Awestruck - a Skeptic's Pilgrimage

Awestruck - a Skeptic's Pilgrimage PDF Author: Joan Myers Weimer
Publisher: Dog Ear Publishing
ISBN: 1598581147
Category : Spiritual biography
Languages : en
Pages : 232

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Book Description
This "haunted, hauntingly beautiful"* memoir is a "dazzling exploration of love between generations and between partners."** When the Black Madonna erupts like a volcano in the life of Joan Weimer, an agnostic Jew, this black-faced image of the Virgin Mary triggers painful memories of Joan's dead mother and threatens to estrange Joan from her husband, a committed atheist. As she tracks down the Black Madonna at her shrines in Switzerland, Italy, England and Spain; as she walks ancient labyrinths in churches and commons, Joan's outer journey makes possible a profound inner journey. With the help of a woman rabbi, she discovers that her mother's fitful love and the spiritual force that seem to come and go are both like flowing water: they abide even while they are moving on. *James Hollis, author of Finding Meaning in the Second Half of Life **Mary Felstiner, author of Out of Joint: A Private & Public Story of Arthritis Joan Weimer's memoir Back Talk: Teaching Lost Selves to Speak was published by Random House and won a star from Kirkus Reviews as a "powerful, inspiring memoir written with humor, insight, and a gripping gift for detail." She won the McGinness Award for nonfiction and was chosen as the Frey Foundation Distinguished Visiting Professor at the University of North Carolina. Weimer is a professor emerita of English at Drew University where she taught American literature, Women's Studies and creative writing.

Awestruck - a Skeptic's Pilgrimage

Awestruck - a Skeptic's Pilgrimage PDF Author: Joan Myers Weimer
Publisher: Dog Ear Publishing
ISBN: 1598581147
Category : Spiritual biography
Languages : en
Pages : 232

Get Book Here

Book Description
This "haunted, hauntingly beautiful"* memoir is a "dazzling exploration of love between generations and between partners."** When the Black Madonna erupts like a volcano in the life of Joan Weimer, an agnostic Jew, this black-faced image of the Virgin Mary triggers painful memories of Joan's dead mother and threatens to estrange Joan from her husband, a committed atheist. As she tracks down the Black Madonna at her shrines in Switzerland, Italy, England and Spain; as she walks ancient labyrinths in churches and commons, Joan's outer journey makes possible a profound inner journey. With the help of a woman rabbi, she discovers that her mother's fitful love and the spiritual force that seem to come and go are both like flowing water: they abide even while they are moving on. *James Hollis, author of Finding Meaning in the Second Half of Life **Mary Felstiner, author of Out of Joint: A Private & Public Story of Arthritis Joan Weimer's memoir Back Talk: Teaching Lost Selves to Speak was published by Random House and won a star from Kirkus Reviews as a "powerful, inspiring memoir written with humor, insight, and a gripping gift for detail." She won the McGinness Award for nonfiction and was chosen as the Frey Foundation Distinguished Visiting Professor at the University of North Carolina. Weimer is a professor emerita of English at Drew University where she taught American literature, Women's Studies and creative writing.

A Skeptic's Guide to Writers' Houses

A Skeptic's Guide to Writers' Houses PDF Author: Anne Trubek
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
ISBN: 0812205812
Category : Travel
Languages : en
Pages : 175

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Book Description
There are many ways to show our devotion to an author besides reading his or her works. Graves make for popular pilgrimage sites, but far more popular are writers' house museums. What is it we hope to accomplish by trekking to the home of a dead author? We may go in search of the point of inspiration, eager to stand on the very spot where our favorite literary characters first came to life—and find ourselves instead in the house where the author himself was conceived, or where she drew her last breath. Perhaps it is a place through which our writer passed only briefly, or maybe it really was a longtime home—now thoroughly remade as a decorator's show-house. In A Skeptic's Guide to Writers' Houses Anne Trubek takes a vexed, often funny, and always thoughtful tour of a goodly number of house museums across the nation. In Key West she visits the shamelessly ersatz shrine to a hard-living Ernest Hemingway, while meditating on his lost Cuban farm and the sterile Idaho house in which he committed suicide. In Hannibal, Missouri, she walks the fuzzy line between fact and fiction, as she visits the home of the young Samuel Clemens—and the purported haunts of Tom Sawyer, Becky Thatcher, and Injun' Joe. She hits literary pay-dirt in Concord, Massachusetts, the nineteenth-century mecca that gave home to Hawthorne, Emerson, and Thoreau—and yet could not accommodate a surprisingly complex Louisa May Alcott. She takes us along the trail of residences that Edgar Allan Poe left behind in the wake of his many failures and to the burned-out shell of a California house with which Jack London staked his claim on posterity. In Dayton, Ohio, a charismatic guide brings Paul Laurence Dunbar to compelling life for those few visitors willing to listen; in Cleveland, Trubek finds a moving remembrance of Charles Chesnutt in a house that no longer stands. Why is it that we visit writers' houses? Although admittedly skeptical about the stories these buildings tell us about their former inhabitants, Anne Trubek carries us along as she falls at least a little bit in love with each stop on her itinerary and finds in each some truth about literature, history, and contemporary America.

Pilgrimage [2 volumes]

Pilgrimage [2 volumes] PDF Author: Linda Kay Davidson
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 1576075435
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 802

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Book Description
Nationalistic meccas, shrines to popular culture, and sacred traditions for the world's religions from Animism to Zoroastrianism are all examined in two accessible and comprehensive volumes. Pilgrimage is a comprehensive compendium of the basic facts on Pilgrimage from ancient times to the 21st century. Illustrated with maps and photographs that enrich the reader's journey, this authoritative volume explores sites, people, activities, rites, terminology, and other matters related to pilgrimage such as economics, tourism, and disease. Encompassing all major and minor world religions, from ancient cults to modern faiths, this work covers both religious and secular pilgrimage sites. Compiled by experts who have authored numerous books on pilgrimage and are pilgrims in their own right, the entries will appeal to students, scholars, and general readers.

To Be a Machine

To Be a Machine PDF Author: Mark O'Connell
Publisher: Anchor
ISBN: 110191159X
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 258

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Book Description
“This gonzo-journalistic exploration of the Silicon Valley techno-utopians’ pursuit of escaping mortality is a breezy romp full of colorful characters.” —New York Times Book Review Transhumanism is a movement pushing the limits of our biology—of our senses, intelligence, and lifespans—with technology. Its supporters have reached a critical mass and now include some of the biggest names in Silicon Valley and beyond, among them Peter Thiel, Elon Musk, and Ray Kurzweil. In this provocative and eye-opening account, journalist Mark O’Connell explores the staggering (and terrifying) possibilities that present themselves when you think of your body as an outmoded device. He visits the world’s foremost cryonics facility to witness how some have chosen to forestall death, discovers an underground collective of biohackers boosting their senses by implanting electronics under their skin, and meets with members of a team urgently investigating how to protect mankind from rogue artificial superintelligence. In investigating what it means to be a machine, O’Connell shines a light on our ancient desire to transcend the animal condition—and offers a surprising meditation on what it means to be human.

The Faraway Nearby

The Faraway Nearby PDF Author: Rebecca Solnit
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 1101622776
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 215

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Book Description
A New York Times Notable Book Finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award A personal, lyrical narrative about storytelling and empathy, from the author of Orwell's Roses Apricots. Her mother's disintegrating memory. An invitation to Iceland. Illness. These are Rebecca Solnit's raw materials, but The Faraway Nearby goes beyond her own life, as she spirals out into the stories she heard and read—from fairy tales to Mary Shelley's Frankenstein—that helped her navigate her difficult passge. Solnit takes us into the lives of others—an arctic cannibal, the young Che Guevara among the leprosy afflicted, a blues musician, an Icelandic artist and her labyrinth—to understand warmth and coldness, kindness and imagination, decay and transformation, making art and making self. This captivating, exquisitely written exploration of the forces that connect us and the way we tell our stories is a tour de force of association, a marvelous Russian doll of a book that is a fitting companion to Solnit's much-loved A Field Guide to Getting Lost.

A Good Man

A Good Man PDF Author: Mark K. Shriver
Publisher: Macmillan + ORM
ISBN: 0805095322
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 239

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Book Description
In this intimate portrait of an extraordinary father-son relationship, Mark K. Shriver discovers the moral principles that guided his legendary father and applies them to his own life When Sargent "Sarge" Shriver—founder of the Peace Corps and architect of President Johnson's War on Poverty—died in 2011 after a valiant fight with Alzheimer's, thousands of tributes poured in from friends and strangers worldwide. These tributes, which extolled the daily kindness and humanity of "a good man," moved his son Mark far more than those who lauded Sarge for his big-stage, headline-making accomplishments. After a lifetime searching for the path to his father's success in the public arena, Mark instead turns to a search for the secret of his father's joy, his devotion to others, and his sense of purpose. Mark discovers notes and letters from Sarge; hears personal stories from friends and family that zero in on the three guiding principles of Sarge's life—faith, hope, and love—and recounts moments with Sarge that now take on new value and poignancy. In the process, Mark discovers much about himself, as a father, as a husband, and as a social justice advocate. A Good Man is an inspirational and deeply personal story about a son discovering the true meaning of his father's legacy.

Luxury Arts of the Renaissance

Luxury Arts of the Renaissance PDF Author: Marina Belozerskaya
Publisher: Getty Publications
ISBN: 0892367857
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 292

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Book Description
Today we associate the Renaissance with painting, sculpture, and architecture—the “major” arts. Yet contemporaries often held the “minor” arts—gem-studded goldwork, richly embellished armor, splendid tapestries and embroideries, music, and ephemeral multi-media spectacles—in much higher esteem. Isabella d’Este, Marchesa of Mantua, was typical of the Italian nobility: she bequeathed to her children precious stone vases mounted in gold, engraved gems, ivories, and antique bronzes and marbles; her favorite ladies-in-waiting, by contrast, received mere paintings. Renaissance patrons and observers extolled finely wrought luxury artifacts for their exquisite craftsmanship and the symbolic capital of their components; paintings and sculptures in modest materials, although discussed by some literati, were of lesser consequence. This book endeavors to return to the mainstream material long marginalized as a result of historical and ideological biases of the intervening centuries. The author analyzes how luxury arts went from being lofty markers of ascendancy and discernment in the Renaissance to being dismissed as “decorative” or “minor” arts—extravagant trinkets of the rich unworthy of the status of Art. Then, by re-examining the objects themselves and their uses in their day, she shows how sumptuous creations constructed the world and taste of Renaissance women and men.

Be More Japan

Be More Japan PDF Author: DK Eyewitness
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 1465497099
Category : Travel
Languages : en
Pages : 480

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Book Description
Whether you're dreaming about your first journey, revisiting the trip of a lifetime or simply in love with all things Japan, Be More Japan will transport you to this fascinating country. Dive into the thrilling and serene world of Shinto monks, street food vendors, anime characters, Okinawan centenarians, technological innovators, J-Pop megastars, ancient philosophers, onsen dwellers and so many more. There are so many ways to fall in love with Japan. It's home to one of the world's most unique cultures: a perfectly balanced celebration of past traditions; the vibrancy of now and the need to look fearlessly into the future. From architecture to martial arts; from ramen to robots; kawaii to Kusama; ikigai to ikebana; towering skyscrapers to shrines - Be More Japan uncovers the art and creativity behind modern Japanese living through its kaleidoscope of contrasting places, people and practices. With beautiful design throughout and with each page alive with facts, history and inspiration, Be More Japan invites you to absorb a little Japanese wisdom into your daily life.

Santhi's Pilgrimage

Santhi's Pilgrimage PDF Author: Pazhayannur Krishnaiyer Janaky
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Indic fiction (English)
Languages : en
Pages : 304

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Book Description


Off Kilter

Off Kilter PDF Author: Linda C. Wisniewski
Publisher: Pearlsong Press
ISBN: 1597190349
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 161

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Book Description
Growing up in the 1950s was not Ozzie & Harriet and Father Knows Best for Linda C. Wisniewski. Unlike the characters on her favorite TV shows, Linda learned to be quiet, atone for the sins of others, and just plain suffer as a way of life. Only when she came to terms with her Polish Catholic heritage, her physical deformity, and her widowed mother did she find inner peace and the keys to her own happiness. Readers of Angela's Ashes and The Joy Luck Club will enjoy this mother-daughter saga from sorrow to love. Author Susan Wittig Albert calls Off Kilter "a splendid first memoir about the difficult business of finding balance in our lives. Funny, honest, deeply moving, Off Kilter reminds us just how hard it is to adjust to the physical pain, the emotional loss, and even the surprising beauty of being fully who we are."