Parallels and Paradoxes: Explorations in Music and Society
10 best books like Parallels and Paradoxes: Explorations in Music and Society (Daniel Barenboim): Farber on Film: The Complete Film Writings, Selected Essays, Essays, En esto creo, As I Please: 1943-1945, All of the Women of the Bible, Mortification: Writers' Stories of Their Public Shame, A Chorus of Stones: The Private Life of War, The Battersea Park Road to Paradise, The Great Tradition: George Eliot, Henry James, Joseph Conrad (Pelican)
Manny Farber (1917–2008) was a unique figure among American movie critics. Champion of what he called "termite art" (focused, often eccentric virtuosity as opposed to "white elephant" monumentality), master of a one-of-a-kind prose style whose jazz-like phrasing and incandescent twists and...
| Author | David Hume |
| ISBN | 0192836218 |
In his writings, David Hume set out to bridge the gap between the learned world of the academy and the marketplace of polite society. This collection, drawing largely on his Essays Mortal, Political, and Literary (1776 edition), comprehensively shows how far he succeeded.
As seen in these...
| Author | Wallace Shawn |
| ISBN | 1608460029 |
“Full of what you might call conversation starters: tricky propositions about morality... politics, privilege, runaway nationalist fantasies, collective guilt, and art as a force for change (or not)...It’s a treat to hear him speak his curious mind.”—O Magazine
In these beautiful...
| Author | Carlos Fuentes |
| ISBN | 8432216372 |
Bought this in a second-hand store so not too much money wasted. I'd forgotten how tiresomely liberal-elitist Fuentes can be, although I say that as an avowed anarchist-communist. The mandarin tone, the unnecessarily obtuse language, the attempt to (re)claim Bunuel for religiosity. Ugh. I enjoyed...
| Author | George Orwell |
| ISBN | 1567921353 |
Orwell continues to astonish me with
(a) his extraordinary - what's the word I'm looking for - "prolific" doesn't seem to have an associated noun. Fecundity? Industry? productivity? oh, what the heck - just the sheer volume of his output
(b) the quality of his writing, which is clear and...
| Author | Edith Deen |
| ISBN | 0060618523 |
All the women of the Bible offers a rich biographical perspective on evey female figure in scripture -- including the famous, the little-known, and even the unnamed. In more that 300 engaging and insightful portraits, Edith Deen brings alive the saints and sorceresses, queens and servants, mothers...
| Author | Robin Robertson |
| ISBN | 0007170580 |
A writer's public life is not -- as is often thought -- a round of glamorous parties, prize-acceptance speeches, and triumphant readings to amphitheatres full of loyal, cheering fans; it is, in fact, a grim treadmill of humiliation and neglect. Mortification sets the record straight, once and for...
Here's another book that I read for a class that I otherwise would never have attempted. I'm glad, I think, that I put my head down and staggered through Susan Griffin's A Chorus of Stones, but it's a book that takes a toll.
Here's a happy thought: a lot has already been written about...
| Author | Isabel Losada |
| ISBN | 1907486399 |
In her bestseller The Battersea Park Road to Enlightenment, Isabel Losada set out with a modest aim to be absurdly happy every day. But a few years down the road, she's stuck in a pothole. No job (not good). No man (very not good). Nothing has turned out as she'd intended.
There's only one way to...
| Author | F.R. Leavis |
| ISBN | 0140214879 |
This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references,...
| Author | Michel Foucault |
| ISBN | 1854378457 |
In this encounter between one of the 20th century's greatest minds and an artist fundamental to the development of modern art, French philosopher Michel Foucault explores Edouard Manet's importance in the overthrow of traditional values in painting.
Originally delivered in Tunis in 1971...
| Author | Edith Sitwell |
| ISBN | 1873429738 |
Eccentricity exists particularly in the English, states Dame Edith Sitwell, because of “that peculiar and satisfactory knowledge of infallibility that is the hallmark and the birthright of the British nation.” Originally published in 1933, The English Eccentrics has lost none of its vitality...
From one of modern literature’s most captivating and elusive masters comes a posthumous volume of thoughtful, elegant, and quick-witted autobiographical writings, all previously unpublished in English. Here is Italo Calvino paying homage to his literary influences and tracing the evolution...
The Mastery of Music: Ten Pathways to True Artistry
| Author | Barry Green |
| ISBN | 0767911571 |
The Inner Game of Music, the breakout hit that became a standard primer in the music world, has taught thousands of musicians—professionals and amateurs alike—how to overcome self-consciousness and stage fright and to recapture a youthful, almost effortless capacity to learn. Now, in his follow-up...
| Author | Harold C. Schonberg |
| ISBN | 0671638378 |
From Mozart’s
fabulous legato that “flowed like oil” to Beethoven’s oceanlike surge, from Clara Schumann’s touch “sharp as a pencil sketch” to Rubinstein’s volcanic and sensual playing, The Great Pianists brings to life the brilliant, stylish, and sometimes eccentric personalities,...
| Author | Edward W. Said |
| ISBN | 0674009975 |
With their powerful blend of political and aesthetic concerns, Edward W. Said's writings have transformed the field of literary studies. This long-awaited collection of literary and cultural essays, the first since Harvard University Press published The World, the Text, and the Critic in 1983,...
Secrets of Mary Magdalene: The Untold Story of History's Most Misunderstood Woman
| Author | Dan Burstein |
| ISBN | 1593152051 |
"Secrets of Mary Magdalene: The Untold Story of History's Most Misunderstood Woman" addresses one of the defining mysteries of the last two millennia. With essays, interviews, stories, and art by some of the greatest thinkers and writers of our time, including Elaine Pagels, Anna Quindlen, and James...
| Author | Giorgio Vasari |
| ISBN | 0141397764 |
'In this painting of Leonardo's there was a smile so pleasing that it seemed divine rather than human.'
Often called "the first art historian", Vasari writes with delight on the lives of Leonardo and other celebrated Renaissance artists.
Introducing Little Black Classics: 80 books...
The Power Tactics of Jesus Christ and Other Essays
| Author | Jay Haley |
| ISBN | 1845900219 |
In this classic volume available now once again, Jay Haley in the controversial title article, proposes an original interpretation of the Bible analysing Jesus actions as a man trying to build a mass movement to topple a power structure. Using wit and wry humor, Haley in the other essays discusses such...
| Author | Frédéric Chopin |
| ISBN | 0486255646 |
"Nothing could be more spontaneous and ebullient than Chopin's letters." — Books
"Perhaps no composer's letters are so kindred to his music, and reminiscent of the impression produced by it, as Chopin's are." — The New York Times
This superbly edited selection of nearly 300 of Chopin's...
| Author | Kent Nerburn |
| ISBN | 0931432782 |
We recognize the philosophy of the original Americans as coming from the earth we walk on, from those who preceded us. As we read the wisdom of these peoples, it is possible to feel a reconnection with our land and ourselves. This beautiful collection of the best of Native American wisdom features the...
