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Assassination vacation
Sarah Vowell.
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258 p. ; 23 cm.
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The assault on reason
Al Gore.
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308 p. ; 25 cm.
The former vice president presents a visionary analysis of how the politics of fear, secrecy, cronyism, and blind faith of the Bush-led radical Right has combined with the degradation of the public sphere to create an environment dangerously hostile to reason.
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The ladies' paradise
Émile Zola ; translated with an introduction and notes by Brian Nelson.
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xxxi, 438 p. : ill. ; 20 cm.
The Ladies Paradise (Au Bonheur des Dames) recounts the rise of the modern department store in late nineteenth-century Paris. The store is a symbol of capitalism, of the modern city, and of the bourgeois family: it is emblematic of changes in consumer culture and the changes in sexualattitudes and class relations taking place at the end of the century. This new translation of the eleventh novel in the Rougon-Macquart cycle captures the spirit of one of Zola's greatest works.
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The audacity of hope : thoughts on reclaiming the American dream
Barack Obama.
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375 p. ; 25 cm.
"In July 2004, Barack Obama electrified the Democratic National Convention with an address that spoke to Americans across the political spectrum. One phrase in particular anchored itself in listeners' minds, a reminder that for all the discord and struggle to be found in our history as a nation, we have always been guided by a dogged optimism in the future, or what Senator Obama called "the audacity of hope."" "Now, in The Audacity of Hope, Senator Obama calls for a different brand of politics - a politics for those weary of bitter partisanship and alienated by the "endless clash of armies" we see in Congress and on the campaign trail; a politics rooted in the faith, inclusiveness, and nobility of spirit at the heart of "our improbable experiment in democracy." He explores those forces - from the fear of losing to the perpetual need to raise money to the power of the media - that can stifle even the best-intentioned politician. He also writes, with surprising intimacy and self-deprecating humor, about settling in as a senator, seeking to balance the demands of public service and family life, and his own deepening religious commitment." "At the heart of this book is Senator Obama's vision of how we can move beyond our divisions to tackle concrete problems. He examines the growing economic insecurity of American families, the racial and religious tensions within the body politic, and the transnational threats - from terrorism to pandemic - that gather beyond our shores. And he grapples with the role that faith plays in a democracy - where it is vital and where it must never intrude. Underlying his stories about family, friends, members of the Senate, even the president, is a vigorous search for connection: the foundation for a radically hopeful political consensus."--BOOK JACKET.
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Aura
Carlos Fuentes ; translated by Lysander Kemp.
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145 p. ; 21 cm.
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Author, author
David Lodge.
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389 p. ; 24 cm.
A new literary, historical novel from the popular author of Therapy and Thinks.
The protagonist is the American novelist Henry James, and the focus is on James's friendship with George Du Maurier, the famous "Punch artist and illustrator, and on his literary middle years - the 1880s. Henry is seriously worried by the declining popularity of his books and decides to try his hand as a playwright. At the same time, George Du Maurier diversifies into writing novels. The consequences for both men are surprising, ironic, comic and tragic by turns. As Du Maurier's Trilby, much to the bewilderment of its author himself, becomes the bestseller of the century, Henry anxiously awaits the first night of his make-or-break play, "Guy Domville.
Thronged with vividly drawn characters, Author, Author presents a fascinating panorama of literary and theatrical life in late Victorian England, which in many ways, foreshadowed today's cultural mix of art, commerce and publicity. But it is essentially a novel about authorship - about the obsessions, hopes, triumphs and disappointments of those who live by the pen.
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Autobiography of a face
Lucy Grealy.
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236 p. ; 21 cm.
At age nine, Lucy Grealy was diagnosed with a potentially terminal cancer. When she returned to school with a third of her jaw removed, she faced the cruel taunts of classmates. In this strikingly candid memoir, Grealy tells her story of great suffering and remarkable strength without sentimentality and with considerable wit. Vividly portraying the pain of peer rejection and the guilty pleasures of wanting to be special, Grealy captures with unique insight what it is like as a child and young adult to be torn between two warring impulses: to feel that more than anything else we want to be loved for who we are, while wishing desperately and secretly to be perfect. Selected as one of the Best Books of the Year by the Voice Literary Supplement and USA Today Book jacket.
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Broken April
Ismail Kadare ; translated from the Albanian.
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216 p. ; 22 cm.
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The awakening : with a selection of short stories
by Kate Chopin ; with an introduction by Marilynne Robinson.
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xxi, 210 p. ; 18 cm.
First published in 1899, this beautiful, brief novel so disturbed critics and the public that it was banished for decades afterward. Now widely read and admired, The Awakening has been hailed as an early vision of woman's emancipation. This sensuous book tells of a woman's abandonment of her family, her seduction, and her awakening to desires and passions that threaded to consumer her. Originally entitled "A Solitary Soul," this portrait of twenty-eight-year-old Edna Pontellier is a landmark in American fiction,rooted firmly in the romantic tradition of Herman Melville and Emily Dickinson. Here, a woman in search of self-discovery turns away from convention and society, and toward the primal, from convention and society, and toward the primal, irresistibly attracted to nature and the senses The Awakening, Kate Chopin's last novel, has been praised by Edmund Wilson as "beautifully written." And Willa Cather described its style as"exquisite," "sensitive," and"iridescent." This edition of The Awakening also includes a selection of short stories by Kate Chopin. "This seems to me a higher order of feminism than repeating the story of woman as victim... Kate Chopin gives her female protagonist the central role, normally reserved for Man, in a meditation on identity and culture,consciousness and art.
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Away : a novel
Amy Bloom.
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240 p. ; 25 cm.
"Away is the story of young Lillian Leyb, a dangerous innocent, an accidental heroine. When her family is destroyed in a Russian pogrom, Lillian comes to America alone, determined to make her way in a new land. When word comes that her daughter, Sophie, might still be alive, Lillian embarks on an odyssey that takes her from the world of the Yiddish theater on New York's Lower East Side, to Seattle's Jazz District, and up to Alaska, along the fabled Telegraph Trail toward Siberia."--BOOK JACKET.
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Back when we were grownups : a novel
by Anne Tyler.
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273 p. ; 24 cm.
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Balzac and the little Chinese seamstress
Dai Sijie ; translated from the French by Ina Rilke.
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197 p. ; 20 cm.
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