Download or read book Varieties of Exile written by Mavis Gallant and published by New York Review of Books. This book was released on 2003-11-30 with total page 348 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Mavis Gallant is the modern master of what Henry James called the international story, the fine-grained evocation of the quandaries of people who must make their way in the world without any place to call their own. The irreducible complexity of the very idea of home is especially at issue in the stories Gallant has written about Montreal, where she was born, although she has lived in Paris for more than half a century. Varieties of Exile, Russell Banks's extensive new selection from Gallant's work, demonstrates anew the remarkable reach of this writer's singular art. Among its contents are three previously uncollected stories, as well as the celebrated semi-autobiographical sequence about Linnet Muir—stories that are wise, funny, and full of insight into the perils and promise of growing up and breaking loose.

Download or read book Out There written by Kate Folk and published by Random House. This book was released on 2022-03-29 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A thrilling new voice in fiction injects the absurd into the everyday to present a startling vision of modern life, “[as] if Kafka and Camus and Bradbury were penning episodes of Black Mirror” (Chang-Rae Lee, author of My Year Abroad). “Stories so sharp and ingenious you may cut yourself on them while reading.”—Kelly Link, author of Get In Trouble With a focus on the weird and eerie forces that lurk beneath the surface of ordinary experience, Kate Folk’s debut collection is perfectly pitched to the madness of our current moment. A medical ward for a mysterious bone-melting disorder is the setting of a perilous love triangle. A curtain of void obliterates the globe at a steady pace, forcing Earth’s remaining inhabitants to decide with whom they want to spend eternity. A man fleeing personal scandal enters a codependent relationship with a house that requires a particularly demanding level of care. And in the title story, originally published in The New Yorker, a woman in San Francisco uses dating apps to find a partner despite the threat posed by “blots,” preternaturally handsome artificial men dispatched by Russian hackers to steal data. Meanwhile, in a poignant companion piece, a woman and a blot forge a genuine, albeit doomed, connection. Prescient and wildly imaginative, Out There depicts an uncanny landscape that holds a mirror to our subconscious fears and desires. Each story beats with its own fierce heart, and together they herald an exciting new arrival in the tradition of speculative literary fiction.

Download or read book Penpal written by Dathan Auerbach and published by 1000Vultures. This book was released on 2012-07 with total page 178 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Better Day Book written by Olivia Gibbs and published by Better Day Books. This book was released on 2020-10-28 with total page 172 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: --Boost happiness with the 52 simple yet effective ideas presented --Experience relaxation as you fill out each chapter's journal pages --Feel connection as you share the 16 beautifully-illustrated "Tear & Share" pull-out cards In this charmingly illustrated gift book, popular artist Olivia Gibbs shares 52 simple ideas for having happier days. From taking an aroma-filled flower bath to spending more time in nature, readers will find simple yet effective ideas that celebrate kindness, self-care, and life's simple pleasures. The book is organized into six chapters: "Outdoors," "At Home," "With Others," "The Little Things," "Life Is Hard," and "The Big Picture." Also included are illustrated journaling pages and 16 Tear & Share Happiness Cards. A beautiful and timeless gift for anyone looking for inspiration in a chaotic world.

Download or read book This Is Pleasure written by Mary Gaitskill and published by Pantheon. This book was released on 2019-11-05 with total page 97 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Starting with Bad Behavior in the 1980s, Mary Gaitskill has been writing about gender relations with searing, even prophetic honesty. In This Is Pleasure, she considers our present moment through the lens of a particular #MeToo incident. The effervescent, well-dressed Quin, a successful book editor and fixture on the New York arts scene, has been accused of repeated unforgivable transgressions toward women in his orbit. But are they unforgivable? And who has the right to forgive him? To Quin’s friend Margot, the wrongdoing is less clear. Alternating Quin’s and Margot’s voices and perspectives, Gaitskill creates a nuanced tragicomedy, one that reveals her characters as whole persons—hurtful and hurting, infuriating and touching, and always deeply recognizable. Gaitskill has said that fiction is the only way that she could approach this subject because it is too emotionally faceted to treat in the more rational essay form. Her compliment to her characters—and to her readers—is that they are unvarnished and real. Her belief in our ability to understand them, even when we don’t always admire them, is a gesture of humanity from one of our greatest contemporary writers.

Download or read book Listen to This written by Alex Ross and published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. This book was released on 2010-09-28 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of The Telegraph's Best Music Books 2011 Alex Ross's award-winning international bestseller, The Rest Is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century, has become a contemporary classic, establishing Ross as one of our most popular and acclaimed cultural historians. Listen to This, which takes its title from a beloved 2004 essay in which Ross describes his late-blooming discovery of pop music, showcases the best of his writing from more than a decade at The New Yorker. These pieces, dedicated to classical and popular artists alike, are at once erudite and lively. In a previously unpublished essay, Ross brilliantly retells hundreds of years of music history—from Renaissance dances to Led Zeppelin—through a few iconic bass lines of celebration and lament. He vibrantly sketches canonical composers such as Schubert, Verdi, and Brahms; gives us in-depth interviews with modern pop masters such as Björk and Radiohead; and introduces us to music students at a Newark high school and indie-rock hipsters in Beijing. Whether his subject is Mozart or Bob Dylan, Ross shows how music expresses the full complexity of the human condition. Witty, passionate, and brimming with insight, Listen to This teaches us how to listen more closely.

Download or read book An Anthropologist on Mars written by Oliver Sacks and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2012-11-14 with total page 465 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the bestselling author of The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat • Fascinating portraits of neurological disorder in which men, women, and one extraordinary child emerge as brilliantly adaptive personalities, whose conditions have not so much debilitated them as ushered them into another reality. Here are seven detailed narratives of neurological patients, including a surgeon consumed by the compulsive tics of Tourette's syndrome unless he is operating; an artist who loses all sense of color in a car accident, but finds a new sensibility and creative power in black and white; and an autistic professor who cannot decipher the simplest social exchange between humans, but has built a career out of her intuitive understanding of animal behavior. Sacks combines the well honed mind of an academician with the verve of a true storyteller.

Download or read book Endgame The Calling written by James Frey and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2014-10-07 with total page 426 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The New York Times bestseller and international multimedia phenomenon! In each generation, for thousands of years, twelve Players have been ready. But they never thought Endgame would happen. Until now. Omaha, Nebraska. Sarah Alopay stands at her graduation ceremony—class valedictorian, star athlete, a full life on the horizon. But when a meteor strikes the school, she survives. Because she is the Cahokian Player. Endgame has begun. Juliaca, Peru. At the same moment, thousands of miles away, another meteor strikes. But Jago Tlaloc is safe. He has a secret, and his secret makes him brave. Strong. Certain. He is the Olmec Player. He's ready. Ready for Endgame. Across the globe, twelve meteors slam into Earth. Cities burn. But Sarah and Jago and the ten others Players know the truth. The meteors carry a message. The Players have been summoned to The Calling. And now they must fight one another in order to survive. All but one will fail. But that one will save the world. This is Endgame.

Download or read book Love on the Left Bank written by Ed van der Elsken and published by . This book was released on 1999 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Photographs by Ed Van der Elsken A new edition of one of the classics of photography by one of the greatest photographers of the twentieth century. Originally published in 1954, and long out of print, this is a facsimile edition of the original and has been printed from the negatives held by the Netherlands Photo Archive. The work focuses on the Left Bank of Paris at the time when the area was recognised as a centre of creative ferment which would determine the cultural agenda of a generation. 200 plates.

Download or read book The History of the Computer written by Rachel Ignotofsky and published by Ten Speed Press. This book was released on 2022-05-17 with total page 129 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A strikingly illustrated overview of the computing machines that have changed our world—from the abacus to the smartphone—and the people who made them, by the New York Times bestselling author and illustrator of Women in Science. “A beautifully illustrated journey through the history of computing, from the Antikythera mechanism to the iPhone and beyond—I loved it.”—Eben Upton, Founder and CEO of Raspberry Pi ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The New York Public Library Computers are everywhere and have impacted our lives in so many ways. But who created them, and why? How have they transformed the way that we interact with our surroundings and each other? Packed with accessible information, fun facts, and discussion starters, this charming and art-filled book takes you from the ancient world to the modern day, focusing on important inventions, from the earliest known counting systems to the sophisticated algorithms behind AI. The History of the Computer also profiles a diverse range of key players and creators—from An Wang and Margaret Hamilton to Steve Jobs and Sir Tim Berners-Lee—and illuminates their goals, their intentions, and the impact of their inventions on our everyday lives. This entertaining and educational journey will help you understand our most important machines and how we can use them to enhance the way we live. You’ll never look at your phone the same way again!

Download or read book PopCo written by Scarlett Thomas and published by HMH. This book was released on 2005-10-03 with total page 515 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “The code-breaking and -making heroine of [this] smart, engaging novel takes a critical view of the corporate marketing of cool . . . a captivating heroine.” —Publishers Weekly Twentysomething Alice Butler is a bit of an introvert, but it hasn’t stopped her from landing a job at the UK office of globally successful—if slightly sinister—toy company PopCo. There’s no dress code, but that doesn’t keep Alice’s coworkers from commenting on her “Bletchley Park look” outfits. Now the CEO wants the creatives on the staff to attend what the organization calls “Thought Camp” and invent an insidious product that will part as many teenage girls from their allowances as possible. Alice isn’t feeling so comfortable about her supposedly cool new job. But she has another problem to solve first. She’s started to receive bizarre encrypted messages, and they may have something to do with her cryptanalyst grandfather; her long-disappeared father; a centuries-old manuscript; and the possibility of buried treasure. Alice is convinced the engraving on the necklace she’s been wearing since she was ten years old holds the key to it all. But the secrets she uncovers may take her by surprise, in this highly original novel that blends code, mathematics, marketing, mystery, and more, “a sort of Harriet-the-Spy-meets-Douglas-Coupland with a Treasure Island twist” (Daily Candy). “How many novels can you think of that leave the reader with an intriguing puzzle to solve, plus a cake recipe, plus a crossword and a list of the first thousand prime numbers? Clever, likeable, frothy, zeitgeist-chasing.” —Time Out London

Download or read book The Quincunx written by Charles Palliser and published by Ballantine Books. This book was released on 1990-11-27 with total page 802 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An extraordinary modern novel in the Victorian tradition, Charles Palliser has created something extraordinary—a plot within a plot within a plot of family secrets, mysterious clues, low-born birth, high-reaching immorality, and, always, always the fog-enshrouded, enigmatic character of 19th century—London itself. “So compulsively absorbing that reality disappears . . . One is swept along by those enduring emotions that defy modern art and a random universe: hunger for revenge, longing for justice and the fantasy secretly entertained by most people that the bad will be punished and the good rewarded.”—The New York Times “A virtuoso achievement . . . It is an epic, a tour de force, a staggeringly complex and tantalizingly layered tale that will keep readers engrossed in days. . . . The Quincunx will not disappoint you. It is, quite simply, superb.”—Chicago Sun-Times “A bold and vivid tale that invites the reader to get lost in the intoxicating rhythms of another world. And the invitation is irresistible.”—San Francisco Chronicle “A remarkable book . . . In mood, color, atmosphere and characters, this is Charles Dickens reincarnated . . . It is an immersing experience.”—Los Angeles Times Book Review “To read the first pages is to be trapped for seven-hundred odd more: you cannot stop turning them.”—The New Yorker “Few books, at most a dozen or two in a lifetime, affect us this way. . . . For sheer intricacy and ingenuity, for skill and clarity of storytelling, it is the kind of book readers wait for, a book to get lost in.”—The Philadelphia Inquirer

Download or read book The Dilbert Future written by Scott Adams and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 1998-10-07 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Step aside, Bill Gates! Here comes today′s real technology guru and his totally original, laugh-out-loud New York Times bestseller that looks at the approaching new millennium and boldly predicts: more stupidity ahead. In The Dilbert Principle and Dogbert′s Top Secret Management Handbook, Scott Adams skewered the absurdities of the corporate world. Now he takes the next logical step, turning his keen analytical focus on how human greed, stupidity and horniness will shape the future. Featuring the same irresistible amalgam of essays and cartoons that made Adams previous works so singularly entertaining, this uproariously funny, dead-on-target tome offers half-truthful, half-farcical predictions that push all of today′s hot buttons - from business and technology to society and government. Children - they are our future, so we′re pretty much hosed. Tip: Grab what you can while they′re still too little to stop us. Human Potential - we′ll finally learn to use the 90 percent of the brain we don′t use today, and find out that there wasn′t anything in that part. Computers - Technology and homeliness will combine to form a powerful type of birth control. In The Dilbert Principle and Dogbert′s Top Secret Management Handbook, Scott Adams skewered the absurdities of the corporate world. Now he takes the next logical step, turning his keen analytical focus on how human greed, stupidity and horniness will shape the future. Featuring the same irresistible amalgam of essays and cartoons that made Adams previous works so singularly entertaining, this uproariously

Download or read book The Oxford Murders written by Guillermo Martinez and published by Hachette UK. This book was released on 2011-07-21 with total page 118 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On a balmy summer's day in Oxford an old lady who once helped decipher the Enigma Code is killed. After receiving a cryptic anonymous note containing only the address and the symbol of a circle, Arthur Seldom, a leading mathematician, arrives to find the body. Then follow more murders - an elderly man on a life-support machine is found dead with needle marks in this throat; the percussionist of an orchestra at a concert at Blenheim Palace dies before the audience's very eyes - seemingly unconnected except for notes appearing in the maths department, for the attention of Seldom. Why is he being targeted as the recipient of these coded messages? All he can conjecture is that it might relate to his latest book, an unexpected bestseller about serial killers and the parallels between investigations into their crimes and certain mathematical theorems. It is left to Seldom and a postgraduate mathematics student to work out the key to the series of symbols before the killer strikes again.

Download or read book The Conjurer s Almanaq written by Roy Leban and published by . This book was released on 2019-01-21 with total page 238 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Conjurer's Almanaq is the ultimate guide to the conjuring arts. Or is it? Start reading and you'll be trapped inside! This unique puzzle book is an escape room in a book, only there is no room. You're trapped in the book itself by an evil spell cast by The Great Qdini. Find the hidden puzzles and learn Qdini's true name to make your way out

Download or read book Subterranean LP written by James Rollins and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2010-12-21 with total page 640 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Beneath the ice at the bottom of the Earth is a magnificent subterranean labyrinth, a place of breathtaking wonders—and terrors beyond imagining. A team of specialists led by archaeologist Ashley Carter has been hand-picked to explore this secret place and to uncover the riches it holds. But they are not the first to venture here—and those they follow did not return. There are mysteries here older than time, and revelations that could change the world. But there are also things that should not be disturbed—and a devastating truth that could doom Ashley and the expedition: they are not alone. With all the trademark elements that have made James Rollins a bestselling author around the world—pulse-pounding adventure, scientific intrigue, nail-biting suspense—Subterranean deserves a place in every thriller lover's collection. Even if you've read it before, you won't want to put this classic Rollins down.

Download or read book Where I m from written by Steven Borsman and published by . This book was released on 2011 with total page 33 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "In the Fall of 2010 I gave an assignment in my Appalachian Literature class at Berea College, telling my students to write their own version of "Where I'm From" poem based on the writing prompt and poem by George Ella Lyon, one of the preeminent Appalachian poets. I was so impressed by the results of the assignment that I felt the poems needed to be preserved in a bound document. Thus, this little book. These students completely captured the complexities of this region and their poems contain all the joys and sorrows of living in Appalachia. I am proud that they were my students and I am very proud that together we produced this record of contemporary Appalachian Life" -- Silas House