Winner of the Anne M. Sperber Prize A spirited and revealing memoir by the most celebrated editor of his time. After editing The Columbia Review, staging plays at Cambridge, and a stint in the greeting-card department of Macy's, Robert Gottlieb stumbled into a job at Simon and Schuster. By the time he left to run Alfred A. Knopf a dozen years later, he was the editor in chief, having discovered and edited Catch-22 and The American Way of Death, among other bestsellers. At Knopf, Gottlieb edited an astonishing list of authors, including Toni Morrison, John Cheever, Doris Lessing, John le Carré, Michael Crichton, Lauren Bacall, Katharine Graham, Robert Caro, Nora Ephron, and Bill Clinton--not to mention Bruno Bettelheim and Miss Piggy. In Avid Reader, Gottlieb writes with wit and candor about succeeding William Shawn as the editor of The New Yorker, and the challenges and satisfactions of running America's preeminent magazine. Sixty years after joining Simon and Schuster, Gottlieb is still at it--editing, anthologizing, and, to his surprise, writing. But this account of a life founded upon reading is about more than the arc of a singular career--one that also includes a lifelong involvement with the world of dance. It's about transcendent friendships and collaborations, "elective affinities" and family, psychoanalysis and Bakelite purses, the alchemical relationship between writer and editor, the glory days of publishing, and--always--the sheer exhilaration of work. Photograph of Bob Gottlieb © by Jill Krementz

Menaced by Vikings and enemies at court, Queen Emma defends her children and her crown in a riveting medieval adventure Readers first met Emma of Normandy in Patricia Bracewell’s gripping debut novel, Shadow on the Crown. Unwillingly thrust into marriage to England’s King Æthelred, Emma has given the king a son and heir, but theirs has never been a happy marriage. In The Price of Blood, Bracewell returns to 1006 when a beleaguered Æthelred, still haunted by his brother’s ghost, governs with an iron fist and a royal policy that embraces murder. As tensions escalate and enmities solidify, Emma forges alliances to protect her young son from ambitious men—even from the man she loves. In the north there is treachery brewing, and when Viking armies ravage England, loyalties are shattered and no one is safe from the sword. Rich with intrigue, compelling personalities, and fascinating detail about a little-known period in history, The Price of Blood will captivate fans of both historical fiction and fantasy novels such as George R. R. Martin’s Game of Thrones series.

This theoretical and empirical study explores what happens in the minds of engaged readers when they read literature. It considers the roles that the text, the reading context, cognition, and emotion play, and it argues for the importance of understanding the "oceanic" interaction that takes place between those inputs.

According to the end-of-millennium Arts and Entertainment Television Network survey, the single most influential person of the last thousand years was Johann Gutenberg, the inventor of the printing press. The revolutionary advent of moveable metal type made possible the diffusion of books to people around the world, profoundly influencing the lives of many famous historical figures thereafter. This book attempts to demonstrate the role that reading has played throughout the course of history. It documents the lives of nine individuals of outstanding achievement whose efforts were molded by the books they read. The subjects are presented in chronological order according to birth. Respective chapters contain brief biographies of the subjects and discuss the ways in which each used books as a principal aid in the development of his or her exceptional talents. Subjects include Benjamin Franklin, who was in 1724 an active connoisseur in the rapidly growing printing trade, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, Frederick Douglass, Susan B. Anthony, Booker T. Washington, Pearl S. Buck, Louis L'Amour, and Nelson Mandela. The book maintains that while these historical figures represent a wide range of talents and influences, to each is attributed invaluable contributions to society. Each was a dedicated reader, inspired to greatness by the power of the written word.

Award-winning writers contribute to a “moving . . . entertaining . . . enlightening” collection of essays, each inspired by a historic ACLU case (New York Times). On January 19, 1920, a small group of idealists and visionaries, including Helen Keller, Jane Addams, Roger Baldwin, and Crystal Eastman, founded the American Civil Liberties Union. A century after its creation, the ACLU remains the nation’s premier defender of the rights and freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution. In collaboration with the ACLU, authors Michael Chabon and Ayelet Waldman have curated an anthology of essays “full of struggle, emotion, fear, resilience, hope, and triumph” (Los Angeles Review of Books) about landmark cases in the organization’s one-hundred-year history. Fight of the Century takes you inside the trials and the stories that have shaped modern life. Some of the most prominent cases that the ACLU has been involved in—Brown v. Board of Education, Roe v. Wade, Miranda v. Arizona—need little introduction. Others you may never even have heard of, yet their outcomes quietly defined the world we live in now. Including essays from Neil Gaiman, Meg Wolitzer, Salman Rushdie, Ann Patchett, Viet Thanh Nguyen, Hector Tobar, Louise Erdrich, George Saunders and many more, Fight of the Century reminds us that the issues the ACLU has engaged over the past one hundred years remain as vital as ever today. “Vigorous, informative, and well-organized, this outstanding collection befits the ACLU’s substantial impact on American law and society.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review “A stunning collection of original and topical essays.” —Booklist, starred review “Lively, contextually grounded stories that read like the greatest hits of freedom. . . . riveting and refreshingly diverse.” —Kirkus Reviews

We Dwell in Possibilities By: Carlotta G. Holton As women, we are constantly evolving. Changing attitudes toward our gender have accommodated many, but not all. Still, we are told, it is progress. Women can now enter career paths never before considered. They can choose not to marry, not to have children, or become a single parent. Women can marry someone of the same sex, younger or older, regardless of race, ethnicity or religion. The lines, for the most part, between sexism, ageism, and racism have blurred, though they are still visible. So, if as we were told years ago in the 1968 Virginia Slims cigarette commercial, “We’ve come a long way baby,” just where do we stand now? In We Dwell in Possibilities: What American Women Think about Practically Everything!, Carlotta G. Holton strives to answer this question through the intensive study she conducted over years of research, interviews, and analysis. So, what do American women think about practically everything? Read on to find out!

This book reveals the influences of modern history and psychology on British drama; the all-important influence of Irish dramatists like Wilde, Shaw, O’Casey, and Beckett; the significance of the Independent Theatre of J. T. Grein and the early Royal Court Theatre; the gay community’s contribution to the British theater; the powerful new feminist drama; and the British festival theater. Auseful tool for readers wishing to know more about Britain’s great dramatic tradition and vital contemporary theater, for students pursuing drama studies, and for libraries in need of an accessible reference work.

Against a background of press reports of declining literacy standards, there is a dominant idea that both the responsibility for literacy learning and the key to literacy success lies as much within the family as in the school. With women in particular, feel pressurized to be responsible for their children's literacy. Using a historical framework, this book explores the lives of mothers born after 1870.

In these changing times of global flows of media and technologies and reports of declining reading enjoyment, researchers, policymakers and educators need to engage anew with essential issues of what counts as reading, what kinds of reading matter and how to support teen reading engagement in school and out-of-school settings. Bringing together contributions from well-known and emerging adolescent literacy researchers from different disciplinary perspectives, this edited collection consolidates contemporary research on teens’ volitional print and digital reading, whether in school or out-of-school contexts. The first part of the book offers overviews of what teens are reading, followed by chapters on community support on reading and new ways of researching teen reading. With chapters from North America, Europe, Australia, Asia and the Middle East, the collection will offer multifaceted and complex insights into what, how and why teens read in different contexts. Reflection questions at the end of each chapter encourage readers to consider how the research can be applied in their own research, policy and practice contexts. This book will be of interest to researchers, policymakers and educators who are invested in supporting adolescent-engaged reading with evidence- based policies and strategies.

This special anniversary collection of has a double-dose of inspiration - personal stories of how Chicken Soup for the Soul changed lives, and the life-changing story itself! Twenty years later, Chicken Soup for the Soul and its stories are still changing lives! This special twentieth anniversary collection celebrates the power of storytelling. Readers share their personal, inspiriting stories about how a Chicken Soup for the Soul story made a difference in their lives, paired with the life-changing story itself. It’s a double dose of inspiration!