A new story collection from “one of Europe’s most exciting writers” (New York Times Book Review) deftly evokes and explores the shifts that occur when the world grows dark. Snowed in at a remote artists’ residency in Vermont, Peter recalls another Christmas some thirty years earlier, when he met Marcia by chance on a trip to New York City. Only now, in this eerie, isolated place, does he begin to see the consequences of their brief affair through a series of connections. When Hubert asks Sabrina to model for a sculpture, she’s flattered and happy to help. But facing the finished product, looking at herself from previously hidden angles, disturbs her, and she becomes determined to follow her double after it’s sold to a collector. Uneasy in his own skin and with the humdrum life set out for him, David decides to rob a bank. He already has a mask for the purpose, but won’t be using it today. He’s heard that bank robbers often study the scene for weeks before they strike. So he’s started to lurk. We think we know our world, but then the familiar suddenly turns strange, and even frightening. In these powerfully affecting, minutely constructed stories, Peter Stamm illustrates how fragile our reality really is, how susceptible to tricks of the heart and mind.

A military attack drone turned shepherd. A train on the London Underground evolving into something new and wondrous. A troupe of robotic actors struggling to find meaning when the audience has disappeared. Explore the myriad ideas of what happens when out-of-date and abandoned technologies are given a second life—one that takes them in a new direction, far outside their intended programming and beyond their original purpose. MY BATTERY IS LOW AND IT IS GETTING DARK features fourteen stories of quiet hope, heartbreak, creation, and death from fantasy and science fiction authors Dana Berube, Merc Fenn Wolfmoor, Jacey Bedford, Anthony Lowe, Chris Kocher, Brian Hugenbruch, William Leisner, José Pablo Iriarte, Alethea Kontis, Kari Sperring, Edward Willett, John G. Hartness, Alexander Gideon, and Stephen Leigh. You may never look at your smart speaker the same way again.

The book "The Twilight of the Souls" changed into written by using Louis Couperus, a Dutch creator who have become well-known for his paintings in literature in the past due 1800s and early 1900s. The book goes into incredible detail about the human mind and the complex social issues of the time. In contrast to Europe in the overdue 1800s, the tale follows the lives of numerous folks that are caught up in an internet of love, passion, and existential notion. The call of the book, "The Twilight of the Souls," makes me consider a deep check out religion and emotional subjects. Couperus cleverly indicates how his characters' ethical issues and social norms shape their lives with the aid of weaving a tapestry of interconnected lives. The book explores the decadence of era and suggests a global in flux because the character’s conflict with their goals and address the effects of what society expects of them. Couperus makes use of rich language and deep mental expertise to build a story that is going beyond easy storytelling and receives to the coronary heart of what it method to be human. The fact that "The Twilight of the Souls" combines symbols, psychology, and social observation shows how excellent Couperus became as a creator.

'I Had a Black Dog says with wit, insight, economy and complete understanding what other books take 300 pages to say. Brilliant and indispensable.' - Stephen Fry 'Finally, a book about depression that isn't a prescriptive self-help manual. Johnston's deftly expresses how lonely and isolating depression can be for sufferers. Poignant and humorous in equal measure.' Sunday Times There are many different breeds of Black Dog affecting millions of people from all walks of life. The Black Dog is an equal opportunity mongrel. It was Winston Churchill who popularized the phrase Black Dog to describe the bouts of depression he experienced for much of his life. Matthew Johnstone, a sufferer himself, has written and illustrated this moving and uplifting insight into what it is like to have a Black Dog as a companion and how he learned to tame it and bring it to heel.

The triumphant story of how an all-Black Broadway cast and crew changed musical theatre—and the world—forever. "This musical introduced Black excellence to the Great White Way. Broadway was forever changed and we, who stand on the shoulders of our brilliant ancestors, are charged with the very often elusive task of carrying that torch into our present."—Billy Porter, Tony, Grammy, and Emmy Award-winning actor "The 1920s were the years of Manhattan's Black Renaissance. It began with Shuffle Along." —Langston Hughes If Hamilton, Rent, or West Side Story captured your heart, you'll love this in-depth look into the rise of the 1921 Broadway hit, Shuffle Along, the first all-Black musical to succeed on Broadway. No one was sure if America was ready for a show featuring nuanced, thoughtful portrayals of Black characters—and the potential fallout was terrifying. But from the first jazzy, syncopated beats of composers Noble Sissle and Eubie Blake, New York audiences fell head over heels. When Broadway Was Black is the story of how Sissle and Blake, along with comedians Flournoy Miller and Aubrey Lyles, overcame poverty, racism, and violence to harness the energy of the Harlem Renaissance and produce a runaway Broadway hit that launched the careers of many of the twentieth century's most beloved Black performers. Born in the shadow of slavery and establishing their careers at a time of increasing demands for racial justice and representation for people of color, they broke down innumerable barriers between Black and white communities at a crucial point in our history. Author and pop culture expert Caseen Gaines leads readers through the glitz and glamour of New York City during the Roaring Twenties to reveal the revolutionary impact one show had on generations of Americans, and how its legacy continues to resonate today. Praise for When Broadway Was Black: "A major contribution to culture."—Brian Jay Jones, New York Times bestselling author of Jim Henson: The Biography "With meticulous research and smooth storytelling, Caseen Gaines significantly deepens our understanding of one of the key cultural events that launched the Harlem Renaissance."—A Lelia Bundles, New York Times bestselling author of On Her Own Ground: The Life and Times of Madam C.J. Walker "Absorbing..."—The Wall Street Journal Previously published as Footnotes: The Black Artists Who Rewrote the Rules of the Great White Way

An anthology of stories to celebrate the April 2024 eclipse in North America. These stories are located in various places and are even of various genres and themes. What they have in common, besides featuring eclipses, are that they are all written by brilliant authors and will all entertain you. Read them before the eclipse, to get into the mood, or after, to nostalgically remember it. During the darkness, all manner of things can happen. When people are distracted by this spectacular celestial event, criminals can operate unimpeded, they can also be caught. Trips to see the event can lead to disaster, or they can save the day. And the science of looking at the sun becomes important when a partner strays. The event can mean many different things to a disaster cult, to drug-dealing Russians, to an artist striving for his grand opus. It spreads across the country to, maybe, give confirmation to a program to analyze the universe, to give a gift to a mermaid in an abandoned water park, to show what the crazy guy at the fast food place is really like, to help a young girl find her way. As a not-so-clever crime goes awry, a hike to view the spectacle is interrupted. Contributors include Cari Dubiel, Katherine Tomlinson, Carol L. Wright, Joseph S. Walker, John Rogers Clark IV, M. K. Waller, Toni Goodyear, Laura Oles, Bridges DelPonte, Eric Beckstrom, Kaye George, Paula Gail Benson, John M. Floyd, Debra H. Goldstein, Michael Bracken, and James A. Hearn.

"... a passionate and tormented novel about the summer of 1954 as it transpired in the lives of two young Korean War veterans returning to their Indianapolis homes.... it is possible that the current publishing season will produce no book more urgently felt." --New York Times Book Review, August 9, 1970 "A brilliant book." --John Ciardi "Wonderful, sad and funny; a scathing portrait of middle America through the eyes of a new fictional character who will inevitably be compared to Portnoy and Holden Caulfield." --Gay Talese Noted author Dan Wakefield's most famous novel seethes with pent-up frustration and confusion and nearly every episode bubbles with hilarity. This novel of the 1950s so perfectly captures its time and place that it transcends the specific and becomes universal--a true classic of American literature. Now a major motion picture.

"James F. Wilson uncovers fascinating new material on the Harlem Renaissance, shedding light on the oft-forgotten gay and lesbian contributions to the era's creativity and Civil Rights. Extremely well researched, compellingly written, and highly informative." ---David Krasner, author of A Beautiful Pageant: African American Theatre, Drama, and Performance in the Harlem Renaissance, 1910-1927 Bulldaggers, Pansies, and Chocolate Babies shines the spotlight on historically neglected plays and performances that challenged early twentieth-century notions of the stratification of race, gender, class, and sexual orientation. On Broadway stages, in Harlem nightclubs and dance halls, and within private homes sponsoring rent parties, African American performers of the 1920s and early 1930s teased the limits of white middle-class morality. Blues-singing lesbians, popularly known as "bulldaggers," performed bawdy songs; cross-dressing men vied for the top prizes in lavish drag balls; and black and white women flaunted their sexuality in scandalous melodramas and musical revues. Race leaders, preachers, and theater critics spoke out against these performances that threatened to undermine social and political progress, but to no avail: mainstream audiences could not get enough of the riotous entertainment. Many of the plays and performances explored here, central to the cultural debates of their time, had been previously overlooked by theater historians. Among the performances discussed are David Belasco's controversial production of Edward Sheldon and Charles MacArthur's Lulu Belle (1926), with its raucous, libidinous view of Harlem. The title character, as performed by a white woman in blackface, became a symbol of defiance for the gay subculture and was simultaneously held up as a symbol of supposedly immoral black women. African Americans Florence Mills and Ethel Waters, two of the most famous performers of the 1920s, countered the Lulu Belle stereotype in written statements and through parody, thereby reflecting the powerful effect this fictional character had on the popular imagination. Bulldaggers, Pansies, and Chocolate Babies is based on historical archival research including readings of eyewitness accounts, newspaper reports, songs, and playscripts. Employing a cultural studies framework that incorporates queer and critical race theory, it argues against the widely held belief that the stereotypical forms of black, lesbian, and gay show business of the 1920s prohibited the emergence of distinctive new voices. Specialists in American studies, performance studies, African American studies, and gay and lesbian studies will find the book appealing, as will general readers interested in the vivid personalities and performances of the singers and actors introduced in the book. James F. Wilson is Professor of English and Theatre at LaGuardia Community College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York.

Set in Italy in the year 1977, The Road to Chianti follows two young orphans as they struggle to find a place to call home. When their parents are killed in a devastating accident on the eve of the Epiphany, nine-year-old Alessandra DeSantis and her older brother, Salvatore, are left alone. With no one to care for them, the children soon end up in a run-down orphanage far from their home in Chianti. Still emotionally scarred from losing their parents, they now face an even greater challenge the cruel Agostina, who works Alessandra and Salvatore to the point of exhaustion. Deciding they must escape, Alessandra and Salvatore flee in the night and unknowingly embark on a harrowing adventure across the Italian countryside. With Agostina's goons hot on their trail, Alessandra and Salvatore vow to do whatever it takes to survive, and above all else, find their way home to Chianti. But one nagging question always hangs over them what will they find when they finally get home? An action-packed journey through cobblestone streets, dark forests, and gorgeous piazzas, The Road to Chianti explores the power of love to triumph over adversity and the importance of having a place to call your own.

Podręcznik do egzaminu B2 z języka angielskiego to e-book zawierający cały potrzebny materiał do nauki dla osób przygotowujących się do egzaminu na poziomie B2, ale także dla osób, które uczą się samodzielnie języka angielskiego. E-book zawiera słowa i zwroty niezbędne do zdania tego egzaminu poprzez naukę wg. wypróbowanej i skutecznej metody opracowanej przez autora oraz pełny przegląd gramatyki angielskiej. Podręcznik jest przystosowany do używania na komputerach i tabletach.