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The Sword of Shannara (The Sword of Shannara #1)
by Terry BrooksThe Sword of Shannara is the first volume of the classic series that has becomeone of the most popular fantasy tales of all time.Long ago, the wars of the ancient Evil ruined the world. In peaceful Shady Vale, half-elfin Shea Ohmsford knows little of such troubles. But the supposedly dead Warlock Lord is plotting to destroy everything in his wake.The sole weapon against this Power of Darkness is the Sword of Shannara, which can be used only by a trueheir of Shannara. On Shea, last of the bloodline,rests the hope of all the races.Thus begins the enthralling Shannara epic,a spellbinding tale of adventure, magic, and myth . . .BONUS: This edition contains an excerpt from Terry Brooks's The Measure of the Magic.
Timing of Biological Clocks
by Arthur T. Winfree"A clock," writes Arthur T. Winfree, "is not much good if you can't pull out its stem and set it."Similarly, the most critical property of biological clocks--which rhythmically organize the processes of life--is their ability to reset on cue.This ability allows enables biological clocks to regain synchrony with a changing environment (as when we travel across time zones) or to maintain the alignment between certain physiological rhythms and the natural solar day.In The Timing of Biological Clocks, Winfree explores circadian rhythms. In reporting experiments on animals, plants, and single cells, he not only illustrates the principles that guide the resetting of biological clocks but reveals that each of these clocks has a vulnerable phase, a moment in each "turn of the dial" when a cueing stimulus of a particular intensity results in an abnormal, unpredictable resetting--perhaps even annihilating the clock's rhythm entirely.A singular feature of the author's exploration of these phenomena is his use of a range of colors to represent the passage of cyclic time. By this device, Winfree not only removes the purely arbitrary discontinuity of a conventional clock dial but makes reasoning about the real discontinuities of biological clocks transparently clear.
And All Between (The Green Sky Trilogy #2)
by Zilpha Keatley SnyderIn this &“vividly drawn fantasy&” from the Newbery Honoree, the trees of Green-sky are peaceful, while Teera struggles to survive below the forest floor (Publishers Weekly). While the Kindar thrive in the leafy utopia of Green-sky, the Erdlings struggle to survive in their underground caves and tunnels. Hunger threatens, and Teera, an eight-year-old Erdling, is forced to run away before her pet, Haba, is killed for food. Once away, Teera finds her way to the beautiful forest floor, where the sights are breathtaking and the food is abundant. There, she meets the friendly Ol-zhaan Raamo and Neric. Teera and her new Ol-zhaan friends want to reveal the truth about life above and below the trees, but powerful forces are at work to ensure that the two worlds remain apart.This ebook features an extended biography of Zilpha Keatley Snyder.
The Concept and Measurement of Involuntary Unemployment (Routledge Library Editions: Work & Society)
by Worswick, G. D. N.Originally published in 1976, the 14 papers in this collection discuss the history and significance of the concept of 'involuntary unemployment’, particularly as seen from a Keynesian perspective. The micro-economic foundations of employment and job-search theory and the measurement and the significance of employment statistics are also examined. Later sections consider aspects of unemployment as economic indicators and the relationship between unemployment and vacancies, as well as the social aspects of unemployment. A final chapter considers employment policies during the 20th century in the light of managing the economy.
The Devil Finds Work: An Essay (Vintage International #1)
by James BaldwinFrom "the best essayist in this country&” (The New York Times Book Review) comes an incisive book-length essay about racism in American movies that challenges the underlying assumptions in many of the films that have shaped our consciousness. Baldwin&’s personal reflections on movies gathered here in a book-length essay are also an appraisal of American racial politics. Offering a look at racism in American movies and a vision of America&’s self-delusions and deceptions, Baldwin considers such films as In the Heat of the Night, Guess Who&’s Coming to Dinner, and The Exorcist.Here are our loves and hates, biases and cruelties, fears and ignorance reflected by the films that have entertained and shaped us. And here too is the stunning prose of a writer whose passion never diminished his struggle for equality, justice, and social change.
The End of the Poem: Oxford Lectures
by Paul MuldoonIn The End of the Poem, Paul Muldoon, "the most significant English-language poet born since the Second World War" (The Times Literary Supplement), presents engaging, rigorous, and insightful explorations of a diverse group of poems, from Yeats's "All Souls' Night" to Stevie Smith's "I Remember" to Fernando Pessoa's "Autopsychography." Here Muldoon reminds us that the word "poem" comes, via French, from the Latin and Greek: "a thing made or created." He asks: Can a poem ever be a freestanding, discrete structure, or must it always interface with the whole of its author's bibliography—and biography? Muldoon explores the boundlessness, the illimitability, created by influence, what Robert Frost meant when he insisted that "the way to read a poem in prose or verse is in the light of all the other poems ever written." And he writes of the boundaries or borders between writer and reader and the extent to which one determines the role of the other.At the end, Muldoon returns to the most fruitful, and fraught, aspect of the phrase "the end of the poem": the interpretation that centers on the "aim" or "function" of a poem, and the question of whether or not the end of the poem is the beginning of criticism. Irreverent, deeply learned, often funny, and always stimulating, The End of the Poem is a vigorous and accessible approach to looking at poetry anew.
Terra Nostra (Folio Ser. #Vol. 38141)
by Carlos FuentesTerra Nostra is one of the great masterpieces of modern Latin American fiction. Concerned with nothing less than the history of Spain and of South America, with the Indian Gods and with Christianity, with the birth, the passion, and the death of civilizations, Fuentes's great novel is, indeed, that rare creation--the total work of art.Magnificently translated by Margaret Sayers Peden, Terra Nostra is, as Milan Kundera says in his afterword, "the spreading out of the novel, the exploration of its possibilities, the voyage to the edge of what only a novelist can see and say."
To Spoil the Sun
by Joyce RockwoodA classic about the devastation of smallpox is back in hardcover after many years"'You cannot imagine what it [smallpox] is like. It falls on everyone and soon there is no one who can stand. It is like a fire that sweeps through the town, an invisible fire. People begin to fall with fever, and blisters rise on their skin and turn to running sores, and there is no way to give them comfort.'I reeled at the force of it, horror-struck, unable to imagine it."It is the sixteenth century and Rain Dove, a young Cherokee girl, lives in Mulberry Town. If things continue the way they always have, she can look forward to choosing a husband (her grandmother advises picking a young warrior) and raising a family. But after smallpox strikes, life for the people of the Seven Clans will never be the same.
The Word for World is Forest (S.F. MASTERWORKS #164)
by Ursula K. Le GuinWhen the inhabitants of a peaceful world are conquered by the bloodthirsty yumens, their existence is irrevocably altered. Forced into servitude, the Athsheans find themselves at the mercy of their brutal masters.Desperation causes the Athsheans, led by Selver, to retaliate against their captors, abandoning their strictures against violence. But in defending their lives, they have endangered the very foundations of their society. For every blow against the invaders is a blow to the humanity of the Athsheans. And once the killing starts, there is no turning back.
Ancient Cosmologies (Routledge Library Editions: The Ancient World)
by Michael Loewe Carmen BlackerIn Ancient Cosmologies (1975) nine eminent scholars seek to answer the question, what was the shape of the universe imagined by those ancient peoples to whom all modern knowledge of geography and astronomy was inaccessible? How did the ancient Egyptians, Babylonians, Jews, Indians, Chinese, Arabs, Greeks and Norsemen conceive the form of the cosmos which accommodated not only the known face of the earth and the visible heavenly bodies but also those other worlds which it was deemed necessary to locate comprehensibly in space – the realms of the dead, both blessed and damned, and the countries inhabited by gods and demons?
The Rhodesian Problem: A Documentary Record 1923–1973 (Routledge Revivals)
by Elaine WindrichFirst published in 1975, The Rhodesian Problem presents a documentary record of Rhodesia from the establishment of the Crown colony in 1923 to the illegal declaration of independence in 1965 and the post-independence efforts for a settlement of the conflict. The documents chart the gradual development of conflict between the ruling white minority and the black majority. They illustrate the methods adopted by the Smith government to maintain effective power in the face of United Nations and British government sanctions and increasing opposition from the indigenous black population. The main objectives of Rhodesian policy during the period under review were the achievement of independence from Britain; the expansion to the north to create a ‘greater Rhodesia’ dominion in central Africa, including the wealth of the Copperbelt; and the preservation of a society in which white minority rule was based upon a system of rigid racial segregation.There are over 60 documents, ranging from the Buxton committee report of 1921 through to an estimate of the contemporary situation by Peter Niesewand, the journalist who was imprisoned by the Smith regime in 1973. They cover many shades of opinion including UN resolutions, official Rhodesian government propaganda, and statements from the African opposition, and the collection provides overall a dramatic account of the Rhodesian problem. This book will be of interest to students and researchers of history and international politics.
Short Eyes: A Dramabook (Mermaid Dramabook)
by Miguel PiñeroWinner of the New York Drama Critics Circle AwardThis powerful drama of prison life is set in a house of detention where a group of young convicts-predominantly black and Puerto Rican-taunt, fight, insult, and entertain one another in an attempt to preserve their sanity and to create a semblance of community. When a young white prisoner accused of child molesting is thrown into the cell block by a guard who says he belongs in Sing Sing because "the men up there know what to do with degenerates like you," the stage is set for an explosive series of events; for, among prisoners, this child molester called "short eyes" is the lowest of criminals.
The Third Gilmore Girl: A Memoir
by Kelly Bishop&“Come for the Gilmore Girls anecdotes, stay for the revealing truths about what it takes to build a lifelong career in and out of Hollywood&” (The A.V. Club) in this candid and captivating memoir from award-winning and beloved actress Kelly Bishop, spanning her six decades in show business from A Chorus Line, Dirty Dancing, Gilmore Girls, and much more.Kelly Bishop&’s long, storied career has been defined by landmark achievements, from winning a Tony Award for her turn in the original Broadway cast of A Chorus Line to her memorable performance as Jennifer Grey&’s mother in Dirty Dancing. But it is probably her iconic role as matriarch Emily in the modern classic Gilmore Girls that cemented her legacy. Now, Bishop reflects on her remarkable life and looks towards the future with The Third Gilmore Girl. She shares some of her greatest stories and the life lessons she&’s learned on her journey. From her early transition from dance to drama, to marrying young to a compulsive gambler, to the losses and achievements she experienced—among them marching for women&’s rights and losing her second husband to cancer—Bishop offers a rich, genuine celebration of her life. Full of witty insights and featuring a special collection of personal and professional photographs, The Third Gilmore Girlis a warm, unapologetic, and spirited memoir from a woman who has left indelible impressions on her audiences for decades and has no plans on slowing down.
A Very Courageous Decision: The Inside Story of Yes Minister
by Graham McCannA behind-the-scenes history of one of the most successful and admired British sitcoms of the 1980s.In 1977 the BBC commissioned a new satirical sitcom set in Whitehall. Production of its first series was stalled, however, by the death throes of Jim Callaghan’s Labour government and the ‘Winter of Discontent’; Auntie being unwilling to broadcast such an overtly political comedy until after the general election of 1979.That Yes Minister should have been delayed by the very events that helped bring Margaret Thatcher to power is, perhaps, fitting. Over three series from 1980—and two more as Yes, Prime Minister until 1988—the show mercilessly lampooned the vanity, self-interest and incompetence of our so-called public servants, making its hapless minister Jim Hacker and his scheming Permanent Secretary Sir Humphrey two of the most memorable characters British comedy has ever produced. The new prime minister professed it her favourite television programme—a ‘textbook’ on the State in inaction—and millions of British viewers agreed. In the years since Yes Minister has become a national treasure: Sir Humphrey’s slippery circumlocutions have entered the lexicon, regularly quoted by political commentators, and the series’ cynical vision of government seems as credible now as it did thirty years ago.Much of this success can be credited to its writers, Antony Jay and Jonathan Lynn, who drew on their contacts in Westminster to rework genuine political folly as situation comedy. Storylines that seemed absurd to the public were often rooted in actual events—so much so that they occasionally attracted the scrutiny of Whitehall mandarins. In A Very Courageous Decision acclaimed entertainment historian Graham McCann goes in search of the real political fiascos that inspired Yes Minister. Drawing on fresh interviews with cast, crew, politicians and admirers, he reveals how a subversive satire captured the mood of its time to become one of the most cherished sitcoms of Thatcher’s Britain.
The Collected Poems of J.R.R. Tolkien Box Set: Three-Volume Box Set
by J. R. TolkienThe first-ever publication of the collected poems of J.R.R. Tolkien, spanning almost seven decades of the author’s life and presented in an elegant three-volume hardcover boxed set.J.R.R. Tolkien aspired to be a poet in the first instance, and poetry was part of his creative life no less than his prose, his languages, and his art. Although Tolkien’s readers are aware that he wrote poetry, if only from verses in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, its extent is not well known, and its qualities are underappreciated. Within his larger works of fiction, poems help to establish character and place as well as further the story; as individual works, they delight with words and rhyme. They express his love of nature and the seasons, of landscape and music, and of words. They convey his humor and his sense of wonder.The earliest work in this collection, written for his beloved, is dated to 1910, when Tolkien was eighteen. More poems would follow during his years at Oxford, some of them very elaborate and eccentric. Those he composed during the First World War, in which he served in France, tend to be concerned not with trenches and battle, but with life, loss, faith, and friendship, his longing for England and the wife he left behind. Beginning in 1914, elements of his legendarium, “The Silmarillion,” began to appear, and the “Matter of Middle-earth” would inspire much of Tolkien’s verse for the rest of his life.The Collected Poems of J.R.R. Tolkien presents almost 200 works across three volumes, including more than 60 that have never before been seen. The poems are deftly woven together with commentary and notes by world-renowned Tolkien scholars Christina Scull & Wayne G. Hammond, placing them in the context of Tolkien’s life and literary accomplishments and creating a poetical biography that is a unique and revealing celebration of J.R.R. Tolkien.
Kerouac: A Biography
by Ann ChartersNow that Kerouac's major novel, On the Road is accepted as an American classic, academic critics are slowly beginning to catch up with his experimental literary methods and examine the dozen books comprising what he called 'the legend of Duluoz.' Nearly all of his books have been in print internationally since his death in 1969, and his writing has been discovered and enjoyed by new readers throughout the world. Kerouac's view of the promise of America, the seductive and lovely vision of the beckoning open spaces of our continent, has never been expressed better by subsequent writers, perhaps because Kerouac was our last writer to believe in America's promise--and essential innocence--as the legacy he would explore in his autobiographical fiction.
The Killer Angels: The Classic Novel of the Civil War (Civil War Trilogy #2)
by Michael ShaaraPULITZER PRIZE WINNER • NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The &“remarkable&” (Ken Burns), &“utterly absorbing&” (Forbes) Civil War classic that inspired the film Gettysburg, with more than three million copies in print—now in a 50th anniversary edition featuring a new introduction by Jeff Shaara&“My favorite historical novel . . . a superb re-creation of the Battle of Gettysburg, but its real importance is its insight into what the war was about, and what it meant.&”—James M. McPherson In the four most bloody and courageous days of our nation&’s history, two armies fought for two conflicting dreams. One dreamed of freedom, the other of a way of life. Far more than rifles and bullets were carried into battle. There were memories. There were promises. There was love. And far more than men fell on those Pennsylvania fields. Bright futures, untested innocence, and pristine beauty were also the casualties of war. Michael Shaara&’s Pulitzer Prize–winning masterpiece is unique, sweeping, unforgettable—the dramatic story of the battleground for America&’s destiny.
The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York
by Robert A. CaroPULITZER PRIZE WINNER • A modern American classic, this huge and galvanizing biography of Robert Moses reveals not only the saga of one man&’s incredible accumulation of power but the story of his shaping (and mis-shaping) of twentieth-century New York. One of the Modern Library&’s hundred greatest books of the twentieth century, Robert Caro's monumental book makes public what few outsiders knew: that Robert Moses was the single most powerful man of his time in the City and in the State of New York. And in telling the Moses story, Caro both opens up to an unprecedented degree the way in which politics really happens—the way things really get done in America's City Halls and Statehouses—and brings to light a bonanza of vital information about such national figures as Alfred E. Smith and Franklin D. Roosevelt (and the genesis of their blood feud), about Fiorello La Guardia, John V. Lindsay and Nelson Rockefeller. But The Power Broker is first and foremost a brilliant multidimensional portrait of a man—an extraordinary man who, denied power within the normal framework of the democratic process, stepped outside that framework to grasp power sufficient to shape a great city and to hold sway over the very texture of millions of lives. We see how Moses began: the handsome, intellectual young heir to the world of Our Crowd, an idealist. How, rebuffed by the entrenched political establishment, he fought for the power to accomplish his ideals. How he first created a miraculous flowering of parks and parkways, playlands and beaches—and then ultimately brought down on the city the smog-choked aridity of our urban landscape, the endless miles of (never sufficient) highway, the hopeless sprawl of Long Island, the massive failures of public housing, and countless other barriers to humane living. How, inevitably, the accumulation of power became an end in itself. Moses built an empire and lived like an emperor. He was held in fear—his dossiers could disgorge the dark secret of anyone who opposed him. He was, he claimed, above politics, above deals; and through decade after decade, the newspapers and the public believed. Meanwhile, he was developing his public authorities into a fourth branch of government known as "Triborough"—a government whose records were closed to the public, whose policies and plans were decided not by voters or elected officials but solely by Moses—an immense economic force directing pressure on labor unions, on banks, on all the city's political and economic institutions, and on the press, and on the Church. He doled out millions of dollars' worth of legal fees, insurance commissions, lucrative contracts on the basis of who could best pay him back in the only coin he coveted: power. He dominated the politics and politicians of his time—without ever having been elected to any office. He was, in essence, above our democratic system. Robert Moses held power in the state for 44 years, through the governorships of Smith, Roosevelt, Lehman, Dewey, Harriman and Rockefeller, and in the city for 34 years, through the mayoralties of La Guardia, O'Dwyer, Impellitteri, Wagner and Lindsay, He personally conceived and carried through public works costing 27 billion dollars—he was undoubtedly America's greatest builder. This is how he built and dominated New York—before, finally, he was stripped of his reputation (by the press) and his power (by Nelson Rockefeller). But his work, and his will, had been done.
Ripley's Game
by Patricia HighsmithWith its sinister humor and genius plotting, Ripley's Game is an enduring portrait of a compulsive, sociopathic American antihero. Living on his posh French estate with his elegant heiress wife, Tom Ripley, on the cusp of middle age, is no longer the striving comer of The Talented Mr. Ripley. Having accrued considerable wealth through a long career of crime—forgery, extortion, serial murder—Ripley still finds his appetite unquenched and longs to get back in the game. In Ripley's Game, first published in 1974, Patricia Highsmith's classic chameleon relishes the opportunity to simultaneously repay an insult and help a friend commit a crime—and escape the doldrums of his idyllic retirement. This third novel in Highsmith's series is one of her most psychologically nuanced—particularly memorable for its dark, absurd humor—and was hailed by critics for its ability to manipulate the tropes of the genre. With the creation of Ripley, one of literature's most seductive sociopaths, Highsmith anticipated the likes of Norman Bates and Hannibal Lecter years before their appearance.
Captain Pantoja and the Special Service: A Novel
by Mario Vargas LlosaThis delightful farce opens as the prim and proper Captain Pantoja learns he is to be sent to Peru's Amazon frontier on a secret mission for the army—to provide females for the amorous recruits. Side-splitting complications arise as world of Captain Pantoja's remarkable achievements start to spread.
Howards End
by E M ForsterIn spring of 1905 in England, a brief romance between Helen Schlegel and Paul Wilcox ends badly, their two very different families are brought into collision. The liberal, intellectual Schlegels, who had hoped never to see the capitalist, pragmatic Wilcoxes again, learn that Paul's family are moving from their country estate - Howards End - to a flat just across the road.As the lives of the Schlegels and the Wilcoxes become increasingly entangled, Helen befriends Leonard Bast, a man of lower social status. His presence further inflames the families' political and cultural differences, which are brought to a head in a fatal confrontation at Howards End.Considered by some to be E. M. Forster's finest work Howards End blends humour and lyricism in this classic exploration of British class and character.
Red Power on the Rio Grande: The American Revolution of 1680
by Franklin FolsomDetails the causes and events of the Pueblo Indians' revolt against their Spanish rulers in 1680.
Wonder Women: Sex, Power, and the Quest for Perfection
by Debora L. SparFifty years after the Equal Pay Act, why are women still living in a man's world?Debora L. Spar never thought of herself as a feminist. Raised after the tumult of the 1960s, she presumed the gender war was over. As one of the youngest female professors to be tenured at Harvard Business School and a mother of three, she swore to young women that they could have it all. "We thought we could just glide into the new era of equality, with babies, board seats, and husbands in tow," she writes. "We were wrong." Now she is the president of Barnard College, arguably the most important all-women's college in the United States. And in Wonder Women: Sex, Power, and the Quest for Perfection—a fresh, wise, original book— she asks why, a half century after the publication of Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique, do women still feel stuck. In this groundbreaking and compulsively readable book, Spar explores how American women's lives have—and have not—changed over the past fifty years. Armed with reams of new research, she details how women struggled for power and instead got stuck in an endless quest for perfection. The challenges confronting women are more complex than ever, and they are challenges that come inherently and inevitably from being female. Spar is acutely aware that it's time to change course. Both deeply personal and statistically rich, Wonder Women is Spar's story and the story of our culture. It is cultural history at its best, and a road map for the future.
The Economic Theory of Fiscal Policy (Routledge Revivals)
by Alan Peacock G. K. ShawOriginally published in 1971, this book uses the famous Tinbergen/Theil approach to the theory of economic policy, demonstrating the place of fiscal policy in a realistic policy context. The volume marries analytical developments in macroeconomics to the influence on the economy of the system of public finance. Attention is given to the problem co-ordinating fiscal policy with other policy instruments, notably monetary policy. A final chapter discusses the problems encountered in applying fiscal policy models to real situations.
Labour Markets Under Different Employment Conditions (Routledge Library Editions: Work & Society)
by D. Boddy N. Jones D. I. Mackay J. Brack J. A. DiackOriginally published in 1971, this wide-ranging study illuminates many crucial wage and employment issues by examining the operation of local labour markets and by testing labour market theory against the observed behaviour of employers and employees in different labour market environments. It is based on an empirical investigation of engineering plants both in major conurbations and in smaller labour market areas. There is an emphasis on measurement and quantification, which provides a fund of information on such subjects as wage structures, labour turnover, recruitment and mobility, internal labour markets, manpower forecasting, apprentice training and redundancy. The authors outline the weaknesses of applying economic theory to labour market behaviour.