Paul Dry Books: 62 books

"[The Magic Lantern of Marcel Proust] reduces the ungainly and intricately designed masterpiece to its shape, and with hardly a wasted word...The paragraphs on habit and memory are truly wonderful—wonderful as explication, as psychology, and as philosophy."—John Updike "Almost...

"[A] thoughtful and lucid tale of love, companionship, and heartbreaking illness." —Lydia Davis In 2004 Rachel Hadas's husband, George Edwards, a composer and professor of music at Columbia University, was diagnosed with early-onset dementia at the age of sixty-one. Strange...

"A snapshot of the civil-rights movement in one city provides insight into the important role of individual communities as change moved through the country…a case study of how citizens of one city both precipitated and responded to the whirlwind of social change around them."—Kirkus...

"Mason reveals a glorious passion for literature, as well as an almost Whitmanesque openness to the ideas and emotions that inspire creative acts at all levels."―Library Journal (starred review) "An illuminating literary cartography with many fascinating ports of call.”―Kirkus...

Join William Zinsser as he visits sixteen of our nation's most treasured historic sites — unlearning cliched assumptions and rediscovering fundamental truths about America. American Places — and the ideals that Zinsser discovers these places represent — will never go out of fashion....

"In 1611, Kepler wrote an essay wondering why snowflakes always had perfect, sixfold symmetry. It's a simple enough question, but one that no one had ever asked before and one that couldn't actually be answered for another three centuries. Still, in trying to work out an answer, Kepler raised...

INTRODUCTION BY MARGO JEFFERSON Finalist for the National Book Award and the PEN/Faulkner Award "It is a tale more moving and haunting than one thinks it can possibly be."—The Village Voice The year is 1811. Having suffered a loss of faith, Thomas Keene, Congregational...

"A well-written, well-researched, and engaging introduction to contemporary Syria."—Library Journal (starred review) "American travel writing at its most generous and intrepid."—Adam Kirsch "A nuanced appreciation of the sights, sounds, and historical...

"If you like Hank, you'll like Wilder Good, too."—John R. Erickson, author of Hank the Cowdog "I am a big fan of this series. Last fall I included The Elk Hunt in my list of favorite books of 2013, and Texas Grit is every bit as insightful and positive as the first one."—Glenn Dromgoole "Dahlstrom...

"Rich and intriguing."—Kirkus Reviews on The Last of All Possible Worlds "Convincing and haunting."—Publishers Weekly on The Temptation to Do Good Best-selling author Peter F. Drucker wrote just two novels. Here for the first time in paperback are both. In The Last of All...

James Rahn has led the Rittenhouse Writers' Group since he founded it in 1988, making it one of America's longest-running independent fiction workshops. Hundreds of writers and would-be writers have sought out the group for its remarkable level of instruction and collaboration. Rittenhouse Writers is...

These wide-ranging conversations have an exceptionally open and intimate tone, giving us a personal glimpse of one of the most fascinating figures in contemporary world literature. Interviewer Fernando Sorrentino, an Argentinian writer and anthologist, is endowed with literary acumen, sensitivity,...

"This amazing story is marvelously well told, in an exuberant, racing style that makes it impossible to lay the book aside once the first page is read." —San Francisco Chronicle Ill Met By Moonlight is the gripping account of the audacious World War II abduction of a German...

Francis Bacon's The Advancement of Learning (1605) is considered the first major philosophical book written in English. In it, Bacon is concerned with scientific learning: the current state of knowledge, obstacles to its progress, and his own plans for revitalization of schools and universities....