They provide chapter-by-chapter analysis; explanations of key themes, motifs, and symbols; a review quiz; and essay topics. Lively and accessible, SparkNotes is perfect for late-night studying and paper writing. Includes: An A+ Essay—an actual literary essay written about the Spark-ed book—to show students how a paper should be written. 16 pages devoted to writing a literary essay including: a glossary of literary terms Step-by-step tutoring on how to write a literary essay A feature on how not to plagiarize

    Wallace was capable of writing . . .about subjects from tennis to politics to lobsters, from the horrors of drug withdrawal to the small terrors of life aboard a luxury cruise ship, with humour and fervour and verve' Michiko Kakutani, The New York TimesDavid Foster Wallace wrote the novels The Pale King, Infinite Jest, and The Broom of the System and three story collections. His nonfiction includes Consider the Lobster and A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again. He died in 2008.

    It is the story of boza seller Mevlut, the woman to whom he wrote three years' worth of love letters, and their life in Istanbul.In the four decades between 1969 and 2012, Mevlut works a number of different jobs on the streets of Istanbul, from selling yoghurt and cooked rice, to guarding a car park. He observes many different kinds of people thronging the streets, he watches most of the city get demolished and re-built, and he sees migrants from Anatolia making a fortune; at the same time, he witnesses all of the transformative moments, political clashes, and military coups that shape the country. He always wonders what it is that separates him from everyone else - the source of that strangeness in his mind. But he never stops selling boza during winter evenings and trying to understand who his beloved really is.What matters more in love: what we wish for, or what our fate has in store? Do our choices dictate whether we will be happy or not, or are these things determined by forces beyond our control?A Strangeness In My Mind tries to answer these questions while portraying the tensions between urban life and family life, and the fury and helplessness of women inside their homes.

     Highlights of this collection: The complete, unabridged text of twelve novels and short story collections by Jack London Links to free, full-length audio recordings of all of London's major works. An individual, active Table of Contents for each book accessible from the Kindle "go to" feature. Perfect formatting in rich text compatible with Kindle's Text-to-Speech features. A low, can't-say-no price! Twelve Complete Works Twelve complete works by Jack London, including novels, short stories, and memoirs. Books included: Novels: The Call of the Wild White Fang The Sea-Wolf Martin Eden The Iron Heel The People of the Abyss The Secret Plague John Barleycorn The Jacket (The Star-Rover) The Cruise of the Snark Burning Daylight Short Stories: Lost Face Trust To Build a Fire That Spot Flush of Gold The Passing of Marcus O’Brien The Wit of Porportuk Additional Fan Resources Also included are special features for any Jack London enthusiast, including: A comprehensive list of the many film and television adaptations of the works of Jack London. Links to free, full-length audio recordings of the books and stories in this collection.

    James Joyce’s big blue book, Ulysses, ushered in the modernist era and changed the novel for all time. But the genius of Ulysses was also its danger: it omitted absolutely nothing. All of the minutiae of Leopold Bloom’s day, including its unspeakable details, unfold with careful precision in its pages. The New York Society for the Suppression of Vice immediately banned the novel as "obscene, lewd, and lascivious.” Joyce, along with some of the most important publishers and writers of his era, had to fight for years to win the freedom to publish it. The Most Dangerous Book tells the remarkable story surrounding Ulysses, from the first stirrings of Joyce’s inspiration in 1904 to its landmark federal obscenity trial in 1933.   Literary historian Kevin Birmingham follows Joyce’s years as a young writer, his feverish work on his literary masterpiece, and his ardent love affair with Nora Barnacle, the model for Molly Bloom. Joyce and Nora socialized with literary greats like Ezra Pound, Ernest Hemingway, T. S. Eliot and Sylvia Beach. Their support helped Joyce fight an array of anti-vice crusaders while his book was disguised and smuggled, pirated and burned in the United States and Britain. The long struggle for publication added to the growing pressures of Joyce’s deteriorating eyesight, finances and home life.   Salvation finally came from the partnership of Bennett Cerf, the cofounder of Random House, and Morris Ernst, a dogged civil liberties lawyer and founder of the ACLU. With their stewardship, the case ultimately rested on the literary merit of Joyce’s master work. The sixty-year-old judicial practices governing obscenity in the United States were overturned because a federal judge could get inside Molly Bloom’s head.   Birmingham’s archival work brings to light new information about both Joyce and the story surrounding Ulysses. Written for ardent Joyceans as well as novices who want to get to the heart of the greatest novel of the twentieth century, The Most Dangerous Book is a gripping examination of how the world came to say yes to Ulysses.

    Before long, he has changed not only his name but his persona; visited by what seem to be ecstatic experiences, Jacob Frank casts a charismatic spell that attracts an increasingly fervent following. In the decade to come, Frank will traverse the Hapsburg and Ottoman empires with throngs of disciples in his thrall as he reinvents himself again and again, converts to Islam and then Catholicism, is pilloried as a heretic and revered as the Messiah, and wreaks havoc on the conventional order, Jewish and Christian alike, with scandalous rumors of his sect's secret rituals and the spread of his increasingly iconoclastic beliefs. The story of Frank--a real historical figure around whom mystery and controversy swirl to this day--is the perfect canvas for the genius and unparalleled reach of Olga Tokarczuk. Narrated through the perspectives of his contemporaries--those who revere him, those who revile him, the friend who betrays him, the lone woman who sees him for what he is--The Books of Jacob captures a world on the cusp of precipitous change, searching for certainty and longing for transcendence.

    He sets course west into the Pacific in search of solitude. Instead, he finds a crew, each in search of something themselves, and what at first seems a lonely sea voyage becomes a rapturous, heartfelt celebration of life’s surprising paths, planned and unplanned.

    . . . the kind of book that can be life-changing.” I Am the Messenger is a cryptic journey filled with laughter, fists, and love, which School Library Journal called “unpretentious, well conceived, and appropriately raw” in a starred review. Markus Zusak is the recipient of the Margaret A. Edwards Award for his significant and lasting contribution to writing for teens, and together, these two stories form an extraordinary collection to showcase the intensity and heart inherent in his storytelling.

    New novel by one of Indias most beloved storytellers.Set in a fictional suburb on the outskirts of Mussourie, which he has made famous with his near legendary stories.Vintage Ruskin Bond that is bound to delight his readers with his understated humour, wit and effortless storytelling.

    Liane Moriarty's What Alice Forgot is an upbeat, funny and smart novel that asks the question, "How much do our experiences shape who we are?" Alice Love is an average stay-at-home mother who falls off an exercise bike during a spin class and hits her head. The injury causes her to forget everything that happened to her in the last ten years—and a lot happened. Moriarty is a witty and thoughtful writer, and she sets up a situation full of opportunities for humor, emotion and earnest questioning. What would our younger selves think of our lives now? Would they even recognize us? She explores these questions with tenderness and sympathy for both Alices, younger and older. This companion of What Alice Forgot offers the following: • A detailed Book Review from Experts • Helps you pick up bits you might have missed as we decipher the novel. • Details of Characters & Key Character Analysis • Summary of the text, with some analytical comments interspersed • A plot Analysis of What Alice Forgot that will make you see the book from another angle • Discussion & Analysis of Themes, Symbols… • And Much More for YOU to Discover! This Analysis of What Alice Forgot fills the gap, making you understand more while enhancing your reading experience.

    To help you decide which books are right for your classroom, each free ebook in this series contains a Common Core–aligned teaching guide and a sample chapter.This free teaching guide for The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho is designed to help you put the new Common Core State Standards into practice.Every few decades a book is published that changes the lives of its readers forever. The Alchemist is such a book. With over a million and a half copies sold around the world, The Alchemist has already established itself as a modern classic, universally admired. Paulo Coelho's charming fable will enchant and inspire students for generations to come.The Alchemist is the magical story of Santiago, an Andalusian shepherd boy who yearns to travel in search of a worldly treasure as extravagant as any ever found. From his home in Spain he journeys to the markets of Tangiers and across the Egyptian desert to a fateful encounter with The Alchemist.The story of the treasures Santiago finds along the way teaches us, as only a few stories have done, about the essential wisdom of listening to our hearts, learning to read the omens strewn along life's path, and, above all, following our dreams.

     Drawing on her own storyformed childhood and her long study of children's literature, Sarah Clarkson explores and celebrates the soul-forming power of story to help children imagine, and live, a great story of their own.

    These true tales of animals and human mammals (generally the smaller sizes, but here and there elders and jumbos) delightfully blur the line between the two.In these short vignettes, Doyle explores the seethe of life on this startling planet, the astonishing variety of our riveting companions, and the joys available to us when we pause, see, savor, and celebrate, the small things that are not small in the least.Doyle’s trademark quirky prose is at once lyrical, daring, and refreshing; his essays are poignant but not pap, sharp but not sermons, and revelatory at every turn. Throughout there is humor, and humility, and a palpable sense of wonder, with passages of reflection so true, and hard earned, they make you stop and reread a line, a paragraph, a page.Children and Other Wild Animals gathers previously unpublished work with selections that have appeared in Orion, The Sun, Utne Reader, High Country News, and The American Scholar, as well as Best American Essays and Best American Nature and Science Writing (“Fishering”).“The Creature Beyond the Mountain,” Doyle’s paean to the mighty and mysterious sturgeon of the Pacific Northwest, won the John Burroughs Award for Outstanding Nature Essay. As he notes in that tribute to all things 'sturgeonness': “Sometimes you want to see the forest, and not the trees. Sometimes you find yourself starving for what’s true, and not about a person, but about all people. This is how religion, and fascism, were born, but it’s also why music is the greatest of arts, and why stories matter, and why we all cannot help staring at fires and great waters.”

    It's a book that has remained current for over half a century, fighting off critics and changing tastes in fiction. But do even its biggest fans know all there is to appreciate about The Great Gatsby?Maureen Corrigan, the book critic for "Fresh Air" and a Gatsby lover extraordinaire, points out that while Gatsby may be the novel most Americans have read, it's also the ones most of us read too soon -- when we were "too young, too defensive emotionally, too ignorant about the life-deforming powers of regret" to really understand all that Fitzgerald was saying ("it's not the green light, stupid, it's Gatsby's reaching for it," as she puts it). No matter when or how recently you've read the novel, Corrigan offers a fresh perspective on what makes it so enduringly relevant and powerful. Drawing on her experience as a reader, lecturer, and critic, her book will be a rousing consideration of Gatsby: not just its literary achievements, but also its path to "classic" (its initial lukewarm reception has been a form of cold comfort to struggling novelists for decades), its under-acknowledged debt to hard-boiled crime fiction, its commentaries on race, class, and gender.With rigor, wit, and an evangelistic persuasiveness, Corrigan will leave readers inspired to grab their old paperback copies of Gatsby and re-experience this great novel in an entirely new light.

    Narayan, easily one of the most influential and important writers of India, populated the fictional town of Malgudi with a host of unforgettable characters: Swami and his gang of friends, the Talkative Man, Raju the guide and Sampath the printer, among many others. These characters have carved out a place for themselves in popular imagination and live on, still fresh and endlessly entertaining, many decades after they first appeared.Timeless Malgudi brings together a selection of the best and the most enduring of R.K. Narayan’s fiction and non-fiction. The Guide examines, with wit and irony, how a man becomes a godman. The story ‘A Horse and Two Goats’ describes an attempt at cross-cultural communication which goes haywire, with hilarious consequences. The excerpt from My Days, Narayan’s autobiography, paints a poignant picture of the author’s childhood while the ‘Misguided “Guide”’ is a cynical, sharply written chronicle of the making of the film Guide, based on his novel. Also included in this volume are excerpts from the travelogue My Dateless Diary and a brilliant retelling of the Tamil epic Silappadikaram.Catering both to Narayan aficionados and to readers who have not yet been introduced to his work, Timeless Malgudi is as much a showcase of Narayan’s writing as it is a celebration of Malgudi, the town which time does not touch.

    “How much can a body endure? Almost everything.” Chelsea Hodson is a 2012 PEN Center USA Emerging Voices Fellow. She is also the author of the chapbook Beach Camp, published by Swill Children in 2010. Her essays have been published in Black Warrior Review, Vol. 1 Brooklyn, Sex Magazine, and elsewhere. She lives in Brooklyn, New York. Watch the trailer here: http://vimeo.com/88997155

    In the decade since the tiny limited-edition volume sold out its print run, its devotees have pressed it upon their friends, students, and colleagues, only to find themselves begging for their copy’s safe return. For anyone familiar with D’Ambrosio’s writing, this enthusiasm should come as no surprise. His work is exacting and emotionally generous, often as funny as it is devastating. Loitering gathers those eleven original essays with new and previously uncollected work so that a broader audience might discover one of our great living essayists. No matter his subject — Native American whaling, a Pentecostal “hell house,” Mary Kay Letourneau, the work of J. D. Salinger, or, most often, his own family — D’Ambrosio approaches each piece with a singular voice and point of view; each essay, while unique and surprising, is unmistakably his own.

    Above the East China Sea tells the entwined stories of two teenaged girls, an American and an Okinawan, whose lives are connected across seventy years by the shared experience of profound loss, the enduring strength of an ancient culture, and the redeeming power of family love. Luz James, a contemporary U.S. Air Force brat, lives with her strictly-by-the-rules sergeant mother at Kadena Air Base in Okianawa. Luz’s older sister, her best friend and emotional center, has just been killed in the Afghan war. Unmoored by her sister’s death and a lifetime of constant moving from base to base, Luz turns for the comfort her service-hardened mother cannot offer to the “Smokinawans,” the “waste cases,” who gather to get high every night in a deserted cove. When even pills, one-hitters, Cuervo Gold, and a growing crush on Jake Furusato aren’t enough to soften the unbearable edge, the desolate girl contemplates taking her own life.In 1945, Tamiko Kokuba, along with two hundred of her classmates, is plucked out of her elite girls’ high school and trained to work in the Imperial Army’s horrific cave hospitals. With defeat certain, Tamiko finds herself squeezed between the occupying Japanese and the invading Americans. She believes she has lost her entire family, as well as the island paradise she so loved, and, like Luz, she aches with a desire to be reunited with her beloved sister. On an island where the spirits of the dead are part of life and your entire clan waits for you in the afterworld, suicide offers Tamiko the promise of peace. As Luz tracks down the story of her own Okinawan grandmother, she discovers that, if she surrenders to the most unbrat impulse and allows herself to connect completely with a place and its people, the ancestral spirits will save not only Tamiko but her as well. Propelled by a riveting narrative and set at the very epicenter of the headline-grabbing clash now emerging between the great powers, Above the East China Sea is at once a remarkable chronicle of how war shapes the lives of conquerors as well as the conquered and a deeply moving account of family, friendship, and love that transcends time.

    She was born into a world where being a girl is a dangerous thing. In the mountains of Guerrero, Mexico, women must fend for themselves, as their men have left to seek opportunities elsewhere. Here in the shadow of the drug war, bodies turn up on the outskirts of the village to be taken back to the earth by scorpions and snakes. School is held sporadically, when a volunteer can be coerced away from the big city for a semester. In Guerrero the drug lords are kings, and mothers disguise their daughters as sons, or when that fails they “make them ugly” – cropping their hair, blackening their teeth- anything to protect them from the rapacious grasp of the cartels. And when the black SUVs roll through town, Ladydi and her friends burrow into holes in their backyards like animals, tucked safely out of sight. While her mother waits in vain for her husband’s return, Ladydi and her friends dream of a future that holds more promise than mere survival, finding humor, solidarity and fun in the face of so much tragedy. When Ladydi is offered work as a nanny for a wealthy family in Acapulco, she seizes the chance, and finds her first taste of love with a young caretaker there. But when a local murder tied to the cartel implicates a friend, Ladydi’s future takes a dark turn. Despite the odds against her, this spirited heroine’s resilience and resolve bring hope to otherwise heartbreaking conditions. An illuminating and affecting portrait of women in rural Mexico, and a stunning exploration of the hidden consequences of an unjust war, PRAYERS FOR THE STOLEN is an unforgettable story of friendship, family, and determination.

    Because those wobbly stones are only inches above the quotidian rush, what’s jotted there has an immediacy that is intimate and close to life. Kooser, winner of the Pulitzer Prize and a former U.S. poet laureate, has filled scores of workbooks. The Wheeling Year offers a sequence of contemplative prose observations about nature, place, and time arranged according to the calendar year. Written by one of America’s most beloved poets, this book is published in the year in which Kooser turns seventy-five, with sixty years of workbooks stretching behind him.

    Drawing from in-depth research as well as interviews with the writer’s colleagues, friends, and family, Begley explores how Updike’s fiction was shaped by his tumultuous personal life—including his enduring religious faith, his two marriages, and his first-hand experience of the “adulterous society” he was credited with exposing in the bestselling Couples.With a sharp critical sensibility that lends depth and originality to his analysis, Begley probes Updike’s best-loved works—from Pigeon Feathers to The Witches of Eastwick to the Rabbit tetralogy—and reveals a surprising and deeply complex character fraught with contradictions: a kind man with a vicious wit, a gregarious charmer who was ruthlessly competitive, a private person compelled to spill his secrets on the printed page. Updike offers an admiring yet balanced look at this national treasure, a master whose writing continues to resonate like no one else’s.

    Most extraordinary of all, perhaps, through, is the haunting perfection, sentence by sentence, paragraph by paragraph, of the writing itself. Who is this Angela Pelster and where has she been all our lives?"-Lawrence WeschlerAngela Pelster's startling essay collection charts the world's history through its trees: through roots in the ground, rings across wood, and inevitable decay. These sharp and tender essays move from her childhood in rural Canada surrounded by skinny poplar trees in her backyard to a desert in Niger, where the "Loneliest Tree in the World" once grew. A squirrel's decomposing body below a towering maple prompts a discussion of the science of rot, as well as a metaphor for the ways in which nature programs us to consume ourselves. Beautiful, deeply thoughtful, and wholly original, Limber valiantly asks what it means to sustain life on this planet we've inherited.Angela Pelster's essays have appeared in Granta, the Gettysburg Review, Seneca Review, the Globe and Mail, Relief Magazine, and others. Her children's novel The Curious Adventures of India Sophia won the Golden Eagle Children's Choice award in 2006. She has an MFA from the University of Iowa's nonfiction writing program and lives with her family in Baltimore, Maryland, where she teaches at Towson University.

    For now, he’s squatting in a collapsing house, working as a stone mason, driving a jacked up pickup truck that he crashes into everything. As a close friend Ods in his sleep, Lee falls into a three-way relationship with two college girls, June Doom and K Neon. F250 is a novel equal parts about growing up, and being torn apart."Bud Smith is Nick Hornby if you strapped him to a Tesla coil and launched him into a Sun made of Poetry." --Ben Loory, author of Stories for Nighttime and some for the Day

    Written with the general reader in mind, Reading Dante brings her knowledge to bear in an accessible yet expert introduction to his great poem.This is far more than an exegesis of Dante’s three-part Commedia. Shaw communicates the imaginative power, the linguistic skill and the emotional intensity of Dante’s poetry—the qualities that make the Commedia perhaps the greatest literary work of all time and not simply a medieval treatise on morality and religion.The book provides a graphic account of the complicated geography of Dante's version of the afterlife and a sure guide to thirteenth-century Florence and the people and places that influenced him. At the same time it offers a literary experience that lifts the reader into the universal realms of poetry and mythology, creating links not only to the classical world of Virgil and Ovid but also to modern art and poetry, the world of T. S. Eliot, Seamus Heaney and many others.Dante's questions are our questions: What is it to be a human being? How should we judge human behavior? What matters in life and in death? Reading Dante helps the reader to understand Dante’s answers to these timeless questions and to see how surprisingly close they sometimes are to modern answers.Reading Dante is an astonishingly lyrical work that will appeal to both those who’ve never read the Commedia and those who have. It underscores Dante's belief that poetry can change human lives.

    Without the rose-tinted spectacles, but with hindsight and humour, and with poignancy and affection. 1978. The North. Phillip sees life in a simplistic if passionate way: up or down, us and them, black, white and nothing in-between. When not doing his ‘thing’ in Wigan’s Casino Club – voted ‘The Greatest Disco in the World’ by Time Magazine – Phillip hates the world. Or at least he thinks he does. He longs for the weekend, or a greater, permanent escape from the daily grind of factory life in an industrial town. With a little imagination, he might realise things midweek aren’t that bad: there’s the loving family, the secure job amid mass unemployment, a relationship with the perfect young woman… Or maybe he realises too late. And all he’d deemed important was only ever an illusion, his reflected image included. Coming full circle by way of loss and more loss, you would hope lessons are learned… The book progresses through myriad dream sequences, interwoven song-themes, a father’s philosophical ramblings, ever blackening wit, leitmotif – or seemingly recurring scenes; is someone laughing at our hero? And Phillip’s own, lyrical, strut-like, black or white manner. Dancehall adventures via train rides to Heaven, scooter cruising almost coast to coast. Beneath the pier encounters with the opposite sex, et al… set against the birth of Scargill and Thatcher feuding…

    Wealth and local fame mask the drama and dysfunction swirling through their family line. But as the summer heats up, a flood tide of long-hidden secrets surface. Devastation from a rape followed by the murder of two family members brings three generations of the Harlan's together on their pecan plantation in Bay Spring, Alabama. Chief among them is Anniston, who by the time she turned thirteen thought she’d seen it all. But as her heart awakens to the possibility of love, she begins to deal with her loneliness and grief. This tender coming-of-age tale, inspired by the story of Tamar in 2 Samuel 13, shows how true healing and hope comes only from God. Though our earthly family can wound and disappoint, our heavenly Father brings freedom to those long held captive through His mercy and grace.

    And for a couple seconds, it was scary—like that meant the world was breaking, or expired, or bruised, or something worse. It was really scary for a couple seconds but then I calmed down. Up above, the moonlit clouds looked rippled, like the ribcage of some giant thing digesting me. And I wondered if the direction I was going went down into the digestive system or up out of it. Wondered what difference it made. There was a bug hovering over a small pool of ice cream on the sidewalk. Like a firefly, but it wasn’t a firefly. And I could’ve stepped on it and killed it. But I didn’t. Be thankful, little bug. For in my world, you are just a little bug.

    . . Things really start heating up when Belinda is asked to remove a mirror from her shop window. Only to have it come crashing down soon after and shattering in to pieces. Would it mean seven years of bad luck? The moment Harrison walks in to the store and sets eyes on Belinda he is hooked. It was his lucky day. His decision is made. She would soon be his wife, the future Mrs. Scott. Their romance blossoms from a friendship in to a meaningful relationship. After a business trip Harrison cannot wait to get home. But the strangest twist of words changes everything. On the very same day that Harrison proposes to Belinda. Belinda is not about to apologize. She is old fashioned . . . in so many ways!

     In 2012, Gruff Rhys set out on an 'investigative concert tour' in the footsteps of John Evans, with concerts in New Orleans, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, St Louis, North Dakota and more. American Interior is the story of these journeys. It is also an exploration of how wild fantasies interact with hard history and how myth-making can inspire humans to partake in crazy, vain pursuits of glory, including exploration, war and the creative arts. Gruff Rhys is known around the world for his work as a solo artist as well as singer and songwriter with Super Furry Animals and Neon Neon, and for his collaborations with Gorillaz, Dangermouse, Sparklehorse, Mogwai and Simian Mobile Disco amongst others. The latest album by Neon Neon, Praxis Makes Perfect, based on the life of radical Italian publisher Giangiacomo Feltrinelli, was recently performed as an immersive live concert with National Theatre Wales.

    Together with its earlier, sibling volume, it completes the arc of a remarkable career.Shortly before his death in 2013, Seamus Heaney discussed with his publisher the prospect of a companion volume to his landmark New Selected Poems 1966-1987 aimed at presenting the second half of his career, 'from Seeing Things onwards', as he foresaw it. Although he was unable to complete a edition/selection, he left behind selections that have been followed here. New Selected Poems 1988-2013 reprints the author's chosen poems from his later years, beginning with his ground-breaking volume Seeing Things (1991), his two Whitbread Books of the Year, The Spirit Level (1996) and Beowulf (1999), and his multi-nominated, prize-winning volumes, Electric Light (2001), District and Circle (2006) and Human Chain (2010). The edition concludes with two posthumously published works.

    "[David Foster] Wallace sent it to us as a way of wishing Godspeed—it was an act of kindness, one that we have since done everything we could to try to deserve. There is no flash summary possible, no shortcut I can offer through the bramble of it. I can only testify, as so many others have, that it is vintage Wallace, breaking expectation, compelling devoted attention, repaying in the way that the best art does: by letting us feel at the end that something has been rearranged and at a deep level." About the author: David Foster Wallace was born in Ithaca, New York, in 1962 and raised in Illinois, where he was a regionally ranked junior tennis player. He received bachelor of arts degrees in philosophy and English from Amherst College and wrote what would become his first novel, The Broom of the System, as his senior English thesis. He received a masters of fine arts from University of Arizona in 1987 and briefly pursued graduate work in philosophy at Harvard University. His second novel, Infinite Jest, was published in 1996. Wallace taught creative writing at Emerson College, Illinois State University, and Pomona College, and published the story collections Girl with Curious Hair, Brief Interviews with Hideous Men, Oblivion, the essay collections A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again, and Consider the Lobster. He was awarded the MacArthur Fellowship, a Lannan Literary Award, and a Whiting Writers' Award, and was appointed to the Usage Panel for The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language. He died in 2008. His last novel, The Pale King, was published in 2011. About the Guest Editor: Like so many other ventures that first saw light in the counter-culture era, AGNI (founded in 1972 by Askold Melnyczuk) set itself up as an alternative to the status quo, a fly in whatever was the going ointment. Though much has changed and evolved, and though captains and crews have grown a bit older, we like to think that the founding spirit survives. Not so much as a politics, more as a feisty eclecticism, a welcoming of spirits from all parts of the world (we prize fine translation), and as an insistent celebration of the literature that represents the thorny complexity, the complex thorniness, of making a self in a world become “hyper” in so many respects. We look for language that gets our moment, that achieves excellence through the integration of perspectives, that strikes the note of the new. Our avatar is the Vedic god of fire, our goal is literary combustion. About the Publisher: Electric Literature is an independent publisher working to ensure that literature remains a vibrant presence in popular culture. Electric Literature’s weekly fiction magazine, Recommended Reading, invites established authors, indie presses, and literary magazines to recommended great fiction. Once a month we feature our own recommendation of original, previously unpublished fiction, accompanied by a Single Sentence Animation. Single Sentence Animations are creative collaborations: the author chooses a favorite sentence and we commission an artist to interpret it. Stay connected with us through email, Facebook, and Twitter, and find previous Electric Literature picks in the Recommended Reading archives.

    She captures the beguiling transformation from child to adult with humor, heartache, and desperation. From grieving mothers to fathers adrift, old flames to restless teens, the isolated characters in Doll Palace are united by conflicting desires, quiet rebellions, and the private struggles of the heart.

    Born of this mix up is Vishwamitra, the son of a Kshatriya, who strives to become a Brahmarishi—the ultimate and most powerful of all Gurus. Vishwamitra is the powerful story of a brave but stubborn, haughty yet compassionate, visionary king of Aryavarta who not only acquires material wealth through military conquests but also becomes one of the most well-known sages of all times.

    Out of the sweeping spotlight of popular success emerged the enduring Vonnegut: a satiric fabulist to rival Mark Twain, a comic storyteller whose books are as morally serious as they are imaginative and amusing.With the four novels collected here Vonnegut was recognized as an original American classic, the architect of an oeuvre built to last, a body of work tightly joined and cleanly made, designed along lines entirely his own. This third volume in the Library of America’s definitive edition of his fiction opens with Slapstick, the memoirs of Dr. Wilbur Daffodil-11 Swain, a hundred-year-old former president of the United States and the promulgator of an ingenious national program to stamp out “American loneliness.” By giving every citizen a new middle name, President Swain, himself assigned to the computer-generated Daffodil clan, also gives them a numberless network of concerned “relatives”—a taste of the familial bliss that Swain once enjoyed with his twin sister, Eliza, his soulmate and missing half, now dead beneath an avalanche on Mars.Jailbird (1979) is a political memoir of a less fantastic sort, chronicling the misadventures of Walter F. Starbuck, a once-idealistic government functionary who, through no wrongdoing of his own, has become embroiled in every major national scandal from Sacco and Vanzetti to Watergate. Deadeye Dick (1982) is the story of a talentless playwright’s lifelong struggle to atone for the accidental crimes of his youth, the foolishness of his father, and the sins of his country. And in Galápagos (1985), a favorite of the author’s among his books, a ghost from the future reveals how and why a million years ago—during the global ecological disaster of 1986—humankind abandoned the land for the sea and embarked upon an unlikely evolution. The volume is rounded out with an assortment of Vonnegut rarities: speeches, essays, and commentary that touch upon the themes and particulars of these novels.

    Unable to dress or feed himself, or cope with his emotions, he has spent the last seven years in a group home. There he spends his days watching old sci-fi movies until he awakens one night with a clear mind and memories of his girlfriend. Realizing what his life has been he decides it would be better to die than to go on living this way. A failed suicide attempt leaves Leroy hospitalized where he retreats further into his mind in order to make sense of his existence.Freddie McCall is a middle aged father working two jobs. He's lost his wife and kids, and is close to losing his house. He's buried in debt, unable to pay the medical bills from his daughter's childhood illness. As Freddie's situation becomes more desperate he undertakes a risky endeavor he hopes will solve his problems but could possibly end in disaster. Just as Freddie is about to lose it all, he is faced with the possibility of getting his kids back.Pauline Hawkins takes care of everyone else around her. She cares for her mentally ill father out of a deep sense of obligation. As a nurse at the local hospital, she treats her patients and their families with a familiar warmth and tenderness. When Pauline becomes attached to a young runaway, she learns the difficult lesson that you can't help someone who doesn't help themselves.The lives of these three characters intersect as they look for meaning in desperate times. Willy Vlautin covers themes ranging from health care to the economic downturn and housing crisis, to the toll war takes on veterans and their families. The Free is an extraordinary portrait of contemporary America and a testament to the resiliency of the human heart.

    She has written to say she is in hospice and wanted to say goodbye. Leaving his tense, bitter wife Maureen to her chores, Harold intends a quick walk to the corner mailbox to post his reply but instead, inspired by a chance encounter, he becomes convinced he must deliver his message in person to Queenie--who is 600 miles away--because as long as he keeps walking, Harold believes that Queenie will not die. So without hiking boots, rain gear, map or cell phone, one of the most endearing characters in current fiction begins his unlikely pilgrimage across the English countryside. Along the way, strangers stir up memories--flashbacks, often painful, from when his marriage was filled with promise and then not, of his inadequacy as a father, and of his shortcomings as a husband. Ironically, his wife Maureen, shocked by her husband's sudden absence, begins to long for his presence. Is it possible for Harold and Maureen to bridge the distance between them? And will Queenie be alive to see Harold arrive at her door?THE LOVE SONG OF MISS QUEENIE HENNESSYWhen Queenie Hennessy discovers that Harold Fry is walking the length of England to save her, and all she has to do is wait, she is shocked. Her note had explained she was dying. How can she wait?      A new volunteer at the hospice suggests that Queenie should write again; only this time she must tell Harold everything. In confessing to secrets she has hidden for twenty years, she will find atonement for the past. As the volunteer points out, 'Even though you've done your travelling, you're starting a new journey too.'      Queenie thought her first letter would be the end of the story. She was wrong. It was the beginning.

    Geographically and culturally boundless, with contributions from Great Britain, Ireland, America, Canada, Australia, India, the Caribbean, and Southern Africa; influenced by great novelists working in other languages; and encompassing a range of genres, the story of the novel in English unfolds like a richly varied landscape that invites exploration rather than a linear journey. In The Novel: A Biography, "Michael Schmidt does full justice to its complexity.Like his hero Ford Madox Ford in The March of Literature," Schmidt chooses as his traveling companions not critics or theorists but "artist practitioners," men and women who feel "hot love" for the books they admire, and fulminate against those they dislike. It is their insights Schmidt cares about. Quoting from the letters, diaries, reviews, and essays of novelists and drawing on their biographies, Schmidt invites us into the creative dialogues between authors and between books, and suggests how these dialogues have shaped the development of the novel in English.Schmidt believes there is something fundamentally subversive about art: he portrays the novel as a liberalizing force and a revolutionary stimulus. But whatever purpose the novel serves in a given era, a work endures not because of its subject, themes, political stance, or social aims but because of its language, its sheer invention, and its resistance to cliche--some irreducible quality that keeps readers coming back to its pages."

    A group of entrepreneurs brings roaring back to life a defunct turbine factory and the town around it, promising a return to the days of dignity, jobs and the good life and bright future that a manufacturing center can dispense to a small town. But is a return to the days of plenty possible? And what of the changed relationships between lovers, and within families, that have transpired in the years since that earlier time? Peri�ic takes us there, into the past and into the future, and watches with a bemused sad smile as the inevitable wreaks havoc with the possible. Robert Peri�ic's second novel to be translated into English is a cause for delight.

    In this first issue, Naomi Alderman talks books, body-building, fatherhood and feminism with debonair actor and Booker judge DAN STEVENS; and we reconsider THE WOMAN IN WHITE as The Book of the Season, getting to grips with the Victorian classic through fashion, film, food and more.

     List of Works: Laodamia Lyrical Ballads, With Other Poems Lyrical Ballads, With A Few Other Poems Poems Written In Youth Poems, In Two Volumes The Excursion The Prelude: Growth Of A Poet’s Mind; An Autobiographical Poem The Complete Prose Works Of William Wordsworth

    Her art flourished in small settings, as can be seen in her bestselling novel The Summer Book and in her internationally celebrated cartoon strips and books about the Moomins. It is only natural, then, that throughout her life she turned again and again to the short story. The Woman Who Borrowed Memories is the first extensive selection of Jansson’s stories to appear in English. Many of the stories collected here are pure Jansson, touching on island solitude and the dangerous pull of the artistic impulse: in “The Squirrel” the equanimity of the only inhabitant of a remote island is thrown by a visitor, in “The Summer Child” an unlovable boy is marooned along with his lively host family, in “The Cartoonist” an artist takes over a comic strip that has run for decades, and in “The Doll’s House” a man’s hobby threatens to overwhelm his life. Others explore unexpected territory: “Shopping” has a post-apocalyptic setting, “The Locomotive” centers on a railway-obsessed loner with murderous fantasies, and “The Woman Who Borrowed Memories” presents a case of disturbing transference. Unsentimental, yet always humane, Jansson’s stories complement and enlarge our understanding of a singular figure in world literature.

    The Kos family argue, adapt, fall in and out of love.I will never understand why dinner conversation with you lot always turns so damn contentious. Why can’t we have some pleasant anecdotes for example.World after world is erected and torn down around them. The one constant is the ivy-clad house in Zagreb, built by aristocrats, partitioned, owned by all, owned by a few; witness to four increasingly educated and independent generations of women.But when the family assemble for Lucia’s wedding, Alisa learns that her nouveau-riche brother-in-law has bought the once nationalized house. For the bride this is progress, for her sister it’s a shady act of greed. For their principled parents, finally, it’s one battle too many.

    The mirror once hung in a bedroom, but now it's cracked and propped against a dumpster in an alley. The condemned man has refused the customary last cigarette but accepted as a hood the black slip that was carelessly tossed over a corner of the mirror's frame. The slip still smells faintly of a familiar fragrance.So begins "Tosca," the first in this vivid collection of Stuart Dybek's love stories. Operatically dramatic and intimately lyrical, grittily urban and impressionistically natural, the varied fictions in Paper Lantern all focus on the turmoil of love as only Dybek can portray it. An execution triggers the recollection of a theatrical romance; then a social worker falls for his own client; and lovers part as giddily, perhaps as hopelessly, as a kid trying to hang on to a boisterous kite. A flaming laboratory evokes a steamy midnight drive across terrain both familiar and strange, and an eerily ringing phone becomes the telltale signature of a dark betrayal. Each story is marked with contagious desire, spontaneous revelation, and, ultimately, resigned courage. As one woman whispers when she sets a notebook filled with her sketches drifting out to sea, "Someone will find you." Some of Dybek's characters recur in these stories, while others appear only briefly. Throughout, they—and we—are confronted with vaguely familiar scents and images, reminiscent of love but strangely disconcerting, so that we might wonder whether we are looking in a mirror or down the barrel of a gun. "After the ragged discharge," Dybek writes, "when the smoke has cleared, who will be left standing and who will be shattered into shards?" Paper Lantern brims with the intoxicating elixirs known to every love-struck, lovelorn heart, and it marks the magnificent return of one of America's most important fiction writers at the height of his powers.

    Set in contemporary Tel Aviv forty eight hours after Israelis discover all their Palestinian neighbors have vanished, the story unfolds through alternating narrators, Alaa, a young Palestinian man who converses with his dead grandmother in the journal he left behind when he disappeared, and his Jewish neighbor, Ariel, a journalist struggling to understand the traumatic event. Through these perspectives, the novel stages a confrontation between two memories. Ariel is a liberal Zionist who is critical of the military occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, but nevertheless believes in Israel's project and its national myth. Alaa is haunted by his grandmother's memories of being displaced from Jaffa and becoming a refugee in her homeland. Ariel's search for clues to the secret of the collective disappearance and his reaction to it intimately reveal the fissures at the heart of the Palestinian question.The Book of Disappearance grapples with both the memory of loss and the loss of memory for the Palestinians. Presenting a narrative that is often marginalized, Antoon's translation of the critically acclaimed Arabic novel invites English readers into the complex lives of Palestinians living in Israel.

    This special edition celebrates a true master of the short-story form by including multiple variant drafts of what would eventually be the title story. In a fascinating accompanying essay, "Building the Monkey House: At Kurt Vonnegut's Writing Table," noted Vonnegut scholar Gregory D. Sumner walks readers through Vonnegut's process as he struggles—false start after false start—to hit upon what would be one of his greatest stories. The result is the rare chance to watch a great writer hone his craft in real time.

    Inheriting Ivy Compton-Burnett’s uncanny sensitivity to the terrifying undercurrents that swirl beneath the apparent calm of respectable family life while showing a deep sympathy of her own for human loneliness, Taylor depicted dislocation with the unflinching presence of mind of Graham Greene. But for Taylor, unlike Greene, dislocation began not in distant climes but right at home. It is in the living room, playroom, and bedroom that Taylor stages her unforgettable dramas of alienation and impossible desire. Taylor’s stories, many of which originally appeared in The New Yorker, are her central achievement. Here are self-improving spinsters and gossiping girls, war orphans and wallflowers, honeymooners and barmaids, mistresses and murderers. Margaret Drabble’s new selection reveals a writer whose wide sympathies and restless curiosity are matched by a steely penetration into the human heart and mind.

    Populated by distant and little-known figures—Irish and French monks, saints, and scientists in Winter Mythologies; Benedictine monks in the Vendée region of France in Abbots—the tales frequently draw on obscure histories and other literary sources.Michon brings his characters to life in spare, evocative prose. Each, in his or her own way, exemplifies a power of belief that brings about an achievement—or catastrophe—in the real world: monasteries are built upon impossibly muddy wastes, monks acquire the power of speech, lives are taken, books are written, saints are created on the flimsiest of evidence. Michon’s exploration in ancient archives has led him to the discovery of such often deluded figures and their deeds, and his own exceptional powers bestow upon them a renewed life on the written page. This in turn is an example of the power of belief, which for Michon is what makes literature itself possible. Winter Mythologies and Abbots are meant to be read slowly, to be savored, to be mined for the secrets Michon has to tell.

    Their two paths converge with tragic inevitability. Jones writes of the physiology of grief and the isolation of loss with brilliance, and about the simple rawness of animal existence with a naturalist's unblinking eye. His is a pared-down prose of resonant simplicity and occasional lushness. His writing about ducks and dogs and cows is axe-sharp. There is not a whiff of the bucolic pastoral or the romanticized sod here. This is a real rural ride. It is short, but crackles with latent compressed energy that makes it swell to fill more space than at first glance it occupies.

    He is also a prize-winning poet. Since he was first enthralled by the mysterious power of poetry, he has been a dedicated student. In fact, for him, poetry has been nothing less than the occupation of a lifetime, and in this book he presents a distillation of all he's learned about the art form that matters to him most.With his customary wit, delightfully lucid prose style and wide-ranging knowledge, James explains the difference between the innocuous stuff that often passes for poetry today and a real poem: the latter being a work of unity that insists on being heard entire and threatens never to leave the memory. A committed formalist and an astute commentator, he offers close and careful readings of individual poems and poets (from Shakespeare to Larkin, Keats to Pound), and in some case second readings or re-readings late in life - just to be sure he wasn't wrong the first time! Whether discussing technical details of metaphorical creativity or simply praising his five favourite collections of all time, he is never less than captivating.

    His genius for scene and dialogue led Time magazine to describe him as “a Dickens of Detroit,” and Newsweek called him “the best American writer of crime alive, possibly the best we’ve ever had.” Now The Library of America inaugurates a three-volume edition of Leonard’s greatest work, prepared in consultation with the author shortly before his death and edited by his long-time researcher Gregg Sutter.Leonard began his career in the 1950s as a writer of pulp westerns, but switched genres at the end of the 1960s and slowly but steadily achieved recognition as a fantastically inventive storyteller and a one-of-a-kind stylist. For all the dazzling complications of his plots—often involving brilliantly elaborate scams, of which he was a master—it was the people who mattered most in his books, people from every walk of life and every social byway.The four novels collected in this first volume re-invented the American crime novel and cemented Leonard’s reputation. All are set in his hometown Detroit, a hard-working “shot and a beer” kind of place whose lawless underside becomes a stage for an unforgettable cast of rogues, con artists, and psychopaths. Fifty-Two Pickup (1974), fast and sharply written, is an insidiously brutal book about an adulterous businessman who runs afoul of a crew of murderous blackmailers. Swag (1976) finds Leonard moving for the first time into the more comic mode that would become his signature, as he charts the small-time criminal careers of an amiable ex-con and an ambitious car salesman who share a bachelor pad and pursue their hedonistic dream of the good life through a string of armed robberies. Unknown Man No. 89 (1977) spins a complex web of crisscrossing rip-offs and con games, with process server Jack Ryan, a typically laid-back Leonard protagonist, caught in the middle. In The Switch (1978), one of Leonard’s funniest books, Mickey Dawson, a discontented housewife held for ransom, manages to turn the tables on her kidnappers while exacting overdue revenge on her scheming husband.This volume also contains a newly researched chronology of Elmore Leonard’s life, drawing on materials in his personal archive, and detailed annotations, which include as a special bonus a scene from the typescript for Swag that did not appear in the published book.

    The nation he returns to is poor: the royal coffers empty and his nobles ready to tear him apart at the first sign of weakness. Determined to bring the rule of law to a land riven by warring factions, James faces terrible choices if he is to save himself, his Queen and the crown.James II: Day of the Innocents depicts a violent royal playground from the perspective of the child King and his contemporaries, in a terrifying arena of sharp teeth and long knives.James II becomes the prize in a vicious game between Scotland’s most powerful families. Crowned when only six, abandoned by his mother and separated from his sisters, the child King is little more than a puppet. There is only one friend he can trust: William, the future Earl of Douglas. As James approaches adulthood in an ever more threatening world, he must fight to keep his tenuous grip on the crown while the nightmares of his childhood rise up once more.James III: The True Mirror, like the King himself, is colourful and unpredictable, turning its attention to the women at the heart of the royal court.Charismatic, cultured, and obsessed with grandiose schemes that his nation can ill afford, James III is by turns loved and loathed. Scotland thunders dangerously close to civil war, but its future may be decided by James’ resourceful and resilient wife, Queen Margaret of Denmark. Her love and clear vision can save a fragile monarchy and rescue a struggling people.Each play stands alone as a unique vision of a country tussling with its past and future; viewed together the trilogy creates an intricate and compelling narrative on Scottish culture and nationhood, full of playful wit and boisterous theatricality.The James Plays premiered at the Festival Theatre, Edinburgh, in August 2014 as part of the Edinburgh International Festival, before transferring to the National Theatre, London. The trilogy was named Best New Play at the Evening Standard Theatre Awards 2014.

    Shot through with unexpected moments of sex and violence, readers will become acquainted with a world that is at once the same and opposite from the one in which they live. With a diverse palette of vivid characters--from people who wear furry mascot costumes at all times, to a group of 'New Filmmakers' that devises increasingly unexpected sexual scenarios with complete strangers, to a secret society that concocts a virus that only infects those on the political right--Wren's avant-garde Polyamorous Love Song (finalist for the 2013 Fence Modern Prize in Prose) will appeal to readers with an interest in the visual arts, theatre, and performance of all types.

    

    Here you will find the complete novels of Thomas Hardy in the chronological order of their original publication.- Desperate Remedies- Under the Greenwood Tree- A Pair of Blue Eyes- Far From the Madding Crowd- The Hand of Ethelberta- The Return of the Native- The Trumpet-Major- A Laodicean- Two on a Tower- The Romantic Adventures of a Milkmaid- The Mayor of Casterbridge- The Woodlanders- Tess of the D’Urbervilles- Jude the Obscure- The Well–Beloved

    Successful author, Rainee Allen, is experiencing writer's block. Rummaging through her desk, she comes across a souvenir she had received years before at the U.S. Holocaust Museum; an identification/passport of a survivor. Rainee had kept the souvenir because the survivor's birthday shared her birthday (though 30 years apart). She decides to try to find out more information on this German girl named Jana Lutken. Realizing she may have an idea for her next novel, she travels to London to begin that research. Eventually, she does find Jana, who suffers from Alzheimer's disease. Rainee develops a relationship with her and finds out more about her past. As she uncovers long-held secrets, Rainee becomes entangled in events that put her in danger and leads her to relationships with two men; the handsome director of Jana’s nursing facility, and the visiting doctor, who mysteriously serves as a trigger causing Jana to relive the horrors of the Holocaust.Rainee embarks on a dangerous road involving Nazi hunters and Nazi sympathizers. Unsure which ones are following her, Rainee enters a world of mystery and suspense in the back alleys of London.The juxtaposition of past and present makes for an interesting blend of two stories which seamlessly meld.The reader will be surprised with the shocking twist that occurs in THE GOLDEN PEACOCK. They’ll never see it coming.

    She writes with passion and determination about a side of America that few will ever see. But Lonehill takes you there with emotion and raw power. Pointing With Lips is a startling debut.” - Paul Harris, The Guardian Sincere Strongheart is a modern day rez chick and single mother of three, living on one of the poorest Indian reservations in America. The novel Pointing with Lips covers a week of her life in Pine Ridge, interacting with many unforgettable characters in her large family. Sincere’s story is funny, raw, sad, even suspenseful, but the main struggle lives inside her as she hopes to overcome the buried demons of her past. Her first book is already creating a rez sensation with Indian Country media: “Dana Lone Hill is a powerful new voice from Lakota Country that has so often been confined to historical stereotype or painted in a contemporary setting with a one dimensional brush. Dana shatters those shackles and forms a deeply personal, raw and moving narrative that takes the reader deep into contemporary life on Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, one of the world’s most complex and engaging societies.” -Steven Lewis Simpson director of the Native films Rez Bomb, A Thunder-Being Nation & The Hub. “With so much literature out there attempting to portray authentic Native life, it is refreshing to have a work written from the perspective of someone who has actually lived it. This book is essential reading for those attempting to understand the life of Native people living in America.” - Brandon Ecoffey, editor, Native Sun News “Pointing with Lips by Dana Lone Hill just might be one of the best books I’ve come across—if not the best. A beautiful, entertaining, relatable, inspirational, and so-much-more read, Lone Hill’s poetic yet readable wording makes you feel as if you’re sitting attentively across from her, gripping a cup a coffee waiting for more.” - Patricia Stein, Urban Native Magazine Lone Hill (Oglala Lakota) is internationally recognized for her freelance writing in the Guardian newspaper, LAST REAL INDIANS, Lakota Country Times, The Intersection of Madness and Reality, LA Progressive and her popular blog: www.justarezchick.wordpress.com. On Twitter: @JustARezChick. On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Pointingwith... POINTING WITH LIPS © 2014 was published by Blue Hand Books, a collective of Native American authors who guide and assist other Native writers to publish their paperbacks and ebooks using Amazon's Create Space and KDP. They are based in western Massachusetts. Visit their website at www.bluehandbooks.org. Like BHB on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bluehandbooks EBOOK BONUS: Interview with Author

    . .All she needed were stamps and signatures. Marie and her translator stood in the government offices in Kabul, Afghanistan, to complete the paperwork for her new literacy project. The women in her home town, the northern village of Shehktan, would learn to read.But a spattering of gun shots exploded and an aid worker crumpled. Executed. On the streets of Kabul. Just blocks from the guesthouse. Sending shockwaves through the community.The foreign personnel assessed their options and some, including Marie’s closest friend, Carolyn, chose to leave the country. Marie and others faced the cost and elected to press forward. But the execution of the lone aid worker was just the beginning.When she returned home to her Afghan friends in Shehktan to begin classes, she felt eyes watching her, piercing through her scarf as she walked the streets lined in mud brick walls.And in the end . . . It took only 14 days for her project, her Afghan home, her community—all of it—to evaporate in an eruption of dust, grief, and loss. Betrayed by someone she trusted. Caught in a feud she knew nothing about, and having loved people on both sides, Marie struggled for the answer: How could God be present here, working here, in the soul of Afghanistan?A novel based on true events.

    As his father's many secrets begin to unravel, Buddy discovers the real movie: the intersection between life as he sees it and the truth of his own past. In a vivid story of love, friendship, and betrayal, Ghost Horse explores a boy's swiftly changing awareness of himself and the world through the lens of imagination.

    6,” “The Lady with the Little Dog,” “Anna on the Neck,” “The Name-Day Party,” “The Kiss,” An Incident at Law,” and “Elements Most Often Found in Novels, Short Stories, Etc.” This edition features twenty-five brand-new translations, commissioned expressly for this volume from Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky, Peter Constantine, Rosamund Bartlett, Michael Henry Heim, among others. Twenty translations have been selected from the published work of such master translators as Patrick Miles and Harvey Pitcher, Ann Dunnigan, and Ronald Hingley. Seven additional translations are by Constance Garnett, substantially revised by Cathy Popkin. All stories are annotated to clarify unfamiliar material and to point out differences in the translators’ strategies."Life and Letters" includes a rich selection of Chekhov’s letters, some in English for the first time, some with previously redacted passages restored, as well as Aileen Kelly’s portrait of Chekhov.“Criticism” explores the wide range of approaches and interpretations in two sections. “Approaches” juxtaposes five different perspectives on how to read Chekhov, represented by Peter Bitsilli, Alexander Chudakov, Robert Louis Jackson, Vladimir Kataev, and Radislav Lapushin. “Interpretations” contains ten divergent readings of stories in this edition. Case studies include Michael Finke on “At Sea”; Cathy Popkin on “[A Nervous] Breakdown”; Julie de Sherbinin on “Peasant Women”; Liza Knapp on “Ward No. 6”; Robert Louis Jackson on “Rothschild’s Fiddle” and “The Student”; Wolf Schmid on “The Student”; John Freedman on “Man in a Case,” “Gooseberries,” and “About Love”; Caryl Emerson on “A Calamity,” “Anna on the Neck,” “About Love,” and “The Lady with the Little Dog”; and Rufus Mathewson on “The Lady with the Little Dog” and “The Beauties.”A Chronology and Selected Bibliography are included, as is a postscript on the translators and their work. A special section, “Comparison Translations,” gives passages from selected stories in multiple translations.

    Artie's anger eventually drives her to Serena's younger lover, Jamie L'Heureux, a jazz superstar. The spirit of Charles Mingus thrums throughout the story as these two women tangle in a syncopated mother-daughter relationship.

    Welch reminds us that Jean Valjean’s life provides the truest example of why real love is found in the grittiest places, and that hearts are made whole beneath the crush of mercy. Most important, though, Welch keeps returning to the intersections of faith and reality throughout Hugo’s writing—those places where mercy becomes an inroad to the heart, and where love is only truly received when it is given without condition.Discover again why life’s purpose is found not in attending to personal needs and desires, but in responding to the hearts of others.

     The Arabic poetic legacy is as vast as it is deep, spanning a period of fifteen centuries in regions from Morocco to Iraq. Themes of love, nature, religion, and politics recur in works drawn from the pre-Islamic oral tradition through poems anticipating the recent Arab Spring. Editor Marlé Hammond has selected more than fifty poems reflecting desire and longing of various kinds: for the beloved, for the divine, for the homeland, and for change and renewal. Poets include the legendary pre-Islamic warrior ‘Antara, medieval Andalusian poet Ibn Zaydun, the mystical poet Rabi‘a al-‘Adawiyya, and the influential Egyptian Romantic Ahmad Zaki Abu Shadi. Here too are literary giants of the past century: Khalil Jibran, author of the best-selling The Prophet; popular Syrian poet Nizar Qabbani; Palestinian feminist Fadwa Tuqan; Mahmoud Darwish, bard of occupation and exile; acclaimed iconoclast Adonis; and more. In their evocations of heroism, nostalgia, mysticism, grief, and passion, the poems gathered here transcend the limitations of time and place.

    To read and reread Tolkien is to share his sense of wonder and holiness, to be invited into the presence of a "beauty beyond the circles of the world." It is to fall in love with a universe that has a beginning and an end, where good and bad are not subjective choices, but objective realities; a created order full of grace, though damaged by sin, in which friendship is the seedbed of the virtues, and where the greatest warriors finally become the greatest healers. A correspondent once told J. R. R. Tolkien that his work seemed illumined "by an invisible lamp." That lamp is the Church, and its light is the imaginative sensibility that we live in a sacramental world. This new book by the author of The Trial of Man examines in depth the influence of Catholic sacramentality on the thought and work of Tolkien, with major emphasis on The Lord of the Rings, but including his literary essays, epistolary poem "Mythopoeia," short story "Leaf by Niggle," and The Silmarillion. Here is a signal contribution to a deeper understanding of Tolkien, whose mythological world is meant to "recover" the meaning of our own as a grace-filled place, pointing toward its Creator.

     — Over 11.6 Million Words in one E-Book — Includes an Active Index to all Volumes and 71 Table of Contents for each Volume and Book — Includes Religious Illustrations Publisher: Large E-Book. The most comprehensive and well-researched anthology of all time comprises both the 50-volume “5-foot shelf of books” and the the 20-volume Shelf of Fiction. Together they cover every major literary figure, philosopher, religion, folklore and historical subject through the twentieth century. Composed of: The Harvard Classics Collection [51 Volumes] and The Harvard Fiction Collection [20 Volumes]. THE HARVARD CLASSICS 140 BOOKS Vol. 1: The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, The Journal of John Woolman, and the Fruits of Solitude by William Penn Vol. 2: Plato, Epictetus, Marcus Aurelius Vol. 3: Essays by Bacon, Milton, and Browne Vol. 4: The Complete Poems of John Milton Vol. 5: Essays and English Traits by R.W. Emerson Vol. 6: The Poems and Songs of Robert Burns Vol. 7: Confessions of St. Augustine & The Imitation of Christ Vol. 8: Nine Greek Dramas Vol. 9: Letters and Treatises of Cicero and Pliny Vol. 10: An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations Vol. 11: Origin of the Species by Charles Darwin Vol. 12: Plutarch’s Lives Vol. 13: Virgil’s Aeneid, Translated by John Dryden Vol. 14: Don Quixote, part 1 by Miguel Cervantes Vol. 15: Pilgrim’s Progress, Walton’s Biographies of Donne and Herbert Vol. 16: Stories from The Thousand and One Nights Vol. 17: Folklore and Fable, Aesop, Grimm, Anderson Vol. 18: Modern English Drama Vol. 19: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe & Christopher Marlowe Vol. 20: The Divine Comedy by Dante Vol. 21: I Promessi Sposi by Alessandro Manzoni Vol. 22: The Odyssey of Homer Vol. 23: Two Years Before the Mast Vol. 24: Edmund Burke Vol. 25: John Stuart Mill and Thomas Carlyle Vol. 26: Continental Drama Vol. 27: English Essays: Sidney to MacAulay Vol. 28: Essays English and American Vol. 29: Voyage of the Beagle by Charles Darwin Vol. 30: Scientific Papers by Faraday, Helmholtz, Kelvin, Newcomb, etc. Vol. 31: The Autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini Vol. 32: Literary and Philosophical Essays Vol. 33: Voyages and Travels Vol. 34: French and English Philosophers (Descartes, Rousseau, Voltaire, Hobbes) Vol. 35: Chronicle and Romance Vol. 36: Machiavelli, More, Luther Vol. 37: The English Philosophers of the 17th and 18th Centuries Vol. 38: Scientific Papers by Harvey, Jenner, Lister, Pasteur Vol. 39: Prefaces and Prologues to Famous Books Vol. 40-42: Complete English Poetry: Chaucer to Whitman (3 vols.) Vol. 43: American Historical Documents Vol. 44 & 45: Complete Sacred Writings (2 vols.) Vol. 46 & 47: Complete Elizabethan Drama (2 vols.) Vol. 48: Blaise Pascal: Thoughts, Letters, and Minor Works Vol. 49: Epic and Saga Vol. 50: Introduction, Reader’s Guide and Indexes Vol. 51: Lectures SHELF OF FICTION 40 BOOKS Vol. 1: The History of Tom Jones, vol. 1 Vol. 2: Harvard Classics Shelf of Fiction: The History of Tom Jones, vol. 2 Vol. 3: Laurence Sterne and Jane Austen Vol.

    Here, in this collection of five short stories for both young and old, the great master uses both his whimsy and his sense of the gothic to re-imagine Philippine folktales.The stories:- "Lechonito the Holy Innocent"- "The Mystery Sleeper of Balite Drive"- "The Traveling Salesman and the Split Woman"- "Balikbayan"- "Gotita de Dragon"

    Tolkien transformed his love for arcane linguistic studies into a fantastic world of Middle Earth, a world of filled with characters that readers the world over have loved and learned from for generations.Devin Brown focuses on the story behind how Tolkien became one of the best-known writers in the history of literature, a tale as fascinating and as inspiring as any of the fictional ones he would go on to write. Weaving in the major aspects of the author's life, career, and faith, Brown shares how Tolkien's beloved works came to be written.With a third follow-up film and the book's release the same month, there's a large interest in the faith values for these works. This book addresses that deep hunger to know what fuels the world and worldview of The Hobbit's celebrated author, Tolkien.

     London was one of the first fiction writers to obtain worldwide celebrity and a large fortune from his fiction alone, which ranged in a great variety of subjects. With over 2 million words, this is the most comprehensive volume on London's works in existence, and will satisfy his fans as well as anybody wanting to go deep into the world of his fiction. All with an easy to use linked TOC for navigation! Here are the works included, that have been arranged in chronological order: (THE NOVELS) The Cruise of the Dazzler (1902) A Daughter of the Snows (1902) The Call of the Wild (1903) The Kempton-Wace Letters (1903) The Sea-Wolf (1904) The Game (1905) White Fang (1906) Before Adam (1907) The Iron Heel (1908) Martin Eden (1909) Burning Daylight (1910) Adventure (1911) The Scarlet Plague (1912) A Son of the Sun (1912) The Abysmal Brute (1913) The Valley of the Moon (1913) The Mutiny of the Elsinore (1914) The Star Rover (1915) The Little Lady of the Big House (1916) Jerry of the Islands (1917) Michael, Brother of Jerry (1917) Hearts of Three (1920) THE SHORT STORIES BOOK ONE THE SON OF THE WOLF 1.The White Silence 2. The Son of the Wolf 3. The Men of Forty Mile 4. In a Far Country 5. To the Man on the Trail 6. The Priestly Prerogative 7. The Wisdom of the Trail 8. The Wife of a King 9. An Odyssey of the North BOOK TWO SOUTH SEA TALES 10. THE HOUSE OF MAPUHI 11. THE WHALE TOOTH 12. MAUKI 13. "YAH! YAH! YAH!" 14. THE HEATHEN 15. THE TERRIBLE SOLOMONS 16. THE INEVITABLE WHITE MAN 17. THE SEED OF McCOY BOOK THREE WHEN GOD LAUGHS, AND OTHER STORIES 18. WHEN GOD LAUGHS (with compliments to Harry Cowell) 19. THE APOSTATE 20. A WICKED WOMAN 21. JUST MEAT 22. CREATED HE THEM 23. THE CHINAGO 24. MAKE WESTING 25. SEMPER IDEM 26. A NOSE FOR THE KING 27. THE "FRANCIS SPAIGHT" 28. A CURIOUS FRAGMENT 29. A PIECE OF STEAK BOOK FOUR THE HOUSE OF PRIDE 30. THE HOUSE OF PRIDE 31. KOOLAU THE LEPER 32. GOOD-BYE, JACK 33. ALOHA OE 34. CHUN AH CHUN 35. THE SHERIFF OF KONA BOOK FIVE THE HUMAN DRIFT 36. THE HUMAN DRIFT 37. SMALL-BOAT SAILING 38. FOUR HORSES AND A SAILOR 39. NOTHING THAT EVER CAME TO ANYTHING 40. THAT DEAD MEN RISE UP NEVER 41. A CLASSIC OF THE SEA 42. A WICKED WOMAN 43. THE BIRTH MARK BOOK SIX THE RED ONE 44. THE RED ONE 45. THE HUSSY 46. LIKE ARGUS OF THE ANCIENT TIMES 47. THE PRINCESS BOOK SEVEN DUTCH COURAGE AND OTHER STORIES PREFACE 48. DUTCH COURAGE 49. TYPHOON OFF THE COAST OF JAPAN 50. THE LOST POACHER 51. THE BANKS OF THE SACRAMENTO 52. CHRIS FARRINGTON: ABLE SEAMAN 53. TO REPEL BOARDERS 54. AN ADVENTURE IN THE UPPER SEA 55.

    This book looks at what the world turned its eyes away from.

    He doesn’t attribute any genius to his skills as a writer and convinces his readers that the stories flowed even as he minded his daughters or tossed a salad. Equally, Manto treats his tryst with Bollywood with disdain and unmasks the cardboard lives of tinsel town when a horse is painted to double up for a zebra or multiple fans rotate to create a deluge. Two of Manto’s favourite and recurring themes — Women and Partition—find special mention.For the first time ever, this unique collection of non-fiction writing from the subcontinent’s greatest writer, translated by well known author and journalist, Aakar Patel showcases Saadat Hasan Manto’s brilliance while dealing with life’s most mundane things — graveyards, bummingcigarettes, a film crew with motley characters from mythology — and a sharp dissection of what ails the subcontinent even after 6 decades —Hindi or Urdu, vile politicians and the hopelessness of living under the shadow of fear.

    Chronicles the lives of three generations of the Forsyte family. Vicissitudes of leading members of upper class British family. Only a few generations removed from their farmer ancestors, the family members are keenly aware of their status as "new money". The main character, Soames Forsyte, sees himself as a "man of property" by virtue of his ability to accumulate material possessions—but this does not succeed in bringing him pleasure. Adapted by Hollywood as That Forsyte Woman, starring Errol Flynn, Greer Garson, Walter Pidgeon and Robert Young. The BBC produced a popular 26-part serial in 1967, that also dramatised a subsequent trilogy concerning the Forsytes. Inspired Masterpiece Theatre tv program, and the two Granada series. In 2003, The Forsyte Saga was listed on the BBC's The Big Read poll of the UK's "best-loved novel".

    Scott Fitzgerald bundle: This Side of Paradise, The Beautiful and Damned, The Diamond as big as The Ritz and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. This Side of Paradise First published in 1920, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s debut novel was a sizzling sensation that put the young American author on the map. Its initial printing of 3,000 copies sold out in three days. Virtually a record of the ‘Lost Generation’ in its college days, the novel explores Fitzgerald’s characteristic theme of true love blighted by money lust and is remarkable for its honest and detailed descriptions of the early Jazz Age. The Beautiful and Damned First published in 1922, F. Scott Fitzgerald's second novel portrays the Eastern elite during the Jazz Age, exploring New York Café Society. The story is believed to be largely based on Fitzgerald's stormy relationship with Zelda Fitzgerald. This is the tale of young couple Anthony and Gloria Patch living out their days to the hilt in New York City as they await the death of Anthony's grandfather, Adam Patch from whom they expect to inherit his massive fortune. They drink and eat in the classiest restaurants and hotels, rent the most expensive apartments, travel out to the West in the spring time driving plush cars, wearing top-of-the-line clothing and just generally living it up high on the hog, as they wait. But as time goes on their lust for life and their similarities threaten to destroy their innocence and their relationship. The Diamond as big as The Ritz First published in the June 1922 issue of The Smart Set magazine, The Diamond as big as The Ritz is one of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s under-rated masterpieces. The story was initially rejected by publishers because of its not-so-subtle satirical messages about American capitalism. Here it is, Fitzgerald’s rarely talked about ‘gem’ of a short story, fully remastered for the Kindle and beautifully illustrated with vintage advertisement art from the early 1920s. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button The classic short story presented with period art specially formatted for the Kindle. Benjamin Button was first published in Colliers Magazine on May 27, 1922. It was subsequently anthologized in Fitzgerald's book Tales of the Jazz Age.' This is the original version of the story used for the 2008 film starring Brad Pitt. Four Fitzgerald Classics In One Amazing Collection *Includes links to free full-length audio recordings for ‘This Side of Paradise’ and ‘The Diamond As Big As The Ritz.’ *Beautifully illustrated with paintings by Norman Rockwell and original advertisement art from the 1920s . *Active Table of Contents for each book accessible from the Kindle "go to" feature. *Perfect formatting in rich text compatible with Kindle's Text-to-Speech features.

    The full-length novel, titled Mirth and Mischief, will be made available to all readers in fall of 2014. We could not be more thrilled to introduce the world to Abigail Branscombe, an irrepressible heroine to join the ranks of Elizabeth Bennet and Emma Woodhouse, whose story of love, and yes, mischief will delight and perhaps shock Austen fans worldwide. Read more about this exciting discovery on our blog.

    Reports of violence and terrorism are frequently associated with its name. For people living here, life has become a hell of uncertainty. A drone strike could kill them or their family members one day, a suicide bomber the next or action by the Pakistan army the day after. Is this all there is to Waziristan? Ghulam Qadir Khan, sets out to show us the true face of Waziristan. He takes us to the heart of this society. We meet his family and those living in his village Darpa Khel in North Waziristan Agency. We become familiar with individuals. We meet and fall in love with members of his family. We are also introduced to the essential features of tribal society. Unlike the previous authors, Ghulam Qadir is the only one from the area itself... The author is ideally placed to write on Waziristan. He is that rare tribesman from this area who is writing about his own people. Because Ghulam Qadir combines scholarship and experience in the field as an administrator, he is a trustworthy guide. Educated at some of the finest institutions of Pakistan - Lawrence College, Murree, and Edwards College, Peshawar - Ghulam Qadir joined the civil service of Pakistan in 1984. He has worked in the field as Deputy Commissioner and Political Agent in the Tribal Areas. In more senior postings, he has been in charge of the Tribal Areas in the planning department, and has also held the post of Secretary of Law and Order for the Tribal Areas." Professor Akbar Ahmed, Ibn Khaldun Chair of Islamic Studies, American University, Washington D.C.

    What truly horrible lives they must lead.” ― Charles Bukowski Step into the mind of one of America's best-known contemporary writers of poetry and prose, and, many would claim, the most influential and imitated poet.

    Their marriage crumbling after a series of miscarriages, Viola finds herself in an affair with the FBI agent who has recently appeared at her workplace, while her husband Robert becomes enmeshed in an elaborate conspiracy designed to look like a drug study.James Tadd Adcox's first book The Map of the System of Human Knowledge was published in 2012 by Tiny Hardcore Press. His work has appeared in TriQuarterly, the Literary Review, PANK, Barrelhouse, and Another Chicago Magazine.

    It is the 1990s and Kashmir's long war has begun to claim its first victims. Among them are Ghulam Rasool Joo, Haleema's father and her teenage son Imran, who is picked up by the authorities only to disappear into the void of Kashmir's missing people. The Half Mother is the story of Haleema-a mother and a daughter yesterday, a 'half mother' and an orphan today, tormented by not knowing whether Imran is dead or alive, torn apart by her own lonely existence. While she battles for answers and seeks out torture camps, jails and morgues for any signs of Imran, Kashmir burns in a war that will haunt it for years to come. Heart-wrenching, deeply troubling and lyrical, The Half Mother marks the debut of a bold new voice from Kashmir.

    Accessible, easy to read, blunt, brief, and sometimes unforgettable, “these are not poems,” says the author, “but life set to the music of poetry.” In A Shimmer of Something, Brian Doyle’s characteristic humor and sincerity combine to make this collection a delight to read. From his conviction that miracles breed ripples that do not cease, to his lack of faith about the life of an elderberry bush, to the amusing story of a friend’s experience of driving the Dalai Lama to Seattle, to the humorous experience of his second Confession, to an intimate story of love and loss, Doyle’s lean stories of spiritual substance inspire, entertain, and captivate.

    Horrible, yes, merciless, yes, blood thirsty, unquestionably - but it is the offspring of the infected who will change the world: The children of the Fiends are a mutant mind controlling abomination, and there is no defense against them.

    When Ryan’s lawnmower is stolen, Nathan sees this as his chance to enlist Ryan in his plan. Although Ryan knows becoming friends with Nathan could lead to trouble, he reluctantly agrees to help. Stephanie wants nothing to do with either of them. Besides, she’s more interested in the one guy in the world she really shouldn’t be. As Nathan continues his pursuit of Stephanie, and Ryan gets mixed up with The Grove Runners, soon events overtake them all, haunting their lives for years to come. Part coming of age, part mystery story, The Distant Sound of Violence is a heartbreaking tale of bad decisions and love gone wrong. It’s about choices that lead to violence, loss and tragedy.

    Unlike other fat cats, this tiny tycoon uses his wealth for the greater good instead of selfish gain -- because it's not all about the Benjamin!For ages 7-10.

    Featuring work from all periods of Lynch’s career, this book documents Lynch’s first major museum exhibition in the United States, bringing together works held in American and European collections and from the artist’s studio. Much like his movies, many of Lynch’s artworks revolve around suggestions of violence, dark humor, and mystery, conveying an air of the uncanny. This is often conveyed through the addition of text, wildly distorted forms, and disturbances in the paint fields that surround or envelop his figures. While a few relate to his film projects, most are independent works of art that reveal a parallel trajectory. Organized in close collaboration with the artist, David Lynch: The Unified Field brings together ninety-five paintings, drawings, and prints from 1965 to the present, often unified by the recurring motif of the home as a site of violence, memories, and passion. Other works explore the odd, tender, and mincing aspects of relationships. Highlighting many works that have rarely been seen in public, including early work from his critical years in Philadelphia (1965–70), this catalog offers a substantial response to dealer Leo Castelli's comment when he enthusiastically viewed Lynch’s work in 1987, “I would like to know how he got to this point; he cannot be born out of the head of Zeus.” Published in association with the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts

    What does it mean to give shapelessness a form? How can a poem explore both the natural world and the inner world? Phillips demonstrates the restless qualities of the imagination by reading and examining poems by Ashbery, Bogan, Frost, Niedecker, Shakespeare, and others, and by considering other art forms, such as photography and the blues. The Art of Daring is a lyrical, persuasive argument for the many ways that writing and living are acts of risk. "I think it's largely the conundrum of being human that makes us keep making," Phillips writes. "I think it has something to do with revision—how, not only is the world in constant revision, but each of us is, as well."

    Wigley, who gave us Falling Into A Manhole. This memoir starts with the author's getting lost, and ends with his finding home, the sacred space where he finds joy and fulfillment. Between getting lost and finding home, Wigley's quest takes us to all liminal regions--places in the world and places of the heart--that shaped him, making the journey emotional as well. He makes us laugh at his own foibles, weep over his narratives of loss and betrayal, hope that life gets better because his did, and still does. Jack Wigley is not only a gifted raconteur who can keep you turning the pages, but one with a high level of self-awareness who compels you to pause time and again, no matter how much you want to know what happens next, to savor his insights and reflect. Do yourself a favor--read this book.

     Rose Manon, an American daughter of the mountains of Nevada, working as a journalist in New York, is awarded her dream job, foreign correspondent.  Posted to Paris, she is soon entangled in romance, an unsolved murder, and the desperation of a looming war.  Assigned to the Berlin desk, Manon is forced to grapple with her hidden identity as a Jew, the mistrust of her lover, and an unwelcome visitor on the eve of Kristallnacht.  And . . . on the day before World War II is declared, she must choose who will join her on the last train to Paris.This is a carefully researched historical novel that reads like a suspense thriller.  Colette and Janet Flanner are only two of the well-known figures woven into the story. The parts they play will surprise readers. Last Train to Paris will enthrall the same audience that made In The Garden of Beasts by Erik Larson and Suite Française by Irène Némirovsky bestsellers.

    But it is also about war and family, and how an unexpected background can give you the insight and the courage to say the unexpected thing.

    In reality, it was a nightmare. From the second they met, Captain X swept MrsXNomore off her feet, constantly showering her with gifts, flattery and attention. He never left her side unless he was working his scheduled flights. Expertly he gained her complete trust and love. Soon they married, often traveling the world on Major Airways. Early on she underwent the physical and emotional stress of infertility and adoption with little help from her husband. Things were not adding up. She ignored the red flags, his controlling ways and anger, putting his abuse somewhere in the back of her mind. After all, everyone who met charming Captain X told her “How lucky you are to be married to him!” Captain X doted on their child, as if in a parenting competition. His erratic work schedule, their few friends, distant family, and his evasiveness about finances left MrsXNomore in a constant state of confusion. Isolated from friends and family, and plagued with serious medical conditions, she was in no state to address these issues. Enduring three surgeries in fourteen months, she received no empathy whatsoever from Captain X. Worn down, her life was filled with his constant mixed messages. Claiming she needed mental help, Captain X pushed her into therapy, resulting in more confusion. Insisting on reviewing family finances, disbelief set in. Captain X had plunged them into serious debt, often using her name, ruining her credit. In what appeared to be a sincere apology, he begged for forgiveness, promising to make everything right. Instead, he filed for divorce. Shocked, she constantly searched for answers and found them in Captain X’s computer. She discovered he was member of a secret brotherhood involving prostitution, locally and internationally during their entire marriage. When she confronted him, he immediately moved out of their family home, taking their child. She was a now a victim of parental alienation. Tormented, thoughts of suicide crept into her head. Months became years spent trying to understand what had happened to her. What kind of man was he? Why didn’t she know the man she married? Thankfully she found answers. Captain X is a socialized psychopath. MrsXNomore always believed there was good in everyone, but now she understood that’s not so. The realization was frightening. Recognizing that psychopaths (also known as sociopaths) often return to their past victims to inflict further pain, she fled the country to be far away from him, heal and write. Struggling to undo the parental alienation, to get her child back into her life, was just one more obstacle to overcome. Like most people, MrsXNomore thought the label “psychopath” meant someone was a murderer. Ted Bundy came to mind. She had no idea psychopaths could be socialized and live among us, skillfully masking their psychopathy while manipulating and controlling people’s lives. MrsXNomore learned that his devaluation and discarding of her, along with their high conflict divorce, parental alienation, and subsequent frivolous litigations were commonplace when dealing with a psychopath. As a result, she no longer has any contact with him. Since experts estimate as many as 4% of people are psychopaths, a chapter titled Understanding & Avoiding Psychopaths helps readers recognize and avoid these untreatable social predators without conscience. A final chapter, Suggested Reading and Viewing, provides readers with resources to learn more about psychopathy.

    Robinson Crusoe. Harry Potter. What do these memorable characters have in common? Why do we turn to certain stories again and again? And what impact have they made on world history? These 24 eye-opening lectures give fresh insight into some of the greatest heroes in world literature, from warriors such as Beowulf and Odysseus to unexpected heroes such as Uncle Tom and Sancho Panza.Professor Shippey gives you an inside glimpse into the writer's process. Learn how authors "write into the gap" to flesh out-or, in some cases, reimagine altogether-old stories, making them new for new readerships with different values. By examining what makes these heroes such compelling characters, you'll see how they provide a window to better understand ourselves.From the beginnings of world literature through today's bestsellers, look at what makes characters successful-and how they reflect our changing cultural mores. For instance, after the horrors of global war in the 20th century, the world was waiting for a hero like Frodo Baggins, J.R.R. Tolkien's meek hobbit hero, someone called to duty rather than born strong and fearless.You'll also examine ways that great heroes have changed the course of history, defining nations and redefining our sense of self and our relationships. From the mythical journey of Aeneas to Jane Austen's country dances, you'll survey a wealth of memorable stories and consider why such heroes were necessary-and how they continue to influence our lives today.

    The dying soldier shifts his head To watch the glory that returns; He lifts his fingers toward the skies Where holy brightness breaks in flame; Radiance reflected in his eyes, And on his lips a whispered name.   The poems in this anthology—all written by poets who served on the front line—draw readers into the horrors of life in the trenches, documenting events as they unfolded in excruciating detail and creating a body of work so vivid that it continues to haunt us one hundred years later. With First World War Poems from the Front, Paul O’Prey offers an in-depth exploration of the Great War poets, including powerful poems by Siegfried Sassoon, Wilfred Owen, Isaac Rosenberg, and Julian Grenfell, as well as two World War I nurses: Vera Brittain and Mary Borden. The poems are accompanied by a brief and accessible introduction and short biographical profiles that set them in context for readers new to the works.

    Their experiences are varied and unique, demonstrating that expat women's lives go far beyond the stereotypical. The writers hail from a dozen different countries and walks of life. Some are well-known; others are fresh voices adding nuance to the expat conversation. Through deeply personal accounts, they explore what they have learned about themselves and the world through their lives abroad. Together, they create a portrait of the modern expatriate experience that will both resonate and inspire.With contributions by... Susan Blumberg-Kason Jocelyn Eikenburg Leza Lowitz Suzanne Kamata Dorcas Cheng-Tozun Pamela Beere Briggs Kaitlin Solimine Christine Tan Stephanie Han Edna Zhou Kathryn Hummel Ember Swift Nicola Chilton Eva Cohen Catherine Rose Torres Coco Richter Jenna Lynn Cody Saffron Marchant Jennifer S. Deayton India Harris Philippa Ramsden Sharon Brown Neha Mehta Shannon Dunlap Barbara Craven Michelle Borok

    Better known in Europe than in his native America for most of his career, he achieved international success and celebrity during the 1960s when his banned "Paris" books—beginning with Tropic of Cancer—were published here and judged by the Supreme Court not to be obscene. Until then he had toiled in relative obscurity and poverty. The Unknown Henry Miller recounts Miller’s career from its beginnings in Paris in the 1930s but focuses on his years living in Big Sur, California, from 1944 to 1961, during which he wrote many of his most important books, including The Rosy Crucifixion trilogy, married and divorced twice, raised two children, painted watercolors, and tried to live out an aesthetic and personal credo of self-realization.Written with the cooperation of the Henry Miller, Anais Nin, and other estates, The Unknown Henry Miller quotes extensively from Miller’s correspondence in order to offer the reader direct experience of the author and man. It also draws on material not available to previous biographers, including interviews with Lepska Warren, Miller’s third wife, and revelations from unpublished portions of Anais Nin’s diaries. Behind the �bad boy” image, the author finds a man with devoted friendships, whose challenge of literary sexual taboos was part of a broader assault on the dehumanization of man and commercialization during the postwar years. He puts Miller’s alleged misogyny in the context of his satire of sexual mores in general, and makes the case for restoring this groundbreaking writer to his rightful place in the American literary canon.

    1758) is considered one of the glories of premodern Panjabi literature. Born in Uch, Panjab, in present-day Pakistan, Bullhe Shah drew profoundly upon Sufi mysticism in his writings. His lyrics, famous for their vivid style and outspoken denunciation of artificial religious divisions, have long been held in affection by Hindus, Muslims, and Sikhs, and they continue to win audiences today across national boundaries and in the global Panjabi diaspora. Indeed, many young people in South Asia are already acquainted—albeit unknowingly at times—with the iconic eighteenth-century Panjabi poet’s words through popular musical genres of the twenty-first century.The striking new translation in English is presented alongside the Panjabi text, in the Gurmukhi script, re-edited on the basis of the best modern Pakistani and Indian editions. Bullhe Shah’s Sufi Lyrics thus offers at once the most complete and most approachable version of this great poet’s works yet available.

    On the surface, and beneath it, her stories and characters pound the earth they walk upon, demanding your attention. Literally and metaphorically, DON'T TEASE THE ELEPHANTS will rattle your cage.

    When the egg gets a crack Kuwi thinks that the egg is broken, but she's in for a surprise.

    His heart-wrenching performances helped win him five Emmy Awards. Jonathan has also performed in many feature films, including The Deep End of the Ocean, Tuck Everlasting, and Insomnia. His work has taken him to many places around the world, including Ireland, Italy, Romania, and Canada.Jonathan is currently one of the stars of the ABC primetime drama, Nashville, a show centered on the inner workings of the Nashville music scene. Jonathan plays Avery Barkley, an up-and-coming singer/songwriter trying to find his way in Music City.Along with acting, Jonathan is also the lead singer of the band Enation and the author of Book of Solace and Madness, which was published in 2012. Jonathan resides in Nashville, Tennessee, where he loves spending time with his wife, Elisa, and their three children.

    Megan is resolved to tell Eli of the affair she had before they married and of her illegitimate daughter, Fortune, which her brother, Morgan, and Mam stole from her to save the family from shame. Before Megan has a chance to tell Eli, her plans are scuppered by a chance meeting with her old lover; the ne'er-do-well, Iago. Megan's life again takes a turn for the worse and there seems to be no mending the damage Iago has caused. Meanwhile, the new milkmaid arrives. Her name is Branwen, beautiful raven, though Megan can see no beauty in her at all, and it transpires that Branwen is no stranger to Eli. Once Branwen gets her foot in the door, there is no shifting her. The events which follow take Megan to the edges of insanity and her liberty and life are threatened.

    To navigate, and to catch enough crab to feed her college fund, Ray seeks help from a multitude of gods and goddesses – not to mention ad-libbed rituals performed at sea by his half-Tlingit best friend. But kitchen counter statues and otter bone ceremonies aren’t enough when his estranged daughter returns from prison, swearing she’s clean and sober. Her search for a safe harbor threatens everything Ray holds sacred. Set against a backdrop of ice and mud and loss, this debut novel explores the unpredictable fissures of memory, and how families can break apart, even in the midst of healing.

    There is a growing concern among many that the West is sliding into political, economic, and moral bankruptcy. In his beloved novels of Middle-Earth, J.R.R. Tolkien has drawn us a map to freedom.Scholar Joseph Pearce, who himself has written articles and chapters on the political significance of Tolkien s work, testified in his book "Literary Giants, Literary Catholics," If much has been written on the religious significance of "The Lord of the Rings," less has been written on its political significance and the little that has been written is often erroneous in its conclusions and ignorant of Tolkien s intentions . Much more work is needed in this area, not least because Tolkien stated, implicitly at least, that the political significance of the work was second only to the religious in its importance.Several books ably explore how Tolkien's Catholic faith informed his fiction. None until now have centered on how his passion for liberty and limited government also shaped his work, or how this passion grew directly from his theological vision of man and creation. "The Hobbit Party" fills this void.The few existing pieces that do focus on the subject are mostly written by scholars with little or no formal training in literary analysis, and even less training in political economy. Witt and Richards bring to "The Hobbit Party" a combined expertise in literary studies, political theory, economics, philosophy, and theology."

    Now in a landmark two-volume collection, The Library of America presents sixteen enduring masterpieces charting the Broadway musical’s narrative tradition from the groundbreaking Show Boat (1927) through the genre’s Golden Age to its response to the turbulent 1960s with the Tony Award–winning shows Cabaret and 1776. Based on new research, this historic collection presents the complete libretto of each musical in its Broadway opening night version, making these beloved stories available as never before. Irving Berlin and Moss Hart’s As Thousands Cheer is published here for the first time. Show Boat and Pal Joey are presented in newly restored versions. Seven other shows, including South Pacific, Guys and Dolls, and My Fair Lady, return to print for the first time in decades.   Each of these classic musicals has evolved over time, receiving many important revivals and new productions.  This Library of America boxed set offers readers unprecedented insight into this living history with a selection of hard-to-find or previously unpublished supplementary items, including lyrics of songs dropped out-of-town or added in later revivals. Lavishly illustrated­­ with 64 pages of photographs and other images drawn from the original productions, the set also contains biographical sketches of the book writers and lyricists; cast lists and other information about the shows’ Broadway openings; and detailed accounts of the path each show took on the road to Broadway. As a special feature, the box includes 16 full-color postcards reproducing the original show posters.AMERICAN MUSICALS contains:   Show Boat Book and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II · Music by Jerome Kern  As Thousands Cheer Lyrics and music by Irving Berlin · Sketches by Moss Hart  Pal Joey Book by John O’Hara · Music by Richard Rodgers ·  Lyrics by Lorenz Hart  Oklahoma! Music by Richard Rodgers · Book and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II  On the Town Book and lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green · Music by Leonard Bernstein  Finian’s Rainbow Music by Burton Lane  ·  Lyrics by E. Y. Harburg · Book by Fred Saidy and E. Y. Harburg  Kiss Me, Kate Music and lyrics by Cole Porter · Book by Sam[uel] and Bella Spewack  South Pacific Music by Richard Rodgers ·  Book and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II  Guys and Dolls Music and lyrics by Frank Loesser · Book by Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows  The Pajama Game Book by George Abbott and Richard Bissell · Music and lyrics by Richard Adler and Jerry Ross  My Fair Lady Adaptation and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner · Music by Frederick Loewe  Gypsy Book by Arthur Laurents · Music by Jule Styne Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim    A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum Book by Larry Gelbart and Burt Shevelove · Lyrics and music by Stephen Sondheim  Fiddler on the Roof Book by Joseph Stein · Music by Jerry Bock · Lyrics by Sheldon Harnick  Cabaret Book by Joe Masteroff · Music by John Kander · Lyrics by Fred Ebb  1776 Music and lyrics by Sherman Edwards ·  Book by Peter Stone

    * Annotated with concise introduction, including analysis of Plato's works as well as modern view on Plato's ideas. * Original footnotes are hyperlinked for easy reference. * The collection includes alphabetical and categorical indexes of Plato's works. * Each book features its own active Table of Contents. * Includes Plato's Biography. * Includes Plato's most famous quotes. * All Annotated Classics books are beautifully designed for easy reading and navigation on e-Readers and mobile devices. CONTENTS: EARLY DIALOGUES: Apology Charmides Crito Euthyphro First Alcibiades Hippias Major Hippias Minor Ion Laches, or; Courage Lysis, or; Friendship TRANSITIONAL AND MIDDLE DIALOGUES: Cratylus Euthydemus Gorgias Menexenus Meno Phaedo Protagoras Symposium LATER MIDDLE DIALOGUES: The Republic Phaedrus Parmenides Theaetetus LATE DIALOGUES: Clitopho Timaeus Critias Sophist Statesman Philebus Laws OF DOUBTFUL AUTHENTICITY: Axiochus; or On Death Demodocus Epinomis, or The Philosopher Epistles Eryxias, or On Wealth Halcyon Hipparchus Minos On Justice On Virtue The Rivals Second Alcibiades Sisyphus, or, Upon taking Counsel Theages BIOGRAPHY & CRITICISM Plato Biography Plato by Diogenes Laërtius Plato by Elbert Hubbard Plato; or, the Philosopher by Ralph Waldo Emerson Plato and Platonism by Walter Pater Introduction to the Philosophy and Writings of Plato by Thomas Taylor QUOTES & ANALYSIS Quotes Works' Analysis

    When she arrives home to find her brother battered, she makes the decision to leave forever, but before she can escape her childhood in northern California, a phone call drags her back with news she never thought she’d be able to handle. Is it possible to break patterns that have been generations in the making? Valentine doesn’t know for sure, but won’t go down without trying. As you leave Valentine in present day, twenty years earlier you’ll find Theresa, thirteen-years-old and pregnant, thrown out of a perfectly charmed life by her mother, Caroline. Theresa fights to navigate her new existence on the streets in a shelter for girls, keeping hope alive that someday she will return home to the life she has always known. Twenty years before that, Caroline is a picture-perfect housewife, married to the chief of police, caring for three children, and detesting every moment of it. The lie that she lives is too big to conceal, and when the doorbell rings and she’s forced to stare it down on her own front step, the fate of Valentine and Theresa unfold. Nesting Dolls is a novel telling the stories of three generations of women within a family and how their choices, lies, loves, and journeys connect and influence each other.