1222 results for "World Literature"

When?

Lionni, Leo
From sunup to sundown, winter through fall, Leo Lionni's signature illustration style and a toddler-friendly text ask a simple question: When is time of day/season? One of four board books that celebrates the art and imagination of Leo Lionni, this book is a perfect introduction to the concepts of time and seasons for busy toddlers, as well as a wonderful stepping stone into the world of one of our best-loved children's book creators.
Knopf Books for Young Readers 2014

No Second Chance

Harlan Coben
Marc Seidman awakens to find himself in an ICU, hooked up to an IV, his head swathed in bandages. Twelve days earlier, he had had an enviable life as a successful surgeon, living in a peaceful suburban neighborhood with his beautiful wife and a baby he adored. Now he lies in a hospital bed, shot by an unseen assailant. His wife has been killed, and his six-month-old daughter, Tara has vanished. But just when his world seems forever shattered, something arrives to give Marc new hope: a ransom note.
RB large print 2003 506 pages

Hoffman 4--Property of

Hoffman, Alice
Accept the idea of ennobling an addict-gangleader's obsession with Honor, and Property Of could be stunning, enthralling tragedy. Reject it, and Hoffman's first novel is still an unmistakably gifted work, lavishing heart and craft on intractably unsympathetic materials. Hoffman finds poetry--terse, tough poetry--in her unnamed narrator's doomed infatuation with McKay, president of the Orphans, a street gang whose turf is "the Avenue" near the New York City-Nassau County line. We never learn who she is, though her voice is clearly middle-class and literate, any more than we learn why McKay is insensitive, a thief, a killer, an addict. No sociological cop-outs, then, just acute observation--of the Orphans (Machiavellian pusher Dolphin, hopeless Danny the Sweet), of the "girls in mascara and leather and silence" who are the Orphans' "Property." And love. "It's only love," she says. "Don't use that word again," McKay says. "Then I'll take what I can get." What she can get is front-seat sex on the George Washington Bridge, shared needles and spoons ("It was only white powder and the blue liquid of his vein and love"), and shared despair when McKay loses honor--by accidentally shooting a rival leader in the back. "Without one word, McKay was without the world," and without heroin, he's reduced to Darvon and Thunderbird, he's deposed, beaten up, and busted. She waits for him, only to find that he comes out of prison a vengeful coke pusher ("it's a start") and an enthusiastic user. Except for occasional pretentious/romantic overkill, Hoffman's heroine records the slow and sudden dyings with clarity, irony, suppressed lyricism--and even recognizes the problems that many readers will face. "Ah, I see. You can't forget that all of the words are draped in black leather." No, most of us can't, but we'll read anyway and wait for more from Alice Hoffman. (Kirkus Reviews, May 1, 1977)
Fawcett Books 1988-08

The Daemon Knows Literary Greatness and the American Sublime

Harold Bloom
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE WASHINGTON POST AND KIRKUS REVIEWS Hailed as “the indispensable critic” by The New York Review of Books, Harold Bloom— New York Times bestselling writer and Sterling Professor of Humanities at Yale University—has for decades been sharing with readers and students his genius and passion for understanding literature and explaining why it matters. Now he turns at long last to his beloved writers of our national literature in an expansive and mesmerizing book that is one of his most incisive and profoundly personal to date. A product of five years of writing and a lifetime of reading and scholarship, The Daemon Knows may be Bloom’s most masterly book yet. Pairing Walt Whitman with Herman Melville, Ralph Waldo Emerson with Emily Dickinson, Nathaniel Hawthorne with Henry James, Mark Twain with Robert Frost, Wallace Stevens with T. S. Eliot, and William Faulkner with Hart Crane, Bloom places these writers’ works in conversation with one another, exploring their relationship to the “daemon”—the spark of genius or Orphic muse—in their creation and helping us understand their writing with new immediacy and relevance. It is the intensity of their preoccupation with the sublime, Bloom proposes, that distinguishes these American writers from their European predecessors. As he reflects on a lifetime lived among the works explored in this book, Bloom has himself, in this magnificent achievement, created a work touched by the daemon. Praise for The Daemon Knows “Enrapturing . . . radiant . . . intoxicating . . . Harold Bloom, who bestrides our literary world like a willfully idiosyncratic colossus, belongs to the party of rapture.” —Cynthia Ozick, The New York Times Book Review “The capstone to a lifetime of thinking, writing and teaching . . . The primary strength of The Daemon Knows is the brilliance and penetration of the connections Bloom makes among the great writers of the past, the shrewd sketching of intellectual feuds or oppositions that he calls agons. . . . Bloom’s books are like a splendid map of literature, a majestic aerial view that clarifies what we cannot see from the ground.” — The Washington Post “Audacious . . . The Yale literary scholar has added another remarkable treatise to his voluminous body of work.” — The Huffington Post “The sublime The Daemon Knows is a veritable feast for the general reader (me) as well as the advanced (I assume) one.” —John Ashbery “Mesmerizing.” —New York Journal of Books “Bloom is a formidable critic, an extravagant intellect.” —Chicago Tribune “As always, Bloom conveys the intimate, urgent, compelling sense of why it matters that we read these canonical authors.” — Kirkus Reviews (starred review) “Few people write criticism as nakedly confident as Bloom’s any more.” — The Guardian (U.K.)
Random House Publishing Group 2016-02-09 544 pages

Stories and Poems for Extremely Intelligent Children of All Ages

Harold Bloom
"If readers are to come to Shakespeare and to Chekhov, to Henry James and to Jane Austen, then they are best prepared if they have read Lewis Carroll and Edward Lear, Robert Louis Stevenson and Rudyard Kipling," writes Harold Bloom in his introduction to this enchanting and much-needed anthology of exceptional stories and poems selected to inspire a lifelong love of reading. As television, video games, and the Internet threaten to distract young people from the solitary pleasures of reading, Bloom presents a volume that will amuse, challenge, and beguile readers with its myriad voices and subjects. Here are old favorites by beloved writers of children's literature, as well as exciting rediscoveries and wonderful works penned by writers better known for their adult classics, such as Herman Melville, Leo Tolstoy, Edith Wharton, and Walt Whitman. Encompassing the natural world and the supernatural; childhood, romance, and death; pets, wild animals, and goblins; mystery, adventure, and humor; the selections reflect the passion and erudition of our most revered literary critic. Arranged by season, Stories and Poems for Extremely Intelligent Children of All Ages is a must-have anthology, sure to delight readers young and old for years to come.
Scribner 2002-10-02 576 pages

A history of the twentieth century

Gilbert, Martin
Martin Gilbert brings readers up to date in this rich historical narrative of the contradictory events of the last fifty years. Volume II ended in 1951, as the world recovered from World War II, and the nuclear threat increased. In this volume, Gilbert recalls the Cold War and communism--including McCarthyism, the Soviet and Warsaw Pact, the Berlin Wall--and the wars, from Korea to Vietnam to Bosnia. He moves from Poland's Solidarity Movement to Ireland's Bloody Sunday, from Pol Pot and his killing fields to the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Mao began a cultural revolution, Martin Luther King, Jr. and John F. Kennedy were assassinated, and Beijing's Tiananamen Square shocked the world. Technology and medicine advanced in leaps and bounds as the society struggled to catch up. Art, literature, and music, as well as epidemics and natural disasters, all have their place here. Many of the events are described through the words of those who were present. As in the previous two volumes, Gi
W. Morrow 1997 1088 pages

The World As I See It

Albert Einstein
" A Collection of Essays: ""The World As I See It"" is a compilation of essays written by Albert Einstein, offering insights into his philosophical, scientific, and social views. Scientific Perspectives: The book delves into Einstein's scientific theories, including relativity and quantum mechanics, explaining complex concepts in accessible language. Social and Political Commentary: Einstein shares his thoughts on various social and political issues of his time, such as pacifism, nationalism, and human rights. Philosophical Reflections: The essays explore philosophical questions about the nature of reality, the meaning of life, and the role of science in society. Ethical Considerations: Einstein discusses the ethical implications of scientific advancements and the responsibility of scientists to use their knowledge for the betterment of humanity. Personal Anecdotes: The book includes personal anecdotes that offer glimpses into Einstein's life and personality. Humanistic Values: Einstein emphasizes the importance of human values, such as compassion, empathy, and tolerance. Critical Thinking: The essays encourage readers to think critically and question conventional wisdom. Optimistic Outlook: Despite the challenges of his time, Einstein maintains an optimistic outlook on the future of humanity. Enduring Relevance: The ideas presented in the book remain relevant and thought-provoking today. Accessible Language: Einstein's writing style is clear and concise, making the book accessible to a wide audience. "
Namya Press 2024-12-16 107 pages

CHESS STORY

Zweig, Stefan
✨ A SMALL LITERARY MASTERPIECE ✨ Enter the fascinating world of Stefan Zweig's Chess Story, where obsession, isolation, and inner struggle are visualized on the most intellectual of battlefields: the chessboard. ✏ This edition with notes and foreword includes: ▶️ A new translation. ▶️ Notes to help you better understand the text. ▶️ A brief prologue that will give you the main keys. ✍️ Immerse yourself in a sharp and captivating narrative. Zweig masterfully handles the suspense and psychological construction of the characters, offering a story that, beyond a game, reflects human tensions and the resilience of the spirit.
Editorial Letra Minúscula 2024-04-22 84 pages

The future

Alderman, Naomi
Lai Zhen is about to die. As an Internet-famous survivalist, she's spent her life prepping for the end of the world. But now, desperate and cornered in a mall in Singapore, she's mad she might go out not knowing what the hell is going on. If she makes it out alive, what kind of a future will be waiting for her? Across the world, Martha Einkorn works the room at a gathering of mega-rich companies hell-bent securing a future just for them. Covert weapons, private weather, technological prophecy, when Martha fled her father's compound she may have left the cult behind, but if the apocalyptic warnings of his fox and rabbit sermon are starting to come true, how much future is actually left? Martha and Zhen's worlds are about to collide. While a few billionaires assured of their own safety lead the world to destruction, Martha's relentless drive and Zhen's insatiable curiosity could lead to something beautiful or the cataclysmic end of civilization.[Bokinfo]
4th Estate 2024-08-29 416 pages

Brooklyn Crime Novel

Jonathan Lethem
Named a Best Book of the Year by: Boston Globe * New Yorker * NPR * PopMatters From the bestselling and award-winning author of The Fortress of Solitude and Motherless Brooklyn comes a sweeping story of community, crime, and gentrification, tracing more than fifty years of life in one Brooklyn neighborhood. "A blistering book. A love story. Social commentary. History. Protest novel. And mystery joins the whole together: is the crime 'time'? Or the almighty dollar? I got a great laugh from it too. Every city deserves a book like this." -- Colum McCann, author of Apeirogon and Let the Great World Spin On the streets of 1970s Brooklyn, a daily ritual goes down: the dance. Money is exchanged, belongings surrendered, power asserted. The promise of violence lies everywhere, a currency itself. For these children, Black, brown, and white, the street is a stage in shadow. And in the wings hide the other players: parents; cops; renovators; landlords; those who write the headlines, the histories, and the laws; those who award this neighborhood its name. The rules appear obvious at first. But in memory's prism, criminals and victims may seem to trade places. The voices of the past may seem to rise and gather as if in harmony, then make war with one another. A street may seem to crack open and reveal what lies behind its glimmering facade. None who lived through it are ever permitted to forget. Written with kaleidoscopic verve and delirious wit, Brooklyn Crime Novel is a breathtaking tour de force by a writer at the top of his powers. Jonathan Lethem, "one of America's greatest storytellers" (Washington Post), has crafted an epic interrogation of how we fashion stories to contain the uncontainable: our remorse at the world we've made.
HarperCollins Publishers 2024-09-24 384 pages

The Old Guard 2 The Rise And Fall Of The Immortals

GREG. RUCKA
The Old Guard 2: The Rise and Fall of the Immortals plunges readers into a battle centuries in the making. As Andy and her team of immortal warriors struggle to navigate a world that has finally caught up with them, an old ally-presumed lost to time-returns with a vengeance. Quynh, once Andy's closest companion, has escaped her watery prison after centuries of endless drowning. But she is no longer the warrior Andy remembers. Twisted by suffering, she brings with her secrets, betrayals, and a vision that could shatter the Old Guard forever. Is she here to reunite with her lost family-or to destroy everything they stand for? As governments, corporations, and hidden forces seek to control the immortals, the lines between loyalty and survival blur. Friendships will be tested, alliances broken, and the truth about their existence will finally be revealed. In a world where death is no longer the greatest enemy, Andy and her team must face the ultimate question: Is immortality a gift... or a curse that must be erased? Packed with intense action, emotional twists, and shocking betrayals, The Old Guard 2: The Rise and Fall of the Immortals is a gripping continuation of the saga that will keep you on the edge of your seat until the very last page.
Amazon Digital Services LLC - Kdp 2025-03-18 70 pages

The Color of Hope A Novel

Danielle Steel
A beautiful American widow finds new life in France in this tender portrait from #1 New York Times bestselling author Danielle Steel. Following the unexpected death of her beloved husband, art gallery owner Samantha Thompson finds herself adrift in their Malibu beach house. Her three adult children—scattered from New York to London to Milan—are concerned for her well-being and encourage her to take a trip to Paris. Once abroad, an impulsive day trip from Paris to Biarritz leads Samantha to discover the charming medieval village of Arcangues in the Basque countryside, with its unique and iconic blue shutters and historic château. The château is the ancestral home of Xavier de Bonport, who is trapped in a loveless marriage and trying to dig himself out financially after a business failed due to the pandemic. He needs rental income as urgently as Samantha needs a refuge. With Xavier living in a smaller house on the property, Samantha begins to transform the château into a temporary home. As they each sense compassion and resilience in the other, as well as kindness, a friendship blossoms. Inspired by the stories of Xavier’s grandmother, who saved hundreds of Jewish children during World War II, Samantha considers fostering some children at the request of the local Dominican nuns, whose orphanage is filled to capacity. As a newfound family begins to fill the château, Samantha and Xavier wonder if their friendship is becoming something more. A poignant story of healing and new beginnings, The Color of Hope is an uplifting and unforgettable novel from the master, Danielle Steel.
Random House 2025-11-18 320 pages

Safe Harbour

Danielle Steel
On a windswept summer day, as the fog rolls across the San Francisco coastline, a solitary figure walks down the beach, a dog at her side. At eleven, Pip Mackenzie's young life has already been touched by tragedy; nine months before, a terrible accident plunged her mother into inconsolable grief. But on this chilly July afternoon, Pip meets someone who fills her sad gray world with color and light. And in her innocence and in his kindness, a spark will be kindled, lives will be changed, and a journey of hope will begin.
Delacorte Press 2003 322 pages

Green Angel and Green Witch (Two Novels, One Book)

Alice Hoffman
A two-fold tale of grief and hope, loss and love, beautifully, heartbreakingly rendered as only bestselling author Alice Hoffman can. When her family is lost in a terrible disaster, fifteen-year-old Green is haunted by loss and the past. Struggling to survive in a place where nothing seems to grow, Green retreats into the ruined realm of her garden. But in destroying her feelings, she also begins to destroy herself. It is only through a series of mysterious encounters that Green relearns the most important lessons of love and begins to heal as she tells her own story. In the magical sequel, Green Witch , Green continues to heal but still lives every day with feelings of loss. Her family is gone, the boy she loves is missing, and the world she once knew has been transformed by tragedy. In order to rediscover the truth about love, hope, and magic, she must venture away from her home, collecting the stories of a group of women who have been branded witches for their mysterious powers. Only through their stories will Green finally find her own heart's desire. Master storyteller and New York Times bestselling author Alice Hoffman weaves together two beautiful and heartbreaking tales of love and loss, healing and magic.
Scholastic, Incorporated 2024-09-17 272 pages

The World of Yesterday: New Translation

Zweig, Stefan
The most haunting memoir of the twentieth century—written in exile, published after death, essential for our time. Stefan Zweig was born into the golden age of European civilization, a world that believed in progress, treasured culture above nationalism, and thought peace permanent. From his privileged position in Vienna—cultural capital of the Hapsburg Empire—he witnessed the last great flowering of cosmopolitan humanism. He knew Rilke and Freud, Hofmannsthal and Richard Strauss. He moved effortlessly between Paris, London, Berlin, and Rome. By the 1920s, he was one of the most translated authors in the world. Then, across three decades, he watched that entire civilization destroy itself. The World of Yesterday is Zweig's attempt to capture what was lost—the intellectual brilliance of pre-war Vienna, the madness of 1914's patriotic fever, the hyperinflation that destroyed Austria's middle class, the rise of Mussolini and Hitler, the nightmare of exile. Writing without access to his notes or library, relying purely on memory, Zweig creates something more valuable than conventional autobiography: a sustained meditation on civilization's fragility, written by a witness who understood exactly what was being destroyed and why it mattered. This is not simply historical testimony. It is warning and prophecy. Zweig describes how quickly democratic norms collapsed, how virulent antisemitism erupted in countries where Jews felt integrated, how cultural achievement proved defenseless against totalitarian barbarism. He chronicles the failure of intellectuals to resist, the transformation of neighbors into enemies, the speed with which cosmopolitan ideals gave way to tribal hatred. The memoir was completed in Brazil in February 1942, mailed to the publisher on February 21st. The next day, Zweig and his wife ended their lives. He could not survive the destruction of everything he valued. But he left us this book—eloquent, heartbroken, clear-eyed about both his generation's achievements and its catastrophic failures. For readers in our own uncertain era, The World of Yesterday speaks with uncomfortable urgency. The questions Zweig asks have become our questions. The dangers he witnessed have not disappeared. His testimony reminds us that civilization is never guaranteed—it must be defended, or it will be lost. A masterwork of witness and warning. The essential memoir of European catastrophe. Required reading for our age.
Independently published 2026-01-02 364 pages

The group

McCarthy, Mary
Written with a trenchant, sardonic edge, The Group is a dazzlingly outspoken novel and a captivating look at the social history of America between two world wars. "Juicy, shocking, witty, and almost continually brilliant."--CosmopolitanAward-winning Mary McCarthy's most celebrated novel follows the lives of eight Vassar graduates, known simply to their classmates as “the group.” An eclectic mix of personalities and upbringings, they meet a week after graduation to watch Kay Strong get married. After the ceremony, the women begin their adult lives -- traveling to Europe, tackling the worlds of nursing and publishing, and finding love and heartbreak in the streets of New York City. Through the years, some of the friends grow apart and some become entangled in each other's affairs, but all vow not to become like their mothers and fathers. It is only when one of them passes away that they all come back together again to mourn the loss of a friend, a confidante, and most importantly, a member of the group.
Harcourt Brace 2001 487 pages

Baron Wenckheim's homecoming

Krasznahorkai, László
WINNER OF THE 2025 NOBEL PRIZE Now in paperback, the capstone to Krasznahorkai’s four-part masterwork, and winner of the 2019 National Book Award for Translated Literature Set in contemporary times, Baron Wenckheim’s Homecoming tells the story of a Prince Myshkin–like figure, Baron Béla Wenckheim, who returns at the end of his life to his provincial Hungarian hometown. Having escaped from his many casino debts in Buenos Aires, where he was living in exile, he longs to be reunited with his high-school sweetheart Marika. Confusions abound, and what follows is an endless storm of gossip, con men, and local politicians, vividly evoking the small town’s alternately drab and absurd existence. All along, the Professor―a world-famous natural scientist who studies mosses and inhabits a bizarre Zen-like shack in a desolate area outside of town?offers long rants and disquisitions on his attempts to immunize himself from thought. Spectacular actions are staged as death and the abyss loom over the unsuspecting townfolk.
New Directions Publishing 2025 576 pages

The Volcano Lover A Romance

Susan Sontag
Set in 18th century Naples, based on the lives of Sir William Hamilton, his celebrated wife Emma, and Lord Nelson, and peopled with many of the great figures of the day, this unconventional, bestselling historical romance from the National Book Award-winning author of In America touches on themes of sex and revolution, the fate of nature, art and the collector's obsessions, and, above all, love.
Macmillan 1992 419 pages