How To Live Or A Life Of Montaigne In One Question...

By Sarah Bakewell
"This book, a spirited and singular biography (and the first full life of Michel Eyquen de Montaigne in English for nearly 50 years), relates the story of his life by way of the questions he posed and the answers he explored."  Check Our Catalog

10 Books That Screwed Up The World; By Benjamin Wiker

By Benjamin Wiker
"From Machiavelli to Marx, Nietzsche to Hitler, this volume offers a provocative look at some of Western civilization's most infamous authors and their literary works and shows how these works have inflicted great evil in the world--and still cause suffering" (Publisher Description)  Check Our Catalog

Louisa May Alcott; A Personal Biography

By Susan Cheever
"Cheever's comprehensive and definitive biography sheds new light on the life of Louisa May Alcott ("Little Women"), whose work has inspired generations of women."
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The Mark Twain Anthology; Great Writers On His Life and Works

Edited By Shelley Fishkin
"This collection opens with pages of pithy tributesa preamble to a full course of essays, letters, and stories about Mark Twain, along with rarely seen pencil sketches and drawings of him. Fishkin (director, American studies, Stanford Univ.; "Lighting Out for the Territory: Reflections on Mark Twain and American Culture"), a prominent Twain scholar, gathers a surprising number of eclectic voices from around the world16 pieces are previously untranslated and resonant of his influence over more than a century. The anthology hosts a conversation among expected and unexpected notables: Nobel Prize winner Kenzaburo Oe tells of his intrigue with Huck Finn during the time when America and Japan were at war; Grant Wood, painter of "American Gothic", recalls his consequential boyhood reading of "Huckleberry Finn"; and Hal Holbrook describes his research as he prepared for his one-man show, "Mark Twain Tonight!" Entries are ordered chronologically; each introduces the writer with a short, enjoyable backstory about the piece. With a source listing and index to works. VERDICT This is an affordable, richly distinct, and essential anthology for all American literature collections."  (Library Journal)   Check Our Catalog

The Knitter’s Companion

By Vicki Square
"Inside you'll find an overview of stitches, gauges, joins, seams, borders, and buttonholes, as well as detailed descriptions of each technique and photographs that show the finished look. Innovative methods are also explored in "The Knitter's Companion Deluxe Edition with DVD," including additional ways to cast on, bind off, and increase stitches. Vicki Square shares an abundance of detail on color knitting techniques, plus favorite embellishments such as tassels, fringe, knitting with beads, and more. Vicki also shares with you in two extended DVDs every technique featured in the book. Starring in more than four hours of instruction on the DVDs, Vicki shares with you a truly hands-on knitting experience. "   Check Our Catalog

Common As Air; Revolution, Art , and Ownership By Lewis Hyde

By Lewis Hyde
"Marc Helprin's Digital Barbarism: A Writer's Manifesto argued vehemently last year that when it comes to ownership, intellectual property should be treated like all other property, like a business or a piece of real estate. But his argument came across as little more than an ill-tempered yawp. Now here is MacArthur Fellow Hyde with a different take. Drawing on the writings and lives of the Founding Fathers—above all Benjamin Franklin—Hyde argues convincingly that intellectual property is radically different from real property. Patents and copyrights are a privilege, not a right, and for public, not private, benefit: they recompense inventors and authors for their labor by awarding a "stinted" monopoly (one with conditions), but afterward the fruit of their labors becomes part of the "cultural commons"—open to all. Hyde presents horror stories about current practices: a DNA sequence patented before a use is even found for it, King's "dream" speech not available in the public domain, heirs prohibiting scholars from using a writer's letters when they disagree with the scholar's take on the subject. VERDICT Cogently argued, Common is a compelling take on an important subject for a democracy like ours." (LJ Reviews)  Check Our Catalog

At Home; A Short History Of Private Life

By Bill Bryson
"Bryson (A Short History of Everything) takes readers on a tour of his house, a rural English parsonage, and finds it crammed with 10,000 years of fascinating historical bric-a-brac. Each room becomes a starting point for a free-ranging discussion of rarely noticed but foundational aspects of social life. A visit to the kitchen prompts disquisitions on food adulteration and gluttony; a peek into the bedroom reveals nutty sex nostrums and the horrors of premodern surgery; in the study we find rats and locusts; a stop in the scullery illuminates the put-upon lives of servants. Bryson follows his inquisitiveness wherever it goes, from Darwinian evolution to the invention of the lawnmower, while savoring eccentric characters and untoward events (like Queen Elizabeth I's pilfering of a subject's silverware). There are many guilty pleasures, from Bryson's droll prose--"What really turned the Victorians to bathing, however, was the realization that it could be gloriously punishing"--to the many tantalizing glimpses behind closed doors at aristocratic English country houses. In demonstrating how everything we take for granted, from comfortable furniture to smoke-free air, went from unimaginable luxury to humdrum routine, Bryson shows us how odd and improbable our own lives really are."  (PW Reviews)  Check Our Catalog