Books category: 11954 books

A Pulitzer Prize-winning critic's often surprising meditation on those places where life and books intersect and what might be learned from both Once out of school, most of us read for pleasure. Yet there is another equally important, though often overlooked, reason that we read: to learn how...

From a critically acclaimed cultural and literary critic, a definitive history and analysis of the memoir. From Saint Augustine?s Confessions to Augusten Burroughs?s Running with Scissors, from Julius Caesar to Ulysses Grant, from Mark Twain to David Sedaris, the art of memoir has had a fascinating...

Phyllis Rose embarks on a grand literary experiment—to read her way through a random shelf of library books, LEQ–LES Can you have an Extreme Adventure in a library? Phyllis Rose casts herself into the wilds of an Upper East Side lending library in an effort to do just that. Hoping to explore...

“The essays in Vigderman’s collection dwell not on despair, but on the project of translating chaotic experience into art or memory . . . Lyrical and graceful” (Publishers Weekly).   In this accessible collection of essays, Patricia Vigderman attempts to translate some of life’s disordered...

Laura's List presents the First Lady's published list of recommended books, and builds on her public commitment to books and learning. Parents need basic tools to give their children opportunities to grow, and here is an easy-to-understand guide to great reading for kids-from a highly visible source,...

A Los Angeles Times Book Review Best Book of 1996 'Without books how could I have become myself?' In this wonderfully written meditation, Lynne Sharon Schwartz offers deeply felt insight into why we read and how what we read shapes our lives. An enchanting celebration of the printed word.

How do you clothe a book? In this deeply personal reflection, Pulitzer Prize–winning author Jhumpa Lahiri explores the art of the book jacket from the perspectives of both reader and writer. Probing the complex relationships between text and image, author and designer, and art and commerce, Lahiri...

In The Search for the Codex Cardona, Arnold J. Bauer tells the story of his experiences on the trail of a cultural treasure, a Mexican “painted book” that first came into public view at Sotheby’s auction house in London in 1982, nearly four hundred years after it was presumably made by Mexican...

Writers’ relationships with their surroundings are seldom straightforward. While some, like Jane Austen and Thomas Mann, wrote novels set where they were staying (Lyme Regis and Venice respectively), Victor Hugo penned Les Misérables in an attic in Guernsey and Noël Coward wrote that most English...

This is the definitive bibliography of the writings of J. K. Rowling. In addition to bibliographical details of each edition of all her books, pamphlets and original contributions to published works, there is detailed information on the publishing history of her work, including fascinating extracts...

Mary Ann Hoberman and Michael Emberley have added Aesop's fables to their bestselling and award-winning series! Rediscover familiar tales and find new favorites in this irresistible fifth YOU READ TO ME collaboration. These stories of classic characters-from wise ants and kind mice to sly foxes and...

This series of visually rich instruction books for LEGO® creations is perfect for children ages 5 and up. Inside Build it! Farm Animals, you'll find a range of creative models to put together—from horses, goats, chickens, and cows to barnyard scenes and much more, created using the LEGO® Classic...

In Dirt for Art's Sake, Elisabeth Ladenson recounts the most visible of modern obscenity trials involving scandalous books and their authors. What, she asks, do these often-colorful legal histories have to tell us about the works themselves and about a changing cultural climate that first treated...

The Last Stupid Book You’ll Ever Need to Read Don’t want to slog through lengthy old books like A Tale of Two Cities or The Giving Tree? Sick of being judged by your avid-reader “friends” who talk about books you’ve never heard of? Want to sound smarter without the strain of actually...