Essays Books - Page 14

Lend Me Your Ears: Great Speeches in History, Updated and Expanded Edition

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 19 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

The definitive compendium of classic and modern oratory expanded—with a new preface on what makes a speech "great."

An instant classic when it was first published a decade ago and now enriched by seventeen new speeches, Lend Me Your Ears contains more than two hundred outstanding moments of oratory. This third edition is selected, arranged, and introduced by William Safire, who honed his skills as a presidential speechwriter. He is considered by many to be America's most influential political columnist and most elegant explicator of our language. Covering speeches from Demosthenes to George W. Bush, this latest edition includes the words of Cromwell to the "Rump Parliament," Orson Welles eulogizing Darryl F. Zanuck, General George Patton exhorting his troops before D-Day, and Ruth Bader Ginsburg speaking on Bush v. Gore. A new section incorporates speeches that were never delivered: what Kennedy was scheduled to say in Dallas; what Safire wrote for Nixon if the first moon landing met with disaster; and what Clinton originally planned to say after his grand jury testimony but swapped for a much fiercer speech.

Letters to a Young Contrarian

Christopher Hitchens

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 40 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

"Art of Mentoring" seriesIn the book that he was born to write, provocateur and best-selling author Christopher Hitchens inspires future generations of radicals, gadflies, mavericks, rebels, angry young (wo)men, and dissidents. Who better to speak to that person who finds him or herself in a contrarian position than Hitchens, who has made a career of disagreeing in profound and entertaining ways.This book explores the entire range of "contrary positions"-from noble dissident to gratuitous pain in the butt. In an age of overly polite debate bending over backward to reach a happy consensus within an increasingly centrist political dialogue, Hitchens pointedly pitches himself in contrast. He bemoans the loss of the skills of dialectical thinking evident in contemporary society. He understands the importance of disagreement-to personal integrity, to informed discussion, to true progress-heck, to democracy itself. Epigrammatic, spunky, witty, in your face, timeless and timely, this book is everything you would expect from a mentoring contrarian.

Letters of J R R Tolkien

J.R.R. Tolkien

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 37 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

An interesting and enlightening read 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

Do you want to understand J.R.R. Tolkien and his fantastic stories? I mean, really understand them? Then you must get this book. This book is a collection of letters from the great man, ranging from a World War I love letter to a note written to his daughter just before his death.

But, do not think that these letters are irrelevant. In fact, he discusses many things about his books, the publishing of them, and much more. He discusses such mundane issues as the organization of the families in the Shire, and also discusses his "theology" of Middle Earth, and how religion intertwines about it.

So, if you are a Tolkien fan, then you really should get this book. I guarantee that you will find it an interesting and enlightening read - I know I did!

Editorial Review:

This collection will entertain all who appreciate the art of masterful letter writing. The Letters of J.R.R Tolkien sheds much light on Tolkien's creative genius and grand design for the creation of a whole new world: Middle-earth. Featuring a radically expanded index, this volume provides a valuable research tool for all fans wishing to trace the evolution of THE HOBBIT and THE LORD OF THE RINGS.

Here is New York

E.B. White

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 20 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Chosen by The New York Times as one of the ten best books ever written about the city.

In the summer of 1949, E.B. White sat in a New York City hotel room and, sweltering in the summer heat, wrote a remarkable, pristine essay, Here Is New York. Perceptive, funny, and nostalgic, the author’s stroll around Manhattan -- with the reader arm-in-arm -- remains the quintessential love letter to the city, written by one of America’s foremost literary figures. Like most of White’s prose (his essays, his "Talk of the Town" columns, The Elements of Style), this book is of modest length. Yet, like Charlotte’s Web, it speaks more eloquently about what lasts and what really matters than other, more expansive pieces. The New York Times has chosen Here Is New York as one of the ten best books ever written about the grand metropolis. The New Yorker calls it "the wittiest essay, and one of the most perceptive, ever done on the city." This edition of Here Is New York marks the 100th anniversary of E.B. White’s birth, and appears with a new introduction by Roger Angell.

Pensees (Penguin Classics)

Blaise Pascal

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 20 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Religion of the Heart and of the Head 5 out of 5 stars.
13 of 15 people found this review helpful.

Before actually reading "Pensees," I knew Blaise Pascal and his "Pensees" only from snippets of quotes such as, "The heart has its reason of which reason knows nothing" and from "Pascal's Wager": better to risk believing in God and living with Him for all eternity and being wrong, then risk not believing in God and living apart from Him in all eternity and because you were wrong.

Having read him, I know now that the quote and wager just mentoned, though only snippets, do summarize his brilliance and his beauty. Like few others, Pascal fuses head and heart in his defense of Christianity. His ability is likely due to his brilliant mind that on November 23, 1654, from 10:30 PM to 12:30 AM encountered God in a mysterious, mystical experience that he could only describe with the one-word epitaph: "Fire."

For the rest of his brief life (he died at age 39), the fire in his soul and the genius of his mind merged in the "writing" of "Pensees." I place "writing" in quotation marks because Pascal's early death never allowed him to finish "Pensees." What we have is akin to his outline (though 325 pages in length!). Imagine if he had actually finished it. Pascal, ever the absent-minded professor, would have a thought run through his mind, write it down, cut it in a strip, and splice it in with other similar subject headings.

It's helpful to understand this before reading "Pensee" for what you find is brilliant disorder--an incomplete sentence here, half a thought there, then long and insightful paragraphs here. In other words, you do need to wade through the unusual design of the book, but in the wading you will find oceans of depth that flood both your heart and your head with passion and reason to love and know God.

Pascal's "real world" arguments for God are the most rationally and personally compelling ones that I have ever read. Pascal honestly faces the reality that we see God only in part and that by evidence alone, whether of reason or nature or both, we might just as well conclude that there is no God (the atheists), or that He is not loving, or not powerful, or that He is disinterested (Deism), or dispassionate (the Greek philosophers). He then explains that God reveals enough in nature to cause us to perceive His existence and to perceive that we are finite and fallen. Nature, according to Pascal, points more to the Mediator--Christ--the One who reveals the hidden God as a God of holiness and love, and the One who reveals us as God's prodigal children who need to come home.

Reviewer: Dr. Robert W. Kellemen is the author of "Soul Physicians: A Theology of Soul Care and Spiritual Direction," "Spiritual Friends: A Methodology of Soul Care and Spiritual Direction," and the forthcoming "Sacred Companions: A History of Soul Care and Spiritual Direction."

Editorial Review:

Blaise Pascal, the precociously brilliant contemporary of Descartes, was a gifted mathematician and physicist, but it is his unfinished apologia for the Christian religion upon which his reputation now rests. "The Pensees" is a collection of philosohical fragments, notes and essays in which Pascal explores the contradictions of human nature in pscyhological, social, metaphysical and - above all - theological terms. Mankind emerges from Pascal's analysis as a wretched and desolate creature within an impersonal universe, but who can be transformed through faith in God's grace.

Shark's Fin and Sichuan Pepper: A Sweet-Sour Memoir of Eating in China

Fuchsia Dunlop

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Total reviews: 14 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

A new memoir by the most talented and respected British food writer of her generation.

Award-winning food writer Fuchsia Dunlop went to live in China as a student in 1994, and from the very beginning she vowed to eat everything she was offered, no matter how alien and bizarre it seemed. In this extraordinary memoir, Fuchsia recalls her evolving relationship with China and its food, from her first rapturous encounter with the delicious cuisine of Sichuan Province to brushes with corruption, environmental degradation, and greed. In the course of her fascinating journey, Fuchsia undergoes an apprenticeship at China's premier Sichuan cooking school, where she is the only foreign student in a class of nearly fifty young Chinese men; attempts, hilariously, to persuade Chinese people that "Western food" is neither "simple" nor "bland"; and samples a multitude of exotic ingredients, including sea cucumber, civet cat, scorpion, rabbit-heads, and the ovarian fat of the snow frog. But is it possible for a Westerner to become a true convert to the Chinese way of eating? In an encounter with a caterpillar in an Oxford kitchen, Fuchsia is forced to put this to the test.

From the vibrant markets of Sichuan to the bleached landscape of northern Gansu Province, from the desert oases of Xinjiang to the enchanting old city of Yangzhou, this unique and evocative account of Chinese culinary culture is set to become the most talked-about travel narrative of the year.

'Not just a smart memoir about cross-cultural eating but one of the most engaging books of any kind I've read in years.'—O Magazine

'Insightful, entertaining, scrupulously reported... and a swashbuckling memoir studded with recipes... a distinguished contribution to the literature of gastronomy.'—New York Times

'Delightful.'—Jeffrey Steingarten in Vogue

'An autobiographical food-and-travel classic.'—Publishers Weekly

'Literary, entertaining and almost anthropological.'—Seattle Post-Intelligencer

'Fuchsia Dunlop's brilliant new food memoir.'—Wall Street Journal

'Painstakingly researched, beautifully written and impossible to put down, Dunlop takes us on a tantalizing tour through China in what's sure to be the gastronomic book of the year.'—Inside Toronto

'Shows the rare insight and compassion that... Fuchsia Dunlop has been demonstrating for 15 years...Dunlop's grasp of Chinese culture and cuisine run deep.'—Toronto Globe and Mail

'Destined... to become a classic of travel writing.'—The Observer

'Marvellous and mesmerising.'—The Daily Mail

'As much a memoir and a superlative example of travel writing as it is a book about food... funny, honest and illuminating.'—London Lite

'Dunlop is now an expert on Chinese cuisine, but she's also a fantastically witty storyteller... Dunlop will charm and delight you with her enthralling anecdotes.'—Wanderlust
'More than just a delicious memoir of extraordinary meals... an erudite, nuanced look at Chinese culinary culture, its history, and China's development over the last decade.'—China Daily

'[Dunlop] writes of China's familiar culinary faces...with an outsider's eye, an insider's palate, and a lover's affection. The best food book I've read so far this year.'—Straits Times, Singapore

'A sensual feast of a book... Fuchsia Dunlop is a star in the world of food writing, but she's never preachy in this Oriental food odyssey.'—The Times of South Africa

'This charming, informative textbook/memoir/travelogue, one of the more noteworthy recent food studies. Readers definitely won't be hungry an hour after finishing this satisfying history from a witty Chinese food authority.'—Kirkus Reviews

A Mencken Chrestomathy: His Own Selection of His Choicest Writing

H.L. Mencken

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 24 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

The Baltimorean Belle-Lettrist... 5 out of 5 stars.
5 of 5 people found this review helpful.

Most human beings can't write worth a damn. Mencken was an anomaly--a once-in-a-generation anomaly. This book represents over six-hundred pages of his best work, culled (by Mencken himself) from a fifty-year career in journalism. It is enjoyable and educational, and you can't ask for much more than that. Of course, Mencken allows his fulsome personality free rein, and hypersensitive, humorless, religious, and/or idealistic folks may be put off. Mencken needed those people to make fun of, to pinpoint their hypocrisy, silliness, uselessness to society, etc.; ergo, they may feel roughly used. Everyone else should have a good laugh.

new h.l. mencken fan- life's full circle is timeless. 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 2 people found this review helpful.

so many topics so little time. i found quickly the time to delve into the genius as presented. humor,candor,insight going lightly before you.

Mencken is talented. 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 2 people found this review helpful.

This book is an excellent item for the individualist who knows how to appreciate a critical thinker. It's hard to put down.

SUPERB....BUT THEN WHAT WOULD YOU EXPECT? IT'S MENCKEN'S OWN SELECTION. 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

If you love Mencken, trust him to select his best writing. This is the book for you. Only topics of a timeless nature are included. None of the dated topics, obscure names or three generation old gossip included in other collections.

Editorial Review:

A choice selection of H.L. Mencken's previously out-of-print writings. Highly recommended!

What's Wrong With the World

G. K. Chesterton

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 12 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Great Edition 5 out of 5 stars.
4 of 4 people found this review helpful.

This is a wonderful edition of What's Wrong With the World. If you have read much of Chesterton's social commentary or essay work, you know that he makes many allusions to people, places, and ideas that were common to him in the early part of the 20th Century. Ignatius Press did a great job footnoting many of these references, which makes this amazing work of Chesterton's much more accessible to the common man, whom he loved so much.

What's wrong with the world? I am. 4 out of 5 stars.
2 of 9 people found this review helpful.

I think the collection of essays are generally well written, but there are some issues. Before I start, yes; I know WWWtW was written nearly 100 years ago for a primarily British audience. There are parallels with today's culture, but the book was written for quite a different population facing similar evils.

This may be petty, but the use of the "n" word really bothered me. I know Chesterton was a wordsmith, and was not a racist, but the use of that word really offended me. I know...different age and different culture, but I live in 21st century New York, not 20th century England. Is the use of the word meant to be offensive? I don't believe offense was Chesterton's motive. Chesterton even calls poor East Enders "guttersnipes", but this is his way of wordsmithing and even here the euphemism is not meant to be offensive, but clever. However, in spite of Chesterton's love of euphemisms and cleverness, I find the "n" word to be a huge stumbling block.

Chesterton's idea of the fundamental difference among the sexes is accurate. However, the whole objection to women not voting is rather unsettling. I know...different age and different culture, but it still bothers me. However, the notion of the Industrial and Post Industrial age forcing women into the workplace so that families can survive is an acute assessment.

What's not to like about Hudge and Gudge?

I think Chesterton is the Epitome of an age long since past. He chose not to pursue formal education, but the man was a generalist, and that suited him. There are too many specialists in the world, with large student loan debts, who cannot figure out why pulling on a push door will not open the door. If we had more Chestertons, I think the world would be a better place; there is always the need for generalists in a specialized world.

Editorial Review:

1912 work by the highly influential English writer of the early 20th century. Includes chapters on the homelessness of man, imperialism, feminism, education and the home of man.

On the Good Life (Penguin Classics)

Marcus Tullius Cicero

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 12 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Buy On Friendship, trash Michael Grant 4 out of 5 stars.
9 of 14 people found this review helpful.

It is a surprise to me that many of you give this book five stars: it isn't worth it. Four stars is the max. Why? First, only "On Friendship" is completely translated, all the others are merely selections. Second, Michael Grant's introduction to this book is rather unprofessional, and to some extent misleading. Grant keeps mentioning people other than Cicero himself, that is to say, you don't learn much about Cicero after reading his introduction. Third, Grant's has made a poor selection on Cicero's works: "On Duties II" can hardly stand alone, and if it is read by itself it could be very misleading (For this, see the introduction of "On Obligation" translated by P.G. Walsh, published by Oxford). "On the Orator I" is another poor choice, and in my opinion it should be excluded. Also, "Discussion at Tusculum V" should not stand alone. It should be published with the previous four books in a separate edition (becaue "Tusculan Disputation" is one of the best works of Cicero). And the "Dream of Scipio" is almost insignificant if it is left without the entire book of "De Republica". In short, I bought this book only for the purpose of reading "On Friendship", and no more.

Editorial Review:

For the great Roman orator and statesman Cicero, the good life' was at once a life of contentment and one of moral virtue and the two were inescapably intertwined. This volume brings together a wide range of his reflections upon the importance of moral integrity in the search for happiness. In essays that are articulate, meditative and inspirational, Cicero presents his views upon the significance of friendship and duty to state and family, and outlines a clear system of practical ethics that is at once simple and universal. These works offer a timeless reflection upon the human condition, and a fascinating insight into the mind of one of the greatest thinkers of Ancient Rome.

The Book of the Courtier (Norton Critical Editions)

Baldesar Castilgione, Baldesar Castiglione

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Total reviews: 12 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

The Book of the Courtier (1528) is a series of fictional conversations by courtiers of the Duke of Urbino that takes place in 1507, while Castiglione was himself attaché to the Duke. Today the Book remains the most reliable and illuminating account of Renaissance court life and of what it took to be the "Perfect Courtier" and "Court Lady." The Singleton translation—the most acclaimed and accurate available—is accompanied by annotations.

"Criticism" features ten essays on The Book of the Courtier, which represent the best interpretations from the United States, Italy, and England including the backgrounds-rich essays by Amedeo Quondam and James Hankins. A Selected Bibliography, a Chronology, and an Index are included.

About the series: No other series of classic texts equals the caliber of the Norton Critical Editions. Each volume combines the most authoritative text available with the comprehensive pedagogical apparatus necessary to appreciate the work fully. Careful editing, first-rate translation, and thorough explanatory annotations allow each text to meet the highest literary standards while remaining accessible to students. Each edition is printed on acid-free paper and every text in the series remains in print. Norton Critical Editions are the choice for excellence in scholarship for students at more than 2,000 universities worldwide.