In The Winter's Tale, Shakespeare gave the landlocked country of Bohemia a coastline—a famous and, to Czechs, typical example of foreigners' ignorance of the Czech homeland. Although the lands that were once the Kingdom of Bohemia lie at the heart of Europe, Czechs are usually encountered only in the margins of other people's stories. In The Coasts of Bohemia, Derek Sayer reverses this perspective. He presents a comprehensive and long-needed history of the Czech people that is also a remarkably original history of modern Europe, told from its uneasy center. Sayer shows that Bohemia has long been a theater of European conflict. It has been a cradle of Protestantism and a bulwark of the Counter-Reformation; an Austrian imperial province and a proudly Slavic national state; the most easterly democracy in Europe; and a westerly outlier of the Soviet bloc. The complexities of its location have given rise to profound (and often profoundly comic) reflections on the modern condition. Franz Kafka, Jaroslav Hasek, Karel Capek and Milan Kundera are all products of its spirit of place. Sayer describes how Bohemia's ambiguities and contradictions are those of Europe itself, and he considers the ironies of viewing Europe, the West, and modernity from the vantage point of a country that has been too often ignored. The Coasts of Bohemia draws on an enormous array of literary, musical, visual, and documentary sources ranging from banknotes to statues, museum displays to school textbooks, funeral orations to operatic stage-sets, murals in subway stations to censors' indexes of banned books. It brings us into intimate contact with the ever changing details of daily life—the street names and facades of buildings, the heroes figured on postage stamps—that have created and recreated a sense of what it is to be Czech. Sayer's sustained concern with questions of identity, memory, and power place the book at the heart of contemporary intellectual debate. It is an extraordinary story, beautifully told.

Playful and provocative, irreverent and inspiring, Capek is perhaps the best-loved Czech writer of all time. Novelist and playwright, famed for inventing the word 'robot' in his play RUR, Capek was a vital part of the burgeoning artistic scene of Czechoslovakia of the 1920s and 30s. But it is in his journalism - his brief, sparky and delightful columns - that Capek can be found at his most succinct, direct and appealing. This selection of Capek's writing, translated into English for the first time, contains his essential ideas. The pieces are animated by his passion for the ordinary and the everyday - from laundry to toothache, from cats to cleaning windows - his love of language, his lyrical observations of the world and above all his humanism, his belief in people. His letters to his wife Olga, also published here, are extraordinarily moving and beautifully distinct from his other writings. Uplifting, enjoyable and endlessly wise, Believe in People is a collection to treasure.

"From Good King Wenceslas to the Good Soldier Svejk, this cultural dictionary is an intimate look at a people affectionately known for their storytelling humor (tlachani), suspicion of authority, and peaceful demeanor. Instead of the "greats" of Czech arts and letters that appear in standard histories or references, it describes such things as popular songs, movie stars, famous athletes, traditional dishes, and children's games that are second nature to every Czech." "In a country boasting the highest per capita consumption of beer (a bottle a day for every man woman and child), and where you once needed a handful of bony (coupons for imported goods) to buy a pair of Levi's, the Czech Republic today is a modern country of educated Europeans centered around Prague - one of the world's most beautiful capital cities. These contradictions all find a home in A Dictionary of Czech Popular Culture." "From Brno to Zizkov, Jan Hus to Vaclav Havel, this wry and stimulating collection of over 600 entries marks the first attempt at sewing together the patchwork of Czech culture with the hope of showing what is hezky cesky (nicely Czech) to the world at large." "The dictionary is supplemented by over thirty lists on such topics as the most popular Czech song, novel, athlete, and food. It also includes other primary documents like historical calendars, school-leaving exams, and communist slogans."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

The legendary founding editor of "Cosmopolitan" magazine is also a master of correspondence: from rants to raves, from love notes to memos to the fashion editor. This book is a confection of her finest writing.

The Complete Book of Rhymes, Songs, Poems, Fingerplays, and Chants gives children a variety of ways to fall in love with rhythm, rhyme, repetition, and structural sequence -- important building blocks for future readers. The 700 selections will help children ages 3 to 6 build a strong foundation in skills such as listening, imagination, coordination, and spatial and body awareness. In this giant book of rhythm and rhyme, you are sure to find your own childhood favorites! Book jacket.

1001 Children's Books You Must Read Before You Grow Up is the perfect introduction to the very best books of childhood: those books that have a special place in the heart of every reader. It introduces a wonderfully rich world of literature to parents and their children, offering both new titles and much-loved classics that many generations have read and enjoyed. From wordless picture books and books introducing the first words and sounds of the alphabet through to hard-hitting and edgy teenage fiction, the titles featured in this book reflect the wealth of reading opportunities for children.Browsing the titles in 1001 Children's Books You Must Read Before You Grow Up will take you on a journey of discovery into fantasy, adventure, history, contermporary life, and much more. These books will enable you to travel to some of the most famous imaginary worlds such as Narnia, Middle Earth, and Hogwart's School. And the route taken may be pretty strange, too. You may fall down a rabbit hole, as Alice does on her way to Wonderland, or go through the back of a wardrobe to reach the snowy wastes of Narnia.