Dogsbody


Book Description

A funny, heartbreaking, stunning book by the legendary Diana Wynne Jones—with an introduction by Neil Gaiman. The Dog Star, Sirius, is tried - and found guilty - by his heavenly peers for a murder he did not commit. His sentence: to live on the planet Earth until he can carry out a seemingly impossible mission - the recovery of a deadly weapon known as the Zoi. The first lesson Sirius learns in his lowly earthly form is that humans have all the power. The second is that even though his young mistress loves him, she can't protect either of them. The third - and worst - is that someone out there will do anything to keep Sirius from finding the Zoi. Even if it means destroying Earth itself. This funny, heartbreaking, stunning book features an introduction by Neil Gaiman, an avid fan of Diana Wynne Jones.




Four British Fantasists


Book Description

Four British Fantasists explores the work of four of the most successful and influential of the generation of fantasy writes who rose to prominence in the "second Golden Age" of children's literature in Britain: Susan Cooper, Alan Garner, Diana Wynne Jones, and Penelope Lively.




Ulysses and the Irish God


Book Description

"This is the most comprehensive and original of the studies dealing with Joyce's response to the idea of God accepted in Ireland and to the sacred images and rituals prevalent there. It shows how in Ulysses he undermines and exploits the crucial elements of his rejected faith: how he recalls the omnipotent Father to reveal his artistic powers, the incarnated Son to celebrate his own human images, and the consecrated host to imply his hidden spiritual presence." "Frederick K. Lang has closely analyzed both Joyce's texts and his sources, including important sources previously unidentified. First, he reveals that Joyce's transubstantiation of theology and liturgy in Ulysses is foreshadowed in his first short story. There, by setting the Latin Mass in an Irish home, Joyce casts doubt upon the Church's ability to transform matter, and, in his revised version of the story, he casts further doubt by including parallels with the Greek liturgy, a rite he regarded as subversive of the Latin Mass. Next, Lang reinterprets Joyce's theory of literary art in light of its specific origins in Aquinas and the New Testament, and in doing so he reveals the precise meaning of the term "epiphany." He proceeds to demonstrate that the earlier theory, including the concept of epiphany, underlies the Hamlet theory, and that the famous reference to "love" is linked to God's narcissism and creativity. How the literary artist resembles God is implied not only in the Hamlet theory but in the references to orthodox and heretical views of the Father-Son relation and the Eucharist, views that explain Joyce's reincarnation as both Stephen Dedalus and Leopold Bloom." "In Ulysses the word "reincarnation" has an additional meaning. Not only does Joyce's soul assume new flesh, but so does the Word of God. Along with the feast of Christ celebrated in Ireland on 16 June 1904, the novel assimilates first the Mass, then the black mass, and finally the Good Friday liturgy. At the end of Ulysses, Molly Bloom emerges as "the genuine christine" prophecied on the first page. Joyce's offering of her body, blood, and water evokes both the Crucifixion and the Eucharist, and thus makes flesh a Gospel read in Irish churches on the day he chose as Bloomsday." "This book is lucid and provocative. Free of theory and jargon, it not only gives Joyce scholars fresh information and new interpretations, but would interest and enlighten any reader of Ulysses."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved




Punch


Book Description




Dreams of Steam


Book Description

This is Steampunk! Travel back to a time when steam powered inventions ruled the land, water, and sky. It's a time of extraordinary contraptions and innovative ideas created by men and women who dared to ask the question, "What if?" Peer through the glazed window into a world long gone, but not forgotten. Make a cup of tea, find a comfortable chair, strap on your goggles, and be amazed at the power of steam!




Swimming with Sins


Book Description

six short comedies by Lindsay Price · FIREBALL - (1m/1f) Gerry returns home from shopping to reveal a huge hole burned into his sweater. His explanation is that a fireball dropped out of the sky and hit him in the chest. Jennine knows better. · MOTHER GOOSE AND THE COMA - (1f) Polly explains why she's leaving her boyfriend, who's currently in a coma. · HOW DOES YOUR GARDEN GROW? - (2f) A garden comes between two neighbors. · PANCAKE TUESDAY - (3m) The business has gone belly up. Foster, Lewis, and Ed end up on the roof of their office building preparing to jump. Will their constant arguing keep them alive or quicken the sidewalk splat? · DOWN - (2m/1f) Geoffrey is headed to hell. He is accused of being a glutton, despite being an uber fit, no fat, vegetarian. · SWIMMING WITH SINS - (2m/4f) Vices and Virtues get together for their annual camp swim meet. Envy decides she's had enough of being a vice and wants to switch camps.




Bader’s Spitfire Wing


Book Description

"Whether you have feelings about Bader or not, this is an excellent book to gain insight into the summer of 1941 when, ready or not, the RAF went on the offensive."—The Journal of the Air Force Historical Foundation On 30 August 1940, at the height of the Battle of Britain, the pilots of RAF Fighter Command’s No.12 Group were requested to reinforce 11 Group and intercept a Luftwaffe raid on an aircraft factory at Hatfield. The events that day led the swashbuckling, legless, fighter pilot Douglas Bader to submit a report arguing that the more fighters he had at his disposal, the greater would be the execution of the enemy that could be achieved. It was a concept that received support from 12 Group’s Air Officer Commanding, Air Vice-Marshal Leigh-Mallory. In Bader’s proposal, Leigh-Mallory saw an opportunity for 12 Group to play a greater part in what was clearly an historic battle. Leigh-Mallory authorised Bader to lead three, then five, squadrons – a controversial formation that came to be known as the ‘Duxford Wing’ or ‘Big Wing’. For the rest of 1940, Bader and the ‘Big Wing’, then based at Duxford, played its part in the defense of Britain’s skies. Then, in March 1941, the role of ‘Wing Commander (Flying)’ was created. This was the fighter pilot’s dream appointment because the Wing Leader’s sole responsibility was leading his wing in action, unfettered by tedious administration and logistical matters. Needless to say, Douglas Bader was amongst the first wing leaders. He was even given the choice of which Wing he preferred. He chose to take command of that based at Tangmere on the South Coast – right at the fore of the RAF’s battle against the Luftwaffe. In Bader’s Spitfire Wing, Dilip Sarkar not only explores the full story of the men and machines of the Tangmere Wing in 1941, as well as the controversy that surrounds their use, he also fully investigates the part that they played in the RAF’s efforts to take the offensive to the Luftwaffe on the opposite side of the English Channel. It was in one such sortie in August 1941 that the Tangmere Wing lost its famous leader. Bader went on to spend the rest of the war in captivity.




Johnnie Johnson's 1942 Diary


Book Description

A unique insight into how fighter pilots lived, loved—and died—through the diary of the top-scoring RAF Ace who survived the Battle of Britain. A one-time household name synonymous with the superlative Spitfire, Air Vice-Marshal “Johnnie” Johnson’s aerial combat successes of World War II inspired schoolboys for generations. As a “lowly Pilot Officer,” Johnson learned his fighter pilot’s craft as a protégé of the legless Tangmere Wing Leader, Douglas Bader. After Bader was brought down over France and captured on 9 August 1941, Johnnie remained a member of 616 (South Yorkshire) Squadron. By the beginning of 1942, when Johnnie’s diary begins, Fighter Command was pursuing an offensive policy during daylight hours, “reaching out” and taking the war to the Germans in France. It was also a period in which the Focke-Wulf Fw outclassed the Spitfire Mk.V. In Johnnie’s words, the Fw 190 “drove us back to the coast and, for the first time, pilots lost confidence in the Spitfire.” As well as his participation in Rhubarb and Circus sorties, Johnnie was also involved in Operation Jubilee on 19 August 1942. In this diary, published here for the first time, we get a glimpse of the real Johnnie, and what it was really like to live and breathe air-fighting during one of the European air war’s most interesting years: 1942. Presented on a day-by-day basis, each of Johnnie’s entries is supported by an informative narrative written by the renowned aviation historian Dilip Sarkar, drawing upon official documents and his interviews and correspondence with the great man. “Provides a number of insights into life in the RAF Fighter Command of that period.—Most Highly Recommended.” —Firetrench




Much Ado about Religion


Book Description

This play satirizes various religions in Kashmir and their place in the politics of King Shankaravarman (883–902). The leading character is a young and dynamic orthodox graduate, whose career starts as a glorious campaign against the heretic Buddhists, Jains, and other antisocial sects. By the end of the play he realizes that the interests of the monarch do not encourage such inquisitional rigor. Unique in Sanskrit literature, Jayánta Bhatta's play, Much Ado About Religion, is a curious mixture of fiction and history, of scathing satire and intriguing philosophical argumentation. The play satirizes various religions in Kashmir and their place in the politics of King Shánkara·varman (883-902 CE). The leading character, Sankárshana, is a young and dynamic orthodox graduate of Vedic studies, whose career starts as a glorious campaign against the heretic Buddhists, Jains and other antisocial sects. Co-published by New York University Press and the JJC Foundation For more on this title and other titles in the Clay Sanskrit series, please visit http://www.claysanskritlibrary.org




Colonizer and Colonized


Book Description

Over the last two decades, the experiences of colonization and decolonization, once safely relegated to the margins of what occupied students of history and literature, have shifted into the latter's center of attention, in the West as elsewhere. This attention does not restrict itself to the historical dimension of colonization and decolonization, but also focuses upon their impact upon the present, for both colonizers and colonized. The nearly fifty essays here gathered examine how literature, now and in the past, keeps and has kept alive the experiences - both individual and collective - of colonization and decolonization. The contributors to this volume hail from the four corners of the earth, East and West, North and South. The authors discussed range from international luminaries past and present such as Aphra Behn, Racine, Blaise Cendrars, Salman Rushdie, Graham Greene, Derek Walcott, Guimarães Rosa, J.M. Coetzee, André Brink, and Assia Djebar, to less known but certainly not lesser authors like Gioconda Belli, René Depestre, Amadou Koné, Elisa Chimenti, Sapho, Arthur Nortje, Es'kia Mphahlele, Mark Behr, Viktor Paskov, Evelyn Wilwert, and Leïla Houari. Issues addressed include the role of travel writing in forging images of foreign lands for domestic consumption, the reception and translation of Western classics in the East, the impact of contemporary Chinese cinema upon both native and Western audiences, and the use of Western generic novel conventions in modern Egyptian literature.