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I, Hogarth: A Novel
by Michael DeanThe great eighteenth century portraitist comes to life in this “gritty, bawdy and funny” rags to riches novel told in the voice of the artist himself (The New York Times). William Hogarth was London’s artist par excellence, and his work—especially his satirical series of “modern moral subjects”—supplies the most enduring vision of the ebullience, enjoyments, and social iniquities of the eighteenth century. And in I, Hogarth, he tells a ripping good yarn. From a childhood spent in a debtor’s prison to his death in the arms of his wife, Hogarth recounts the incredible story of how he maneuvered his way into the household of prominent artist Sir James Thornhill, and from there to become one of England’s best portrait painters. Through his marriage to Jane Thornhill, his fight for the Copyright Act, his unfortunate dip into politics, and his untimely death, “the voice in which Dean’s Hogarth tells his own story is rich and persuasive . . . Like stepping into a Hogarth painting” (The New York Times). “A brilliant exercise in imagination and storytelling.” —KirkusReviews (starred review)
I Hope This Reaches You: An American Soldier’s Account of World War I (Great Lakes Books Series)
by Hilary ConnorI Hope This Reaches You: An American Soldier’s Account of World War I begins in May 1917 with Byron Fiske Field (1897–1968) boarding a morning train bound for Detroit with one objective in mind: to help the United States win the war against Germany. A pacifist at heart, Field had just finished his freshman year at Albion College where he was studying to be a Methodist missionary. Although he found the idea of killing another human to be at odds with his Christian beliefs, like other Americans he was convinced of the righteousness of World War I—the war to end all wars—and he was determined to do his part. In recounting Field’s story, Hilary Connor relied on four principal sources of information found in a footlocker issued to Field as a member of the 168th Ambulance Company in the 42nd Division—or as it was more famously known, the Rainbow Division. The first of these sources is a handwritten diary kept by Byron from February 1918 to July 1919. The second cache of firsthand information is contained in two books that were co-authored by Field and other select Company members in the late winter and early spring of 1919, recounting events and personal experiences of the war—The History of Ambulance Company 168 and Iodine and Gasoline. The third and perhaps most extraordinary source is a collection of over three hundred letters written by Field during the war to his parents and college girlfriend. Included in many of the letters are mementos ranging from the petals of regional flowers in bloom to Red Cross notices to church service programs and other pieces of everyday life that proved invaluable in helping to create a broader and richer historical context. The last category of material is a voluminous collection of personal papers, including academic articles, speech notes, and opinion pieces, written by Field in the decades following the war. The breadth of materials is only further enhanced by the benefit of one hundred years hindsight, lending itself to a more thorough understanding of many of the momentous events that occurred during those years. I Hope This Reaches You is a tapestry of human experience woven from the narrative threads of love, loss, loyalty, sacrifice, triumph, and tragedy that will call to any reader of historical memoirs.
"I Hope to Do My Country Service": The Civil War Letters of John Bennitt, M.D., Surgeon, 19th Michigan Infantry
by William M. Anderson Robert BeaseckerIn 1862 at the age of thirty-two, Centreville, Michigan, physician John Bennitt joined the 19th Michigan Infantry Regiment as an assistant surgeon and remained in military service for the rest of the war. During this time Bennitt wrote more than two hundred letters home to his wife and daughters sharing his careful and detailed observations of army life, his medical trials in the field and army hospitals, dramatic battles, and character sketches of the many people he encountered, including his regimental comrades, captured Confederates, and local citizens in southern towns. Bennitt writes about the war's progress on both the battlefield and the home front, and also reveals his changing view of slavery and race.Bennitt traces the history of the 19th Michigan Infantry, from its mustering in Dowagiac in August 1862, its duty in Kentucky and Tennessee, its capture and imprisonment by Confederate forces, its subsequent exchange and reorganization, its participation in the Atlanta and the Carolinas campaigns, its place in the Grand Review in Washington, and the final mustering out in Detroit in June 1865. John Bennitt's significant collection of letters sheds light not only on the Civil War but on the many aspects of life in a small Michigan town. Although a number of memoirs from Civil War surgeons have been published in the last decade, "I Hope to Do My Country Service" is the first of its kind from a Michigan regimental surgeon to appear in more than a century.
I, Iago
by Nicole Galland"Nicole Galland is exceptionally well versed in the fine nuances of storytelling."--St. Petersburg Times"Galland has an exceptional gift."--Neal StephensonThe critically acclaimed author of The Fool's Tale, Nicole Galland now approaches William Shakespeare's classic drama of jealousy, betrayal, and murder from the opposite side. I, Iago is an ingenious, brilliantly crafted novel that allows one of literature's greatest villains--the deceitful schemer Iago, from the Bard's immortal tragedy, Othello--to take center stage in order to reveal his "true" motivations. This is Iago as you've never known him, his past and influences breathtakingly illuminated, in a fictional reexamination that explores the eternal question: is true evil the result of nature versus nurture...or something even more complicated?
I & II Kings: A Commentary
by Marvin A. SweeneyThis volume offers a close reading of the historical books of I and II Kings, concentrating on not only issues in the history of Israel but also the literary techniques of storytelling used in these books. Marvin A. Sweeney provides a major contribution to the prominent Old Testament Library series with advanced discussions of textual difficulties in the books of Kings as well as compelling narrative interpretations. The Old Testament Library provides fresh and authoritative treatments of important aspects of Old Testament study through commentaries and general surveys. The contributors are scholars of international standing.
I Invented the Modern Age: The Rise of Henry Ford
by Richard SnowFrom the acclaimed popular historian Richard Snow, who “writes with verve and a keen eye” (The New York Times Book Review), comes a fresh and entertaining account of Henry Ford and his invention of the Model T—the ugly, cranky, invincible machine that defined twentieth-century America.Every century or so, our republic has been remade by a new technology: 170 years ago the railroad changed Americans’ conception of space and time; in our era, the microprocessor revolutionized how humans communicate. But in the early twentieth century the agent of creative destruction was the gasoline engine, as put to work by an unknown and relentlessly industrious young man named Henry Ford. Born the same year as the battle of Gettysburg, Ford died two years after the atomic bombs fell, and his life personified the tremendous technological changes achieved in that span. Growing up as a Michigan farm boy with a bone-deep loathing of farming, Ford intuitively saw the advantages of internal combustion. Resourceful and fearless, he built his first gasoline engine out of scavenged industrial scraps. It was the size of a sewing machine. From there, scene by scene, Richard Snow vividly shows Ford using his innate mechanical abilities, hard work, and radical imagination as he transformed American industry. In many ways, of course, Ford’s story is well known; in many more ways, it is not. Richard Snow masterfully weaves together a fascinating narrative of Ford’s rise to fame through his greatest invention, the Model T. When Ford first unveiled this car, it took twelve and a half hours to build one. A little more than a decade later, it took exactly one minute. In making his car so quickly and so cheaply that his own workers could easily afford it, Ford created the cycle of consumerism that we still inhabit. Our country changed in a mere decade, and Ford became a national hero. But then he soured, and the benevolent side of his character went into an ever-deepening eclipse, even as the America he had remade evolved beyond all imagining into a global power capable of producing on a vast scale not only cars, but airplanes, ships, machinery, and an infinity of household devices. A highly pleasurable read, filled with scenes and incidents from Ford’s life, particularly during the intense phase of his secretive competition with other early car manufacturers, I Invented the Modern Age shows Richard Snow at the height of his powers as a popular historian and reclaims from history Henry Ford, the remarkable man who, indeed, invented the modern world as we know it.
I Is an Other: The Secret Life of Metaphor and How It Shapes the Way We See the World
by James GearyFor lovers of language and fans of Blink and Freakonomics, New York Times bestselling author James Geary offers this fascinating look at metaphors and their influence in every aspect of our lives, from art to medicine, psychology to the stock market.From President Obama’s political rhetoric to the bursting of the housing bubble, from conversations to commercials, James Geary shows that every aspect of our day-to-day experience is molded by metaphor. Geary takes readers from Aristotle’s investigation of metaphor right up to the latest neuroscientific insights into how metaphor works in the brain. Romeo’s exclamation “It is the East, and Juliet is the sun!” may be one of the most well-known metaphors in literature, but metaphor is more than a device of love-struck poets. As Geary demonstrates, metaphor has leaped off the page and landed with a mighty splash right in the middle of the stream of consciousness.Witty, persuasive, and original, I Is an Other explores metaphor’s effects on financial decision making, effective advertising, leadership, learning, and more.
I is for Infidel: From Holy War to Holy Terror in Afghanistan
by Kathy GannonIn early 1986 Kathy Gannon sold pretty much everything she owned (which wasn't much) to pursue her dream of becoming a foreign correspondent. She had the world to choose from: she chose Afghanistan. She went to witness the final humiliation of a superpower in terminal decline as the Soviet Union was defeated by the mujahedeen. What she didn't know then was that Afghanistan would remain her focus for the next eighteen years. Gannon, uniquely among Western journalists, witnessed Afghanistan's tragic opera: the final collapse of communism followed by bitterly feuding warlords being driven from power by an Islamicist organization called the Taliban; the subsequent arrival of Arabs and exiles, among them Osama bin Laden; and the transformation of the country into the staging post for a global jihad. Gannon observed something else as well: the terrible, unforeseen consequences of Western intervention, the ongoing suffering of ordinary Afghans, and the ability of the most corrupt and depraved of the warlords to reinvent and reinsert themselves into successive governments. I is for Infidelis the story of a country told by a writer with a uniquely intimate knowledge of its people and recent history. It will transform readers' understanding of Afghanistan, and inspire awe at the resilience of its people in the face of the monstrous warmongers we have to some extent created there.
I Is Someone Else
by Patrick CooperIt is 1966, and the times, they are a-changin'. Fifteen-year-old Stephen is on his way to a summer program in France when he meets two glamorous new friends of his older brother, Rob, who has been missing for 18 months. They persuade Stephen to travel to Istanbul with them, to find his brother. And what a world opens up to him: a world of beautiful girls, drug busts, fascinating cultures, fast-moving friendships, and betrayals. As he travels further into Asia, the nature of Stephen's journey changes: The search for his brother is replaced by an inner exploration, in which he must confront his own past, and his own dark secret.
I, Jack Swilling: Founder of Phoenix, Arizona
by John Myers MyersYesterday I was delirious, and the day before that, or several before that. Tonight, though, I seem to be aware of everything I’ve ever known . . . . It’s dark, double dark because of the mist that August steams from the Colorado. Yet I can see almost very place I’ve ever been . . .All the men I liked are having drinks with me or yarning around campfires scattered from the Appalachians to the Pacific Coast. All the enemies I’ve fought are visible beyond the muxxles of guns or the points of knives . . . All of the women I’ve wigwamed with, including the two who demanded the law’s blessing, are either smiling or showing they wished they never met me . . . But I could never really belong to civilization, for once I hand helped to create it, I yearned for a place on which it hadn’t laid an ordering hand.
I, Jane: In The Court of Henry VIII
by Diane HaegerThough her path to the throne was long and paved with treachery, Jane Seymour would win the heart of her king—and heal her own. Jane Seymour of Wiltshire is not meant to go to Court. Not a child like her, with her lack of beauty and no title. But family connections are enough to have her named to the bridal retinue of Mary Tudor. At the French Court, the plain and docile Jane meets the girl who will grow into her rival in years to come: the already charismatic and conniving Anne Boleyn. Soon back home in the English countryside, Jane wants nothing more than peace and quiet—and the devotion of her childhood protector, William Dormer. But his family vows to keep them apart, and Jane is called back to Court to serve Katherine of Aragon, who is fighting for her life as Queen in the face of Anne Boleyn’s open seduction of King Henry VIII. In those turbulent years, Jane will learn the value of loyalty and honesty, while holding fast to her convictions. And it is her unblemished soul that will slowly rise above the chaos—and turn a king’s head. READERS GUIDE INCLUDED .
I, Judas: A Novel
by Taylor Caldwell Jess StearnFrom a #1 New York Times–bestselling author: The story of Judas Iscariot and the stunning betrayal that changed the course of history. One of the great dramas of the biblical era is brought to thrilling new life in this epic novel told from the unique perspective of Judas himself. This is the story of Judas the myth, condemned by Dante to the most terrifying circle of Hell; Judas the man, the son of wealth and power who fought to suppress the lusts of the flesh and the sin of pride, and became one of the twelve original disciples of Jesus Christ; and Judas the apostle, victim of a diabolical lie, history’s arch traitor, who sold his Lord for thirty pieces of silver, and sealed his fate with a kiss. From Judas’s years as the young rebel of an affluent family undone by his own idealism through his victimization by Pontius Pilate to the crucifixion and Christ’s resurrection, I, Judas “read[s] like a modern novel of intrigue and thrills” (Chattanooga Times). The final entry, following Dear and Glorious Physician and Great Lion of God, in a trilogy celebrating key historical figures of the Bible, it is one of the most powerful and revelatory works of religious fiction ever published.
I, Julian: The Fictional Autobiography Of Julian Of Norwich
by Claire Gilbert'So I will write in English, pressing new words from this beautiful plain language spoken by all. Not courtly French to introduce God politely. Not church Latin to construct arguments. English to show it as it is. Even though it is not safe to do so.'From the author of Miles to Go before I Sleep comes I, Julian, the account of a medieval woman who dares to tell her own story, battling grief, plague, the church and societal expectations to do so. Compelled by the powerful visions she had when close to death, Julian finds a way to live a life of freedom - as an anchoress, bricked up in a small room on the side of a church - and to write of what she has seen. The result, passed from hand to hand, is the first book to be written by a woman in English. Tender, luminous, meditative and powerful, Julian writes of her love for God, and God's love for the whole of creation. 'All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well.' 'Written with profound insight, spiritual and psychological, and a rare sensitivity to the everyday world of the fourteenth century, I, Julian is a brilliantly illuminating companion to one of the greatest works of spiritual writing in English.' Rowan Williams, Magdalene College, Cambridge University
I, Julian: The fictional autobiography of Julian of Norwich
by Claire Gilbert'So I will write in English, pressing new words from this beautiful plain language spoken by all. Not courtly French to introduce God politely. Not church Latin to construct arguments. English to show it as it is. Even though it is not safe to do so.'From the author of Miles to Go before I Sleep comes I, Julian, the account of a medieval woman who dares to tell her own story, battling grief, plague, the church and societal expectations to do so. Compelled by the powerful visions she had when close to death, Julian finds a way to live a life of freedom - as an anchoress, bricked up in a small room on the side of a church - and to write of what she has seen. The result, passed from hand to hand, is the first book to be written by a woman in English. Tender, luminous, meditative and powerful, Julian writes of her love for God, and God's love for the whole of creation. 'All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well.' 'Written with profound insight, spiritual and psychological, and a rare sensitivity to the everyday world of the fourteenth century, I, Julian is a brilliantly illuminating companion to one of the greatest works of spiritual writing in English.' Rowan Williams, Magdalene College, Cambridge University
I Kiss Your Hands Many Times: Hearts, Souls, and Wars in Hungary
by Marianne Szegedy-MaszakA magnificent wartime love story about the forces that brought the author's parents together and those that nearly drove them apart Marianne Szegedy-Maszák's parents, Hanna and Aladár, met and fell in love in Budapest in 1940. He was a rising star in the foreign ministry--a vocal anti-Fascist who was in talks with the Allies when he was arrested and sent to Dachau. She was the granddaughter of Manfred Weiss, the industrialist patriarch of an aristocratic Jewish family that owned factories, were patrons of intellectuals and artists, and entertained dignitaries at their baronial estates. Though many in the family had converted to Catholicism decades earlier, when the Germans invaded Hungary in March 1944, they were forced into hiding. In a secret and controversial deal brokered with Heinrich Himmler, the family turned over their vast holdings in exchange for their safe passage to Portugal. Aladár survived Dachau, a fragile and anxious version of himself. After nearly two years without contact, he located Hanna and wrote her a letter that warned that he was not the man she'd last seen, but he was still in love with her. After months of waiting for visas and transit, she finally arrived in a devastated Budapest in December 1945, where at last they were wed. Framed by a cache of letters written between 1940 and 1947, Szegedy-Maszák's family memoir tells the story, at once intimate and epic, of the complicated relationship Hungary had with its Jewish population--the moments of glorious humanism that stood apart from its history of anti-Semitism--and with the rest of the world. She resurrects in riveting detail a lost world of splendor and carefully limns the moral struggles that history exacted--from a country and its individuals. Praise for I Kiss Your Hands Many Times "I Kiss Your Hand Many Times is the sweeping story of Marianne Szegedy-Maszák's family in pre- and post-World War II Europe, capturing the many ways the struggles of that period shaped her family for years to come. But most of all it is a beautiful love story, charting her parents' devotion in one of history's darkest hours."--Arianna Huffington, president and editor-in-chief, the Huffington Post Media Group "In this panoramic and gripping narrative of a vanished world of great wealth and power, Marianne Szegedy-Maszák restores an important missing chapter of European, Hungarian, and Holocaust history."--Kati Marton, author of Paris: A Love Story and Enemies of the People: My Family's Journey to America"How many times can a heart be broken? Hungarians know, Marianne Szegedy-Maszák's family more than most. History has broken theirs again and again. This is the story of that violence, told by the daughter of an extraordinary man and extraordinary woman who refused to surrender to it. Every perfectly chosen word is as it happened. So brace yourself. Truth can break hearts, too."--Robert Sam Anson, author of War News: A Young Reporter in Indochina"This family memoir is everything you could wish for in the genre: the story of a fascinating family that illuminates the historical time it lived through. . . . Informative and fascinating in every way, [I Kiss Your Hands Many Times] is a great introduction to World War II Hungary and a moving tale of personal relationships in a time of great duress."--Booklist (starred review)
I Kissed a Rogue
by Shana Galen"A perfectly delightful love story. This magical read is a keeper." -RT Book Reviews, Top Pick, 4 ½ stars for The Rogue You KnowOnce she spurned the man...When the Duke of Lennox hires Sir Brook Derring, England's best investigator, to find his daughter, Brook intends only to rescue the lady and return to his solitary life. He deals with London's roughest criminals every day of the week; surely he should be able to endure seeing his first love again-the perfect girl who broke his heart...Now her life depends on himLady Lillian-Anne Lennox has always done her best to live up to her father's standards of perfection-at the cost of following her heart. When she's kidnapped and her perfect life is shattered, Lila has another chance. Together, Lila and Brook navigate not only the dark and deadly side of London, but the chasm of pride and prejudice that divides them.
I Kissed an Earl: Pennyroyal Green Series (Pennyroyal Green #4)
by Julie Anne LongViolet Redmond's family and fortune might be formidable and her beauty and wit matchless--but her infamous flare for mischief keeps all but the most lionhearted suitors at bay. Only Violet knows what will assuage her restlessness: a man who doesn't bore her to tears, and a clue to the fate of her missing brother. She never dreamed she'd find both with a man whose own pedigree is far from impeccable. "Savage" is what the women of the ton whisper about the newly styled Earl of Ardmay--albeit with shivers of pleasure. Born an English bastard, raised on the high seas, he's on a mission to capture a notorious pirate for vengeance. But while Violet's belief in her brother's innocence maddens him, her courage awes him . . . and her sensuality finally undoes him. Now the man who once lost everything and the girl who has everything to lose are bound by a passion that could either end in betrayal . . . or become everything they ever dreamed.
I Knew a Phoenix: Sketches for an Autobiography
by May SartonMay Sarton&’s first memoir: A lyrical and enchanting look at her formative years from the onset of the First World War through the beginning of the Second Author of a dozen memoirs, May Sarton had a unique talent for capturing the wonder and beauty of nature, love, aging, and art. Throughout her prolific career, she penned many journals examining the different stages of her life, and in this, her first memoir, she laid the foundation for what would become one of the most beloved autobiographical oeuvres in modern literature. Sarton writes of her early childhood in Belgium in the years before World War I, her time in Boston while her father taught at Harvard, and her schooling in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where she fell in love with poetry and theater. She describes her first meetings and fast friendships with such notable figures as Virginia Woolf, Julian Huxley, James Stephens, and S. S. Koteliansky, many of whom would later come to populate her critically acclaimed journals. With sharp insights and captivating prose, I Knew a Phoenix introduces a generation of readers to one of the twentieth century&’s most cherished writers.
I Know a Woman: Inspiring Connections of the Women Who Have Shaped Our World
by Kate HodgesBehind every great woman . . . is another great woman. Discover the connections between eighty-four female pioneers in art, politics, sports, aviation, science, and more . . . Threading tales from across the globe and throughout history, this inspiring book reveals the lives of innovative aviatrixes, gun-toting revolutionaries, extraordinary athletes, women with incomparable intellects, and more. Each woman is connected to the next, bringing to light the women behind the scenes—those who didn’t get the credit for scientific discoveries, sporting achievements, or acts of bravery in their lifetimes. Some names will be familiar, some might not, but all are equally important. With compelling storytelling and beautifully illustrated portraits, I Know a Woman is bold and engaging with a unique purpose: to uncover the links between eighty-four pioneering women and show the indomitable strength of womankind—through the stories of Michelle Obama, Virginia Woolf, Gala Dalí, Emma Watson, Nina Simone, Billie Jean King, Frida Kahlo, Marie Curie, Georgia O’Keeffe, Greta Garbo, Eleanor Roosevelt, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Malala Yousafzai, and many more pioneering women who have shaped the world we live in today.
I Know Why Mama Cried (I Know Why Mama Cried Ser.)
by Rita Chapman&“An intense investigation into the shameful truths that often lie buried within the generations of a family . . . a masterfully prepared conclusion.&”—Dr. James F. Walter, author of Reading Marriage in the American Romance For years, Mims buries the horrid memory of a rape and her father&’s ultimate betrayal. When she becomes a wife and mother, her shame and guilt ignite with a latent anger to inspire gruesome thoughts of inflicting violence on her loved ones. One night, she stands beside her baby&’s crib, her rosary in one hand, and in the other, a ribbon with which she would strangle her baby. Will she succumb to the power of her anger, or will the God of her father and her church save her? &“Lyrical writing and an engaging plot make this elegant debut a must-read for everyone&’s list.&”—Amy Bourett, author of Mothers & Other Liars &“Compelling characters, a powerful story, and lyrical prose—Rita Chapman&’s stunning debut novel will linger in your heart and soul long after you reluctantly finish the last page. I Know Why MamaCried is a phenomenal book. Do not miss this reading experience.&”—Harry Hunsicker, author and former executive vice-president of Mystery Writers of America
I Know World Flags
by Lisa Daniel Rees Diane RathI Know World Flags is a fun informational picture eBook and introduction for five to twelve year olds to learn about flags from over 56 different countries. The book includes beautiful contextual photography of the flags and short descriptions in large print of the legends, myths and facts of how the flags came to be. I Know World Flags is a perfect introduction to geography and social studies for children and juvenile readers and is great for reference and activities.
I Learn from Children: An Adventure in Progressive Education
by Caroline PrattA lucid presentation of what progressive education can accomplish.”The New York Times How should schools prepare students for the Information Age? The successful worker of the future a creative, independent thinker who works well in teams would seem to be too self-contradictory to be the deliberate product of a school. A century ago, the American educator Caroline Pratt created an innovative school that she hoped would produce such independent thinkers, but she asked herself a different question: Was it unreasonable to try to fit the school to the child, rather than . . . the child to the school?” A strong-willed, small-town schoolteacher who ran a one-room schoolhouse by the time she was seventeen, Pratt came to viscerally reject the teaching methods of her day, which often featured a long-winded teacher at the front of the room and rows of miserable children, on benches nailed to the floor, stretching to the back. In this classic 1948 memoir, now in its fourth edition, Pratt recounts, in a wry authorial voice much closer to Will Rogers than John Dewey, how she founded what is now the dynamic City and Country School in New York City; invented the maple unit blocks” that have become a staple in classrooms and children’s homes around the globe; and came to play an important role in reimagining preschool and primary-school education in ways that resound in the tumultuously creative age before us. This edition features a new introduction by Ian Frazier, as well as additional commentary, and an afterword.
I Led 3 Lives: Citizen, Communist, Counterspy
by Herbert A. PhilbrickI Led Three Lives: Citizen, Communist, Counterspy, first published in 1952, is a fascinating account of the author’s infiltration into the American Communist party in the 1940’s as a counterspy who then passed on his information to the FBI. Beginning as an advertising executive in Boston, Philbrick was inadvertently drawn into a front organization of the Communist Party. He was subsequently recruited by the U.S. Government to document Soviet efforts, operations and plans in the U.S.A. The book concludes with his testimony at the 1949 trial of the top eleven Communist Party-USA leaders. I Led Three Lives was a bestseller after its 1952 release, and was made into a popular television series of the same name. Included are five pages of illustrations.
I, Libertine
by Theodore SturgeonThe novel that began as a radio hoax, Theodore Sturgeon&’s I, Libertine is a hilarious erotic romp through the royal boudoirs of eighteenth-century LondonInspired by a notorious radio hoax in the mid-1950s, popular radio host and prankster Jean Shepherd exhorted his faithful listeners to approach their local booksellers the next morning and request copies of the historical novel I, Libertine by Frederick R. Ewing—a book that had never been written, by an author who had never been alive. The hoax was so successful that I, Libertine became the talk of the town, even earning the unique distinction of being banned by the Archdiocese of Boston, despite the fact that it didn&’t yet exist. Now there was nothing left to do but write the thing . . . and fantasy and science fiction legend Theodore Sturgeon was called in to work his magic. Originally written pseudonymously, Sturgeon&’s I, Libertine is a glorious tale of close shaves, daring escapes, and wildly licentious behavior. It covers the bawdy misdeeds of Captain Lance Courtenay as he carelessly romps through the royal court and the bedchambers of London&’s finest ladies. Chock-full of wicked wit and Sturgeon&’s trademark twists and turns, it is a hilarious, picaresque adventure that Ewing himself would certainly have been proud to call his own, if he had existed. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Theodore Sturgeon including rare images and never-before-seen documents from the University of Kansas&’s Kenneth Spencer Research Library and the author&’s estate, among other sources.
I Like to Watch: Arguing My Way Through the TV Revolution
by Emily NussbaumFrom The New Yorker’s fiercely original, Pulitzer Prize-winning culture critic, a provocative collection of new and previously published essays arguing that we are what we watch.“Emily Nussbaum is the perfect critic—smart, engaging, funny, generous, and insightful.”—David Grann, author of Killers of the Flower Moon From her creation of the “Approval Matrix” in New York magazine in 2004 to her Pulitzer Prize–winning columns for The New Yorker, Emily Nussbaum has argued for a new way of looking at TV. In this collection, including two never-before-published essays, Nussbaum writes about her passion for television, beginning with Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the show that set her on a fresh intellectual path. She explores the rise of the female screw-up, how fans warp the shows they love, the messy power of sexual violence on TV, and the year that jokes helped elect a reality-television president. There are three big profiles of television showrunners—Kenya Barris, Jenji Kohan, and Ryan Murphy—as well as examinations of the legacies of Norman Lear and Joan Rivers. The book also includes a major new essay written during the year of #MeToo, wrestling with the question of what to do when the artist you love is a monster.More than a collection of reviews, the book makes a case for toppling the status anxiety that has long haunted the “idiot box,” even as it transformed. Through it all, Nussbaum recounts her fervent search, over fifteen years, for a new kind of criticism, one that resists the false hierarchy that elevates one kind of culture (violent, dramatic, gritty) over another (joyful, funny, stylized). I Like to Watch traces her own struggle to punch through stifling notions of “prestige television,” searching for a more expansive, more embracing vision of artistic ambition—one that acknowledges many types of beauty and complexity and opens to more varied voices. It’s a book that celebrates television as television, even as each year warps the definition of just what that might mean.Advance praise for I Like to Watch“This collection, including some powerful new work, proves once and for all that there’s no better American critic of anything than Emily Nussbaum. But I Like to Watch turns out to be even greater than the sum of its brilliant parts—it’s the most incisive, intimate, entertaining, authoritative guide to the shows of this golden television age.”—Kurt Andersen, author of Fantasyland“Reading Emily Nussbaum makes us smarter not just about what we watch, but about how we live, what we love, and who we are. I Like to Watch is a joy.”—Rebecca Traister