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Charming Billy
by Alice McdermottBilly Lynch's family and friends have gathered at a small Bronx bar. They have come to comfort his widow and to eulogize one of the last great romantics, trading tales of his famous humor, immense charm, and unfathomable sorrow. As they linger on into this extraordinary night, their voices form Billy's tragic story and their mourning becomes a gentle homage to all the lives in their small community fractured by grief, shattered by secrets, and sustained by the simple dream of love.<P><P> National Book Award Winner.
Beethoven or Bust: A Practical Guide to Understanding and Listening to Great Music
by David HurwitzA book intended for those people who have a budding curiosity in music of all types, but who don't have the slightest idea of where to begin.
The Last Word on Power: Re-Invention for Leaders Who Must Make the Impossible Happen
by Tracy GossWritten for people who have already achieved a high level of personal and/or business success, this book is an invitation to anyone who desires to accomplish something so extraordinary that it currently seems impossible, either in the business world or in life. The author encourages readers to move beyond their comfort zone, even if they have found it to be a place of success, prestige, and power.
Q: The Autobiography of Quincy Jones
by Quincy JonesQuincy Jones has won multiple grammy awards. He has been acknowledged as a masterful jazz, rock, and funk musician, has created some of the most memorable film scores of the pop era, and has sat at the production controls for numerous landmark albums, including Michael Jackson's Thriller, the biggest-selling long-player of all time.
The Bug: A Novel
by Ellen UllmanIn 1984, at the dawn of the PC era, tester Roberta Walton stumbles across a bug. She and the coder believe it's an ordinary bug, but no matter how hard they try, they can't find its cause.
They Went Whistling: Women Wayfarers, Warriors, Runaways, and Renegades
by Barbara HollandThroughout history there have been women, endowed with curiosity and abundant spirit, who stepped out of the cave, cast off the shackles of expectation, and struck out for new territory. In this ode to bold, brash, and sometimes just plain dangerous women, Barbara Holland reanimates those rebels who defied convention and challenged authority on a truly grand scale: they traveled the world, commanded pirate ships, spied on the enemy, established foreign countries, scaled 19,000-foot passes, and lobbied to change the Constitution. Some were merry and flamboyant; others depressive and solitary. Some dressed up as men; others cherished their Victorian gowns. Many were ambivalent or absentminded mothers. But every one of them was fearless, eccentric, and fiercely independent. Barbara Holland evokes their energy in this unconventional book that will acquaint you with the likes of Grace O'Malley, a blazing terror of the Irish seas in the 1500s, and surprise you with a fresh perspective on legends like Bonnie Parker of "Bonnie and Clyde" fame. With wit, wisdom, and irreverent flair, They Went Whistling makes a compelling case for the virtue of getting into trouble.
The Future of an Illusion
by Sigmund Freud James StracheyIn the manner of the eighteenth-century philosopher, Freud argued that religion and science were mortal enemies. Early in the century, he began to think about religion psychoanalytically and to discuss it in his writings. The Future of an Illusion (1927), Freud's best known and most emphatic psychoanalytic exploration of religion, is the culmination of a lifelong pattern of thinking.
The Chesapeake in the 17th Century
by Thad W. Tate David L. AmmermanEssays on Anglo-American society and politics in 17th century America.
Helix
by Desmond Ryan Joel ShurkinAn unknown, virulent disease breaks out in a major American city. The symptoms are brief, violent, and usually fatal. The source of the disease is traced to a makeshift laboratory in Philadelphia.
The Dreamer of the Vine: A Novel About Nostradamus
by Liz GreeneSet in 16th-century France, this historical novel evokes an age in which players in the game of power were ruthless.
Jane Brody's Good Food Book: Living the High-Carbohydrate Way
by Jane E. BrodyWith guidelines on how to restructure eating and exercise habits to achieve and maintain normal body weight without dieting, it also discusses how to eat sensibly when dining out and how to shop and cook efficiently.
Bag Men
by John FloodSet in Boston on New Year's Day 1965, the body of George Sedgewick is discovered on a snow-covered runway at Logan Airport, brutally murdered.
The New New Thing: A Silicon Valley Story
by Michael LewisA biography of the founder of Netscape serves as a illustration of the profound changes in the 1980s due to the Internet.
Thomas Jefferson: An Intimate History
by Fawn M. BrodieA bibliography of one of our most interesting Presidents, Thomas Jefferson.
The Adventures of Conan Doyle: The Life of the Creator of Sherlock Holmes
by Charles Higham"WHO, REALLY, was Dr. Watson? And who was Sherlock Holmes? Both, I discovered in exploring the background for this book, had their parallels in real life. There actually was a Dr. John Watson, who lived in London, had served in the war in India, and had been wounded. And it is well-known that Holmes was very much like Dr. Joseph Bell, a skillfully deductive surgeon who taught at Edinburgh University. But I determined, as I worked on, that in the last analysis, Dr. Watson and Mr. Holmes, like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, were really different aspects of the same person, in this instance Arthur Conan Doyle. ... He liked sport, and played Rugby and billiards expertly. He loved dogs, and kept a bull pup. He loved Turkish baths. He had a kind of wild courage, and tended to be romantic and gullible. He was loyal, a patriot, faithful to his friends and his wife. Self-effacing and considerate, though capable of being rash and headstrong, he was the perfect Boswell for Holmes. Conan Doyle's resemblances to Holmes are numerous. Holmes was descended from a family of squires, and he had some French blood. He had gray eyes. He had one brother. He suffered from conflicting moods of excitement and depression. He could be impatient and sharp. He had a bizarre sense of humor. He loved to make subtle literary references. He was inordinately excited by murder cases. He was familiar with an extraordinary IO . . . PREFACE range of subjects, including ciphers, medieval manuscripts, and the structure of warships. He went out in society but wi. ... He loved to reflect on philosophy and the course of history. Like Watson, he longed for the country while in London. Holmes had an almost clairvoyant grasp of events, beyond that of any other detective. He made up his own mind about crimes, deliberately acting as an accessory, when necessary, for the ultimate solution of a case, assuming the roles of judge and jury, and sometimes releasing the apparently guilty. He could deduce details of people's lives simply by glancing at them. Conan Doyle's son Adrian wrote of his father that he could sit in a cafe and determine from the hats, coats, shoes, umbrellas, and walking sticks of those who came in virtually their whole life stories."
The New Grove: Haydn
by Jens Peter LarsenBiography of Franz Joseph Haydn, including a comprehensive worklist and bibliography, in addition to the definitive view of Haydn's life and works.
The New Grove: Handel
by Winton DeanBiography of George Frederick Handel, including a comprehensive worklist and bibliography, in addition to the definitive view of Handel's life and works.
Spirits, Fairies, Leprechauns, and Goblins: An Encyclopedia
by Carol Rose3000 alphabetically arranged entries that list the Little People by region and type, and how to deal with them.
Disorder in the Court: Great Fractured Moments in Courtroom History
by Charles M. SevillaFrom the book: PRO PER MOTION (E. Grossman, Berkeley) THE COURT DO you understand, sir, that if I permit you to represent yourself, it will be without the assistance of an attorney and that you're going to be held to all the technical rules of evidence in criminal procedure? DEFENDANT Yeah. I'll have to stop at the library and get a book on law. THE COURT And you understand you will get access to the jail library? DEFENDANT Yeah. THE COURT DO you understand that the case as presented by the State will be handled by an experienced district attorney who's very specialized in the area of criminal law, who has had extensive court trials and jury trials, and that you won't be entitled to any special consideration? DEFENDANT All I really need is the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, a Holy Bible and a handgun. Uses of Language (Keith Arthur, Stockton, CA) THE COURT You were picked up on a new 245? DEFENDANT I don't know if it was 245, 645, 345. They picked me up on something, all right? Okay? Then when they also had me on that, he gave me a motherfucking charge for prostitution. COUNSEL Don't use language like that to the judge. DEFENDANT Prostitution? What? Prostitution? What you want me to say? They picked me up for prostitution.
Cutting: Understanding and Overcoming Self-Mutilation
by Steven LevenkronLevenkron traces the components that predispose people to self-mutilation: genetics, family experience, childhood trauma, and parental behavior. Also describes how they can be helped.
Giants, Monsters, and Dragons: An Encyclopedia of Folklore, Legend and Myth
by Carol RoseA comprehensive and fascinating collection of mythical beasts and strange beings from around the world, in their cultural context.
The Seven Daughters of Eve
by Bryan SykesThe identification of a snippet of DNA in mitochondria allows scientists to trace our maternal genetic makeup back to prehistoric times.
Metamorphoses
by Charles Martin OvidOvid's epic poem, whose theme of change has resonated throughout the ages, has been the inspiration for authors from Dante to present day writers such as Rushdie and Calvino. Martin combines a close fidelity to Ovid's text with verse that catches the speed and liveliness of the original. [This text is listed as an example that meets Common Core Standards in English language arts in grades 9-10 at http://www.corestandards.org.]
Ramblin' Man: The Life and Times of Woody Guthrie
by Ed CrayA patriot and a political radical, Guthrie captured the spirit of his times in his enduring songs. From Booklist Although Woody Guthrie has been a favorite topic of children's books in recent years, there has not been a substantive adult biography written about him since Joe Klein's definitive Woody Guthrie (1980). Cray (Chief Justice: A Biography of Earl Warren, 1997) may well supplant Klein, as he was given access to the Woody Guthrie Archives, which contain previously unpublished letters, diaries, and journals. Although his narrative is sometimes too thick with details, Cray eloquently sums up the Okie songwriter's sorrowful life, during which he endured his sister's and daughter's deaths by fire, his mother's committal to an insane asylum, and his own diagnosis and death from Huntington's disease. Cray is especially insightful on Guthrie's politics and his deep empathy for Depression-era migrant workers. A man of contradictions, the songwriter emerges as an intellectual who took pains to hide his intellect and as a crusader for social justice who neglected his own family. His second wife, Marjorie, takes on near-heroic stature as the caregiver who, though they were long divorced, looked after him during the last decade of his debilitating illness. Joanne Wilkinson Copyright © American Library Association.
Ulysses and Us: The Art of Everyday Life in Joyce's Masterpiece
by Declan KiberdJames Joyce's famous 1922 novel Ulysses has been "wrenched out of the hands of the common reader" by esotericizing specialists, complains Kiberd (Anglo-Irish literature, U. College Dublin, Ireland), which is unfortunate because for all of its complexities the "underlying intention [of Joyce] was that anyone reading Ulysses could be an expert, at least in the sense that anyone present at a sporting event feels entitled to have a valid opinion on what transpires." He takes the reader through the episodes of Ulysses, focusing on themes of mundane pleasures, such as waking, walking, and drinking, in order to foster appreciation of Joyce's masterwork and better understanding of Joyce's work as a celebration of the richness of Irish daily life and popular culture. Annotation c2010 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)