Journey to Lexington, Kentucky, and watch as Megan McKinney discovers forgiving has nothing to do with forgetting and everything to do with love. Views: 7
Peter Ackroyd's imagination dazzles in this brilliant novel written in the voice of Victor Frankenstein himself. Mary Shelley and Shelley are characters in the novel. It was at Oxford that I first met Bysshe. We arrived at our college on the same day; confusing to a mere foreigner, it is called University College. I had seen him from my window and had been struck by his auburn locks. The long-haired poet – 'Mad Shelley' – and the serious-minded student from Switzerland spark each other's interest in the new philosophy of science which is overturning long-cherished beliefs. Perhaps there is no God. In which case, where is the divine spark, the soul? Can it be found in the human brain? The heart? The eyes? Victor Frankenstein begins his anatomy experiments in a barn near Oxford. The coroner's office provides corpses – but they have often died of violence and drowning; they are damaged and putrifying. Victor moves his coils and jars and electrical fluids to a deserted pottery and from there, makes contact with the Doomesday Men – the resurrectionists. Victor finds that perfect specimens are hard to come by… until that Thames-side dawn when, wrapped in his greatcoat, he hears the splashing of oars and sees in the half-light the approaching boat where, slung into the stern, is the corpse of a handsome young man, one hand trailing in the water… Views: 7
Fifty years ago, Norman Mailer asserted, "William Burroughs is the only American novelist living today who may conceivably be possessed by genius." Few since have taken such literary risks, developed such individual political or spiritual ideas, or spanned such a wide range of media. Burroughs wrote novels, memoirs, technical manuals, and poetry. He painted, made collages, took thousands of photographs, produced hundreds of hours of experimental recordings, acted in movies, and recorded more CDs than most rock bands. Burroughs was the original cult figure of the Beat Movement, and with the publication of his novel Naked Lunch, which was originally banned for obscenity, he became a guru to the 60s youth counterculture. In CALL ME BURROUGHS, biographer and Beat historian Barry Miles presents the first full-length biography of Burroughs to be published in a quarter century-and the first one to chronicle the last decade of Burroughs's life and examine his... Views: 7
Talented, well trained and confident in his own abilities and worth, Australia's first government architect was also hot-headed and tactless. Sentenced to death for forgery, then granted a last-minute reprieve, Francis Greenway was transported to New South Wales in 1814. Within a single eventful decade, Greenway's and Governor Lachlan Macquarie's transformation of Sydney from a ramshackle convict garrison into an elegant city was well under way with buildings like the Hyde Park Barracks, St James' Church, Supreme Court and Windsor courthouse. Award-winning author Alasdair McGregor – in the first biography of Greenway since 1953 – scrutinises the life and work of a man beset by contradictions and demons. He profiles Greenway's landmark buildings, his meteoric rise and his complex and fraught relationship with Governor Macquarie, along with his thwarted ambitions and self-destruction. All played out in a fledgling colony in the throes of change from far-flung gaol to... Views: 6
A publishing landmark--the first major collection of poems by one of the late twentieth century's literary mastersGerman-born W. G. Sebald is best known as the innovative author of Austerlitz, the prose classic of World War II culpability and conscience that The Guardian called "a new literary form, part hybrid novel, part memoir, part travelogue." Its publication put Sebald in the company of Nabokov, Calvino, and Borges. Yet Sebald's brilliance as a poet has been largely unacknowledged--until now.Skillfully translated by Iain Galbraith, the nearly one hundred poems in Across the Land and the Water range from those Sebald wrote as a student in the sixties to those completed right before his untimely death in 2001. Featuring eighty-eight poems published in English for the first time and thirty-three from unpublished manuscripts, this collection also brings together all the verse he placed in books and journals during his... Views: 6
Having completed her transition from a manufacturing economy, America – it is said – has stopped making things. When there are breakthroughs in engineering and design, it’s usually thanks to a team of corporate researchers trying to squeeze out more profit. But once upon a time, the United States was a nation of tinkerers. Amateurs and professionals alike applied their ingenuity and talent to the problems of their day, coming up with innovative solutions that at once channeled the optimistic spirit of America and kept that spirit alive. Guided by the curiosity of an inquiring mind, a desire to know how things work, and a belief that anything can be improved, they laid the foundations for the American century.When Alexander Graham Bell beat Thomas Edison to the invention of the telephone, Edison fiddled around with the transmitter and receiver until he produced an equally revolutionary machine – the phonograph. When Thomas MacDonald observed the... Views: 6
A Journey through Challenges Views: 6
In one of Pearl Buck's most revealing works, a woman looks back on her long and rocky path to self-realization Considered to be one of Pearl S. Buck's most autobiographical novels, The Time Is Noon was kept from publication for decades on account of its personal resonance. The book tells the story of Joan Richards and her journey of self-discovery during the first half of the twentieth century. As a child, family and small-town life obscure Joan's individuality; as an adult, it's inhibited by an unhappy marriage. After breaking free of the latter, she begins a stark reassessment of the way she's been living—and to her surprise, learns to appreciate all that lies ahead. The Time Is Noon is a humble, elegant tale of chances lost and reclaimed, and remains beautifully affirming today. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Pearl S. Buck including rare images from the author's estate. Views: 6
