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The bookseller of Florence : the story of the manuscripts that illuminated the Renaissance / by King, Ross,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."The Renaissance in Florence conjures images of beautiful frescoes and elegant buildings-the dazzling handiwork of the city's skilled artists and architects. But equally important for the centuries to follow were geniuses of a different sort: Florence's manuscript hunters, scribes, scholars, and booksellers, who blew the dust off a thousand years of history and, through the discovery and diffusion of ancient knowledge, imagined a new and enlightened world. At the heart of this activity, which bestselling author Ross King relates in his exhilarating new book, was a remarkable man: Vespasiano da Bisticci. Born in 1422, he became what a friend called "the king of the world's booksellers." At a time when all books were made by hand, over four decades Vespasiano produced and sold many hundreds of volumes from his bookshop, which also became a gathering spot for debate and discussion. Besides repositories of ancient wisdom by the likes of Plato, Aristotle, and Quintilian, his books were works of art in their own right, copied by talented scribes and illuminated by the finest miniaturists. His clients included a roll-call of popes, kings, and princes across Europe who wished to burnish their reputations by founding magnificent libraries. Vespasiano reached the summit of his powers as Europe's most prolific merchant of knowledge when a new invention appeared: the printed book. By 1480, the king of the world's booksellers was swept away by this epic technological disruption, whereby cheaply produced books reached readers who never could have afforded one of Vespasiano's elegant manuscripts. A chronicle of intellectual ferment set against the dramatic political and religious turmoil of the era, Ross King's The Bookseller of Florence is also an ode to books and bookmaking that charts the world-changing shift from script to print through the life of an extraordinary man long lost to history-one of the true titans of the Renaissance"--
Subjects: Biographies.; Vespasiano, da Bisticci, 1421-1498.; Booksellers and bookselling; Booksellers and bookselling; Publishers and publishing;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Why read : selected writings 2001-2021 / by Self, Will,author.;
"From the Booker-shortlisted author of Umbrella, a world-girdling collection of writings inspired by a life lived in and for literature. From one of the most unusual and distinctive writers working today, dubbed "the most daring and delightful novelist of his generation" by The Guardian, Will Self's Why Read is a cornucopia of thoughtful and brilliantly witty essays on writing and literature. Self takes us with him: from the foibles of his typewriter repairman to the irradiated exclusion zone of Chernobyl, to the Australian outback, and to literary forms past and future. With his characteristic intellectual brio, Self aims his inimitable eye at titans of literature like Woolf, Kafka, Orwell, and Conrad. He writes movingly on W. G. Sebald's childhood in Germany and provocatively describes the elevation of William S. Burroughs's Junky from shocking pulp novel to beloved cult classic. Self also expands on his regular column in Literary Hub to ask readers how, what, and ultimately why we should read in an ever-changing world. Whether he is writing on the rise of the bookshelf as an item of furniture in the nineteenth century or on the impossibility of Googling his own name in a world lived online, Self's trademark intoxicating prose and mordant, energetic humor infuse every piece. A book that examines how the human stream of consciousness flows into and out of literature, Why Read will satisfy both old and new readers of this icon of contemporary literature"--
Subjects: Essays.;
Available copies: 0 / Total copies: 1
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The new pope [videorecording] / by Collins, Clifton,Jr.,actor.; France, Cécile de,1975-actor.; Ghini, Massimo,1954-actor.; Goodman, Henry,1950-actor.; Ivanir, Mark,actor.; Law, Jude,1972-actor.; Malkovich, John,actor.; Sagnier, Ludivine,1979-actor.; Thomsen, Ulrich,actor.; HBO Home Entertainment (Firm),production company.; Warner Bros. Home Entertainment (Firm),publisher.;
Jude Law, John Malkovich, Clifton Collins Jr., Cécile De France, Ludivine Sagnier, Henry Goodman, Ulrich Thomsen, Mark Ivanir, Massimo Ghini.The unconventional follow-up to 2017's The Young Pope begins with Lenny Belardo, aka Pope Pius XIII, in a coma after a heart attack as the Holy See searches for his replacement. British intellectual Sir John Brannox is elected to the papal throne, assuming the name John Paul III. He soon finds that his predecessor's shadow looms large: The fiercely devoted cult of Pius XIII believes their pope will return, and their conviction proves hard to shake.14A.Subtitled for the deaf and hard-of-hearing (SDH).DVD ; wide screen presentation ; Dolby Digital 5.1.
Subjects: Video recordings for the hearing impaired.; Fiction television programs.; Television programs.; Television mini-series.; Popes; Popes; Catholic Church;
For private home use only.
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Dinosaurs : a novel / by Millet, Lydia,1968-author.;
"A stunning new novel from the author of A Children's Bible, a National Book Award finalist and one of the New York Times 10 Best Books of 2020. Over twelve novels and two collections Lydia Millet has emerged as a major American novelist. Hailed as "a writer without limits" (Karen Russell) and "a stone-cold genius" (Jenny Offill), Millet makes fiction that vividly evokes the ties between people and other animals and the crisis of extinction. Her exquisite new novel is the story of a man named Gil who walks from New York to Arizona to recover from a failed love. After he arrives, new neighbors move into the glass-walled house next door and his life begins to mesh with theirs. In this warmly textured, drily funny, and philosophical account of Gil's unexpected devotion to the family, Millet explores the uncanny territory where the self ends and community begins-what one person can do in a world beset by emergencies. Dinosaurs is both sharp-edged and tender, an emotionally moving, intellectually resonant novel that asks: In the shadow of existential threat, where does hope live?"--
Subjects: Domestic fiction.; Psychological fiction.; Satirical literature.; Novels.; Friendship; Neighbors; Walking;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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The book of records / by Thien, Madeleine,1974-author.;
Includes bibliographical references."The sublime, long-awaited, major new novel from the beloved author of the Giller Prize-winning, Booker Prize-shortlisted bestseller Do Not Say We Have Nothing. In "The Sea," a sprawling, mysterious building-complex that endlessly receives migrants from everywhere and seems to exist somewhere outside of normal space and time, adolescent Lina cares for her ailing father. Having landed at The Sea with only what could be carried by hand, Lina grows up with nothing but a trio of books to read--three volumes in a series about the lives of famous "voyagers" of the past. Soon, however, she discovers three eccentric neighbours in the building who have stories of their own to share. These neighbours are Bento (who bears an uncanny resemblance to Baruch Spinoza), a Jewish scholar in seventeenth-century Amsterdam who was excommunicated for his radical thought; Blucher (whose life mirrors Hannah Arendt), a philosopher whose academic promise in 1930s Germany became a quest to survive Nazi persecution; and Jupiter (or shades of Du Fu), a poet of Tang Dynasty China whose brilliance went unrecognised by the state, and whose dependence on fickle patrons barely sustained him while lesser artists thrived. As she grows up in the building, Lina spends many hours listening to the fascinating tales of these friends. But it is only when she is finally told her father's account of how the two of them came to reside in The Sea that she truly understands the unbearable cost of betrayal in her own life. And the combined force of these stories soon sets her on her own path into the unknown future. An adventurous, voyaging novel in which time occupies space uniquely, The Book of Records holds a mirror to the idea of fate in history, interrogates questions of legacy, explores how the political factors of a collective moment may determine an individual's future, and beautifully shows the infinite joys of art and intellectual endeavour. This is the great novelist Madeleine Thien at her most remarkable, exciting, engrossing, and enriching."--
Subjects: Magic realist fiction.; Psychological fiction.; Novels.; Books and reading; Families; Fathers and daughters; Immigrants; Interpersonal relations; Neighbors; Space and time; Storytelling;
Available copies: 2 / Total copies: 3
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The Vienna writers circle / by Maetis, J. C.,author.;
"Spring, 1938: Café Mozart in the heart of Vienna is beloved by its clientele, including cousins Mathias Kraemer and Johannes Namal. The two writers are as close as brothers. They are also members of Freud's Circle--a unique group of the famed psychiatrist's friends and acquaintances who once gathered regularly at the bright and airy café to talk about books and ideas over coffee and pastries. But dark days are looming. With Hitler's annexation of Austria, Nazi edicts governing daily life become stricter and more punitive. Now Hitler has demanded that the "hidden Jews" of Vienna be tracked down, and Freud's Circle has been targeted. The SS aims to use old group photos to identify Jewish intellectuals and subversives. With the vise tightening around them, Mathias and Johannes's only option appears to be hiding in plain sight, using assumed names and identities to evade detection, aware that discovery would mean consignment to a camp or execution. Faced with stark and desperate choices, Mathias, Johannes, their families and friends all find their loyalties and courage tested in unimaginable ways. But despite betrayal, heartache and imprisonment, hope remains, and with it, the determination to keep those they love alive, and Mathias and Johannes at the same time discovering that what originally condemned them--their writing--might also be their salvation"--
Subjects: Historical fiction.; Novels.; Freud, Sigmund, 1856-1939; Anonyms and pseudonyms; Authors; Jewish authors; Jews; Nazis;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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The girl from the Metropol Hotel : growing up in communist Russia / by Petrushevskai͡a︡, Li͡u︡dmila.;
Introduction: Ludmilla Petrushevskaya's War / by Anna Summers -- The Girl from the Metropol Hotel -- Family Circumstances : The Vegers -- The War -- Kuibyshev -- Kuibyshev : Survival Strategies -- How I Was Rescued -- The Durov Theater -- Searching for Food -- Dolls -- Victory Night -- The Officers' Club -- The Courtiers' Language -- The Bolshoi Theater -- Down the Ladder -- Literary Sleep-Ins -- My Performances : Green Sweater -- The Portrait -- The Story of a Little Sailor -- My New Life -- The Hotel Metropol -- Mumsy -- Summer Camp -- Chekhov Street : Grandpa Kolya -- Trying to Fit In -- Children's Home -- I Want to Live! -- Snowdrop -- The Wild Berries -- Gorilla -- Dying Swan -- Sanych -- Foundling."The prizewinning memoir of one of the world's great writers, about coming of age and finding her voice amid the hardships of Stalinist Russia. Like a young Edith Piaf, wandering the streets singing for alms, and like Oliver Twist, living by his wits, Ludmilla Petrushevskaya grew up watchful and hungry, a diminutive figure far removed from the heights she would attain as an internationally celebrated writer. In The Girl from the Metropol Hotel, her prizewinning memoir, she recounts her childhood of extreme deprivation, made more acute by the awareness that her family of Bolshevik intellectuals, now reduced to waiting in bread lines, once lived large across the street from the Kremlin in the opulent Metropol Hotel. As she unravels the threads of her itinerant upbringing--of feigned orphandom, of sleeping in freight cars and beneath the kitchen tables of communal apartments, of the fugitive pleasures of scraps of food--we see, both in her remarkable lack of self-pity and in the more than two dozen photographs throughout the text, her feral instinct and the crucible in which her gift for giving voice to a nation of survivors was forged"--Provided by publisher.LSC
Subjects: Petrushevskai͡a︡, Li͡u︡dmila; Petrushevskai͡a︡, Li͡u︡dmila; Petrushevskai͡a︡, Li͡u︡dmila; Hotel Metropol (Moscow, Russia); Authors, Russian; Communism; Coming of age;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Languages of truth : essays 2003-2020 / by Rushdie, Salman,author.;
"Salman Rushdie is celebrated as a storyteller of the highest order, illuminating deep truths about our society and culture through his gorgeous, often searing, prose. Now, in his latest collection of nonfiction, he brings together insightful and inspiring essays, criticism, and speeches that focus on his relationship with the written word, and solidify his place as one of the most original thinkers of our time. Gathering pieces written between 2003 and 2019, Languages of Truth chronicles Rushdie's own intellectual engagement with a period of momentous cultural shifts. Immersing the reader in a wide variety of subjects, he delves into the nature of storytelling as a deeply human need, and what emerges is, in myriad ways, a love letter to literature itself. Rushdie explores what the work of authors from Shakespeare and Cervantes to Samuel Beckett, Eudora Welty, and Toni Morrison mean to him, often by telling vivid, sometimes humorous stories of his own personal encounters with them, whether on the page or in person. He delves deeper than ever before into the nature of "truth," revels in the vibrant malleability of language, and the creative lines that can join art and life, and he looks anew at migration, multiculturalism and censorship. The ideas, true stories and arguments presented here are at once revelatory, funny and eye-opening, enlivened on every page by Rushdie's signature wit and dazzling voice, making this volume a genuine pleasure to read"--
Subjects: Essays.;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Think again : the power of knowing what you don't know / by Grant, Adam M.,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."The bestselling author of Give and Take and Originals examines the critical art of rethinking: learning to question your beliefs and to know what you don't know, which can position you for success at work and happiness at home. The difficulty of rethinking our assumptions is surprisingly common--maybe even fundamentally human. Our ways of thinking become habits that we don't bother to question, and mental laziness leads us to prefer the ease of old routines to the difficulty of new ones. We fail to update the beliefs we formed in the past for the challenges we face in the present. But in a rapidly changing world, we need to spend as much time rethinking as we do thinking. Think Again is a book about the benefit of doubt, and about how we can get better at embracing the unknown and the joy of being wrong. Evidence has shown that creative geniuses are not attached to one identity but constantly willing to rethink their stances, that leaders who admit they don't know something and seek critical feedback lead more productive and innovative teams, and that our greatest presidents have been open to updating their views. The new science of intellectual humility shows that as a mindset and a skillset, rethinking can be taught, and Grant explains how to develop the necessary qualities. The first section of the book explores why we struggle to think again and how we can improve individually, and argues that such engines of success as "grit" can actually be counterproductive; the second section discusses how we can help others think again through the skill of "argument literacy"; and the third looks at how institutions like schools, business, and governments fall short in building cultures that encourage rethinking. In the end, it's intellectual humility that makes it possible for us to stop denying our weaknesses so that we can start improving ourselves"--
Subjects: Belief and doubt.; Knowledge, Theory of.; Questioning.; Thought and thinking.;
Available copies: 0 / Total copies: 1
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The parasitic mind : how infectious ideas are killing common sense / by Saad, Gad,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."The West's commitment to freedom, reason, and true liberalism have become endangered by a series of viral forces in our society today. Renowned host of the popular YouTube show "The SAAD Truth", Dr. Gad Saad exposes how an epidemic of idea pathogens are spreading like a virus and killing common sense in the West. Serving as a powerful follow-up to Jordan Peterson's book 12 Rules for Life Dr. Saad unpacks what is really happening in progressive safe zones, why we need to be paying more attention to these trends, and what we must do to stop the spread of dangerous thinking. A professor at Concordia University who has witnessed this troubling epidemic first-hand, Dr. Saad dissects a multitude of these concerning forces (corrupt thought patterns, belief systems, attitudes, etc.) that have given rise to a stifling political correctness in our society and how these have created serious consequences that must be remedied--before it's too late"--
Subjects: Academic freedom; Conservatism; Freedom of expression; Ideology; Intellectual freedom; Liberalism; Political correctness; Right and left (Political science); Social justice;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Results 61 to 70 of 71 | « previous |