The Last Happy Occasion


Book Description

A coming-of-age story of an American Jew and aspiring writer in the '60s and '70s. In this memoir in six movements, Alan Shapiro recalls how poetry helped him make sense of his own and other people's lives.




The Last Happy Occasion


Book Description

Series of six essays that move back and forth between poetry and the author's personal experience, examining how certain poems taught him to read his own and other people's lives, and how those lives, in turn, shaped his understanding of certain poems.




Quotations for All Occasions


Book Description

From menopause to moving in, from losing weight to starting a business, this organized book is filled with 1,500 quotations that capture the mundane and the magnificent and covers 150 occasions.




Prisoner X


Book Description

The urgent phone call comes from behind the barbed wire. 'This is Ayalon prison,' says one of the guards urgently. 'Listen, he hanged himself, we need an ambulance.' Prisoner X, just 34 years old, was slumped in a small bathroom, separated from his cell by a transparent door. Kept in one of the most technologically sophisticated solitary jail cells, at the behest of one of the world's most feared intelligence agencies, it is not easy to kill yourself. But Ben Zygier managed to do just that. Did he work for Mossad? Was he also working for ASIO? Was he involved in the supply of false passports? Was he a whistle blower or double agent, or simply a young man way out of his depth? In Prisoner X Rafael Epstein uncovers the intriguing story of a young Australian swept up in international intelligence.




The Last King in India


Book Description

The thousands of mourners who lined Wajid Ali Shah’s funeral route on 21 September, 1887, with their loud wailing and shouted prayers, were not only marking the passing of the last king but also the passing of an intangible connection to old India, before the Europeans came. This is the story of a man whose memory continues to divide opinion today. Was Wajid Ali Shah, as the British believed, a debauched ruler who spent his time with fiddlers, eunuchs and fairies, when he should have been running his kingdom? Or, as a few Indians remember him, a talented poet whose songs are still sung today, and who was robbed of his throne by the English East India Company? Somewhere between these two extremes lies a gifted, but difficult, character; a man who married more women than there are days in the year; who directed theatrical extravaganzas that took over a month to perform, and who built a fairytale palace in Lucknow, which was inhabited for less than a decade. He remained a constant thorn in the side of the ruling British government with his extravagance, his menagerie and his wives. Even so, there was something rather heroic about a man who refused to bow to changing times, and who single-handedly endeavoured to preserve the etiquette and customs of the great Mughals well into the period of the British Raj. India’s last king Wajid Ali Shah was written out of the history books when Awadh was annexed by the Company in February 1856. After long years of painstaking research, noted historian Rosie Llewellyn-Jones revives his memory and returns him his rightful place as one of India’s last great rulers.




Peter Sculthorpe


Book Description

Tells the fascinating story of the composer's rise to prominence. Also a social history, charting the rise of modernism in Australian music through the eyes of its key player.




The Dead Alive and Busy


Book Description

In his sixth book of poems, Alan Shapiro once again shows that he is a master at articulating the secrets of the heart. The Dead Alive and Busy deals with issues of personal identity as revealed through examining the intimate bonds of family life. The poems explore these familial relations in terms of the religious, social, and literary contexts that inform them, delving into such universal themes as human frailty, illness and death, bereavement, and thwarted desires. By turns lyrical and narrative, slangy and elevated, analytical and visionary, this collection showcases one of America's most important poets in his top form. Praise for Alan Shapiro: "Shapiro is a shrewd and sympathetic moralist. He never trivializes his subjects with high-minded flourishes or stylistic gimmicks."—J. D. McClatchy, New York Times Book Review




Depression - Out of the Darkness and Into the Light


Book Description

The need for churches and other faith communities to reach out and care for those suffering with depression has never been greater. Depression is now recognized as one of our most serious public health concerns. Each year more than ten percent of American adults experience a major depressive episode, and more than twenty percent will experience at least one episode over their lifetime. Furthermore, we know that depression is the major risk factor for suicide, now the second leading cause of death in the 10 – 34 year old age group and the fourth leading cause of death among adults ages 35 – 54. We also know that depression is a significant risk factor for substance abuse, another of our most serious health concerns. While we might want to believe that our religious faith can protect us from depression and suicide, we know that’s not true. We have heard too many stories of religious leaders and members of deeply religious families who have suffered from depression and taken their own lives. We need to recognize that no group is exempt from this terrible illness. Depression is found among the young and old, the religious and nonreligious, and all ethnic and racial groups. In Depression - Out of the Darkness and Into the Light, Dan Hale, a psychologist and national leader in health ministries, draws on his own his own struggles with depression, his work as a psychotherapist, and his experiences as a father who lost a daughter to depression, to offer guidance for individuals and families impacted by depression and for congregations that recognize the importance of ministering to those suffering from this terrible illness.




Holocaust Literature: Lerner to Zychlinsky, index


Book Description

Review: "This encyclopedia offers an authoritative and comprehensive survey of the important writers and works that form the literature about the Holocaust and its consequences. The collection is alphabetically arranged and consists of high-quality biocritical essays on 309 writers who are first-, second-, and third-generation survivors or important thinkers and spokespersons on the Holocaust. An essential literary reference work, this publication is an important addition to the genre and a solid value for public and academic libraries."--"The Top 20 Reference Titles of the Year," American Libraries, May 2004




The Chronology of American Literature


Book Description

If you are looking to brush up on your literary knowledge, check a favorite author's work, or see a year's bestsellers at a glance, The Chronology of American Literature is the perfect resource. At once an authoritative reference and an ideal browser's guide, this book outlines the indispensable information in America's rich literary past--from major publications to lesser-known gems--while also identifying larger trends along the literary timeline. Who wrote the first published book in America? When did Edgar Allan Poe achieve notoriety as a mystery writer? What was Hemingway's breakout title? With more than 8,000 works by 5,000 authors, The Chronology makes it easy to find answers to these questions and more. Authors and their works are grouped within each year by category: fiction and nonfiction; poems; drama; literary criticism; and publishing events. Short, concise entries describe an author's major works for a particular year while placing them within the larger context of that writer's career. The result is a fascinating glimpse into the evolution of some of America's most prominent writers. Perhaps most important, The Chronology offers an invaluable line through our literary past, tying literature to the American experience--war and peace, boom and bust, and reaction to social change. You'll find everything here from Benjamin Franklin's "Experiments and Observations on Electricity," to Davy Crockett's first memoir; from Thoreau's "Civil Disobedience" to Edith Wharton's Ethan Frome; from meditations by James Weldon Johnson and James Agee to poetry by Elizabeth Bishop. Also included here are seminal works by authors such as Rachel Carson, Toni Morrison, John Updike, and Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. Lavishly illustrated--and rounded out with handy bestseller lists throughout the twentieth century, lists of literary awards and prizes, and authors' birth and death dates--The Chronology of American Literature belongs on the shelf of every bibliophile and literary enthusiast. It is the essential link to our literary past and present.