Essays

The articles with which David Lodge entertained and enlightened readers of the Independent on Sunday and The Washington Post are now revised, expanded and collected together in book form.

The art of fiction is considered under a wide range of headings, such as the Intrusive Author, Suspense, the Epistolary Novel, Time-shift, Magical Realism and Symbolism, and each topic is illustrated by a passage or two taken from classic or modern fiction. Drawing on writers as diverse as Henry James and Martin Amis, Jane Austen and Fay Weldon and Henry Fielding and James Joyce, David Lodge makes accessible to the general reader the richness and variety of British and American fiction. Technical terms, such as Interior Monologue, Metafiction, Intertextuality and the Unreliable Narrator, are lucidly explained and their application demonstrated.

Bringing to criticism the verve and humour of his own novels, David Lodge has provided essential reading for students of literature, aspirant writers, and anyone who wishes to understand how literature works.

Edited by the critically acclaimed writer David Foster Wallace, this years collection includes such contributors as Jo Ann Beard, Mark Danner, Malcolm Gladwell, Louis Menand, Molly Peacock, and others.

Chosen by the American Society of Magazine Editors, the stories in this anthology include National Magazine Award-winning works of public interest, reporting, feature writing, and fiction. This year's selections include Pamela Colloff (Texas Monthly) on the agonizing, decades-long struggle by a convicted murderer to prove his innocence; Dexter Filkins (The New Yorker) on the emotional effort by an Iraq War veteran to make amends for the role he played in the deaths of innocent Iraqis; Chris Jones (Esquire) on Robert A. Caro's epic, ongoing investigation into the life and work of Lyndon Johnson; Charles C. Mann (Orion) on the odds of human beings' survival as a species; and Roger Angell (The New Yorker) on aging, dying, and loss. The former infantryman Brian Mockenhaupt (Byliner) describes modern combat in Afghanistan and its ability both to forge and challenge friendships; Ta-Nehisi Coates (The Atlantic) reflects on the complex racial terrain traversed by Barack Obama; Frank Rich (New York) assesses Mitt Romney's ambiguous candidacy; and Dahlia Lithwick (Slate) looks at the current and future implications of an eventful year in Supreme Court history. The volume also includes an interview on the art of screenwriting with Terry Southern from The Paris Review and an award-winning short story by Stephen King published in Harper's magazine.

For almost 100 years, Coney Island was the most popular seaside destination in the United States. Eachyear, millions escaped the heat of New York City to savor the thrills of the Cyclone roller coaster and Wonder Wheel at the Astroland amusement park. They came to sample an original Nathan's Famous hot dog, witness the first demolition derby, or to take a chance at a game of three-card Monte on the legendary boardwalk. The advent of air-conditioning, concerns about Coney's "tawdry" entertainment, and faster transportation to other beaches hastened the demise of what had become a uniquely American icon of entertainment and a defining terminus of New York at the water's edge.

In an effort to revitalize the area, the Van Alen Institute, in concert with the Coney Island Development Corporation, held the Parachute Pavilion Competition, a contest to design a year-round pavilion in the shadow of the Parachute Jump, a landmark built for the 1939 World's Fair. Coney Island: The Parachute Pavilion Competition presents all 864 submissionsfrom the feasible to the fantasticreceived from around the world. The winning design by London-based Carmody Groarke Hardie is a mesmerizing attraction in its own right, composed of two provocative trapezoids illuminated by thousands of colored light bulbs. The design respects the historic icon under which it is located but also promises to become an icon in its own right and bring the fun-loving spirit of Coney Island into the twenty-first century. Featuring essays, photographic documentation, and jury comments, Coney Island: The Parachute Pavilion Competition is a critical resource for students, designers, city officials, and anyone interested in Coney Island and the reinvention of the historic recreation sites of our cities.

Poet and critic Christopher Buckley said of his poetry, "[Soto has] mastered his form, has found his voice, and has the life experiences to provide meaningful content." He could have been speaking of his prose as well. Soto is at home with the essay; he is able to paint moments that would otherwise seem dull and not worthy of comment. He picks up hitchhikers, sorts through the mystery of finding a wife, and pulls together his wits to solve the hunger of stray dogs. He is tender and outrageous; he is reflective on worldly matters and cagey with his family and friends. In all, his dazzling effects of language will keep the reader continually surprised.These portraits are set in his hometown, Fresno, and in his current residence, the San Francisco Bay area. They therefore mark his time and place, but honor the instincts of the master Knut Hamsun, who walked around his town, a spectacle of wonder.

This volume includes forty-eight pieces: all of the personal narratives formerly collected in Small Faces, the best of Lesser Evils--both volumes long out-of-print--as well as five new essays.

Plunging into the enchanted and luminous worlds of Speak, Memory; Ada, or Ardor; and the infamous Lolita, Azam Zanganeh seeks out the Nabokovian experience of time, memory, sexual passion, nature, loss, love in all its forms, and language in all its allusions. She explores Nabokov's geography-from his Russian childhood to the landscapes of "his" America-suffers encounters with his beloved "nature," hallucinates an interview with the master, and seeks the "crunch of happiness" in his singular vocabulary. This beautifully illuminated book will both reignite the passion of experienced Nabokovians and lure the innocent reader to a well of delights as yet unseen.

Written during the Second World War while Hikmet was serving a thirteen-year sentence as a political prisoner, his verse-novel uses cinematic techniques to tell the story of the emergence of secular, modern Turkey by focusing on the always-entertaining stories of sundry characters from all walks of life. As his vignettes flash before our eyes at movie-like speed, it becomes clear he is also telling the turbulent story of the twentieth century itself and the ongoing struggle between tradition, which trusts in God, and modernity, which entrusts the world to human hands.

Poetry. Translated from the Turkish by Randy Blasing and Mutlu Konuk. This is the first complete English translation of Hikmet's 1935 book that denounced the imminent Italian invasion of Ethiopia. It is this book that let the Turkish military to begin persecuting Hikmet for his anti-Fascist views. Three years later, the military would sentence him to 28 years in prison for his politics.

From the author of Jazz Cleopatra comes a fresh, eclectic collection of essays that charts one woman's journeys, from New York to France to New England, to that place within us where understanding meets the human heart. Here, armed with humor and irreverence, she explores such themes as youth and motherhood, loneliness and self-discovery, memory and creation, decline and loss.

Hillerman's legion of fans will delight in this latest compilation of essays, some never before published in book form, that show how he draws inspiration for his novels from the picturesque landscapes of New Mexico, the Rio Grande, and other places. 36 full-color photos.

A teacher of writing and literature for 35 years, Donna DeLeo Bruno has loved books and relished reading for as far back as she can remember. Since retirement, she shares her immense enjoyment and keen appreciation of books and writing styles, with presentations at libraries, book clubs, and women's groups.

Selected short fiction, nonfiction, poetry & prose from The Association of Rhode Island Authors: Lenore M. Rheaume, Regina Andrews, W. Gauvin Barber, David Boiani, Adele Bourne, Heather Caranci, Paul Caranci, A. Keith Carreiro, R.N. Chevalier, Kathy Clark, Jess M. Collette, K. Eric Crook, Kevin Duarte, Hank Ellis, Jill Fague, Leo C. Frisk, Jr., Hannah R. Goodman, Patricia Hinkley, L.A. Jacob, Sam Kafrissen, Deborah Katz, Donna Lomastro, Paul Magnan, Peter Mandel, Richard Maule, Joann Mead, Don J. Metivier, G.A. Miller, Yvette Nachmias-Baeu, Jack Nolan, Frances O'Donnell, Dusty Pembroke, Joanne Perella, D.R. Perry, Joni Pfeiffer-Moser, Thom Ring, Victor Rudowski, Bob Sherman, Alycia Marie Shillan, Angelina Singer, J. Michael Squatrito, Jr., Edward Taylor, Debbie Kaiman Tillinghast, Cheryl A. Voisinet, Barbara Ann Whitman, Deb Zannelli.

The first nonfiction work by one of the most distinctive prose stylists of our era, Joan Didion's Slouching Towards Bethlehem remains, decades after its first publication, the essential portrait of America--particularly California--in the sixties. It focuses on such subjects as John Wayne and Howard Hughes, growing up a girl in California, ruminating on the nature of good and evil in a Death Valley motel room, and, especially, the essence of San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury, the heart of the counterculture.

The Best American Series(R)
First, Best, and Best-Selling

The Best American series is the premier annual showcase for the country's finest short fiction and nonfiction. Each volume's series editor selects notable works from hundreds of magazines, journals, and websites. A special guest editor, a leading writer in the field, then chooses the best twenty or so pieces to publish. This unique system has made the Best American series the most respected -- and most popular -- of its kind.

The Best American Essays 2012 includes

Marcia Angell, Miah Arnold, Mark Doty, Joseph Epstein, Jonathan Franzen,
Malcolm Gladwell, Francine Prose, Lauren Slater,
Sandra Tsing Loh, Jose Antonio Vargas, and others

One of America"s foremost novelists and critics focuses on the essential joys of great literature, with particular emphasis on the novel. With razor-sharp wit, she investigates unexpected byways in the works of Leo Tolstoy, Saul Bellow, Helen Keller, Isaac Babel, Sylvia Plath, Susan Sontag, and more.

A clairvoyant, Leadbeater wrote, is simply a person who develops "the power to respond to another octave out of the stupendous gamut of possible vibrations" and so is enabled "to see more of the world..than those of more limited perception." And what a world Leadbeater describes for us in these pages---a world of Master adepts and their pupils, untapped human powers and potentials, ancient mysteries, devas and nature spirits--in short, the unseen workings of the universe.

Selected short fiction, nonfiction, poetry & prose from The Association of Rhode Island Authors: Lenore M. Rheaume, Steven R. Porter, Al Bettencourt, Jimmy Gyasi Boateng, Helen Burke, Paul F. Caranci, R.N. Chevalier, Kathy Clark, Jane F. Collen, JEssica M. Collette, Norman Desmarais, Leo C. Frisk, Jr. L.A. Jacob, Debbie Kaiman Tillinghast, Deborah Katz, Lawrence J. Krips, Susan Letendre, Frances L. O'Donnell, Christie O'Neil Harrison, Joanne Perella, Mark Perry, Joni Pfeiffer-Moser, Dawn M. Porter, Victor C. Rudowski, Edward Taylor, Tom Trabulsi, Barbara Ann Whitman and Bruce Wilcox.

Now featuring an Introduction by Don Henley, founder of the Walden Woods Project, this beautiful commemorative edition of Thoreau's masterpiece features spectacular color photographs that capture Walden as vividly as Thoreau's words do.

Henry David Thoreau was just a few days short of his twenty-eighth birthday when he built a cabin on the shore of Walden Pond and began one of the most famous experiments in living in American history. Originally he was not, apparently, intending to write a book about his life at the pond, but nine years later, in August of 1854, Houghton Mifflin's predecessor, Ticknor and Fields, published Walden; or, aLife in the Woods. At the time the book was largely ignored, and it took five years to sell out the first printing of two thousand copies. It was not until 1862, the year of Thoreau's death, that the book was brought back into print, and it has never been out of print since. Published in hundreds of editions and translated into virtually every modern language, it has become one of the most widely read and influential books ever written. Proceeds from the sales of the book will be donated to the Walden Woods Project.

This rich collection of writings on the nature of love and commitment has long delighted brides and grooms of every denomination. Culled from both sacred and secular texts, and suitable for either traditional or informal wedding ceremonies, these selections might be included in Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, interfaith, and non-denominational exchanges of vows.

Among the passages appropriate for readings by parents, friends, or the bride and groom are selections from Plato and Sappho, Rilke and Auden, Ecclesiastes and Euripedes, Shakespeare and Donne, pascal and Montaigne, Emily Dickinson and Anne Morrow Lindbergh. There are love songs from the Aztecs and Eskimos, Hindu and African wedding prayers, a Buddhist marriage homily, a Shaker hymn, and Irish blessing, excerpts from Coptic Orthodox and Greek Orthodox marriage services, and passages from the Old and New Testaments, some familiar, some surprising. With myriad choices, Wedding Readings will help you add a special, personal touch to your marriage ceremony.