Download or read book Changing My Mind written by Zadie Smith and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2009-11-12 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "[These essays] reflect a lively, unselfconscious, rigorous, erudite, and earnestly open mind that's busy refining its view of life, literature, and a great deal in between." —Los Angeles Times Split into five sections--Reading, Being, Seeing, Feeling, and Remembering--Changing My Mind finds Zadie Smith casting an acute eye over material both personal and cultural. This engaging collection of essays, some published here for the first time, reveals Smith as a passionate and precise essayist, equally at home in the world of great books and bad movies, family and philosophy, British comedians and Italian divas. Whether writing on Katherine Hepburn, Kafka, Anna Magnani, or Zora Neale Hurston, she brings deft care to the art of criticism with a style both sympathetic and insightful. Changing My Mind is journalism at its most expansive, intelligent, and funny--a gift to readers and writers both.
Download or read book Occasional Desire written by David Lazar and published by U of Nebraska Press. This book was released on 2020-04-01 with total page 210 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In his new collection of essays, Occasional Desire, David Lazar meditates on random violence and vanished phone booths, on the excessive relationship to jewelry that links Kobe Bryant and Elizabeth Taylor, on Hitchcock, Francis Bacon, and M. F. K. Fisher. He explores, in his concentrically self-aware, amused, and ironic voice, what it means to be occasionally aware that we are surviving by our wits, and that our desires, ulterior or obvious, are what keep us alive. Lazar also turns his attention on the essay itself, affording us a three-dimensional look at the craft and the art of reading and writing a literary form that maps the world as it charts the peregrinations of the mind. Lazar is especially interested in the trappings of memory, the trapdoors of memory, the way we gild or codify, select, soften, and self-delude ourselves based on our understanding of the past. His own process of selection and reflection reminds us of how far this literary form can take us, bound only by the limits of desire and imagination.
Download or read book Reason and Nature written by José Luis Bermúdez and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2002 with total page 302 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In a series of essays nine philosophers and two psychologists address three main themes: the status of norms of rationality; the precise form taken by them; and the role of norms in belief and actions.
Download or read book The Rush for Second Place written by William Gaddis and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2002-10-01 with total page 209 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An essential collection of nonfiction essays by the National Book Award winning author of J R and A Frolic of His Own William Gaddis published only four novels during his lifetime, but with those works he earned himself a reputation as one of America's greatest novelists. Less well known is Gaddis's body of excellent critical writings. Here is a wide range of his original essays, some published for the first time. From "'Stop Player. Joke No. 4,'" Gaddis's first national publication and the basis for his projected history of the player piano, to the title essay about missed opportunities in America during the past fifty years, to "Old Foes with New Faces," an examination of the relationship between the writer and the problem of religion-this diverse collection displays the power of an autonomous literary intelligence in an age increasingly dominated by political and religious conservatism.
Download or read book Telling Tales and Crafting Books written by Dorsey Armstrong and published by Medieval Institute Publications. This book was released on 2016-07-05 with total page 405 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The great corpus that is medieval literature contains, at its very center, the tale. These verse and prose fictional narratives, as well as stories that are grounded in some degree of historical truth, are the foundation of what readers, scholars, and enthusiasts often point to as signifiers of the medieval age. These tales - from the skillfully crafted to the more rudimentary and plain - often make familiar to modern readers what seems so distant and foreign about the Middle Ages. This volume of essays focuses on the tale and its ability to create "mirth," what modern audiences would often define as "happiness" or "joy," and the significance that the book has had on the transference of this mirth to audiences. This volume also celebrates the scholarship of Thomas H. Ohlgren, a medievalist whose work encompasses a number of different areas, but at its center lives the power of the tale and its ability to create a lasting impression on readers, both medieval and modern.
Download or read book Delimiting Anthropology written by George W. Stocking and published by Univ of Wisconsin Press. This book was released on 2001 with total page 424 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: All but two of the 16 essays have been previously published, and Stocking (anthropology, U. of Chicago) wrote all of them in response to invitations to give a lecture, present a paper at a scholarly meeting, contribute to an edited volume, introduce a volume he edited, or respond to a specific moment of archival discovery. They meander through Boasian culturalism, British evolutionaries, institutions in national traditions, and mesocosmic reflections. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
Download or read book In the Light of Experience written by Johan Gersel and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2018 with total page 295 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How does perception provide reasons for our empirical judgements? This volume offers a set of new essays which in different ways address this fundamental question, and investigate the implications for our understanding of perceptual experience.
Download or read book Out of Place written by Philip Goldswain and published by Apollo Books. This book was released on 2014 with total page 340 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This collection of essays explores historical, geographical, and cultural factors that contribute to our understanding of places and settings of Australian transient communities. From Gwalia and Kalgoorlie in Western Australia, Charters Towers in Queensland, Broken Hill in New South Wales, and Queenstown in Tasmania, the places provide opportunity to revisit sites of history from the different angles of architecture, landscape theory, social history, and visual arts. They also provide a springboard for thinking through the pressing issues of contemporary Australians and counterparts in other 'post-settler' societies. [Subject: Australian Studies, History]
Download or read book Mystery and Manners written by Flannery O'Connor and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 1969 with total page 249 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This collection shows Flannery O'Connor's extraordinary versatility and expertise as a practitioner of the essayistic form. The book opens with "The King of the Birds", her famous account of raising peacocks. There are three essays on regional writing, two on teaching literature, and four on the writer and religion. Essays such as "The Nature and Aim of Fiction" and "Writing Short Stories" are gems, and their value to the contemporary reader -- and writer -- is inestimable. Copyright © Libri GmbH. All rights reserved.
Download or read book Feel Free written by Zadie Smith and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2018-02-06 with total page 535 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Winner of the 2018 National Book Critics Circle Award for Criticism A New York Times Notable Book From Zadie Smith, one of the most beloved authors of her generation, a new collection of essays Since she burst spectacularly into view with her debut novel almost two decades ago, Zadie Smith has established herself not just as one of the world's preeminent fiction writers, but also a brilliant and singular essayist. She contributes regularly to The New Yorker and the New York Review of Books on a range of subjects, and each piece of hers is a literary event in its own right. Arranged into five sections--In the World, In the Audience, In the Gallery, On the Bookshelf, and Feel Free--this new collection poses questions we immediately recognize. What is The Social Network--and Facebook itself--really about? "It's a cruel portrait of us: 500 million sentient people entrapped in the recent careless thoughts of a Harvard sophomore." Why do we love libraries? "Well-run libraries are filled with people because what a good library offers cannot be easily found elsewhere: an indoor public space in which you do not have to buy anything in order to stay." What will we tell our granddaughters about our collective failure to address global warming? "So I might say to her, look: the thing you have to appreciate is that we'd just been through a century of relativism and deconstruction, in which we were informed that most of our fondest-held principles were either uncertain or simple wishful thinking, and in many areas of our lives we had already been asked to accept that nothing is essential and everything changes--and this had taken the fight out of us somewhat." Gathering in one place for the first time previously unpublished work, as well as already classic essays, such as, "Joy," and, "Find Your Beach," Feel Free offers a survey of important recent events in culture and politics, as well as Smith's own life. Equally at home in the world of good books and bad politics, Brooklyn-born rappers and the work of Swiss novelists, she is by turns wry, heartfelt, indignant, and incisive--and never any less than perfect company. This is literary journalism at its zenith. Zadie Smith's new book, Grand Union, is on sale 10/8/2019.
Download or read book Occasional Critical and Political Writing written by James Joyce and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2000 with total page 420 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is a collection of Joyce's non-fictional writing, including newspaper articles, reviews, lectures and essays. It covers 40 years of Joyce's life and maps important changes in his political and literary opinions.
Download or read book My 1980s and Other Essays written by Wayne Koestenbaum and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2013-08-13 with total page 338 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "A new book of essays by the cultural critic Wayne Koestenbaum, author of The Queen's Throat and Jackie Under My Skin"--
Download or read book Magistra Doctissima written by Dorsey Armstrong and published by Medieval Institute Publications. This book was released on 2013 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The editors of this volume use its title to honor Bonnie Wheeler for her many scholarly achievements and to celebrate her wide-ranging contributions to medieval studies in the United States. There are sections on Old and Middle English Literature, Arthuriana Then and Now, Joan of Arc Then and Now, Nuns and Spirituality, and Royal Women. As the editors note in the introduction, the volume "confirms Bonnie's commitment to the multidisciplinary study of the Middle Ages" and affirms her conviction "that the medieval and the modern are best viewed not as 'the past' and 'the present' but as interpenetrative categories."
Download or read book I ll Be Your Mirror written by David Lazar and published by U of Nebraska Press. This book was released on 2017-01-01 with total page 278 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In his third book of essays, David Lazar blends personal meditations on sex and death with considerations of popular music and coping with anxiety through singing, bowling, and other distractions. He sets his work apart as both in the essay and of the essay by throwing himself into the form's past--interviewing or speaking to past masters and turning over rocks to find lost gems of the essay form. I'll Be Your Mirror further expands the dimensions of contemporary nonfiction writing by concluding with a series of aphorisms. Surreal, comical, and urban moments of being, they are part Cioran, part Kafka, and part Lenny Bruce. These are accompanied by Heather Frise's illustrations, whose looking-glass visions of motherhood--funny and grotesque--meet the vision of the aphorist in this most unusual nonfiction book.
Download or read book College Essay Essentials written by Ethan Sawyer and published by Sourcebooks, Inc.. This book was released on 2016-07-01 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Let the College Essay Guy take the stress out of writing your college admission essay. Packed with brainstorming activities, college personal statement samples and more, this book provides a clear, stress-free roadmap to writing your best admission essay. Writing a college admission essay doesn't have to be stressful. College counselor Ethan Sawyer (aka The College Essay Guy) will show you that there are only four (really, four!) types of college admission essays. And all you have to do to figure out which type is best for you is answer two simple questions: 1. Have you experienced significant challenges in your life? 2. Do you know what you want to be or do in the future? With these questions providing the building blocks for your essay, Sawyer guides you through the rest of the process, from choosing a structure to revising your essay, and answers the big questions that have probably been keeping you up at night: How do I brag in a way that doesn't sound like bragging? and How do I make my essay, like, deep? College Essay Essentials will help you with: The best brainstorming exercises Choosing an essay structure The all-important editing and revisions Exercises and tools to help you get started or get unstuck College admission essay examples Packed with tips, tricks, exercises, and sample essays from real students who got into their dream schools, College Essay Essentials is the only college essay guide to make this complicated process logical, simple, and (dare we say it?) a little bit fun. The perfect companion to The Fiske Guide To Colleges 2020/2021. For high school counselors and college admission coaches, this is an essential book to help walk your students through writing a stellar, authentic college essay.
Download or read book Occasional Views Volume 2 written by Samuel R. Delany and published by Wesleyan University Press. This book was released on 2021-11-09 with total page 393 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Samuel R. Delany is an acclaimed writer of literary theory, queer literature, and fiction. His works have fundamentally altered the terrain of science fiction (SF) through their formally consummate and materially grounded explorations of difference. This anthology of essays, talks, and interviews addresses topics such as sex and sexuality, race, power, literature and genre, as well as Herman Melville, John Ashbery, Willa Cather, Junot Diaz, and others. The second of two volumes, this book gathers more than twenty-five pieces on films, poetry, and science fiction. This diverse collection displays the power of a towering literary intelligence. It is a rich trove of essays, as well as a map to the mind of one of the great writers of our time.
Download or read book Intimations written by Zadie Smith and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2020-07-28 with total page 77 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “[Smith’s] slim collection of essays captures this peculiar moment with startling clarity. . . . The personal and political intermingle for a powerful indictment of America’s social systems.” —TIME, The 100 Must-Read Books of 2020 “While quarantined amid the Covid-19 pandemic, Smith penned six dazzling, trenchant essays burrowing deep into our contemporary culture of disease and upheaval and reflecting on what was ‘once necessary’ that now ‘appears inessential . . .’” —O, The Oprah Magazine, Best Books of 2020 “Smith does more than illuminate what we're going through right now. She offers a model of how to think ourselves through a fraught historical moment without getting hysterical or sanctimonious, without losing our compassion or our appreciation for what's good in other people. She teaches us how to be better at being human.” —John Powers, Fresh Air A New York Times Bestseller Deeply personal and powerfully moving, a short and timely series of reflective essays by one of the most clear-sighted and essential writers of our time. Written during the early months of lockdown, Intimations explores ideas and questions prompted by an unprecedented situation. What does it mean to submit to a new reality--or to resist it? How do we compare relative sufferings? What is the relationship between time and work? In our isolation, what do other people mean to us? How do we think about them? What is the ratio of contempt to compassion in a crisis? When an unfamiliar world arrives, what does it reveal about the world that came before it? Suffused with a profound intimacy and tenderness in response to these extraordinary times, Intimations is a slim, suggestive volume with a wide scope, in which Zadie Smith clears a generous space for thought, open enough for each reader to reflect on what has happened--and what should come next. The author will donate her royalties from the sale of Intimations to charity.
