Other books that might interest you

• 

  The Jew - Turgenev's...

  Ivan Turgenev

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  Ivan Sergeyevich Turgenev was born on 9th November 1818 in Oryol, Russia to parents from the nobility.  He and his two brothers were raised by their mother on the family estate.  Surrounded by foreign governesses he became fluent in French, German, and English.  Their father spent little time with them and this undoubtedly had an effect on him and his brothers.  When he was nine the family moved to Moscow to give their children a better education. 
   
  Turgenev studied for a year at the University of Moscow and then at the University of St Petersburg to study Classics, Russian literature, and philology.  During that time his father died from kidney stone disease.  In 1838 Turgenev studied philosophy and history at the University of Berlin for 3 years before returning to St Petersburg for his master's. 
   
  He started his career with the Russian Civil Service and it was only in 1852, after several earlier publications, that he made his name with his short story collection, ‘A Sportsman's Sketches’, based on his observations of peasant life and nature. 
    
  That same year he wrote an obituary for Nikolai Gogol: "Gogol is dead!... What Russian heart is not shaken by those three words?... He is gone, that man whom we now have the right (the bitter right, given to us by death) to call great."  The St Petersburg censor banned publication but the Moscow censor allowed it.  He was dismissed but Turgenev was held responsible and imprisoned for a month, and then exiled to his country estate.  
   
  Along with many other intellectuals Turgenev left Russia and settled in Paris in 1854.  During this period he wrote his finest stories and four novels.  
   
  Alexander II ascended the Russian throne in 1855, and the political climate relaxed.  Turgenev returned home.  
   
  ‘Fathers and Sons’, Turgenev's most famous and enduring novel, appeared in 1862. Its leading character is considered the first ‘Bolshevik’ in Russian literature. But the hostile reaction prompted Turgenev's decision to again leave Russia.  
   
  His health declined during his later years.  In January 1883, an aggressive malignant tumor was removed but by then it had metastasized in his upper spinal cord, causing him intense pain in his final few months of life.  
   
  Ivan Turgenev died on 3rd September 1883 of a spinal abscess, a complication of the metastatic liposarcoma, in his house near Paris.  He was buried in St Petersburg.  
   
  In ‘The Jew’ Turgenev explores a subject that is often treated abrasively by Russian authors.  In this heartbreaking tale an officer is begged by a Jew to help him.  He is even prepared to offer, with tragic consequences, a young girl as part of the bargain.

  Show book

• 

  The Gettysburg Address

  Abraham Lincoln

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  The complete text of one of the most important speeches in American history, delivered by President Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War. On November 19, 1863, Abraham Lincoln arrived at the battlefield near Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, to remember not only the grim bloodshed that had just occurred there, but also to remember the American ideals that were being put to the ultimate test by the Civil War. A rousing appeal to the nation’s better angels, The Gettysburg Address remains an inspiring vision of the United States as a country “conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.”

  Show book

• 

  Spirit of a Hummingbird -...

  Felicia Thai Heath

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  In Spirit of a Hummingbird, Felicia Thai Heath, the daughter of Vietnamese and Chinese immigrants who met in the United States, gives us a disquieting, eventful memoir based on her early childhood on the run with her father—a notorious Vietnamese kingpin and escaped convict—and her conflicted mother. Clever and mature beyond her age, young Felicia experienced poverty and witnessed abuse as her dysfunctional family bounced around in the United States and Canada. Amid all the tumult and terror, she found ways to love her family, educate herself, navigate her world, and discover her potential. Now she must decide how to live with the past—and whether her future can include her father.Spirit of a Hummingbird is an uncompromising look at family trauma, betrayal, fear, and helplessness and an inspiring testament to resilience, healing, and forgiveness.

  Show book

• 

  Henry James - A Short Story...

  Henry James

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  Henry James was born 15th April 1843 in New York City. 
   
  His youth was spent travelling with his family receiving what was an "extraordinarily haphazard and promiscuous" education as they journeyed through London, Paris, Geneva, Boulogne-sur-Mer and Newport, Rhode Island, according to the father's current interests and publishing ventures. James studied primarily with tutors and only briefly attended schools.    
   
  Undoubtedly the quality of his writing has ensured his name is enshrined in the American literary tradition.  
   
  James was a committed Anglophile and spent most of his adult life as an expatriate in Europe.  Many of his novels juxtapose the Old World with the New World. Classics such as ‘The Portrait of a Lady’, ‘Daisy Miller’ and ‘The Ambassadors’, display the entanglement between American and European cultures and mentalities. They highlight the differences between the two worlds through following the experiences of American expatriates in Europe.  
   
  A prolific author he was able to easily move across genres to create vivid and totally real worlds and situations and to offer sophisticated observations of human relations as well as realistic, social criticism. 
  As a critic James was unafraid to venture into reviews and essays of those other literary giants around him.  These together with his short stories and, of course, classic novels, make Henry James an author to be not only admired but read, and read often.  
   
  In 1915 Henry James became a British citizen. 
   
  On 28th February 1916, at the age of 72, Henry James died in Chelsea, London. 
   
  He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1911, 1912 and 1916. He never won.

  Show book

• 

  Art & Love - My Life Illuminated...

  Lora Arbrador

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  "A gorgeous heartfelt examination and celebration." - Editor's Pick, Booklife Review of Publisher's Weekly 
  Art & Love is the memoir of a woman’s quest to master the ancient art of egg tempera painting, gain confidence as an artist and find lasting love. 
  It’s 1966 and unaware that a counterculture tsunami is brewing, Lora Arbrador arrives in Berkeley, California where she is introduced to egg tempera, a painting technique that combines colorful pigments with egg yolk. Lora falls in love with this luminous medium but cannot find a teacher to unravel its mysteries. Her love life is similarly marked with many failures. 
  Art and love converge when she falls for a tender, charismatic artist, but after their eight-month immersion in the great museums of Europe, Lora follows him into a commune that she later realizes has become a cult. 
  Set against a backdrop of huge cultural changes – from the counterculture of the 1960s and back-to-the-land movement of the 1970s, to the AIDS epidemic and sex underground of the 1980s – Art & Love is a journey of creative and emotional fulfillment that captivates, educates and entertains the reader. 
  Arbrador’s stunning artwork enhances the narrative, inspiring those grappling with their own artistic expression and longing for love. 
  Includes her bonus essay “Which Came First? A Taste of Egg Tempera History.”

  Show book

• 

  Down Syndrome So What!

  Éléonore Laloux

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  "We have to fight for Down's syndrome. People see people with Down's syndrome as abnormal. Those who make fun of me, I ignore. Period. That's how I feel as a Down's sufferer. You have to say to yourself: 'I've got more chromosomes than them.'" 
  When Éléonore was born, the doctors considered her a "chromosomal aberration" and urged her parents not to get attached to her. With Down's syndrome and a heart defect, they gave her little chance of survival. 
  Twenty-eight years later, Éléonore is more alive than ever. Now an independent adult, she recounts her years of struggle with her parents to remain in a mainstream environment, and her refusal to be reduced to her illness. With humor, she shares her daily life, between her two-room apartment, her "job," her tumultuous love affairs and her passion for pop rock. 
  Éléonore is determined to change people's perception of Down's Syndrome.

  Show book