Author: Shawn William MillerPublisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108426972
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 367
Book Description
A compelling history of the impact of automobiles on the streets of Rio de Janeiro.
The Year of the Runaways
Author: Sunjeev SahotaPublisher: Vintage
ISBN: 1101946113
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 508
Book Description
Short-listed for the 2015 Man Booker Prize The Guardian: The Best Novels of 2015 The Independent: Literary Fiction of the Year 2015 From one of Granta’s Best of Young British Novelists and Man Booker Prize nominee Sunjeev Sahota—a sweeping, urgent contemporary epic, set against a vast geographical and historical canvas, astonishing for its richness and texture and scope, and for the utter immersiveness of its reading experience. Three young men, and one unforgettable woman, come together in a journey from India to England, where they hope to begin something new—to support their families; to build their futures; to show their worth; to escape the past. They have almost no idea what awaits them. In a dilapidated shared house in Sheffield, Tarlochan, a former rickshaw driver, will say nothing about his life in Bihar. Avtar and Randeep are middle-class boys whose families are slowly sinking into financial ruin, bound together by Avtar’s secret. Randeep, in turn, has a visa wife across town, whose cupboards are full of her husband’s clothes in case the immigration agents surprise her with a visit. She is Narinder, and her story is the most surprising of them all. The Year of the Runaways unfolds over the course of one shattering year in which the destinies of these four characters become irreversibly entwined, a year in which they are forced to rely on one another in ways they never could have foreseen, and in which their hopes of breaking free of the past are decimated by the punishing realities of immigrant life. A novel of extraordinary ambition and authority, about what it means and what it costs to make a new life—about the capaciousness of the human spirit, and the resurrection of tenderness and humanity in the face of unspeakable suffering.
These Days Are Ours
Author: Michelle HaimoffPublisher: Penguin UK
ISBN: 0241966957
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 243
Book Description
A vivid, electric tale set in New York and personally recommended by bestselling author Nick Hornby (Fever Pitch, About a Boy): These Days Are Ours is an irresistible coming-of-age story for the Lena Dunham generation from debut author Michelle Haimoff. New York City, six months after 9/11: everything has changed and nothing has. Hailey graduated college months ago but she's still living in her family's Fifth Avenue penthouse, spending her nights falling in and out of bars across Upper East Side Manhattan - and the thrill is starting to wear off. It isn't easy being young, rich and beautiful. Overnight, it seems like everyone suddenly has their lives completely sorted. Katie has a great job at Morgan Stanley, Michael Brenner is training to be a human rights lawyer and trust-fund kid Randy is just content to carry on having fun. Hailey is lost somewhere in the middle, torn between chasing down the next wild party and admitting that it might be time to grow up. She craves something more meaningful - but what? Perhaps Brenner holds the answer: gorgeous, charismatic and aloof, Hailey is convinced he is the missing piece in her puzzle. But when she meets Adrian, a man so totally different from her usual privileged crowd, she begins to realise she's been looking for happiness in all the wrong places... These Days Are Ours captures the feverish excitement and exhilarating uncertainty of the city, where bright young things are forever brimming with possibility and buckling under the pressure. Michelle Haimoff is a writer and blogger whose writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, PsychologyToday.com and The Huffington Post. She is a founding memebr of NOW-New York State's Young Feminist Task Force and blogs about feminist issues at genfem.com. She was raised in New York City, curently lives in Los Angeles, and can be found online at MichelleHaimoff.com. These Days Are Ours is her first novel.
Right of Way
Author: Angie SchmittPublisher: Island Press
ISBN: 1642830836
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 247
Book Description
The face of the pedestrian safety crisis looks a lot like Ignacio Duarte-Rodriguez. The 77-year old grandfather was struck in a hit-and-run crash while trying to cross a high-speed, six-lane road without crosswalks near his son’s home in Phoenix, Arizona. He was one of the more than 6,000 people killed while walking in America in 2018. In the last ten years, there has been a 50 percent increase in pedestrian deaths. The tragedy of traffic violence has barely registered with the media and wider culture. Disproportionately the victims are like Duarte-Rodriguez—immigrants, the poor, and people of color. They have largely been blamed and forgotten. In Right of Way, journalist Angie Schmitt shows us that deaths like Duarte-Rodriguez’s are not unavoidable “accidents.” They don’t happen because of jaywalking or distracted walking. They are predictable, occurring in stark geographic patterns that tell a story about systemic inequality. These deaths are the forgotten faces of an increasingly urgent public-health crisis that we have the tools, but not the will, to solve. Schmitt examines the possible causes of the increase in pedestrian deaths as well as programs and movements that are beginning to respond to the epidemic. Her investigation unveils why pedestrians are dying—and she demands action. Right of Way is a call to reframe the problem, acknowledge the role of racism and classism in the public response to these deaths, and energize advocacy around road safety. Ultimately, Schmitt argues that we need improvements in infrastructure and changes to policy to save lives. Right of Way unveils a crisis that is rooted in both inequality and the undeterred reign of the automobile in our cities. It challenges us to imagine and demand safer and more equitable cities, where no one is expendable.
Paris Was Ours
Author: Penelope RowlandsPublisher: Algonquin Books
ISBN: 1616200367
Category : Travel
Languages : en
Pages : 298
Book Description
Thirty-two writers share their observations and revelations about the world's most seductive city. "Whether you have lived in Paris or not, this captivating collection will transport you there." —National Geographic Traveler Paris is “the world capital of memory and desire,” concludes one of the writers in this intimate and insightful collection of memoirs of the city. Living in Paris changed these writers forever. In thirty-two personal essays—more than half of which are here published for the first time—the writers describe how they were seduced by Paris and then began to see things differently. They came to write, to cook, to find love, to study, to raise children, to escape, or to live the way it’s done in French movies; they came from the United States, Canada, and England; from Iran, Iraq, and Cuba; and—a few—from other parts of France. And they stayed, not as tourists, but for a long time; some are still living there. They were outsiders who became insiders, who here share their observations and revelations. Some are well-known writers: Diane Johnson, David Sedaris, Judith Thurman, Joe Queenan, and Edmund White. Others may be lesser known but are no less passionate on the subject. Together, their reflections add up to an unusually perceptive and multifaceted portrait of a city that is entrancing, at times exasperating, but always fascinating. They remind us that Paris belongs to everyone it has touched, and to each in a different way.
The House on Mango Street
Author: Sandra CisnerosPublisher: Vintage
ISBN: 0345807197
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 130
Book Description
NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A coming-of-age classic about a young girl growing up in Chicago • Acclaimed by critics, beloved by readers of all ages, taught in schools and universities alike, and translated around the world—from the winner of the 2019 PEN/Nabokov Award for Achievement in International Literature. “Cisneros draws on her rich [Latino] heritage...and seduces with precise, spare prose, creat[ing] unforgettable characters we want to lift off the page. She is not only a gifted writer, but an absolutely essential one.” —The New York Times Book Review The House on Mango Street is one of the most cherished novels of the last fifty years. Readers from all walks of life have fallen for the voice of Esperanza Cordero, growing up in Chicago and inventing for herself who and what she will become. “In English my name means hope,” she says. “In Spanish it means too many letters. It means sadness, it means waiting." Told in a series of vignettes—sometimes heartbreaking, sometimes joyous—Cisneros’s masterpiece is a classic story of childhood and self-discovery and one of the greatest neighborhood novels of all time. Like Sinclair Lewis’s Main Street or Toni Morrison’s Sula, it makes a world through people and their voices, and it does so in language that is poetic and direct. This gorgeous coming-of-age novel is a celebration of the power of telling one’s story and of being proud of where you're from.
China Room
Author: Sunjeev SahotaPublisher: Random House
ISBN: 1473548365
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 256
Book Description
A thrilling and heartbreaking story of love, family, survival and betrayal - from the prize-winning author of The Year of the Runaways. * A Book of the Year for The Times, Guardian and Daily Telegraph * 'A gorgeous, gripping read' Kamila Shamsie 'A multi-generational masterpiece' Daily Mail Mehar, a young bride in rural Punjab, is trying to discover the identity of her new husband. It is 1929, and she and her sisters-in-law - married to three brothers in a single ceremony - spend their days hard at work on the family farm, sequestered from contact with the men. When Mehar develops a theory as to which of them is hers, a passion is ignited that will put more than one life at risk. Spiralling around Mehar's story is that of a young man who in 1999 flees from England to the deserted sun-scorched farm. Can a summer spent learning of love and of his family's past give him the strength for the journey home? Shortlisted for the 2022 Rathbones Folio Prize Longlisted for the 2021 Booker Prize Longlisted for the 2022 Walter Scott Prize 'Amazing storytelling...gripping and very moving' BBC Radio 4, Open Book 'I'm blown away by it' Tessa Hadley 'The stuff of miracles' Bryan Washington 'Moving...fresh and nourishing' The Times
Bears in the Streets
Author: Lisa DickeyPublisher: St. Martin's Press
ISBN: 1250092302
Category : Travel
Languages : en
Pages : 336
Book Description
**One of Bustle's 17 of the Best Nonfiction Books Coming in January 2017 and Men's Journal's 7 Best Books of January** "Brilliant, real and readable." —former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright **A USA Today "New and Noteworthy" Book** Lisa Dickey traveled across the whole of Russia three times—in 1995, 2005 and 2015—making friends in eleven different cities, then coming back again and again to see how their lives had changed. Like the acclaimed British documentary series Seven Up!, she traces the ups and downs of ordinary people’s lives, in the process painting a deeply nuanced portrait of modern Russia. From the caretakers of a lighthouse in Vladivostok, to the Jewish community of Birobidzhan, to a farmer in Buryatia, to a group of gay friends in Novosibirsk, to a wealthy family in Chelyabinsk, to a rap star in Moscow, Dickey profiles a wide cross-section of people in one of the most fascinating, dynamic and important countries on Earth. Along the way, she explores dramatic changes in everything from technology to social norms, drinks copious amounts of vodka, and learns firsthand how the Russians really feel about Vladimir Putin. Including powerful photographs of people and places over time, and filled with wacky travel stories, unexpected twists, and keen insights, Bears in the Streets offers an unprecedented on-the-ground view of Russia today.
When the Summer Was Ours
Author: Roxanne VeletzosPublisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1982180153
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 384
Book Description
This epic World War II tale of star-crossed lovers separated by class, circumstance, and tragedy—from the internationally bestselling author of the “gripping…filled with passion and hope” (Kate Quinn, New York Times bestselling author) The Girl They Left Behind—explores the impact of war on civilian life and the indestructible resilience of first love. Hungary, 1943: As war encroaches on the country’s borders, willful young Eva César arrives in the idyllic town of Sopron to spend her last summer as a single woman on her aristocratic family’s estate. Longing for freedom from her domineering father, she counts the days to her upcoming nuptials to a kind and dedicated Red Cross doctor whom she greatly admires. But Eva’s life changes when she meets Aleandro, a charming and passionate Romani fiddler with a love for painting. With time and profound class differences against them, Eva and Aleandro still fall deeply in love—only to be separated by a brutal act of hatred. As their lives diverge and they are each swept into the tides of war and its aftermath—they try to forget what they once shared. But as the years pass, the haunting memory of their romance will re-shape their destinies and drive them to decisions which are felt through generations. From the horrors of the Second World War to the tensions of the 1956 Hungarian uprising and beyond, When the Summer Was Ours is a sweeping story about the toll of secrets, the blurred lines between desire and loyalty, sacrifice and obsession, and the endurance of the human spirit.
Desperate Characters
Author: Paula FoxPublisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 9780393318944
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 180
Book Description
First published in 1970 to great acclaim, this novel stands as one of the most dazzling and rigorous examples of the storyteller's craft in postwar American literature--a novel that, according to Irving Howe, ranks with "Billy Budd" and "The Great Gatsby".
