Book picks similar to
If Not Critical by Eric Griffiths


literary-criticism
non-fiction
cultural-history
nonfiction

Attack of the Copula Spiders: Essays on Writing


Douglas Glover - 2012
    Forster, John Gardner, and James Wood, Douglas Glover has produced a book on writing at once erudite, anecdotal, instructive, and amusing. Attack of the Copula Spiders represents the accumulated wisdom of a remarkable literary career: novelist, short story writer, essayist, teacher and mentor, Glover has for decades been asking the vital questions. How does the way we read influence the way we write? What do craft books fail to teach aspiring writers about theme, about plot and subplot, about constructing point of view? How can we maintain drama on the level of the sentence—and explain drama in the sentences of others? What is the relationship of form and art? How do you make words live?Whether his subject is Alice Munro, Cervantes, or the creative writing classroom, Glover’s take is frank and fresh, demonstrating again and again that graceful writers must first be strong readers. This collection is a call-to-arms for all lovers of English, and Attack of the Copula Spiders our best defense against the assaults of a post-literate age.Douglas Glover is the award-winning author of five story collections, four novels, and two works of non-fiction. He is currently on the faculty of the Vermont College of Fine Arts MFA in Writing program.Praise for Douglas Glover"A master of narrative structure." - Darin Strauss, author of Half a Life, Wall Street Journal"So sharp, so evocative, that the reader sees well beyond the tissue of words into ... the author's poetic grace." - The New Yorker"Glover invents his own assembly of critical approaches and theories that is eclectic, personal, scholarly, and smart ... a direction for future literary criticism to take." - The Denver Quarterly"A ribald, raunchy wit with a talent for searing self-investigation." - The Globe and Mail"Knotty, intelligent, often raucously funny." - Maclean's"Passionately intricate." - The Chicago Tribune"Darkly humorous, simultaneously restless and relentless." - Kirkus Reviews

The Hatred of Poetry


Ben Lerner - 2016
    It's even bemoaned by poets: "I, too, dislike it," wrote Marianne Moore. "Many more people agree they hate poetry," Ben Lerner writes, "than can agree what poetry is. I, too, dislike it and have largely organized my life around it and do not experience that as a contradiction because poetry and the hatred of poetry are inextricable in ways it is my purpose to explore."In this inventive and lucid essay, Lerner takes the hatred of poetry as the starting point of his defense of the art. He examines poetry's greatest haters (beginning with Plato's famous claim that an ideal city had no place for poets, who would only corrupt and mislead the young) and both its greatest and worst practitioners, providing inspired close readings of Keats, Dickinson, McGonagall, Whitman, and others. Throughout, he attempts to explain the noble failure at the heart of every truly great and truly horrible poem: the impulse to launch the experience of an individual into a timeless communal existence. In The Hatred of Poetry, Lerner has crafted an entertaining, personal, and entirely original examination of a vocation no less essential for being impossible.

Good Morning Nantwich: Adventures in Breakfast Radio


Phill Jupitus - 2009
    Penned by a former breakfast radio DJ on BBC 6 Music, access is granted to some of the country's brightest and best loved DJs and stations—from Terry Wogan, Chris Moyles, Johnny Vaughan, and Tony Blackburn to Heart and Capital, BBC Radio 1, and the R4's Today show. The biggest DJs and most popular shows in the country are covered, conducting an eye-opening journey through the teams who start off the morning for the general public, explanations of how they do it, and more importantly, why the British people are as in love with breakfast radio now as they ever were. Breakfast shows on local and even hospital radio are also explored, underscoring the importance of the most celebrated shows for these stations as well. From the playlists and controllers to the jingles and jokes, this hilarious handbook portrays the breakfast DJ as “celebrity,” making for a mischievous odyssey through the denizens of daybreak.

The Machine in the Garden: Technology and the Pastoral Ideal in America


Leo Marx - 1964
    His research helped to define--and continues to give depth to--the area of American studies concerned with the links between scientific and technological advances, and the way society and culture both determine these links. The Machine in the Garden fully examines the difference between the pastoral and progressive ideals which characterized early 19th-century American culture, and which ultimately evolved into the basis for much of the environmental and nuclear debates of contemporary society.This new edition is appearing in celebration of the 35th anniversary of Marx's classic text. It features a new afterword by the author on the process of writing this pioneering book, a work that all but founded the discipline now called American Studies.

La Folie Baudelaire


Roberto Calasso - 2008
    Calasso ranges through Baudelaire's life and work, focusing on two painters—Ingres and Delacroix—about whom Baudelaire wrote acutely, and then turns to Degas and Manet, who followed in the tracks Baudelaire laid down in his great essay "The Painter of Modern Life." In Calasso's lavishly illustrated mosaic of stories, insights, close readings of poems, and commentaries on paintings, Baudelaire's Paris comes brilliantly to life. In the eighteenth century, a folie was a garden pavilion set aside for people of leisure, a place of delight and fantasy. Following Baudelaire, Calasso has created a brilliant and dramatic "Folie Baudelaire"—a place where the reader can encounter the poet himself, his peers, his city, and his extraordinary likes and dislikes, finally discovering that that place is situated in the middle of the land of "absolute literature."

Kiss and Sell: The Making of a Supergroup


C.K. Lendt - 1997
    The unauthorized behind-the-scenes story of the making and marketing of one of rock's original supergroups, viewed from the perspective of an executive from Kiss's business management team.

Hollywood Untold: The true and incredible stories of some of Hollywood’s biggest and best known stars, but never before told . (Little Known Facts Book 1002)


Chaz Allen - 2017
    These are the true and incredible stories of some of Hollywood’s biggest and best known stars, but never before told . Every story has been researched and verified, no matter how surprising or out of character it may seem to the public, for some of the world’s best known people. * "This book is a pure delight." - Daily Oklahoman * " The research is incredible and told in a most      entertaining fashion." - Houston Courier * " Chaz does it again!  This time a Best Seller!      - Blake's Review * " I read until my eyes hurt and still couldn't      put it down." -  Dexter. MacBride      - Columbia Review. *  "A Winner!" - Ray Hibbard, Edmond Life & Leisure. * “A surprise on every page. Fantastic true stories. We loved having Little Known Facts on our radio station for more than 10 years.” - Craig Stallcup – NetRadio Boston * “I could forget the news and nobody would notice. But forget to air Little Known Facts and I would get 30 phone calls.”– Matt Batton – WPRG Radio * “What a fantastic way to spend a few hours. I love these stories of my friends and fellow actors.” - Dale Robertson, Actor, Host. * “Chaz is a dear friend. I can attest to many of these stories personally. What a pleasure to see them put together in one place.” - Tony Randall, Actor -What famous woman movie star invented the snooze alarm? - What famous woman television personality was a spy in WWII? - Did you know it was a glamorous woman movie star who invented the secret codes to direct navy topedos... - Which famous star was the real impetus for the movie Pretty Woman - The Beverly Hillbillies really existed - Which famous movie star was actually AWOL from the Army - Which famous Hollywood hunk was actually a Mailman - Which television star was responsible for one of the biggest toy crazes in history - Which famous comedy star was once completely blind And many many more.

How to Publish Books on Amazon & Sell A Million Copies Using Kindle, Print & Audio Book


Glenn Langohr - 2015
    Discover how to Publish Books on Amazon & Sell A Million Copies Using Kindle, Print & Audio Book~ ON SALE FOR A LIMITED TIME FOR 0.99, USUALLY 3.99This Writing Guide is the # 1 Way to Learn The Entire Publishing Process on Amazon & Covers: How To Write More BooksHow To Find Which Categories to Publish InHow To Master Kindle Direct PublishingHow to Master Facebook MarketingHow to Master Product Descriptions (Synopsis)How to Use Community ForumsHow to Launch Book Promotions to Climb The Amazon RankingsHow To Master Print Publishing Using CreatespaceHow To Master Publishing Audio Books Using ACXHow To Remake Public Domain Books & Much More!

Forever Young: The Story of Adrian Doherty, Football's Lost Genius


Oliver Kay - 2016
    For one thing, he was blessed with extraordinary talent. Those who played alongside and watched him in the Manchester United youth team in the early 1990s insist he was as good as Ryan Giggs - possibly even better. Giggs, who played on the opposite wing, says he is inclined to agree.Doherty was also an eccentric - by football standards, at least. When his colleagues went to Old Trafford to watch the first team on Saturday afternoons, he preferred to take the bus into Manchester to go busking. He wore second-hand clothes, worshipped Bob Dylan, read about theology and French existentialism and wrote songs and poems. One team-mate says "it was like having Bob Dylan in a No 7 shirt".On his 17th birthday, Doherty was offered a five-year contract - unprecedented for a United youngster at that time - and told by Alex Ferguson that he was destined for stardom. But what followed over the next decade is a tale so mysterious, so shocking, so unusual, so amusing but ultimately so tragic, that you are left wondering how on earth it has been untold for so long.The stories of Doherty's contemporaries, that group of Manchester United youngsters who became known as the "Class of '92", are well known. Giggs ended up as the most decorated player in United's history; David Beckham became the most recognisable footballer on the planet; Gary Neville, Paul Scholes and others are household names. The story you don't know is about the player who, having had the world at his feet, died the day before his 27th birthday following an accident in a canal in Holland.

Leadership is Hell: How to Manage Well - And Escape with your Soul


Rob Asghar - 2014
    This book punctures that misguided myth—and it will liberate you from others’ expectations and from your own illusions about success. This book is a practical manual for leading the right way and for the right reasons. It explores how to identify and overcome the blind spots that may be hurting your career; whether you have the right mindset for the kind of success that you’re seeking; how to develop just the right amount of “healthy ego” to make an impact; and how to make an impact on the world in a way that’s true to who you are (be forewarned, this might involve a completely different path than your current one). This book will take you on a journey, showing you famous figures from history and the present—some who got it right, and some who didn’t. You’ll look at seven roads to hell within the world of leadership, and seven roads out of hell, to guide you safely to a meaningful legacy. All royalties support the University of Southern California’s Neighborhood Academic Initiative to prepare local urban schoolchildren for college.

Welcome to Hell?: In Search of the Real Turkish Football


John McManus - 2019
    

Reading Laurell K. Hamilton


Candace R. Benefiel - 2011
    Hamilton was reshaping the image of the vampire with her own take on the vampire mythos in her Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter fantasy novel series. While Hamilton's work draws on traditional vampire and fairy lore, her interpretation of these subjects brought new dimensions to the genres, influencing the direction of urban fantasy over the past two decades.Reading Laurell K. Hamilton focuses upon Hamilton's two bestselling series, the Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter series and the Merry Gentry series. The volume is intended as a resource for leaders of book clubs or discussion groups, containing chapters that examine Hamilton's role in the current vampire literature craze, the themes and characters in her work, and responses to Hamilton on the Internet. The book also provides a brief overview of Hamilton's life.

Triple Sticks: Tales of a Few Young Men in the 1960s


Bernie Fipp - 2010
    The author assures us it is not!Three years before they came together, four young American men left their fraternities and college campuses for an adventure exceeding their imaginations. Wanting something more than the draft and unknown to each other, they chose Naval Aviation as the next step in their lives. Generally, they were better than their navy peers, all qualifying for high performance aircraft to be flown from steel decks over foreign seas. They would become the pointy end of the stick in aerial battles over North Vietnam, the most heavily defended patch of real estate in the history of aerial warfare. They were to do this in 1967, the year in which Naval Aviation experienced its greatest losses.These four young men, now Lieutenants Junior Grade, United States Navy, were ordered to Attack Squadron 34 to fly A4 Skyhawks into combat. They were assigned Junior Officer's stateroom 0111 aboard USS Intrepid, a venerable aircraft carrier with a distinguished history. This "bunkroom" better known to them as Triple Sticks was the repository for a log (in navy terms) or journal written by these four young aviators. Forty years later this log was the genesis of this memoir.In the lethal environment over the northern reaches of North Vietnam or ashore in the Officer's clubs and bars of Asia, the writing brings to life wonderful humor, bizarre behavior, vivid aerial battles, uncommon loyalty, anger, frustration and respect. One survived or did not according to his skill and luck.

The Teacher's Guide to Self-Care: Build Resilience, Avoid Burnout, and Bring a Happier and Healthier You to the Classroom


Sarah Forst - 2020
    

Silver Dolphins: The Emblem of the Enlisted Submariner


Richard Hansher - 2015
    The author doesn't pull any punches describing the good, the bad, the funny and the just plain ridiculous of the Submarine Service. Besides a wealth of information about what it's like to serve on a submarine, you'll meet real life characters like Tongue, Snake and Button Butt John. Did submarines make them rude, crude, and crazy. Or does the Submarine Service act as a magnet for every nut in the Navy? One thing is sure, after two months underwater, and with their back pay in their back pocket, Sub Sailors are as wild as cowboys after a cattle drive. Bar the doors and hide your daughters. Every reader owes it to themselves to use Amazons "Look In" feature to take a peek inside this unique and entertaining book.