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Huck Finn's America: Mark Twain and the Era That Shaped His Masterpiece


Andrew Levy - 2013
    Twain’s masterpiece, which still sells tens of thousands of copies each year and is taught more than any other American classic, is often discussed either as a carefree adventure story for children or a serious novel about race relations, yet Levy argues convincingly it is neither. Instead, Huck Finn was written at a time when Americans were nervous about youth violence and “uncivilized” bad boys, and a debate was raging about education, popular culture, and responsible parenting — casting Huck’s now-celebrated “freedom” in a very different and very modern light. On issues of race, on the other hand, Twain’s lifelong fascination with minstrel shows and black culture inspired him to write a book not about civil rights, but about race’s role in entertainment and commerce, the same features upon which much of our own modern consumer culture is also grounded. In Levy’s vision, Huck Finn has more to say about contemporary children and race that we have ever imagined—if we are willing to hear it.An eye-opening, groundbreaking exploration of the character and psyche of Mark Twain as he was writing his most famous novel, Huck Finn’s America brings the past to vivid, surprising life, and offers a persuasive—and controversial—argument for why this American classic deserves to be understood anew.

The Real Rule of Four: The Unauthorized Guide to the New York Times #1 Bestseller


Joscelyn Godwin - 2005
    The Ivy League superachievers drew upon an authentic 1499 Renaissance text to create their thriller about two Princeton undergraduates who try to unravel the mysteries of the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili (pronounced "HIPneROtoMAkia POliFEEli").The Hypnerotomachia Poliphili is an erotic, pagan epic, written in a private language peppered with words taken from Latin and Greek and decorated with Egyptian hieroglyphs. It was not translated into English for 500 years, until 1999, when Joscelyn Godwin finally achieved that nearimpossible task.In The Real Rule of Four, Professor Godwin carefully investigates each aspect of the history of the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili and its use in The Rule of Four, including:What is the Hypnerotomachia?Who wrote the Hypnerotomachia? (A central theme of The Rule of Four)What does the Hypnerotomachia mean?Places and people in The Rule of FourGlossary of names and terms in The Rule of FourLavishly illustrated with reproductions of the many beautiful woodcuts in the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, a foldout color map and photographs of the featured locations at Princeton University, The Real Rule of Four is an indispensable guide to the many fans of Caldwell and Thomason's bestselling novel.

The 39 Clues Starter Set


Rick Riordan - 2009
    Contains Books 1-3 and Card Pack #1

No Evil Star: Selected Essays, Interviews, and Prose


Anne Sexton - 1985
    Collects the best of Anne Sexton's memoirs and prose reflections on her development as a poet

Next Word, Better Word: The Craft of Writing Poetry


Stephen Dobyns - 2011
    Stephen Dobyns, author of the classic book on the beauty of poetry, Best Words, Best Order, moves into new terrain in this remarkable book. Bringing years of experience to bear on issues such as subject matter, the mechanics of poetry, and the revision process, Dobyns explores the complex relationship between writers and their work. From Philip Larkin to Pablo Neruda to William Butler Yeats, every chapter reveals useful lessons in these renowned poets' work. Both enlightening and encouraging, Next Word, Better Word demystifies a subtle art form and shows writers how to overcome obstacles in the creative process.

Chief's Howl


Wendy PiniCraig Taillefer - 2001
    Just as leadership of the tribe is passed though blood lineage, so is the mantle of the storyteller given from mentor to apprentice... along with a healthy dose of memory stimulating dreamberries!Learn how Mantricker came to be loved and lost by a human maiden, and how he met his end. Follow young Cutter and Skywise as tales of their forebears provide unexpected lessons. And discover why one must never give Preservers dreamberry wine!

Salman Rushdie: Midnight's Children-The Satanic Verses


David Smale - 2002
    As a novelist and icon, Rushdie has embraced both 'popular' and 'high' culture; reflecting this, the Guide brings together both academic criticism and journalism to investigate the passions and preoccupations of Rushdie's many critics, steering the reader through the inflamed debates and rhetoric surrounding this much admired but controversial author.

51 Dirty Tricks Bad Guys Really Hate: Sneaky Tactics used by Police, Private Investigators and Bounty Hunters


Larry Kaye - 2014
    Some tricks are completely unethical but, many can be used ethically, however any criminal would consider them unfair because they are sneaky and effective beyond what an investigator might use on a day-to-day basis to catch a criminal including...How a dirty cop can beat the daylights out of a completely compliant subject, on video, and get away with it every time!The Dirty Trick I wish I had learned YEARS ago! (This alone is worth the price of the book many times over.)The social media Dirty Trick Al-Queda used to blow up 4 Top Secret U.S. helicopters!The “How Much Do They Drink” Dirty Trick.WARNING: Don't even think about using any of the Dirty Tricks in the “Off Limits” chapter!The one Dirty Trick thieves hate even more than getting caught!Real-World Case Studies.The “Freakishly Effective” Dirty Trick to catch underage drinkers in a bar. (This is one I almost didn't include!)REVEALED: The Dirty Trick that saved me from a beating.The Dirty Trick cops use to shut down a Private Investigator's surveillance in 30 seconds or less. (Don't conduct another surveillance until you learn this one!)A cute little Dirty Trick to drive a stalker crazy. (I've used this one pro-actively for years!)One sneaky way to discover who installed a hidden cam.Bonus Tips!Section on Little Known Sources of Info (If you're a real-world P.I. you better learn these!)The best time of day to use “The Last Place You Look Dirty Trick”.The “Particularly Devastating” trick to catch a liar. (That's what the U.S Government said in a previously classified report!)The Post Card Dirty Trick. (This is so powerful it's one of my all-time favorites!)And Much, Much More!

Oranges & Peanuts for Sale


Eliot Weinberger - 2009
    They include introductions for books of avant-garde poets; collaborations with visual artists, and articles for publications such as The New York Review of Books, The London Review of Books, and October.One section focuses on writers and literary works: strange tales from classical and modern China; the Psalms in translation: a skeptical look at E. B. White’s New York. Another section is a continuation of Weinberger’s celebrated political articles collected in What Happened Here: Bush Chronicles (a finalist for the National Books Critics Circle Award), including a sequel to “What I Heard About Iraq,” which the Guardian called the only antiwar “classic” of the Iraq War. A new installment of his magnificent linked “serial essay,” An Elemental Thing, takes us on a journey down the Yangtze River during the Sung Dynasty.The reader will also find the unlikely convergences between Samuel Beckett and Octavio Paz, photography and anthropology, and, of course, oranges and peanuts, as well as an encomium for Obama, a manifesto on translation, a brief appearance by Shiva, and reflections on the color blue, death, exoticism, Susan Sontag, and the arts and war.

Dancing With The Devil |Larry Stylinson


BooDarkness
    

Poetry is Not a Project


Dorothea Lasky - 2010
    Calling poets away from civilization, back towards the wilderness, Lasky brazenly urges artists away from conceptual programs, resurrecting imagination and faith-in-the-uncertain as saviors from mediocrity.

Thor: Godstorm


Kurt Busiek - 2002
    In a tale of two worlds, Thor fights epic battles against trolls, evil scientists and super-villains-and balances his life as a god, a hero and a doctor as Loki manipulates him from afar and Odin banishes him from Earth! What is the Godstorm, and can the God of Thunder hope to defeat it? Plus: in a tale of Asgard past, Thor battles Uroc, the Uru Monster! Collecting: Thor: Godstorm #1-3; Thor (1966) #408-409 (Tales of Asgard backups); Busiek/Rude; bonus story by Mike Mignola

Edmund Spenser's Poetry


Edmund Spenser
    The Shepheardes Calender is represented by six eclogues, including the much-discussed "Februarie." Colin Clouts Come Home Againe, increasingly a focus of critical attention, is an important addition, and Amoretti is offered in its entirety.Seventeen critical essays, judiciously chosen from the many published since 1982, have been added to supplement eleven earlier commentaries. New to the Third Edition are the perspectives of Spenser's contemporary William Camden, Virginia Woolf, William Nelson, A. Bartlett Giamatti, Donald Cheney, Judith Anderson, Richard Helgerson, Louis Adrian Montrose, and David Lee Miller. The critical essays on the House of Busyrane, Spenser's pastoral, Muiopotmos, and Amoretti are grouped to "speak" to each other in ways sure to stimulate classroom discussion. This class-tested feature is back by popular demand along with essays by D. C. Allen, Robert A. Brinkley, Ronald P. Bond, Anne Lake Prescott, Andrew D. Weiner, Susanne Lindgren Wofford, Harry Berger, Jr., and Paul Alpers.A Chronology of Spenser's life and an extensive Bibliography are also included.

Point Horror: The R.L. Stine Special Edition


R.L. Stine - 1994
    When Jenny visits her cousin, she is desperate to forget her traumatic past. Then Debra starts receiving the calls Jenny used to get - "I'm back. Company's coming..."

Metafiction: The Theory and Practice of Self-Conscious Fiction


Patricia Waugh - 1984
    The author shows how, as the novel has been eclipsed by the mass media, novelists have sought to retain and regain a wide readership by drawing on the themes and preoccupations of these forms. Making use of contemporary fiction by such writers as Fowles, Borges, Spark, Barthelme, Brautigan, Vonnegut and Barth, and drawing on Russian Formalist theories of literary evolution, the book argues that metafiction uses parody along with popular genres and non-literary forms as a way not only of exposing the inadequate and obsolescent conventions of the classic novel, but of stuggesting the lines along which fiction might develop in the future.