"In 2008, Bruce Davidson, who had already photographed New York and Paris, began exploring Los Angeles with a focus on its exotic plant life. The arid climate, normally hostile to life, allows for an exceptional botanical diversity in L.A. County that reaches from the surrounding foothills and mountain wilderness to the Pacific Ocean, and Davidson quickly became a Los Angeles convert. "Traffic, wealth, poverty, violence and other urban phenomena give way to valiant plant life where ivy thrives on the underside of the 405 and Glendale Freeway interchanges, and a tree in the foothills regenerates itself after a wildfire has parched its bark," he writes. "Without its plant life and human respect for it, L.A. would be a vast desert void." Nature of Los Angeles 2008-2013 depicts the city in black and white, presenting its beauty and banality as emblematic of urban existence in general."

The selected plays of Bruce Jay Friedman which include Scuba Duba, Steambath, Sardines and the Trial along with reviews of his work. "...Friedman is not just a blasphemously funny writer; if you haven't come across a good perception of the Absurd lately, this one is personal and cogent and contemporary." -New York Times "What Friedman, willy-nilly, is telling us from the frazzled depths of his being is that he, they, we are living in a loony bin in which anything goes." - The Nation

Publisher's Advance Review Copy slip laid in. A A clean, unmarked and unclipped copy in a Mylar dj cover. Price clipped.

In this laugh-out-loud travelogue, an average American man journeys to a country unlike any other: 1980s Japan. Early one morning, Mike Halsey leaves his sleeping girlfriend and his house deep in the woods to go out and buy the morning paper. His favorite deli is closed, so he keeps driving and winds up on an unfamiliar lakeside road. Then it hits him: the old wanderlust. The last time it struck, he ended up on the coast of Finland.

Bryce DeWitt, a student of Nobel Laureate Julian Schwinger, was himself one of the towering figures in 20th century physics, particularly renowned for his seminal contributions to quantum field theory, numerical relativity and quantum gravity. In late 1971, DeWitt gave a course on gravitation at Stanford University, leaving almost 400 pages of detailed handwritten notes. Written with clarity and authority, and edited by his former student Steven Christensen, these timeless lecture notes, containing material or expositions not found in any other textbooks, are a gem to be discovered or re-discovered by anyone seriously interested in the study of gravitational physics--P. 4 of cover.

In the first book to explore Pope John Paul II's view on interreligious dialogue, leading scholars from Buddhism, Islam, and Judaism respond to his writings and speeches on their respective traditions, and the relationship between those faiths and Catholicism. Contributors: -Pope John Paul II -The XIV Dalai Lama -Robert Aitken -Masao Abe -Jose Ignacio Cabezon -David M. Gordis -Mahmoud Ayoub -Ibrahim M. Abu-Rabi -Michael L. Fitzgerald -Wayne Teasdale

This book is a collection of hand-painted apartment-name signs and details of vernacular architecture from historical districts of Istanbul. Istanbul is rare among the world's cities for having apartment buildings named after animals, plants, even feelings. From the early 1900s to the 1970s, these names were painted on apartment entrances as elegant, idiosyncratic signs. New printing techniques, urban renewal efforts and gentrification all threaten these elegant, unacknowledged works of art. Details of historic structures, vernacular architecture and associated elements are all shared alongside an archival collection of hand-painted signs. Extensive information about the art and trade of sign painters; and the lives of individual artists is also provided

A new fertility drug is developed in Israel with the help of the heroine, Renu Krishnan, a postgraduate student from India. She personally assists the inventor in his erection tests and becomes involved in the marketing of the drug. A look at the way new drugs are developed.

Carl Kaysen offers a penetrating economic analysis of the issues in the civil antitrust suit brought by the United States Government against the United Shoe Machinery Corporation under Sections 1 and 2 of the Sherman Act. Kaysen, who served as clerk to Judge Charles E. Wyzanski, Jr. of the U.S. District Court of Massachusetts for this case, provides background material on the technique of shoe machinery and shoe manufacture, on the history of the United Shoe Machinery, and on the Anti-Trust Laws.

Winner of the prestigious Italian literary prize, Premio Vareggio, Words Are Stones offers an insightful and authentic portrait of Sicily and its people. Over a number of years, Italian writer Carlo Levi made three journeys to Sicily. He went on to chronicle his travels, penning a series of short essays that capture in miniature the essence of Sicilian life: its traditions, culture, and breathtaking landscape. Here, gathered in one comprehensive volume, these writings offer a rare and observant portrayal of an island whose people—though burdened by poverty, political upheaval, backwardness, and murder—retained a true generosity and graciousness of spirit. Italian writer and painter Carlo Levi is best known for his remarkable work, Christ Stopped at Eboli.

Family trauma, race, and the destiny of a nation corrupted by slavery, cast in the light of epic myth: "More than a saga of Black revitalization . . . Part vision, part parable, it is a story for all America." ( The New York Times Book Review ) The Snowdon family stands as a pinnacle of Black excellence in Washington, D.C.: educated, affluent, and influential. John Christopher, the patriarch, saves lives as a heart surgeon and is revered by his students at Howard University. His wife, Camille, governs an elegant house overlooking Rock Creek Park and devotes herself to reading, gardening, and raising their three daughters--Cynthia, Patricia, and Eva--to attend the very best schools and roam the world on a whim. Theirs ought to be a story of success and empowerment, but something is rotten in the house of Snowdon. Years later, when John Christopher's granddaughter Johnnie comes to seek the truth about her own parentage, she unveils a legacy of unspeakable family secrets tangled up in America's original sin. What begins as a quest for identity spirals into an apocalyptic vision of a nation on the brink of ruin. By turns a poetic epic, a ghost story, a historical saga, and a chilling dystopian fable, Thereafter Johnnie is a unique and uniquely American fusion of myth and hard-bitten reality: an erotic, horrifying, and even hopeful reckoning with centuries of injustice.

'The most life-affirming book ever written about death.' Sandi Toksvig 'One of the most powerful and helpful books about grief that you will ever read.' Anita Anand 'Grief is more than the price of love. It is love. We must learn not just to live with it, but to make it welcome.' Mother and daughter Anne Mayer Bird and Catherine Mayer were widowed within 41 days of each other on the eve of the pandemic, then locked down alone. Their profound isolation was broken just once a week, when Catherine visited Anne to care for her, at distance and in a mask. Together they found ways to navigate their loss and the startling questions and challenges that confronted them. In this memoir, Catherine also investigates the possibility that her husband, renowned musician Andy Gill, contracted Covid-19 when his band, Gang of Four, toured China in late 2019. Her main focus, however, is not on death, but on life and love. This is a captivating account of lives well lived, moving and spiked with black humour. It is interwoven with letters Anne wrote to her husband John to tell him of the astonishing and heartrending events since his death and her small triumphs in living independently. In sharing their insights and experiences, Catherine and Anne aim to help those who have lost or will lose people or who wish to know how best to support others in such circumstances. They also celebrate love--for John and Andy and each other. 'We are extraordinarily lucky, my mother and I. We have each other and we have this room. 'In this living room, we are learning to embrace the things we can't touch, each other and the lovely dead.'

An autobiography of Chaim Aronson (1825-1888). He was born in what is now Lithuania. He married three times. By 1887, four of his five sons had immigrated to New York. He immigrated from St. Petersburg, Russia in 1888 and died in New York.