Bücher veröffentlicht von Counterpoint

“Patterson beautifully parses the consequences of one woman’s fall in this memorable, penetrating, fully achieved novel.” —The New York Times Book Review Story Prize and California Book Award finalist Victoria Patterson revisits Newport Beach in This Vacant Paradise, examining the intersections of economics, class, race, sex, and family expectations during the mid–1990s. Esther lives with her grandmother, a virulent matriarch who controls her family through her wealth. Esther knows that an advantageous marriage replete with social standing, familial and peer approval, and financial rewards will alleviate her struggles. But she has been known to self–sabotage, and her loved ones are rooting for her not to blow it with her latest beau, especially since she’s at the ripe old age of thirty–three. All is well until she begins a tumultuous love affair with Charlie, a local college professor known for his unconventional ideals as much as for his golf game and good looks. He sets a fire inside Esther, sparking and delivering her—whether by choice or not—from the insular, safe, and stifling confines of societal expectations to an alternate, unglamorous, and indefinable course. The result is a stunning debut novel: a powerful work of fiction sure to provoke and engage. “Patterson writes with the exuberance of a natural storyteller. Her cast is rich, her narrative sinuous and masterfully structured.” —San Francisco Chronicle “Considering the subject matter—the real housewives of Orange County—Patterson’s debut novel (after story collection Drift) is surprisingly sophisticated and nuanced.” —Publishers Weekly

Lee, a high school shop teacher in Evergreen, Colorado, managed to survive his messy divorce only to hurtle into what some might call a full–on midlife crisis. Looking for a way to spend his weekends and the now painfully long summer vacation, Lee buys a gold mine off the internet—a real, honest–to–God mine, complete with tall tales of riches, a history of disappointment, and a couple of Pakistani–by–the–way–of–Jackson–Hole prospectors willing to kill for its contents.With the frequently unwanted help of a band of locals, Lee becomes a weekend warrior, attempting to work the mine and keep himself distracted from his other midlife disturbances. There are the Pakistanis, of course, along with his mercurial brother Grant, just released from prison, who is trying in his typically perilous way to pull Lee from his midlife funk. There is his ex–wife Lorraine and her slick boyfriend, Stan Beachum, and the lovely yet mysterious Rayna, the first woman Lee's wanted to date since his divorce.In Daniel Pyne's sharp, fun, and raucous style, A Hole in the Ground Owned by a Liar is part mystery and part gold–infused tall tale with a cast of refreshingly quirky characters and one highly unexpected payout.

How do we make sense of the modern world? Science is a profoundly affecting aspect of contemporary life, and yet the gulf between experts and everyone else is widening. Colette Brooks bridges the gap by playing the role of curious layperson, serving as a tour guide to some of the most important discoveries and innovations of the last five centuries. Through serious and absurd stories alike, Brooks takes readers back and forth in time, from dark, cavernous laboratories to the pristine facilities of the twenty-first century. Laugh along with Newton, peer at the moon with Galileo, work beside the Wright Brothers, ride with the astronauts of Apollo 11, watch for UFOs in the 1950s, probe the secrets of the fruit fly, visit Chernobyl, or examine suspicious packages in a Hazmat suit. With Brooks as the guide, it's easy to become immersed in the twists, turns, and surprises of each imaginative leap forward. Through a series of "thought experiments," Brooks also poses questions and offers helpful tips that ease the reader's way into this strange but provocative territory. Bringing her unique perspective to the larger cultural conversation about science, Brooks ultimately unleashes the most powerful force of all: our own wonder.

A close examination of the questions facing communities across the United States where dam removal is on the environmental and political agenda.. Dams and diversions along America's rivers have transformed the country and in doing so created environmental problems whose resolution will, in many ways, determine how we live in the next century. There are over 75,000 dams in the country and almost no major river in the country remains undammed. But now, for the first time in our nation's history, the pace of dam removal has overtaken the pace of construction as communities across the country commit themselves to river restoration, including the removal of harmful dams.Questioning the value of dams requires a serious readjustment in the country's notion of progress, a prospect threatening to some and daunting to all. Watershed examines the implications of dam removal to America's rivers and their communities by exploring the stories of a number of places where dam removal and river restoration are now underway. This is a story of people and place, and of a vital turning point in the nation's relationship to its rivers. 0813367824 the Spirit of American Law : an Anthology

For more than thirty years, Frederick Kirschenmann has explored the ethical and practical principles of sustainable agriculture. An accomplished theologian, philosopher, and third-generation farmer, Kirschenmann is a dynamic leading voice in the dialogue about the challenges of modern agriculture.Cultivating an Ecological Conscience: Essays from a Farmer Philosopher follows Kirschenmann's personal and professional evolution as a lifelong proponent of new agrarianism. Together with agricultural economist Constance L. Falk, Kirschenmann has compiled a collection of his essential writings on farming, philosophy, and sustainability. In this fascinating blend of personal history, philosophical discourse, spiritual ruminations, and practical advice, Kirschenmann shares candid, valuable insights about the agricultural challenges facing the modern world and the necessity of achieving ecologically sound and responsible stewardship of the land.This rich book follows the development of Kirschenmann's long and distinguished career, from childhood lessons learned on the family farm to his inventive approaches for addressing contemporary agrarian issues. More than a mere retrospective, these these essays serve as an introduction to the life and wok of an extraordinary agricultural thinker.

This rollicking collection—personally selected by the author (in collaboration with his editor Tom Marksbury)—gathers the best of Ed McClanahan's work, making it a must-have for both long-time fans and newcomers alike. Comprised of fourteen works, I Just Hitched in from the Coast is an admixture of fiction and non-fiction, memoir and imagination. It includes such classics as "Fondelle, or: The Whore with a Heart of Gold," and the wry essay "The Day the Lampshades Breathed," chronicling McClanahan's time in the 1960s.In "The Essentials of Western Civilization," McClanahan imagines the affairs of Assistant Professor Harrison B. Eastep, MA, of Arbuckle State in Oregon, and of the gradual erosion of his dedication to academia. Weaving together Vietnam, rock and roll, a lackluster counterculture past, and the Great Plague of London, this is storytelling at its best by a master of the craft.The foremost stylist of the Yippie generation, McClanahan writes with bemused affection. He parlays his Southern sensibilities and California experiences with a mastery of language, to tantalize his readers with musings that are absurd, whimsical, outrageous, and, in the words of one reviewer, "wickedly sharp."

Wildlife and nature films are a hugely popular entertainment genre: networks such as Animal Planet and Discovery are stars in the cable television universe, viewers flock to IMAX theaters to see jaw–dropping footage from the wild, and the venerable BBC still scores triumphs with series such as Planet Earth. As cinematic technology brings ever more breathtaking images to the screen, and as our direct contact with nature diminishes, an ever–expanding audience craves the indirect experience of wild nature that these films provide.But this success has a dark side, as Chris Palmer reveals in his authoritative and engrossing report on the wildlife film business. A veteran producer and film educator, Palmer looks past the headlines about TV host Steve Irwin's death by stingray and filmmaker Timothy Treadwell falling prey to his beloved grizzlies, to uncover a more pervasive and troubling trend toward sensationalism, extreme risk–taking, and even abuse in wildlife films. He tracks the roots of this trend to the early days of the genre, and he profiles a new breed of skilled, ethical filmmakers whose work enlightens as well as entertains, and who represent the future that Palmer envisions for the industry he loves.

Margaret Rose is a talented but nervous violinist given to bouts of stage fright and unrequited love; Webster Hale is a biologist who, on principle, refuses to kill animals in order to study them. In Angels Go Naked, a novel told in stories, Cornelia Nixon, a writer whose gift is apparent on every page, follows this vexed love story and the collision course they call their life together.Their connection is never in doubt, though Webster is appalled by the urban underbelly of Chicago, which Margy calls home. He refuses to have children because the earth is overrun with humans, and Margy feels compelled to expiate an early abortion by having a live child. Websters gloomy view of global disaster threatens to triumph in the final story, as their close friend Calvin is dying of AIDS beside a moribund Lake Michigan. Meanwhile, the one child Webster has agreed to conceive appears destined for stillbirth because Margy herself was poisoned as a fetus by misguided medical intervention.At the end of this sad, funny, moving tale, there may be hope, as life and love prove unexpectedly resilient, even in the twenty-first century.

Everyone has a face that they show to the outside world—but our thoughts, fears, and perversions lie just beneath.“Referred pain” describes the sensation of pain, not at the actual point of injury, but somewhere else in the body. This disorientation of the senses is felt, in one way or another, by many of the characters in this collection from Lynne Sharon Schwartz, one of America’s foremost chroniclers of contemporary life.In the title novella, a son of Holocaust survivors circumvents his discomfort over his parents’ history through a Kafkaesque series of dental procedures. In another story, a professor’s sexual attraction to one of his students leads him down a twisted path of misplaced identity. Laced with Schwartz’s satirical, acidly intelligent wit, Referred Pain displays the peak of her ability.

In Unsuspecting Souls, Barry Sanders examines modern societys indifference to the individual. Beginning with the Industrial Revolution, when care for human beings began to disappear slowly, and ending with the modern era, when societal events require less person-to-person interaction and introduce radical changes in common attitudes toward death and life, Sanders laments that what makes us most human is slowly dying. Our days are filled with a continuous bombardment of information that demands our attention and brings us out of our world and into a sterile one of inhumanity and abstraction.Weve also lost the original sense of a collective consciousness. This loss has been culminating for two centuries now, dating back to the rise of European powers and worldwide colonization. We pick our poisons among several forms of radical fundamentalisms, each one not only a threat to the other but a threat to humanity itself. From references of Edgar Allan Poe to Abu Ghraib, this is a fascinating and worrisome story, impeccably researched and compellingly written.

"Full of fascinating observations and eminently dependable information--terrific!"--Peter Matthiessen "George Schaller is one of those rather rare human beings--a painstaking and meticulous scientist who has also the spirit of the early naturalist-explorer. He is a brilliant conservationist."--Jane Goodall "[P]olitics and science are only two of Schaller's realms--the other is the transcendent connection between humans and other animals."--Bill McKibben "George Schaller is one of the great explorer-naturalists, and he would so rank in whatever era he lived. It is a pleasure to read this account from his own pen of his many adventures and scientific discoveries."--Edward O. Wilson

In print, FW, the unnamed freelance Food Writer of Nancy Spiller's sardonic debut novel, "Entertaining Disasters, " lives high on the food chain in the heady realm of L.A.'s culinary journalism scene. She waxes poetic about her hip home gatherings, thinly veiling the identities of her Hollywood guest list. But in reality, FW's been inventing the dinner parties she writes about because social paralysis sets in at the very thought of a real guest in her fabulous--or is it shabby?--hillside home. Enter the glossy food magazine editor, new in town, who wants an invitation to one of her bashes, and the panic-stricken journey from fantasy hostess to reality bites is on."Entertaining Disasters"--at turns whimsical and deeply affecting--chronicles the struggle FW faces in the week before she hosts her first real dinner party in ages. At the same time, her estranged sister threatens to drop by, her husband takes off, and her house implodes. In the way of Nora Ephron's "Heartburn, " Spiller's book is filled with the fabulous culinary lore and delicious-sounding recipes that have made FW's writing such popular foodie mania. Now all she has to do is somehow bring this fantasy world into workaday reality.

One of the central relationships in the Beat scene was the long–lasting friendship of Allen Ginsberg and Gary Snyder. Ginsberg introduced Snyder to the East Coast Beat writers, including Jack Kerouac, while Snyder himself became the model for the serious poet that Ginsberg so wanted to become. Snyder encouraged Ginsberg to explore the beauty of the West Coast and, even more lastingly, introduced Ginsberg to Buddhism, the subject of so many long letter exchanges between them. Beginning in 1956 and continuing through 1991, the two men exchanged more than 850 letters. Bill Morgan, Ginsberg's biographer and an important editor of his papers, has selected the most significant correspondence from this long friendship. The letters themselves paint the biographical and poetic portraits of two of America's most important—and most fascinating—poets. Robert Hass' insightful introduction discusses the lives of these two major poets and their enriching and moving relationship.