I’m the ditzy one that gives blondes a bad name’. Cappuccino and Chick-Chat is a riotous read about Debbie Viggiano’s candid observations in her often-chaotic world. Whether it’s losing her car, attempting cosmic ordering, freaking herself out manifesting a can of cola, or buying sweaters in shades that flatter her frequently flushed face, Debbie takes her reader on a madcap journey while trying to see the lighter side of life. It’s the perfect bedtime read. What readers are saying about Debbie’s books: ‘My favourite book this year… had me literally LAUGHING OUT LOUD… This book had me laughing and crying. I loved it and recommend it for everyone!’ Being Miss Meg, 5 stars ‘Absolutely hilarious. It is so easy for any woman to relate to this book… sooooo good. I read this in just a few hours as I simply couldn’t put it down. Go and grab your copy now. It’s one everyone will be talking about this year.’ Goodreads reviewer, 5 stars ‘Wow!... Honest, heartfelt and totally hilarious! Such an amazing read, I found myself either smiling or laughing constantly... Bl**dy brilliant!! I love it!... a must read for every woman this summer.’ Goodreads reviewer, 5 stars ‘Made me smile, giggle and laugh out loud. I loved it and would recommend it to anyone.’ Goodreads reviewer, 5 stars ‘Funny from the very beginning until the end, and there were some laugh out loud moments which I loved… I was reading this at 2am!... had me giggling away. I ended up reading this in one sitting, I just couldn't put it down. Thanks for one hell of a laugh Debbie!’The Bookend Reviews, 5 stars ‘Loved this book from the very first word.’ Goodreads reviewer, 5 stars ‘My first read of Debbie Viggiano, and I can't wait to read more!... Entertaining from beginning to end.’ Goodreads reviewer, 5 stars ‘Funny from beginning to end… quite often had me nodding in recognition of some of the situations.’ A Good Book and a Brew, 5 stars ‘OMGoodness – what a treat… a chuckly book, with a light heart.’ Goodreads reviewer, 5 stars ‘This author certainly knows how to make you laugh.’ 5 stars, B for Book Review,

    In this superb anthology can be found the best of the English-speaking world’s inspirational and reassuring verse, including such classics as Rudyard Kipling’s ‘If’ and W.H. Davies’ ‘Leisure’. This beautifully illustrated collection of over 120 poems is sure to offer solace, hearten the soul and motivate the human spirit.

    Her father, determined to improve the family’s lot, relocates to Georgia.Ezekiel Salter scrimps to buy a ticket in Georgia’s 1807 Land Lottery, wins, and he and his impoverished family head west to newly-created Murcheson County.Prominent since colonial times, the Underwoods foresee the growing demand for cotton and acquire extensive acreage in newly-opened lands in central Georgia. Dispatched by his father, Jacob Underwood begins construction of Poplar Grove plantation.And, the slave known as Gant, his wife and daughter, Lucey, have no say as to their destination…the highest bidder will decide for them…and if the family remains intact.Spanning over fifty years, Murcheson County chronicles the four families’ fortunes against the backdrop of the most turbulent time in American history.An epic saga of slavery, emancipation, war and hardship, Murcheson County will remain in your heart long after the winds of war have stopped blowing.

    W. Norton in 1993, now out of print. In Walking Light, Dunn discusses the relationship between art and sport, the role of imagination in writing poetry, and the necessity for surprise and discovery when writing a poem. Humorous, intelligent and accessible, Walking Light is a book that will appeal to writers, readers, and teachers of poetry.Stephen Dunn is the author of eleven collection of poetry. He teaches writing and literature at the Richard Stockton College in Pomona, New Jersey, and lives in Port Republic, New Jersey.

    Editor Stephen Cope has made a judicious selection of Oppen's extant writings outside of poetry, including the essay "The Mind's Own Place" as well as "Twenty-Six Fragments," which were found on the wall of Oppen's study after his death. Most notable are Oppen's "Daybooks," composed in the decade following his return to poetry in 1958. iSelected Prose, Daybooks, and Papers is an inspiring portrait of this essential writer and a testament to the creative process itself.

    Translation of: Orphee noir, originally published 1948 as the preface to Anthologie de la nouvelle poesie negre et malgache de langue francaise, edited by Leopold Sedar Senghor.

    

    From a first reading of Beckett and Faulkner at the feet of an inspirational high-school English teacher to a meeting of the P. G. Wodehouse Society, from an obsession with Nabokov's Lolita to the discovery of the Japanese epic The Tale of Genji, these essays chronicle a lifetime of literary enjoyment.The crime of his life --The quest for Scrivener --Talismans --Maxims, etc. --Heart of the matter --Bookman's Saturday --Supplementary materials --Listening to my father --Romantic scholarship --Weekend with Wodehouse --An abecedary --Mr. Wright --Heian holiday --Childhood's end --The one and the many --Commencement advice --Four novels and a memoir --The October country --Bookish fantasies --Pages on life's way --A garland for Max --Read at whim! --Comedy tonight --Light of other days --Data daze --Four-leaf clovers --Sez who? --Lament for a maker --Clubland --The learning channels --Guy Davenport --Eros by any other name --Frank confessions --Mememormee --Tomes for tots --Three classics --Vacation reading --One more modest proposal --Shake scenes --After strange books --Awful bits --Turning 50 --Blame it on books --On the road not taken --Excursion --Millennial readings

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

    Additional narrators include Geoffrey Palmer O.B.E., Sir Donald Sinden, and Elaine Stritch. Music: 'Reverie De Sebastian' by Steve Davies.

    In this one celebratory volume, the reader is exposed to the free-ranging thoughts of one of the century's most brilliant minds--Kenzaburo Oe, winner of the 1994 Nobel Prize in Literature--who offers his message for mankind as well as a selection of his most penetrating essays on themes varying from Hiroshima to the state of modern fiction.

    According to Wikipedia: "Jack London (12 January, 1876 – 22 November, 1916) was an American author who wrote The Call of the Wild and other books. A pioneer in the then-burgeoning world of commercial magazine fiction, he was one of the first Americans to make a lucrative career exclusively from writing."

    In one, we sit with the teenage Mark Strand while he reads for the first time a poem that truly amazes him: "You, Andrew Marvell" by Archibald MacLeish, in which night sweeps in an unstoppable but exhilarating circle around the earth toward the speaker standing at noon. The essay goes on to explicate the poem, but it also evokes, through its form and content, the poem's meaning -- time's circular passage -- with the young Strand first happening upon the poem, the older Strand seeing into it differently, but still amazed. Among the other subjects Strand explores: the relationship between photographs and poems, the eternal nature of the lyric, the contemporary use of old forms, four American views of Parnassus, and an alphabet of poetic influences.We visit as well Strandian parallel universes, whose absurdity illuminates the lack of a vital discussion of poetry in our culture at large: Borges drops in on a man taking a bath, perches on the edge of the tub, and discusses translation; a president explains in his farewell address why he reads Chekhov to his cabinet.Throughout The Weather of Words, Mark Strand explores the crucial job of poets and their readers, who together joyfully attempt the impossible -- to understand through language that which lies beyond words.From the Hardcover edition.

    A team of contemporary fiction scholars from both sides of the Atlantic has been assembled to provide a thorough and readable analysis of each of the novels in question. The books in the series will all follow the same structure:a biography of the novelist, including other works, influences, and, in some cases, an interview; a full-length study of the novel, drawing out the most important themes and ideas; a summary of how the novel was received upon publication; a summary of how the novel has performed since publication, including film or TV adaptations, literary prizes, etc.; a wide range of suggestions for further reading, including websites and discussion forums; and a list of questions for reading groups to discuss.

    No Path in Darjeeling Is Straight is a memory of his time in the iconic town, and one of the finest works of Indian non-fiction in recent years.Parimal evocatively describes his arrival, through drizzle and impenetrable fog, at a place that was at odds with the grand picture of it he had painted for himself. And his first night there was spent sleepless in a ramshackle hotel above a butcher's shop. Yet, as he tramped its roads and winding footpaths, Darjeeling grew on him. He sought out its history: a land of incomparable beauty originally inhabited by the Lepchas and other tribes; the British who took it for themselves in the mid-1800s so they could remember home; the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway--once a vital artery, now a quaint toy train--built in 1881; and the vast tea gardens with which the British replaced verdant forests to produce the fabled Orange Pekoe.In the enmeshed lives of his neighbours--of various castes, tribes, religions and cultures--lived at the measured pace of a small town, Parimal discovered a richly cosmopolitan society which endured even under threat from cynical politics and haphazard urbanization. He also found new friends: Benson, a colleague whose death from AIDS showed him the dark underbelly of the hill station; Pratap and Newton, whose homes and lives reflected the irreconcilable pulls of tradition and upward mobility; and Julia and Hemant, with whom he trekked the forests of the Singalila mountains in search of a vanished Lepcha village and a salamander long thought extinct.With empathy, and in shimmering prose, No Path in Darjeeling Is Straight effortlessly merges travel, history, literature, memory, politics and the pleasures of ennui into an unforgettable portrait of a place and its people.