Howards End is on the Landing

Author: Susan Hill
Publisher: Profile Books
ISBN: 1847652638
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 240

Book Description
Early one autumn afternoon in pursuit of an elusive book on her shelves, Susan Hill encountered dozens of others that she had never read, or forgotten she owned, or wanted to read for a second time. The discovery inspired her to embark on a year-long voyage through her books, forsaking new purchases in order to get to know her own collection again. A book which is left on a shelf for a decade is a dead thing, but it is also a chrysalis, packed with the potential to burst into new life. Wandering through her house that day, Hill's eyes were opened to how much of that life was stored in her home, neglected for years. Howards End is on the Landing charts the journey of one of the nation's most accomplished authors as she revisits the conversations, libraries and bookshelves of the past that have informed a lifetime of reading and writing.

Jacob's Room is Full of Books

Author: Susan Hill
Publisher: Profile Books
ISBN: 1847659195
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 262

Book Description
When we spend so much of our time immersed in books, who's to say where reading ends and living begins? The two are impossibly and gloriously wedded, as Hill shows in Jacob's Room Is Full of Books. Considering everything from Edith Wharton's novels through to Alan Bennett's diaries, Virginia Woolf and the writings of twelfth century monk Aelred of Rievaulx, Susan Hill charts a year of her life through the books she has read, reread or returned to the shelf. From beneath a shady tree in a hot French summer, or the warmth of a kitchen during an English winter, Hill reflects on what her reading throws up, from writing and writers to politics and religion, as well as the joy of dandies or the pleasure of watching a line of geese cross a meadow. Full of wry observations and warm humour, as well as strong opinions freely aired, this is a rare and wonderful insight into the rich world of reading from one of the nation's most accomplished authors.

The Republic of Imagination

Author: Azar Nafisi
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 0099558939
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 354

Book Description
From the author of the bestselling memoir Reading Lolita in Tehran comes a powerful and passionate case for the vital role of fiction today. Ten years ago, Azar Nafisi electrified readers with her million-copy bestseller, Reading Lolita in Tehran, which told the story of how, against the backdrop of morality squads and executions, she taught The Great Gatsby and other classics to her eager students in Iran. In this exhilarating follow-up, Nafisi has written the book her fans have been waiting for: an impassioned, beguiling and utterly original tribute to the vital importance of fiction in a democratic society. Taking her cue from a challenge thrown to her at a reading, she energetically responds to those who say fiction has nothing to teach us today. Blending memoir and polemic with close readings of her favourite novels, she invites us to join her as citizens of her 'Republic of Imagination', a country where the villains are conformity, and orthodoxy and the only passport to entry is a free mind and a willingness to dream.

The Bird of Night

Author: Susan Hill
Publisher: Penguin Books
ISBN: 9780140040722
Category : Friendship
Languages : en
Pages : 175

Book Description
In de stilte van zijn levensavond denkt een oude man terug aan zijn vriendschap met een begaafde dichter, wiens wankele geestesgesteldheid de koers van hun beider leven jarenlang bepaalde.

Through the Kitchen Window

Author: Susan Hill
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Cooking
Languages : en
Pages : 72

Book Description

Outside of a Dog

Author: Rick Gekoski
Publisher: Constable
ISBN: 9781780331195
Category : Best books
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Book Description
BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY. "Outside of a Dog" is the captivating account of twenty-five books drawn from the fields of literature, psychology and philosophy, and a memoir of a reading self. Tracing the formative role books have played in his life, Rick Gekoski trains the same ironic and analytic eye on these books and their authors as he does on himself. The result is unique: a sustained, witty book dedicated to the proposition that we are what we read. "Outside of A Dog" might be described as an intellectual bibliomemoir, except that the author regards the noun 'intellectual' as a term of abuse.

The Year of Reading Dangerously

Author: Andy Miller
Publisher: Harper Collins
ISBN: 0062100629
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 331

Book Description
“[A] fanciful, endearing account of his experiences tackling classic works of fiction. . . . There is plenty of hilarity in [this] intimate literary memoir.” —Publishers Weekly Nearing his fortieth birthday, author and critic Andy Miller realized he’s not nearly as well read as he’d like to be. A devout book lover who somehow fell out of the habit of reading, he began to ponder the power of books to change an individual life—including his own—and to the define the sort of person he would like to be. Beginning with a copy of Bulgakov’s Master and Margarita, he embarks on a literary odyssey of mindful reading and wry introspection. From Middlemarch to Anna Karenina to A Confederacy of Dunces, these are books Miller felt he should read; books he’d always wanted to read; books he’d previously started but hadn’t finished; and books he’d lied about having read to impress people. Combining memoir and literary criticism, The Year of Reading Dangerously is Miller’s heartfelt, humorous examination of what it means to be a reader. Passionately believing that books deserve to be read, enjoyed, and debated in the real world, Miller documents his reading experiences and how they resonated in his daily life and ultimately his very sense of self. The result is a witty and insightful journey of discovery and soul-searching that celebrates the abiding miracle of the power of reading. “An affecting tale of the rediscovery of great books . . . [by] a friendly, funny Brit.” —Boston Globe “Funny and engaging.” —Kirkus Reviews “Amiable, circumstantial, amusing, charming. . . . [Miller’s] style owes something . . . to Joe Brainard and David Foster Wallace.” —The Times (London)

Reading With Patrick

Author: Michelle Kuo
Publisher: Pan Macmillan
ISBN: 1447286065
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 273

Book Description
As a young English teacher keen to make a difference in the world, Michelle Kuo took a job at a tough school in the Mississippi Delta, sharing books and poetry with a young African-American teenager named Patrick and his classmates. For the first time, these kids began to engage with ideas and dreams beyond their small town, and to gain an insight into themselves that they had never had before. Two years later, Michelle left to go to law school; but Patrick began to lose his way, ending up jailed for murder. And that’s when Michelle decided that her work was not done, and began to visit Patrick once a week, and soon every day, to read with him again. Reading with Patrick is an inspirational story of friendship, a coming-of-age story for both a young teacher and a student, an expansive, deeply resonant meditation on education, race and justice, and a love letter to literature and its power to transcend social barriers.

Excursion to Tindari

Author: Andrea Camilleri
Publisher: Pan Macmillan
ISBN: 0330526375
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 320

Book Description
The fifth in the hit Italian crime series by Andrea Camilleri, Excursion to Tindari is a darkly comic detective story featuring Inspector Montalbano. Maybe a phrase, a line, a hint somewhere would reveal a reason, any reason, for the elderly couple's disappearance . . . A young Don Juan is found murdered in front of his apartment building early one morning, and an elderly couple is reported missing after an excursion to the ancient site of Tindari – two seemingly unrelated cases for Inspector Montalbano to solve amid the daily complications of life at Vigàta police headquarters. But when Montalbano discovers that the couple and the murdered young man lived in the same building, his investigation stumbles onto Sicily's brutal 'New Mafia', which leads him down a path more evil and more far-reaching than any he has been down before. Excursion to Tindari is followed by the sixth novel in the Inspector Montalbano series, The Scent of the Night.

Anne Hereford

Author: Mrs Henry Wood
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 332

Book Description