![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() The result is a high-wire act: brilliant acrobatics at best, and some disappointing crash landings at worst. Now, with an overt nod to short-story master Raymond Carver - a goyish writer if ever there was one - Englander balances caustic despair alongside absurdist epiphany. "The Ministry of Special Cases," Englander's novel (published in between his two books of stories), further showcased a talented writer uniquely attuned to the mix of burden and blessing that make up a modern Jewish identity. His writing has been called "hilarious" as well as "profound," and carving out such vast territory with deft originality is no small achievement. The title story alone is worth the price of admission, as is the complex tale of mercy and mercilessness that completes the volume, "Free Fruit for Young Widows."Īs in his first collection, "For the Relief of Unbearable Urges," Englander mostly focuses his explorations on Jewish life, both Old World and New. ![]() It's audacious and idiosyncratic, darkly clever and brightly faceted. That being said, "What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank," Englander's second book of stories, deserves high praise. Even if you're Nathan Englander, with a phenomenal record of placing individual pieces in the New Yorker, year in and year out, when it comes to a book-length assortment, you're bound to fall flat every once in a while. Let's face it: A story collection is a setup. ![]()
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![]() ![]() Fans, critics and fellow linguists wait with bated (from the French abattre "to beat down") breath for each new anthology - and, like its predecessors, this one is bound to satisfy and delight. This collection is a classic to be read, re-read, enjoyed and fought over. The Right Word in the Right Place at the Right Time marks the publication of Safire's sixteenth book on language. ![]() Dedicated and disputatious readers itch to pick up each column and respond to the week's linguistic wisdom with a gotcha letter to the Times. ![]() Safire is the guru of contemporary vocabulary, speech, language, usage and writing. He is the most widely read writer on the English language today. For the past twenty-five years Americans have relied on Pulitzer Prize-winning wordsmith William Safire for their weekly dose of linguistic illumination in The New York Times Magazine's column "On Language" - one of the most popular features of the magazine and a Sunday-morning staple for innumerable fans. ![]() ![]() An acceptable book request includes at least one of the following: ![]() Low-effort book requests will be removed.
![]() ![]() He describes how the lyrics to the 1980 song " Once in a Lifetime" drew inspiration from a recording of a preacher, as well as how the oversize suits worn in their concert film Stop Making Sense drew inspiration from ancient Japanese theatre. He discusses his career with Talking Heads, detailing many points of background for their music. Overall, he writes that no music "is aimed exclusively at either the body or the head", with complex human beings interacting with it on different levels. Byrne looks at the influence of music, even in such subtle forms as birdsongs, from a rational perspective that eschews romanticism. The book, despite being non-fiction, has a highly non-linear structure with manual-like information, elements of Byrne's autobiography, and anthropological data on music theory all intermixed, each chapter able to stand alone. Talking Heads performing at Horseshoe Tavern in Toronto in 1978. ![]() ![]() ![]() There are the relatives who aren’t speaking, the (awful) girl her favorite brother brought home unannounced, and a missing tuxedo. There’s the unexpected dog with a penchant for howling, house alarm that won’t stop going off, and a papergirl with a grudge. The only problem? The weekend is shaping up to be an absolute disaster. She wants to focus on making the weekend perfect. Making decisions about things like what college to attend and reuniting with longstanding crush Jesse Foster-all that can wait. The house will be filled with jokes and games and laughs again. Charlie is desperate for one last perfect weekend, before the house is sold and everything changes. Charlie Grant’s older sister is getting married this weekend at their family home, and Charlie can’t wait-for the first time in years, all four of her older siblings will be under one roof. ![]() ![]() On the sofa in the den, Josie took a deep breath, said a quick prayer, and eased to the window to watch the car. Those inside should have been asleep for hours, but sleep was not possible during these awful nights. They washed through the house and cast ominous, silent shadows on the walls, then went away as the car dipped before its final approach. It was long after midnight on an early Sunday when the headlights finally appeared. The seclusion of the house added to the imminent horror. ![]() The house could not be seen from the road and was accessed by a winding gravel drive that dipped and curved and at night caused approaching headlights to sweep through the front windows and doors as if to warn those waiting inside. ![]() ![]() The unhappy little home was out in the country, some six miles south of Clanton on an old county road that went nowhere in particular. ![]() ![]() ![]() But when faculty members begin to die off, Alex knows these aren't just accidents. Together, they will have to navigate a maze of arcane texts and bizarre artifacts to uncover the societies' most closely guarded secrets, and break every rule doing it. ![]() ![]() But Galaxy "Alex" Stern is determined to break Darlington out of purgatory-even if it costs her a future at Lethe and at Yale.įorbidden from attempting a rescue, Alex and Dawes can't call on the Ninth House for help, so they assemble a team of dubious allies to save the gentleman of Lethe. A simple plan, except people who make this particular journey rarely come back. "Bardugo's imaginative reach is brilliant." –Stephen Kingįind a gateway to the underworld. The Ivy League is going straight to hell in the sequel to the smash New York Times bestseller Ninth House from #1 bestselling author Leigh Bardugo. "This fervently delivered audiobook engrosses the listener through every twist and turn, making this sequel nearly impossible to pause."- AudioFile Magazine (Earphones Award) "The magic and violence of 'Hell Bent' comes to life in audiobook form." - USA Today ![]() ![]() ![]() The Fisher King is impotent, his lands infertile and drought-stricken one cause of this infertility is a crime, the rape of some maidens in the king’s court. The Fisher King myth, which helps to explain so much of the poem’s imagery and themes, is summed up by Pericles Lewis on Yale’s Modernisms site: the Fisher King) and various other religious and literary traditions. He probably borrowed this idea from James Joyce, who had used it in his novel Ulysses, which was published in book form in 1922, the same year as The Waste Land, but which had been appearing in instalments in the Little Review for several years prior to that.Įliot wrote an essay in praise of Joyce’s use of ancient myth, and borrowed this for his own poem – drawing on Arthurian legend (e.g. In addition to this, there is what is called the ‘mythic method’: Eliot’s use of a mythic narrative or structure. Eliot’s poem draws on a vast number of literary and religious texts and traditions. But Eliot’s poem took the techniques of modernism to new heights.Ī good place to start with an analysis of The Waste Land is to examine the importance of literary allusion. ![]() ![]() In 1919, a British female poet named Hope Mirrlees wrote a remarkable avant-garde poem, Paris: A Poem, which was published a year later by the Woolfs’ Hogarth press and anticipated Eliot’s poem in startling ways. Eliot’s wasn’t the first long modernist poem written about the War: an intriguing poem by Ford Madox Ford, ‘Antwerp’, had been written in 1915 and was a poem that Eliot himself admired. ![]() ![]() ![]() Six very short stories tell tales about these twin girls. Grace Lin has given us Ling & Ting: Not Exactly the Same!, a book in the same vein as your Frog & Toad or Amelia Bedelia tales. Past success is no indication of future talent. When I heard that author Grace Lin, master of the novel, the early chapter book, and the picture book, was trying her hand at the easy reader format I was concerned. Some authors whip them out so easily it shocks the senses (see: Mo Willems’ Elephant & Piggy books). Easy books (I should say GOOD easy books) are an acquired talent. Harder than a child-friendly mystery series. Harder than asking them to write a romantic vampire novel. I am personally convinced that this is probably the most difficult thing you can ask an author to do. Now ask them to create a good easy-to-read book for children. Sit them down in a comfortable chair in front of a table. Simply hand them a piece of paper and a pencil. ![]() If you want to gauge the merit of a children’s author it’s easy as pie. ![]() ![]() ![]() Sweetest Kulu is another great book from Inhabit Media. And for those of us who just need a book that rights the world for us, that reminds us of that world in all its richness. ![]() This is a terrific book for those who have a newborn in the house. In Kalluk's hands, this is not the stereotypical one-with-the-animals story that we see all too often. Kalluk's words and Neonakis's art work beautifully together as we learn Inuit values in which people and animals coexist as caretakers of the land. See the cover? The whole book is like that. The sense of peace and promise in Kalluk's book was just what I needed on a particularly trying day. The babe who is the sweetest kulu in this book is Inuit (Inuktitut is one of the languages spoken by Inuit people). Both meanings apply to Sweetest Kulu by Celina Kalluk, illustrated by Alexandria Neonakis. Sweet! Sometimes, that exclamation (Sweet!) means something is endearing, and sometimes, it means something is way cool. ![]() |