Download or read book Picador Book Club Sampler Fall 2014 written by Picador and published by Picador. This book was released on 2014-09-22 with total page 298 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Picador Presents the Picador Book Club This fall, immerse yourself in these free, select excerpts from this year's best reading group books, brought to you by Picador. Discover the books at the front lines of modern fiction by some of our country's finest authors. These reading group books are sure to lead to some legendary chats (and arguments!) at your book club. In this sampler, enjoy excerpts from Alice McDermott, Toby Barlow, Amy Grace Loyd, Mary Kay Zurevleff, Ronald Frame, and many more!
Download or read book Picador Best New Voices Sampler Fall 2014 written by Picador and published by Picador. This book was released on 2014-09-22 with total page 186 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Picador Presents the Fall's Best New Voices This fall, immerse yourself in these free, select excerpts from this spellbinding list of fiction and nonfiction titles, brought to you by Picador. Discover the books at the front lines of modern fiction and nonfiction by some of our country's finest authors, and be the first to unearth the next generation with our smart, imaginative debuts. In this sampler, enjoy excerpts from Edward St. Aubyn, Keith Donohue, Euny Hong, Richard House, Fred Venturini, and many more!
Download or read book The Bride of Catastrophe written by Heidi Jon Schmidt and published by Picador. This book was released on 2014-11-25 with total page 432 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The much anticipated and darkly comic first novel from a prize-winning storyteller "I grew up on a farm." The year is l974, the place Sweetwater College, and Beatrice Wolfe is telling the story of her life to the glamorous young professor Philippa Sayres. So begins the achingly funny, often heartbreaking story of Beatrice's double quest to find out who she might be, and to escape the gothic eccentricity of her family. Married in a misbegotten passion, her parents are totally unsuited to any kind of business. The four Wolfe children's lives are ruled by their mother whose larger-than-life demands and fears encircle them in a darkly comic web of contradictions. When their father's ping pong business collapses and he loses their "farm," Bea's family spirals out of control. Bea, under Philippa's romantic spell, joins a lesbian community and is so committed to her new gay identity that she barely notices she's falling in love with a man--a man just risen from the ashes of addiction, whose re-creation of himself she threatens to undo. In The Bride of Catastrophe, Heidi Jon Schmidt explores the magnetic effect of love in all its variations--its power to form and sometimes deform us, to make us who we are.
Download or read book The Ask written by Sam Lipsyte and published by Macmillan + ORM. This book was released on 2010-02-27 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this dark comic novel by the author of Home Land, a college development officer’s last chance to keep his job comes at a high cost. A New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice Milo Burke—husband, father, development officer at a third-tier university—has just joined the burgeoning class of the newly unemployed. Grasping after off jobs to support his wife and child, Milo is relieved to get another chance from his former boss. All he has to do is reel in a potential donor who, mysteriously, has requested Milo’s involvement. But it turns out that the ask is Milo’s sinister college classmate Purdy Stuart. And the “give” won’t come cheap. Exploring such themes as work, war, sex, class, child rearing, romantic comedies, Benjamin Franklin, cooking shows on death row, and the eroticization of chicken wire, The Ask is a hilarious tour de force from a writer who has already shown that the deepest fictions are often the funniest.
Download or read book When I Was A Child I Read Books written by Marilynne Robinson and published by Hachette UK. This book was released on 2012-03-22 with total page 143 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the author of the magnificent, award-winning novels GILEAD, HOME and LILA comes this wonderful, heart-warming collection of essays about reading. 'Grace and intelligence ...[her work] defines universal truths about what it means to be human' Barack Obama Marilynne Robinson is not only a writer of sharp, subtly moving fiction, but also a rigorous thinker and incisive essayist. In this luminous collection she returns to the themes which have preoccupied her bestselling novels: the place literature has in life, the role of faith in modern living, the contradictions inherent in human nature. Clear-eyed and forceful as ever, Robinson demonstrates once again why she is regarded as one of our best-loved writers.
Download or read book At the Jim Bridger written by Ron Carlson and published by Macmillan + ORM. This book was released on 2007-04-01 with total page 150 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "We lean closer and closer, eager to catch every last word." said The New York Times Book Review. "Bigger, richer, funnier, and more complex than any description of them can convey," said the San Francisco Chronicle. "Some of the funniest and saddest stories ever to cozy up together," said the Los Angeles Times. Welcome to the short stories of Ron Carlson, where strange beach towels turn up in your living room; where the ordinary son of a family of geniuses spins a rollicking tale of happiness and disappointment; where a teenaged magician seduces the prettiest girl in his high school and the world, with devastating consequences. Long regarded as one of our finest living short story writers, Ron Carlson triumphantly returns with At the Jim Bridger, nine stories that are epic in scope and confessional in tone; stories that enfold the reader in a world of love and mystery, and make us feel better than just about anything written on the page.
Download or read book Dark Aemilia written by Sally O'Reilly and published by Myriad Editions (US&CA). This book was released on 2015-04-01 with total page 405 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "For I have sworn thee fair, and thought thee bright; Who art as black as hell, as dark as night." —William Shakespeare, Sonnet 147 In the boldest imagining of the era since Shakespeare in Love and Elizabeth, a finalist for the Italian Premio del Castello del Terriccio, this spellbinding novel of witchcraft, poetry, and passion, brings to life Aemilia Lanyer, the "Dark Lady" of Shakespeare's Sonnets—the playwright's muse and his one true love. The daughter of a Venetian musician but orphaned as a young girl, Aemilia Bassano grows up in the court of Elizabeth I, becoming the Queen's favorite. She absorbs a love of poetry and learning, maturing into a striking young woman with a sharp mind and a quick tongue. Now brilliant, beautiful, and highly educated, she becomes mistress of Lord Hunsdon, the Lord Chamberlain and Queen's cousin. But her position is precarious; when she falls in love with court playwright William Shakespeare, her fortunes change irrevocably. A must-read for fans of Tracy Chevalier (Girl With a Pearl Earring) and Sarah Dunant (The Birth of Venus), Sally O'Reilly's richly atmospheric novel compellingly re-imagines the struggles for power, recognition, and survival in the brutal world of Elizabethan London. She conjures the art of England's first professional female poet, giving us a character for the ages—a woman who is ambitious and intelligent, true to herself, and true to her heart.
Download or read book Tales of the German Imagination from the Brothers Grimm to Ingeborg Bachmann written by Various and published by Penguin UK. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 401 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'It was a very momentous day, the day on which I was to be slaughtered' Bringing together tales of melancholy and madness, nightmare and fantasy, this is a new collection of the most haunting German stories from the past 200 years. Ranging from the Romantics of the early nineteenth century to works of contemporary fiction, it includes Hoffmann's hallucinatory portrait of terror and insanity 'The Sandman'; Chamisso's influential black masterpiece 'Peter Schlemiel', where a man barters his own shadow; Kafka's chilling, disturbing satire 'In the Penal Colony'; the Dadaist surrealism of Kurt Schwitters' 'The Onion'; and Bachmann's modern fairy tale 'The Secrets of the Princess of Kagran'. Macabre, dreamlike and expressing deep unconscious fears, these stories are also spiked with unsettling humour, showing stylistic daring as well as giving insight into the darkest recesses of the human condition. Peter Wortsman's powerful translations are accompanied by brief overviews of the lives of each author, and an introduction discussing the notion of 'angst' and the stories' place in the context of German history. Translated, selected and edited with an introduction by Peter Wortsman
Download or read book Comfort Food written by Michael Owen Jones and published by Univ. Press of Mississippi. This book was released on 2017-04-14 with total page 250 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With contributions by Barbara Banks, Sheila Bock, Susan Eleuterio, Jillian Gould, Phillis Humphries, Michael Owen Jones, Alicia Kristen, William G. Lockwood, Yvonne R. Lockwood, Lucy M. Long, LuAnne Roth, Rachelle H. Saltzman, Charlene Smith, Annie Tucker, and Diane Tye Comfort Food explores this concept with examples taken from Atlantic Canadians, Indonesians, the English in Britain, and various ethnic, regional, and religious populations as well as rural and urban residents in the United States. This volume includes studies of particular edibles and the ways in which they comfort or in some instances cause discomfort. The contributors focus on items ranging from bologna to chocolate, including sweet and savory puddings, fried bread with an egg in the center, dairy products, fried rice, cafeteria fare, sugary fried dough, soul food, and others. Several essays consider comfort food in the context of cookbooks, films, blogs, literature, marketing, and tourism. Of course what heartens one person might put off another, so the collection also includes takes on victuals that prove problematic. All this fare is then related to identity, family, community, nationality, ethnicity, class, sense of place, tradition, stress, health, discomfort, guilt, betrayal, and loss, contributing to and deepening our understanding of comfort food. This book offers a foundation for further appreciation of comfort food. As a subject of study, the comfort food is relevant to a number of disciplines, most obviously food studies, folkloristics, and anthropology, but also American studies, cultural studies, global and international studies, tourism, marketing, and public health.
Download or read book Comic Books and the Cold War 1946 1962 written by Chris York and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2014-01-10 with total page 233 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Conventional wisdom holds that comic books of the post-World War II era are poorly drawn and poorly written publications, notable only for the furor they raised. Contributors to this thoughtful collection, however, demonstrate that these comics constitute complex cultural documents that create a dialogue between mainstream values and alternative beliefs that question or complicate the grand narratives of the era. Close analysis of individual titles, including EC comics, Superman, romance comics, and other, more obscure works, reveals the ways Cold War culture--from atomic anxieties and the nuclear family to communist hysteria and social inequalities--manifests itself in the comic books of the era. By illuminating the complexities of mid-century graphic novels, this study demonstrates that postwar popular culture was far from monolithic in its representation of American values and beliefs.
Download or read book Management Information Systems written by Kenneth C. Laudon and published by Pearson Educación. This book was released on 2004 with total page 618 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Management Information Systems provides comprehensive and integrative coverage of essential new technologies, information system applications, and their impact on business models and managerial decision-making in an exciting and interactive manner. The twelfth edition focuses on the major changes that have been made in information technology over the past two years, and includes new opening, closing, and Interactive Session cases.
Download or read book Take Five Four Favorite Essays Plus One Never Been Seen Essay written by Augusten Burroughs and published by St. Martin's Press. This book was released on 2011-07-01 with total page 78 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the number-one bestselling author of Running with Scissors and Dry comes TAKE FIVE, a mini collection of true stories that give voice to the thoughts that we all have but dare not mention—stories that shine a flashlight into both dark and hilarious places. TAKE FIVE includes the following four favorite previously-published essays plus one brand-new, never-been-published essay by Augusten Burroughs: --MINT THRESHOLD --UNCLEAR SAILING --COMMERICAL BREAK --DEBBIE'S REQUIREMENTS --SWAN SONG (new!)
Download or read book Pieces of the Frame written by John McPhee and published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. This book was released on 2011-04-01 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Pieces of the Frame is a gathering of memorable writings by one of the greatest journalists and storytellers of our time. They take the reader from the backwoods roads of Georgia, to the high altitude of Ruidoso Downs in New Mexico; from the social decay of Atlantic City, to Scotland, where a pilgrimage for art's sake leads to a surprising encounter with history on a hilltop with a view of a fifth of the entire country. McPhee's writing is more than informative; these are stories, artful and full of character, that make compelling reading. They play with and against one another, so that Pieces of the Frame is distinguished as much by its unity as by its variety. Subjects familiar to McPhee's readers-sports, Scotland, conservation-are treated here with intimacy and a sense of the writer at work.
Download or read book The Perfect Murder written by Peter James and published by Pan Macmillan. This book was released on 2010-03-04 with total page 109 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Perfect Murder is a suspenseful and gripping novella from Peter James, the bestselling author of the phenomenally successful Roy Grace series. How do you commit the perfect murder? Victor Smiley and his wife Joan have been married for nearly twenty years. Victor secretly loathes Joan more and more each day. Joan is bored by Victor, and his snoring drives her mad. Their marriage has reached a crisis point. Victor decides there is only one way to get Joan out of his life for ever, but he's about to get a nasty surprise. As it turns out, Victor's not the only one with murder in mind . . .
Download or read book The Species Area Relationship written by Thomas J. Matthews and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2021-03-18 with total page 503 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Provides a comprehensive synthesis of a fundamental phenomenon, the species-area relationship, addressing theory, evidence and application.
Download or read book A New Political Imagination written by Tony Fry and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2020-11-12 with total page 295 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The book presents the case for the making of a new political imagination by offering a critique of existing political institutions, philosophy and practices that are unable to provide the thinking, means and leadership to deal with the complexity and crises of specific locales and the world at large. The authors make clear that there is a fundamental disjuncture between the complexity of the combined critical conditions that are now putting life on Earth at risk, and the divisions and theories of knowledge that are dominantly and instrumentally trying to understand the situation. In response, this work makes the case for the need for a new political imagination that rejects the sufficiency of existing political ideologies (including democracy) being the end point of politics. The book tackles the political underpinnings of social and economic life in a world still embedded in the inequities of the afterlife of colonialism and state socialism. Thereafter it engages narratives of change, rethinks imagination and critical practices, to finally present a relationally connected way to move forward. This trans-disciplinary volume is directed at those working in political philosophy and epistemology, critical global and security studies, decoloniality and postcolonial studies, design, critical anthropology and the post humanities. It is accessible to both academic audiences and activists and practitioners.
Download or read book Oh My God What a Complete Aisling written by Emer McLysaght and published by Gill & Macmillan Ltd. This book was released on 2017-08-31 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Aisling is twenty-eight and she's a complete ... Aisling. She lives at home in Ballygobbard (or Ballygobackwards, as some gas tickets call it) with her parents and commutes to her good job at PensionsPlus in Dublin. Aisling goes out every Saturday night with her best friend Majella, who is a bit of a hames (she's lost two phones already this year – Aisling has never lost a phone). They love hoofing into the Coors Light if they're 'Out', or the vodka and Diet Cokes if they re 'Out Out'. Ais spends two nights a week at her boyfriend John's. He's from down home and was kiss number seventeen at her twenty-first. But Aisling wants more. She wants the ring on her finger. She wants the hen with the willy straws. She wants out of her parents' house, although she'd miss Mammy turning on the electric blanket like clockwork and Daddy taking her car 'out for a spin' and bringing it back full of petrol. When a week in Tenerife with John doesn't end with the expected engagement, Aisling calls a halt to things and soon she has surprised herself and everyone else by agreeing to move into a three-bed in Portobello with stylish Sadhbh from HR and her friend, the mysterious Elaine. Newly single and relocated to the big city, life is about to change utterly for this wonderful, strong, surprising and funny girl, who just happens to be a complete Aisling.