Mrs. Dalloway


Virginia Woolf - 1925
    When we meet her, Mrs. Clarissa Dalloway is preoccupied with the last-minute details of party preparation while in her mind she is something much more than a perfect society hostess. As she readies her house, she is flooded with remembrances of faraway times. And, met with the realities of the present, Clarissa reexamines the choices that brought her there, hesitantly looking ahead to the unfamiliar work of growing old.

The Importance of Being Earnest and Four Other Plays


Oscar Wilde - 2003
    Here are some of the remarkable features of Barnes & Noble Classics:    New introductions commissioned from today's top writers and scholars    Biographies of the authors    Chronologies of contemporary historical, biographical, and cultural events    Footnotes and endnotes    Selective discussions of imitations, parodies, poems, books, plays, paintings, operas, statuary, and films inspired by the work    Comments by other famous authors    Study questions to challenge the reader's viewpoints and expectations    Bibliographies for further reading    Indices & Glossaries, when appropriateAll editions are beautifully designed and are printed to superior specifications; some include illustrations of historical interest. Barnes & Noble Classics pulls together a constellation of influences—biographical, historical, and literary—to enrich each reader's understanding of these enduring works. Oscar Wilde’s legendary wit dazzles in The Importance of Being Earnest, one of the greatest and most popular works of drama to emerge from Victorian England. A light-hearted satire of the absurdity of all forms and conventions, this comic masterpiece features an unforgettable cast of characters who, as critic Max Beerbohm observed, “speak a kind of beautiful nonsense—the language of high comedy, twisted into fantasy.” This collection also includes Oscar Wilde’s most famous comedies, Lady Windermere’s Fan, A Woman of No Importance, and An Ideal Husband, as well as his poetic tragedy Salomé—all written between 1891 and 1895, Wilde’s most creative period. George Bernard Shaw said of Oscar Wilde that he is “our most thorough playwright. He plays with everything: with wit, with philosophy, with drama, with actors and audience, with the whole theater.”

Two Old Women: An Alaskan Legend of Betrayal, Courage and Survival


Velma Wallis - 1993
    In simple but vivid detail, Velma Wallis depicts a landscape and way of life that are at once merciless and starkly beautiful. In her old women, she has created two heroines of steely determination whose story of betrayal, friendship, community and forgiveness "speaks straight to the heart with clarity, sweetness and wisdom" (Ursula K. Le Guin).

My Favorite Match: WWE Superstars Tell the Stories of Their Most Memorable Matches


Jon Robinson - 2012
    But that’s the thing about a phrase like “favorite match.” It’s not about the greatest match in their careers or the time they won their first title. It’s about the moments that stand out and make them smile. Sometimes, it’s the same smile they had when they left the ring, face full of blood and sweat, to the roars of thousands. Sometimes, it’s the smile they tried so hard to hide when anything and everything seemed to go so wrong that even the ring announcer was accidentally injured in their struggle. And sometimes, it’s the smile only the showmen themselves share with each other as brothers in battle with one goal in mind: doing whatever it takes to put on the best show possible, even if it means landing on a few thousand thumbtacks along the way. These are their stories, straight from the Superstars who performed some of the most memorable matches in WWE history. These are the most unexpected, the most brutal, the most hilarious, and the most unforgettable moments of their careers—captured in their own words.

Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life


Anne Lamott - 1994
    [It] was due the next day. We were out at our family cabin in Bolinas, and he was at the kitchen table close to tears, surrounded by binder paper and pencils and unopened books on birds, immobilized by the hugeness of the task ahead. Then my father sat down beside him, put his arm around my brother's shoulder, and said. 'Bird by bird, buddy. Just take it bird by bird.'"With this basic instruction always in mind, Anne Lamott returns to offer us a new gift: a step-by-step guide on how to write and on how to manage the writer's life. From "Getting Started,' with "Short Assignments," through "Shitty First Drafts," "Character," "Plot," "Dialogue." all the way from "False Starts" to "How Do You Know When You're Done?" Lamott encourages, instructs, and inspires. She discusses "Writers Block," "Writing Groups," and "Publication." Bracingly honest, she is also one of the funniest people alive.If you have ever wondered what it takes to be a writer, what it means to be a writer, what the contents of your school lunches said about what your parents were really like, this book is for you. From faith, love, and grace to pain, jealousy, and fear, Lamott insists that you keep your eyes open, and then shows you how to survive. And always, from the life of the artist she turns to the art of life.

Investigating the Social World: The Process and Practice of Research


Russell K. Schutt - 1995
    In this new Seventh Edition of his perennially successful social research text, author Russell K. Schutt continues to make research come alive through stories that illustrate the methods presented in each chapter, and hands-on exercises that help students learn by doing. Investigating the Social World helps readers understand research methods as an integrated whole, appreciate the value of both qualitative and quantitative methodologies, and understand the need to make ethical research decisions. New to this Edition: * upgraded coverage of research methods to include the spread of cell phones and the use of the Internet, including expanded coverage of Web surveys * larger page size in full color allows for better display of pedagogical features * new 'Research in the News' boxes included within chapters * more international examples * expanded statistics coverage now includes more coverage of inferenctial statistics and regression analysi

Einstein's Dreams


Alan Lightman - 1992
    As the defiant but sensitive young genius is creating his theory of relativity, a new conception of time, he imagines many possible worlds. In one, time is circular, so that people are fated to repeat triumphs and failures over and over. In another, there is a place where time stands still, visited by lovers and parents clinging to their children. In another, time is a nightingale, sometimes trapped by a bell jar.Now translated into thirty languages, Einstein’s Dreams has inspired playwrights, dancers, musicians, and painters all over the world. In poetic vignettes, it explores the connections between science and art, the process of creativity, and ultimately the fragility of human existence.

Somebody Else's Kids


Torey L. Hayden - 1981
    . . "A small seven-year-old boy who couldn't speak except to repeat weather forecasts and other people's words . . . A beautiful little girl of seven who had been brain damaged by terrible parental beatings and was so ashamed because she couldn't learn to read . . . A violently angry ten-year-old who had seen his stepmother murder his father and had been sent from one foster home to another . . . A shy twelve-year-old from a Catholic school which put her out when she became pregnant . . ."What do we matter?""Why do you care?"They were four problem children-put in Torey Hayden's class because no one else knew what to do with them. Together, with the help of a remarkable teacher who cared too much to ever give up, they became almost a family, able to give each other the love and understanding they had found nowhere else.

Letters to His Son on the Art of Becoming a Man of the World and a Gentleman, 1746-47


Philip Dormer Stanhope - 2004
    You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.

The Short Bus: A Journey Beyond Normal


Jonathan Mooney - 2007
    To learn how others had moved beyond labels, he bought his own short bus and set out cross-country, looking for kids who had dreamed up magical, beautiful ways to overcome the obstacles that separated them from the so-called normal world.The Short Bus is his irreverent and poignant record of that odyssey, meeting thirteen people in thirteen states who taught Mooney that there’s no such thing as normal—and that to really live, every person must find their own special way of keeping on.  The Short Bus is a unique gem, propelled by Mooney’s heart, humor, and outrageous rebellions.

Bowl. Sleep. Repeat.: Inside the World of England's Greatest-Ever Bowler


Jimmy Anderson - 2019
    565 Test Wickets and counting.Written with Felix White: musician, cricket enthusiast and Anderson's co-host on BBC Five Live's phenomenally popular podcast 'Tailenders', Jimmy invites us all into his world of cricket. Full of test-match sized stories and 20/20 anecdotes, this book contains everything you've dreamed of asking a top cricketer. And Jimmy provides the answers and insights into this world on and off the pitch. We tackle the big questions. And, importantly, the small ones;Do cricketers really watch Countdown instead of the Test whilst waiting to bat? What are those conversations in the slip cordon?And what does he eat as a tailender?

Requiem: Diana, Princess of Wales 1961-1997 - Memories and Tributes


Brian MacArthur - 1997
    There are dozens of pictorial remembrances, but this is the only book in which people from all walks of life have penned their thoughts, feelings, and memories of Diana. Requiem contains more than eighty heartfelt testimonials by, among others, Maya Angelou, Ted Hughes, Katharine Graham, Clive James, and Simon Schama. This volume beautifully evokes the memory of -- in her brothers words -- the unique, the complex, the extraordinary, and the irreplaceable Diana.

Navigate Your Stars


Jesmyn Ward - 2020
    Speaking about the challenges she and her family overcame, Ward inspired everyone in the audience with her meditation on tenacity in the face of hardship. Now, in book form, Ward’s moving words will inspire readers as they prepare for the next chapter in their lives, whether, like Ward, they are the first in their families to graduate from college or are preceded by generations, or whether they are embarking on a different kind of journey later in life.Beautifully illustrated in full color by Gina Triplett, this gorgeous and profound book will charm a generation of students—and their parents. Ward’s inimitable voice shines through as she shares her experience as a Southern black woman and addresses the themes of grit, adversity, and the importance of family bonds. Navigate Your Stars is a perfect gift for anyone in need of inspiration from the author of Salvage the Bones, Men We Reaped, and Sing, Unburied, Sing.

Our Town


Thornton Wilder - 1938
    This Pulitzer Prize-winning drama of life in the small village of Grover's Corners, an allegorical representation of all life, has become a classic. It is Thornton Wilder's most renowned and most frequently performed play.

Top Girls


Caryl Churchill - 1982
    Told by an eclectic group of historical and modern characters in a continuous conversation across ages and generations, Top Girls was hailed as 'the best British play ever from a woman dramatist' by The Guardian.