scissors novel
Sensibility and the American Revolution
ISBN: , SKU: , AUTHOR: Knott, Sarah, PUBLISHER: University of North Carolina Press, In the wake of American independence, it was clear that the new United States required novel political forms. Less obvious but no less revolutionary was the idea that the American people needed a new understanding of the self. Sensibility was a cultural movement that celebrated the human capacity for sympathy and sensitivity to the world. For individuals, it offered a means of self-transformation. For a nation lacking a monarch, state religion, or standing army, sensibility provided a means of cohesion. National independence and social interdependence facilitated one another. What Sarah Knott calls "the sentimental project" helped a new kind of citizen create a new kind of government. Knott paints sensibility as a political project whose fortunes rose and fell with the broader tides of the Revolutionary Atlantic world. Moving beyond traditional accounts of social unrest, republican and liberal ideology, and the rise of the autonomous individual, she offers an original interpretation of the American Revolution as a transformation of self and society.
Smart Business Networks
ISBN: , SKU: , AUTHOR: Vervest, Peter H. / Pau, Louis-Francois / Preiss, Kenny, PUBLISHER: Springer, Scientists from management and strategy, information systems, engineering and telecommunications have discussed a novel concept: Smart Business Networks. They see the future as a developing web of people and organizations, bound together in a dynamic and unpredictable way, creating smart outcomes from quickly (re-)configuring links between actors. The question is: What should be done to make the outcomes of such a network 'smart', that is, just a little better than that of your competitor? More agile, with less pain, with more return to all the members of the network, now and over time? The technical answer is to create a 'business operating system' that should run business processes on different organisational platforms. Business processes would become portable: The end-to-end management of processes running across many different organizations in many different forms would become possible. This book presents you the outcomes of an energizing and new direction in management science.
The War of Knives: A Matty Graves Novel
ISBN: , SKU: , AUTHOR: Campbell, Broos, PUBLISHER: McBooks Press, When Matty Graves, acting lieutenant in the newly formed U.S. Navy, agrees to become a spy in the French colony of Saint-Domingue, he plunges headlong into a brutal world of betrayal and double-cross beyond anything he's ever known. At first the bloody civil war between former slaves and their mixed-race overseers simply offers a way to test himself and a means to purge his guilt over the death of his former captain. But soon Matty is drawn into the heart of the conflict when he meets the flamboyant Juge and the mysterious Grandfather Chatterbox--and faces an interrogation by the brutal colonel known as "The Whip." White supremacists, cutthroat patriots and desperate rebels vie for control in the Colonial world's richest island. No one is what he seems, and Matty must sort out the twisted lies from the cold, hard truth--and keep himself alive long enough to learn from his mistakes.
The Uncommon Appeal of Clouds: An Isabel Dalhousie Novel (9)
ISBN: , SKU: , AUTHOR: McCall Smith, Alexander, PUBLISHER: Knopf Canada, Isabel, Jamie and Charlie are off to Highland Perthshire to visit an old schoolfriend of Isabel's, who married into a family of wealthy newspaper owners. The weekend is a success apart from one thing: Charlie witnesses a fox being shot by the estate manager, and is very upset. A few weeks later, the Edinburgh press reports a major art theft from the friend's Highland estate, including a valuable Dutch masterwork that was going to pay the estate tax. In helping her friend and the team of lawyers to negotiate the ethical dilemmas of paying ransom for the painting's return, Isabel will face her first real criminals. The lawyers are distinctly suspect, and may be closely tied to the thieves--they may even be the thieves themselves. At the same time, she must confront the thorny issues of old friendships that have run their course and truth-telling in the provision of references.
Geometric Curve Evolution and Image Processing
ISBN: , SKU: , AUTHOR: Emmerich, Heike J. / Cao, Frederic / Cao, Frdric, PUBLISHER: Springer, In image processing, "motions by curvature" provide an efficient way to smooth curves representing the boundaries of objects. In such a motion, each point of the curve moves, at any instant, with a normal velocity equal to a function of the curvature at this point. This book is a rigorous and self-contained exposition of the techniques of "motion by curvature." The approach is axiomatic and formulated in terms of geometric invariance with respect to the position of the observer. This is translated into mathematical terms, and the author develops the approach of Olver, Sapiro and Tannenbaum, which classifies all curve evolution equations. He then draws a complete parallel with another axiomatic approach using level-set methods: this leads to generalized curvature motions. Finally, novel, and very accurate, numerical schemes are proposed allowing one to compute the solution of highly degenerate evolution equations in a completely invariant way. The convergence of this scheme is also proved.
Silicon Carbide, Volume 1: Growth, Defects, and Novel
ISBN: , SKU: , AUTHOR: Friedrichs, Peter / Kimoto, Tsunenobu / Ley, Lothar, PUBLISHER: Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH, This book prestigiously covers our current understanding of SiC as a semiconductor material in electronics. Its physical properties make it more promising for high-powered devices than silicon. The volume is devoted to the material and covers methods of epitaxial and bulk growth. Identification and characterization of defects is discussed in detail. The contributions help the reader to develop a deeper understanding of defects by combining theoretical and experimental approaches. Apart from applications in power electronics, sensors, and NEMS, SiC has recently gained new interest as a substrate material for the manufacture of controlled graphene. SiC and graphene research is oriented towards end markets and has high impact on areas of rapidly growing interest like electric vehicles. The list of contributors reads like a "Who's Who" of the SiC community, strongly benefiting from collaborations between research institutions and enterprises active in SiC crystal growth and device development.
War Horse
ISBN: , SKU: , AUTHOR: Morpurgo, Michael, PUBLISHER: Egmont Books (UK), Brimming with more than 140 dramatic images, this is the stunning, visual companion to Steven Spielberg's epic adventure, set in rural England and Europe, about a young man and his horse and their separate journeys through the battlefields of the First World War. One of the great stories of friendship and war, the successful novel "War Horse" not only inspired the award-winning stage play, but also inspired one of the great directors in film history to commit his talent, vision, and resources to make this extraordinary movie, which was shot in the countryside of England. "I first fell in love with the story of "War Horse" because I was moved by the relationship between a boy and an animal in Michael Morpurgo's novel and the screenplay by Richard Curtis and Lee Hall," writes Steven Spielberg in his foreword. "But, ultimately, I made it because of what the book and the screenplay say about courage. I t is about the courage of the horse Joey and what he endures to survive, and the courage of Albert in his attempt to find his best friend in a time of war. With every frame of this film, it was my hope to issue a call for courage in our daily lives. A call to 'be brave.'" Additional forewords by producer Kathleen Kennedy, novelist Michael Morpurgo, and co-screenwriter Richard Curtis reveal their feelings about the story and the process of moving it from page to screen. The main body of the book is divided into three sections: Part 1: "Joey's Journey"--A visual retelling, along with script excerpts and filmmakers' comments, of the journey taken by Joey, the horse trained by his beloved Albert, from the striking verdant countryside of Dartmoor, Devon, to training in the British cavalry, to trench warfare in France. Part 2: "The Making of War Horse"--An insider's glimpse of the movie-making process highlighted with fascinating insights from the international cast and the crew about the casting, locations, costumes, horse training, and much more. Part 3: "The History of War Horses"--An illuminating section on the role of horses in battle, illustrated with iconic images from history, vivid drawings, paintings and photographs. This beautiful book is a testament to what can be done when people become impassioned about a goal. As producer Kathleen Kennedy expresses in her foreword: ""War Horse" was one of those unusual productions that comes together in an incredibly short time, and for all the right reasons. Everyone involved understood the film's potential, the richness of the characters, the depth of emotion, and the strength of the story's message."
Al Capone Does My Shirts
ISBN: , SKU: , AUTHOR: Choldenko, Gennifer, PUBLISHER: Puffin Books, Moose Flannagan moves with his family to Alcatraz so his dad can work as a prison guard and his sister, Natalie, can attend a special school. But Natalie has autism, and when she's denied admittance to the school, the stark setting of Alcatraz begins to unravel the tenuous coping mechanisms Moose's family has used for dealing with her disorder. When Moose meets Piper, the cute daughter of the Warden, he knows right off she's trouble. But she's also strangely irresistible. All Moose wants to do is protect Natalie, live up to his parents' expectations, and stay out of trouble. But on Alcatraz, trouble is never very far away. Set in , when guards actually lived on Alcatraz Island with their families, Choldenko's second novel brings humor to the complexities of family dynamics and illuminates the real struggle of a kid trying to free himself from the "good boy" stance he's taken his whole life.
Evolution of Bruno Littlemore
ISBN: , SKU: , AUTHOR: Hale, Benjamin, PUBLISHER: Atlantic, Bruno Littlemore is quite unlike any chimpanzee in the world. Precocious, self-conscious and preternaturally gifted, young Bruno, born and raised in a habitat at the local zoo, falls under the care of a university primatologist named Lydia Littlemore. Learning of Bruno's ability to speak, Lydia takes Bruno into her home to oversee his education and nurture his passion for painting. But for all of his gifts, the chimpanzee has a rough time caging his more primal urges. His untimely outbursts ultimately cost Lydia her job, and send the unlikely pair on the road in what proves to be one of the most unforgettable journeys -- and most affecting love stories -- in recent literature. Like its protagonist, this novel is big, loud, abrasive, witty, perverse, earnest and amazingly accomplished. The Evolution of Bruno Littlemore goes beyond satire by showing us not what it means, but what it feels like be human -- to love and lose, learn, aspire, grasp, and, in the end, to fail.
Wormholes
ISBN: , SKU: , AUTHOR: Bast, Edward O., PUBLISHER: Vantage Press, Wormholes Science fiction fans alert Your reservation at the intergalactic theater is as close as your copy of Wormholes, Edward O. Bast's new novel about time travel. It is the story of Ben Errington, an American paleontologist, who, on a solo dig in Montana, discovers a fossilized, gold-ring-encircled human finger bone ? a 65-million-year-old relic that should not exist. As Ben is contemplating this phenomenon, he is approached by a 32nd-century exploration team on Earth ship Enos nine-two, that is carrying out a combined Earth/Martian mission. Objective: to retrieve the artifact and restore it to its proper place in the Cretaceous period where, after completing the time loop, it can be discovered later. Ben is invited to join the crew of Enos nine-two on its expedition through deep space and pre-historic worlds. He has been given an offer that no dedicated paleontologist can refuse.
In Sunlight and in Shadow
ISBN: , SKU: , AUTHOR: Helprin, Mark, PUBLISHER: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH), Mark Helprin's enchanting and sweeping new novel asks a simple question: can love and honor conquer all? New York in glows with post-war energy. Harry Copeland, an elite paratrooper who fought behind enemy lines in Europe, returns home to run the family business. In a single, magical encounter on the Staten Island ferry, the young singer and heiress Catherine Thomas Hale falls for him in an instant, too late to prevent her engagement to a much older man. Harry and Catherine pursue one another in a romance played out in postwar America's Broadway theaters, Long Island mansions, the offices of financiers, and the haunts of gangsters. Catherine's choice of Harry over her long-time fiance endangers Harry's livelihood and eventually threatens his life. Entrancing in its lyricism, "In Sunlight and in Shadow" so powerfully draws you into New York at the dawn of the modern age that, as in a vivid dream, you will not want to leave.
The Apocalypse Codex (A Laundry Files Novel)
ISBN: , SKU: , AUTHOR: Stross, Charles, PUBLISHER: Ace, Bob Howard may be humanity's last hope. Start praying... For outstanding heroism in the field (despite himself), computational demonologist Bob Howard is on the fast-track for promotion to management within The Laundry, the super-secret British government agency tasked with defending the realm from occult threats. Assigned to "External Assets," Bob discovers the company--unofficially--employs freelance agents to deal with sensitive situations that may embarrass Queen and Country. So when Ray Schiller--an American televangelist with the uncanny ability to miraculously heal the ill--becomes uncomfortably close to the Prime Minister, External Assets dispatches the brilliant, beautiful, and entirely unpredictable Persephone Hazard to infiltrate the Golden Promise Ministry and discover why the preacher is so interested in British politics. And it's Bob's job to make sure Persephone doesn't cause an international incident. But it's a supernatural incident that Bob needs to worry about--a global threat even The Laundry may be unable to clean up...
Finding George Orwell in Burma
ISBN: , SKU: , AUTHOR: Larkin, Emma, PUBLISHER: Penguin Press, Over the years the American writer Emma Larkin has spent traveling in Burma, she's come to know all too well the many ways this brutal police state can be described as "Orwellian." The life of the mind exists in a state of siege in Burma, and it long has. But Burma's connection to George Orwell is not merely metaphorical; it is much deeper and more real. Orwell's mother was born in Burma, at the height of the British raj, and Orwell was fundamentally shaped by his experiences in Burma as a young man working for the British Imperial Police. When Orwell died, the novel-in-progress on his desk was set in Burma. It is the place George Orwell's work holds in Burma today, however, that most struck Emma Larkin. She was frequently told by Burmese acquaintances that Orwell did not write one book about their country--his first novel, "Burmese Days"--but in fact he wrote three, the "trilogy" that included "Animal Farm" and "Nineteen Eighty-Four." When Larkin quietly asked one Burmese intellectual if he knew the work of George Orwell, he stared blankly for a moment and then said, "Ah, you mean the prophet " In one of the most intrepid political travelogues in recent memory, Emma Larkin tells of the year she spent traveling through Burma using the life and work of George Orwell as her compass. Going from Mandalay and Rangoon to poor delta backwaters and up to the old hill-station towns in the mountains of Burma's far north, Larkin visits the places where Orwell worked and lived, and the places his books live still. She brings to vivid life a country and a people cut off from the rest of the world, and from one another, by the ruling military junta and its vast network of spies and informers. Using Orwell enables her to show, effortlessly, the weight of the colonial experience on Burma today, the ghosts of which are invisible and everywhere. More important, she finds that the path she charts leads her to the people who have found ways to somehow resist the soul-crushing effects of life in this most cruel police state. And George Orwell's moral clarity, hatred of injustice, and keen powers of observation serve as the author's compass in another sense too: they are qualities she shares and they suffuse her book--the keenest and finest reckoning with life in this police state that has yet been written. A brave and revelatory reconnaissance of modern Burma, one of the world's grimmest and most shuttered police states, using as its compass the life and work of George Orwell, the man many in Burma call simply "the prophet"
Indian Summer
ISBN: , SKU: , AUTHOR: Schrick, Darrell, PUBLISHER: Authorhouse, When a young Silicon Valley engineer is murdered in an apparent random act of violence there are few tangible leads. The case falls to Detective Sergeant Mike Hurley and his tenacious partner Jim Chan. After investigating the victim''s background, they soon have a list of suspects but no evidence linking them to the crime. They find themselves facing off with their supervisor to conduct the investigation their own way. Hurley is also president of the police union and often at odds with the department bureaucracy. He is devoted to his aging, headstrong Mormon mother, who monitors his conduct from Salt Lake City. He finds solace in music and in the arms of Allison Slater, a San Francisco Symphony violinist. Indian Summer explores the often tedious and politically incorrect world of police investigation, where justice is seldom swift or even-handed. Darrell Schrick was a police officer for thirty-three years. He was also a practicing attorney. This is his first novel.
Warning Whispers
ISBN: , SKU: , AUTHOR: Korins, Paul, PUBLISHER: Black Rose Writing, Haunting whispers are back And so, another mind-blowing journey for thirteen-year-old Jake Mactaggart. It all begins with those whispers, this time concerning a new kid on the block, Conor Graves. He's a mysterious boy, with a blank face and dead eyes, who is unaware of the dark secret looming like a heavy cloud, about to weep. And when the rains do come, lies are washed away, leaving hard truth-bitter pills for Jake to swallow. There is something else gnawing at Jake, also difficult to accept, and the very thought of it fills him with dread: The real possibility of losing his starting position in center field. To Conor Graves Then, on one afternoon at the ball field, sun blazing, Conor and Jake are awed by a strange occurrence, and everything changes. But Jake shudders when he thinks about what's now in store for them, in this coming-of-age novel for boys and girls alike.
The Marsh of Gold: Pasternak's Writings on Inspiration and
ISBN: , SKU: , AUTHOR: Pasternak, Boris / Livingstone, Angela, PUBLISHER: Academic Studies Press, Major statements by the celebrated Russian poet Boris Pasternak () about poetry, inspiration, the creative process and the significance of artistic/ literary creativity in his own life, as well as in human life altogether, are presented here in his own words (in translation) and are discussed in the extensive Commentaries and Introduction. Although universally acknowledged as one of the great writers of the twentieth century, Pasternak is not yet sufficiently recognized as the highly original and important thinker that he also was. All his life he thought and wrote about the nature and significance of the experience of inspiration, though avoiding the word "inspiration" where possible as his own views were not the conventional ones. The texts collected in this book range from to and are between two and ninety pages long. There are Commentaries on all the texts, as well as a final Essay on Pasternak's famous novel "Doctor Zhivago," which is looked at here in the light of what it says on art and inspiration.
The Book of Matthew: A Macabre Novel of Suspense
ISBN: , SKU: , AUTHOR: White, Thomas, PUBLISHER: McBooks Press, A series of frightening murders plagues San Francisco. To solve the crimes, Homicide Inspector Clemson Yao enlists the help of Angie Strachan, a Realtor who once tried--and failed--to become the city's first female homicide inspector. The two face off against a ghoulish, black-humored serial killer who whimsically refers to his grotesque murders as "messies." Gripped by macabre obsession for a decade, he's evolved into a grandmaster of slow, anguished death, roaming the globe to catalog the most despicable methods of execution and keeping his research in dozens of leather-bound notebooks. Clem and Angie slowly unravel the murderer's clues, but their quarry is always one step ahead of them and even an FBI profiler can't help them pin down the twisted mind behind the crimes. It's a desperate race against time, for the killer has an agenda. His next victims are already picked out--and it seems no one can stop him.
The Constant Gardener
ISBN: , SKU: , AUTHOR: Le Carre, John, PUBLISHER: Hodder & Stoughton General Division, Now a major motion picture from Fernando Meirelles, the Academy Award-nominated director of "City of God" "The Constant Gardener" is a magnificent exploration of the new world order by one of the most compelling and elegant storytellers of our time. The novel opens in northern Kenya with the gruesome murder of Tessa Quayle--young, beautiful, and dearly beloved to husband Justin. When Justin sets out on a personal odyssey to uncover the mystery of her death, what he finds could make him not only a suspect among his own colleagues, but a target for Tessa's killers as well. A master chronicler of the betrayals of ordinary people caught in political conflict, John le Carre portrays the dark side of unbridled capitalism as only he can. In "The Constant Gardener" he tells a compelling, complex story of a man elevated through tragedy as Justin Quayle--amateur gardener, aging widower, and ineffectual bureaucrat--discovers his own natural resources and the extraordinary courage of the woman he barely had time to love.
Flint's Honor
ISBN: , SKU: , AUTHOR: Wheeler, Richard S., PUBLISHER: Forge, The saga that began in Flint's Gift and Flint's Truth continues in Flint's Honor, a gripping new novel about Sam Flint, a dedicated frontier journalist. Sam Flint knew he'd made a big mistake the minute be pulled into Silver City. He'd heard the city was two miles long, and three yards wide, and that wasn't far from the truth. Built high up in a tight valley, there wasn't a foot of space to be bought or bartered, and the few rooms there were had already been triple-rented. It was a fool's errand, but the journeyman editor and printer felt an honest journalist had to take on the Silver City Democrat, a second-rate newspaper run by a corrupt editor. An honest journalist, Sam Flint strongly believes it is his duty to take on the lies of the Democrat, but how can he launch his own paper when the whole town is in his rival's pocket?
The Family Corleone
ISBN: , SKU: , AUTHOR: Falco, Edward, PUBLISHER: Random House, New York, . The city and the nation are in the depths of the Great Depression. The crime families of New York have prospered in this time, but with the coming end of Prohibition, a battle is looming that will determine which organizations will rise and which will face a violent end. For Vito Corleone, nothing is more important that his family's future. While his youngest children, Michael, Fredo, and Connie, are in school, unaware of their father's true occupation, and his adopted son Tom Hagen is a college student, he worries most about Sonny, his eldest child. Vito pushes Sonny to be a businessman, but Sonny-17 years-old, impatient and reckless-wants something else: To follow in his father's footsteps and become a part of the real family business. An exhilarating and profound novel of tradition and violence, of loyalty and betrayal, The Family Corleone will appeal to the legions of fans who can never get enough of The Godfather, as well as introduce it to a whole new generation.
A Crime in the Neighborhood
ISBN: , SKU: , AUTHOR: Berne, Suzanne, PUBLISHER: Owl Publishing Company, An auspicious debut novel by a young writer who will remind readers of Anne Lamott and Anne Tyler Crime in the Neighborhood centers on a headline event-- the molestation and murder of a twelve-year-old boy in a Washington, D.C., suburb. At the time of the murder, , Marsha was nine years old and as an adult she still remembers that summer as a time when murder and her own family's upheaval were intertwined. Everyone, it seemed to Marsha at the time, was committing crimes. Her father deserted his family to take up with her mother's younger sister. Her teenage brother and sister were smoking and shoplifting, and her mother was "flirting" with Mr. Green, the new next-door neighbor. Even the president of the United States seemed to be a crook. But it is Marsha's own suspicions about who committed this crime that has the town up in arms and reveals what happens when fear runs wild.
Touching Winter
ISBN: , SKU: , AUTHOR: Rozelle, Ron, PUBLISHER: Texas Christian University Press, Ron Rozelle's new novel, Touching Winter, is a four-part-evocation of memory and place and the yearning for home. Each part of the novel begins with a meditation on one aspect of the protagonist's life as he watches the unpredictable weather of East Texas. When Will was a young boy, he and his grandfather enjoyed being out in the spectacular East Texas storms. These sessions taught Will many things about life--ranching, weather, character, how to be a man--and bound Will to the family land and to his grandfather. Only at the ranch does Will feel like the person he was, or would like to be, before wrong decisions turned his life down an entirely different path. A powerful, early romance proved disastrous, and the relationship haunts him. To compensate for lost love, Will carved a niche for himself in the competitive concrete industry, inventing a technique to make mixing trucks more efficient and becoming wealthier than he could have dreamed. His marriage to a Houston socialite is thin and brittle, unsatisfying for his wife, Lauren, and for himself. Their daughter Aimee lives in California, as far away from her family as possible. As Will ages, he turns to the ranch as a place of clarity in times of crisis, eventually moving back there entirely. He exchanges the public life he and Lauren led in Houston for the simplicity of walks along the rustic fence, lunch with old friends at the town's only diner, and long evenings on the porch watching the stars. Along the way, a fierce, red-breasted hawk comes to represent the spiritual for Will, and he is forced to face the consequences of earlier decisions. "After his soup and crackers he came out here, not interested in the inane offerings ontelevision on such a splendid night. All those years away from here-down in the flat, concrete and steel landscape of Houston--he missed this porch. These hills. These stars. This porch swing, and the larger one that once hung here. He finds Orion, the hunter, in a sky packed with stars. It is a clear, cool night that often precedes a big norther, as if Nature has done a good cleaning, making sure everything is scrubbed bright before the onslaught of a particularly rambunctious visitor. He listens for geese; hopes for them. For the reassurance of their presence, of things moving along... None yet. So far there's just been the sound of a car as it passes, and the slight rustling of leaves in the giant cottonwood that was already old before he was born."
Le straordinarie avventure di Adele Blanc-Sec Vol.1e2
Piglio deciso, spirito avventuroso, fascino indiscutibile, pessimo carattere... Adele Blanc-sec non è certo il tipo di donna che passa inosservato. E questo può essere un grosso problema, per una che come lei ha un vero e proprio talento per farsi trascinare in storie su cui non esercita il benché minimo controllo: che si tratti di cacce allo pterodattilo o sacrifici a demoni assiri, inseguimenti, ibernazioni o ricerche di preziosi bottini, Adele è sempre lì, pronta a correre, indagare e farsi ogni volta nuovi nemici, per proteggersi dai quali non può neanche contare sull'inetta (quando non corrotta) polizia parigina. Fino al terribile epilogo, che frena ogni corsa e arresta ogni battito, nell'attesa trepidante delle nuove, straordinarie avventure di Adele Blanc-sec. Le straordinarie avventure di Adele Blanc-sec mescola con humour acuto e grottesco atmosfere alla Lovecraft, azione, suspense e mistero: il presente volume, che ne raccoglie i primi quattro episodiDella graphic novel, sarà presto seguito da un Libro II a completamento dell'opera più conosciuta di Tardi.
Laughter and Ridicule: Towards a Social Critique of Humour
ISBN: , SKU: , AUTHOR: Billig, Mick / Billig, Michael, PUBLISHER: Sage Publications (CA), From Thomas Hobbes' fear of the power of laughter to the compulsory, packaged "fun" of the contemporary mass media, Billig takes the reader on a stimulating tour of the strange world of humour. Both a significant work of scholarship and a novel contribution to the understanding of the humourous, this is a seriously engaging book' - David Inglis, University of Aberdeen This delightful book tackles the prevailing assumption that laughter and humour are inherently good. In developing a critique of humour the author proposes a social theory that places humour - in the form of ridicule - as central to social life. Billig argues that all cultures use ridicule as a disciplinary means to uphold norms of conduct and conventions of meaning. Historically, theories of humour reflect wider visions of politics, morality and aesthetics. For example, Bergson argued that humour contains an element of cruelty while Freud suggested that we deceive ourselves about the true nature of our laughter. Billig discusses these and other theories, while using the topic of humour to throw light on the perennial social problems of regulation, control and emancipation.
A Girl Could Stand Up
ISBN: , SKU: , AUTHOR: Marshall, Leslie, PUBLISHER: Grove Press, Surprising and wise, A Girl Could Stand Up bristles with charm and introduces one of literature's most unforgettable young heroines. On an outing to celebrate Elray's sixth birthday, her parents are killed in a freak accident. The day of their funeral, a pair of woefully unprepared uncles is sent in to care for her: Uncle Harwood, a macho, hard-drinking photographer who's always on assignment, and Ajax, a thirty-something cross-dressing uncle who prefers to present himself as an "aunt." But the beating heart of this novel is the love story that develops between Elray and her friend Raoul. Their secret adventures in their search for invincibility take them from the crypts of the Washington Cathedral to a life-threatening swim in the waters of the Potomac. Marshall has created a big-hearted world that is hers alone. Reminiscent of John Irving's Hotel New Hampshire, A Girl Could Stand Up is a testament to a new idea of family in its imperfect but shining state.