A retelling of a midrashic tale in which Adam and Eve are frightened when the sun sets for the first time.

Examines the lives and careers of four distinguished Irish authors and analyzes the connections among them.

Faussone, an Italian engineer, describes projects he has worked on all around the world and explains what he has learned in his travels

Whether talking about her own writing, interpreting the works of others, or giving us a window on the world that "we in South Africa are attempting to reconstruct," Nadine Gordimer has much to tell us about the art of fiction and the art of life. In this deeply resonant book Gordimer examines the tension for a writer between life's experiences and narrative creations. She asks first, where do characters come from--to what extent are they drawn from real life? We are touching on this question whenever we insist on the facts behind the fiction, Gordimer suggests, and here she tries to unravel the mysterious process that breathes "real" life into fiction. Exploring the writings of revolutionaries in South Africa, she shows how their struggle is contrastingly expressed in factual accounts and in lyrical poetry. Gordimer next turns to three writers linked by their search for a life that transcends their own time and place: in distinctive and telling ways, Naguib Mahfouz, Chinua Achebe, and Amos Oz defy accepted norms of loyalty to the mores and politics of their countries. Their search in Egypt, Nigeria, and Israel for a meaningful definition of home testifies to what it must be: the destination of the human spirit beyond national boundaries. Ending on a personal note, Gordimer reveals her own experience of "writing her way out of" the confines of a dying colonialism.

Retells the story of how a beautiful Jewish girl became the Queen of Persia and saved her people from death at the hands of the evil Haman.

Retells the Old Testament story of the man who disobeyed God's wishes and was swallowed by a great fish.

When compiler Jerome Charyn first read Saul Bellow's The Adventures of Augie March, a world of letters opened up to him. It was his first exposure to the full potential of language, rendered breathlessly. In those pages he felt the terror and delight and buzz and ceaseless clatter of the inside of a hornet's head. Here, he shares with us nineteen stories, including one from Augie March, that evoke similar feelings of passion and pain and joy. Selected from some of America's most celebrated Jewish writers, as well as a few lesser known ones, Inside the Hornet's Head is a moving, daring, appealing, and indispensable work.

"With every step, the Tomb Guards pay homage to America's fallen. Discover their story, and that of the unknown soldiers they honor, through resonant words and illustrations. Keeping vigil at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, in Arlington National Cemetery, are the sentinel guards, whose every step, every turn, honors and remembers America's fallen. They protect fellow soldiers who have paid the ultimate sacrifice, making sure they are never alone. To stand there--with absolute precision, in every type of weather, at every moment of the day, one in a line uninterrupted since midnight July 2, 1937--is the ultimate privilege and the most difficult post to earn in the army. Everything these men and women do is in service to the Unknowns. Their standard is perfection. Exactly how the unnamed men came to be entombed at Arlington, and exactly how their fellow soldiers have come to keep vigil over them, is a sobering and powerful tale ... that honors the soldiers who honor the fallen"--Provided by publisher

In this collection of short meditations on various topics, Hans Blumenberg eschews academic ponderousness and writes in a genre evocative of Montaigne's Essais , Walter Benjamin's Denkbilder , or Adorno's Minima Moralia . Drawing upon an intellectual tradition that ranges from Aesop to Wittgenstein and from medieval theology to astrophysics, he works as a detective of ideas scouring the periphery of intellectual and philosophical history for clues--metaphors, gestures, anecdotes--essential to grasping human finitude. Images of shipwrecks, attempts at ordering the world, and questions of foundations are traced through the work of Goethe, Schopenhauer, Simmel, Husserl, Thomas Mann, and others. The book's reflections culminate in a rereading of the fable "Care Crosses the River" that lies at the center of Heidegger's analysis of Dasein in which the fable's elided Gnostic center is recovered: Care creates the human in its own image, as a reflection of its narcissism. At stake throughout are two inextricable elements of Blumenberg's thought: a theory of nonconceptuality as essential to philosophizing and an exploration of culture understood as humanity's unceasing attempts to relieve itself of the weight of the absolutism of reality.

Now you, dear reader, hold in your hands the never-before-seen archives of the secret Ghost Society. This incredibly useful guide is your key to making contact with the beyond. So read on . . . but only if you're ready to find our what lurks on the other side.

Career choices ranging from clothing designer, coach, animator to aerospace engineer and many more are explored. Includes interviews with real women, activities for girls to "try out" each career, quizzes, puzzles and journal pages.

"Author Catherine Newman provides supportive guidance and instruction to help kids establish or and maintain meaningful relationships and effective communication with friends, teachers, family members, and others in their communities"--

"Brings together Harte's best-known pieces including "The Luck of Roaring Camp" and "The Outcasts of Poker Flat," along with essays, a selection of poetry, and three of his condensed novels" --

The photographer Steve Bloom is off on another expedition, this time to see the animals living at the freezing poles: polar bears, penguins, whales and seals. The book follows Steve's journey as he finds out how these animals survive day to day how they live, grow up, hunt and have babies. His on-location account and dramatic photography make for an exciting commentary. Each key animal polar bear, whale, penguin, albatross and seal appears in a 3?4-spread photograph and a close-up box feature that introduces facts. Within the diary narrative, information and photographs are presented in a visually exciting way, from letting the reader watch how a baby penguin grows into an adult, to seeing a roll call of the different kinds of penguin. There are feature boxes throughout, with tips for children who want to take their own photos of animals, and at the back of the book there are two spreads further explaining how to photograph animals in the wild or at home.

A treasury of Yiddish literature features stories that represent Jewish traditions, culture, and history in a volume that includes works from the earliest literary periods through the present-day writings of I.B. Singer