In these three short plays, middle-aged Bobby Gould returns to the old neighborhood in a series of encounters with his past that, however briefly, open windows to his present. In The Disappearance of the Jews (also included in Mamet's Three Jewish Plays), Bobby and an old buddy fantasize about finding themselves in a nostalgic shtetl paradise, while revealing how lost they are in their own families. In Jolly, Bobby's sister, from the comfort of her kitchen, unscrolls a list of childhood grievances that is at once painful and hilarious. And the old girlfriend in Deeny, faced with a man she once loved, finds herself obsessively free-associating on gardening, sex, and subatomic particles.

"Alcatraz. The prison fortress off the coast of San Francisco. No man had gotten out alive before his time was up, until a 20-year-old petty thief named Willie Moore broke out. Recaptured, then thrown into a pitch-black hellhole for three agonizing years, Willie is driven to near-madness by a sadistic warden, and finally, to a brutal killing. Now, up on first-degree murder charges, he must wrestle with his nightmares and forge an alliance with Henry Davidson, the embattled lawyer who will risk losing his career and the woman he loves in a desperate bid to save Willie from the gas chamber. Together, Willie and Henry will dare the most impossible act of all: get Willie off on a savage crime that the system drove him to commit--and put Alcatraz itself on trial."--Page 4 of cover.

Science and religion have two seemingly opposing views of the universe's biggest questions. But what if the real story told you they were both right? Vancouver, 2009. Physics engineer and CEO Daniel Friedmann loves solving problems. When the avid scientist dives deep into scripture, he's faced with questions he feels compelled to answer: Is it possible to harmonize the scientific timeline for the development of the universe with the biblical timeline described in Genesis 1? How do the evolution of human history and prophecies surrounding the End of Days fit in?His quest for answers takes him and his nephew Seb on an incredible journey through the ages, discovering the lives and works of mystics, prophets, sages, philosophers, scientists and biblical commentators.Follow Dan and Seb as they discover answers to some of the biggest questions in science and religion, including: -Does the six-day creation account actually link with science's 13.8 billion-year timeline?- How do world history, Genesis, and the End of Days fit within the context of God's Plan in heaven?- How can the appearance of life on Earth, as depicted by the fossil record, match the sequence and timing of life on Earth described in Genesis 1?- Do Genesis and the evolution of human history reveal the events and timing for the End of Days?- Are there texts predating modern science that describe the Big Bang and contain the scientifically calculated age of the universe?- And finally, is there a secret harmony resolving the creation-versus-evolution debate?The Biblical Clock is a fascinating and entertaining read, digging deep into the universe and solving its well-kept mysteries. Order your copy today

Originally published in 1981, as Picnic this revised and expanded edition is a celebration of the tradition of preparing and savoring meals in the open. It reveals a world of simply prepared and delicious foods and stimulates the imagination with tales from far and near in Claudia Roden's elegant, discursive style. It offers the conventional and the exotic: from the street food of the Middle East and Mediterranean, the festivals of the high grassy plains of Mexico to the English traditions of picnicing in parks, at Glyndebourne and shooting-lunches on the moors. This is a book for any season and any climate. It is a book to cook from and a book to read and the re-issue of this classic will be welcomed by all lovers of Claudia Roden's writings.

Famed psychotherapist Albert Ellis, & psychologist Michael Abrams show how the dying person can stave off depression & seize what opportunities for enjoyment are still available. Even when terminal cancer, AIDS, or other death-dealing afflictions strike, people have choices & they can learn how to cope, & to enjoy their remaining days. Shows how to deal with guilt & anger & put an end to hysteria. Reveals how friends & loved ones who panic over impending death may harmfully influence the one they grieve for, to impose needless suffering, & may foster terror & withdrawal from healthy involvements. Their heartwarming stories of successful coping by the celebrated & the obscure offer the reader comfort & aid at a time when both are sorely needed.

"The Threshold of the Visible World" advances a new political aesthetic - Kaja Silverman explores the possibilities for looking beyond the restrictive mandates of the self, and the normative aspects of the cultural image-repertoire. She provides a detailed account of the social and psychic forces which constrain us to look and identify in normative ways, and the violence which that normativity implies. Accounting for these phenomena on both a conscious and an unconscious level, Silverman analyzes the psychic and textual conditions under which our "field of vision" can be expanded. The title of this book is taken from Lacan's essay on the mirror stage. In that text, Lacan writes that "the mirror-image would seem to be the threshold of the visible world." He thereby suggests that the visible world has no existence as such until the infant subject has access to an image of self. Lacan intimates that the mirror provides the frame through which one relates to others within the domain of vision, stressing the priority of narcissism and the ego over all other libidinal transactions. The Threshold of the Visible World provides a psychic, social and political specification of Lacan's claim, and most particularly of its implications for the subject's relations to the social other. This is accomplished through examination of the ego, as well as two other categories at the center of Lacan's account of the mirror stage: ideality and identification. This book is an ethical-political project which leads to the re-elaboration of a number of crucial theoretical categories--Silverman offers an account of the bodily ego, of identification, of idealization, of the gaze, of the look, and of the "photographic." The Threshold of the Visible World leads as well to the formulation of a fresh model for conceptualizing sexual, racial and class "difference," and the terms under which it might be dismantled. This book thus seeks to apprehend the field of vision through the frame of a different kind of bodily ego, and discover the pleasures to be derived from corporeal transport.

For a romantic, it's life's ultimate question: What is This Thing Called Love? Actor and novelist Gene Wilder explores twelve possible answers in this emotionally involving book about different kinds of love: star-crossed, intense, needy, eternal, unrequited and even comical. With delicacy of feeling and a simple style that adds to the power of his fiction, Wilder creates memorable lovers and silly suitors, unexpected attraction and careful courting. What is This Thing Called Love? is for anyone who has ever yearned for a deep connection, made a study of love, and spent their life trying to find the real thing. "A lighthearted reminder of love's potential (requited, even unrequited) to make a life worthwhile."—Los Angeles Times

With the publication of The Periodic Table in 1984, Primo Levi became one of America's most beloved writers. This new collection of his stories and essays reveals the full imaginative range of this great Italian writer. Most of the stories are science fiction and fantasy, combining Levi's love for science with his keen perceptions of human nature. The essays, originally written for the Italian newspaper La Stampa, cover a broad range of his interests, from art and literature to politics and current affairs. Levi's quick wit and humanity shine through in these gemlike pieces.

"Children will love this topsy-turvy tale of a pirate girl who merrily gives her treasure away, cleverly outwits the enemy, and refuses to marry a prince! Includes a tattoo for extra pirate fun" Cf. Our choice, 1999-2000

Rich kid Nic has had everything she ever wanted - except the love or attention of her too busy father. Growing up poor never stopped Caryn dreaming of making it big. Now she is determined to break away from her past to make a better life for herself. Tired of being compared to her sister, all Tory wants is to be allowed to be herself. Into their lives walks beautiful, ruthless Estelle - and she has a secret. A secret for which they will each pay a heavy price...

In the perfect family, there's a thin line between love and hate, especially when there's so much to hide. The Keelers are one of those families that seem to have everything. Glamorous, wealthy and privileged, life has always been easy for them, on the outside at least. But even the happiest of families have their secrets.

Making the rich narrative world of Talmud tales fully accessible to modern readers, renowned Talmud scholar Jeffrey L. Rubenstein turns his spotlight on both famous and little-known stories, analyzing the tales in their original contexts, exploring their cultural meanings and literary artistry, and illuminating their relevance. Delving into both rabbinic life (the academy, master-disciple relationships) and Jewish life under Roman and Persian rule (persecution, taxation, marketplaces), Rubenstein explains how storytellers used irony, wordplay, figurative language, and other art forms to communicate their intended messages. Each close reading demonstrates the story’s continuing relevance through the generations into modernity. For example, the story “Showdown in Court,” a confrontation between King Yannai and the Rabbinic judges, provides insights into controversial struggles in U.S. history to balance governmental power; the story of Honi’s seventy-year sleep becomes a window into the indignities of aging. Through the prism of Talmud tales, Rubenstein also offers timeless insights into suffering, beauty, disgust, heroism, humor, love, sex, truth, and falsehood. By connecting twenty-first-century readers to past generations, The Land of Truth helps to bridge the divide between modern Jews and the traditional narrative worlds of their ancestors.

With rhyming text, this soothing bedtime book is an ode to baby birds everywhere and sleepy children home safe in their own beds. As a mother describes to her child how many species of birds nest, from pigeons on concrete ledges to owls in oak tree boles to swallows above barn doors. The soothing refrain of "you nest here with me" eases her little one and readers alike to slumber. Combining their poetic writing and their love of birding, mother and daughter Jane Yolen and Heidi Stemple have written what is sure to become a bedtime classic.

When Ike Goldman, a seventy-eight-year-old retired law professor at Columbia University, dissuades a much younger woman from jumping off the George Washington Bridge, he never suspects that his selfless action will lead to love. Nor does he suspect that the sensitive and caring woman whom he saved from herself will be accused of murdering her abusive ex-husband. Ike cannot believe that Elizabeth could be capable of such an act, but he has known her for only six weeks and cannot stop the questions that hound him. Was the abuse that Elizabeth suffered during her eight-year marriage enough to drive her to murder? Could Ike's love for her blind him to a dark side of her personality? Does her refuge in her Catholic faith mask a dreadful vengeance? In the swirling thrust and parry of Elizabeth's trial, Ike is forced to examine his hopes, his beliefs, and his love for a woman whose life hangs in the balance.

"All over the city on streets and walks and walls the children ... have established ancient, essential and ephemeral forms of art, have set forth in chalk and crayon the names and images of their pride, love, preying, scorn, desire. ... The Lady in this House is Nuts. ... Lois I have gone up the street. Don't forget to bring your skates. ... Ruby loves Max but Max hates Ruby. ... And drawings, all over, of ... ships, homes ... western heroes ... and monsters ... which each strong shower effaces."So wrote James Agee in 1939. He shared this fascination with children's street drawings and messages with his friend Helen Levitt. Here now are over one hundred of her photographs, made in the years between 1938 and 1948. Most of these pictures have never before been published. They have been selected and arranged by the photographer and carefully reproduced. Robert Coles has written especially for this book an essay on the imaginative live of children and of a time when ". . . children still had some visual independence, some keen-eyed interest in laying pictorial claim to the world around them. ... I have not seen scenes such as Helen Levitt offers in my wanderings through America's city streets twenty and thirty and forty years after these were taken. They offer, then, a look backward--though they are also timeless in certain aspects. For children will never really stop being tempted by their imaginative faculties to show and tell--to let others see what they find themselves conceiving in thought and fantasy and dream."

Here is your encyclopedia of Doll Magic! Toy Dolls; Stuffed Animals; Wooden Dolls; Cloth, Leather, and Sock Dolls; Knitted and Crocheted Dolls; Bone,?Horn, Antler, and?Feather?Dolls; Clay, Mud, and Dirt?Dolls; Paper Dolls; Wax, Butter, Fat, and?Meat Dolls; Twig and Stick Dolls; Rope and Twine Dolls; Loaded?Statuary Dolls; Figural?Candle Dolls; Photograph and?Tintype?Dolls; Dough, Bread, and?Cookie Dolls; and Corn?Husk?Dolls.Learn the basic techniques: How to link an effigy to a person, how to baptize it, speak to it, feed it, and keep it working for you, as well as how and why to stab, cut, tie, bind, burn, drown, deploy, dispose of, kill, and unmake your magical dolls.Dozens of step-by-step doll spells! Complete lists of herbs, roots, and incense powders to stuff inside them, liquids to splash on them, and prayers to say over them are included. More than 50 pages of traditional spells: Dolls for Romance and Love, to Draw and Hold Money, for Power and Success, to cause Pain and Suffering, to Cleanse and Heal, and for Protection, plus a bonus chapter on Venerated Idols and Fetishes.A complete course in doll magic in one handy book!

"The complete graphic fiction sequel to Alejandro Jodorowskys surreal and beloved cult western, collected together in a deluxe hardcover for the first time! A bandit without morals or limits A transformative journey through the west And his two sons, Cain and Abel. Embark on an unforgettable journey as these two brothers take their respective paths of hate and love, at odds, but set on a course of enlightenment amidst the magic and mayhem. Iconic filmmaker and writer Alejandro Jodorowsky completes his fantastical saga, the sequel to his beloved cult classic film El Topo (1970), alongside illustrator Jos Ladrönn (The Incal). Prepare to be immersed in a surreal and deeply spiritual western, where fate brings the two sons of El Topo to the end of their journey, collected in a premium, hardcover omnibus for the very first time."--

To celebrate the centennial of the great American composing team George and Ira Gershwin, we proudly present a resplendent Warren Barker treatment of some of the Gershwin's fabulous hits, including Fascinating Rhythm, Embraceable You, Somebody Loves Me, Someone To Watch Over Me and I Got Rhythm. Splashes of color, charismatic textures, and all of the Barker 'trademarks' are here. A stunning rendition! (duration 6: 40)

Liza Goldberg is twenty-five, Jewish, heterosexual--and unhappy. She is also a bulimic caught in a self-destructive cycle of alternately binging and starving herself. This novel tells of her discovering her lesbian identity, and of the people in her life, her first female lover, Anemone; Harvey, her gay roommate; and the nursery school kids from whom Liza sneaks peanut butter snacks.

After a ten-year absence, the return of one of the most enduring series characters in modern SF James Bolivar "Slippery Jim" DiGriz, Special Corps agent, master con man, interstellar criminal (retired), is living high on the hog on the planet of Moolaplenty when a long-lost cousin and a shipful of swine arrive to drain his bank account and send him and his lovely wife, Angelina, wandering the stars on the wildest journey since Gulliver's Travels . In this darkly satiric work, Harry Harrison bring his most famous character out of retirement for a grand tour of the galaxy. The Stainless Steel Rat rides again: a cocktail in his hand, a smile on his lips, and larceny in his heart, in search of adventure, gravitons, and a way to get rid of the pigs.