Download or read book Magnificent Corpses written by Anneli S. Rufus and published by Da Capo Press. This book was released on 1999 with total page 245 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Holy relics -- the bodily remains of saints and other sacred figures -- were for centuries the most revered objects in the Western world, at center-stage in Europe's great churches and cathedrals. Today some relics have been shunted to side chapels and dark crypts, yet many continue to draw prayerful pilgrims, as they have for centuries, seeking solace, inspiration, and signs of miracles. In Magnificent Corpses, Anneli Rufus recounts her visits to 18 of Europe's most significant relics. With an engaging mix of history and personal narrative, Rufus tells their secret stories and, along the way, revisits with a fresh eye the compelling accounts of the saints whose physical bodies the relics represent.
Download or read book Exquisite Corpse written by Poppy Z. Brite and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 1997-08-20 with total page 243 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the acclaimed author of Lost Souls, Drawing Blood, and Wormwood comes the provocative and thrilling serial killer novel that #1 New York Times bestselling author Peter Straub calls “a guidebook to hell.” To serial slayer Andrew Compton, murder is an art, the most intimate art. After feigning his own death to escape from prison, Compton makes his way to the United States with the ambition of bringing his art to new heights. Tortured by his own perverse desires and drawn to possess and destroy young boys, Compton inadvertently joins forces with Jay Byrne, a dissolute playboy who has pushed his own art to limits even Compton hadn’t previously imagined. Together, Compton and Byrne set their sights on an exquisite young Vietnamese American runaway, Tran, whom they deem to be the perfect victim. Swiftly moving from the grimy streets of London’s Piccadilly Circus to the decadence of New Orleans’s French Quarter, Poppy Z. Brite dissects the landscape of torture and invites us into the mind of a killer. With “intelligence, sweep, nerve, knowledge, and deeply unsettling erotic power” (Dennis Cooper, author of Frisk), Exquisite Corpse is a novel for those who dare trespass where the sacred and profane become one.
Download or read book Heavenly Bodies written by Paul Koudounaris and published by Thames and Hudson. This book was released on 2013-11-05 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An intriguing visual history of the veneration in European churches and monasteries of bejeweled and decorated skeletons Death has never looked so beautiful. The fully articulated skeleton of a female saint, dressed in an intricate costume of silk brocade and gold lace, withered fingers glittering with colorful rubies, emeralds, and pearls—this is only one of the specially photographed relics featured in Heavenly Bodies. In 1578 news came of the discovery in Rome of a labyrinth of underground tombs, which were thought to hold the remains of thousands of early Christian martyrs. Skeletons of these supposed saints were subsequently sent to Catholic churches and religious houses in German-speaking Europe to replace holy relics that had been destroyed in the wake of the Protestant Reformation. The skeletons, known as “the catacomb saints,” were carefully reassembled, richly dressed in fantastic costumes, wigs, crowns, jewels, and armor, and posed in elaborate displays inside churches and shrines as reminders to the faithful of the heavenly treasures that awaited them after death. Paul Koudounaris gained unprecedented access to religious institutions to reveal these fascinating historical artifacts. Hidden for over a century as Western attitudes toward both the worship of holy relics and death itself changed, some of these ornamented skeletons appear in publication here for the first time.
Download or read book The Uncomplaining Corpses written by Brett Halliday and published by Open Road Media. This book was released on 2015-06-16 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The honeymoon is over—and it’s time for Mike Shayne to prepare for Miami’s killing season For years, Mike Shayne has tangled with the toughest crooks the country has to offer, outsmarting some and outpunching the rest. He was good at his job, but he had no one to come home to—until he met Phyllis. After rescuing his damsel in distress more than once, the hard-boiled PI found himself falling in love, and before he knew it, they were married and on their honeymoon in Cuba. Unfortunately for the lovebirds, their migration home to Miami marks the height of tourist season, when every gangster in America travels south to play. He may be a married man, but Mike Shayne won’t be spending this balmy winter cozied up at home. When a real-estate developer tries to hire Shayne to break into his home as part of an insurance-fraud scam, the scheme quickly turns to murder. With more deaths on the horizon, Shayne will have to be careful if he doesn’t want to celebrate his first wedding anniversary behind bars. The Uncomplaining Corpses is the 3rd book in the Mike Shayne Mysteries, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.
Download or read book Body of Work written by Christine Montross and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2007-06-21 with total page 316 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A "gleaming, humane" (The New York Times Book Review) memoir of the relationship between a cadaver named Eve and a first-year medical student Medical student Christine Montross felt nervous standing outside the anatomy lab on her first day of class. Entering a room with stainless-steel tables topped by corpses in body bags was initially unnerving. But once Montross met her cadaver, she found herself intrigued by the person the woman once was and fascinated by the strange, unsettling beauty of the human form. They called her Eve. The story of Montross and Eve is a tender and surprising examination of the mysteries of the human body, and a remarkable look at our relationship with both the living and the dead.
Download or read book A Beautiful Corpse written by Christi Daugherty and published by Minotaur Books. This book was released on 2019-03-12 with total page 333 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From Christi Daugherty, author of The Echo Killing, comes another pulse-pounding suspenseful thriller featuring crime reporter Harper McClain. For a woman, being killed by someone who claims to love her is the most ordinary murder of all. With its antebellum houses and ancient oak trees draped in a veil of Spanish moss, Savannah’s graceful downtown is famous around the world. When a woman is killed in the heart of that affluent district, the shock is felt throughout the city. But for crime reporter Harper McClain, this story is personal. The corpse has a familiar face. Only twenty-four years old, Naomi Scott was just getting started. A law student, tending bar to make ends meet, she wanted to change the world. Instead, her life ended in the dead of night at the hands of an unseen gunman. There are no witnesses to the crime. The police have three suspects: Scott’s boyfriend, who has a criminal past he claims he’s put behind him, her boss, who stalked another young bartender two years ago, and the district attorney’s son, who Naomi dated until their relationship ended in acrimony. All three men claim to love her. Could one of them be her killer? With the whole city demanding answers, Harper unravels a tangled story of obsession and jealousy. But the pressures on her go beyond the murder. The newspaper is facing more layoffs. Her boss fears both their jobs are on the line. And Harper begins to realize that someone is watching her every move. Someone familiar and very dangerous. Someone who told her to run before it’s too late...
Download or read book The Skin written by Curzio Malaparte and published by New York Review of Books. This book was released on 2013-11-05 with total page 369 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the first unexpurgated English edition of Curzio Malaparte’s legendary work The Skin. The book begins in 1943, with Allied forces cementing their grip on the devastated city of Naples. The sometime Fascist and ever-resourceful Curzio Malaparte is working with the Americans as a liaison officer. He looks after Colonel Jack Hamilton, “a Christian gentleman . . . an American in the noblest sense of the word,” who speaks French and cites the classics and holds his nose as the two men tour the squalid streets of a city in ruins where liberation is only another word for desperation. Veterans of the disbanded Italian army beg for work. A rare specimen from the city’s famous aquarium is served up at a ceremonial dinner for high Allied officers. Prostitution is rampant. The smell of death is everywhere. Subtle, cynical, evasive, manipulative, unnerving, always astonishing, Malaparte is a supreme artist of the unreliable, both the product and the prophet of a world gone rotten to the core.
Download or read book Cranioklepty written by Colin Dickey and published by Unbridled Books. This book was released on 2010-10-09 with total page 318 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Presents a history of cranioklepty, the desire to possess the skulls of the brilliant and famous for study, for sale, or for display, and includes the after-death stories of such notables as Haydn, Beethoven, and Thomas Browne.
Download or read book On Our Way written by Robert Kastenbaum and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2004-05-20 with total page 461 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A profound look at how death and dying is understood, negotiated, and experienced by different cultures.
Download or read book Customs and ceremonies written by John Brand and published by . This book was released on 1870 with total page 382 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Stuck written by Anneli Rufus and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2008-12-26 with total page 338 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The brilliant mind behind Party of One examines the striking social trend: people are stuck and they want to change, but..." (San Francisco Chronicle) In this book, Anneli Rufus identifies an intriguing aspect of our culture: Many of us are stuck. Be it in the wrong relationship, career, or town, or just with bad habits we can't seem to quit, we even say we want to make a change, but . . . Merging interviews, personal anecdotes, and cultural criticism, Stuck is a wise and passionate exploration of the dreams we hold dearest for ourselves-and the road to actually achieving them. When faced with the possibility of change, our minds can play tricks on us. We tell ourselves: I can't make it. Or, It's not worth the effort. How is it that in a time of unprecedented freedom and opportunity, so many of us feel utterly powerless and unsure? In this book, Rufus exposes a complex network of causes for our immobilization- from fear and denial to powerful messages in popular culture or mass media that conspire to convince us that we're helpless in the face of our cravings. But there can be a light at the end of the tunnel: Rufus also tells the stories of people who have managed to become unstuck and of others who, after much reflection, have decided that where they are is best. After all, she writes, "what looks to you like a rut, others might say is true absorption in a topic, a relationship, a career, a pursuit, a place. What looks to you like boredom, others call commitment. And even contentment." A brilliant glimpse into what truly motivates-or doesn't motivate-us, Stuck will inspire you to take a look at yourself in an entirely new light.
Download or read book Driving with Dead People written by Monica Holloway and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2008-12-09 with total page 476 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: At nine years old, Monica Holloway develops a fascination with the local funeral home. Small wonder, with a father who drives his Ford pick up with a Kodak movie camera sitting shotgun just in case he sees an accident, and whose home movies feature more footage of disasters than of his children. In between her father's bouts of violence and abuse, Monica becomes fast friends with Julie Kilner, whose father is the town mortician. She and Julie preferred the casket showroom to the parks and grassy backyards in her hometown of Elk Grove, Ohio, where they would take turns lying in their favourite coffins. In time, Monica and Julie get a job driving the company hearse to pick up bodies from the airport, yet even Monica's growing independence can't protect her from her parents' irresponsibility, and from the feeling that she simply does not deserve to be safe. Little does she know, as she finally strikes out on her own, that her parents' biggest betrayal has yet to be revealed...
Download or read book Handbook of Death and Dying written by Clifton D. Bryant and published by SAGE Publications. This book was released on 2003-10-01 with total page 1146 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "This is a singular reference tool . . . essential for academic libraries." --Reference & User Services Quarterly "Students, professionals, and scholars in the social sciences and health professions are fortunate to have the ′unwieldy corpus of knowledge and literature′ on death studies organized and integrated. Highly recommended for all collections." --CHOICE "Excellent and highly recommended." --BOOKLIST "Well researched with lengthy bibliographies . . . The index is rich with See and See Also references . . . Its multidisciplinary nature makes it an excellent addition to academic collections." --LIBRARY JOURNAL "Researchers and students in many social sciences and humanities disciplines, the health and legal professions, and mortuary science will find the Handbook of Death and Dying valuable. Lay readers will also appreciate the Handbook′s wide-ranging coverage of death-related topics. Recommended for academic, health sciences, and large public libraries." --E-STREAMS Dying is a social as well as physiological phenomenon. Each society characterizes and, consequently, treats death and dying in its own individual ways—ways that differ markedly. These particular patterns of death and dying engender modal cultural responses, and such institutionalized behavior has familiar, economical, educational, religious, and political implications. The Handbook of Death and Dying takes stock of the vast literature in the field of thanatology, arranging and synthesizing what has been an unwieldy body of knowledge into a concise, yet comprehensive reference work. This two-volume handbook will provide direction and momentum to the study of death-related behavior for many years to come. Key Features More than 100 contributors representing authoritative expertise in a diverse array of disciplines Anthropology Family Studies History Law Medicine Mortuary Science Philosophy Psychology Social work Sociology Theology A distinguished editorial board of leading scholars and researchers in the field More than 100 definitive essays covering almost every dimension of death-related behavior Comprehensive and inclusive, exploring concepts and social patterns within the larger topical concern Journal article length essays that address topics with appropriate detail Multidisciplinary and cross-cultural coverage EDITORIAL BOARD Clifton D. Bryant, Editor-in-Chief Patty M. Bryant, Managing Editor Charles K. Edgley, Associate Editor Michael R. Leming, Associate Editor Dennis L. Peck, Associate Editor Kent L. Sandstrom, Associate Editor Watson F. Rogers, II, Assistant Editor
Download or read book Excellent Cadavers written by Alexander Stille and published by Vintage. This book was released on 1996-08-06 with total page 482 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1992 Italy was convulsed by two brazen Mafia assassinations of high-ranking officials. The latest "excellent cadavers" were Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino, the Sicilian magistrates who had been the Cosa Nostra's most implacable enemies. Yet in the aftermath of the murders, hundreds of "men of honor" were arrested and the government that ad protected them for nearly half a century was at last driven from office. This is the story that Stille tells with such insight and immediacy in Excellent Cadavers. Combining a profound understanding of his doomed heroes with and unprecedented look into the Mafia's stringent codes and murderous rivalries, he gives us a book that has the power of a great work of history and the suspense of a true thriller. "Riveting...a well-paced and highly informative account stocked with well-drawn characters."--Philadelphia Inquirer "Masterful...[Stille] delivers a stiletto-sharp portrait of the bloodthirsty Sicilian mafia."--Business Week
Download or read book The Custom House of Desire written by J. H. Matthews and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 1975 with total page 340 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Forty-seven short narratives by 24 surrealist writers.
Download or read book Bring Up the Bodies written by Hilary Mantel and published by Henry Holt and Company. This book was released on 2012-05-08 with total page 450 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Winner of the 2012 Man Booker Prize Winner of the 2012 Costa Book of the Year Award The sequel to Hilary Mantel's 2009 Man Booker Prize winner and New York Times bestseller, Wolf Hall delves into the heart of Tudor history with the downfall of Anne Boleyn Though he battled for seven years to marry her, Henry is disenchanted with Anne Boleyn. She has failed to give him a son and her sharp intelligence and audacious will alienate his old friends and the noble families of England. When the discarded Katherine dies in exile from the court, Anne stands starkly exposed, the focus of gossip and malice. At a word from Henry, Thomas Cromwell is ready to bring her down. Over three terrifying weeks, Anne is ensnared in a web of conspiracy, while the demure Jane Seymour stands waiting her turn for the poisoned wedding ring. But Anne and her powerful family will not yield without a ferocious struggle. Hilary Mantel's Bring Up the Bodies follows the dramatic trial of the queen and her suitors for adultery and treason. To defeat the Boleyns, Cromwell must ally with his natural enemies, the papist aristocracy. What price will he pay for Anne's head? Bring Up the Bodies is one of The New York Times' 10 Best Books of 2012, one of Publishers Weekly's Top 10 Best Books of 2012 and one of The Washington Post's 10 Best Books of 2012
