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Culture : the story of us, from cave art to K-pop / by Puchner, Martin,1969-author.;
Includes bibliographical references (pages 309-336) and index."What good are the arts? Why should we care about the past? For millennia, humanity has sought to understand and transmit to future generations not just the "know-how" of life, but the "know-why"-The meaning and purpose of our existence, as expressed in art, architecture, religion, and philosophy. This crucial passing down of knowledge has required the radical integration of insights from the past and from other cultures. In Culture, acclaimed author, professor, and public intellectual Martin Puchner takes us on a breakneck tour through pivotal moments in world history, providing a global introduction to the arts and humanities in one engaging volume"--
Subjects: Art and society.; Civilization; Culture;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Cute needle felted animal friends : adorable cats, dogs and other pets / by Susa, Sachiko,author.; Ishida, Sanae,translator.; translation of:Susa, Sachiko.Tezukuri lesson felt youmou de tsukuru yappari kawaii uchi no pet.English.;
"Cute needle felted animal friends shows you how to create lifelike felted figures that remind you of the pets you love -- using a little wool roving, a felting needle, and a few basic tools and techniques. Even more than this, it shows you how to capture their adorable expressions when they're playing hard, napping, or just happy to see you. A sweetly cocked head, perky ears, and a tail that makes you think it's actually wagging -- the charm of these miniature figures is all in the details! Easy step-by-step instructions and photos show you how to make the basic shapes and components, then how to add details like long or curly hair, spines, and stripes, as well as little faces that are utterly irresistible. With a bit of practice, you'll be able to portray the unique poses and expressions of beloved pets from your own life"--
Subjects: Felt work.; Decoration and ornament; Handicraft.;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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The delightful life of a suicide pilot / by Cotterill, Colin,author.;
"Laos, 1981: When an unofficial mailman drops off a strange bilingual diary, Dr. Siri is intrigued. Half is in Lao, but the other half is in Japanese, which no one Siri knows can read; it appears to have been written during the Second World War. Most mysterious of all, it comes with a note stapled to it: Dr. Siri, we need your help most urgently. But who is "we," and why have they left no return address? To the chagrin of his wife and friends, who have to hear him read the diary out loud, Siri embarks on an investigation by examining the text. Though the journal was apparently written by a kamikaze pilot, it is surprisingly dull. Twenty pages in, no one has even died, and the pilot never mentions any combat at all. Despite these shortcomings, Siri begins to obsess over the diary's abrupt ending ... and the riddle of why it ended up in his hands. Did the kamikaze pilot ever manage to get off the ground? To find out, he and Madame Daeng will have to hitch a ride to Thailand and uncover some of the darkest secrets of the Second World War"--
Subjects: Historical fiction.; Novels.; Paiboun, Siri, Doctor (Fictitious character); Coroners; Diaries; World War, 1939-1945; World War, 1939-1945;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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The cat who saved books : a novel / by Natsukawa, Sōsuke,1978-author.; Kawai, Louise Heal,translator.; translation of:Natsukawa, Sōsuke,1978-Hon o mamorō to suru neko no hanashi.English.;
"Bookish high school student Rintaro Natsuki is about to close the secondhand bookstore he has inherited from his beloved bookworm grandfather. However, one day, a talking cat named Tiger appears and asks Rintaro to save books with him. Of course, "ask" is putting it politely -- Tiger is demanding Rintaro's help. The world is full of lonely books, left unread and unloved, and only Tiger and Rintaro can liberate them from their neglectful owners. And so, the odd couple begin an amazing journey, entering different mazes to set books free. Through their travels, Tiger and Rintaro meet a man who leaves his books to rot on his bookshelf, a book torturer who cuts books to clips to help people read as fast as they can, and a publishing drone who only wants to create bestsellers. And then, the last maze that awaits leads Rintaro down a realm only the bravest readers would dare enter ... Books, cats, first love, fantasy -- THE CAT WHO SAVED BOOKS is a story for those who know books are so much more than words on paper."--
Subjects: Animal fiction.; Magic realist fiction.; Antiquarian booksellers; Books and reading; Cats;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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The twilight world / by Herzog, Werner,1942-author.; Hofmann, Michael,1957 August 25-translator.; translation of:Herzog, Werner,1942-Dämmern der Welt.English.;
"Werner Herzog, one of the most revered filmmakers of all time, in his first book in many years, tells the story of Hiroo Onoda, a Japanese soldier who continued to defend a small island in the Philippines for twenty-nine years after the end of World War Two. In 1997, Werner Herzog was in Tokyo to direct an opera. His hosts there asked, whom would you like to meet? He replied instantly: Hiroo Onoda. Onoda was a former solider famous for having quixotically defended an island in the Philippines for decades after World War II, unaware the war was over. At their meeting, Herzog and Onoda spoke for hours, and together began to unravel Onoda's incredible story. At the end of 1944, on Lubang Island in the Philippines, with Japanese troops about to withdraw, Lieutenant Hiroo Onoda was given orders by his superior officer: Hold the island until the Imperial army's return. Defend the territory with guerilla tactics at all costs. There is only one rule: you are forbidden to die by your own hand. In the event of capture, give the enemy all the misleading information you can. Onoda dutifully retreated into the jungle, and so began his long campaign. Soon weeks turned into months, months into years, and years into decades. And all the while Onoda continued to follow his orders, surviving by any means necessary, at first with other soldiers, and then, finally, all alone in the jungle, like a phantom, becoming one with the natural world. Until eventually time itself seemed to melt away. In The Twilight World, Herzog immortalizes Onoda's years of absurd yet epic struggle, recounting his lonely mission in an inimitable, hypnotic style--part documentary, part poem, and part dream--that will be instantly recognizable to fans of his films. The result is something like a modern-day Robinson Crusoe: nothing less than a glowing, dancing meditation on the purpose and meaning we give our lives"--
Subjects: Biographical fiction.; Historical fiction.; War fiction.; Novels.; Onoda, Hiroo; Japan. Rikugun; Guerrilla warfare; Soldiers; World War, 1939-1945; World War, 1939-1945;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Properties of thirst : a novel / by Wiggins, Marianne,author.;
Rockwell "Rocky" Rhodes has spent years fiercely protecting his California ranch from the LA Water Corporation. It is here where he and his beloved wife, Lou, raised their twins, Sunny and Stryker, and it is here where Rocky has mourned Lou in the years since her death. As Sunny and Stryker reach the cusp of adulthood, the country teeters on the brink of war. Stryker decides to join the fight, deploying to Pearl Harbor not long before the bombs strike. Soon, Rocky and his family find themselves facing yet another incomprehensible tragedy. Rocky is determined to protect his remaining family and the land where they've loved and lost so much. But when the government decides to build a Japanese American internment camp next to the ranch, Rocky realizes that the land faces even bigger threats than the LA watermen he's battled for years. Complicating matters is the fact that the idealistic Department of the Interior man assigned to build the camp, who only begins to understand the horror of his task after it may be too late, becomes infatuated with Sunny and entangled with the Rhodes family. Properties of Thirst is a novel that is both universal and intimate. It is the story of a changing American landscape and an examination of one of the darkest periods in this country's past, told through the stories of the individual loves and losses that weave together to form the fabric of our shared history. Ultimately, it is an unflinching distillation of our nation's essence--and a celebration of the bonds of love and family that persist against all odds.
Subjects: Historical fiction.; Novels.; Families; Internment camps; Internment camps; Japanese Americans; Ranch life; Ranchers; Ranches; World War, 1939-1945;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Oceans of fate : peace and peril aboard the steamship Empress of Asia / by Black, Dan,1957-author.; Delgado, James P.,writer of foreword.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."The remarkable story of how one ship -- doomed by war -- intersected lives and crossed into history. Completed in 1913 for Canadian Pacific, the Empress of Asia plied the oceans for nearly thirty years. Built for peacetime travel, she saw wartime service as an armed merchant cruiser and troopship before Japanese dive bombers destroyed her off Singapore in 1942. Through the Roaring Twenties and Great Depression, she brought continents and people together, delivering mail and multi-million-dollar consignments of silk. As a luxurious passenger liner, she was a "Greyhound of the Pacific," encountering enormous storms and smashing transpacific speed records. From stokehold to bridge, steerage to first-class staterooms, she steamed with a kaleidoscope of lives, including courageous and recalcitrant crew, immigrants and refugees seeking a better life or relief from disaster, drug smugglers and weapons dealers, and the idle and not-so idle rich. This is the dramatic story of how one ship -- and the lives of her passengers and crew -- intersected during a tumultuous period of world history, culminating in her destruction off Singapore at the height of the Second World War"-- Provided by publisher.
Subjects: Empress of Asia (Steamship); Armed merchant ships; Merchant marine; Ocean liners; Passenger ships; World War, 1914-1918;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Road to surrender : three men and the countdown to the end of World War II / by Thomas, Evan,1951-author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."This suspenseful and propulsive account of the days leading up to the end of World War II, is told through the stories of three men: Henry Stimson, the Secretary of War, who had overall responsibility for decisions about the atomic bomb; Gen. Carl "Tooey" Spaatz, head of strategic bombing in Europe and the Pacific, who was in charge of actually dropping the bombs; and Shigenori Tōgō, the Japanese Foreign Minister, who was the only one in Emperor Hirohito's Court and Supreme War Council who knew and believed that Japan must surrender. 1945 was Stimson's last year of his career as a statesman in the administrations of five presidents. When Truman, a peripheral figure in the momentous decision, accepted Stimson's recommendation to drop the bomb, you are there as Army Air Force commander General Spaatz accepts the order, gets into one of the planes, and the planes take off. Like Stimson, Spaatz agonized over the command even as he recognized it would end the war, and that a prolonged war would cause even greater destruction. But Spaatz and Stimson were on only one side of the story. On the other side of the world was a commander whom they would never meet. From the start of the Pacific war, Foreign Minister Tōgō worked to mediate negotiations between the Japanese Prime Minister, the Emperor, and his Court, all of whom believed surrender was impossible. Finally, Tōgō convinced the Emperor that surrender was the best option for Hirohito, and for Japan"--
Subjects: Biographies.; Personal narratives.; Spaatz, Carl, 1891-1974.; Stimson, Henry L. (Henry Lewis), 1867-1950.; Tōgō, Shigenori, 1882-1950.; Atomic bomb.; Capitulations, Military; World War, 1939-1945; World War, 1939-1945;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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The woman in the purple skirt : a novel / by Imamura, Natsuko,1980-author.; North, Lucy,translator.; translation of:Imamura, Natsuko,1980-Murasaki no sukāto no onna.English.;
"A bestselling, prizewinning novel of obsession and psychological intrigue about two enigmatic unmarried women, one of whom manipulates the other from afar, by one of Japan's most acclaimed young writers ... Almost every afternoon, the Woman in the Purple Skirt sits on the same park bench, where she eats a cream bun while the local children make a game of trying to get her attention. Unbeknownst to her, she is being watched--by the Woman in the Yellow Cardigan, who is always perched just out of sight, monitoring which buses she takes, what she eats, whom she speaks to. From a distance, the Woman in the Purple Skirt looks like a schoolgirl, but there are age spots on her face, and her hair is dry and stiff. She is single, she lives in a small apartment, and she is short on money--just like the Woman in the Yellow Cardigan, who lures her to a job as a housekeeper at a hotel, where she too is a housekeeper. Soon, the Woman in the Purple Skirt is having an affair with the boss and all eyes are on her. But no one knows or cares about the Woman in the Yellow Cardigan. That's the difference between her and the Woman in the Purple Skirt."--
Subjects: Psychological fiction.; Imamura, Natsuko, 1980-; Women;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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The Reeds A Novel [electronic resource] : by Basu, Arjun.aut; cloudLibrary;
A single summer changes the trajectory of each member of this close-knit family, changing their lives — and the family — forever. “Sharp, wildly hilarious, touching, and profound … Maybe art can’t be perfect, but Arjun Basu comes as close as it gets.” — Chris Harding, author of Pickard County Atlas The Reeds are a very loving, slightly dysfunctional family — but a summer of individual changes is about to shake their tight family unit. Bobby, the father, loses his job while his wife Mimi’s lucrative business leaps ahead. Their adopted son, Abbie, leverages his internet stardom into the makings of a career, while their adopted daughter, Dee, discovers who she really is. They’ll have to navigate the shifting landscapes of money and fame in the age of the internet, office politics, gender dynamics, and sexuality in a world that has just seen political upheaval. Set in Montreal’s west end, The Reeds is an ultimately optimistic story about the middle class, hope and love, and nostalgia, while exploring the dehumanization of work and the power of art against a backdrop of shag carpeting, the relentlessness of change, gentrification, and Japanese fried chicken.General adult.
Subjects: Electronic books.; Lesbian; Literary; Family Life;
© 2024., ECW Press,
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