Why do so many of us stop learning new skills as adults? Are we afraid to be bad at something? Have we forgotten the sheer pleasure of beginning from the ground up? Inspired by his young daughter's insatiable curiosity, Tom Vanderbilt embarks on a yearlong quest of learning-purely for the sake of learning. Knopf"-Title page verso.īook Synopsis An insightful, joyful tour of the transformative powers of starting something new, no matter your age -from the bestselling author of Traffic and You May Also Like "Vanderbilt elegantly and persuasively tackles one of the most pernicious of the lies we tells ourselves-that the pleasures of learning are reserved for the young." -Malcolm Gladwell, bestselling author of Outliers About the Book "This is a Borzoi book published by Alfred A.
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Gates was a visiting lecturer at the University of California, Berkeley the University of Southern California, Los Angeles and the University of San Francisco. Also in 1940, Gates began working for San Jose State College, teaching children's literature and storytelling. Two years later Blue Willow, a book about the daughter of a migrant farmer like those she worked with, appeared. Her first published book, Sarah's Idea (1938), is about a girl who wants to buy a burro and helps with the harvest on her family's prune ranch to earn the money she needs. Budget constraints caused the library to cut back its hours, so Gates used her extra day off to begin writing. She also visited the schools erected for the children of workers displaced by the Dust Bowl, telling stories and sharing books. While in Fresno, Gates had a radio program telling stories to children. She returned to Fresno to work as the children's librarian at the Fresno County Library in central California from 1930 to 1940. After one year Gates took a leave of absence to study library science at Western Reserve University, (now Case Western Reserve) in Cleveland. She then became the assistant in the children's department of the Fresno County Free Library. Two years later Gates attended Los Angeles Library School. What she didn’t know, until years later, was the cost. This is what Kendra James bought into when she began her journey at prep school. That has always been the promise behind glossy photos of diverse, smiling teenagers and anodyne mission statements like “teaching the whole student” and “preparation for the active work of life.” Adults across the spectrum of authority told us that we were meant to invest our hope in schools like these - that there we would find the opportunity to craft our best selves the easy routes to bigger, shinier, more elite colleges the possibility of a better life built by our own talents and ambition. Photo: gorodenkoff/Getty Images/iStockphotoĪs a marginalized student, boarding school was supposed to be the opportunity of a lifetime for me: a world-class education, the space and resources of a small college, and a close-knit community all in one perfect package. Where did the bullet come from that killed you? At what angle did it enter? Did you hear the crack of the shot? See the German who shot you? And therefore falls firmly into that sprawling pile of Stuff I Wouldn't Read On A Bet.Įxcept check this out: The hook for it? It's World War I and the British have a whole division called the Spirit Corps who contribute to the war effort by talking to the ghosts of (very) recently dead soldiers in order to gain intelligence about the goings-on at the front. I mean, it's essentially an alternate history love story with ghosts in it. Which is why, on the surface, it might seem odd that I was so thoroughly taken in by Mary Robinette Kowal's newest novel, Ghost Talkers. Never cared much for ghost stories or alternate histories or love stories or horror. Never been much for fantasy done after the 1970s (it mostly sounds like bad Tolkien). Look, I am solidly a ray-guns-and-spaceships kind of genre nerd. Brackets and space give the reader a sense of what is absent as well as what is present on the papyrus.Ĭarson’s translation illuminates Sappho’s reflections on love, desire, marriage, exile, cushions, bees, old age, shame, time, chickpeas and many other aspects of the human situation. In If Not, Winter, Anne Carson presents all of Sappho’s fragments in Greek and in English. Of the nine books of lyrics Sappho is said to have composed, none of the music is extant and only one poem has survived complete. She was a musical genius who devoted her life to composing and performing songs. Sappho lived on the Island of Lesbos from about 630BC. The complete extant work of the Greek poet Sappho, in a new translation by Anne Carson. If Not Winter: Fragments of Sappho by Anne Carson Consequently, she must flee Jackson, and her sister, in the hopes that she can outrun her past. Simply being black is (still) a vulnerability, but Violet carries an even greater burden: she has killed a white man who brutalized her and went unpunished. Then, there’s the specter of the South, which remains deeply divided despite the abolition of Jim Crow laws in fact, three men were recently murdered in nearby Neshoba County for trying to help African Americans precure the ability to vote. Summer, 1964: Sisters Violet and Marigold Richards live together in Jackson, Mississippi, in a family home that’s haunted by memories of sadness and despair: the accidental death of their older sister, Rose, eight years before and the subsequent passing of both grief-stricken parents. Now, Morris-who is a corporate attorney and a married mother of three-returns with the historical thriller Anywhere You Run, which captures the treachery and turmoil of the American South. It’s also under option as a limited series at Showtime. That book won both the 2022 Lefty Award for Best Debut Mystery Novel, the Georgia Author of the Year Award for Best First Novel, and was nominated for several other accolades. Morris emerged as a powerhouse suspense novelist with last year’s All Her Little Secrets. Struggling to recover from his injuries, beginning to understand that he might never be the same man again, he takes refuge at his family’s ancestral home to care for his dying uncle Hugo. Toby is a happy-go-lucky charmer who’s dodged a scrape at work and is celebrating with friends when the night takes a turn that will change his life-he surprises two burglars who beat him and leave him for dead. “Tana French’s best and most intricately nuanced novel yet.” - The New York TimesĪn “extraordinary” (Stephen King) and “mesmerizing” ( LA Times) new standalone novel from the master of crime and suspense and author of the forthcoming novel The Searcher.įrom the writer who “inspires cultic devotion in readers” ( The New Yorker) and has been called “incandescent” by Stephen King, “absolutely mesmerizing” by Gillian Flynn, and “unputdownable” ( People) comes a gripping new novel that turns a crime story inside out. Named a New York Times Notable Book of 2018 and a Best Book of 2018 by NPR, The New York Times Book Review, Amazon, The Boston Globe, LitHub, Vulture, Slate, Elle, Vox, and Electric Literature The information and materials contained in this web site are owned by the Bank or by others, as applicable. Users assume all responsibility when they go to other sites via the links on this page. The Bank has no control over any other web site and is not responsible for the content on any site other than this one. If any information on the site conflicts with that in the Bank’s agreements and disclosures, the agreements and disclosures will control.įrom time to time the Bank may place links to other web sites on this page. Nothing contained in any page on this site takes the place of the Bank’s agreements and disclosures that govern its products and services. Information that appears on this web site should be considered an advertisement. This web site has been established by the Bank for the sole purpose of conveying information about the Bank’s products and services and to allow communication between the Bank and its customers. BY ACCESSING THE WEB SITE OR ANY OF ITS PAGES YOU AGREE TO BE BOUND BY THESE TERMS OF USE. IF YOU DO NOT AGREE WITH THESE TERMS DO NOT ACCESS THE WEB SITE. PLEASE READ THEM CAREFULLY BEFORE ACCESSING THE SITE. THESE TERMS GOVERN THE USE OF THIS WEB SITE. Meanwhile, Maria also finds that in the hotel next door are staying a big family-two sets of cousins, the Lucases-whom they had noticed on the drive down. But alongside, Maria also begins to hear sounds of things that aren’t there-a dog barking and crying, a swing creaking-are these also her imagination or is she a little fey with a connection to the past? Some inscriptions in books in the house, and a visit to their landlady Mrs Shand, on which she sees a sampler from the past made by ‘Harriet’, lead her to wonder about the little girl who lived in the house a hundred years before herself. Maria thus is left to entertain herself, which she does, collecting fossils from the beach and using the books in the house (and at the library) to identify and label them, spending hours in the lovely old Ilex tree in the garden, and having imaginary conversations with the cat who always ‘replies’ sarcastically, and voices Maria’s fears and apprehensions. At Lyme too, Maria’s parents prefer to stay quietly indoors much of the time so while there are walks and visits to the beach, they are happier when they don’t have to take them. This could be an especially maddening season for the 84-year-old author, given that 2010 marks the 50th year since To Kill a Mockingbird was published, and we all know how the media love anniversaries. Life can’t be easy when everything you hate about success stands between you and the Piggly Wiggly. I sympathize with Lee, who has steadfastly refused to take part in the merchandising of her most famous accomplishment. The courthouse has long since been turned into a Mockingbird museum, to the delight of a constant stream of camera-toting tourists, foreign and domestic. The gift shop is in the venerable courthouse where as a child Lee watched her father practice law, and which she later rendered so vividly in her book. That would be a mere T-shirt’s toss from a gift shop peddling Mockingbird hats, tote bags, necklaces, Christmas ornaments, refrigerator magnets, wrist bands (inscribed “I see it, Scout, I see it!”) and paper fans. 6,372) that served as the model for her novel’s Maycomb, has found herself living a short drive from one restaurant called the Mockingbird Grill and another named Radley’s Fountain, after Boo Radley, the character in Mockingbird who might be voted Least Likely to Become a Restaurateur. Strongly inclined to put aside the hype and hoopla and let literature speak for itself, Lee, the best-known native of the town (pop. To spend an hour in Monroeville, Alabama, is to know why Harper Lee, the author of To Kill a Mockingbird, ranks as one of the crankiest writers on the planet. |