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The Trouble With Physics: The Rise of String Theory, The Fall of a Science, and What Comes Next
by Lee SmolinIn this illuminating book, the renowned theoretical physicist Lee Smolin argues that fundamental physics -- the search for the laws of nature -- losing its way. Ambitious ideas about extra dimensions, exotic particles, multiple universes, and strings have captured the public’s imagination -- and the imagination of experts. But these ideas have not been tested experimentally, and some, like string theory, seem to offer no possibility of being tested. Yet these speculations dominate the field, attracting the best talent and much of the funding and creating a climate in which emerging physicists are often penalized for pursuing other avenues. As Smolin points out, the situation threatens to impede the very progress of science. With clarity, passion, and authority, Smolin offers an unblinking assessment of the troubles that face modern physics -- and an encouraging view of where the search for the next big idea may lead.
The Big Sort: Why the Clustering of Like-Minded American is Tearing Us Apart
by Bill BishopThe award-winning journalist reveals the untold story of why America is so culturally and politically divided in this groundbreaking book.Armed with startling demographic data, Bill Bishop demonstrates how Americans have spent decades sorting themselves into alarmingly homogeneous communities??—??not by region or by state, but by city and neighborhood. With ever-increasing specificity, we choose the communities and media that are compatible with our lifestyles and beliefs. The result is a country that has become so ideologically inbred that people don't know and can't understand those who live just a few miles away.In The Big Sort, Bishop explores how this phenomenon came to be, and its dire implications for our country. He begins with stories about how we live today and then draws on history, economics, and our changing political landscape to create one of the most compelling big-picture accounts of America in recent memory.
The Alaskan Laundry: A Novel
by Brendan JonesOn the icy waters of the Bering Sea, a lost, fierce young woman finds herself through the hard work of fishing and the stubborn love of real friendship.Tara Marconi has made her way from Philly to “the Rock,” a remote island in Alaska governed by the seasons. Her mother’s death left her unmoored, with a seemingly impassable rift between her and her father. But in this majestic, rugged frontier she works her way up the commercial fishing ladder??—??from hatchery assistant all the way to king crabber. Disciplined from years as a young boxer, she learns anew what it means to work, to connect, and??—??through an unlikely old tugboat??—??how to make a home she knows is her own. A testament to the places that shape us and the places that change us, The Alaskan Laundry tells one woman’s unforgettable journey back to the possibility of love. “This novel will reconvince you of the power of wilderness to heal a human heart” (Pam Houston, author of Contents May Have Shifted).
The Pattern In The Carpet: A Personal History with Jigsaws
by Margaret DrabbleThe Pattern in the Carpet: A Personal History with Jigsaws is an original and brilliant work. Margaret Drabble weaves her own story into a history of games, in particular jigsaws, which have offered her and many others relief from melancholy and depression. Alongside curious facts and discoveries about jigsaw puzzles — did you know that the 1929 stock market crash was followed by a boom in puzzle sales? — Drabble introduces us to her beloved Auntie Phyl, and describes childhood visits to the house in Long Bennington on the Great North Road, their first trip to London together, the books they read, the jigsaws they completed. She offers penetrating sketches of her parents, her siblings, and her children; she shares her thoughts on the importance of childhood play, on art and writing, on aging and memory. And she does so with her customary intelligence, energy, and wit. This is a memoir like no other.
A Journey To The End Of The Millennium: A Novel of the Middle Ages
by A. B. YehoshuaIn the year 999, when Ben Attar, a Moroccan Jewish merchant, takes a second wife, he commits an act whose unforeseen consequences will forever alter his family, his relationships, his business-his life. In an attempt to forestall conflict and advance his business interests at the same time, Ben Attar undertakes his annual journey to Europe with both his first wife and his new wife. The trip is the beginning of a profound human drama whose moral conflicts of fidelity and desire resonate with those of our time. Yehoshua renders the medieval world of Jewish and Christian culture and trade with astonishing depth and sensuous detail. Through the trials of a medieval merchant, the renowned author explores the deepest questions about the nature of morality, character, codes of human conduct, and matters of the heart.
1919: Volume Two of the U.S.A. Trilogy (U.S.A. Trilogy #2)
by John Dos PassosWith 1919, the second volume of his U.S.A. trilogy, John Dos Passos continues his "vigorous and sweeping panorama of twentieth-century America" (Forum), lauded on publication of the first volume not only for its scope, but also for its groundbreaking style. Again, employing a host of experimental devices that would inspire a whole new generation of writers to follow, Dos Passos captures the many textures, flavors, and background noises of modern life with a cinematic touch and unparalleled nerve.1919 opens to find America and the world at war, and Dos Passos's characters, many of whom we met in the first volume, are thrown into the snarl. We follow the daughter of a Chicago minister, a wide-eyed Texas girl, a young poet, a radical Jew, and we glimpse Woodrow Wilson, Theodore Roosevelt, and the Unknown Soldier. 1919 provides an incomparable portrait of America from the turn of the century to the Depression of 1929.
Accidents Of Providence: A Novel
by Stacia Brown"Wonderfully detailed and keenly researched, it is a moving portrait of a courageous woman caught between a disastrous affair with a charismatic revolutionary and the draconian laws of the land that would put her to death because of it."—Kathleen Kent "Dangerous Liaisons: A seventeenth-century heroine for our times . . . [A] delightfully seditious heroine...Proof that a historical novel can be educational and entertaining, and nothing like homework."—O, The Oprah MagazineLondon, 1649: King Charles has been beheaded for treason, Cromwell is in power, the Levelers are demanding rights for the people, and a new law targeting unwed mothers presumes anyone who conceals the death of her illegitimate child is guilty of murder. Glovemaker Rachel Lockyer is locked in a secret affair. But while her lover is imprisoned in the Tower, a child is found buried in the woods. Rachel is arrested. So comes an investigation, a trial, and an extraordinary cast of characters all brought to reckon for this one life. Spinning within is a remarkable love story and evidence that miracles come to even the commonest lives. &“The best kind of historical fiction--a combination of love story and murder mystery, with a sprinkling of intriguing historical snippets and wonderful writing.&”—Library Journal, starred review"[A] marvelous story written in searing prose. Don't miss it!"—Sheri Holman "Heart-poundingly vivid [and] intellectually provocative . . . A romping good read . . . Historical fiction at its best."—Kirkus Reviews, starred review
The Love Letter: A Novel
by Cathleen SchineIn praise of Rameau's Niece, the New York Times hailed "the sheer delight of listening to Cathleen Schine's wonderfully inventive comic voice." Schine's sparkling new comedy of manners is a sublimely sophisticated romance, a delectable confection that pairs illicit love with mystery and the joys of selling books.
The Hidden Life Of Dogs
by Elizabeth Marshall ThomasLong before the Dog Whisperer, anthropologist Elizabeth Marshall Thomas revealed to readers the nature of pack dynamics, leading to a completely new understanding of dogs and their desires. In this fascinating account, based on thirty years of living with and observing dogs, we meet Misha, a friend’s husky, whom Thomas followed on his daily rounds of more than 130 square miles, and who ultimately provided the simple and surprising answer to the question What do dogs want most? Not food, not sex, but other dogs. We also meet Maria, who adored Misha, bore his puppies, and clearly mourned when he moved away; the brave pug Bingo and his little wife, Violet; the dingo Viva; and the remaining dogs and pups that constitute the pack.“Instead of training and obedience, [Thomas] offers as an alternative a world of ‘trust and mutual obligation’” (Los Angeles Times Book Review). When it was first published in hardcover, The Hidden Life of Dogs spent over a year on the New York Times Bestseller list. This Mariner paperback edition will include a new afterword by the author.
The Partners: A Novel
by Louis AuchinclossLouis Auchincloss is writing here at the top of his remarkable powers as an observer of contemporary America. The Partners is a group portrait of men — and women in what is mostly a man's world — whose common bond is their work. Within that bond each one pursues different answers to the search for money, power, love, revenge, or a meaning in life.They occupy the chief seats of influence, but there are always pressures threatening to unseat them. An ambitious member can upset the balance in a bold bid for power, a young associate can do it by a foolish mistake, and the clients are susceptible to many kinds of discontent or the deft attractions of a rival firm.The Partners is a masterful characterization of lawyers and of the people in whose service they gain riches and prestige. It is a story of the small but distinguished New York firm of Shepard, Putney and Cox, and particularly of one of the senior partners, Beekman Ehninger.When he was younger, Beeky had worked out a reorganization that saved his firm from decline. Son of a rich mother and a socially ambitious father, he succeeded in making a career of his own within the narrow upper levels of the law.Now he and his colleagues, such as Burrill Hume, the trusts-and-estates lawyer, again face the question of whether they can survive on their own in the relentless heat of competition or must join forces with a different breed — new, tough, but undeniably successful.Time and change: these are the forces with which the man of morals must strike a bargain in an amoral world. Every day his bargaining position is slightly different. In this sense the story of one profession today becomes timeless.The Partners is a portrait done with consummate skill, one to rivet the eye and the mind.
Word Freak: Heartbreak, Triumph, Genius, and Obsession in the World of Competitive Scrabble Players
by Stefan FatsisStefan Fatsis, a former Wall Street Journal reporter and National Public Radio regular, recounts his remarkable rise through the ranks of elite Scrabble players while exploring the game's strange, potent hold over them—and him.Scrabble might truly be called America's game. More than two million sets are sold every year and at least thirty million American homes have one. But the game's most talented competitors inhabit a sphere far removed from the masses of "living room players." Theirs is a surprisingly diverse subculture whose stars include a vitamin-popping standup comic; a former bank teller whose intestinal troubles earn him the nickname "G.I. Joel"; a burly, unemployed African American from Baltimore's inner city; the three-time national champion who plays according to Zen principles; and Fatsis himself, who we see transformed from a curious reporter to a confirmed Scrabble nut.He begins by haunting the gritty corner of a Greenwich Village park where pickup Scrabble games can be found whenever weather permits. His curiosity soon morphs into compulsion, as he sets about memorizing thousands of obscure words and fills his evenings with solo Scrabble played on his living room floor. Before long he finds himself at tournaments socializing—and competing—with Scrabble's elite. But this book is about more than hardcore Scrabblers, for the game yields insights into realms as disparate as linguistics, psychology, and mathematics. Word Freak extends its reach even further, pondering the light Scrabble throws on such notions as brilliance, memory, competition, failure, and hope. It is a geography of obsession that celebrates the uncanny powers locked in all of us. This edition includes a new 2013 afterword by the author.
Whiteman: A Novel
by Tony D'SouzaIn an Ivory Coast village where Christians and Muslims are squaring off for war, against a backdrop of bloody conflict and vibrant African life, Jack Diaz—an American relief worker—and Mamadou, his village guardian, learn that hate knows no color and that true heroism waits where we least expect it. During lulls in the violence, Jack learns the cycles of Africa—of hunting in the rain forest, cultivating the yam, and navigating the nuances of the language; of witchcraft, storytelling, and chivalry. Despite the omnipresence of AIDS, he courts a stunning Peul girl, meets his neighbor&’s wife in the darkened forest, and desperately pursues the village flirt. Still, Jack spends many nights alone in his hut, longing for love in a place where his skin color excludes him. Brimming with dangerous passions and the pressures of life in a time of war, Whiteman is a stunning debut and a tale of desire, isolation, humor, action, and fear.
Israeli Soul: Easy, Essential, Delicious
by Steven Cook Michael SolomonovFor their first major book since the trailblazing Zahav, Michael Solomonov and Steven Cook go straight to the food of the people—the great dishes that are the soul of Israeli cuisine. Usually served from tiny eateries, hole-in-the-wall restaurants, or market stalls, these specialties have passed from father to son or mother to daughter for generations. To find the best versions, the authors scoured bustling cities like Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, and Haifa, and sleepy towns on mountaintops. They visited bakeries, juice carts, beaches, even weddings. Their finds include meals in the hand like falafel and pita; juicy, grilled and roasted spice-rubbed meats; stuffed vegetables; a wealth of chopped vegetable salads; a five-minute fluffy hummus with more than two dozen toppings; pastries, ice creams, and shakes. Solomonov has perfected and adapted every recipe for the home kitchen. Each chapter weaves history with contemporary portrayals of the food. Striking photographs capture all its flavor and vitality, while step-by-step how-tos and closeups of finished dishes make everything simple and accessible.
Let Us Now Praise Famous Men (Penguin Modern Classics Ser.)
by James Agee Walker EvansPulitzer Prize-winning author James Agee and renowned photgrapher Walker Evans's Let Us Now Praise Famous Men is a landmark work of American photojournalism “renowned for its fusion of social conscience and artistic radicality” (The New York Times)In the summer of 1936, James Agee and Walker Evans set out on assignment for Fortune magazine to explore the daily lives of sharecroppers in the South. Their journey would prove an extraordinary collaboration and a watershed literary event when, in 1941, Let Us Now Praise Famous Men was first published to enormous critical acclaim. This unsparing record of place, of the people who shaped the land and the rhythm of their lives, is intensely moving and unrelentingly honest, and today ??—?? recognized by the New York Public Library as one of the most influential books of the twentieth century ??—?? it stands as a poetic tract of its time. With an elegant design as well as a sixty-four-page photographic prologue featuring archival reproductions of Evans's classic images, this historic edition offers readers a window into a remarkable slice of American history.
White Apples And The Taste Of Stone: Selected Poems 1946-2006
by Donald HallThroughout his writing life Donald Hall has garnered numerous accolades and honors, culminating in 2006 with his appointment as poet laureate of the United States. White Apples and the Taste of Stone collects more than two hundred poems from across sixty years of Hall’s celebrated career, and includes poems recently published in The New Yorker, the American Poetry Review, and the New York Times. It is Hall’s first selected volume in fifteen years, and the first to include poems from his seminal bestseller Without. Those who have come to love Donald Hall's poetry will welcome this vital and important addition to his body of work. For the uninitiated it is a spectacular introduction to this critically acclaimed and admired poet.
The Cyberiad: Stories (Penguin Modern Classics Series)
by Stanislaw LemTrurl and Klaupacius are constructor robots who try to out-invent each other. They travel to the far corners of the cosmos to take on freelance problem-solving jobs, with dire consequences for their employers. “The most completely successful of his books... here Lem comes closest to inventing a real universe” (Boston Globe). Illustrations by Daniel Mr—z. Translated by Michael Kandel.
The Book Of Souls (Detective Inspector MacLean #2)
by James OswaldEach year for ten years, a young woman&’s body was found in Edinburgh at Christmastime: naked, throat slit, body washed clean. The final victim, Kirsty Summers, was Detective Constable Tony McLean's fiancée. But the Christmas Killer made a mistake, and McLean put an end to the brutal killing spree. It&’s now twelve years later. A fellow prisoner has just murdered the incarcerated Christmas Killer. But with the arrival of the festive season comes a body. A young woman: naked, washed, her throat cut. Is this a copycat killer? Was the wrong man behind bars all this time? Or is there a more frightening explanation? McLean must revisit the most disturbing case of his life and discover what he missed before the killer strikes again . . .
The Hidden Letters Of Velta B.: A Novel
by Gina OchsnerFINALIST FOR THE OREGON BOOK AWARDS—KEN KESEY AWARD FOR FICTION &“Intimate, vibrant, and richly colored.&”—Portland Monthly &“[An] extraordinary feat of storytelling . . . A spellbinding novel as tough as it is beautiful.&” — Helen Simonson, author of The Summer Before the War &“A beautifully spun tale . . . An astonishing alchemy of history, romance, and fable.&” —Kirkus Reviews, starred review Maris was born knowing things: his very large, very special ears enable him to hear the secrets of the dead, as well as the memories that haunt his Latvian hometown. As a boy, Maris finds himself heir to an odd assortment of hidden letters, letters from which he would weave a story that could finally expose—and maybe even patch—the holes in the fabric of his family and their town. With humor, heart, and her characteristic &“luminous writing [and] affection for her characters&” (New York Times), Gina Ochsner creates an intimate, hopeful portrait of a fascinating town in all its complications and charm. From the onset of World War II through the cold shock of independence, we see how, despite years of distrust, a community can come through love and loss to the joy of understanding. &“A captivating novel of secrets, love, and memory . . . This terrific novel knocked me out.&” —Janet Fitch, author of Paint It Black &“A gift on par with Joanne Harris&’s Chocolat . . . Quirky, ethereal, hilarious, and sorrowful.&” —Shelf Awareness
A Confederate General From Big Sur, Dreaming Of Babylon, The Hawkline Monster: A Confederate General From Big Sur, Dreaming Of Babylon, And The Hawkline Monster
by Richard BrautiganThis omnibus edition collects three classic novels by Richard Brautigan, "the counterculture's Mark Twain" (New York Times)."There is nothing like Richard Brautigan anywhere…This man has invented a genre, a whole new shot, a thing needed, delightful and right."??—??San Francisco Sunday Examiner & ChronicleA Confederate General from Big SurThe year is 1957 in a California that was a preview of things to come in America??—??the dawn of lifestyles that were eventually to have a profound and disturbing effect on our culture.Dreaming of Babylon: A Private Eye Novel 1942You are in San Francisco, and you need a private eye. Nobody's left but C. Card. And when you hire C. Card, you have scraped the bottom of the private-eye barrel as revealed in the fast, funny, slam-bang adventures of the seedy, not-too-bright detective.The Hawkline Monster: A Gothic WesternThe time is 1902, the setting eastern Oregon. Magic Child, a fifteen-year-old Indigenous girl, wanders into the wrong bordello looking for the right men to kill the monster that lives in the ice caves under the basement of Miss Hawkline's yellow house??—??sparking off a series of wild, witty, and bizarre encounters.
A Perfect Peace: A Novel
by Amos Oz&“Oz&’s strangest, riskiest, and richest novel.&” —Washington Post Book WorldIsrael, just before the Six-Day War. On a kibbutz, the country&’s founders and their children struggle to come to terms with their land and with each other. The messianic father exults in accomplishments that had once been only dreams; the son longs to establish an identity apart from his father; the fragile young wife is out of touch with reality; and the gifted and charismatic &“outsider&” seethes with emotion. Through the interplay of these brilliantly realized characters, Oz evokes a drama that is chillingly, strikingly universal.&“[Oz is] a peerless, imaginative chronicler of his country&’s inner and outer transformations.&” —Independent (UK)
Trieste: A Novel
by Dasa Drndic&“Splendid and absorbing . . . [Drndic] is writing to witness, and to make the pain stick . . . These dense and satisfying pages capture the crowdedness of memory.&” — New York Times Book Review Haya Tedeschi sits alone in Gorizia, in northeastern Italy, surrounded by a basket of photographs and newspaper clippings. Now an old woman, she waits to be reunited after sixty-two years with her son, fathered by an SS officer and stolen from her by the German authorities as part of Himmler&’s clandestine Lebensborn project. Haya reflects on her Catholicized Jewish family&’s experiences, in a narrative that deals unsparingly with the massacre of Italian Jews in the concentration camps of Trieste. Her obsessive search for her son leads her to photographs, maps, and fragments of verse, to testimonies from the Nuremberg trials and interviews with second-generation Jews, and to eyewitness accounts of atrocities that took place on her doorstep. From this broad collage of material and memory arises the staggering chronicle of Nazi occupation in northern Italy. &“Although this is fiction, it is also a deeply researched historical documentary . . . It is a masterpiece.&” — A. N. Wilson, Financial Times &“A book of events that have made the last century infamous for the ages, a book that, if it moves you as it moved me, you will have to set down now and then, to breathe." — Alan Cheuse, NPR
July, July: A Novel
by Tim O'Brien“Insidiously, compulsively readable.” — MSNBC At the thirtieth reunion of the Darton Hall College class of 1969, ten old friends join their classmates for a summer weekend of dancing, drinking, flirting, reminiscing, and regret. The three decades since graduation have brought marriage and divorce, children and careers, hopes deferred and replaced. July, July tells the heart-rending and often hilarious story of men and women who came into adulthood at a moment when American ideals and innocence began to fade. These lives will ring familiar to anyone who has dreamed, worked, and struggled to keep course toward a happy ending.With humor and a sense of wistful hope, July, July speaks directly to the American character and its resilience, striking deep at the emotional center of our lives. "A symphony of American life.” — All Things Considered, NPR “A small-scale tour de force by an American original . . . O’Brien is one of the most accomplished members of a generation of writers that includes Don DeLillo and Thomas Pynchon.” — Atlanta Journal-Constitution "Astonishing for [its] clarity of character, for [its] narrative thrills and surprises, for [its] humor and hard-won wisdom . . . July, July gives readers plenty of reasons to celebrate." — Chicago Sun-Times "Perceptive, affectionate and often very funny." — Boston Herald "A deeply satisfying story . . . O’Brien is intelligent and daring, but he is also eminently accessible.” — O, the Oprah Magazine"Taut and compelling." — Los Angeles Times Book Review"Beautifully realized, heartbreakingly honest." — Providence Journal-Bulletin “Almost impossible to put down.” — Austin American-Statesman
Mule: A Novel of Moving Weight
by Tony D'Souza“Thanks to its wicked style and pacing, Mule lets me forget I’m reading serious literature while I follow its terrifying story into the land of the all-American damned.” — Walter Kirn, author of Up in the Air “Mule is swift, taut, and relentless, both a rip-roaring drug tale and a fascinating portrait of a decent human being whose morals slowly disintegrate under unbearable financial strain.” — Lauren Groff, author of The Monsters of Templeton James and Kate are golden children of the late twentieth century, flush with opportunity. But an economic downturn and an unexpected pregnancy send them searching for a way to make do. A friend in California’s Siskiyou County grows prime-grade marijuana; if James transports just one load from Cali to Florida, he’ll pull down enough cash to survive for months. And so begins the life of a mule. A page-turning, Zeitgeist-capturing novel that plunges us into the criminal underworld with little chance to take a breath, Mule is about young people trying to make do in a moment when the American Dream they never had to believe in — because it was handed to them, fully wrapped and ready to go at the takeout window — suddenly vanishes from the menu. “With adrenaline-infused sentences and a seat-gripping story line, Mule is a novel that illuminates contemporary American desperation, both its dangerous precipices and its thrilling, overwhelming freedom.” — Dean Bakopoulos, author of My American Unhappiness
The Sky Over Lima: A Novel
by Juan Gómez Bárcena&“Refreshing, comic, and sublime...The conquest in this novel, a game played by one writer and his readers, captivates, drawing us in through the seductive power of a monumental young author.&” —Laura Esquivel, bestselling author of Like Water for Chocolate and Malinche &“Intoxicating…I&’ll be thinking of these characters, what they longed to create and what they managed to despoil, for a long time.&” —Helen OyeyemiA retelling of a fantastical true story: two young men seduce Nobel laureate Juan Ramón Jiménez with the words of an imaginary woman and inspire one of his greatest love poems. José Gálvez and Carlos Rodríguez are poets. Or, at least, they&’d like to be. Sons of Lima&’s elite in the early twentieth century, they scribble bad verses and read the greats: Rilke, Rimbaud, and, above all others, Juan Ramón Jímenez, the Spanish Maestro. Desperate for Jímenez&’s latest work, unavailable in Lima, they decide to ask him for a copy. They&’re sure Jímenez won&’t send two dilettantes his book, but he might favor a beautiful woman. They write to him as the lovely, imaginary Georgina Hübner. Jímenez responds with a letter and a book. Elated, José and Carlos write back. Their correspondence continues, as the Maestro falls in love with Georgina, and the boys abandon poetry for the pages of Jímenez&’s life.
A Woman In Jerusalem: A Novel
by A. B. YehoshuaA woman in her forties is a victim of a suicide bombing at a Jerusalem market. Her body lies nameless in a hospital morgue. She had apparently worked as a cleaning woman at a bakery, but there is no record of her employment. When a Jerusalem daily accuses the bakery of "gross negligence and inhumanity toward an employee," the bakery’s owner, overwhelmed by guilt, entrusts the task of identifying and burying the victim to a human resources man. This man is at first reluctant to take on the job, but as the facts of the woman’s life take shape—she was an engineer from the former Soviet Union, a non-Jew on a religious pilgrimage to Jerusalem, and, judging by an early photograph, beautiful—he yields to feelings of regret, atonement, and even love. At once profoundly serious and highly entertaining, A. B. Yehoshua astonishes us with his masterly, often unexpected turns in the story and with his ability to get under the skin and into the soul of Israel today.