Oscar. Wilde

Light Paperback (1 lb or less)

Florida

'It would be unfair to expect other people to be as remarkable as oneself'

Only Dull People Are Brilliant at Breakfast

9834703a-7d88-4eaa-9af8-e8026ff2cc70-1

Keri Smith

The international bestseller… For anyone who's ever had trouble starting, keeping, or finishing a journal or sketchbook comes this expanded edition of Wreck This Journal, an illustrated book that features a subversive collection of prompts, asking readers to muster up their best mistake and mess-making abilities and to fill the pages of the book (or destroy them). Through a series of creatively and quirkily illustrated prompts, acclaimed artist Keri Smith encourages journalers to engage in "destructive" acts--poking holes through pages, adding photos and defacing them, painting pages with coffee, coloring outside the lines, and more--in order to experience the true creative process. With Smith's unique sensibility, readers are introduced to a new way of art and journal making, discovering novel ways to escape the fear of the blank page and fully engage in the creative process.

Wreck This Journal (Black) Expanded Ed

4b7a7b2e-bb45-46d4-a97d-e9b619669055-1

Amanda Montell

Read it, but there is no visible damage. 

Hardcover (1 to 2 lbs)

Georgia

The Language of Fanaticism

The author of the widely praised Wordslut analyzes the social science of cult influence: how cultish groups from Jonestown and Scientology to SoulCycle and social media gurus use language as the ultimate form of power. What makes "cults" so intriguing and frightening? What makes them powerful? The reason why so many of us binge Manson documentaries by the dozen and fall down rabbit holes researching suburban moms gone QAnon is because we're looking for a satisfying explanation for what causes people to join--and more importantly, stay in--extreme groups. We secretly want to know: could it happen to me? Amanda Montell's argument is that, on some level, it already has . . . Our culture tends to provide pretty lame answers to questions of cult influence, mostly having to do with vague talk of "brainwashing." But the true answer has nothing to do with freaky mind-control wizardry or Kool-Aid. In Cultish, Montell argues that the key to manufacturing intense ideology, community, and us/them attitudes all comes down to language. In both positive ways and shadowy ones, cultish language is something we hear--and are influenced by--every single day. Through juicy storytelling and cutting original research, Montell exposes the verbal elements that make a wide spectrum of communities "cultish," revealing how they affect followers of groups as notorious as Heaven's Gate, but also how they pervade our modern start-ups, Peloton leaderboards, and Instagram feeds. Incisive and darkly funny, this enrapturing take on the curious social science of power and belief will make you hear the fanatical language of "cultish" everywhere.

Cultish

78146fda-71de-4235-9f95-d31e8081c38f-1

Heavy Paperback (2 to 4 lbs)

New York

Paul L. Kinsella The Techniques of Writing: Form B

Illinois

A Mosaic of One Hundred Exemplary Creative Minds

Genius

Janet Malcolm

Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes

In an astonishing feat of literary detection, one of the most provocative critics of our time and the author of In the Freud Archives and The Purloined Clinic offers an elegantly reasoned meditation on the art of biography. In The Silent Woman, Janet Malcolm examines the biographies of Sylvia Plath to create a book not about Plath's life but about her afterlife: how her estranged husband, the poet Ted Hughes, as executor of her estate, tried to serve two masters--Plath's art and his own need for privacy; and how it fell to his sister, Olwyn Hughes, as literary agent for the estate, to protect him by limiting access to Plath's work.

Even as Malcolm brings her skepticism to bear on the claims of biography to present the truth about a life, a portrait of Sylvia Plath emerges that gives us a sense of "knowing" this tragic poet in a way we have never known her before. And she dispels forever the innocence with which most of us have approached the reading of any biography.

The Silent Woman

52e5be72-8ee8-4684-ba17-5d68f4de8231-1

Sadie Hartmann

Paperback (1 to 2 lbs)

For every reader who has excitedly wandered over to their local bookstore’s horror section only to find a few measly shelves with books you’ve already read by authors you’ve already heard of, this book is for you! Sadie Hartmann, better known as “Mother Horror” online, has put together the ultimate list of must-read novels, without a single repeat author, so you can confidently build up your TBR list. With books that span the genre’s full spectrum, from paranormal hauntings to creepy death cults, and small-town terrors to apocalyptic disasters, Sadie demonstrates that horror is so much more than slasher stories full of blood and guts (though you’re sure to find those inside too). Each recommendation is complete with a brief story summary, critical insight, and a featured quote to lure you in. And once you’ve made it through the list, fear not! Sadie includes plenty of resources and tips to find even more horror, such as bookstores with great selections or publishers to watch. This reader’s guide is the perfect gift for long-time fans of monsters and the macabre as well as a great introduction for curious readers who dare to delve into the dark.

101 Horror Books to Read Before You're Murdered

f4cfeb9d-7396-4c9e-9522-808cbdf22a2d-1

John Cech

A very fine copy. Minor scratches on DJ. 

Oversized Hardcover (4 to 6 lbs)

The Archetypal Poetics of Maurice Sendakt

Cech traces the evolution of Sendak's work by fusing biographical, historical, cultural, and literary materials with the insights of depth psychology and archetypal theory.

Angels and Wild Things (1995 Ed)

72a50437-3734-4204-a120-13a6ac8e828b-0

Vintage paperback featuring a set of essays on French writer Albert Camus. 1976.

Arizona

Albert Camus' Literary Milieu: Arid Lands

Amy Peters

Light Hardcover (1 lb or less)

California

365 Inspirations and Writing Tips

The Writer's Daily Companion

ab4b8c7b-d688-41dc-847a-ec82e901c31f-1

Thomas C. Foster

A Lively and Entertaining Guide to Reading Between the Lines

A thoroughly revised and updated edition of Thomas C. Foster's classic guide—a lively and entertaining introduction to literature and literary basics, including symbols, themes, and contexts—that shows you how to make your everyday reading experience more rewarding and enjoyable. While many books can be enjoyed for their basic stories, there are often deeper literary meanings interwoven in these texts. How to Read Literature Like a Professor helps us to discover those hidden truths by looking at literature with the eyes—and the literary codes—of the ultimate professional reader: the college professor. What does it mean when a literary hero travels along a dusty road? When he hands a drink to his companion? When he's drenched in a sudden rain shower? Ranging from major themes to literary models, narrative devices, and form, Thomas C. Foster provides us with a broad overview of literature—a world where a road leads to a quest, a shared meal may signify a communion, and rain, whether cleansing or destructive, is never just a shower—and shows us how to make our reading experience more enriching, satisfying, and fun. This revised edition includes new chapters, a new preface, and a new epilogue, and incorporates updated teaching points that Foster has developed over the past decade.

How to Read Literature Like a Professor Revised Edition

1672e7e2-fd95-4319-94cd-44f239bb8c58-1

What does it mean when a fictional hero takes a journey?. Shares a meal? Gets drenched in a sudden rain shower? Often, there is much more going on in a novel or poem than is readily visible on the surface—a symbol, maybe, that remains elusive, or an unexpected twist on a character—and there's that sneaking suspicion that the deeper meaning of a literary text keeps escaping you. In this practical and amusing guide to literature, Thomas C. Foster shows how easy and gratifying it is to unlock those hidden truths, and to discover a world where a road leads to a quest; a shared meal may signify a communion; and rain, whether cleansing or destructive, is never just rain. Ranging from major themes to literary models, narrative devices, and form, How to Read Literature Like a Professor is the perfect companion for making your reading experience more enriching, satisfying, and fun.

How to Read Literature Like a Professor

Pennsylvania

Allegory and Mirror: Tradition and Structure in Middle English Literature (This Edition, 1970)

Margaret Atwood

Michigan

SF and the Human Imagination

A series of the author's essays explores essential truths about the modern world and the her personal relationship with the science-fiction genre, in a volume that is complemented by key reviews and three unpublished Ellmann Lectures.

In Other Worlds

8a61939d-c2b1-43a3-aee4-bff5a3e94ee7-1


Publisher	‎HarperVoyager (July 9, 2024)
Language	‎English
Paperback	‎672 pages
ISBN-10	‎0008666911
ISBN-13	‎978-0008666910
Item Weight	‎1 pounds
Dimensions	‎5.06 x 1.65 x 7.8 inches
Best Sellers Rank	#158,084 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
#5,735 in Romantic Fantasy (Books)
#7,714 in Paranormal & Urban Fantasy (Books)
#7,858 in Fantasy Romance

Shadow Stitch

Taisia Kitaiskaia

Massachusetts

A Celebration of Magical Women Writers

Celebrate the witchiest women writers with beautiful illustrations and imaginative vignettes. Literary Witches draws a connection between witches and visionary writers: both are figures of formidable creativity, empowerment, and general badassery. Through poetic portraits, Taisia Kitaiskaia and Katy Horan honor the witchy qualities of well-known and obscure authors alike, including Virginia Woolf, Mira Bai, Toni Morrison, Emily Dickinson, Octavia E. Butler, Sandra Cisneros, and many more. Perfect for both book lovers and coven members, Literary Witches is a treasure and a source of inspiration. Kitaiskaia and Horan bring fresh insights on your most beloved authors, suggest enchanting new writers, and invite you to rediscover the magic of literature.

Literary Witches

3c3ec7a6-667c-4792-839d-abb4c41a80de-1

Karen Swallow Prior

Leland Ryken

Indiana

Finding the Good Life Through Great Books

Reading great literature well has the power to cultivate virtue. Great literature increases knowledge of and desire for the good life by showing readers what virtue looks like and where vice leads. It is not just what one reads but how one reads that cultivates virtue. Reading good literature well requires one to practice numerous virtues, such as patience, diligence, and prudence. And learning to judge wisely a character in a book, in turn, forms the reader's own character. Acclaimed author Karen Swallow Prior takes readers on a guided tour through works of great literature both ancient and modern, exploring twelve virtues that philosophers and theologians throughout history have identified as most essential for good character and the good life. In reintroducing ancient virtues that are as relevant and essential today as ever, Prior draws on the best classical and Christian thinkers, including Aristotle, Aquinas, and Augustine. Covering authors from Henry Fielding to Cormac McCarthy, Jane Austen to George Saunders, and Flannery O'Connor to F. Scott Fitzgerald, Prior explores some of the most compelling universal themes found in the pages of classic books, helping readers learn to love life, literature, and God through their encounters with great writing. In examining works by these authors and more, Prior shows why virtues such as prudence, temperance, humility, and patience are still necessary for human flourishing and civil society. The book includes end-of-chapter reflection questions geared toward book club discussions, features original artwork throughout, and includes a foreword from Leland Ryken.

On Reading Well

0bfe9f5b-9f4a-4e5e-a063-0a9564d7c7a4-1

M. A. Screech

Michel De Montaigne

Michel de Montaigne was one of the most influential figures of the Renaissance, singlehandedly responsible for popularising the essay as a literary form. This Penguin Classics edition of The Complete Essays is translated from the French and edited with an introduction and notes by M.A. Screech.
In 1572 Montaigne retired to his estates in order to devote himself to leisure, reading and reflection. There he wrote his constantly expanding 'assays', inspired by the ideas he found in books contained in his library and from his own experience. He discusses subjects as diverse as war-horses and cannibals, poetry and politics, sex and religion, love and friendship, ecstasy and experience. But, above all, Montaigne studied himself as a way of drawing out his own inner nature and that of men and women in general. The Essays are among the most idiosyncratic and personal works in all literature and provide an engaging insight into a wise Renaissance mind, continuing to give pleasure and enlightenment to modern readers.
With its extensive introduction and notes, M.A. Screech's edition of Montaigne is widely regarded as the most distinguished of recent times.
Michel de Montaigne (1533-1586) studied law and spent a number of years working as a counsellor before devoting his life to reading, writing and reflection.
If you enjoyed The Complete Essays, you might like Francois Rabelais's Gargantua and Pantagruel, also available in Penguin Classics.
'Screech's fine version ... must surely serve as the definitive English Montaigne'
A.C. Grayling, Financial Times
'A superb edition'
Nicholas Wollaston, Observer


The Complete Essays

f8f80d9d-7304-433f-8758-15da2a901e52-1

Natalie Haynes

Virginia

Women in the Greek Myths

"Funny, sharp explications of what these sometimes not-very-nice women were up to, and how they sometimes made idiots of . . . but read on!"--Margaret Atwood, author of The Handmaid's Tale The national bestselling author of A Thousand Ships returns with a fascinating, eye-opening take on the remarkable women at the heart of classical stories Greek mythology from Helen of Troy to Pandora and the Amazons to Medea. The tellers of Greek myths--historically men--have routinely sidelined the female characters. When they do take a larger role, women are often portrayed as monstrous, vengeful or just plain evil--like Pandora, the woman of eternal scorn and damnation whose curiosity is tasked with causing all the world's suffering and wickedness when she opened that forbidden box. But, as Natalie Hayes reveals, in early Greek myths there was no box. It was a jar . . . which is far more likely to tip over. In Pandora's Jar, the broadcaster, writer, stand-up comedian, and passionate classicist turns the tables, putting the women of the Greek myths on an equal footing with the men. With wit, humor, and savvy, Haynes revolutionizes our understanding of epic poems, stories, and plays, resurrecting them from a woman's perspective and tracing the origins of their mythic female characters. She looks at women such as Jocasta, Oedipus' mother-turned-lover (turned Freudian sticking point), who gouged out her eyes upon discovering the truth about her new relationship, and was less helpless than we have been led to believe. She considers Helen of Troy--whose face famously "launch'd a thousand ships," but was decidedly more child than woman when she was accused of "causing" the Trojan war. She demonstrates how the vilified Medea was like an ancient Beyonce--getting her revenge on the men who hurt and betrayed her, perhaps justifiably so. And she turns her eye to Medusa--the serpent-like seductress whose stare turned men to stone--who wasn't always a monster, and was far more victim than perpetrator. Pandora's Jar brings nuance and care to the centuries-old myths and legends and asks the question: Why we were so quick to villainize these women in the first place--and so eager to accept the stories we've been told?

Pandora's Jar

b829d31e-eb60-41e9-a9df-bc4a5f9bfdb5-1

John Truby

How Story Forms Explain the Way the World Works

"A guide to understanding the major story genres and how to write them"--

The Anatomy of Genres

2ccc7fa7-a6a0-4606-9831-3730f87bab20-1

Anne Lamott

Some Instructions on Writing and Life

A step-by-step guide to writing and managing the writer's life covers each portion of a written project, addresses such concerns as writer's block and getting published, and offers awareness and survival tips. Reprint. Tour.

Bird by Bird

3fffc973-6336-4b0b-b801-7722f088abaf-1

Jane Smiley

Colorado

From the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of A Thousand Acres comes an essential guide for writers and readers alike: an exhilarating tour through one hundred novels that "inspires wicked delight." --Los Angeles Times Book Review

From classics such as the thousand-year-old Tale of Genji to fiction by Zadie Smith and Alice Munro, Jane Smiley explores the power of the form, looking at its history and variety, its cultural impact, and just how it works its magic. She invites us behind the scenes of novel-writing, sharing her own habits and spilling the secrets of her craft, and offering priceless advice to aspiring authors. Every page infects us anew with the passion for reading that is the governing spirit of this gift to book lovers everywhere.

13 Ways of Looking at the Novel

acddce5c-f8d0-4d41-a79a-a4d479de97a9-1

Bernard Goldberg

Rescuing America from the Media Elite

Discusses what the author terms a culture of elitism in the modern media and explains how distortions in news reporting are inevitable in today's climate, prescribing challenging solutions to enable more balanced reporting.

Arrogance

07da9388-1944-485d-a689-fc1530d19f2a-1

Browse by categories

Save this search

Oscar. Wilde

Only Dull People Are Brilliant at Breakfast

Keri Smith

Wreck This Journal (Black) Expanded Ed

Amanda Montell

Cultish

Paul L. Kinsella

Paul L. Kinsella The Techniques of Writing: Form B

Harold Bloom

Genius

Janet Malcolm

The Silent Woman

Sadie Hartmann

101 Horror Books to Read Before You're Murdered

John Cech

Angels and Wild Things (1995 Ed)

Albert Camus

Albert Camus' Literary Milieu: Arid Lands

Amy Peters

The Writer's Daily Companion

Thomas C. Foster

How to Read Literature Like a Professor Revised Edition

Thomas C. Foster

How to Read Literature Like a Professor

James I. Wimsatt

Allegory and Mirror: Tradition and Structure in Middle English Literature (This Edition, 1970)

Margaret Atwood

In Other Worlds

Cari Thomas

Shadow Stitch

Taisia Kitaiskaia

Literary Witches

Karen Swallow Prior; Leland Ryken

On Reading Well

M. A. Screech; Michel De Montaigne

The Complete Essays

Natalie Haynes

Pandora's Jar

John Truby

The Anatomy of Genres

Anne Lamott

Bird by Bird

Anne Lamott

Bird by Bird

Jane Smiley

13 Ways of Looking at the Novel

Bernard Goldberg

Arrogance