Lenin's Ear is the story of a Russian artist, who grew up in the post-Stalin era. His early years are a partly true account of a boy growing up in Post World War II Russia. Being an independent thinker, he found many ways to get into trouble. His mother, a costume designer for the Kirov Ballet, worked hard to provide him with the benefits one could get by being a good Socialist. After having studied at the prestigious Art Academy of Leningrad, he was expected to fulfill the requirements as...

A truly wonderful book. One that should be used as a textbook in History in high school. Easily readable, it takes the reader on a voyage of far reaching proportions.What is it that makes this book so pleasurable and instructive? A fresh approach to the evolution of knowledge and science as experienced historically by the pioneers. The exploration in retrospective of the discovery of the concept of time and the clock, the compass, the telescope, the microscope and the evolutionary ...

One of the most successful shows in Broadway history, The Book of Mormon broke box office records when it debuted in 2011 and received nine Tony awards, including Best Musical. A collaboration between Trey Parker and Matt Stone (creators of the show South Park) and Robert Lopez (Avenue Q), the show was a critical success, cited for both its religious irreverence and sendup of musical traditions.In Singing and Dancing to The Book of Mormon: Critical Essays on the Broadway Musical, M...

HBO’s Girls and the Awkward Politics of Gender, Race, and Privilege is a collection of essays that examines the HBO program Girls. Since its premiere in 2012, the series has garnered the attention of individuals from various walks of life. The show has been described in many terms: insightful, out-of-touch, brash, sexist, racist, perverse, complex, edgy, daring, provocative—just to name a few. Overall, there is no doubt that Girls has firmly etched itself in the fabric of early twenty-firs...

Across America and around the world, the five love languages have revitalized relationships and saved marriages from the brink of disaster. Can they also help individuals, couples, and families cope with the devastating diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease (AD)?Coauthors Chapman, Shaw, and Barr give a resounding yes. Their innovative application of the five love languages creates an entirely new way to touch the lives of the five million Americans who have Alzheimer’s, as well as their...

Being a southpaw, Booker pulled back his left fist and let fly with a wild haymaker. Harry stepped back. Booker's fist flew through the air, causing him to stagger forward. He missed his mark. As he tried to regain balance and pull his arm back to take another swing, Harry stepped forward and took two jabs – right hand – left hand – quick – right on the button - just like that.Booker's most vivid memory of the moment was being aware they were standing on the center line of the dese...

Set in an environment of sagebrush, mountain bluebirds and rivers that disappear, the twelve titles, inside this book, describe a place familiar to everyone - or perhaps familiar to none. We only remember what we think we saw.The stories describe is a place where civilization does not necessarily describe refinement. As German philosopher Nietzsche once defined it, "The purpose of civilization is to convert man, a beast of prey into a tame and civilized animal; a domestic animal.

This career retrospective celebrates the 80th birthday of baseball's greatest scribe, W. P. Kinsella (Shoeless Joe), as well as the 25th anniversary of Field of Dreams, the film that he inspired.In addition to his classic baseball tales, W. P. Kinsella is also a critically-acclaimed short fiction writer. His satiric wit has been celebrated with numerous honors, including the Order of British Columbia.Here are his notorious First Nation narratives of indige...

"All the heavy hitters...came out for USA Noir...an important anthology of stories shrewdly culled by Johnny Temple."--New York Times Book Review (Editors' Choice)One of Zoom Street Magazine's Favorite Books of 2014Indie Books Roundup #1 Pick, Barnes & Noble Book BlogIncluded in Zoom Street Magazine's Summer Reading (Mysteries/Noir) RoundupOne of "1...

David Mamet has been a controversial, defining force in nearly every creative endeavor-now he turns his attention to politics.In recent years, David Mamet realized that the so-called mainstream media outlets he relied on were irredeemably biased, peddling a hypocritical and deeply flawed worldview.In 2008 Mamet wrote a hugely controversial op-ed for the Village Voice, "Why I Am No Longer a 'Brain-Dead Liberal'", in which he methodically attacked li...

The New York Times bestseller, now in paperback and updated with a new introductionConfidence. We want it. We need it. But it can be maddeningly enigmatic and out of reach. The authors of the New York Times bestseller Womenomics deconstruct this essential, elusive, and misunderstood quality and offer a blueprint for bringing more of it into our lives.Is confidence hardwired into the DNA of a lucky few, or can anyone learn it? Is i...

From the humble heights of a Class-A pitcher's mound to the deflating lows of sleeping on his gun-toting grandmother's air mattress, veteran reliever Dirk Hayhurst steps out of the bullpen to deliver the best pitch of his career--a raw, unflinching and surprisingly moving account of his life in the minors.I enjoyed the visualizations, maybe a little too much, and would stop only when I felt I'd centered myself. . .or after one of my teammates hit me in the nuts with the rosin b...