Elliot, a Soldier's Fugue


Quiara Alegría Hudes - 2008
    DramaFull LengthCast: 3 men, 1 woman: 4 totalSetting: EXTERIORTHE STORY: Tracing the legacy of war through three generations of a Puerto Rican family, the play focuses on nineteen-year-old Elliot, a recently anointed hometown hero who returns from Iraq with a leg injury and a difficult question: Will he go back to war a second time? While on leave, Elliot learns the stories of his father and grandfather who served in Korea and Vietnam before him.

Crabwalk


Günter Grass - 2002
    A German cruise ship turned refugee carrier, it was attacked by a Soviet submarine in January 1945. Some 9,000 people went down in the Baltic Sea, making it the deadliest maritime disaster of all time. Born to an unwed mother on a lifeboat the night of the attack, Paul Pokriefke is a middle-aged journalist trying to piece together the tragic events. While his mother sees her whole existence in terms of that calamitous moment, Paul wishes their life could have been less touched by the past. For his teenage son, who dabbles in the dark, far-right corners of the Internet, the Gustloff embodies the denial of Germany's wartime suffering. "Scuttling backward to move forward," Crabwalk is at once a captivating tale of a tragedy at sea and a fearless examination of the ways different generations of Germans now view their past.Winner of the Nobel Prize

The Third Terrorist: The Middle East Connection to the Oklahoma City Bombing


Jayna Davis - 2004
    They were part of a greater scheme, one which involved Islamic terrorists and at least one provable link to Iraq. This book, written by the relentless reporter who first broke the story of the Mideast connection, is filled with new revelations about the case and explains in full detail the complete, and so far untold, story behind the failed investigation-why the FBI closed the door, what further evidence exists to prove the Iraqi connection, why it has been ignored, and what makes it more relevant now than ever. Told with a gripping narrative style and rock-solid investigative journalism and vetted by men such as former CIA director James Woolsey, Davis's piercing account is the first book to set the record straight about what really happened April 19, 1995.

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street


Stephen Sondheim - 1974
    Dunstan's Church, just a few blocks away from the Royal Courts of Justice. On this site, they say, he robbed and murdered more than 150 customers. To dispose of their remains, he carried them through underground tunnels to the bakery of one Mrs. Lovett a few blocks away, where they supplied the stuffing for her meat pies, the favorite mid-day repast of the lawyers who worked nearby and got their shaves from Sweeney Todd. The man you lunched with yesterday could be your lunch today!The story first appeared in 1846 as a best-selling "penny dreadful", a sensational thriller published in installments. Before the final chapters even had a chance to hit the stands, the first stage version was packing them in at the Royal Britannia Saloon. Since then, there have been numerous stage and literary versions of the story.This script has been specially commissioned by Blackstone Audio, Inc., based on the original sources of the tale.

Another Part of the Forest


Lillian Hellman - 1948
    Marcus Hubbard, rich, despotic and despised, made a fortune during the Civil War by running the blockade and worse. In his family life he is equally injurious: one son he bulldozes while the other he holds in contempt for his frailty. By Marcus's side stands his mentally deranged wife and, finally, Regina, the adored daughter amoral, conniving, and beautiful as an evil flower. Marcus, it would seem, has been on the top of the heap long enough and someone must depose him. Turning the tables on a tyrant has always made for high drama, and when Hellman puts her brilliant talents to work on such a theme the result is a play of great theatrical intensity.

Proof


David Auburn - 2000
    His death has brought into her midst both her sister, Claire, who wants to take Catherine back to New York with her, and Hal, a former student of Catherine's father who hopes to find some hint of Robert's genius among his incoherent scribblings. The passion that Hal feels for math both moves and angers Catherine, who, in her exhaustion, is torn between missing her father and resenting the great sacrifices she made for him. For Catherine has inherited at least a part of her father's brilliance -- and perhaps some of his instability as well. As she and Hal become attracted to each other, they push at the edges of each other's knowledge, considering not only the unpredictability of genius but also the human instinct toward love and trust.

The Best American Sports Writing of the Century


David Halberstam - 1994
    The sports page chronicles man's triumphs." So the adage goes, never more true than when surveying 100 years of American history through its coverage of sports. From Bobby Knight to Bobby Fischer, from Secretariat to Sugar Ray, from Butkus to the Babe, the 20th century abounds with classic figures in sports history. Their compelling stories fuel our collective memory. In the pieces assembled here, The Best American Sports Writing of the Century captures these indelible moments in words worth a thousand pictures. Working with series editor Glenn Stout (Best American Sports Writing 1999 etc.), Pulitzer-Prize winner David Halberstam (The Summer of '49, Playing For Keeps:Michael Jordan & the World He Made) selects the century's most engaging sports journalism. While the task was surely a challenge, the result is a near-seamless retrospective of contemporary athleticism. The pieces are contemporaneous with the events recounted, infusing the entire collection with an intimate immediacy. You are there — with Joe DiMaggio, Junior Johnson, Muhammad Ali, Branch Rickey — again & again. The writing is uniformly excellent, mixing some familiar choices with otherwise overlooked gems. However, one criticism must be noted: This is for fans of men's endeavors, for women hardly appear in the 800-plus pages. No exquisite essays on Wilma Rudolph's struggles to achieve Olympic gold. No mention of Chris Evert's importance to tennis. No hymns of praise for Peggy Fleming's inspiring skating. Nohyperboleabout Shirley Muldowney's drag racing prowess. No Mary Decker, no Nancy Lopez, no Picabo Street. Perhaps a companion volume is in the offing. For capturing 10 decades of achievement by the men, tho, no tribute could be finer. Whether rejoicing on the quietude of fishing (Thomas McGuane, The Longest Silence, 1969) or the cacophony of Bobby Thomson's pennant-winning heroics (Red Smith, Miracle of Coogan's Bluff, 1951), the writing is evocative and timeless. Some athletic greats are viewed as their careers are poised to explode (Tiger Woods in 1997's The Chosen One, by Gary Smith). Others are glimpsed in the rearview mirror: DiMaggio in 1966's The Silent Season of a Hero, by Gay Talese; Ty Cobb in 1961's The Fight to Live, by Al Stump; & Billy Conigliaro in 1989's "A Brother's Keeper," by Mike Lupica. In a marvelous choice, Halberstam concludes the book with six essays on Ali. The selections represent the full spectrum of his athletic and public career, from cocksure Cassius Marcellus Clay (Murray Kempton, "The Champ and the Chump," 1964) to reflective disciple of Islam (Dick Schaap, "Muhammad Ali Then and Now," 1971) to resurrected warrior in Manila (Mark Kram, "Lawdy, Lawdy, He's Great," 1975) & beyond.

Three Restoration Comedies: The Man of Mode; The Country Wife; Love for love


Gamini Salgado - 1968
    Artificial, irreverent, and bawdy, the Restoration theatre came as a violent reaction to the strict ordinance of the Commonwealth.

The Barber of Seville / The Marriage of Figaro


Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais - 1964
    A highly engaging comedy of intrigue, The Barber of Seville portrays the resourceful Figaro foiling a jealous old man's attempts to keep his beautiful ward from her lover. The Marriage of Figaro — condemned by Louis XVI for its daring satire of nobility and privilege — depicts a master and servant set in opposition by their desire for the same woman. With characteristic lightness of touch, Beaumarchais created an audacious farce of disguise and mistaken identity that balances wit, frivolity and seriousness in equal measure.John Wood's lively translation is accompanied by an introduction discussing the author's turbulent life and multifarious careers, and examines each play in detail. This edition also includes Beaumarchais's notes on the characters and costumes.'He has everything — pleasantry, seriousness, reason, vigour, pathos, eloquence of every kind' VOLTAIRE

Chicken Soup with Barley


Arnold Wesker - 1984
    It vividly captures the loss of political idealism and links the journey of a single family to the wider political situation.The kettle boils in 1936 as the fascists are marching. Tea is brewed in 1946, with disillusion in the air at the end of the war. Twenty years on, in 1956, as rumors spread of Hungarian revolution, the cup is empty.Sarah Khan, an East End Jewish mother, is a feisty political fighter and a staunch communist. Battling against the State and her shirking husband she desperately tries to keep her family together.This landmark state-of-the-nation play is a panoramic drama portraying the age-old battle between realism and idealism. Chicken Soup captures the collapse of an ideology alongside the disintegration of a family.Chicken Soup with Barley, the first in a trilogy that includes Roots and I'm Talking about Jerusalem was first performed at the Belgrade Theatre, Coventry in 1958 and transferred to the Royal Court in the same year.

Can't Find My Way Home: America in the Great Stoned Age, 1945-2000


Martin Torgoff - 2004
    In Can't Find My Way Home, journalist and filmmaker Martin Torgoff chronicles what a long strange trip it's been as the American Century became the Great Stoned Age. Weaving together first-person accounts and historical background, Can't Find My Way Home is a narrative vast in scope yet rich in intimate detail. Torgoff tells the stories of those whose lives became synonymous with the drug culture, from Charlie Parker, Allen Ginsberg, Timothy Leary, and John Belushi to ordinary people who felt their consciousness "expanded" or who plumbed the depths of addiction. He also examines the broader impact of drugs on society and politics, from the war on drugs to the recovery movement, and the continuing debate over drug policy. A vivid work of cultural history that neither demonizes nor romanticizes its subject, Can't Find My Way Home is a provocative and fascinating look at how drugs have entered the American mainstream.

The Last Days of Mankind


Karl Kraus - 1918
    Kraus began to write the play in 1915 and first published it as a series of special Fackel issues in 1919. Its epilogue, "Die letzte Nacht" ("The last night") had already been published in 1918 as a special issue.This edition was abridged and edited by Frederick Ungar. It contains an introduction by the editor and critical analysis by Franz H. Mautner.

The Specter of Communism: The United States and the Origins of the Cold War, 1917-1953


Melvyn P. Leffler - 1994
    The Specter of Communism is a concise history of the origins of the Cold War and the evolution of U.S.-Soviet relations, from the Bolshevik revolution to the death of Stalin. Using not only American documents but also those from newly opened archives in Russia, China, and Eastern Europe, Leffler shows how the ideological animosity that existed from Lenin's seizure of power onward turned into dangerous confrontation. By focusing on American political culture and American anxieties about the Soviet political and economic threat, Leffler suggests new ways of understanding the global struggle staged by the two great powers of the postwar era.

Paris in the Terror


Stanley Loomis - 1964
    Charlotte Corday...Danton...Mme Roland...Robespierre...Camille Desmoulins...Fouche.The murder of Marat: July 1793The trail of Danton: April 1794The end of Robespierre: July 1794BibliographyIndex

The Fourth K


Mario Puzo - 1990
    AN ARAB TERRORIST ATTACK. DEMOCRACY UNDER SIEGE. Mario Puzo envisioned it all in his eerily prescient 1991 novel, The Fourth K.President Francis Xavier Kennedy is elected to office, in large part, thanks to the legacy of his forebears– good looks, privilege, wealth–and is the very embodiment of youthful optimism. Too soon, however, he is beaten down by the political process and, disabused of his ideals, he becomes a leader totally unlike what he has been before. When his daughter becomes a pawn in a brutal terrorist plot, Kennedy, who has obsessively kept alive the memory of his uncles’ assassinations, activates all his power to retaliate in a series of violent measures. As the explosive events unfold, the world and those closest to him look on with both awe and horror.