![]() ![]() And the way that she did so-by emphasizing cooperation over coercion, building bridges instead of bunkers-has left us with not only an important story about our past but a model for a modern form of politics. ![]() Why did the Americans of her time give so much adulation to a lady so little known today? In A Perfect Union, Catherine Allgor reveals that while Dolley's gender prevented her from openly playing politics, those very constraints of womanhood allowed her to construct an American democratic ruling style, and to achieve her husband's political goals. And yet, to most Americans, she's best known for saving a portrait from the burning White House, or as the namesake for a line of ice cream. Within a few years, she had mastered both the social and political intricacies of the city, and, by her death in 1849, was the most celebrated person in Washington. Into that unsteady atmosphere which would soon enough erupt into another conflict with Britain in 1812, Dolley Madison arrived, alongside her husband James. ![]() An extraordinary American comes to life in this vivid, incisive portrait of the early days of the republic-and the birth of modern politics hen the roar of the Revolution had finally died down, a new generation of American politicians was summoned to the Potomac to assemble the nation's newly minted capital. ![]()
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![]() ![]() The other major battle discussed was Chickamauga, a Southern victory which ruined the careers of two generals, Rosecrans and Bragg, and ended with Grant victorious at Chattanooga.įoote continues to use his great narrative style to full effect here. That’s should be enough to tell you how much it enthralled me. ![]() I went straight to the end practically without stopping and merely breathing. The beginning for me might have been slow, but from the moment Foote starts to discuss two of the most decisive Union victories, Gettysburg and Vicksburg, I could not stop reading. This one takes up with events following the removal of the American commander, George McClellan, and his replacement by General Burnside in time to start off with the December 1862’s Fredricksburg and ending in the spring of 1864, with Grant taking command of the entire Union Army. The first volume ended after the bloodbath of Antietam in the fall of 1862. As in the first book, here Foote once again presents a detailed analyses of the political climate both in the North and the South, discusses the difficulties and challenges of Lincoln and Davies and how both leaders were able to deal with their respective roles as Commander-in-Chief. Foote's marvelous narrative made this reading a real enjoyment. It was a great read considering all the battles minutely analyzed, and the many actors depicted and portrayed. 2: Fredericksburg to Meridian, the second volume in Shelby Foote’s trilogy. ![]() I took me three months to read the almost one thousand pages of The Civil War, Vol. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Westerfeld chooses to end, and I really don't see this as a spoiler, with the entry of the US into the conflict. Of course, to make the alternate version align with what happened in real life, he was somewhat constrained in what the ending of the tale could be. Personally, I find these things more amusing than annoying, but to each her own.Īnyway, Goliath is a good conclusion to the series, although the ending is a bit abrupt. Their complaint is that they get really tired of Westerfeld's invented slang, like 'bum-rag' and 'barking spiders,' the latter of which seems to particularly irritate. In fact, I like them so much I've gotten both of my parents reading these books after me. Despite having been somewhat disappointed with the Uglies series, mostly because I didn't care for the characters much, I have pretty much adored this series. ![]() ![]() ![]() "This thorough, beautifully written and effectively organized companion to The Waste Land renders the footnotes of Eliot's poem - the most notoriously elusive parts of a difficult modernist work - surprisingly accessible to a broad range of readers. ![]() Reading "from the bottom up" is reading via allusions, a delightful and illuminating methodology." - Jewel Spears Brooker, Professor Emerita of Literature, Eckerd College, USA The tone, which is personal and casual, is caught in the catchy title. The purpose of the book, which replicates her classroom strategy, is to clarify the relevance of selected allusions. "Allyson Booth's Reading The Waste Land from the Bottom Up is a perfect book for readers who have been intimidated by Eliot's formidable poem. Christian Professor of English, University of Virginia, USA It is at once an attentive line-by-line reading aid and an act of ingenious and renewing interpretation." - Michael Levenson, William B. The book will immediately become an indispensable resource for all who teach and read the indispensable poem. ![]() "A brilliant conception, Reading the Waste Land from the Bottom Up is a triumph of scholarly commitment and hard work. ![]() ![]() The people Okada meets on his journey – or perhaps wanderings is a better word – differ wildly from one another, but all share a common theme which keeps them all opposed to Okada himself: they all, strange and absurd as they may be, maintain a clear sense of personal identity. Okada and his wife, Wataya’s sister, have even taken to naming their cat after this villainous academic, arguing that this is because the cat resembles him, but in fact doubling down on – indeed encouraging – the looming shadow of Wataya that is draped over their lives. Toru Okada, our unsuccessful and futureless protagonist, is constantly at odds with his brother-in-law, the obviously psychopathic and hugely successful intellectual, Noboru Wataya. This novel is an enormously abstract journey, taking place in a dry and still world. ![]() Toru has no plan and has seemingly taken to not caring as a means of coping with what may create in many others a deep and palpable anxiety. ![]() Having recently left his job with a positive attitude toward change and a fresh start, it is jarring and contradictory to see that Toru’s attitude towards life is entirely passive and apathetic. In The Wind-Up Bird Chroniclewe are lost in the life of Toru Okada, a thirty-year-old suburban husband. ![]() ![]() An ingeniously plotted novel of stolen identity, Kiss Me First is brilliantly frightening about the lies we tell-to ourselves, to others, for good, and for ill. As they e-mail, chat, and Skype, Leila becomes enveloped in the world of Tess, learning every single thing she can about this other woman-because soon, Leila will have to become her. ![]() She is beautiful, urbane, witty, and damaged. Leila is thrilled when Adrian asks to meet her, flattered when he invites her to be part of "Project Tess." Tess is a woman Leila might never have met in real life. A sheltered young woman raised by her mother, Leila has often struggled to connect with the girls at school but on Red Pill, a chat forum for ethical debate, Leila comes into her own, impressing the Web site's founder, a brilliant and elusive man named Adrian. Because soon, Leila will have to become her. When Leila discovers the Web site Red Pill, she feels she has finally found people who understand her. She must learn every detail about this other woman’s life: her mother’s birthday, her favorite songs, her best friends, her first kiss. A chilling and intense first novel, the story of a solitary young woman drawn into an online world run by a charismatic web guru who entices her into impersonating a glamorous but desperate woman. ![]() ![]() "A darkly humorous, rapid-fire read." - Kirkus Reviews To learn more about how and for what purposes Amazon uses personal information (such as Amazon Store order history), please visit our Privacy Notice. ![]() You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie Preferences, as described in the Cookie Notice. Click ‘Customise Cookies’ to decline these cookies, make more detailed choices, or learn more. Third parties use cookies for their purposes of displaying and measuring personalised ads, generating audience insights, and developing and improving products. This includes using first- and third-party cookies, which store or access standard device information such as a unique identifier. If you agree, we’ll also use cookies to complement your shopping experience across the Amazon stores as described in our Cookie Notice. We also use these cookies to understand how customers use our services (for example, by measuring site visits) so we can make improvements. We use cookies and similar tools that are necessary to enable you to make purchases, to enhance your shopping experiences and to provide our services, as detailed in our Cookie Notice. ![]() ![]() ![]() JLA: American Dreams: After a recruitment drive, the League get caught in a war between Heaven and Hell and are put under the spell of the mind-bending The Key.JLA #2: "The Day the Earth Stood Still".JLA: New World Order: The newly-formed League faces off against an invasion from White Martians.For a new reader, it's very convenient to collect Morrison's entire run on JLA and associated titles. This guide to the run of Grant Morrison writing for the Justice League is based around easily-purchased collected editions. Morrison was followed by frequent guest writer Mark Waid. Leading in from Justice League: A Midsummer's Nightmare (Volume 1), this line-up includes many of DC's most recognizable heroes facing intergalactic threats and rewriting the future of the DC Universe. ![]() The popular title lead to spin-offs like Hourman (Volume 1) and Martian Manhunter (Volume 3) and the revitalized JSA in JSA (Volume 1). Starting in 1997, Grant Morrison launched JLA (Volume 1) with artist Howard Porter, reinvigorating the team book and setting its course for the next decade. Don't touch it while it's under construction. This page is part of an experimental template construction for a new type of page, using the currently non-existent Run Template. ![]() ![]() ![]() But by grounding Daredevil to the (exaggerated) limits of what a human body can do in a physical space that's not unfamiliar to us, artists make Daredevil's travels across the city seem more impressive than impossible, even if they physically are.ĭaredevil's accessories, on the other hand, create a cloud of visual pizazz around the character, whether it's the impossible unspooling of his billy club's cable (Joe Quesada's probably the all-time champ of that bit), or the club itself ricocheting around walls and skulls. There are superhuman superheroes who occupy similar spaces of fundamentally simple designs forming the solid foundation from which to explore the depiction of figures in motion on the page think Silver Age Flash or Silver Surfer. ![]() The urban acrobatics of the character are also key. ![]() There's no cape, there's very little detailing the pure physical dynamism an artist brings to the character can shine through more easily than on even Spider-Man, with his web-patterned costume. ![]() The costume, which is more or less a human figure with horns, done up in arresting bright red, is brilliantly simple, especially set against a Hell's Kitchen of varying degrees of gritty drabness. ![]() ![]() It’s a celebration of genius and an attack on mediocrity, a paean to the human capacity to create and learn and think and reason and a lament for the seductions of banality. It’s also about the accidents that determine the lives we lead, regardless of who we might be, and about the choices and values and loves and hates and languages and books and ideas and music and art and movies and people that constitute those lives and make them worth living–or not. ![]() The Last Samurai is the story of a single mother, Sybilla, and her son, whom she calls “Ludo”–though on his birth certificate it says either ‘David’ or ‘Stephen,’ ‘one or the other.’ It makes sense that Sybilla would consider it pointless to be certain, because one of the things this novel is about is precisely how we figure out and then live up to who we think we are. ![]() |