Extraordinary Exhibitions


Book Description

An informal history of sensational, scientific, silly, satisfying, and startling attractions based on seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth-century broadsides from Ricky Jay's extraordinary collection.




Ordinary Places/Extraordinary Events


Book Description

Clara Irazábal and her contributors explore the urban history of some of Latin America’s great cities through studies of their public spaces and what has taken place there. The avenues and plazas of Mexico City, Havana, Santo Domingo, Caracas, Bogotaì, SaÞo Paulo, Lima, Santiago, and Buenos Aires have been the backdrop for extraordinary, history-making events. While some argue that public spaces are a prerequisite for the expression, representation and reinforcement of democracy, they can equally be used in the pursuit of totalitarianism. Indeed, public spaces, in both the past and present, have been the site for the contestation by ordinary people of various stances on democracy and citizenship. By exploring the use and meaning of public spaces in Latin American cities, this book sheds light on contemporary definitions of citizenship and democracy in the Americas.




The Museum of Extraordinary Things


Book Description

{\rtf1\ansi\ansicpg1252\deff0{\fonttbl{\f0\fnil\fcharset0 Arial;}} \viewkind4\uc1\pard\lang2057\fs18 Coney Island, 1911: Coralie Sardie is the daughter of a self-proclaimed scientist and professor who acts as the impresario of The Museum of Extraordinary Things, a boardwalk freak show offering amazement and entertainment to the masses. An extraordinary swimmer, Coralie appears as the Mermaid alongside performers like the Wolfman, the Butterfly Girl,and a 100 year old turtle, in her father's ""museum"". She swims regularly in New York's Hudson River, and one night stumbles upon a striking young man alone in the woods photographing moon-lit trees. From that moment, Coralie knows her life will never be the same. \par The dashing photographer Coralie spies is Eddie Cohen, a Russian immigrant who has run away from his father's Lower East Side Orthodox community. As Eddie photographs the devastation on the streets of New York following the infamous Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, he becomes embroiled in the mystery behind a young woman's disappearance and the dispute between factory owners and labourers. In the tumultuous times that characterized life in New York between the world wars, Coralie and Eddie's lives come crashing together in Alice Hoffman's mesmerizing, imaginative, and romantic new novel. \par }




Ordinary Reactions to Extraordinary Events


Book Description

The essays in this collection present communities beset by unexpected social and physical events. Some outline immediate responses that soon pass and some that will not go away. Who would have foreseen that Elvis would be a phenomenon apparently as lasting as the faces on Mount Rushmore? Cultural history will not allow us to forget the H. G. Wells account of the Martian attack, nor can we ever forget the continued terror of the Chernobyl explosion. Ordinary Reactions to Extraordinary Events catalogues on the Geiger counter of human emotions societal reactions to events both earthshaking and culture-disturbing.




The Extraordinary Events of an Ordinary Life


Book Description

Wasdale, England. 1966. Vicky is twelve years old, the youngest daughter of a well-to-do farmer, and already dreaming of more. Her inner life is complex – she worships her eldest brother, Chris, and envies her glamorous older sister, Toni. Life breathes promise when you’re young and Vicky’s story starts with that promise, charting her journey into womanhood alongside her family’s troubles. Chris is in the grip of an obsession, divided loyalties and a confidence crisis – and the damage is collateral. Impassioned yet impotent, Vicky must accept that even heroes fall from grace. Meanwhile, she craves a family of her own – like her siblings and friends and like the women she eventually serves as a midwife – but when the time finally comes, the price is higher than she dared to imagine. Set in an era when massive social reform altered attitudes to sex and sexuality, marriage, equality and environmental issues beyond recognition, this heart-warming novel imparts hope that it’s never too late to bridge the generation gap and heal the wounds of the past.