Catalog Search Results
Author
Description
This volume presents an exploration of poetry and feeling, introducing poems selected by the author as emblematic because they suggest something crucial about the nature of poetry itself, and offering his insights on how the poems should be read. In this guide, the author reaches out to all those who may be disaffected by the mere mention of poetry and instructs the reader to focus on a personal, emotional response.
Author
Description
Celebrates the pleasures of reading and pays homage to the works and writers the author admires above all others, from Jane Austen to Charles Dickens to Jennifer Egan.
In an age defined by hyper-connectivity and constant stimulation, Francine Prose makes a compelling case for the solitary act of reading and the great enjoyment it brings. Inspiring and illuminating, What to Read and Why includes selections culled from Prose's previous essays, reviews,...
Author
Description
For longtime Conan Doyle fans as well as readers just discovering Sherlock Holmes, a wickedly smart and rollicking journey through the birth, life, and afterlives of popular culture's most beloved sleuth.
More than a century after Sherlock Holmes first capered into our world, what is it about Arthur Conan Doyle's peculiar creation that continues to fascinate us? Dundas provides a history of an idea, a biography of someone who never lived, a tour...
Author
Description
Vrest Orton's loving remembrance of Robert Frost is a touching and masterful piece of work. The book also contains a number of letters he received from Robert Frost, never before published. Vrest Orton's loving remembrance of Robert Frost is a touching and masterful piece of work. The book also contains a number of letters he received from Robert Frost, never before published.
Author
Description
"In 1690, the dour New England Primer, thought to be the first American children's book, was published in Boston. Offering children gems of advice such as 'Strive to learn' and 'Be not a dunce,' it was no fun at all. So how did we get from there to 'Let the wild rumpus start'? And now that we're living in a golden age of children's literature, what can adults get out of reading Where the Wild Things Are and Goodnight Moon, or Charlotte's Web and Little...
Author
Pub. Date
[2022]
Edition
First U.S. edition.
Description
The Greek myths are among the world's most important cultural building blocks and they have been retold many times, but rarely do they focus on the remarkable women at the heart of these ancient stories. Stories of gods and monsters are the mainstay of epic poetry and Greek tragedy, from Homer to Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides, from the Trojan War to Jason and the Argonauts. And still, today, a wealth of novels, plays and films draw their inspiration...
Pub. Date
2023.
Description
"The anthology offers a provocative and surprising range of responses in which readers will find poetic context for the life of a poem and revelatory insight into the unique, personal experiences that shape the writing process itself. Including works from a wide variety of voices both new and well-established, Personal Best is a far-reaching, essential touchstone for the art of poetry in the United States today. The anthology gives readers—both...
Author
Pub. Date
2017
Appears on list
Description
""Walden. yesterday I cam here to live."" That entry from the journal of Henry David Thoreau, and the intellectual journey it began, would by themselves be enough to place Thoreau in the American pantheon. His attempt to ""live deliberately"" in a small woods at the edge of his hometown of Concord has been a touchstone for individualists and seekers since the publication of Walden in 1854. But there was much more to Thoreau than his brief experiment...
Author
Description
"As an aging, tenacious Elizabeth I clung to power, a talented playwright probed the social causes, the psychological roots, and the twisted consequences of tyranny. In exploring the psyche (and psychoses) of the likes of Richard III, Macbeth, Lear, Coriolanus, and the societies they rule over, Stephen Greenblatt illuminates the ways in which William Shakespeare delved into the lust for absolute power and the catastrophic consequences of its execution."--...
Author
Pub. Date
[2023]
Description
"Essays that show how Smiley draws inspiration from across literary history to invigorate her own writing. Among the authors she examines are Marguerite de Navarre, Charles Dickens, Anthony Trollope, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Louisa May Alcott, Mark Twain, Willa Cather, Franz Kafka, Halldor Laxness, and Jessica Mitford"--
Author
Edition
First edition.
Description
For the last twenty years, George Saunders has been teaching a class on the Russian short story to his MFA students at Syracuse University. In A Swim in a Pond in the Rain, he shares a version of that class with us, offering some of what he and his students have discovered together over the years. Paired with iconic short stories by Chekhov, Turgenev, Tolstoy, and Gogol, the seven essays in this book are intended for anyone interested in how fiction...
Author
Description
Too many people have come to dread the approach of the holidays, a season that should--and can--be the most relaxed, intimate, joyful, and spiritual time of the year. In this book, Bill McKibben offers some suggestions on how to rethink Christmastime, so that our current obsession with present buying becomes less important than the dozens of other possible traditions and celebrations.
Working through their local churches, McKibben and his colleagues...
Author
Series
Description
"Distinguished theater critic John Lahr brings unique perspective to the life of Arthur Miller (1915-2005), the playwright who almost single-handedly propelled twentieth-century American theater into a new level of cultural sophistication. Organized around the fault lines of Miller's life--his family, the Great Depression, the rise of fascism, Elia Kazan and the House Committee on Un-American Activities, Marilyn Monroe, Vietnam, and the rise and fall...
Author
Pub. Date
2016.
Edition
First edition.
Description
"A groundbreaking biography that places an obsessive, unrequited love at the heart of the writer's life story, transforming her from the tragic figure we have previously known into a smoldering Jane Eyre. Famed for her beloved novels, Charlotte Brontë has been known as well for her insular, tragic family life. The genius of this biography is that it delves behind this image to reveal a life in which loss and heartache existed alongside rebellion...
Author
Description
Mustich provides brief (usually one page) introductions to works of fiction, poetry, science and science fiction, memoir, travel writing, biography, children’s books, history, and more. Ranging across cultures and through time, this eclectic collection of works is not a proscriptive list of the 'great works' but a celebration of the glorious mosaic that is our literary heritage. Arranged alphabetically by author, the list is a life-changing list...
16) Walt Whitman
Author
Description
An illustrated collection of twenty-six poems and excerpts from longer poems by the renowned nineteenth-century poet.
17) Blue nights
Author
Description
Didion looks back on her life thus far, conjuring up snapshots of her daughter's childhood, while reflecting on and questioning her own role as a parent. She also talks of her personal struggle with her inability to acknowledge or accept that's she's in her late 70s.
Author
Description
"Author Anne Averyt explores with insight and humor the keen sense of place and solid footing in local values that shape Vermonters' views of home and the world beyond. A nine-year veteran commentator on Vermont Public Radio, Averyt shares her experience in this expanded collection of her essays"--
In Inter-Library Loan System
Didn't find what you need? Items not owned by VOKAL can be requested from other Inter-Library Loan System libraries to be delivered to your local library for pickup.
Make a purchase suggestion
Can't find what you are looking for? Try our Materials Request Service. Submit Request