Starting with a rush-hour subway ride to South Station inBoston to catch the Lake Shore Limited to Chicago, Theroux winds upon the poky, wandering Old Patagonian Express steam engine, whichcomes to a halt in a desolate land of cracked hills and thornbushes. But with Theroux the view along the way is what matters:the monologuing Mr. Thornberry in Costa Rica, the bogus priest ofCali, and the blind Jorge Luis Borges, who delights in havingTheroux read Robert Louis Stevenson to him.
Now a classic of the travel genre, The Great Railway Bazaarchronicles Paul Theroux's adventures by rail from Victoria Stationin London to Tokyo Central, told with his signature wryobservations.
Last year, awareness about global warming reached a tippingpoint. Now one of the most dynamic writers and one of the mostrespected scientists in the field of climate change offer the firstconcise guide to both the problems and the solutions. Guiding uspast a blizzard of information and misinformation, Gabrielle Walkerand Sir David King explain the science of warming, the mostcutting-edge technological solutions from small to large, and thenational and international politics that will affect our efforts.While there have been many other books about the problem of globalwarming, none has addressed what we can and should do about it soclearly and persuasively, with no spin, no agenda, and noexaggeration. Neither Walker nor King is an activist or politician,and theirs is not a generic green call to arms. Instead theypropose specific ideas to fix a very specific problem. Mostimportant, they offer hope: This is a serious issue, perhaps themost serious that humanity has ever faced. But we can still dosomething about
Whether you are working on the novel that's been in the back ofyour mind for years or simply facing an increasing demand to writewell at work or school, the fact remains: more and more of us arewriting more often these days-reports, e-mails, faxes, andnewsletters. But despite the increase in written communication,something has been lost-the fundamentals of good writing. Grammarmaven Patricia T. O'Conner comes to the rescue with the mostpainless, practical, and funny writing book ever written. In short,snappy chapters filled with crystal-clear examples, amusingcomparisons, and humorous allegories that cover everything from"Pronoun Pileups" and "Verbs That Zing" to "What to Do When You'reStuck," O'Conner provides simple, straightforward tips to help yousort your thoughts and make sentences that make sense. Push asidethose stuffy old-fashioned rule books, because O'Conner has writtenthe most accessible and enjoyable book yet for today's writer.
Anecdotal, funny, frank, POPism is Warhols personal view of thePop phenomenon in New York in the 1960s and a look back at therelationships that made up the scene at the Factory, including hisrelationship with Edie Sedgewick, focus of the upcoming filmFactory Girl. In the detached, back-fence gossip style he wasfamous for, Warhol tells allthe ultimate inside story of a decadeof cultural revolution.
Written in the third century BC in Alexandria, this is theonly full surviving account of Jason's legendary quest for theGolden Fleece. It describes the thrilling adventures of theArgonauts on their voyage to Colchis to plead with king Aeetes forthe fleece, his greatest treasure and the Eros-inspired passionfelt by his daughter, the beautiful witch-princess Medea, for thescheming Jason. Chronicling a journey that sees Jason and his crewtraverse perilous seas, negotiate the treacherous Cyanean Rocks,and confront the lure of the Sirens' song, The Voyage of Argo is amasterful depiction of distinctly human heroism and betrayal causedby love. An eloquent marriage of romance and realism, it tells thedefinitive version of one of the greatest legends of the classicalage: an epic tale of bravery, prophecy and magic.
In Victorian England, an orphan girl is sent to a countryestate to work for-and ultimately woo-its young heiress, on behalfof a mysterious benefactor known as Gentleman.
The editors of the best-selling rediscovered Tolkien novelRoverandom present an expanded fiftieth anniversary edition ofTolkien's beloved classic Farmer Giles of Ham, complete with a map,the original story outline, the original first-editionillustrations by Pauline Baynes, and the author's notes for anunpublished sequel. Farmer Giles of Ham is a light-hearted satirefor readers of all ages that tells the tale of a reluctant hero whomust save his village from a dragon. It is a small gem of a talethat grows more delightful with each rereading.
Since the series' inception in 1915, the annual volumes of TheBest American Short Stories have launched literary careers,showcased the most compelling stories of each year, and confirmedfor all time the significance of the short story in our nationalliterature. Now THE BEST AMERICAN SHORT STORIES OF THE CENTURYbrings together the best -- fifty-six extraordinary stories thatrepresent a century's worth of unsurpassed achievements in thisquintessentially American literary genre. This expanded editionincludes a new story from The Best American Short Stories 1999 toround out the century, as well as an index including every storypublished in the series. Of all the writers whose work has appearedin the series, only John Updike has been represented in each of thelast five decades, from his first appearance, in 1959, to his mostrecent, in 1998. Updike worked with coeditor Katrina Kenison tochoose the finest stories from the years since 1915. The result is"extraordinary . . . A one-volume literary history of thi
If you had to pick the top-ten iconic sporting events, whatwould they be? Jim Gorant asked himself this question, and theanswer resulted in a yearlong journey into the heart of sports.From the Kentucky Derby to the Super Bowl, from a day game atWrigley Field to a fortnight at Wimbledon, from the NCAA Final Fourto the frozen tundra of Lambeau Field, Gorant takes us along forthe ride, evoking the best (and sometimes the worst) sports has tooffer. He enters the inner sanctum of NASCAR, witnesses JackNicklaus teeing off for the last time at the Masters, and takespart in one of college football’s biggest rivalries—Ohio Stateversus Michigan. Fanatic is a rollicking story of the ultimatesports road trip. Jim Gorant captures these ten unforgettableevents in all their color and commotion and gives sports fanseverywhere reason to cheer.
The New York Times bestseller and Booker Prize contender that"delivers...a ghost story that creeps up your spine" (SeattleTimes). One post-war summer in rural Warwickshire, Dr. Faraday is calledto a patient at lonely Hundreds Hall. Home to the Ayres family forover two centuries, the Georgian house, once impressive andhandsome, is now in decline. Its owners-mother, son, anddaughter-are struggling to keep pace with a changing society, aswell as with conflicts of their own. But are the Ayreses haunted bysomething more sinister than a dying way of life? Little does Dr.Faraday know how closely, and how terrifyingly, their story isabout to become intimately entwined with his.
Hans Christian Andersen was the profoundly imaginative writerand storyteller who revolutionized literature for children. He gaveus the now standard versions of some traditional fairy tales - withan anarchic twist - but many of his most famous tales sprangdirectly from his imagination. The thirty stories here range fromexuberant early works such as "The Tinderbox" and "The Emperor'sNew Clothes" through poignant masterpieces such as "The LittleMermaid" and "The Ugly Duckling," to more subversive later talessuch as "The Ice maiden" and "The Wood Nymph."
When Abigail Thomass husband, Rich, was hit by a car, his skullwas shattered, his brain severely damaged. Subject to rages,terrors, and hallucinations and with no memory of what he did thehour, the day, the year before he was sent to live in a nursingfacility that specializes in treating traumatic brain injuries.This tragedy is the ground on which Abigail had to build a newlife. How she built that life is a story of great courage andchange, of moving to a small country town, of a new family composedof three dogs, knitting, and friendship, of facing down guilt anddiscovering gratitude. It is also about her relationship with Rich,a man who lived in the eternal present, and the eerie poetry of hisoften uncanny perceptions. Hailed by Stephen King as "the bestmemoir I have ever read," this wise, plainspoken, beautiful bookenacts the truth Abigail has discovered since the accident: Youmight not find meaning in disaster, but you might, with effort,make something useful of it.
In Dark Star Safari the wittily observant and endearinglyirascible Paul Theroux takes readers the length of Africa byrattletrap bus, dugout canoe, cattle truck, armed convoy, ferry,and train. In the course of his epic and enlightening journey, heendures danger, delay, and dismaying circumstances. Gauging the state of affairs, he talks to Africans, aid workers,missionaries, and tourists. What results is an insightfulmeditation on the history, politics, and beauty of Africa and itspeople, and "a vivid portrayal of the secret sweetness, the hiddenvitality, and the long-patient hope that lies just beneath thesurface" (Rocky Mountain News). In a new post*, Therouxrecounts the dramatic events of a return to Africa to visitZimbabwe.
In this superb work of fiction, Nobel Laureate Saul Bellowwrites comically and wisely about the tenacious claims of firstlove. Harry Trellman, an aging, astute businessman, has neverbelonged anywhere and is as awkward in his human attachments as heis gifted in observing the people around him. But Harry'sobservational talents have not gone unnoticed by "trillionaire"Sigmund Adletsky, who retains Harry as his advisor. Soon the oldman discovers Harry's intense forty-year passion for atwice-divorced interior designer, Amy Wustrin. At the exhumationand reburial of her husband, Harry is provided, thanks to Sigmund,perhaps the final means for disclosing feelings amassed over alifetime. Written late in Bellow's career, "The Actual" is amaestro's dissection of the affairs of the heart.
From the acclaimed author of Conquistador comes this thrillingaccount of one of history’s greatest adventures of discovery. Withcinematic immediacy and meticulous attention to historical detail,here is the true story of a legendary sixteenth-century explorerand his death-defying navigation of the Amazon—river of darkness,pathway to gold. In 1541, the brutal conquistador Gonzalo Pizarro and hiswell-born lieutenant Francisco Orellana set off from Quito insearch of La Canela, South America’s rumored Land of Cinnamon, andthe fabled El Dorado, “the golden man.” Driving an enormous retinueof mercenaries, enslaved natives, horses, hunting dogs, and otheranimals across the Andes, they watched their proud expedition beginto disintegrate even before they descended into the nightmarishjungle, following the course of a powerful river. Soon hopelesslylost in the swampy labyrinth, their numbers diminishing dailythrough disease, starvation, and Indian attacks, Pizarro andOrellana made a fateful decisi
"There are tales of Middle-earth from times long before TheLord of the Rings, and the story told in this book is set in thegreat country that lay beyond the Grey Havens in the West: landswhere Treebeard once walked, but that were drowned in the greatcataclysm that ended the First Age of the World. "In that remotetime Morgoth, the first Dark Lord, dwelt in the vast fortress ofAngband, the Hells of Iron, in the North; and the tragedy of Turinand his sister Nienor unfolded within the shadow of the fear ofAngband and the war waged by Morgoth against the lands and secretcities of the Elves. "Their brief and passionate lives weredominated by the elemental hatred that Morgoth bore them as thechildren of Hurin, the man who had dared to defy and to scorn himto his face. Against them he sent his most formidable servant,Glaurung, a powerful spirit in the form of a huge wingless dragonof fire. Into this story of brutal conquest and flight, of foresthiding-places and pursuit, of resistance with lessening hope, theD
Moving back through the 1940s, through air raids, blacked-outstreets, illicit partying, and sexual adventure, to end with itsbeginning in 1941, The Night Watch tells the story of fourLondoners-three women and a young man with a past-whose lives, andthose of their friends and lovers, connect in tragedy, stunningsurprise and exquisite turns, only to change irreversibly in theshadow of a grand historical event.
Today, an entomologist in a laboratory can gaze at a butterflypupa with a microscope so powerful that the swirling cells on thepupas skin look like a galaxy. She can activate a single gene orknock it out. What she cant do is discover how the insect behavesin its natural habitatwhich means she doesnt know what steps totake to preserve it from extinction, nor how any particular genemay interact with the environment. Four hundred years ago, afifty-year-old Dutch woman set sail on a solo scientific expeditionto study insect metamorphosis. She could not have imagined theroutine magic that scientists perform todaybut her absoluteinsistence on studying insects in their natural habitats was so farahead of its time that it is only now coming back into favor.Chrysalis restores Maria Sibylla Merian to her rightful place inthe history of science, taking us from golden-age Amsterdam to theSurinam tropics to modern laboratories where Merians insights fuelnew approaches to both ecology and genetics.
