Home in a Hundred Places PDF Download

Author: Sarah Dayan Mueller
Publisher: R. R. Bowker
ISBN: 9780578870298
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 242

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Book Description
A Jewish Egyptian spy. A life of high-risk espionage. Will his only chance to reconnect with his kin be mercilessly erased by Alzheimer's? Raymond Blanco never intended on leading a life of many roles, but after more than 90 years of experiences, he has a hard time remembering many of them. Raised in a Sephardic family in Egypt during the height of a growing resistance against Jews, Raymond maneuvers his way through childhood and into young adulthood with the guidance of his older cousin. When the two of them become key members of a Cairo-based Jewish spy ring, they're thrown into a world of split-second decisions that will ultimately determine the course of their lives. In the midst of life-threatening choices, Raymond loses contact with his cousin, but spends the rest of his life trying to find him again. Unable to stay in Egypt, Raymond finds his way to New York City, where his life is marked with success, international travels, and prosperity. But now the void in his heart marked by his cousin's disappearance is slowly being etched away by his fading memories. Can Raymond retain the last vestiges of a hidden career and reunite with his cousin Albert? Inspired by a true story, Home in a Hundred Places portrays dynamic relationships rooted in adventure and loyalty but stained by years of disconnect. Over the course of nearly a century, Raymond's life is led by deep-seeded familial traditions, unconditional love, and unanswered questions. As Raymond's life progresses, the onset of Alzheimer's disease slowly erases his memories. And as he struggles to hold onto a lifetime's worth of experiences, Raymond is scared that he will one day forget Albert before ever finding him again.

Author: Jan Weiss
Publisher: Central European University Press
ISBN: 9633860717
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 276

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Book Description
The House of a Thousand Floors is one of the earliest science-fiction novels in European literature, published first in 1929. Besides being a pioneer in its genre, the book is highly regarded for its general merits as psychological literature. The novel tells the story of a dream in fever of a soldier wounded in World War I. He finds himself in the stairway of a gigantic (and kafkaesque) tower-like building, which is a metaphor for modern society. He learns that his task is to rescue Princess Tamara from Muller, the lord of the edifice. After a number of surrealistic encounters in the building, during which he is hailed as a liberator by many and is hunted by the cruel security guards, the main character finds Tamara and faces the cruel lord of Mullerdom. The novel makes fine use of a range of experimental styles and techniques. At times, linear storytelling gives way to a collage of incongruous elements: excerpts from fictitious books, encyclopedia articles, radio broadcast transcripts are used as a shortcut to describe places or events; other narrative ingredients include fanciful advertisements, ludicrous administrative documents or political slogans which highlight the idiosyncrasies of this decadent world.

Author: Rebecca Makkai
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0698163540
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 316

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Book Description
The acclaimed author of The Borrower returns with a dazzlingly original, mordantly witty novel about the secrets of an old-money family and their turn-of-the-century estate, Laurelfield. “Rebecca Makkai is a writer to watch, as sneakily ambitious as she is unpretentious." –Richard Russo Meet the Devohrs: Zee, a Marxist literary scholar who detests her parents’ wealth but nevertheless finds herself living in their carriage house; Gracie, her mother, who claims she can tell your lot in life by looking at your teeth; and Bruce, her step-father, stockpiling supplies for the Y2K apocalypse and perpetually late for his tee time. Then there’s Violet Devohr, Zee’s great-grandmother, who they say took her own life somewhere in the vast house, and whose massive oil portrait still hangs in the dining room. Violet’s portrait was known to terrify the artists who resided at the house from the 1920s to the 1950s, when it served as the Laurelfield Arts Colony—and this is exactly the period Zee’s husband, Doug, is interested in. An out-of-work academic whose only hope of a future position is securing a book deal, Doug is stalled on his biography of the poet Edwin Parfitt, once in residence at the colony. All he needs to get the book back on track—besides some motivation and self-esteem—is access to the colony records, rotting away in the attic for decades. But when Doug begins to poke around where he shouldn’t, he finds Gracie guards the files with a strange ferocity, raising questions about what she might be hiding. The secrets of the hundred-year house would turn everything Doug and Zee think they know about her family on its head—that is, if they were to ever uncover them. In this brilliantly conceived, ambitious, and deeply rewarding novel, Rebecca Makkai unfolds a generational saga in reverse, leading the reader back in time on a literary scavenger hunt as we seek to uncover the truth about these strange people and this mysterious house. With intelligence and humor, a daring narrative approach, and a lovingly satirical voice, Rebecca Makkai has crafted an unforgettable novel about family, fate and the incredible surprises life can offer. For readers of Dodie Smith's I Capture the Castle

Author: J. Drew Lanham
Publisher: Milkweed Editions
ISBN: 1571318755
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 143

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Book Description
“A groundbreaking work about race and the American landscape, and a deep meditation on nature…wise and beautiful.”—Helen Macdonald, author of H is for Hawk A Foreword Reviews Best Book of the Year and Nautilus Silver Award Winner In me, there is the red of miry clay, the brown of spring floods, the gold of ripening tobacco. All of these hues are me; I am, in the deepest sense, colored. Dating back to slavery, Edgefield County, South Carolina—a place “easy to pass by on the way somewhere else”—has been home to generations of Lanhams. In The Home Place, readers meet these extraordinary people, including Drew himself, who over the course of the 1970s falls in love with the natural world around him. As his passion takes flight, however, he begins to ask what it means to be “the rare bird, the oddity.” By turns angry, funny, elegiac, and heartbreaking, The Home Place is a meditation on nature and belonging by an ornithologist and professor of ecology, at once a deeply moving memoir and riveting exploration of the contradictions of black identity in the rural South—and in America today. “When you’re done with The Home Place, it won’t be done with you. Its wonders will linger like everything luminous.”—Star Tribune “A lyrical story about the power of the wild…synthesizes his own family history, geography, nature, and race into a compelling argument for conservation and resilience.”—National Geographic

Author: Keith Bellows
Publisher: National Geographic Books
ISBN: 1426208766
Category : Travel
Languages : en
Pages : 276

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Book Description
Kids who learn to travel will travel to learn. National Geographic Traveler Editor Keith Bellows sends you and your children globetrotting for life-changing vacations that will expand their horizons and shape their perspectives. What you won’t find inside: predictable itineraries and lists of landmarks and events. Instead, you’ll get evocative, slice-of-life experiences and age-appropriate ideas that illuminate place and culture. Each chapter of 100 Places That Can Change Your Child’s Life plumbs the heart of a special place—from the Acropolis to Machu Picchu to the Grand Canyon—all from the perspective of insiders who see destinations through a child’s eyes. You’ll meet actor and travel writer Andrew McCarthy, who tours the suqs of Marrakech with his seven-year-old son; photographer Annie Griffiths, who shares the miraculous migration to Mexico of the monarch butterflies; Tom Ritchie, who has guided countless children and parents to Antarctica for more than 30 years; the waterman who knows where to see the ponies of Assateague in the true wild; and countless others who are cultural treasures, great storytellers, and keepers of a sense of place. Packed with ideas to supplement the travel experience—foods, music, films, and carefully curated lists of kid-friendly activities and places to eat and stay—this inspiring book is the perfect trip planner to excite children about culture and the unique magic the world has to offer.

Author: Kamal Salibi
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 9780520071964
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 260

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Book Description
"Kamal Salibi is the foremost living historian of Lebanon, and his new book is even more important than his earlier one because it throws light on the present and future of the country as well as its past."—Albert Hourani, author of A History of the Arab Peoples "Among Lebanese historians only Kamal Salibi has the credibility to write such a book. Its timely appearance signals a new era in Lebanese history. It will undoubtedly become a classic."—Nadim Shehadi, Director, the Centre for Lebanese Studies, Oxford

Author: Michelle Barker
Publisher: Annick Press
ISBN: 1773210734
Category : Young Adult Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 303

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Book Description
Who can Lena trust to help her find out the truth? Life in East Germany in the early 1980s is not easy for most people, but for Lena, it’s particularly hard. After the death of her parents in a factory explosion and time spent in a psychiatric hospital recovering from the trauma, she is sent to live with her stern aunt, a devoted member of the ruling Communist Party. Visits with her beloved Uncle Erich, a best-selling author, are her only respite. But one night, her uncle disappears without a trace. Gone also are all his belongings, his books, and even his birth records. Lena is desperate to know what happened to him, but it’s as if he never existed. The worst thing, however, is that she cannot discuss her uncle or her attempts to find him with anyone, not even her best friends. There are government spies everywhere. But Lena is unafraid and refuses to give up her search, regardless of the consequences. This searing novel about defiance, courage, and determination takes readers into the chilling world of a society ruled by autocratic despots, where nothing is what it seems.

Author: Richard Wilk
Publisher: Berg
ISBN: 1847889050
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 296

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Book Description
Rice and Beans is a book about the paradox of local and global. On the one hand, this is a globe-spanning dish, a simple source of complete nutrition for billions of people in hundreds of countries. On the other hand, in every place people insist that rice and beans is a local invention, deeply rooted in a particular history and culture. How can something so universal also be so particular? The authors of this book explore the specific history of the versions of rice and beans beloved and indigenous in cultures from Brazil to West Africa. But they also plumb the shared African, Native American and European trans-Atlantic encounters and exchanges, and the contemporary forces of globalization and nation-building, which combine to make rice and beans a powerful substance and symbol of the relationship between food and culture.

Author: N. Scott Momaday
Publisher: HarperCollins
ISBN: 0062911066
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 235

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Book Description
“Both a masterpiece about the universal human condition and a masterpiece of Native American literature. . . . A book everyone should read for the joy and emotion of the language it contains.” — The Paris Review A special 50th anniversary edition of the magnificent Pulitzer Prize-winning novel from renowned Kiowa writer and poet N. Scott Momaday, with a new preface by the author A young Native American, Abel has come home from war to find himself caught between two worlds. The first is the world of his father’s, wedding him to the rhythm of the seasons, the harsh beauty of the land, and the ancient rites and traditions of his people. But the other world—modern, industrial America—pulls at Abel, demanding his loyalty, trying to claim his soul, and goading him into a destructive, compulsive cycle of depravity and disgust. An American classic, House Made of Dawn is at once a tragic tale about the disabling effects of war and cultural separation, and a hopeful story of a stranger in his native land, finding his way back to all that is familiar and sacred.

Author: William Mason
Publisher: William Mason
ISBN: 9780595386222
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 180

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Book Description
With just his motorcycle, his tent and the open road, author Bill Mason ventures from his native Virginia to chat with an eclectic mix of people in the small towns of twenty-three states and seven Canadian provinces and explores the different cultures in Fargo, Saskatoon, Moose Jaw, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick. In Friends in a Hundred Places, Mason relates the intimate details of his journey and conversations. He visits local bars and swimming holes, and sleeps in tents, barns, and empty cars. Mason works at odd jobs that include repairing a tractor, shoveling grain in a granary, and building an aqueduct to bring mountain water to a farm. He deals with flat tires and engine problems, and makes friends with a wandering evangelist. With Mason, you'll experience lonesome days in northern Ontario, a street party in New Brunswick, foot stompin' in Nova Scotia, eating lobster on the beaches of Maine and life in a west va. Coal town. But it's Mason's special interpretation of freedom and the joys of motorcycle travel that lie at the heart of Friends in a Hundred Places. Take a moment to savor life on the open road and indulge in the passion of adventure.