High Art

1599 was an epochal year for Shakespeare and England. During that year, Shakespeare wrote four of his most famous plays: Henry the Fifth, Julius Caesar, As You Like It, and, most remarkably, Hamlet; Elizabethans sent off an army to crush an Irish rebellion, weathered an Armada threat from Spain, gambled on a fledgling East India Company, and waited to see who would succeed their aging and childless queen.

Wrapped up in a snarky idealism, it starts as a funny and poignant love letter to art, and winds up making a compelling case for a kinder, more connected world.

Our Evenings is Dave Win’s own account of his life as a schoolboy and student, his first love affairs, in London, and on the road with an experimental theatre company, and of a late-life affair, which transforms his sixties with a new sense of happiness and a perilous security; but it is also, very movingly, the story of his hard-working widowed mother, whose own life takes an unexpected new turn after her son leaves home.

"Life changes fast....You sit down to dinner and life as you know it ends." These were among the first words Joan Didion wrote in January 2004. Her daughter was lying unconscious in an intensive care unit, a victim of pneumonia and septic shock. Her husband, John Gregory Dunne, was dead. The night before New Year's Eve, while they were sitting down to dinner, he suffered a massive and fatal coronary. The two had lived and worked side by side for nearly 40 years.

In this thoughtful collection of essays, Andrea Barrett draws from her experiences writing some of the most acclaimed historical fiction of our time to explore the mysteries and delights of the genre. Inspiration found in the past, she argues, can illuminate fiction, just as dust scatters light and makes the unseen visible.

On July 26, 1910 lieutenant colonel Vandam resigns from the military to start on a literary career. After publishing 'Our Position: ...' in 1912 a year later the author wrote 'The Greatest of Arts: ...', also a work of exceptional geopolitical value. Geopolitics is a science that arose on the basis of three main scientific approaches: civilizational (N. Ya. Danilevsky, K. N. Leontiev, O. Spengler, etc.), geographical determinism (J. Woden, C. Montesquieu, G. Bockle, A. von Humbolt, K. Ritter, etc.), and military-strategic (N. Machiavelli, K. von Clausewitz, H. I. Moltke, A. Mahan, etc.). '...

Whoever said “boyfriending is hard” clearly didn’t have the right tools for the job. What do you do if you’re a fifteen-year-old girl whose much older (eighteen) boyfriend breaks up with her because you won’t “go all the way?” What do you do if you live in the smallest town in the world, where everyone knows your business before you do, and it’s the first day of school, and you just want to hide under the covers and pretend you’re dead? What do you do if you love theatre more than anything, and you want to go to New York to study and be on Broadway, but your dads named you...

In So Much Longing in So Little Space, Karl Ove Knausgaard sets out to understand the enduring and awesome power of Edvard Munch's work by training his gaze on the landscapes that inspired Munch and speaking firsthand with other contemporary artists, including Anselm Kiefer, for whom Munch's legacy looms large. Bringing together art history, biography, and memoir, Knausgaard tells a passionate, freewheeling, and pensive story about not just one of history's most significant painters, but the very meaning of choosing the artist's life, as he himself has done.

UNLOCK YOUR AUTHENTIC DIVINE SELF AND EMBRACE TRUE LUXURY LIVING Discover the revolutionary approach to high-frequency living that transforms ordinary existence into an extraordinary journey of spiritual abundance and authentic luxury. In this transformative guide, spiritual coach Ammanuel Santa Anna reveals the profound connection between your divine essence and the life you create. DISCOVER: ✓ How to recognize and embody your authentic divine light ✓ The spiritual essence of true luxury beyond material possessions ✓ Practical rituals to strengthen your connection to source energy ...

When first published to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Saturday Night Live, Live from New York was immediately proclaimed the best book ever produced on the landmark and legendary late-night show. In their own words, unfiltered and uncensored, a dazzling galaxy of trail-blazing talents recalled three turbulent decades of on-camera antics and off-camera escapades.

Arguably the greatest choreographer who ever lived, George Balanchine was one of the cultural titans of the twentieth century—the New York Times called him "the Shakespeare of dancing." His radical approach to choreography—and life—reinvented the art of ballet and made him a legend. Written with enormous style and artistry, and based on more than one hundred interviews and research in archives across Russia, Europe, and the Americas, Mr. B carries us through Balanchine's tumultuous and high-pitched life story and into the making of his extraordinary dances.

Heating and cooling your home is generally your largest energy bill, costing more than fueling your car, but you can make big cuts in your heating and cooling costs while still staying comfortable. Learn how you can dramatically reduce your costs through projects some small and some large, many of which you can do yourself that will reduce what it takes to keep your home’s temperature where you want it. Learn what heating options are available today; including high efficiency gas and oil heating units, geothermal heat pumps, wood, outdoor wood boilers, coal, solar heating, wood pellets, ...

Unlock the artisan in you with Advanced Canning Techniques, the must-have guide for anyone passionate about preserving the vibrant flavors of the seasons. This eBook is your passport to becoming a canning connoisseur, whether you’re a novice taking the first steps into the world of jars and lids or an experienced preserver ready to expand your repertoire. Starting with an essential introduction to high-acid foods, you'll delve into the science of pH levels and discover the safety measures critical for successful canning. Master the art of fruit preserves with expert tips on selecting the ...

Beyond the sainted Rembrandt—who harbored a startling darkness—and the mysterious Vermeer, whose true subject, it turned out, was lurking in plain sight, Moser got to know a whole galaxy of geniuses: the doomed virtuoso Carel Fabritius, the anguished wunderkind Jan Lievens, the deaf prodigy Hendrik Avercamp. Year after year, as he tried to make a life for himself in the Netherlands, Moser found friends among these centuries-dead artists. And he found that they, too, were struggling with the same questions that he was.

Known for his meaty seriocomic novels–expansive works that are simultaneously lowbrow and highbrow–Tom Robbins has also published over the years a number of short pieces, predominantly nonfiction. His travel articles, essays, and tributes to actors, musicians, sex kittens, and thinkers have appeared in publications ranging from Esquire to Harper’s, from Playboy to the New York Times, High Times, and Life.

When Haven Kimmel was born in 1965, Mooreland, Indiana, was a sleepy little hamlet of 300 people. Nicknamed "Zippy" for the way she would bolt around the house, this small girl was possessed of big eyes and even bigger ears. In this witty and lovingly told memoir, Kimmel takes readers back to a time when small-town America was caught in the amber of the innocent postwar period - people helped their neighbors, went to church on Sunday, and kept barnyard animals in their backyards.

Descendants of a prominent slaveholding family, Elizabeth, Grace, and Katharine Lumpkin grew up in a culture of white supremacy. But while Elizabeth remained a lifelong believer, her younger sisters chose vastly different lives. Seeking their fortunes in the North, Grace and Katharine reinvented themselves as radical thinkers whose literary works and organizing efforts brought the nation's attention to issues of region, race, and labor. In Sisters and Rebels, National Humanities Award-winning historian Jacquelyn Dowd Hall follows the divergent paths of the Lumpkin sisters.

In this valuable resource guide for both beginners and professionals, veteran songwriter, producer, arranger, vocalist, music director, and educator Larry D. Batiste shares practical advice and tips from his decades of experience in ways that are bound to help all listeners improve their songwriting skills. Through this book, listeners will learn the craft of professional songwriting, including the ins-and-outs of song structure, lyric and melody writing, and the essential elements of a hit song.

When Nick Flynn was 7 years old, his mother set fire to their house. The event loomed large in his imagination for years, but it's only after having a child of his own that he understands why. He returns with his young daughter to the landscape of his youth, reflecting on how his feral childhood has him still in its reins, and forms his memories into lyrical bedtime stories populated by the both sinister and wounded Mister Mann.

This illuminating book weaves personal stories of a multilingual upbringing with the latest scientific breakthroughs in interspecies communication to show how the skill of deep listening enhances our curiosity and empathy toward the world around us.