Download or read book This Is Water written by David Foster Wallace and published by Little, Brown. This book was released on 2009-04-14 with total page 142 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this rare peak into the personal life of the author of numerous bestselling novels, gain an understanding of David Foster Wallace and how he became the man that he was. Only once did David Foster Wallace give a public talk on his views on life, during a commencement address given in 2005 at Kenyon College. The speech is reprinted for the first time in book form in This is Water. How does one keep from going through their comfortable, prosperous adult life unconsciously? How do we get ourselves out of the foreground of our thoughts and achieve compassion? The speech captures Wallace's electric intellect as well as his grace in attention to others. After his death, it became a treasured piece of writing reprinted in The Wall Street Journal and the London Times, commented on endlessly in blogs, and emailed from friend to friend. Writing with his one-of-a-kind blend of causal humor, exacting intellect, and practical philosophy, David Foster Wallace probes the challenges of daily living and offers advice that renews us with every reading.

Download or read book The Best American Spiritual Writing 2005 written by Philip Zaleski and published by . This book was released on 2005 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Contains a collection of essays, short stories, and poems that examine issues of spirituality and religious faith from a wide range of perspectives. Includes work by Philip Levine, Oliver Sacks, Mary Gordon, W.S. Merwin, and others.

Download or read book A Life Without Consequences written by Stephen Elliott and published by MacAdam/Cage Publishing. This book was released on 2002-07 with total page 204 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Life Without Consequences is a semi-biographical novel from emerging author Steve Elliott. His novel traces the fate of Paul, a boy whose mother has died and who runs away from a violent father. The book follows Paul from living on the streets of Chicago to passing through juvinile institutions and a state system that is primarily programmed for failure. There, he meets Tanya and they fall in love but they are young and are separated after a failed attempt to escape the institution. Paul battles through the violent system all the while battling his own rapidly budding adolescence. But as he turns sixteen he starts to come to terms with his own path, not as an adult, but as a scared child. Paul's emotions that we think of as anger are actually the determination to take control of his future. As he starts to overcome the system that has housed him, we see him developing a voice and a future of his own, but one day Tanya reappears in his life and the real decisions have to be made. While the characters are fictional, the do not have to be they are representative of many and we realize the fragility of childhood and the burden on the children who have nowhere else to go.

Download or read book Happy Baby written by Stephen Elliott and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2005 with total page 214 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Happy Baby is the story of Theo, once an orphan in the Chicago foster care system and now a grown man living in California. Theo, saturated with memories of abuse and heartache, and filled with the simple wish to understand more about himself, returns to Chicago to reconnect with an old girlfriend from his troubled youth. Told in reverse order, this edgy and powerful novel slowly and subtly turns mysterious, as we attempt to recognize the root of Theo's plight and the source for his quietly wavering humanity.

Download or read book The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2005 written by Dave Eggers and published by . This book was released on 2005 with total page 378 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Presents selections of mainstream and alternative American literature, including both fiction and nonfiction, that discuss a broad spectrum of subjects.

Download or read book The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2019 written by 826 National and published by Mariner Books. This book was released on 2019 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Literature from mainstream and alternative American periodicals, including fiction, nonfiction, screenplays, television writing, and alternative comics.

Download or read book Sometimes I Think About It written by Stephen Elliott and published by Graywolf Press. This book was released on 2017-11-07 with total page 186 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An essay collection by a writer who “may be writing under . . . the influence of genius” (Vanity Fair) In Sometimes I Think About It, Stephen Elliott gathers personal essays, reportage, and profiles written over fifteen years to tell a powerful story about outsiders and underdogs. Moving from the self to the civic, the book begins with a series of essays that trace Elliott’s childhood with an abusive and erratic father, his life on the streets as a teenager, and his growing interest in cross-dressing and masochism. These stories, which range from a comic portrait of a week spent hosting his younger brother to a brutal depiction of depression, provide a context for the essays that follow. Stepping out into the world, Elliott tells of a man who loses his family in a rock slide in Southern California, explores the vexing realities of life in Palestine, and paints a chilling picture of a young man caught in the prison-industrial complex. The last section, “The Business of America Is Business,” shows Elliott’s abiding interest in the spectacle of money in America, from pop music to pornography to publishing, and it concludes with an off-kilter account of the tech industry’s assault on West Los Angeles. Building on the extraordinary storytelling that characterized his breakout book, The Adderall Diaries, Elliott’s search for dignity and happiness leads him to tell with great sympathy the stories of those who are broken and seek to be whole.

Download or read book There s Nothing Funny About Design written by David Barringer and published by Princeton Architectural Press. This book was released on 2009-04-22 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: ". . . no one has ever written about graphic design in quite this way. The title sounds more like a short story, and at times I found myself reading it as though it were a fictional exploration of a designer's consciousness. When I did, itsenergy, relentlessness, emotion, and abundance of detail made sense, as did its literary style. Barringer writes entertainingly and has a gift for intricate metaphor. . .Designers who enjoy ambitious writing will find plenty toadmire . . ." From Rick Poynor's I.D. Magazine review of "American Mutt Barks in the Yard" (Emigre; 68) By winning the 2008 Winterhouse Award for Design Writing, David Barringer firmly established himself as the freshest and most interesting writer on the subject. His articles, which have appeared in publications from Print to Emigre, are notable for his strong personal point of view, literary style, and even humor, not always attributes associated with writing about design. In this collection of essays, Barringer's first, he wonders why drug names have so many X's in them, ponders the rise of gory DVD covers, and ruminates on his father's business card collection, pythons, and the human skullproving again and again that design is everywhere you look for it, (but may not have seen) without the powerful magnifying lens of this talented and exciting observer and writer.

Download or read book Chola Salvation written by Estella Gonzalez and published by Arte Publico Press. This book was released on 2021-04-30 with total page 206 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the title story of this collection, Isabela is minding her family’s restaurant, drinking her dad’s beer, when Frida Kahlo and the Virgen de Guadalupe walk in. Even though they’re dressed like cholas, the girl immediately recognizes Frida’s uni-brow and La Virgen’s crown. They want to give her advice about the quinceanera her parents are forcing on her. In fact, their lecture (don’t get pregnant, go to school, be proud of your indigenous roots) helps Isabela to escape her parents’ physical and sexual abuse. But can she really run away from the self-hatred they’ve created? These inter-related stories, mostly set in East Los Angeles, uncover the lives of a conflicted Mexican-American community. In “Sabado Gigante,” Bernardo drinks himself into a stupor every Saturday night. “Aqui no es mi tierra,” he cries, as he tries to ease the sorrow of a life lived far from home. Meanwhile, his son Gustavo struggles with his emerging gay identity and Maritza, the oldest daughter, is expected to cook and clean for her brother, even though they live in East LA, not Guadalajara or Chihuahua. In “Powder Puff,” Mireya spends hours every day applying her make-up, making sure to rub the foundation all the way down her neck so it looks like her natural color. But no matter how much she rubs and rubs, her skin is no lighter. Estella Gonzalez vividly captures her native East LA in these affecting stories about a marginalized people dealing with racism, machismo and poverty. In painful and sometimes humorous scenes, young people try to escape the traditional expectations of their family. Other characters struggle with anger and resentment, often finding innovative ways to exact revenge for slights both real and imagined. Throughout, music—traditional and contemporary—accompanies them in the search for love and acceptance.

Download or read book Black Swan Green written by David Mitchell and published by Random House. This book was released on 2006-04-11 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: By the New York Times bestselling author of The Bone Clocks and Cloud Atlas | Longlisted for the Man Booker Prize Selected by Time as One of the Ten Best Books of the Year | A New York Times Notable Book | Named One of the Best Books of the Year by The Washington Post Book World, The Christian Science Monitor, Rocky Mountain News, and Kirkus Reviews | A Los Angeles Times Book Prize Finalist | Winner of the ALA Alex Award | Finalist for the Costa Novel Award From award-winning writer David Mitchell comes a sinewy, meditative novel of boyhood on the cusp of adulthood and the old on the cusp of the new. Black Swan Green tracks a single year in what is, for thirteen-year-old Jason Taylor, the sleepiest village in muddiest Worcestershire in a dying Cold War England, 1982. But the thirteen chapters, each a short story in its own right, create an exquisitely observed world that is anything but sleepy. A world of Kissingeresque realpolitik enacted in boys’ games on a frozen lake; of “nightcreeping” through the summer backyards of strangers; of the tabloid-fueled thrills of the Falklands War and its human toll; of the cruel, luscious Dawn Madden and her power-hungry boyfriend, Ross Wilcox; of a certain Madame Eva van Outryve de Crommelynck, an elderly bohemian emigré who is both more and less than she appears; of Jason’s search to replace his dead grandfather’s irreplaceable smashed watch before the crime is discovered; of first cigarettes, first kisses, first Duran Duran LPs, and first deaths; of Margaret Thatcher’s recession; of Gypsies camping in the woods and the hysteria they inspire; and, even closer to home, of a slow-motion divorce in four seasons. Pointed, funny, profound, left-field, elegiac, and painted with the stuff of life, Black Swan Green is David Mitchell’s subtlest and most effective achievement to date. Praise for Black Swan Green “[David Mitchell has created] one of the most endearing, smart, and funny young narrators ever to rise up from the pages of a novel. . . . The always fresh and brilliant writing will carry readers back to their own childhoods. . . . This enchanting novel makes us remember exactly what it was like.”—The Boston Globe “[David Mitchell is a] prodigiously daring and imaginative young writer. . . . As in the works of Thomas Pynchon and Herman Melville, one feels the roof of the narrative lifted off and oneself in thrall.”—Time

Download or read book The Starboard Sea written by Amber Dermont and published by Hachette UK. This book was released on 2013-01-17 with total page 235 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It is the summer of 1987. Jason Prosper is eighteen and on his way to Bellingham Academy, a school known for offering wayward privileged students a second chance - and Jason needs a second chance: ever since his best friend's suicide, his life has been badly adrift. At Bellingham, Jason joins the sailing team, and meets a compelling young woman called Aidan. His friends warn him off, saying she is 'damaged goods'. But Jason feels like damaged too, and the pair form an intense connection. But when a major hurricane gathers just off the coast, Jason's world begins to cloud over again. And when the full extent of the storm's damage is finally revealed, the truths it lays bare - and the secrets it dredges up - look set to alter the course of Jason life forever.

Download or read book Requiem for a Paper Bag written by Davy Rothbart and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2009-12-01 with total page 345 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Hey! My name is Davy. I make a magazine called Found. We publish notes & letters that folks find on the street. I asked my favorite writers, musicians, artists & entertainers to tell me about the things they've found. These are the stories they've shared.

Download or read book Wild Flight written by Christine Rhein and published by . This book was released on 2008 with total page 128 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Soaring across extensive terrain, from the working world of Detroit to American suburbia and pop culture; from the European landscape of World War II to present-day Iraq, Christine Rhein opens her personal world to the world at large. In poems that explore the historical, social, and scientific, as well as the poignant and humorous, Rhein relishes life's juxtapositions. "Wild Flight introduces us to an important new voice. . . . This is a poetry of the highest imagination, and the most energetic intelligence, written by a poet with a keen eye and a large spirit. Her hard look at this life is made beautiful by her art." --Laura Kasischke "One of the mysteries of human life is that it is never an individual journey, a truth that Christine Rhein discovers over and over in this remarkable first book. In Wild Flight, she walks us artfully through the histories she comes from and those she is witness to in our time. . . .The personal is political in these large-minded poems, and the political personal." --Roger Mitchell from "Tuning" I try to tune out the boom boom boom from the shooting range two miles from my house, and think of the people who live next door to the targets, or in the din of London and Berlin where nightingales now sing fourteen decibels louder to be heard by mates, quintupling the pressure in their lungs . . . . . . Imagine if we could hear bread rising, dew forming, the budding of raspberries, the tear of a cocoon, a minnow's pulse, our own cells growing, dying. When my husband kisses my ear, I love the swoosh, the quiver, his breath sand driven by wind, my whispered name.

Download or read book The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2015 written by 826 National and published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. This book was released on 2015 with total page 433 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Adam Johnson, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning The Orphan Master's Son, works with group of high school students out of 826 San Francisco to select the year's best new fiction, nonfiction, poetry, comics, and category-defying gems aimed at readers 15 and up.

Download or read book The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2011 written by Guillermo del Toro and published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. This book was released on 2011 with total page 531 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Eggers has hand-picked a selection of the best writing--including fiction, nonfiction, poetry, comics, and blogs--published during 2010.

Download or read book The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2012 written by Dave Eggers and published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. This book was released on 2012 with total page 433 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A selection of the best writing, including fiction, nonfiction, poetry, comics, and blogs, published during 2011. Edited by Dave Eggers.

Download or read book The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2014 written by Daniel Handler and published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. This book was released on 2014 with total page 414 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Daniel Handler and Lemony Snicket compile the year's best new fiction, nonfiction, poetry, comics, and category-defying gems aimed at readers 15 and up.