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Down Among the Dead Men: A Year in the Life of a Mortuary Technician
by Michelle WilliamsMichelle Williams is young and attractive, with close family ties, a busy social life . . . and an unusual occupation. When she impulsively applies to be a mortuary technician and is offered the position, she has no idea that her decision to accept will be one of the most momentous of her life. "What I didn't realize then," she writes, "was that I was about to start one of the most amazing jobs you can do."To Williams, life in the mortuary is neither grim nor frightening. She introduces readers to a host of unique characters: pathologists (many eccentric, some utterly crazy), undertakers, and the man from the coroner's office who sings to her every morning. No two days are alike, and while Williams's sensitivity to the dead never wavers, her tales from the crypt range from mischievous to downright shocking. Readers won't forget the fitness fanatic run over while doing nighttime push-ups on the road, the man so large he had to be carted in via refrigerated truck, or the guide dog who led his owner onto railway tracks-and left him there. The indomitable Williams never bats an eye, even as she is confronted-daily-with situations that would leave the rest of us speechless.
Dravida Iyakka Varalaru - Part 1: திராவிட இயக்க வரலாறு பாகம் 1
by R. Muthukumarஇந்நூலில் பெரியார், அண்ணா, கலைஞர், எம்.ஜி.ஆர். ஆகியோரின் வாழ்க்கை வரலாறு மற்றும் அவர்களின் திராவிட இயக்கம் பற்றி குறிப்பிடப்பட்டுள்ளது.
Dravida Iyakka Varalaru - Part 2: திராவிட இயக்க வரலாறு பாகம் 2
by R. Muthukumarஇந்நூலில் திராவிட இயக்க வரலாறு பாகம் 2 னின் பெரியார், அண்ணா, கலைஞர், எம்.ஜி.ஆர். ஆகியோரின் வாழ்க்கை வரலாறு மற்றும் அவர்களின் திராவிட இயக்கம் ஆகியவை தொடரப்பட்டுள்ளது.
Drawing Out Law
by John BorrowsThe Anishinabek Nation's legal traditions are deeply embedded in many aspects of customary life. In Drawing Out Law, John Borrows (Kegedonce) skillfully juxtaposes Canadian legal policy and practice with the more broadly defined Anishinabek perception of law as it applies to community life, nature, and individuals.This innovative work combines fictional and non-fictional elements in a series of connected short stories that symbolize different ways of Anishinabek engagement with the world. Drawing on oral traditions, pictographic scrolls, dreams, common law case analysis, and philosophical reflection, Borrows' narrative explores issues of pressing importance to the future of indigenous law and offers readers new ways to think about the direction of Canadian law.Shedding light on Canadian law and policy as they relate to Indigenous peoples, Drawing Out Law illustrates past and present moral agency of Indigenous peoples and their approaches to the law and calls for the renewal of ancient Ojibway teaching in contemporary circumstances.This is a major work by one of Canada's leading legal scholars, and an essential companion to Canada's Indigenous Constitution.
The Dream of the Celt: A Novel
by Mario Vargas LlosaA subtle and enlightening novel about a neglected human rights pioneer by the Nobel Laureate Mario Vargas LlosaIn 1916, the Irish nationalist Roger Casement was hanged by the British government for treason. Casement had dedicated his extraordinary life to improving the plight of oppressed peoples around the world—especially the native populations in the Belgian Congo and the Amazon—but when he dared to draw a parallel between the injustices he witnessed in African and American colonies and those committed by the British in Northern Ireland, he became involved in a cause that led to his imprisonment and execution. Ultimately, the scandals surrounding Casement's trial and eventual hanging tainted his image to such a degree that his pioneering human rights work wasn't fully reexamined until the 1960s.In The Dream of the Celt, Mario Vargas Llosa, who has long been regarded as one of Latin America's most vibrant, provocative, and necessary literary voices—a fact confirmed when he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2010—brings this complex character to life as no other writer can. A masterful work, sharply translated by Edith Grossman, The Dream of the Celt tackles a controversial man whose story has long been neglected, and, in so doing, pushes at the boundaries of the historical novel.
Dreaming of Chanel: Vintage Dresses, Timeless Stories
by Charlotte Smith Grant CowanInheriting a priceless vintage clothing collection sounds like every woman's dream come true. But when Charlotte Smith discovered that her American godmother, Doris Darnell, had made her custodian of more than three thousand pieces dating from 1790 to the 1990s, including originals by Chanel and Dior, she was more than a little daunted. Then Charlotte uncovered her first treasure-- an exquisite 1920s evening dress--and promptly fell in love. And once she found her godmother's book of stories, the true value of her inheritance hit home. This wasn't merely a collection of beautiful things, it was a precious collection of women's lives. Tiny glimpses of our joys and disappointments, our entrances and exits, triumphant and tragic. In her previous book, Dreaming of Dior, Charlotte shared some of these gorgeous dresses and the stories of the women who wore them. Now, in Dreaming of Chanel, with special appearances by Chanel, Vivienne Westwood, Pucci, Valentino and many more, Charlotte offers another unforgettable glimpse inside the magical wardrobe every woman would love to own.
Dreaming of Chanel
by Grant Cowan Charlotte SmithInheriting a priceless vintage clothing collection sounds like every woman’s dream come true. But when Charlotte Smith discovered that her American godmother, Doris Darnell, had made her custodian of more than three thousand pieces dating from 1790 to the 1990s, including originals by Chanel and Dior, she was more than a little daunted. Then Charlotte uncovered her first treasure— an exquisite 1920s evening dress—and promptly fell in love. And once she found her godmother’s book of stories, the true value of her inheritance hit home. This wasn’t merely a collection of beautiful things, it was a precious collection of women’s lives. Tiny glimpses of our joys and disappointments, our entrances and exits, triumphant and tragic. In her previous book, Dreaming of Dior, Charlotte shared some of these gorgeous dresses and the stories of the women who wore them. Now, in Dreaming of Chanel, with special appearances by Chanel, Vivienne Westwood, Pucci, Valentino and many more, Charlotte offers another unforgettable glimpse inside the magical wardrobe every woman would love to own.
Dreams in a Time of War: A Childhood Memoir
by Ngugi Wa Thiong’oBy the world-renowned novelist, playwright, critic, and author of Wizard of the Crow, an evocative and affecting memoir of childhood. Ngugi wa Thiong'o was born in 1938 in rural Kenya to a father whose four wives bore him more than a score of children. The man who would become one of Africa's leading writers was the fifth child of the third wife. Even as World War II affected the lives of Africans under British colonial rule in particularly unexpected ways, Ngugi spent his childhood as very much the apple of his mother's eye before attending school to slake what was then considered a bizarre thirst for learning. In Dreams in a Time of War, Ngugi deftly etches a bygone era, capturing the landscape, the people, and their culture; the social and political vicissitudes of life under colonialism and war; and the troubled relationship between an emerging Christianized middle class and the rural poor. And he shows how the Mau Mau armed struggle for Kenya's independence against the British informed not only his own life but also the lives of those closest to him. Dreams in a Time of War speaks to the human right to dream even in the worst of times. It abounds in delicate and powerful subtleties and complexities that are movingly told.From the Hardcover edition.
Dressed to Kill
by Charlotte MadisonMy fingers close around the trigger. I pause for a split second to think about the bullets I am about to spray across the ground. After today, I'll no longer be the new girl.'Captain Charlotte Madison is blonde, beautiful and flies Apache helicopters for a living. She has completed two tours of duty in Afghanistan and is currently fighting on the frontline in her third. DRESSED TO KILL shows us what life is like for a girl in a resolutely male-dominated environment. But she isn't just a woman in a man's world, she's a woman women aspire to be - glamorous as well as brave, and beating the men at their own game. Only a tiny percentage of people can multi-task to the extreme level the aircraft demands, and most airmen who try to qualify as an Apache pilot fail. Full of the exciting, adrenaline-filled action that has made other military memoirs so successful, DRESSED TO KILL is also unique. A highly intelligent and brilliant young woman, Charlotte is Britain's first female Apache pilot, and the first British female pilot to kill in an Apache. We have, quite simply, never seen the landscape of 21st-century frontline conflict from a perspective like hers. DRESSED TO KILL will appeal to anyone interested in current affairs, but it will also speak to a whole generation of young women who will relate to 27-year-old Charlotte in a way they never imagined possible.
Dressed to Kill
by Charlotte MadisonMy fingers close around the trigger. I pause for a split second to think about the bullets I am about to spray across the ground. After today, I'll no longer be the new girl.'Captain Charlotte Madison is blonde, beautiful and flies Apache helicopters for a living. She has completed two tours of duty in Afghanistan and is currently fighting on the frontline in her third. DRESSED TO KILL shows us what life is like for a girl in a resolutely male-dominated environment. But she isn't just a woman in a man's world, she's a woman women aspire to be - glamorous as well as brave, and beating the men at their own game. Only a tiny percentage of people can multi-task to the extreme level the aircraft demands, and most airmen who try to qualify as an Apache pilot fail. Full of the exciting, adrenaline-filled action that has made other military memoirs so successful, DRESSED TO KILL is also unique. A highly intelligent and brilliant young woman, Charlotte is Britain's first female Apache pilot, and the first British female pilot to kill in an Apache. We have, quite simply, never seen the landscape of 21st-century frontline conflict from a perspective like hers. DRESSED TO KILL will appeal to anyone interested in current affairs, but it will also speak to a whole generation of young women who will relate to 27-year-old Charlotte in a way they never imagined possible.
Driven West
by A. J. LangguthBy the acclaimed author of the classic Patriots and Union 1812, this major work of narrative history portrays four of the most turbulent decades in the growth of the American nation. After the War of 1812, President Andrew Jackson and his successors led the country to its manifest destiny across the continent. But that expansion unleashed new regional hostilities that led inexorably to Civil War. The earliest victims were the Cherokees and other tribes of the southeast who had lived and prospered for centuries on land that became Alabama, Mississippi, and Georgia. Jackson, who had first gained fame as an Indian fighter, decreed that the Cherokees be forcibly removed from their rich cotton fields to make way for an exploding white population. His policy set off angry debates in Congress and protests from such celebrated Northern writers as Ralph Waldo Emerson. Southern slave owners saw that defense of the Cherokees as linked to a growing abolitionist movement. They understood that the protests would not end with protecting a few Indian tribes. Langguth tells the dramatic story of the desperate fate of the Cherokees as they were driven out of Georgia at bayonet point by U.S. Army forces led by General Winfield Scott. At the center of the story are the American statesmen of the day--Henry Clay, John Quincy Adams, John C. Calhoun--and those Cherokee leaders who tried to save their people--Major Ridge, John Ridge, Elias Boudinot, and John Ross. Driven West presents wrenching firsthand accounts of the forced march across the Mississippi along a path of misery and death that the Cherokees called the Trail of Tears. Survivors reached the distant Oklahoma territory that Jackson had marked out for them, only to find that the bloodiest days of their ordeal still awaited them. In time, the fierce national collision set off by Jackson's Indian policy would encompass the Mexican War, the bloody frontier wars over the expansion of slavery, the doctrines of nullification and secession, and, finally, the Civil War itself. In his masterly narrative of this saga, Langguth captures the idealism and betrayals of headstrong leaders as they steered a raw and vibrant nation in the rush to its destiny.
Driving Home: An American Journey
by Jonathan RabanFor more than thirty years, Jonathan Raban has written with infectious fascination about people and places in transition or on the margins, about journeys undertaken and destinations never quite reached, and, as an Englishman transplanted in Seattle, about what it means to feel rooted in America. Spanning two decades, Driving Home charts a course through the Pacific Northwest, American history, and current events as witnessed by a super-sensitive, all-seeing eye. Raban spots things we might otherwise miss; he calls up the apt metaphors that transform things into phenomena. He is one of our most gifted observers" (Newsday). Stops en route include a Missoula bar, a Tea Party convention in Nashville hosted by Sarah Palin, the Mississippi in full flood, a trip to Hawaii with his daughter, a steelhead river in the Cascades, and the hidden corners of his adopted hometown, Seattle. He deftly explores public and personal spaces, poetry and politics, geography and catastrophe, art and economy, and the shifts in various arenas that define our society. Whether the topic is Robert Lowell or Barack Obama, or how various painters, explorers, and homesteaders have engaged with our mythical and actual landscape, he has an outsider's eye for the absurd, and his tone is intimate, never nostalgic, and always fresh. Frank, witty, and provocative, Driving Home is part essay collection, part diary--and irresistibly insightful about America's character, contradictions, and idiosyncrasies.
Dubai Dreams
by Raymond BarrettSun, sea, shopping, roaring nightlife, the world's tallest building, seven-star resort hotels and sprawling championship golf courses... these all come to mind when thinking about Dubai, the newest and most luxurious hotspot for business and leisure. But what lurks behind this glitzy glamour-town? Raymond Barrett investigates, and finds some fascinating results. Incredibly topical, Dubai Dreams is a must-read for anyone seeking a journey to the 'Las Vegas of the East' themselves, or those interested in seeing the truth behind all the bling. Far from being solely a "billionaire's paradise," Barrett discovers the myriad of other people who live in, work in, and visit Dubai, each revealing a new facet of the Arabian city-state. Dubai boasts not only the world's largest man-made island, but also a extraordinarily varied population, consisting of expatriates from all over the world - India, China, England, the Philippines - Barrett explores the city, leading the reader to discover what lies below the gleaming skyline, not just malls and sport courts, but also mosques and temples, courthouses and speakeasies - making it the first book to look behind the scenes at Dubai as a whole, in terms of life, business and culture.
Duchamp and the Aesthetics of Chance: Art as Experiment
by John Brogden Herbert MolderingsMarcel Duchamp is often viewed as an "artist-engineer-scientist," a kind of rationalist who relied heavily on the ideas of the French mathematician and philosopher Henri Poincaré. Yet a complete portrait of Duchamp and his multiple influences draws a different picture. In his 3 Standard Stoppages (1913-1914), a work that uses chance as an artistic medium, we see how far Duchamp subverted scientism in favor of a radical individualistic aesthetic and experimental vision. Unlike the Dadaists, Duchamp did more than dismiss or negate the authority of science. He pushed scientific rationalism to the point where its claims broke down and alternative truths were allowed to emerge. With humor and irony, Duchamp undertook a method of artistic research, reflection, and visual thought that focused less on beauty than on the notion of the "possible. " He became a passionate advocate of the power of invention and thinking things that had never been thought before. The 3 Standard Stoppages is the ultimate realization of the play between chance and dimension, visibility and invisibility, high and low art, and art and anti-art. Situating Duchamp firmly within the literature and philosophy of his time, Herbert Molderings recaptures the spirit of a frequently misread artist--and his thrilling aesthetic of chance.
Duke Ellington's America
by Harvey G. CohenDuke Ellington represented a singular, pathbreaking force in music over a half-century. Harvey G. Cohen paints a vivid picture of Ellington's life and times, taking him from his youth in the black middle class to the heights of worldwide acclaim.
Dupes: How America's Adversaries Have Manipulated Progressives for a Century
by Paul KengorIn this startling, intensively researched book, bestselling historian Paul Kengor shines light on a deeply troubling aspect of American history: the prominent role of the "dupe." From the Bolshevik Revolution through the Cold War and right up to the present, many progressives have unwittingly aided some of America's most dangerous opponents. Based on never-before-published FBI files, Soviet archives, and other primary sources, Dupes exposes the legions of liberals who have furthered the objectives of America's adversaries. Kengor shows not only how such dupes contributed to history's most destructive ideology—Communism, which claimed at least 100 million lives—but also why they are so relevant to today's politics.
An Eagle Named Freedom: My True Story of a Remarkable Friendship
by Jeff Guidry“A hauntingly beautiful story of rescue and rehabilitation….[A] gorgeous tale of redemption.”—Susan Richards, New York Times bestselling author of Chosen by a Horse“I could not put this book down.”—Stacey O'Brien, New York Times bestselling author of Wesley the OwlFrom the moment Jeff Guidry saw the emaciated baby eagle with broken wings, his life was changed. For weeks he and the staff at Sarvey Wildlife Care Center tended to the grievously injured bird. Miraculously, she recovered, and Jeff, a center volunteer, became her devoted caretaker.Though Freedom would never fly, she had Jeff as her wings. And after Jeff was diagnosed with stage 3 non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in 2000, Freedom returned his gift. Between sessions of debilitating chemotherapy, Jeff went back to Sarvey and began taking Freedom for walks that soothed his spirit and gave him the strength to fight. A tender tale of hope, love, trust, and life, this moving true story is an affirmation of the spiritual connection that humans and animals share.
Early Royko: Up Against It in Chicago
by Mike Royko Rick KoganEarly Royko restores to print the earliest writings of the legendary columnist Jimmy Breslin called the best journalist of his time. Here, Royko chronicles 1960s Chicago with the moral vision, irony, and razor-sharp voice that would remain his trademark.
Early Warner Bros. Studios
by Marc Wanamaker E. J. StephensSince 1928, Warner Bros. has produced thousands of beloved films and television shows at the studio's magical 110-acre film factory in Burbank. This collection of evocative images concentrates on the Warner Bros. legacy from the 1920s to the 1950s, when timeless classics such as Casablanca, The Maltese Falcon, and East of Eden came to life. It also looks at WB's earlier homes along Hollywood's "Poverty Row," the birthplace of Looney Tunes, and the site of WB's pioneering marriage between film and sound in the 1920s. Early Warner Bros. Studios also tells the tale of four brothers--Harry, Albert, Sam, and Jack Warner--scions of a Polish Jewish immigrant family who rose from the humblest of origins to become Hollywood moguls of enormous and lasting influence.
East Eats West: Writing in Two Hemispheres
by Andrew LamFrom cuisine and martial arts to sex and self-esteem, East Eats West shines new light on the bridges and crossroads where two hemispheres meld into one worldwide “immigrant nation.” In this new nation, with its amalgamation of divergent ideas, tastes, and styles, today's bold fusion becomes tomorrow's classic. But while the space between East and West continues to shrink in this age of globalization, some cultural gaps remain. In this collection of twenty-one personal essays, Andrew Lam, the award-winning author of Perfume Dreams, continues to explore the Vietnamese diaspora, this time concentrating not only on how the East and West have changed but how they are changing each other. Lively and engaging, East Eats West searches for meaning in nebulous territory charted by very few. Part memoir, part meditation, and part cultural anthropology, East Eats West is about thriving in the West with one foot still in the East.
East Eats West: Writing in Two Hemispheres
by Andrew Lam“Includes some of Lam’s most memorable writings, about cuisine, self-esteem, sex and kung fu, all seen from a two-hemisphere perspective.” —SFGate East Eats West shines new light on the bridges and crossroads where two global regions meld into one worldwide “immigrant nation.” In this new nation, with its amalgamation of divergent ideas, tastes, and styles, today’s bold fusion becomes tomorrow’s classic. But while the space between East and West continues to shrink in this age of globalization, some cultural gaps remain. In this collection of twenty-one personal essays, Andrew Lam, the award-winning author of Perfume Dreams, continues to explore the Vietnamese diaspora, this time concentrating not only on how the East and West have changed but how they are changing each other. Lively and engaging, East Eats West searches for meaning in nebulous territory charted by very few. Part memoir, part meditation, and part cultural anthropology, East Eats West is about thriving in the West with one foot still in the East.“In these lovely, wise, probing essays, Andrew Lam not only illuminates the crucial twenty-first-century issues of immigration and cultural identity but the greater, enduring issues of what it means to be human . . . a compelling book.” —Robert Olen Butler, Pulitzer Prize–winning author “Andrew Lam is an expert time-traveler, collapsing childhood and adulthood; years of war and peace; and the evolution of language in his own life, time, and mind. To read Andrew’s work is a joy and a profound journey.” —Farai Chideya, author of The Episodic Career“One of the best American essayists of his generation.” —Wayne Karlin, author of A Wolf by the Ears
East West Mimesis: Auerbach in Turkey
by Kader KonukEast West Mimesis follows the plight of German-Jewish humanists who escaped Nazi persecution by seeking exile in a Muslim-dominated society. Kader Konuk asks why philologists like Erich Auerbach found humanism at home in Istanbul at the very moment it was banished from Europe. She challenges the notion of exile as synonymous with intellectual isolation and shows the reciprocal effects of German émigrés on Turkey's humanist reform movement. By making literary critical concepts productive for our understanding of Turkish cultural history, the book provides a new approach to the study of East-West relations. Central to the book is Erich Auerbach's Mimesis: The Representation of Reality in Western Literature, written in Istanbul after he fled Germany in 1936. Konuk draws on some of Auerbach's key concepts--figure as a way of conceptualizing history and mimesis as a means of representing reality--to show how Istanbul shaped Mimesis and to understand Turkey's humanist reform movement as a type of cultural mimesis.
Eastern Passage
by Farley MowatFollowing Farley Mowat's bestselling memoir, Otherwise, the literary lion returns with an unexpected triumphEastern Passage is a new and captivating piece of the puzzle of Farley Mowat's life: the years from his return from the north in the late 1940s to his discovery of Newfoundland and his love affair with the sea in the 1950s. This was a time in which he wrote his first books and weathered his first storms of controversy, a time when he was discovering himself through experiences that, as he writes, "go to the heart of who and what I was" during his formative years as a writer and activist.In the 1950s, with his career taking off but his first marriage troubled, Farley Mowat buys a piece of land northwest of Toronto and attempts to settle down. His accounts of building his home are by turns hilarious and affecting, while the insights into his early work and his relationship with his publishers offer a rare glimpse into the inner workings of a writer's career.But in the end, his restless soul could not be pinned to one place, and when his father offered him a chance to sail down the St. Lawrence, he jumped at it, not realizing that his journey would bring him face to face with one of Canada's more shocking secrets - one most of us still don't know today. This horrific incident, recalling as it did the lingering aftermath of war, and from which it took the area decades to recover, would forge the final tempering of Mowat as the activist we know today.Farley Mowat grows wiser and more courageous with each passing year, and Eastern Passage is a funny, astute, and moving book that reveals that there is more yet to this fascinating and beloved figure than we think we know.From the Hardcover edition.
Eating for Beginners: An Education in the Pleasures of Food from Chefs, Farmers, and One Picky Kid
by Melanie RehakWith grace, humor, and irresistible recipes, the author of Girl Sleuth takes us on her journey as an amateur chef, amateur farmer, and amateur parent Melanie Rehak was always a passionate cook and food lover. Since reading the likes of Michael Pollan, Eric Schlosser, and Wendell Berry, she'd tried to eat thoughtfully as well. But after the birth of her son, Jules, she wanted to know more: What mattered most, organic or local? Who were these local farmers? Was it possible to be an ethical consumer and still revel in the delights of food? And why wouldn't Jules eat anything, organic or not? Eating for Beginners details the year she spent discovering what how to be an eater and a parent in today's increasingly complicated world. She joined the kitchen staff at applewood, a small restaurant owned by a young couple committed to using locally grown food, and worked on some of the farms that supplied it. Between prepping the nightly menu, milking goats, and sorting beans, Rehak gained an understanding of her own about what to eat and why. (It didn't hurt that, along the way, even the most dedicated organic farmers admitted that their children sometimes ate McDonald's.) And as we follow her on her quest to find the pleasure in doing the right thing--and become a better cook in the bargain--we too will make our peace with food.