Book picks similar to
Around the World in the Cinemas of Paris by Theodore Dalrymple
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Human Achievement
David Shrigley - 2002
Human Achievement collects new truths, anxieties, and amusements from the mundane to the surreal in an addictively strange and entertaining picket-sized primer that welcomes the uninitiated and rewards the faithful.
Happiness: Ten Years of n+1
n+1 - 2014
n+1 appeared in the fall of 2004, the brainchild of a group of writers working out of a small apartment. Intended to revive the leftist social criticism and innovative literary analysis that was the hallmark of the Partisan Review and other midcentury magazines, n+1 was a rejoinder to the consumerism and complacency of the Bush years. It hasn't slowed down since. n+1 has given us the most clear-eyed reporting on the 2008 crash and the Occupy movement, the best criticism of publishing culture, and the first sociological report on the hipster. No media, new or old, has escaped its ire as n+1's outspoken contributors have taken on reality TV, Twitter, credentialism, drone strikes, and Internet porn.Happiness, released on the occasion of n+1's tenth anniversary, collects the best of the magazine as selected by its editors. These essays are fiercely contentious, disconcertingly astute, and screamingly funny. They explore our modern pursuits of happiness and take a searching moral inventory of the strange times we live in. Founding lights Chad Harbach, Keith Gessen, Benjamin Kunkel, Marco Roth, and Mark Greif are featured alongside Elif Batuman, Rebecca Curtis, Emily Witt, and other young talents launched by n+1. This n+1 anthology is the definitive work of the definitive twenty-first century intellectual magazine.
No Way Out
Rylie Dark - 2022
The murder of her sister, still unsolved, plunged her life into grief and awakened a new power within her. Sometimes messages come from direct contact, other times in dreams. All of it feels like a curse—until Carly realizes she can harness her new skills to solve cases. But her abilities are unreliable, and Carly must use her brilliant mind to complete the puzzle—all while struggling to keep her secret from her colleagues.In a macabre and bizarre pattern, women who were in grief, recently mourning a loved-one, are turning up murdered themselves. One thing is clear: a serial killer is targeting them, and with local authorities stumped, FBI Special Agent Carly See will have to descend into a world of death to enter the killer’s mind—and save the next victim before it’s too late.But this killer is diabolical and always one step ahead, and Carly herself, leading the investigation, may not be as safe as she seems. In a game of cat and mouse, it will be a race to the finish as Carly struggles to figure out what these victims have in common—and who is next on his list.A page-turning thriller packed with twists and turns, secrets, and harrowing surprises you won’t see the CARLY SEE series is a mystery series that will have you on the edge of your seat, endearing you to a brilliant and unique new character and having you turning pages, bleary-eyed, late into the night.
Nellie's War
Victor Pemberton - 1998
The runaway evacuees who give her shelter call her Nellie, the only girl in 'Toff' Hecht's gang, until, yet again, tragedy strikes, and she is forced to move on. But when Nellie meets the great music hall illusionists, Monsieur and Madame Pierre - alias Bert and Doris Beckwith - her life begins again. In the magical world of bright lights and greasepaint she finds a wonderful new family. But even as she is happily stitching costumes backstage, Nellie can't stop thinking about her old life in the bombed-out rubble - and more particularly, about the restless young Jewish boy, 'Toff' Hecht...
Saving Missy: Free sampler
Beth Morrey - 2019
Stubborn. Terribly lonely.But everyone deserves a second chance…
A dazzling debut for 2020 – are you ready to meet Missy Carmichael?
Missy Carmichael’s life has become small.Grieving for a family she has lost or lost touch with, she’s haunted by the echoes of her footsteps in her empty home; the sound of the radio in the dark; the tick-tick-tick of the watching clock.Spiky and defensive, Missy knows that her loneliness is all her own fault. She deserves no more than this; not after what she’s done. But a chance encounter in the park with two very different women opens the door to something new.Another life beckons for Missy, if only she can be brave enough to grasp the opportunity. But seventy-nine is too late for a second chance. Isn’t it?
Any Old Iron
Lynda Page - 1998
Her mother is dying and needs constant care; her father has returned to Leicester from the Second World War but is an emotional wreck; and her brother Mickey has turned to a life of crime that is putting the whole family at risk. Kelly's boyfriend Rodney and his sister Glenda know that she's scared of what Micky might do next. But they turn a blind eye to her fears - with disastrous consequences for them all. When Kelly has lost eveything she holds dear, she and Glenda pick up the pieces and start again. And one man in particular, Alec Alderman, is there when she needs him most. But Alec has problems of his own...
Saint's Heaven: An Urban Romance
Shameka Jones - 2016
Her kids’ father, Flex, loves playing the field and throwing his women in Heaven’s face while expecting her to remain single. Heaven still carries feelings for Flex, but still wishes to have a man that does not have her looking stupid in the streets.Saint is a reformed street king who is trying to live life on the straight and narrow. He owns a landscaping company in the Dallas area and spends his day breaking his back to provide for his gold digging girlfriend, Lailani. With his relationship crumbling, a chance sighting of Heaven at a restaurant intrigues Saint and he tries to pursue her, but encounters several challenges along the way.Saint and Heaven face many people in their way as they try to be together. They may not be able to withstand the pressure. Will they fall in love against all odds or crumble under outside pressure?
Mahatma Vs Gandhi
Dinkar Joshi - 1988
The tussle between the father and the son was the most poignant and pathetic stories of their lives. Gandhi,who was busy attending meetings and conferences where the fate of forty crore Indians was to be decided, would often find headlines in a newspaper screaming 'Police arrested drunk Harilal for creating a scene on the road'. And sometimes, Harilal himself from the dias of the fundamentalist Muslim organization's meeting - 'I shall continue fighting till Ba and Bapu embrace Islam.'In this book the author tries to make an ardent effort to understand yet another enigmatic facet of human life.
Killigrew Clay
Rowena Summers - 1987
After all, he was the heir to the biggest clay works in all of Cornwall, and she was but the daughter of one of their workmen.For just as an unexpected passion began to blossom between Morwen Tremayne and Ben Killigrew, the fates seemed determined to stifle its growth. A long, bitter struggle between owner and workforce brought about Charles Killigrew’s sudden illness, and with it Ben’s summons to the head of the family firm.Morwen and Ben, innocent victims of other men’s antagonisms, find themselves party to a conflict not of their making, that threatens to cut them off not only from their families, but from each other…A touching, heartbreaking tale of a love that conquers all, Killigrew Clay is perfect for fans of Rosie Goodwin, Lesley Pearse and Linda Finlay
Summer of Fear - a murder-mystery thriller
Chris McGarry - 2014
Over his 20 - year career, Antonio Guardini has investigated some very disturbing, grisly crimes. But the latest string of murders that have New Yorkers in a paralyzing state of fear have struck a personal chord within Antonio. A devout Catholic and prolife activist, the hardened cop is tasked with tracking down the wily serial killer who is stalking and butchering the city's abortion physicians. As his personal beliefs begin conflict with his job, a struggle ensues as Antonio delves deeper the twisted myriad of clues left by the murderer and his victims. Will Antonio identify and apprehend the 'Abortion Avenger' before he kills again?
Bigfoot Terror in the Woods: Sightings and Encounters, Volume 4
W.J. Sheehan - 2018
The accounts may be quite terrifying and reader discretion is advised.
Reeling Through Life: How I Learned to Live, Love and Die at the Movies
Tara Ison - 2015
Through ten cleverly constructed essays, Ison explores how a lifetime of movie-watching has, for better or worse, taught her how to navigate the world and how to grapple with issues of career, family, faith, illness, sex, and love.Cinema is a universal cultural experience, one that floods our senses with images and sounds, a powerful force that influences our perspective on the world around us. Ison discusses the universal aspects of film as she makes them personal, looking at how certain films across time shaped and molded who she has become. Drawing on a wide ranging catalog of films, both cult and classic, popular and art-house, Reeling Through Life examines how cinema shapes our views on how to make love, how to deal with mental illness, how to be Jewish, how to be a woman, how to be a drunk, and how to die with style.Rather than being a means of escape or object of mere entertainment, Ison posits that cinema is a more engaging form of art, a way to slip into other identities and inhabit other realities. A way to orient oneself into the world. Reeling Though Life is a compelling look at one popular art form and how it has influenced our identities in provocative and important ways.
The Mystery of Things
A.C. Grayling - 2004
Grayling extends the range of his previous two books to show how much understanding people can gain about themselves and their world by reflecting on the lessons offered by science, the arts (including literature) and history. Covering subjects as diverse as Jane Austen's EMMA, the Rosetta Stone, Shakespeare, the Holocaust, quantum physics, Galileo, and even alien abductions, A..C. Grayling's latest collection is a rich source for reflection and contemplation over the mysteries of life.
What It Felt Like: Living in the American Century
Henry Allen - 2000
Each of the ten chapters is a virtual time capsule which reminds, as we plunge headlong into the future, of the richness and importance of our past. Illustrations throughout.
Party of One: The Loners' Manifesto
Anneli Rufus - 2003
Rene Descartes. Emily Dickinson. Greta Garbo. Bobby Fischer. J. D. Salinger: Loners, all -- along with as many as 25 percent of the world's population. Loners keep to themselves, and like it that way. Yet in the press, in films, in folklore, and nearly everywhere one looks, loners are tagged as losers and psychopaths, perverts and pity cases, ogres and mad bombers, elitists and wicked witches. Too often, loners buy into those messages and strive to change, making themselves miserable in the process by hiding their true nature -- and hiding from it. Loners as a group deserve to be reassessed -- to claim their rightful place, rather than be perceived as damaged goods that need to be "fixed." In Party of One Anneli Rufus--a prize-winning, critically acclaimed writer with talent to burn -- has crafted a morally urgent, historically compelling tour de force -- a long-overdue argument in defense of the loner, then and now. Marshalling a polymath's easy erudition to make her case, assembling evidence from every conceivable arena of culture as well as interviews with experts and loners worldwide and her own acutely calibrated analysis, Rufus rebuts the prevailing notion that aloneness is indistinguishable from loneliness, the fallacy that all of those who are alone don't want to be, and wouldn't be, if only they knew how.