Malinda Markham's peoms are inspired in part by her fascination with Japanese language, art, and literature. Her reactions to and interpretations of that country's history, culture, and people are in these verses, echoing with the voices and silences of women across time. Markham imagines the experiences of many women: a geisha laments her past in "Geisha Considered as Making," as a mother laments for her daughter's future in "Yield to This." Markham is intrigued with how language tries but ultimately fails to hold memory in place. She grapples with the translation of words and feeling and shows how this failure also brings a searching for belief - a word that repeats throughout these poems - in a world that cannot allow it. Writes Cole Swenson, "Markham's language has the delicacy of the fine bones of the inner ear; it is, itself, a form of listening - to insects, birds, traffic, to the world. Her listening brings things into being, catching the nuances of change, from season to season, culture to culture, impression to language. This is a radiant collection."
The story of the compass is shrouded in mystery and myth, yet most will agree it begins around the time of the birth of Christ in ancient China. A mysterious lodestone whose powers affected metal was known to the Chinese emperor. When this piece of metal was suspended in water, it always pointed north. This unexplainable occurrence led to the stone's use in feng shui, the Chinese art of finding the right location. However, it was the Italians, more than a thousand years later, who discovered the ultimate destiny of the lodestone and unleashed its formidable powers. In Amalfi sometime in the twelfth century, the compass was born, crowning the Italians as the new rulers of the seas and heralding the onset of the modern world. Retracing the roots of the compass and sharing the fascinating story of navigation through the ages, The Riddle of the Compass is Aczel at his most entertaining and insightful.
The grassroots publishing sensation continues with WOVEN ON THE WIND, the second volume of women's writing from the heart of the American West compiled by the editors and ranchers Linda Hasselstrom, Nancy Curtis, and Gaydell Collier. They called on women in sixteen states and provinces to write about their friendships with other women in the West, a subject that they discovered has all too often been overlooked or underplayed. The result is WOVEN ON THE WIND, a unique and exhilarating collection, "a beautiful, intricate mosaic of women as mothers as well as friends" (Fencepost). In a region where time and space are large and solitude is a fact of life, these women tell of the beauties, ironies, rigors, heartbreak, and humor of life and how it is uniquely enriched by friendships past and present. The voices in this volume -- unsentimental, unflinching, and utterly unforgettable -- take readers into the fields, kitchens, barns, and souls of nearly 150 women and reveal a vital part of the real western American story. "Here is the essence of the West -- not the myth, but the truth."
From the best-selling author of THE ULTIMATE WORKOUT LOG and coauthor of FITNESS FOR DUMMIES, FITNESS FOR TRAVELERS is an informative and entertaining guide for travelers who want to stay fit on the road. It's tough enough to exercise regularly when you're at home. But when you're disoriented from jet lag, stressed out by business meetings, and daunted by unfamiliar or prehistoric exercise equipment, staying fit becomes an even bigger challenge. Suzanne Schlosberg, in conjunction with the American Council on Exercise -- the country's top workout watchdog -- tells readers how to stay fit, eat right, and feel great while traveling for business or pleasure. Schlosberg combines extensive resources with motivational advice from some of the world's busiest travelers to arm people of all fitness levels with the confidence, skills, and know-how to create their own travel fitness program. In this book, you will find* More than 25 workouts for any location or situation* Strategies for fitting fitness into your busy itinerary* Resources for finding gyms, running routes, and pools around the world* Guidance for creating your own travel workouts* Advice for eating more healthfully on the fly* Essential gadgets for the fit traveler's suitcase
This newly assembled volume draws from two books that were originally published in Galway Kinnell's first two decades of writing, WHAT A KINGDOM IT WAS (1960), which included the poem "The Avenue Bearing the Initial of Christ into the New World," and FLOWER HERDING ON MOUNT MONADNOCK (1964). Kinnell has revised some of the work in this new edition, and comments on his working method in a prefatory note.
This volume brings together BODY RAGS and MORTAL ACTS, MORTAL WORDS and THE PAST, three books that are central to the life’s work of one of the masters of contemporary poetry. Included here are many of Galway Kinnell’s best-loved and most anthologized poems. Kinnell has revised some of the poems for this new edition, and comments on his working method in a prefatory note.
A new collection of poetry by the director of the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference, which celebrates its seventy-fifth anniversary in 2000. "Dark splendor" are the words Edward Hirsch uses to describe the poems of the award-winning author Michael Collier. Collier's new work balances on the ledge between the everyday and the unknown, revealing the hidden depths of relationships. The poems in THE LEDGE are narrative and colloquial, musical and crystalline, at once intimate and sharp-edged. They render the world beautifully mysterious as they slide into unexpected emotional territory. A son loses his father's favorite hammer, and with it his trust. In "The Wave," the enthusiastic crowd at a baseball game rises and sits in frightening unison, belying their hopeful cheering. In "Fathom and League," a dive two miles deep in the Pacific reveals the submerged volcanoes of the ocean and the soul. In many of the poems, the familiar animal world - of dogs and sparrows and possums in the yard - transfigures the view through a window. As director of the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference, Collier has reinvigorated one of America's most important literary institutions. The artistry and directness of THE LEDGE confirm his place among the most significant poets of his generation.
With the excitement of her mother getting married and having a baby, Angel is ready for a nice long summer at home in Elm City, Wisconsin. But another change is brewing for poor Angel. Her stepfather is taking the family to Greece to meet their new grandparents. Angel will have to get on a plane and fly over the ocean to a foreign land - will she have to use one of those airsick bags on the plane? Will there be anything to eat in Greece besides those little fish with their heads on? How will she understand her grandparents? And, most important, will Angel ever make it back home or will her stepfather want the family to stay in Greece forever? Back by popular demand, here is another fast-paced, hilarious adventure for that much-loved character, Angel. Change isn't always easy, but even worrywart Angel just may spread her wings a little as she learns that home is where the heart is.
Morgy MacDougal-MacDuff hates being the new kid in a new school in a new town in a new state. Each day brings more things to get used to, from weird Boston accents to surviving the blizzard of the century to facing Ferguson, bully extraordinaire. Gradually, though, Morgy begins to figure out life in Puckett Corner, Massachusetts, and learns that he just might fit in after all.
In a guide to college life that is a little more realistic than Felicity and a little more fun than Stanley Kaplan, Jennifer Hanson charts a course through the dips and bends of freshman year. Written with the collective “wisdom” of twelve college students from across the country, THE REAL FRESHMAN HANDBOOK is the only one of its kind — a “handy and humorous book that will fit in any first-year’s backpack” (Harvard University Gazette) and that offers an inside look at the real deal on college life from those who have been there — and survived. Hanson gives readers a crash course in avoiding freshman year follies, from filling out roommate questionnaires and evaluating putative hangover remedies to writing papers and studying for exams. College-bound students will relish the down-to-earth advice, and parents can rest assured that they won’t have to fund a new wardrobe because Junior didn’t separate the colors from the whites. The advice throughout is insightful, smart, practical, entertaining, proving that “Hanson has really done her homework” (U Magazine).
What do the words saguaro, parka, hickory, and muskrat have in common? They all come from Native American languages. Few people consider how deeply American English is indebted to Native Americans and how widely the contributions of Native Americans are used in English today. In Tracks That Speak, Charles L. Cutler offers seventy fascinating studies, each focusing on a particular word borrowed from a Native American language. He tells us about the words themselves and about the things they stood—and stand—for, illuminating not only the roles these things played in traditional Indian societies but also the ones they continue to play in America today. For example, Cutler explains where the word moccasin comes from, how moccasins were made and decorated, what advantages they had for their wearers, how and when they were adopted by European settlers, and what incarnations of them can be found in modern clothing catalogs. Such a wealth of historical, ethnographic, and linguistic material on Native American loanwords in English has never before been gathered and presented so clearly, making Tracks That Speak as engaging as it is informative.
Grace Schulman's fourth collection of poetry, THE PAINTINGS OF OUR LIVES, celebrates earthly things while discovering inner lives. Here are poems of love and marriage -- including a psalm for the poet's anniversary and a portrayal of her parents dancing during the Depression -- and poems identifying with the hungers, sorrows, and joys of Chaim Soutine, Margaret Fuller, Paul Celan, and Henry James. In the final sonnet sequence, Schulman confronts her mother's death, calling on the art of many cultures to illuminate the universality of grief.
In 1948 Cleveland was America's sixth largest city; by 1969 it was the twelfth. For Easterners, Cleveland is where the Midwest begins; for Westerners, it is where the East begins. In the summer of 1948, fourteen-year-old David Zielinsky can look forward to a job at the docks. Anne O'Connor, at twelve, is the apple of her political boss father's eye. David and Anne will meet-and fall in love-four years later, and for the next twenty years this pair will be reluctant star-crossed lovers in a troubled and turbulent country. A natural-born storyteller, Mark Winegardner spins an epic tale of those twenty years, artfully weaving such real-life Clevelanders as Eliot Ness, Alan Freed, and Carl Stokes into the tapestry. His narrative gifts may bring the fiction of E. L. Doctorow to some readers' minds, but Winegardner is very much his own man, and his observations of Cleveland are laced with a loving skepticism. His masterful saga of this conflicted city is a novel that speaks a memorable truth.
New York Times veteran Lena Williams candidly explores the everyday occurrences that strain racial relations, reaching a conclusion that "no one could disagree with" (The New York Times Book Review)Although we no longer live in a legally segregated society, the division between blacks and whites never seems to go away. We work together, go to school together, and live near each other, but beneath it all there is a level of misunderstanding that breeds mistrust and a level of miscommunication that generates anger. Now in paperback, this is Lena Williams's honest look at the interactions between blacks and whites-the gestures, expressions, tones, and body language that keep us divided. Frank, funny, and smart, It's the Little Things steps back from academia and takes a candid approach to race relations. Based on her own experiences as well as what she has learned from focus groups across the United States, Lena Williams does for race what Deborah Tannen did for gender. Finally, we have a book that traverses the color lines to help us understand, and eliminate, the alarmingly common interactions that get under the skin of both blacks and whites.
An adventure into the heart of Nothing by best-selling author K. C. Cole. Once again, acclaimed science writer K. C. Cole brings the arcane and academic down to the level of armchair scientists in The Hole in the Universe, an entertaining and edifying search for nothing at all. Open the newspaper on any given day and you will read of a newly discovered planet, star, and so on. Yet scientists and mathematicians have spent generations searching the far reaches of the universe for that one elusive state-nothingness. Although this may sound like a simple task, every time the absolute void appears within reach, something new is discovered in its place: a black hole, an undulating string, an additional dimension of space or time-even another universe. A fascinating and literary tour de force, The Hole in the Universe is a virtual romp into the unknown that you never knew wasn't there.
From Lexington to Yorktown, Bruce Lancaster's classic, THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION, covers the story of America's fight for independence in vivid detail. Here Lancaster examines both the historical facts of the Revolution and the sacrifice and bravery of the American people during the eighteenth century and brings the dilemmas faced by these early Americans into sharp focus. Newly introduced by the critically acclaimed author Richard M. Ketchum, THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION is a highly readable and engaging volume, and "as a book for the general reader it could scarcely be bettered" (Christian Science Monitor).
The guru of the Guerrilla Marketing series, which has sold more than one million copies, shows small business owners how to cut through the clutter of new information with simple, powerful ideas that customers will find irresistible.Today, with more than four thousand marketing messages assailing consumers daily, it is more important than ever to create an original, appealing, and memorable message. Marketer extraordinaire Jay Conrad Levinson shows readers how to craft such messages using memes -- simple symbols that represent complex ideas. Memes can be words, such as Lean Cuisine or "Remember the Alamo," or they can be images, such as the Red Cross or Betty Crocker. They can even be actions, like drenching a victorious coach with a barrelful of Gatorade. The best memes can propel a product or service to the pinnacle of success. As no other book has done before, GUERILLA CREATIVITY shows how even someone who doesn't consider himself creative can make memes that work. Using a variety of examples of memes both good and bad, Levinson guides readers step by step through the process of fashioning marketing materials that result in increased sales, savings, market share, and profits. Along the way he reveals the fifty reasons people buy things, the ten biggest marketing myths, ways to make your message instill hope, surprise, and urgency, and many more wise, surprising notions that readers can readily translate into profits.
Andy and Tamika can't wait for a weekend of fun in the big city, but Tamika's aunt Mandy has planned trips to boring museums and fancy restaurants. Even worse, someone is dropping hamsters off the top of Aunt Mandy's building, causing trouble everywhere . . . and getting Andy blamed. It's a big-city mystery that only Andy Russell can solve!
The best-selling guide to horsemanship — for English and Western riders THERE ARE NO PROBLEM HORSES, ONLY PROBLEM RIDERS has stood for twenty years as an indispensable text in its field. As Mary Twelveponies writes in her introduction, "It is the hardest pill for all of us would-be horsemen to swallow, but it is absolutely true — if the horse is not responding properly, we are doing something wrong." This easy-to-read guide offers sensible advice on every common problem you may have in handling your horse, and provides highly effective solutions. Newly introduced by John Lyons, America’s Most Trusted Horseman, this reissue covers everything from dressage to barrel racing, show jumping to endurance riding.
One of America's best loved and most distinguished poets has chosen from the vast treasure trove of his published work these verses, which he thinks are particularly suited to children, and to them he has added sixteen new poems. The reader may roam far and wide in this collection, among such groups of poems as "Corn Belt", "Blossom Themes", and "Wind, Sea, and Sky", yet never exhaust the riches of the mind and heart and imagination that Mr. Sandburg offers.Here is America, here is humor, here are the deep rolling cadences, the contagious delight in words and sounds, the imaginative fire that make Carl Sandburg's poetry outstanding. It is a collection to enchant both young and old.
A representative selection from the work of one of America's most distinguished writers.
In Feels Like Far, award-winning author Linda Hasselstrom paints an intimate portrait of family, love, work, nature, and survival against the backdrop of the far-flung South Dakota prairie. Sixteen linked stories tell of the joy of training a first horse, the heartbreak of finding a fatally injured cow, the beauty of cavorting nighthawks, the stubbornness of her father, a rigid old rancher who bucks at old age, the deep, almost spiritual bond she shares with a friend who is diagnosed with AIDS.“In deliciously direct and unsentimental style” (Kathleen Norris), Hasselstrom maps the landscape of her life, demarcating the same beauties and brutalities that intermingle on the Great Plains she calls home.
“Wedding bells are ringing for Angel’s mom—and Angel takes charge when she feels that her mother isn’t preparing properly. A funny story about a contemporary dilemma, in which ordinary events are wed to extraordinary twists.” —School Library Journal, starred review
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