectural criticism as religious terrorism? Following the development of a socially awkward boy into one of history's great villains, Kobek demonstrates the need for a new understanding of global terrorism. Joined in this volume by a second work, -The Whitman of Tikrit---a radical reimagining of Saddam Hussein's last day before capture--ATTA is a brutal, relentless, and ultimately fearless corrective to ten years of propaganda and pandering.

    A boy with one wing seeks the secret to flight. A girl with a mirror for a face, adored by all, longs to simply eat. A pregnant girl reflects on the effects of metamorphoses. The stories of boysgirls are modern myths: tales that exist within our present time but also outside it, in a place as eternal as Shangri-La or Middle Earth. An unforgettable book of Ovidian imagination, boysgirls testifies that Katie Farris is one of the most talented prose stylists of a new generation. "boysgirls is one for the classic fairy-tale shelves, joining Borges/Lispector, Calvino/Carter, Andersen/d'Aulnoy with its spectral powers. Katie Farris's spare and lyrical language levitates here--she is a haunting and new revelation"--Kate Bernheimer.

    A century later, Jarry is firmly established as one of the leading figures of the artistic avant-garde. Italo Calvino, Umberto Eco, Gilles Deleuze, Jean Baudrillard, Philip K. Dick, Paul McCartney, DJ Spooky, Peter Greenaway, and J. G. Ballard are among his many admirers. A community of scholars and artists maintain a posthumous dialogue with Jarry's ideas through the Collège de 'Pataphysique in Paris (named after the "science of imaginary solutions" he conceived), while a steady stream of books on twentieth-century drama pay tribute to his absurd and grotesque play, Ubu Roi. Even so, most people today tend to think of Jarry only as the author of that play, and of his life as a string of outlandish "ubuesque" anecdotes, often recounted with wild inaccuracy. In this first full-length critical biography of Jarry in English, Alastair Brotchie reconstructs the life of a man intent on inventing (and destroying) himself, not to mention his world, and the "philosophy" that defined their relation. In short, Brotchie gives us the narrative version of what Jarry himself produced: a pataphysical life. Drawing on a wealth of new material, Brotchie alternates chapters of biographical narrative with chapters that connect themes, obsessions, and undercurrents that relate to the life.The anecdotes remain, and are even augmented: Jarry's assumption of the "ubuesque," his inversions of everyday behavior (such as eating backwards, from cheese to soup), his exploits with gun and bicycle, and his herculean feats of drinking. But Brotchie distinguishes between Jarry's purposely playing the fool and deeper nonconformities that appear essential to his writing and his thought, both of which remain a vital subterranean influence to this day.

    The first response was no ("A most respectful demurring by me for the excellent writer Charles J. Shields, who offered to be my biographer"). Unwilling to take no for an answer, propelled by a passion for his subject, and already deep into his research, Shields wrote again and this time, to his delight, the answer came back: "O.K." For the next year—a year that ended up being Vonnegut's last—Shields had access to Vonnegut and his letters.And So It Goes is the culmination of five years of research and writing—the first-ever biography of the life of Kurt Vonnegut. Vonnegut resonates with readers of all generations from the baby boomers who grew up with him to high-school and college students who are discovering his work for the first time. Vonnegut's concise collection of personal essays, Man Without a Country, published in 2006, spent fifteen weeks on the New York Times bestseller list and has sold more than 300,000 copies to date. The twenty-first century has seen interest in and scholarship about Vonnegut's works grow even stronger, and this is the first book to examine in full the life of one of the most influential iconoclasts of his time.

    Futuristic in outlook, up-to-the-minute in setting and sophisticated in influence, these are stories for those who feel that literature has not caught up with the 21st century.

    

    Arnzen and Heidi Ruby Miller gather the voices of today's top genre writers and writing instructors alongside their published students. It fosters the writing process in a way that focuses almost exclusively on writing the novel. Using a compilation of instructional articles penned by well-known authors affiliated with Seton Hill University's acclaimed MFA program in Writing Popular Fiction, the book emphasizes how to write genre novels and commercially appealing fiction. The articles are modeled after actual "learning modules" that have successfully taught students in the program how to reach a wider audience for over a decade.

    WHO WAS THOMAS PAINE?Thomas Paine is known as one of the Fathers of the American Revolution. His landmark work, ‘Common Sense’, is known as the major inspiration for the ‘Declaration of Independence’, and his ‘Crisis’ pamphlet series was a favourite of George Washington to read out loud to inspire his troops at Valley Forge.Paine’s work is passionate, radical, yet accessible; covering his strong beliefs in Independence, Personal Liberty, Politics, Religion and Government. Hugely successful and inspiring strong polarisation in their times, they are still must-reads today, still highly debated and revered.THE 'MUST-HAVE' COMPLETE COLLECTIONIn this irresistible collection you get a full set of this amazing work.YOU GET:*COMMON SENSE - the famous work that inspired the American colonists with a demand and call for freedom from British rule. Also notable, that when adjusted for the population size of 1776, ‘Common Sense’ has the largest sales and circulation of any book in American history.*THE AMERICAN CRISIS - a series of pamphlets published from 1776 to 1783 written to motivate the Troops during the revolution, to spur them to victory. The language is powerful and emotional, and reflects Paine's liberal philosophies. The first lines are the famous: “These are times that try men’s souls.”*THE RIGHTS OF MAN (PART I and PART II) – a radical set of books that argues that political revolution is required when a government does not safeguard its people.*THE AGE OF REASON (PART I and PART II) - a deistic work, about institutionalized religion, and Paine’s strong views concerning it.*LETTERS and MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS – A FULL SET of Paine’s must-read letters and assorted short works from Paine, Including his famous ‘LETTER TO GEORGE WASHINGTON’ and his last work ‘AGRAGIAN JUSTICE’YOUR FREE BONUSESIn addition, you get Free Special Bonuses:*THOMAS PAINE, BIOGRAPHY – A fascinating 10 page biography, detailing Paine’s unbelievable, often sad, and often controversial life. *Works presented as far as possible in original publication date order so you can follow Paine’s growth as a writer and philosopher*Easy TABLE OF CONTENTS so you can easily jump to any book, chapter or letter in the collection.YOUR NEW WINDOW INTO THOMAS PAINEImagine the wonder of having this fantastic, enviable collection, that rivals many libraries, right at your fingertips. Imagine the pleasure of discovering more about Paine’s one of a kind works.DON’T MISS OUT!As you read this, you understand why you want this edition, because it is the best, most complete Thomas Paine collection you can get. You want the most complete collection so don’t deny yourself! And don't accept other collections that are lacking. And available on the Kindle, this big collection is yours for next to nothing.

    Features art from original comic art boards, rare, never-before-seen sketches, as well as art from McFarlane's work on Batman, Spider-Man, and the Hulk (amongst many others), and his own top-selling creation, Spawn, complete with selected commentary by the artist himself. Large format hardcover book presents Todd McFarlane's detailed art style at a previously unpublished size! Limited edition of 5,000 initial run!

    Now All Roads Lead to France is an account of his final five years, centred on his extraordinary friendship with Robert Frost and Thomas's fatal decision to fight in the war.The book also evokes an astonishingly creative moment in English literature, when London was a battleground for new, ambitious kinds of writing. A generation that included W. B. Yeats, Ezra Pound, Robert Frost and Rupert Brooke were 'making it new' - vehemently and pugnaciously.These larger-than-life characters surround a central figure, tormented by his work and his marriage. But as his friendship with Frost blossomed, Thomas wrote poem after poem, and his emotional affliction began to lift. In 1914 the two friends formed the ideas that would produce some of the most remarkable verse of the twentieth century. But the War put an ocean between them: Frost returned to the safety of New England while Thomas stayed to fight for the Old. It is these roads taken - and those not taken - that are at the heart of this remarkable book, which culminates in Thomas's tragic death on Easter Monday 1917.

    

    A young Sikh girl, Simran Kaur, has run away from her father, who would rather poison his daughter than see her defiled. And Ibrahim Masud, an elderly Muslim doctor driven from the town of his birth, limps toward the new Muslim state of Pakistan, rediscovering on the way his role as a healer. As the displaced face a variety of horrors, this unlikely quartet comes together, defying every rule of self-preservation to forge a future of hope.A dramatic, luminous story of families and nations broken and formed, "Partitions" introduces an extraordinary novelist who writes with the force and lyricism of poetry.

    His reader is gifted with visions of a darker world, an autumnal place of surreal beauty and a dying splendor. It is not a world friendly to people—it is full of death, desolation, and decay, strange creatures and arcane gods. But it is beautiful nonetheless. Hauntingly beautiful."—Chris Faatz, Powells.com"I do not understand them; but their tone pleases me. It is the tone of true genius."—Ludwig WittgensteinSong of the Departed brings back into print poems written at the height of Georg Trakl's career. Trakl boldly confronted the conflicts created by the pursuit of truth amidst the fallenness of the human condition, writing of the unspeakable that lies beyond language, creating poetry that is intensely personal and eerily beautiful. Included in this revised edition are several new translations and an introduction by the translator.All roads disgorge to black decay.Beneath the golden boughs of night and starsThe sister's shadow flutters through the silent groveTo greet the spirits of the heroes, bleeding heads.And softly in the reeds drone the dark flutes of autumn.O prouder grief! you brazen altars;Tonight a mighty anguish feeds the hot flame of spirit:Unborn grandchildren.Georg Trakl was born in Austria in 1887. He served as a medical officer during World War I. As a lyric poet, he set a dark, introspective tone that deeply influenced the course of German expressionism. He died in 1914 after an overdose of cocaine.

    16 stories by international writers.

    Please ignore the reviews. This file is the COMPLETE fictional works in English.Including:* ALL 12 novels with professional formatting* Plus the RARE unfinished novel 'The Decembrists' which Tolstoy intended to be a sequel to the great 'War and Peace'* Plus the other rare unfinished novel 'Morning of a Landed Proprietor'* Brief but informative introductions to all of the novels* Attractive images relating to Tolstoy's life and works throughout the eBook* ALL the short stories that have been translated into English* features a bonus selection of non-fiction texts, including Tolstoy's Journal* ALL of the plays* special Main Character pages for 'War and Peace' and 'Anna Karenina' to aid reading these large novels* improved translations of the short stories, in response to a customer review* includes contents tables for each novel and play, allowing easy navigation around the massive file* UPDATED with a special literary criticism section, with 9 different essays examining Tolstoy's contribution to literature, with works by writers such as Virginia Woolf and William Lyon Phelps* UPDATED with BONUS texts of two biographies on Tolstoy, by his wife and son* UPDATED with the rare play LIVE CORPSE, unpublished in Tolstoy's lifetimeBelieved by many to be the greatest novelist the world has known, the Russian Master's work is of paramount importance. This definitive Edition of Tolstoy's oeuvre has every translated novel, short story, novella and play written by Leo Tolstoy. One of our most popular eBooks - now you can own the great Master of Realist fiction. There is also a front no-nonsense contents table, allowing easy navigation around the enormous file. As with all Delphi Classics, the texts are arranged in chronological order, allowing a scholarly reading and appreciation of Tolstoy's works.Please note: an absolute 'complete works' of Tolstoy is not possible in English due to copyright restrictions on various translations and some texts not being translated into English yet. However, this eBook strives to give customers the most texts possible and contains all of the MAJOR works. As a bonus, a selection of non-fiction texts are available too.ContentsThe Novels and NovellasCHILDHOODBOYHOODYOUTHFAMILY HAPPINESSTHE COSSACKSWAR AND PEACEANNA KARENINATHE DEATH OF IVAN ILYCHTHE KREUTZER SONATA.RESURRECTIONTHE FORGED COUPONHADJI MURADThe Unfinished NovelsTHE DECEMBRISTSA MORNING OF A LANDED PROPRIETORThe Short StoriesLIST OF STORIES IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDERLIST OF STORIES IN ALPHABETICAL ORDERThe PlaysTHE POWER OF DARKNESSTHE FRUITS OF CULTUREREDEMPTIONTHE CAUSE OF IT ALLTHE FIRST DISTILLERTHE LIGHT SHINES IN DARKNESSLIVE CORPSESelected Non-FictionA CONFESSIONKINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOUWHAT THEN MUST WE DO?ON THE SIGNIFICANCE OF SCIENCE AND ARTBETHINK YOURSELVES!MOSCOW CENSUSTOLSTOY ON SHAKESPEARETOLSTOY’S JOURNALThe CriticismTOLSTOY THE ARTIST by Ivan PaninTOLSTOY THE PREACHER by Ivan PaninExtract from ‘MY LITERARY PASSIONS’ by William Dean HowellsExtract from ‘ESSAYS ON RUSSIAN NOVELISTS’ by William Lyon PhelpsRUSSIAN ROMANCE by Earl of Evelyn Baring CromerExtracts from ‘A SURVEY OF RUSSIAN

    The loudspeakers boomed: Satchel Paige pitching for the Brujos      of Guayama. From the Negro Leagues he brought the gifts of Baltasar the King;      from a bench on the plaza he told the secrets of a thousand pitches: The Trouble Ball,      The Triple Curve, The Bat Dodger, The Midnight Creeper, The Slow Gin Fizz,      The Thoughtful Stuff. Pancho Coímbre hit rainmakers for the Leones of Ponce;      Satchel sat the outfielders in the grass to play poker, windmilled three pitches      to the plate, and Pancho spun around three times. He couldn't hit The Trouble Ball.

    A prolific journalist who made himself a dominant figure in the emerging literary culture of postwar san Francisco, Bierce developed a style of slashing sarcasm that made him a feared antagonist. As a short story writer—whether drawing on wartime experiences or exploring realms of supernatural and psychological horror—he used extreme situations to give voice to his uniquely engrossing brand of pessimism.This volume gathers the most celebrated and significant of Bierce’s writings. In the Midst of Life (Tales of Soldiers and Civilians), his collection of short fiction about the Civil War, which includes the masterpieces “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” and “Chickamauga,” is suffused with a fiercely ironic sense of the horror and randomness of war. Close-up portraits of life in camp and on the battlefield offer unique, often startling, perspectives on the war whose after-echoes pervade Bierce’s writing.Can Such Things Be? brings together “The Death of Halpin Frayser,” “The Damned Thing,” “The Moonlit Road,” and other tales of terror that make Bierce the genre’s most significant American practitioner between Poe and Lovecraft. These tales are notable, in editor S. T. Joshi’s words, for “the meticulous etching of the precise effects of the supernatural upon the sensitive consciousness of his fear-raddled protagonists.”The Devil’s Dictionary, the brilliant lexicon of subversively cynical definitions on which Bierce worked for decades, displays to the full his corrosive wit.In Bits of Autobiography, the series of memoirs that includes the memorable “What I Saw of Shiloh,” he recreates his experiences in the war and its aftermath. The volume is rounded out with a selection of the best stories not gathered in the two major collections. Acclaimed Bierce scholar Joshi provides detailed notes and a newly researched chronology of Bierce’s life and mysterious disappearance.

    BEST BEHAVIOR, the new novel by Noah Cicero, is his boldest work yet. As the subject matter becomes increasingly autobiographical, the landscape more bleak, its impact is blunt, brutal, but somehow still hilarious. This is the literature of pain: of living in a world where nothing is right a temple to capitalism with no room for any kind of human spirit and, despite everything, trying to find some way to deal with it; then eventually failing. BEST BEHAVIOR might be the truest story ever told. BEST BEHAVIOR is slice-of-life, and that's as it should be. Where the classics have beginnings, middles, and ends that are relevant to the mainstream consciousness of the times, BEST BEHAVIOR is a couple of days in the life, making it a more honest and useful cultural artifact Rebecca Haze."

    And if Grace had her way, she would not reveal the circumstances that led her to make what some deem to be a foolish sacrifice and an act of treason against her race. The decision to remain silent, however, is not Grace's to make, for the spirit of her ancestors have emerged and insist, in ways Grace cannot ignore, that she bear witness to the violent racial history that continues to divide the town of Vigilant. But when Grace discovers a century-old tale of a bloodsoaked, eye-for-eye vengeance that includes the mysterious death of her own father, she questions whether she has the ability and the will to accept the mind-bending spiritual challenge in front of her. As Grace reluctantly embarks on the unlikeliest of journeys and into the magical world of the African-American traditions used by her ancestors to fight slavery and oppression, she undergoes a spiritual transformation that leads to the true nature of her calling: to lead Jonathan Gilmore, the town of Vigilant and her own soul on a path toward reconciliation, redemption and true grace.

    He won four Pulitzer prizes for his poetry and was invited to read his poetry at John F. Kennedy's inauguration. His life was filled with personal tragedy which his poetry often reflected. Collected here are more than seventy-five of Frost's most celebrate poems. Somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I- I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.

    Produced in association with the Charles Dickens Museum, London, it follows Dickens from early childhood, including his time spent as a child labourer, and looks at how he became the greatest celebrity of his age, and how he still remains one of Britain’s most renowned literary figures, even in the twenty-first century. It is an intimate look at what he was like as a husband, father, friend and employer; at his longing to be an actor, his travels across North America, his year spent living in Italy and his great love of France. It introduces Dickens’s fascinating family and his astonishing circle of friends, and we discover when and how life and real-life personalities were imitated in his art.Charles Dickens was an intriguing personality. He was a man far ahead of his time, a Victorian whose ideals and outlook on life were better suited to the modern world. With beautiful photographs and artworks, and many never before seen facsimile documents from Dickens’s own archives, Charles Dickens brings to life this extraordinary and complex man, whose name remains internationally revered and whose work continues to inspire us today.

    Told from the point of view of a woman who has just shot her grandmother, this harrowing tale challenges those brave enough to step inside her world to answer one burning question: What would you have done?

    The great nineteenth-century preacher C. H. Spurgeon and his wife would sometimes read Herbert's poetry together on Sunday evenings. Richard Baxter wrote, --Herbert speaks to God like one that really believeth a God, and whose business in the world is most with God.-- C. S. Lewis described Herbert as --a man who seemed to me to excel all the authors I had ever read in conveying the very quality of life as we actually live it from moment to moment . . .-- Regrettably, as the years have passed, Herbert's poetry has been increasingly neglected outside the academy. Many who would love Herbert have never even heard of him. Others feel intimidated by his poetry, fearing that they do not have the education necessary to understand what Herbert has written. In this book, Jimmy Scott Orrick has made the poetry of George Herbert accessible even to those who have had no experience reading poetry. In addition to providing thorough notes for each poem, Orrick also gives basic pointers about how to read poetry. Why not follow C. H. Spurgeon's example and --have a page or two of good George Herbert-- on your Sunday evenings? Those who follow this prescription will be deeply enriched for having spent A Year with George Herbert. Jim Scott Orrick is Professor of Literature and Culture at Boyce College, the undergraduate school of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary at Louisville. This is his first book.

    Americans are not reading enough, they say, or reading the right books, in the right way. In this book, Alan Jacobs argues that, contrary to the doomsayers, reading is alive and well in America. There are millions of devoted readers supporting hundreds of enormous bookstores and online booksellers. Oprah's Book Club is hugely influential, and a recent NEA survey reveals an actual uptick in the reading of literary fiction. Jacobs's interactions with his students and the readers of his own books, however, suggest that many readers lack confidence; they wonder whether they are reading well, with proper focus and attentiveness, with due discretion and discernment. Many have absorbed the puritanical message that reading is, first and foremost, good for you--the intellectual equivalent of eating your Brussels sprouts. For such people, indeed for all readers, Jacobs offers some simple, powerful, and much needed advice: read at whim, read what gives you delight, and do so without shame, whether it be Stephen King or the King James Version of the Bible. In contrast to the more methodical approach of Mortimer Adler's classic How to Read a Book (1940), Jacobs offers an insightful, accessible, and playfully irreverent guide for aspiring readers. Each chapter focuses on one aspect of approaching literary fiction, poetry, or nonfiction, and the book explores everything from the invention of silent reading, reading responsively, rereading, and reading on electronic devices. Invitingly written, with equal measures of wit and erudition, The Pleasures of Reading in an Age of Distraction will appeal to all readers, whether they be novices looking for direction or old hands seeking to recapture the pleasures of reading they first experienced as children.

    This tragedy is the springboard for a complex novel posing essential questions about human experience: What does sorrow do to a person? How can one live with the pain of unbearable loss? How far can a man be driven by the grief and despair surrounding the death of a child? A dark and harrowing story, drawing on elements from dreams, fairy tales, and horror stories, the better to explore the mysterious depths of sorrow and love, Through the Night is Stig Saterbakken at his best.

    Indeed, Lydia Davis is mathematician, philosopher, sculptor, jeweler, and scholar of the minute. Few writers map the process of thought as well as she, few perceive with such charged intelligence.The Cows is a close study of the three much-loved cows that live across the road from her. The piece, written with understated humor and empathy, is a series of detailed observations of the cows on different days and in different positions, moods, and times of the day. It could be compared to some sections of Wallace Stevens' "Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird" or to Claude Monet's paintings of Rouen Cathedral.Forms of play: head butting; mounting, either at the back or at the front; trotting away by yourself; trotting together; going off bucking and prancing by yourself; resting your head and chest on the ground until they notice and trot toward you; circling each other; taking the position for head-butting and then not doing it.***She moos toward the wooded hills behind her, and the sound comes back. She moos in a high falsetto before the note descends abruptly, or she moos in a falsetto that does not descend. It is a very small sound to come from such a large, dark animal.

    "There is a sureness to these stories that arises from an intimate and absolute understanding of the landscape from which they arise. The characters are true and wholly realized, their conflicts as urgent and as current as the daily news. Not sensationalized but forthrightly told, these stories are of the times as well the region. Here is contemporary Appalachia." - Chris Holbrook, author of Upheaval

    

    Wodehouse's letters, edited with a commentary by Oxford academic Sophie Ratcliffe. One of the funniest and most admired writers of the twentieth century, P. G. Wodehouse always shied away from the idea of a biography. A quiet, retiring man, he expressed himself through the written word. His letters - collected and expertly edited here - provide an illuminating biographical accompaniment to legendary comic creations such as Jeeves, Bertie Wooster, Psmith and the Empress of Blandings.Drawing on hitherto unpublished sources, these letters give an unrivalled insight into Wodehouse, covering his schooldays at Dulwich College, the family's financial reverses which saw his hopes of university dashed, life in New York working in musical comedy with Jerome Kern and George and Ira Gershwin, the years of fame as a novelist, and the unhappy episode in 1940 where he was interned by the Germans and later erroneously accused of broadcasting pro-Nazi propaganda. It is a book every lover of Wodehouse will want to possess.

    A young poet named Liao Yiwu, who had up until then lead an apolitical bohemian existence, found his voice in that moment, and, like the solitary man who stood firmly in front of a line of tanks, Liao proclaimed his outrage—only his weapon would be his words. Liao's memoir, For a Song and a Hundred Songs, captures the four dehumanizing years he spent in jail for writing the incendiary poem "Massacre." Through the power and beauty of his prose, he reveals the brutal reality of crowded Chinese prisons—the harassment from guards and fellow prisoners, the torture, the conflicts among human beings in close confinement, and the boredom of everyday life. Hailed by Philip Gourevitch as "one of the most original and remarkable Chinese writers of our time," Liao presents a stark and devastating portrait of a nation in flux, exposing a side of China that outsiders rarely ever get to see. This honest account and witness to history will forever change the way you view the rising superpower of China.

    An 'against all odds' style of plot.

    Straight talking and methodical, Craig Shrives draws on his experience as a through-the-ranks officer in the British Intelligence Corps to present a wonderfully light-hearted and easily digestible book. Suitable for Brits and Americans, this comprehensive grammar-reference book offers well crafted ‘grammar lite’ explanations as well as hundreds of tips and workarounds. But, if you want to soak yourself in English grammar, it allows you to do that too. General Grammar is packed with real-life examples and keeps you engaged with a wealth of great quotations from Homer (the Greek) to Homer (the Simpson).

    In this book, Nava Atlas explores 'the writing life' of 12 celebrated women writers."

    Although the opening of the Soviet archives to scholars has made it possible to write the history of this notorious concentration camp system, documents tell only one side of the story. Gulag Voices now fills in the other half.The backgrounds of the writers reflect the extraordinary diversity of the Gulag itself. Here are the personal stories of such figures as Dmitri Likhachev, a renowned literary scholar; Anatoly Marchenko, the son of illiterate laborers; and Alexander Dolgun, an American citizen. These remembrances—many of them appearing in English for the first time, each chosen for both literary and historical value—collectively spotlight the strange moral universe of the camps, as well as the relationships that prisoners had with one another, with their guards, and with professional criminals who lived beside them.A vital addition to the literature of this era,annotated for a generation that no longer remembers the Soviet Union, Gulag Voices will inform, interest, and inspire, offering a source for reflection on human nature itself.

    With 21 patterns and a special kid-friendly project, too, this book is 200+ pages of patterns and accompanying essays based on classic characters from literature. An accompanying website contains additional content, such as video links, links to audio content, and more. "I love this book! A delight in literature, crafts, friendship, and creativity is channeled through original knitting patterns. It took me on a journey of sharing, joy, discovery, and whimsy that left me exhilarated. It's like CraftLit in a book!" - Julie Davis, Forgotten Classics podcast

    She didn't find out her date of birth until she was 17 and didn't learn to read or write until she was well into her 30s. This is her story.

    The influence of this most renowned of all the Hindu scriptures has spread far beyond its religion of origin to inspire figures as diverse as Mohandas Gandhi, Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Aldous Huxley, and C. G. Jung. This fresh translation stands out from all the others first of all for its careful faithfulness to the original language, but also for the extensive tools for understanding it provides, which include: detailed explanatory notes, the entire Sanskrit text on facing pages—both in the original Devanagari alphabet as well as in a romanized version that allows the reader to approximate the sounds (a pronunciation guide is provided)—a word-for-word translation for comparison, an exhaustive glossary, and a wealth of essays on the Gita’s background, symbolism and influence. This Gita is an excellent resource for serious students, but it’s also the perfect version for first-time readers who want to approach the text with understanding.

    This lenticular journal cover sets in motion images of slithering, shuffling zombies from the bestselling graphic novel The Zombie Survival Guide: Recorded Attacks. Filled with lined pages, this all-purpose journal is perfect for jotting down notes, making to-do lists, plotting your own survival strategy, and is just the creepy thing for zombie fans everywhere.

    A masterclass in the genre, from an author who deservedly lays claim to being one of the 'major fiction writers of our time'.

    For each volume, the very best pieces are selected by a leading writer in the field, making the Best American series the most respected and most popular of its kind. "The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2011" includes Daniel Alarcon, Clare Beams, Sloane Crosley, Anthony Doerr, Neil Gaiman, Mohammed Hanif, Mac McClelland, Michael Paterniti, Olivier Schrauwen, Gary Shteyngart, and others"

    At its heart beats the 999-line poem, "Pale Fire," penned by the distinguished American poet John Shade. This first-ever facsimile edition of the poem shows it to be not just a fictional device but a masterpiece of American poetry, albeit by an invented persona -- "the greatest of invented poets," according to Nabokov's own accurate evaluation. This attractive box contains two booklets, the poem "Pale Fire" in a handsome pocket edition and the book of essays by renowned Nabokov authority Brian Boyd and poet R.S. Gwynn, as well as facsimiles of the index cards that John Shade (like his maker, Nabokov) used for composing his poem, printed exactly as Vladimir Nabokov described them. Artist Jean Holabird, who conceived the project, illustrates key details of the poem's pattern and pathos.40 Pages in Book 1 "Pale Fire," 48 Pages in Book 2 "Pale Fire" Reflections, 80 Index Cards2 Paperback Books in a deluxe box

    Spanning four decades and three prize-winning collections, these twenty-one vintage selected stories and thirteen scintillating new ones take us around the world, from Jerusalem to Central America, from tsarist Russia to London during the Blitz, from central Europe to Manhattan, and from the Maine coast to Godolphin, Massachusetts, a fictional suburb of Boston. These charged locales, and the lives of the endlessly varied characters within them, are evoked with a tenderness and incisiveness found in only our most observant seers.No matter the situation in which her characters find themselves--an unforeseen love affair between adolescent cousins, a lifetime of memories unearthed by an elderly couple's decision to shoplift, the deathbed secret of a young girl's forbidden forest tryst with the tsar, the danger that befalls a wealthy couple's child in a European inn of misfits--Edith Pearlman conveys their experience with wit and aplomb, with relentless but clear-eyed optimism, and with a supple prose that reminds us, sentence by sentence, page by page, of the gifts our greatest verbal innovators can bestow.Binocular Vision reveals a true American original, a master of the story, showing us, with her classic sensibility and lasting artistry, the cruelties, the longings, and the rituals that connect human beings across space and time.

    I and II for One Set) was adapted by Luo Guanzhong on the basis of folk legends, colloquial stories and dramas. Through focused description of politics, military and diplomatic struggle among various ruling groups in the period of Three Kingdoms, the book reveals social unrest and darkness in the late East Han Dynasty, condemning the brutality of the feudal ruling class and reflecting people's hardships and their strong desire to call for wise rulers and stability. The novel creates a large number of lively figures: benevolent Liu Bei with deep love, brutal and treacherous Cao Cao, upright Guan Yu, Zhang Fei who are usually careless, but sometimes sharp, Zhuge Liang who wears towel and shakes a feather fan and Zhou Yu and Sima Yi who are good at using strategies. Their battles of wits and bravery have given readers deep impression ...

    Playful, wry, and conversational, One More for the People chronicles three generations in the life of the Grover family. As these idiosyncratic characters reluctantly confront adulthood, one Grover is always there to take notes. But after she’s diagnosed with a rare and potentially fatal disease (whose 81 symptoms include dramatic changes to her appearance, not to mention the dreaded possibility of having to move back home), One More for the People becomes something unexpected: a survival guide. In the spirit of Lucy Grealy’s Autobiography of a Face, Grover transforms her own misfortune into a tale as unsettling as it is entertaining.

    Gathering thirty-two works written from the 1930s to the 1980s, this is the most complete collection ever published of the playwright who transformed the American stage. The first volume opens with the rediscovered early plays, Spring Storm and Not About Nightingales, and contains such classics as The Glass Menagerie, A Streetcar Named Desire, The Rose Tattoo, and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, as well as a selection of one acts. The second volume includes Orpheus Descending, Suddenly Last Summer, Sweet Bird of Youth, Period of Adjustment, The Night of the Iguana, The Eccentricities of a Nightingale, Out Cry, and A Lovely Sunday for Creve Coeur.

    M. Forster.1) Where Angels Fear to Tread2) The Longest Journey3) A Room with a View4) Howards End5) The Machine Stops6) The Story of a Panic 7) The Other Side of the Hedge 8) The Celestial Omnibus 9) Other Kingdom 10) The Curate's Friend 11) The Road from Colonus

    Many poetry collections are often poorly formatted and difficult to read on eReaders. The Delphi Poets Series offers readers the works of literature's finest poets, with superior formatting. This volume presents the complete poetical works of John Milton, with beautiful illustrations and the usual Delphi bonus material. (Version: 1)* Beautifully illustrated with images relating to Milton's life and works* Concise introductions to the poetry and other works* Images of how the poetry books were first printed, giving your eReader a taste of the original texts* Excellent formatting of the poems* Special chronological and alphabetical contents tables for the poetry* Easily locate the poems you want to read* Includes line numbers for studying purposes* The complete prose writings* ‘Paradise Lost’ is beautifully illustrated with Gustave Doré’s celebrated engravings* Features three detailed biographies - discover Milton's literary life* Scholarly ordering of texts into chronological order and literary genres* NCX toc feature allowing readers to skip forward or back to each poem using the Kindle's 5-way controller* UPDATED with the posthumous religious work DE DOCTRINA CHRISTIANA, which was discovered in a bundle of papers many years after Milton's deathCONTENTS:The Poetry CollectionsPOEMS, 1645PARADISE LOSTPARADISE REGAINEDSAMSON AGONISTESPOEMS, 1673VERSES FROM MILTON’S COMMONPLACE BOOKThe PoemsLIST OF POEMS IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDERLIST OF POEMS IN ALPHABETICAL ORDERThe Prose WorksAREOPAGITICATHE DOCTRINE AND DISCIPLINE OF DIVORCEON EDUCATIONCOLASTERIONTHE TENURE OF KINGS AND MAGISTRATESA TREATISE OF CIVIL POWERDE DOCTRINA CHRISTIANAThe BiographiesMILTON by Mark PattisonTHE LIFE OF JOHN MILTON by Richard GarnettMILTON by Sir Walter Alexander Raleigh

    On the 45th day, in accordance to Craigslist policy, the essays began to erase themselves.

    Magic is not simply a matter of the occult arts, but a whole way of thinking, of dreaming the impossible. As such it has tremendous force in opening the mind to new realms of achievement: imagination precedes the fact. It used to be associated with wisdom, understanding the powers of nature, and with technical ingenuity that could let men do things they had never dreamed of before. The supreme fiction of this magical thinking is The Arabian Nights, with its flying carpets, hidden treasure and sudden revelations. Translated into French and English in the early days of the Enlightenment, this became a best-seller among intellectuals, when it was still thought of in the Arab world as a mere collection of folk tales. For thinkers of the West the book's strangeness opened visions of transformation: dreams of flight, speaking objects, virtual money, and the power of the word to bring about change. Its tales create a poetic image of the impossible, a parable of secret knowledge and power. Above all they have the fascination of the strange -- the belief that true knowledge lies elsewhere, in a mysterious realm of wonder.As part of her exploration into the prophetic enchantments of the Nights, Marina Warner retells some of the most wonderful and lesser known stories. She explores the figure of the dark magician or magus, from Solomon to the wicked uncle in Aladdin; the complex vitality of the jinn, or genies; animal metamorphoses and flying carpets. Her narrative reveals that magical thinking, as conveyed by these stories, governs many aspects of experience, even now. In this respect, the east and west have been in fruitful dialogue. Writers and artists in every medium have found themselves by adopting Oriental disguise.With startling originality and impeccable research, this ground-breaking book shows how magic, in the deepest sense, helped to create the modern world, and how profoundly it is still inscribed in the way we think today.

    Howard and H.P. Lovecraft. Excluding only fragmentary notes, excerpts and synopses he never finished during his lifetime, this is perhaps the largest single collection of all his published and unpublished fiction.

    This is the complete fictional works of the great French writer Marcel Proust, with the usual high quality Delphi features. Features: * seven volumes of the groundbreaking novel REMEMBRANCE OF THINGS PAST, with individual contents tables * features C. K. Scott Moncrieff's celebrated translations * illustrated with images relating to Proust, his life and his works * special images of first editions, giving your Kindle a flavour of the original texts * annotated with concise introductions to the novels and other texts * ALL of the original French texts are also included, allowing you to explore the beauty of Proust's original text * scholarly ordering of texts into chronological order * UPDATED with improved structure and NCX toc feature * UPDATED with the seventh and final volume 'TIME REGAINED', now in the public domain Contents: Remembrance of Things Past SWANN’S WAY WITHIN A BUDDING GROVE THE GUERMANTES CITIES OF THE PLAIN THE CAPTIVE THE SWEET CHEAT GONE TIME REGAINED The Novels in French Other Works in French LES PLAISIRS ET LES JOURS PASTICHES ET MELANGES ARTICLES DE ‘La Nouvelle Revue Française’ CHRONIQUES LA BIBLE D'AMIENS SESAME ET LES LYS

    Like an expanded Dictionary of Received Ideas, THE BOOK OF FREAKS takes its subject matter from everyday life. Both hilarious and poker-faced in equal measures, this faux encyclopedia categorizes mundanities and renders them starkly unexpected. From circus freaks, to nationalities, to you and everyone you've ever met, THE BOOK OF FREAKS points out what we already knew, but never acknowledged: every one of us, in our own little ways, is a weirdo. THE BOOK OF FREAKS is bewildering in a good way a bluntly informational yet oddly poetic tour de force."Jamie Iredell can spin around with a disc in his hand and then throw that disc incredible distances. He can also do freakish things with words." Michael Kimball"

    Frank Baum’s classic American fairy tale series.The tenth, eleventh, and twelfth titles of the iconic Oz series, now in one collection! In Rinkitink in Oz, Prince Inga of Pingaree must rescue his parents and all of the subjects from his kingdom who were kidnapped by marauders form Regos and Coregos. Prince Inga, along with the visiting King Rinkitink and Bilbil the goat, set off on a series of grand adventures that will lead them to the underground kingdom of the Nome King. Will Inga’s bravery and courage be enough to save his parents and all of their subjects? In The Lost Princess of Oz, Ozma, the beloved ruler of Oz, has disappeared, so Dorothy, the Wizard, the Cowardly Lion, and a band of friends must search the vast land of Oz to find her. In The Tin Woodman of Oz, Tin Woodman, Woot the Wanderer, and Captain Fyter set off on a quest to find the lovely Munchkin, Nimmie Amee. Once upon a time, she and the Woodman were going to marry, but then the Wicked Witch of the West turned him to tin. Can the Tin Woodman find Nimmie Amee? And will she remember him?

    With this volume at your side, you need never be stalled or stymied for an appropriate expression, whether speaking of the higher reaches of philosophy or holding forth on art, music, or poetry--or other highbrow pastimes.The more you expand your vocabulary, the richer and clearer your writing and conversation will become. And the better you'll be able to say exactly what you mean, joining intellectual discussions with confidence that you've found just the right words.

    A poet in a former life, Archy was reincarnated as a bug who expresses himself by diving headfirst onto a typewriter. His sidekick Mehitabel is a streetwise feline who claims to have been Cleopatra in a previous life. As E. B. White wrote in his now-classic introduction, the Archy poems “contain cosmic reverberations along with high comedy” and have “the jewel-like perfection of poetry.”Adorned with George Herriman’s whimsical illustrations and including White’s introduction, our Pocket Poets selection—the only hardcover Archy and Mehitabel in print—is a beautiful volume, and perfectly sized for its tiny hero.

     Her reflections on pithy quotes such as the one by famed rocker, Alice Cooper ("Trashing your hotel room is easy, but being a Christian—that's rebellion") draw back the veil, letting you connect with God in unexpected ways. With unique and inventive perspective, Davis's reflections will help you: reflect on the strange economy of suffering live with gusto see the big picture explore the value of quirkiness learn the truth about happy and unhappy families

    His beloved satirical classic, Keep the Aspidistra Flying, features a young idealist whose attempt to rebel against middle-class respectability—by working in a bookshop and trying to be a writer—goes terribly and comically awry. The hero of Coming Up for Air tries to escape the bleakness of suburbia by returning to the idyllic rural village of his childhood—only to find that the simpler England he remembers so nostalgically is gone forever.These three novels share Orwell’s unsparing vision of the dark side of modern capitalist society in combination with his comic brilliance and his unerring compassion for humanity.

    Instead, he saves his entire town. As tourists descend on What Cheer, other businesses in the depressed farm area adopt a clock theme and soon, What Cheer is on the map, providing welcome relief for travelers moving through monotonous Iowa.Raised by an abusive mother, James felt his first connection to clocks when he was locked in the root cellar, an alarm clock his only company. The Home is a haven for thousands of clocks, which James restores. He believes every clock has its own soul.While repairing the town’s clock tower, it suddenly chimes, bursting James' eardrums. James descends into a tickless vacuum. He must reach for human hands.Every other chapter is a short story, tales of the clocks before they came into the Home.This is the story of redemption, of a man who should have died at the hands of his mother, but insisted on surviving. It is the story of his ultimate recovery and his ability to fix clocks and heal friends, proving that the strength of the human soul can transcend the most profound and unthinkable of cruelties.

    These are essays that are not out to persuade so much as ruminate, invite, accrue.Hall is a surruralist (rural & surreal), and a terroir-ist (township-specific regionalist). He offers memories of, and homages to -- Margaret Laurence, Bronwen Wallace, Libby Scheier, and Daniel Jones, among others. He writes of the embarrassing process of becoming a poet, and of his push-pull relationship with the whole concept of home. His notorious 2004 chapbook essay The Bad Sequence is also included here, for a wider readership, at last. It has been revised. (It's teeth have been sharpened.)In this book, the line is the unit of composition; the reading is wide; the perspective personal: each take a give, and logic a drawback.Language is not a smart-aleck; it's a sacred tinkerer.Readers are invited to watch awe become a we.In Fred Wah's phrase, what is offered here is "the music at the heart of thinking."

    Features: A unique collection of inspirational stories, poems and articles Real stories, real people, real faith Great writing Honesty and vulnerability combined with hope Well-known, experienced writers and passionate, new writers Gentle humor, warm encouragement, and stimulating challenges Attractive, gift book layout"

    Perfect for curling up with by the fire or for decompressing with after a stressful day, these novels will bring you back to your favorite childhood moments or help you create a few new memories.There has been some feedback asking for help with downloading. We tested downloading this book with both a 3G and a wireless connection, and while it took more time than shorter books, it did download successfully with each (3G did fail when trying to download within the walls of a big building). Please try downloading again, perhaps with a wireless connection to a different network. If it still fails, you can hook up your Nook to your PC and download it to the My Documents folder of your Nook. If that doesn't work, it would be best to contact B&N Support or ask for help at a B&N store, since it would most likely be a problem beyond our control. Thank you--we want you to be able to read these great books, too!This volume features the following carefully-selected works by favorite authors:Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen (1813)Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen (1811)Emma, by Jane Austen (1816)Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen (1814)Persuasion, by Jane Austen (1818)Anne of Green Gables, by Lucy Maude Montgomery (1908)Anne of Avonlea, by Lucy Maude Montgomery (1909)Anne of the Island, by Lucy Maude Montgomery (1915)Pollyanna, by Eleanor H. Porter (1913)Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott (1868)Little Men, by Louisa May Alcott (1871)Jo’s Boys, by Louisa May Alcott (1886)Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë (1847)Wuthering Heights, by Emily Brontë (1847)The Call of the Wild, by Jack London (1903)The Secret Garden, by Frances Hodgson Burnett (1911)A Little Princess, by Frances Hodgson Burnett (1905)Tess of the D’Urbervilles, by Thomas Hardy (1891)The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne (1850)The House of the Seven Gables, by Nathaniel Hawthorne (1851)Wives and Daughters, by Elizabeth Gaskell (1866)Sons and Lovers, by D. H. Lawrence (1913)The Scarlet Pimpernel, by Baroness Emma Orczy (1905)O Pioneers!, by Willa Cather (1913)My Antonia, by Willa Cather (1918)Sit back, relax, and enjoy!

    No longer will he be able to abuse her mother mentally or physically, and just maybe her mother might grow to see what he'd done to her was wrong. But with the death of Jim Bishop, Sabrina is now responsible for her mother's well-being since Ruby can't read or write and has lived a sheltered life. But Ruby has a very small comfort zone in rural West Tennessee, and that means she can't come live with Sabrina in Atlanta. Besides, Sabrina's job as an award-winning news photographer keeps her traveling around the globe most of the time. As she tries to make suitable plans for her mother's future, Sabrina offers to take Ruby on a road trip to expose her to a world she's never seen. As they travel to sites such as Mount Rushmore, Yellowstone National Park and the Gulf Coast of Florida, the trip becomes a journey of unexpected healing and self-discovery not only for Ruby, but for Sabrina as well.

    Each poem given its own page.

    Gail's "American Tragedy in Trilogy." The reader is propelled from Manhattan boardrooms to European capitals to Middle East laboratories to Church chanceries and confessionals. Step into these pages and follow Fr. John Sweeney and the families he serves as they struggle to live their Catholic faith in a world that grows more hostile with every turn of the page. Gail throws back the veil on the architecture of the Life Sciences Revolution and its carefully planned milestones from the abortifacients pill to in-vitro fertilization to embryonic stem cell testing, and ultimately, to the very door of the Transhumanist project itself. You will see something of your own soul in these characters as they struggle to survive the great apostasy and navigate their way to the Church's promised New Springtime.

    In addition to the newest translations in the modern idiom, it includes a sampling of works originally composed in English, his translations of his own works, three poems omitted from the published version of the English "Gitanjali," and examples of his artwork.Tagore s writings are notable for their variety and innovation. His "Sonar Tari" signaled a distinctive turn toward the symbolic in Bengali poetry. The Lord of Life, from his collection "Chitra," created controversy around his very personal concept of religion. "Chokher Bali" marked a decisive moment in the history of the Bengali novel because of the way it delved into the minds of men and women. The skits in "Vyangakautuk" mocked upper-class pretensions. Prose pieces such as The Problem and the Cure were lauded by nationalists, who also sang Tagore s patriotic songs.Translations for this volume were contributed by Tagore specialists and writers of international stature, including Amitav Ghosh, Amit Chaudhuri, and Sunetra Gupta."