National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist A New York Times Notable Book A Best Book of the Year — Austin American-Statesman Includes a new, previously uncollected piece: "My Internet" In The Ecstasy of Influence , the incomparable Jonathan Lethem has compiled a career-spanning collection of occasional pieces—essays, memoir, liner notes, fiction, and criticism—which also doubles as a novelist’s manifesto, self-portrait, and confession. The result is an insightful, charming, and entertaining grab bag that covers everything from great novels to old films to graffiti to cyberculture.

Some twenty years ago, the editors of Hamevaser, Yeshiva University's Torah student monthly, recognized the growing thirst for the late Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik's Torah teaching. In response, they published the original version of the "Conspectus," which contained the first English version of some of the Rav's published Hebrew and Yiddish essays and offered extensive summaries of some twenty of his shiurim and lectures. That collection has been long out of print, while demand for Rabbi Soloveitchik's teachings has grown apace. The result is this revised collection of his lectures, published in more permanent form. Among the lectures included in this volume are "The Ten Commandments," "The Covenantal Community," "On the Nature of Man," "On the Love of Torah," and many more. Essays subsequently published in full have been eliminated from this edition, since their texts are now generally available, and some new ones, which are not generally available, have been added. These include "Kodesh and Hol," from the student journal Gesher, "The Nine Aspects of the Haggada" from The Student Organization of Yeshiva University Haggada.

"Mazur's book treats luck in a fresh light. The philosophy and emotional aspects (along with a little mathematics) are all there. The reader who delves in will be lucky indeed." --Persi Diaconis, Stanford University "Blending math with memoir, probability with psychology, and heuristics with history, Mazur has written an essential book for anyone who wants to get a better idea of why we consistently bet against the odds. From the betting window to Wall Street, he offers insights into both the mechanics of chance and the enduring appeal that luck holds for those who wager every day, whether they call it gambling, speculation, or just hoping for the best. Engaging and illuminating, this is a guaranteed winner." --David G. Schwartz, director of the Center for Gaming Research at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and author of Roll the Bones: The History of Gambling "This is a fascinating book. It's a fresh, funny, philosophical look at gambling by a mathematician who knows what he's talking about, and who has quite obviously thought about gambling for a long time. Mazur isn't afraid to make provocative, opinionated statements. I have not seen a gambling book like this before. I think it will attract a lot of readers." --Paul J. Nahin, author of Digital Dice "This book is significant in that it offers a lively and diverse collection of gambling-related ideas. Mazur's robust blend of anecdotes, history, psychology, and mathematics differs from other attempts to discuss these ideas. He offers plenty of insights into the questions and issues he raises." --Edward Packel, author of The Mathematics of Games and Gambling

Dermott McBride was a James Joyce scholar who went on to become overlord of every pimp in Manhattan. Isaac Sidel wanted to break his toes for scarring young prostitute Annie Powell, but first he had to sort out the small matter of a corrupt New York police commissioner.

"[This book] is intended as a methodological guide to a group of semiotic writings frequently taught in advanced undergraduate courses in North America and Britain, writings that are for the most part available in English. It should therefore be viewed as a supplementary and explanatory text rather than as one that precedes the reading of any primary semiotic materials." -- from Preface.

When a mystery writer cries bloody murder, everyone blames her overactive imagination ... Thriller scribe Sophie Katz is as hard-boiled as a woman who drinks Grande Caramel Brownie Frappuccinos can be. So Sophie knows it's not paranoia or post-divorce, living-alone-again jitters, when she becomes convinced that a crazed reader is sneaking into her apartment to reenact scenes from her books. The police, however, can't tell a good plot from an unmarked grave. When a filmmaker friend is brutally murdered in the manner of a death scene in one of his movies, Sophie becomes convinced that a copyca.

From a popular senior writer for Sports Illustrated comes this high-stakes, boys-on-the-road story about the most unlikely of phenoms--a heavyset, bipolar, and endlessly charming pool hustler named Kid Delicious In most sports the pinnacle is Wheaties-box notoriety. But in the world of pool, notoriety is the last thing a hustler desires. Such is the dilemma that faces one Danny Basavich, an affable, generously proportioned Jewish kid from Jersey, who flounders through high school until he discovers the one thing he excels at--the felt--and hits the road. Running the Table spins the outrageous tale of Kid Delicious and his studly--if less talented--set-up man, Bristol Bob. Never was there a more entertaining or mismatched pair of sidekicks, as together they go underground into the flavorfully seamy world of pool to learn the art of the hustle and experience the highs and lows of life on the road. Their four-year odyssey takes them from Podunk pool halls to slick urban billiard rooms across America, as they manage one night to take down as much as $30,000, only to lose so much the next night that they lack gas money to get home. With every stop, the action gets hotter, the calls get closer, and Delicious's prowess with a cue stick becomes known more and more widely. Ultimately, Delicious sheds his cover once and for all and becomes professional pool's biggest sensation since Minnesota Fats. In a book sure to appeal to fans of Bringing Down the House and Positively Fifth Street, Wertheim evokes a subculture full of nefarious but loveable characters and illuminates America's fascination with games and gambling. He also paints a lasting portrait of an insanely talented and magnetic hustler, who is literally larger than life.

'A very 21st Century blockbuster, this has all the classic elements - nailbiting narrative, absorbing relationships, glamorous locations - with an extra shot of intelligence' COSMOPOLITAN

'A very 21st Century blockbuster, this has all the classic elements - nailbiting narrative, absorbing relationships, glamorous locations - with an extra shot of intelligence' COSMOPOLITAN 'Best described as a sort of Blockbuster Plus - in this case plus a little bit more intelligence and social and political grip than is normal . . . Agreeably glamorous and pageturning' DAILY MAIL Take four friends... Rianne: beautiful, wealthy and thoroughly spoilt, she has the world at her feet but is about to risk everything. Gabrielle: intelligent, loyal and always worrying about everyone else, now it's time for her to start looking after No.1. Nathalie: petite, pretty and with a shrewd eye for business, she uses her work to help her forget the one man she can't have. Charmaine: flirty and outrageous, she knows all about the good life. She just needs someone to pay for it... Then a chance encounter changes everything - and for Rianne and her friends, nothing is going to be the same again...

"How do social movements arise, wield power, and decline? Renowned scholar Linda Gordon investigates these questions in a groundbreaking work, narrating the stories of many of America's most influential twentieth-century social movements. Beginning with the turn-of-the-century settlement house movement, Gordon then scrutinizes the 1920s Ku Klux Klan and its successors, the violent American fascist groups of the 1930s. Profiles of two Depression-era movements follow--the Townsend campaign that brought us Social Security and the creation of unemployment aid. Proceeding then to the 1955 Montgomery bus boycott, which inspired the civil rights movement and launched Martin Luther King Jr.'s career, the narrative barrels into the 1960s-70s with Cesar Chavez's farmworkers' union. The concluding chapter illumines the 1970s women's liberation movement through the dramatic story of the Boston-area organizations Bread and Roses and the Combahee River Collective. Separately and together, these seven chapters animate American history, reminding us of the power of collective activism."-- Publisher description

This book journeys into the heart of dark passions and the crimes they impel. When passion is in the picture, what is criminal, what sane, what mad or simply bad? Brighton, 1870: A well-respected spinster infuses chocolate creams with strychnine in order to murder her lover's wife. Paris, 1880: A popular performer stalks her betraying lover through the streets of the city for weeks and finally takes aim. New York, 1906: A millionaire shoots dead a prominent architect in full view of a theatre audience. Through court and asylum records, letters and newspaper accounts, this book brings to life a period when the psychiatric professions were consolidating their hold on our understanding of what is human. An increasingly popular press allowed the public unprecedented insight into accounts of transgressive sexuality, savage jealousy and forbidden desires. With great story-telling flair, Lisa Appignanesi teases out the vagaries of passion and the clashes between the law and the clinic as they stumble towards a (sometimes reviled) collaboration. Sexual etiquette and class roles, attitudes to love, madness and gender, notions of respectability and honour, insanity and lunacy, all are at play in that vital forum in which public opinion is shaped - the theatre of the courtroom.

"If you live your dreams, you can remake the world... One strange and magical winter day in 1924, a young surrealist follows a dark-haired woman down the avenues of time to the Paris riots of 1968. Together they learn the awesome power of the imagination to turn lies into truth, death into love, darkness into light..."--[p.4] of cover.

Winner of a Jewish National Book Award and author of The List and Jacob's Oath , both of which achieved outstanding critical acclaim, NBC Special Correspondent Martin Fletcher delivers another breathtaking tale of love, war, and redemption. Tom Layne was a world-class television correspondent until his life collapsed in Sarajevo. Beaten and humiliated, he fell into a hole diagnosed as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Eleven years later he returns to the Balkans to film a documentary on the man who caused his downfall: Ratko Mladic, Europe’s biggest killer since Hitler, wanted for genocide and crimes against humanity. Mysterious forces have protected Mladic for a decade, preventing his arrest, and these shadowy but deadly foes swing into action against the journalist. Tom soon falls into a web of intrigue and deceit that threatens his life as well as that of the woman he loves. Drawing upon his own experiences reporting on the wars in Bosnia and Sarajevo, Martin Fletcher has written a searing love story and a painfully authentic account of a war reporter chasing down the scoop of a lifetime.

The Stones of Florence is a non-fiction book written by Mary McCarthy, first published in 1959. The book is a travelogue and a cultural exploration of the city of Florence, Italy. The author delves into the history and art of the city, highlighting its rich cultural heritage and the impact of the Renaissance on its architecture, literature, and art. McCarthy takes the reader on a tour of the city, exploring its iconic landmarks such as the Duomo, the Uffizi Gallery, and the Ponte Vecchio. She also examines the city's political and social history, including the role of the Medici family in shaping the city's cultural identity. Through her vivid descriptions and insightful analysis, the author provides a comprehensive portrait of Florence, its people, and its art. The book is a must-read for anyone interested in Italian culture and history, and for those who want to gain a deeper understanding of the city that has inspired countless artists and writers throughout the centuries.Picture And Text Book On Italy. Includes All Aspects Of Florentine Life, From Art And Architecture To Religion And Politics.This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the old original and may contain some imperfections such as library marks and notations. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions, that are true to their original work.

In the wake of a drama teacher's decision to direct "Lysistrata" for the high school play, the women in the town begin to sexually reject their husbands and boyfriends in ways that force both men and women to reevaluate their views on relationships and sexuality.

Mack's adventures continue in this fourth and final installment in Michael Grant's hilarious fantasy adventure tween series! Time is running out for Mack MacAvoy and the Magnificent Twel-er-Seven! In just a few short days, the Pale Queen will emerge from her earthly prison to destroy the world. But Mack and the Magnificent Twel-er-Seven, are all but powerless against the Pale Queen and her evil daughter Risky unless they can assemble the other five magnifica. The first step is to convince the evil traitor Valin to come over to the good side, a task that will force Mack to face his pogonophobia once and for all. (What? You've never heard of pogonophobia? It's a thing, we swear. At least, it's a thing for Mack. A serious thing. You'll see.) If they can convince Valin to switch sides and assemble the other four magnifica, the Pale Queen won't stand a chance. It will all be over! Maybe. Mack's hilarious adventures continue in this fourth and final installment in Michael Grant's The Magnificent 12 series.