A fifteenth-century painting by a Flemish master is about to be auctioned when Julia, a young art restorer, discovers a peculiar inscription hidden in a corner: Who killed the knight? In the painting, the Duke of Flanders and his knight are locked in a game of chess, and a dark lady lurks mysteriously in the background. Julia is determined to solve the five-hundred-year-old murder, but as she begins to look for clues, several of her friends in the art world are brutally murdered in quick succession. Messages left with the bodies suggest a crucial connection between the chess game in the painting, the knight's murder, the sordid underside of the contemporary art world, and the latest deaths. Just when all of the players in the mystery seem to be pawns themselves, events race toward a shocking conclusion. A thriller like no other, The Flanders Panel presents a tantalizing puzzle for any connoisseur of mystery, chess, art, and history.
The inspiration for the six-part series "Little Birds" from Sophia Al-Maria.These thirteen erotic short stories by the acclaimed author of Henry and June explore the nature of desire, taboo, and female sensuality.From the beach towns of Normandy to the streets of New Orleans, these thirteen vignettes introduce us to a covetous French painter, a sleepless wanderer of the night, a guitar-playing gypsy, and a host of others who yearn for and dive into the turbulent depths of romantic experience. "[It is] so distinct an advance in the depiction of female sensuality that I felt, on reading it, enormous gratitude."?Alice Walker "One of contemporary literature's most important writers.?Newsweek
About to depart on his first vacation in years, Edward Wozny, a hotshot young investment banker, is sent to help one of his firm's most important and mysterious clients. His task is to search their library stacks for a precious medieval codex, a treasure kept sealed away for many years and for many reasons. Enlisting the help of passionate medievalist Margaret Napier, Edward is determined to solve the mystery of the codex-to understand its significance to his wealthy clients, and to decipher the seeming parallels between the legend of the codex and an obsessive role-playing computer game that has absorbed him in the dark hours of the night. The chilling resolution brings together the medieval and the modern aspects of the plot in a twist worthy of earning comparisons to novels by William Gibson and Dan Brown, not to mention those by A. S. Byatt and Umberto Eco. Lev Grossman's Codex is a thriller of the highest order.
In No Man Is an Island, religious scholar and theologian Thomas Merton offers "a stimulating series of spiritual reflections which will prove helpful for all struggling to find the meaning of human existence and to live the richest, fullest and noblest life" (Chicago Tribune)."Without a life of the spirit, our whole existence becomes unsubstantial and illusory. The life of the spirit, by integrating us in the real order established by God, puts us in the fullest possible contact with reality -- not as we imagine it, but as it really is."A recapitulation of Merton's earlier work Seeds of Contemplation, this collection of sixteen essays plumbs aspects of human spirituality. He addresses those in search of enduring values, fulfillment, and salvation in prose that is, as always, inspiring and compassionate.
In The Feeling of What Happens: Body and Emotion in the Making of Consciousness, neuroscientist Antonio Damasio, director of UCLA's Brain and Creativity Institute, presents "the first truly compelling neurobiological account of the self...a remarkable work of intellectual daring" (Nature).A New York Times Book Review Editors' ChoiceWidley praised for his innovative scientific thinking and elegant writing, Antonio Damasio, the international bestselling author of Descartes' Error achieves an understanding of consciousness by asking and answering profound questions: How is it we know what we know? How is it that our conscious and private minds have a sense of self? In this groundbreaking book, Damasio ? a renowned and revered scientist and clinician who spent decades following amnesiacs down hospital corridors, waiting for comatose patients to awaken, and devising ingenious research using PET scans to piece together the great puzzle of consciousness ? explores the biological roots of sentient awareness and its role in survival. Consciousness is the feeling of what happens-our mind noticing the body's reaction to the world and responding to that experience. Without our bodies there can be no consciousness, which is at heart a mechanism for survival that engages body, emotion, and mind in the glorious spiral of human life. Linking body and emotion in an arresting and original study of what it is to be human, The Feeling of What Happens "will change your experience of yourself" (The New York Times)."Both Descartes Error and The Feeling of What Happens are essential reading. They are ground-breaking classics of psychology and neuroscience."?Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine
From a best-selling writer, a story of unexpected friendshipthree women thrown together in college who grow to adulthood united and divided by secrets, lies, and a single night that shaped all of them.
A riveting look behind the gates of the house of Astor as a famous family falls apart in publicThe fate of Brooke Astor, the endearing philanthropist with the storied name, has generated worldwide headlines since her grandson Philip sued his father in 2006, alleging mistreatment of Brooke. And shortly after her death in 2007, Anthony Marshall, Mrs. Astors only child, was indicted on charges of looting her estate. Rarely has there been a story with such an appealing heroine, conjuring up a world so nearly forgotten: a realm of lavish wealth and secrets of the sort that have engaged Americans from the era of Edith Wharton to the more recent days of Truman Capote and Vanity Fair.New York journalist Meryl Gordon has interviewed not only the elite of Brooke Astors social circle but also the large staff who cosseted and cared for Mrs. Astor during her declining years. The result is the behind-the-headlines story of the Astor empires unraveling, filled with never-before-reported scenes. This powerful, poignant saga takes the reader inside the gilded gates of an American dynasty to tell of three generations worth of longing and missed opportunities. Even in this territory of privilege, no riches can put things right once theyve been torn asunder. Here is an American epic of the bonds of money, morality, and social position.
A landmark new translation of a Calvino classic, a whimsical, spirited novel that imagines a life lived entirely on its own terms
In this lively and ambitious book, James Sheehan charts what is perhaps the most radical shift in Europes history: its transformation from war-torn battlefield to peaceful, prosperous society. For centuries, war was Europes defining narrative, affecting every aspect of political, social, and cultural life. But afterWorldWar II, Europe began to reimagine statehood, rejecting ballooning defense budgets in favor of material well-being, social stability, and economic growth.Where Have All the Soldiers Gone? reveals how and why this happened, and what it means for America and the rest of the world.With remarkable insight and clarity, Sheehan covers the major intellectual and political events in Europe over the past one hundred years, from the pacifist and militarist movements of the early twentieth century and two catastrophic world wars to the fall of the BerlinWall and the heated debate over Iraq.This authoritative history provides much-needed context for understanding the fractured era in which we live.
This powerful memoir is about the premium we put on beauty and on a woman's face in particular. It took Lucy Grealy twenty years of living with a distorted self-image and more than thirty reconstructive procedures before she could come to terms with her appearance after childhood cancer and surgery that left her jaw disfigured. As a young girl, she absorbed the searing pain of peer rejection and the paralyzing fear of never being loved.
A guide for taming complexity in ones personal and professional life, this bookdemonstrates how lessons in efficiency can be derived from sometimes unexpected placesfrom Tina Fey's experience on SNL to how burglars select their targets. Drawing on over a decade of research, the authors explain how to create and apply your own arsenal of simple rules to tackle even the most complex problems.
From a former poet laureate, a new collection of essays delivering agloriously unexpectedview from the vantage point ofvery old age.
The untold story of Vince Lombardi's first season as coach of the 1959 Green Bay Packers.
In The Philosophy of Andy Warhol, the enigmatic, legendary Warhol makes the reader his confidant on love, sex, food, beauty, fame, work, money, success, and much more.Andy Warhol claimed that he loved being outside a party?so that he could get in. But more often than not, the party was at his own studio, The Factory, where celebrities?from Edie Sedgwick and Allen Ginsberg to the Rolling Stones and the Velvet Underground?gathered in an ongoing bash.A loosely formed autobiography, told with his trademark blend of irony and detachment, this compelling and eccentric memoir riffs and reflects on all things Warhol: New York, America, and his childhood in McKeesport, Pennsylvania, as well as the explosion of his career in the sixties, and his life among the rich and famous.
Completely updated, this personal finance classic is ';so full of tips and angles that only a boobie or a billionaire could not benefit' (New York Times).
The searing, under-reported history of the partition of India as adramatic, bloody crisis that remains a key historical faultline today
A Tale of Love and Darkness is the family saga of a boy who grows up in war-torn Jerusalem.
The personal narrative of the author's relationship and adventures with her search-and-rescue (SAR) dog.
Not too long from now, when exiles from a blistering Earth huddle miserably in Martian colonies, the only things that make life bearable are the drugs. Can-D "translates" those who take it into the bodies of Barbie-like dolls. But now Palmer Eldritch has returned after a mysterious disappearance a decade ago, bringing with him a new drug, Chew-Z, even more powerful than Can-D. Marketed under the slogan, "God promises eternal life; we can deliver it," Chew-Z is as mysterious as Eldritch himself. As the readers learn the true origins of Chew-Z and Eldritch, it becomes clear that in a world fueled by hallucinogens, nothing can be taken at face value. In this wildly disoreinting funhouse of a novel, populated by God-like--or perhaps Satanic--takeover artists and corporate psychics, Philip K. Dick explores mysteries that were once the property of St. Paul and Aquinas. His wit, compassion, and knife-edged irony make The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch moving as well as genuinely visionary.
A sweeping history and powerful indictment of America's longest overt war, by the veteran New York Times journalist who was stationed in-country throughout the entire conflict.
This essential biography of one of the most influential women of the past century shows how truly remarkable Jane Goodalls accomplishments have been. Goodall was a secretarial school graduate when Louis Leakey, unable to find someone with more fitting credentials, first sent her to Gombe to study chimpanzees. In this acclaimed work, Dale Peterson details how this young woman of uncommon resourcefulness and pluck would go on to set radically new standards in the study of animal behavior. He vividly captures the triumphs and setbacks of her dramatic life, including the private quest that led to her now-famous activism. Peterson, a longtime Goodall collaborator, has a unique knowledge of his subject. Candid and illuminating, this work will be a revelation even to readers who are familiar with the public Goodall as presented in her own writing.
Here is Orwell's work in all its remarkable range and variety. The selections in this anthology show how Orwell developed as writer and as thinker; inevitably, too, they reflect and illuminate the history of the time of troubles in which he lived and worked. ?A magnificent tribute to the probity, consistency and insight of Orwell's topical writings? (Alfred Kazin). Introduction by Richard H. Rovere.
Kathryn Forbes's Mama's Bank Account, based on childhood, is the bestselling book that inspired the play, film, and television series, and the Richard Rodgers musical, I Remember Mama.There is no mother in fiction more resourceful, incorruptible, and endearing than the Mama of these charming adventures about an immigrant Norwegian family living in San Francisco in the early 1900s. It is Mama who knows how to deal with the doctor's avaricious wife when Papa needs an operation. It is Mama who finds recompense when the roomer leaves without paying the rent. It is Mama, with her mysterious bank account, who discovers a way to keep her children from growing up afraid. Everyone will remember Mama long after the last page of this book is turned."It is impossible to give in words the warm quality of this little book. It has the lights and shadows that give life depth and meaning."?Harper's Magazine"You meet one of the nicest family's imaginable; a family that should restore or reinforce your faith in human nature, and give you a great many chuckles in the bargain."?Philadelphia Inquirer
Newbery Medal-winner Lois Lowry's acclaimed Giver Quartet series in a single-volume collection.
The ancient Taoist text that forms the central part of this book was discovered by Wilhelm, who recognized it as essentially a practical guide to the integration of personality. Foreword and Appendix by Carl Jung; illustrations. Translated by Cary F. Baynes.A Helen and Kurt Wolff Book
With a new introduction Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for fiction, this stunning debut collection unerring charts the emotional journeys of characters seeking love beyond the barriers of nations and generations. In stories that travel from India to America and back again, Lahiri speaks with universal eloquence to everyone who has ever felt like a foreigner.
Two veteran sports writers and editors take readers inside the history of the most-watched sports league on earth England's Premier League.
The untold story of the most important rescue mission not just of the Vietnam War, but the entire Cold War: one American aviator, who knew our most important secrets, crashed behind enemy lines and was sought by the entire North Vietnamese and Russian military machines. One Navy SEAL and his Vietnamese partner had to sneak past them all to save him.
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