Bookyards

Wednesday, December 30, 2009

The Pianist's Guide to Transcriptions, Arrangements, and Paraphrases

From : Indiana University

Photo : www.iupress.indiana.edu/iol/

A reference tool for all music scholars.

Piano Reference Books Online is a collection of the Press's guides to the piano repertoire and other references, a ready resource for the novice and the professional, the scholar and the teacher. Books included are listed to the left.
Subscriptions to Piano Reference Books Online are free and include full-text access. Other features include:
Robust searchability by author, title, chapter, and keyword, across entire library or just one book

MORE.............

Bookyards Editor : For more E- Books go here.....

Tuesday, December 29, 2009

The Arctic heart of darkness

From : Time on Line

Photo : http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/

How heroic lies replaced hideous reality after the grim death of John Franklin.

On November 15, 1866, a statue of the explorer Sir John Franklin was unveiled in Waterloo Place before a large crowd of well-wishers. When they heard that “to all future times the name of Franklin would be treasured among the greatest and bravest of those naval heroes of whose glory and memories England was so justly proud”, there was enthusiastic applause.

More........

Monday, December 28, 2009

The Elements: A Visual Exploration of Every Known Atom in the Universe

From : Powell`s Books

Photo : http://www.powells.com/

Beautiful and informative, surprising and smart.

The Elements will appeal to your inner geek (even if you didn't know you had one). With unique stories, bizarre facts, and dazzling photographs of the 118 elements in the periodic table, this book will charm and delight anyone interested in science.Recommended by Tessa, Powells.com
Synopses & Reviews

MORE.........

Sunday, December 27, 2009

“The Talented Miss Highsmith

From : The New York Times

Photo : Swiss Lieraty Archives , Bern

The photo on the cover of “The Talented Miss Highsmith” depicts the young, sultry author of “Strangers on a Train” holding one of her pet cats. There’s no question which is the more spookily feline-looking creature.

Pretty as it is, this picture is hardly representative. As a pet owner Highsmith was much more remarkable for keeping hundreds of snails and for liking to watch those mollusks mate.

MORE.........

Saturday, December 26, 2009

From : North Carolina

Photo : http://www.uncpress.unc.edu/

Many of the Christmas traditions that we know today did not appear in the United States until well into the nineteenth century.

This inviting book explores the Christmas celebrations of the Moravian Church in the South, whose members were marking the holiday as early as the 1780s in ways recognizable to modern Americans. The Moravians' emphasis on a family-centered Christmas grew greatly through the nineteenth century and served as a model for social change in secular America.

Friday, December 25, 2009

MERRY CHRISTMAS

From the family of BOOKYARDS .com

HAVE A MERRY CHRISTMAS

Thursday, December 24, 2009

THE POISON KING

From : The Washington Post

Photo : http://www.washingtonpost.com/

The Life and Legend of Mithradates, Rome's Deadliest Enemy

"The Poison King" is, as its subtitle makes clear, the story of the life of Mithradates, leader of the ancient Black Sea kingdom of Pontus, who, in the 1st century B.C., did everything he could to overthrow the Roman Empire. I read this biography as a layperson, not a scholar, but I can say without reservation that it's a wonderful reading experience, as bracing as a tonic, the perfect holiday gift for adventure-loving men and women. A finalist for this week's National Book Award, it's drenched in imaginative violence and disaster, but it also wears the blameless vestments of culture and antiquity. You can have all the fun of reading about a greedy villain being put to death by being made to "drink" molten gold, but still hide safe behind the excuse that you're just brushing up on your classics.

More.............

Bookyards Editor: For more E-Books go here...

Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Sex and Violence, Death and Silence

From : The Guardian Books Shop

Photo : http://www.guardianbookshop.co.uk/

Trade paperback. A collection of Burn's best writing .

On art, focusing on two principle generations: the Royal College pop art of Hockney and his contemporaries, and the Young British Artist sensations of the 1990s. 'He is one of the best chroniclers of faded glory and the sadness of fame' Simon Garfield, "Observer"

MORE.............

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

The Passport

From : FINANCIAL TIMES

Photo : Silviu Ghetie/EPA

Herta Müller, this year’s Nobel Prize winner for literature.

Was born into the German-speaking minority in the Banat region of Romania, the descendants of Catholics encouraged to settle during the 18th century by the Austrian Empire on lands regained from the Ottomans. This background provides the subject matter for much of her work, and is also the source of her distinctive and powerful voice.

MORE...............

Bookyards Editor: For more E-Books go here...

Monday, December 21, 2009

Stones Into Schools

From : Los Angleles Times

Photo : http://www.latimes.com/

Promoting Peace With Books, Not Bombs, in Afghanistan and Pakistan' by Greg Mortenson.

In a part of Afghanistan so remote it can take days if not weeks to journey there, the people are tired of fighting. First the Russians, then the Taliban. Now, they simply want to build a better life for the next generation.

MORE.............

Sunday, December 20, 2009

An analysis of contemporary sculpture

From : The Hindu

Photo : http://www.hindu.com/

INDIAN SCULPTURE — Towards the Rebirth of Aesthetics:

Carmel Berkson; Abhinav Publications, E-37, Hauz Khas, New Delhi-110016. Rs. 750.

In the post-modern world where ‘borrowings’ are acceptable and the concept of ‘global-local’ is commonplace, the suggestion that contemporary Indian sculptors should consider western influence an intrusion and look solely to indigenous tradition may seem incongruous. American-born, Mumbai-based sculptor, Carmel Berkson appears to take such a stand in ‘Indian Sculpture: Towards the Rebirth of Aesthetics.’ This book deal s with knowledge already made familiar through Berkson’s earlier publications; the difference in this instance is the attempt to situate her contemporary sculpture within the conventional idiom. The title is deceptive, as one would imagine a broader approach to the topic of sculptural aesthetics.

MORE................

Saturday, December 19, 2009

The Siren Call Of Tyranny

From : The Wall Street Journal

Photo : online.wsj.com

The hard-left former groupies of totalitarianism keep searching for new murderous ideologies to defend.

'Last Exit to Utopia" was first published in France nearly a decade ago. It concerns itself primarily with the failure of much of the French left to come to grips with the collapse of communism and the exposure of its innumerable crimes. The events and debates under its review date mainly to the 1990s, and its author died in 2006.

More...............

Friday, December 18, 2009

The Life and Times of Dennis Wheatley

From : The Guardian

Photo : http://www.guardian.co.uk/

The Devil is a Gentleman: The Life and Times of Dennis Wheatley by Phil Baker
Chris Petit on the suburban bluffer who sold 20 million books.

Dennis Wheatley, gone the way of Edgar Wallace and Peter Cheyney, is unread now, yet for 40 years he was as famous and popular as anyone, with 20 million sales, standing in today's terms between Jeffrey Archer, another self-made author who wrote his way out of financial trouble, and Dan Brown, whose cod esotericism is close to a steal.

MORE...........

Bookyards Editor: For more E-Books ,go here...

Top for The Los Angeles Times

Nonfiction
1.
What the Dog Saw by Malcolm Gladwell (Little, Brown: $27.99) A collection of the author's writings of everyday and extraordinary people.
3
2.
SuperFreakonomics by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner (William Morrow: $29.99) More funny, informative facts and questions to ponder.
4
3.
Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell (Little, Brown: $27.99) An exploration of the background of high achievers.
50
4.
Have a Little Faith by Mitch Albom (Hyperion: $23.99) Albom's observations of a rabbi and a pastor on an eight-year journey of faith.
7
5.
Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer (Little, Brown : $25.99) An examination and behind-the-scenes look at factory farming.
1
6.
Save the Deli by David Sax (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt : $24) The history behind and search for the best delis across America.
2
7.
Manhood for Amateurs by Michael Chabon (Harper: $26.99) A collection of autobiographical essays reflecting on what it means to be a man and father.
5
8.
It's Your Time by Joel Osteen (Free Press: $25) Finding inspiration and faith during difficult times.
1
9.
The Queen Mother by William Shawcross (Publisher: $40) The biography of Elizabeth Bowes Lyon and a century of devotion to the British monarchy.
1
10.
Where Men Win Glory by Jon Krakauer (Doubleday: $27.95) A chronicle of Pat Tillman, the NFL star turned Army Ranger whose death in Afghanistan stunned the power structure.

Thursday, December 17, 2009

The Day of the Pelican

From : The Christian Science Monitor

Photo : http://www.csmonitor.com/

Caught in the midst of civil strife in Kosovo, a teen faces a multitude of adult-sized challenges.

The last thing Meli Lleshi ever dreamed of – or wanted – was to leave her home. An ethnic Albanian, the lively teen knows that generations ago her family lived elsewhere. But as far as she’s concerned, her lovely old town on the banks of the Drin River in Kosovo is the only home she could ever want.

MORE...........

Bookyards Editor: For more E-Books ,go here...

Top for Los Angeles Times

Fiction
Weeks on list
1.
The Help by Kathryn Stockett (Putnam: $24.95) The lives of a maid, a cook and a college graduate become intertwined as they change a Mississippi town.
24
2.
The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver (Harper: $26.99) A writer's escapades encompassing 1930s Mexican artist communities and Cold War America.
1
3.
Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel ( Henry Holt: $27) The rise of Henry VIII's advisor Thomas Cromwell.
2
4.
Nine Dragons by Michael Connelly (Little, Brown : $27.99) An LAPD detective travels to Hong Kong to solve the murder of a Chinese immigrant.
5
5.
The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown (Doubleday: $25.99) Harvard professor Robert Langdon uses his symbology skills to find a missing Freemason in Washington, D.C.
9
6.
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days by Jeff Kinney (Amulet: $13.95) Greg desires to spend summer vacation indoors despite his mother's wishes for outdoor family fun.
5
7.
Last Night in Twisted River by John Irving (Random House: $28) A father and son on the run in 1950s Northeast logging communities.
2
8.
The Gathering Storm by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson (Tor: $29.99) Rand al'Thor, the Dragon Reborn, attempts to unite kingdoms and alliances in preparation for the Last Battle.
3
9.
Ford County by John Grisham (Doubleday: $24) A collection of short stories set in the same locale as "A Time to Kill."
1
10.
Juliet, Naked by Nick Hornby (Riverhead: $25.95) A woman acquaints herself with the songwriter whose album caused the breakup of her recent relationship.

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

A Good Fall

From : The Christian Monitor

Photo : http://www.csmonitor.com/

A dozen engrossing, visceral tales about the difficulties faced by Chinese immigrants in America.

How he regretted having tried so hard to come here! He’d been misled by the people who bragged about the opportunity found in America and wouldn’t reveal the hardship they’d gone through here. They all wanted to appear rich and successful in their hometowns’ eyes,” an exploited young monk who’s been teaching kung fu without pay for two years laments in the title story of A Good Fall, Ha Jin’s first book of short stories since 2000.

More..............

Bookyards Editor: For more E-Books ,go here...

Last 24 hours

1. Digested read: Driven to Distraction by Clarkson
2. Noughtyisms: the best words of the decade
3. Stephen Covey's digital rights deal with Amazon startles New York publishers
4. Tiger Woods drives sales of physics book sky-high
5. What were your worst books of the decade?

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Obama's Mother's Dissertation Gets Star Treatment From Duke U. Press

From : The Chronicle

Photo courtesy of Bron Solyom

The scholarly book getting the most buzz at the American Anthropological Association's annual conference this week is likely to be a doctoral dissertation published 15 years after its author's death.

Surviving Against the Odds: Village Industry in Indonesia is by S. Ann Dunham, the mother of President Obama, a connection noted on the book's front cover. The publisher, Duke University Press, will unveil the book on December 3 at the conference, to be followed by a special session devoted to Dunham and her life and work.

More...........

Last 24 hours
1. Digested read: Driven to Distraction by Clarkson
2. Win every book on the Costa book awards shortlist
3. What were your worst books of the decade?
4. War is declared in the world of ebooks
5. Books of the decade: Your best books of 2008

Monday, December 14, 2009

What is good music?

From : Time on Line

Photo : www.guardian.co.uk/

Roger Scruton's new book tries to explain how we understand music and its vital role in our lives.

Although music has always stood comparison with the other arts, its oddness is something we rediscover each time we try to describe it. When we speak of interpreting works of art, for example, we refer to the practice of deciphering their single or several meanings. But to interpret music, in the classical tradition at least, has come to refer simply to playing it; that is to executing a set of more or less clear instructions left by the composer. Similarly, in eighteenth-century France, when the concept of mimesis harboured the images of excellence in all the arts, and no one troubled to discuss the arts without discussing their success in imitating "la belle nature", the sole entry on musical imitation listed in Diderot and d’Alembert’s Encyclopédie discussed only the purely technical matter of one part imitating another in polyphonic music.

More..............

Letter to My Daughter

From : The Guardian

Photo : http://www.guardianbookshop.co.uk/

Maya Angelou, author of the classic autobiography I KNOW WHY THE CAGED BIRD SINGS.

A new volume of memoir, wisdom, poetry and guidebook to life from the inimitable Maya Angelou is sure to be welcomed by readers around the world. Dedicated to the daughter she never had but sees all around her, this series of short, spellbinding essays give glimpses into her life, the lessons she has learned about compassion and fortitude, the simple pleasures of food and family, memories of friends now gone etc. A book to savour, share and treasure.

Sunday, December 13, 2009

From the blurb

From : The Hindu

Photo : http://www.hindu.com/

Towards the New Horizon — World Order in the 21st Century:

James B. L. Mayall, Krishnan Srinivasan; Standard Publishers (India), 225, Gupta Palace, A-2/42, Rajouri Garden Main Road, New Delhi-110027. Rs. 750.

The United Nations has not been any more successful than its predecessor, the League of Nations, in bringing about international cooperation based on a commitment to constitutional governance, human rights, and the rule of law. The vision of ‘One World’, a term added to the political lexicon by the American politician, Wendell Willkie, remains as far a cry as ever before. The peoples of the world are still mired in disagreements, some of them, as Jan Morris says in his Foreword to the volume, “inspired by degraded notions of patriotism.”

Saturday, December 12, 2009

'Ravens' by George Dawes Green

From : L. A. TIMES

Photo : www.list.co.uk

Is among the year's best mysteries and thrillers
Philip Kerr's 'A Quiet Flame' also made an impression.

This year presented a challenge in picking the best of crime fiction, as perennial favorites and talented newcomers delivered a plethora of well-seasoned goods. But prolonged teeth-gnashing has produced the list of those I consider to be the most notable mystery and thriller reads.

MORE........

Bookyards Editor: For more E-Books ,go here...

Friday, December 11, 2009

Complaints

From : The Guardian Book Shop

Photo : http://www.guardianbookshop.co.uk/

Nobody likes The Complaints .

They're the cops who investigate other cops. Malcolm Fox is one of them, and in the midst of an Edinburgh winter, he is set on the trail of bent cop, Jamie Breck. This major post-Rebus crime novel from Rankin is sure to hit the heights of the bestseller list, and with its searing exploration of personal morality, private vice, friendship and the state of the nation, it is sure to attract the critical plaudits too.

Top Non Fiction
1.
Open by Andre Agassi (Knopf: $28.95) The tennis star's memoir and personal odyssey of a lost childhood, drug use and comebacks.
3
2.
What the Dog Saw by Malcolm Gladwell (Little, Brown: $27.99) A collection of the author's writings of everyday and extraordinary people.
5
3.
Going Rogue by Sarah Palin (HarperCollins: $28.99) A memoir of the 2008 vice presidential nominee and former Alaska governor.
1
4.
Lit by Mary Karr (Harper: $25.99) The author's descent into alcoholism and recovery.
3
5.
SuperFreakonomics by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner (William Morrow: $29.99) More funny, informative facts and questions to ponder.
6
6.
Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer (Little, Brown: $25.99) An examination and behind-the-scenes look at factory farming.
3
7.
Have a Little Faith by Mitch Albom (Hyperion: $23.99) Albom's observations of a rabbi and a pastor on an eight-year journey of faith.
9
8.
Cornflakes With John Lennon by Robert Hilburn (Rodale: $24.99) The Times' former music critic's behind-the-scenes look at legendary rockers.
1
9.
The Book of Basketball by Bill Simmons ( ESPN: $30) An encyclopedia of all you need to know about the NBA.
5
10.
When Everything Changed by Gail Collins (Little, Brown: $27.99) A history of the women's movement since 1960.

Thursday, December 10, 2009

Small Memories

From : Financial Times

Photo : http://www.ft.com/

José Saramago, the Portuguese novelist and Nobel laureate.

Is no stranger to autobiographical writing. He has already published five volumes of his diaries, covering the years 1993 to 1998. Small Memories, however, is his first memoir, spanning his birth in 1922 in the village of Azinhaga, to his family’s move to Lisbon and his first years of schooling.

MORE............

Bookyards Editor: For more E-Books go here...

Top Fiction Books

Weeks on list
1.
The Help by Kathryn Stockett (Putnam: $24.95) The lives of a maid, a cook and a college graduate become intertwined as they change a Mississippi town.
26
2.
Under the Dome by Stephen King (Scribner: $35) A ragtag cast of characters fight to survive in their small Maine town inexplicably surrounded by an invisible force field.
2
3.
The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown (Doubleday: $25.99) Harvard professor Robert Langdon uses his symbology skills to find a missing Freemason in Washington, D.C.
11
4.
The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver (Harper: $26.99) A writer's escapades encompassing 1930s Mexican artist communities and Cold War America.
3
5.
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days by Jeff Kinney (Amulet: $13.95) Greg desires to spend summer vacation indoors despite his mother's wishes for outdoor family fun.
7
6.
Too Much Happiness by Alice Munro (Knopf : $25.95) The short story master explores women and their relationships in ten new stories.
1
7.
Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel ( Henry Holt: $27) The rise of Henry VIII's advisor Thomas Cromwell.
4
8.
I, Alex Cross by James Patterson (Little, Brown: $27.99) Detective Alex Cross infiltrates a secret society while tracking down the killer of a close relative.
2
9.
Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer (Little, Brown: $19.99) Bella must choose between her lover and a friend, between life and death.
65
10.
Last Night in Twisted River by John Irving (Random House: $28) A father and son on the run in 1950s Northeast logging communities.

Wednesday, December 09, 2009

What Are Words Worth?

From : The American Conservative

Photo : americareads.blogspot.com

Stylized: A Slightly Obsessive History of Strunk & White's The Elements of Style, Mark Garvey, Touchstone, 240 pages .

Omit needless words”—the gnomic Rule Thirteen in William Strunk’s original 1918 self-published edition of The Elements of Style—is the kind of advice that means less and less the more you think about it. Which words are needless? What need are we talking about? Just conveying information or mood, too? Sublunary matters or glimpses of God?

Last 24 hours

1. Going Rogue: An American Life, by Sarah Palin
2. What were your worst books of the decade?
3. Books of the decade
4. The Diaries of Sofia Tolstoy Book review
5. Kindle for Christmas?

Tuesday, December 08, 2009

The Diaries of Sofia Tolstoy

From : The Guardian

Photo : http://www.guardian.co.uk/

Sofia Tolstoy paid a high price for her marriage, says Jay Parini.

For Leo Tolstoy and his extended household, diaries were an early version of Facebook. Everyone had his or her own page, and most people were fanatical recorders of their own feelings. The great man himself kept voluminous diaries, making entries almost to the day of his death. His doctor, his secretary, his disciples, his children, and – most of all – his wife also kept journals. Of these, the greatest diarist of them all was Sofia, the Countess Tolstoy.

MORE.........

Bookyards Editor: For more E-Books ,go here...

Top from the LOS ANGELES TIME

What the Dog Saw by Malcolm Gladwell (Little, Brown: $27.99) A collection of the author's writings of everyday and extraordinary people.
3
2.
SuperFreakonomics by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner (William Morrow: $29.99) More funny, informative facts and questions to ponder.
4
3.
Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell (Little, Brown: $27.99) An exploration of the background of high achievers.
50
4.
Have a Little Faith by Mitch Albom (Hyperion: $23.99) Albom's observations of a rabbi and a pastor on an eight-year journey of faith.
7
5.
Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer (Little, Brown : $25.99) An examination and behind-the-scenes look at factory farming.
1
6.
Save the Deli by David Sax (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt : $24) The history behind and search for the best delis across America.
2
7.
Manhood for Amateurs by Michael Chabon (Harper: $26.99) A collection of autobiographical essays reflecting on what it means to be a man and father.
5
8.
It's Your Time by Joel Osteen (Free Press: $25) Finding inspiration and faith during difficult times.
1
9.
The Queen Mother by William Shawcross (Publisher: $40) The biography of Elizabeth Bowes Lyon and a century of devotion to the British monarchy.
1
10.
Where Men Win Glory by Jon Krakauer (Doubleday: $27.95) A chronicle of Pat Tillman, the NFL star turned Army Ranger whose death in Afghanistan stunned the power structure.

Monday, December 07, 2009

WORD SEARCH with Adair Jones

From : Word Search whit Adair Jones

Photo : http://adairjones.wordpress.com/

A town called Merv
Brilliant writing from the quixotic David Foster

SONS OF THE RUMOUR
by David Foster
Picador, $39.99 hb, 431 pp,

At the end of her insightful critical
study David Foster: Satirist
of Australia (2008), Susan
Lever quotes several rather despondent-
sounding letters from her subject.
In one, he claims to have lost his taste
for satire; in another, he declares that he
is ‘over’ literature. Yet he also expresses
a continuing desire ‘to write books that
are strange and beautiful’, and reveals
he is at work on a new novel, his first
since The Land Where Stories End (2001),
one that draws on the framing tale of
Arabian Nights and explores his ‘twin
obsessions’: sexuality and mysticism.
As Lever’s book establishes, Foster

The Vietnam War

From : The Los Angeles Times

Photo : http://www.latimes.com/

Graphic History' by Dwight Jon Zimmerman and Wayne Vansant.

The Vietnam War still drags at us. Unlike the Civil War or World War II, we haven't figured out how to catalog it and put it away. It eludes definition; historians can't even make up their minds when it began and ended.

MORE............

Bookyards Editor: For more E-Books go here...

Last 24 hours

1. Laureate puts political spin on 12 days of Christmas
2. Books of the decade
3. Kindle for Christmas?
4. Tiger Woods drives sales of physics book sky-high
5. Who will save our libraries?

Sunday, December 06, 2009

Vincent Van Gogh: The Complete Letters

From : The Guardian

Photo : http://www.guardian.co.uk/

Van Gogh's letters provide an extraordinary map of the artist's interior world.

Michelangelo wrote some wonderful sonnets; Constable's correspondence has a fascinating tough-tenderness; most visualisers have, with varying degrees of success, tried to match words to their images. But Van Gogh's letters are the best written by any artist. Engrossing, moving, energetic and compelling, they dramatise individual genius while illuminating the creative process in general. No wonder readers have long since taken them to heart. No wonder, either, that singers have used them in their songs ("Starry Night"), and film-makers as the basis of their movies (Lust for Life). Their mixture of humble detail and heroic aspiration is quite simply life-affirming.

MORE..........

Saturday, December 05, 2009

Johnny Cash

From : Indiana University Press

Photo : http://www.iupress.indiana.edu/

Johnny Cash and the Paradox of American Identity
Leigh H. Edwards .

Explores the allure of Cash's contradictory persona
"Edwards' exploration . . . is nothing short of fascinating. The book provides in-depth analyses and challenges readers to think critically about 'Johnny Cash' (as well as Johnny Cash), a symbol that has been extremely important and influential in pop culture, but one that has not been widely written about as such." —Jason Buel, PopMatters , May 27, 2009

More................

Friday, December 04, 2009

Cheever: A Life by Blake Bailey

From : The Guardian

Photo : http://www.guardian.co.uk/

A funny, astute and clear-eyed biography of John Cheever impresses Blake Morrison.

"I have no biography," John Cheever once wrote. "I came from nowhere and I don't know where I'm going." Like many of his claims, it's one to be treated with suspicion. He knew exactly where he came from – an old and illustrious Yankee family, with a weakness for drink and profligacy. He'd a strong sense of where he was going, too – Mount Parnassus, or the American fiction writer's equivalent. As to biography, few writers' lives have been so painstakingly documented: he did it himself, in his incomparable journals; his daughter Susan and son Ben have written .

MORE..........

No Country for Old Typewriters: A Well-Used One Heads to Auction

From : The New York Times

Photo : Christie`s

Cormac McCarthy has written more than a dozen novels, several screenplays, two plays, two short stories, countless drafts, letters and more — and nearly every one of them was tapped out on a portable Olivetti manual typewriter he bought in a Knoxville, Tenn., pawnshop around 1963 for $50.

Lately this dependable machine has been showing irrevocable signs of age. So after his friend and colleague John Miller offered to buy him another, Mr. McCarthy agreed to auction off his Olivetti Lettera 32 and donate the proceeds to the Santa Fe Institute, a nonprofit interdisciplinary scientific research organization with which both men are affiliated.

More..........

1. The digested classic: Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh
2. Petina Gappah's An Elegy for Easterly wins Guardian First Book Award 2009
3. Cause of Jane Austen's death not universally acknowledged
4. Tiger Woods drives sales of physics book sky-high
5. The bad sex factor: extracts from Bad Sex in fiction prize shortlist

Blood Matters

From : Finacial Times

Photo : http://www.ft.com/

Twelve years after her mother died of breast cancer.

37-year-old Gessen – a war correspondent and mother at the time – discovered that she had inherited the “genetic mutation that kills women early”. Pursuing the cancer-inducing gene’s lethal path through her Jewish ancestry, Gessen confronts her own massively increased risk (to about 87 per cent) of breast or ovarian cancer

MORE...........

Bookyards Editor: For more E-Books go here...

Last 24 hours

Thursday, December 03, 2009

Constitutional law

From : The Hindu

Photo : http://www.hindu.com/

Collection of essays on Constitutional law and related matters by eminent jurists and academicians .

ALLADI MEMORIAL LECTURES: Tulika Books, 35 A/1 (third floor), Shahpur Jat, New Delhi- 110049. Rs. 595.

Anyone familiar with the debates in the Constituent Assembly cannot forget the scholarly and lawyer-like interventions of Dr. Alladi Krishnaswamy which settled many propositions of the draft Constitution that created differences among the members. Such was his scholarship in Constitutional matters that Chief Justice of India Hidayatullah wrote of him, “…no lawyer in India, then or since, has made a greater impression on me than Dr. Alladi.” This book is a collection of essays on Constitutional law and related matters by some of the eminent jurists and academicians of the country based on lectures they had delivered under the auspices of the Alladi Memorial Trust.

Shenandoah 1862

From : North Carolina

Photo : http://www.uncpress.unc.edu/

In the spring of 1862, Federal troops under the command of General George B. McClellan.

Launched what was to be a coordinated, two-pronged attack on Richmond in the hope of taking the Confederate capital and bringing a quick end to the Civil War. The Confederate high command tasked Stonewall Jackson with diverting critical Union resources from this drive, a mission Jackson fulfilled by repeatedly defeating much larger enemy forces. His victories elevated him to near iconic status in both the North and the South and signaled a long war ahead. One of the most intriguing and storied episodes of the Civil War, the Valley Campaign has heretofore only been related from the Confederate point of view. With Shenandoah 1862, Peter Cozzens dramatically and conclusively corrects this shortcoming, giving equal attention to both Union and Confederate perspectives.

MORE............

U. S. Grant

From : North Carolina

Photo : http://www.uncpress.unc.edu/

At the time of his death, Ulysses S. Grant .

Was the most famous person in America, considered by most citizens to be equal in stature to George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. Yet today his monuments are rarely visited, his military reputation is overshadowed by that of Robert E. Lee, and his presidency is permanently mired at the bottom of historical rankings.

More..............

Made Man

From : Powell`s Books

Photo : http://www.powells.com/

Raymond Carver: A Writer's Lifeby

Carol Sklenicka

Who made Raymond Carver? Maybe it was Gordon Lish, who edited Carver's short stories about workaday lives into the minimalist style that made him famous. Perhaps it was editor Gary Fisketjon, whose marketing savvy made Carver a standard-bearer of American fiction in the 1980s. Or it could have been his second wife, Tess Gallagher, who bolstered Carver's reputation in the years before his death in 1988. So many people have had a claim on Carver's good name that it's fair to wonder how much of it Carver could claim for himself.

MORE..........

Top for Los Angeles Times

Fiction
Weeks on list
1.
The Help by Kathryn Stockett (Putnam: $24.95) The lives of a maid, a cook and a college graduate become intertwined as they change a Mississippi town.
24
2.
The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver (Harper: $26.99) A writer's escapades encompassing 1930s Mexican artist communities and Cold War America.
1
3.
Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel ( Henry Holt: $27) The rise of Henry VIII's advisor Thomas Cromwell.
2
4.
Nine Dragons by Michael Connelly (Little, Brown : $27.99) An LAPD detective travels to Hong Kong to solve the murder of a Chinese immigrant.
5
5.
The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown (Doubleday: $25.99) Harvard professor Robert Langdon uses his symbology skills to find a missing Freemason in Washington, D.C.
9
6.
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days by Jeff Kinney (Amulet: $13.95) Greg desires to spend summer vacation indoors despite his mother's wishes for outdoor family fun.
5
7.
Last Night in Twisted River by John Irving (Random House: $28) A father and son on the run in 1950s Northeast logging communities.
2
8.
The Gathering Storm by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson (Tor: $29.99) Rand al'Thor, the Dragon Reborn, attempts to unite kingdoms and alliances in preparation for the Last Battle.
3
9.
Ford County by John Grisham (Doubleday: $24) A collection of short stories set in the same locale as "A Time to Kill."
1
10.
Juliet, Naked by Nick Hornby (Riverhead: $25.95) A woman acquaints herself with the songwriter whose album caused the breakup of her recent relationship.

Wednesday, December 02, 2009

Sex and the Married Man

From : The Atlantic

Photo : Marc Yankus

He’s 87, still kicking, and almost certainly still dieting.

The old bird has earned herself a scholarly biography the hard way; if Helen Gurley Brown’s journey from the outhouses and tent revivals of the Ozarks into the cocktail parties and four-color closings of the Hearst Corporation can’t make a corker of a story, nothing can. Bad Girls Go Everywhere, by Jennifer Scanlon, a gender and women’s-studies professor at Bowdoin, is a comprehensive report on HGB theory, which is in a revisionist phase

1. Cause of Jane Austen's death not universally acknowledged
2. Bad sex award goes to Jonathan Littell's The Kindly Ones
3. The bad sex factor: extracts from Bad Sex in fiction prize shortlist
4. Quiz: Advent in literature
5. Cormac McCarthy to part with beloved typewriter

A Gambling Man

From : The Wall Street Journal

Photo : www.learnnc.org/lp/multimedia/7517

Risky Business
A bitterly divided nation, a monarchy splendiferously .

When Charles II stepped ashore in Dover on May 27, 1660, and then entered London in a glorious procession two days later, on his 30th birthday, he was greeted with tolling church bells, cries of joy and expressions of hope. More than a decade had passed since his own exile to The Hague, the execution of his father and the rise of Oliver Cromwell's republican Commonwealth—regarded as a dictatorship by the many who chafed under the rule of the "Lord Protector." With the arrival of Charles—a tall, dark-haired man of physical grace—England's monarchy was splendiferously restored.

More.........

Last 24 hours

Tuesday, December 01, 2009

Ship of Fools

From : The Guardian

Photo : http://www.guardian.co.uk/

Ship of Fools: How Stupidity and Corruption Sank the Celtic Tiger by Fintan O'Toole.

The luck of the Irish has finally run out. Having roared away lustily for a decade or so, the Celtic Tiger has now rolled over on its back, all four paws stiffly in the air. In the late 1990s, Ireland became well-heeled for the first time in its wretched history, and in some respects even outstripped its former colonial proprietors. In this newly affluent nation of software and low taxes, bent bankers and microchip exporters, house prices in Dublin shot up by 519% between 1994 and 2006, probably the biggest such boom on the planet. It was a land of massive tax breaks and of financial regulation so light as to be invisible to the naked eye. As Ireland grew more dependent on foreign investment for its manufacturing than almost anywhere else in the world, the New York Times dubbed the country "the Wild West of European finance".

More.............

Enumeration Sensation

From : Bookforum

Photo : http://www.bookforum.com/

Ecstasis, calm, vertigo of the infinite . . . many, many feelings find expression in lists. Albert Mobilio

Middle of the night and your head teems with half-formed thoughts: Did I pay the car insurance? Where did I park the car? Is my best dress shirt at the dry cleaners? What time's the wedding on Saturday? Need a map of Vermont to get there. I should frame my vintage maps one of these days. Maybe start with that bird's-eye view of New Amsterdam, or the blue-tinted mariner's chart .

How stop this ceaseless ticker tape? The mind's associative reflex is as rapid as it is circuitous, myriad things and things-to-do always unspooling in the brainpan. If you get out of bed, though, and grab a pen, you can at least slow it down by making a list. You can rank items in importance, annotate, categorize, and subcategorize—in short, you can give some material shape to and make some order of what Samuel Beckett dubbed "the big blooming buzzing confusion." So somewhere between penciling "Pick up prescription" and "Live a more examined life," a portion of calm might be found.

More...........