Present Tense Machine


Book Description

"A playful and transcendent novel about language, family, and parallel universes"--




Paris in the Present Tense


Book Description

Mark Helprin’s powerful, rapturous new novel is set in a present-day Paris caught between violent unrest and its well-known, inescapable glories. Seventy-four-year-old Jules Lacour—a maître at Paris-Sorbonne, cellist, widower, veteran of the war in Algeria, and child of the Holocaust—must find a balance between his strong obligations to the past and the attractions and beauties of life and love in the present. In the midst of what should be an effulgent time of life—days bright with music, family, rowing on the Seine—Jules is confronted headlong and all at once by a series of challenges to his principles, livelihood, and home, forcing him to grapple with his complex past and find a way forward. He risks fraud to save his terminally ill infant grandson, matches wits with a renegade insurance investigator, is drawn into an act of savage violence, and falls deeply, excitingly in love with a young cellist a third his age. Against the backdrop of an exquisite and knowing vision of Paris and the way it can uniquely shape a life, he forges a denouement that is staggering in its humanity, elegance, and truth.In the intoxicating beauty of its prose and emotional amplitude of its storytelling, Mark Helprin’s Paris in the Present Tense is a soaring achievement, a deep, dizzying look at a life through the purifying lenses of art and memory.




Permanent Present Tense


Book Description

In 1953, 27-year-old Henry Gustave Molaison underwent an experimental "psychosurgical" procedure -- a targeted lobotomy -- in an effort to alleviate his debilitating epilepsy. The outcome was unexpected -- when Henry awoke, he could no longer form new memories, and for the rest of his life would be trapped in the moment. But Henry's tragedy would prove a gift to humanity. As renowned neuroscientist Suzanne Corkin explains in Permanent Present Tense, she and her colleagues brought to light the sharp contrast between Henry's crippling memory impairment and his preserved intellect. This new insight that the capacity for remembering is housed in a specific brain area revolutionized the science of memory. The case of Henry -- known only by his initials H. M. until his death in 2008 -- stands as one of the most consequential and widely referenced in the spiraling field of neuroscience. Corkin and her collaborators worked closely with Henry for nearly fifty years, and in Permanent Present Tense she tells the incredible story of the life and legacy of this intelligent, quiet, and remarkably good-humored man. Henry never remembered Corkin from one meeting to the next and had only a dim conception of the importance of the work they were doing together, yet he was consistently happy to see her and always willing to participate in her research. His case afforded untold advances in the study of memory, including the discovery that even profound amnesia spares some kinds of learning, and that different memory processes are localized to separate circuits in the human brain. Henry taught us that learning can occur without conscious awareness, that short-term and long-term memory are distinct capacities, and that the effects of aging-related disease are detectable in an already damaged brain. Undergirded by rich details about the functions of the human brain, Permanent Present Tense pulls back the curtain on the man whose misfortune propelled a half-century of exciting research. With great clarity, sensitivity, and grace, Corkin brings readers to the cutting edge of neuroscience in this deeply felt elegy for her patient and friend.




Rodney McMillian


Book Description

"This catalogue accompanies the inaugural Suzanne Deal Booth Art Prize and the exhibition: Rodney McMillian: Against a Civic Death, The Contemporary Austin-Jones Center, February 1-August 26, 2018"--Flyleaf.




Past Perfect, Present Tense


Book Description

Compiled for the first time, here are all of Newbery Award– winning author Richard Peck’s previously published short stories and two brand-new ones. From comedy to tragedy to historical to contemporary; from "Priscilla and the Wimps," Peck’s first short story, to "Shotgun Cheatham’s Last Night Above Ground," which inspired both A Long Way from Chicago and A Year Down Yonder, to "The Electric Summer," Peck’s jumping-off point for Fair Weather, readers will thrill at Peck’s engaging short fiction. Complete with the author’s own notes on the stories as well as tips and hints for aspiring writers and two new stories, this vibrant and varied collection offers something for everyone.




Present Tense


Book Description

Through such formal devices as series and multipanel works, JoAnn Verburg invigorates some of photography's common themes - the portrait, the landscape, the domestic view. Some of her work catches viewers off guard, leaving them unsure where they stand in relationship to the scene being shown; others play with the passage of time, offering narratives that play out in either space or time, or both, or neither. The intimate spaces of personal life are another of her ongoing themes, as shown in a series featuring her husband, the poet Jim Moore, reading newspapers or books, or sleeping. The unguarded intimacy of the image strikes one note here; the tension and reality of the current events featured on that day's newspaper strikes another, reaching out of the work into the world, expanding photography's space even further. Whether taking pictures of artists, swimmers, trees or pyramids constructed from sand,Verburg deftly pushes at the boundaries of the representation of time and space.




Pony


Book Description

INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • NAMED ONE OF THE BEST CHILDREN’S BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE WALL STREET JOURNAL “Perfection.” –The Wall Street Journal The bestselling author of Wonder returns with an enthralling adventure about a boy on a quest to rescue his father, with only a ghost as his companion and a mysterious pony as his guide. Twelve-year-old Silas is awoken in the dead of night by three menacing horsemen who take his father away. Silas is left shaken, scared, and alone, except for the presence of his companion, Mittenwool . . . who happens to be a ghost. When a pony shows up at his door, Silas makes the courageous decision to leave his home and embark on a perilous journey to find his father. Along the way, he will face his fears to unlock the secrets of his past and explore the unfathomable mysteries of the world around him. R. J. Palacio spins a harrowing yet distinctly beautiful coming-of-age story about the power of love and the ties that bind us across distance and time. With the poignant depth of War Horse and the singular voice of True Grit, this is one of those rare books poised to become an instant classic for readers of all ages. “A wonderful story of courage. ... It's got the feeling of a modern classic.” —as recommended on NPR by Jorge Lacera




Present Tense: Anna Schwartz Gallery and Thirty-Five Years of Contemporary Australian Art


Book Description

This vivid and revealing account of thirty-five years of art and history revolves around the locus of the internationally renowned Anna Schwartz Gallery and its eponymous founder. Beginning in St Kilda with United Artists, visionary gallerist Anna Schwartz relocated to City Gallery at 45 Flinders Lane before Anna Schwartz Gallery found its current location at 185 Flinders Lane in 1993. Present Tense captures Schwartz, known for her steadfast promotion of the contemporary and the challenging, alongside the inimitable roster of artists that her gallery represents, and the key figures of Australian art and culture. The visually stunning volume combines historical vignettes, interviews, and hundreds of archival photographs and artworks. Told with wit and verve, it reveals a story that arcs from the journeys of immigrants who make up Australia's rich cultural life to the local artistic scenes of Melbourne to the global stage of the art world. Present Tense is an elegant cloth-bound volume featuring full-colour images throughout and a magnificent portrait of Anna Schwartz by artist Jenny Watson on the spine.




Music in the Present Tense


Book Description

In the early 1800s, Rossini’s operas permeated Italy, from the opera house to myriad arrangements heard in public and private. But after Rossini stopped composing, a sharp decline in popularity drove most of his works out of the repertory. In the past half century, they have made a spectacular return to operatic stages worldwide, but this recent fame has not been accompanied by a comparable critical reevaluation. Emanuele Senici’s new book provides a fresh look at the motives behind the Rossinian furore and its aftermath by examining the composer’s works in the historical context in which they were conceived, performed, seen, heard, and discussed. Situating the operas firmly within the social practices, cultural formations, ideological currents, and political events of early nineteenth-century Italy, Senici reveals Rossini’s dramaturgy as a radically new and specifically Italian reaction to the epoch-making changes witnessed in Europe at the time. The first book-length study of Rossini’s Italian operas to appear in English, Music in the Present Tense exposes new ways to explore nineteenth-century music and addresses crucial issues in the history of modernity, such as trauma, repetition, and the healing power of theatricality.




Love In The Present Tense


Book Description

The story of a love that transcends time, place and human weakness from Richard & Judy bestselling author Catherine Ryan Hyde. Perfect for fans of Mark Haddon, Mitch Albom and Alice Sebold. 'A work of art...enchanting' -- San Francisco Chronicle 'A magnificent storyteller' -- Denver Post 'What a quirky wonderful book! It moved me and made me laugh - what a wee gem!' -- ***** Reader review 'A beautiful, moving and thoughtful book' -- ****** Reader review 'Read it in one sitting. Really enjoyed it - had me laughing one minute and crying the next.' -- ***** Reader review 'A beautiful story about love in its various forms.' -- ***** Reader review 'Heartbreaking and uplifting.' -- ***** Reader review 'I highly recommend this book, it'll move the hardest of hearts!'-- ***** Reader review ******************************************************************** THE MAGICAL STORY OF A YOUNG BOY'S SEARCH FOR BELONGING Mitch is a 25-year-old with commitment issues. Leonard is a five-year-old kid with asthma and vision problems, who captivates everyone he meets. Pearl is Leonard's teenage mother, who's trying to hide a violent secret from her past. Life has given Pearl every reason to mistrust people, but circumstances force her to trust her neighbour, Mitch. Then one day, with a heart full of agony, Pearl drops Leonard off with Mitch and never returns. How do you go on loving someone who isn't there? With Leonard's absolute conviction in 'forever love' always present, Leonard and Mitch grow up side by side and piece together the layered truths and fictions of their almost magical lives. Pearl, Leonard and Mitch each have a story to tell - as their lives unfold, profound questions arise about the nature of love and family. The answers are heartbreaking, but ultimately triumphant.