Perish Twice (Sunny Randall)

Amazon.com

What mystery fan hasn't heard by now that Robert B. Parker created his Sunny Randall series expressly for good friend Helen Hunt, with an eye toward the actress playing the petite blonde investigator on the silver screen? Although the series has been touted as a radical departure for Parker (a woman in the lead, by gum!), so strongly do Boston PI Sunny and her cohorts resemble Boston PI Spenser and his pals that the movie's casting director might prefer a blond-wigged Robert Urich. But Parker's quick quips, droll wit, and staccato dialogue are all on display in the latest Randall novel, Perish Twice, so in spite of the reworked characters, there's still plenty to enjoy.

When radical feminist Mary Lou Goddard hires Sunny to protect her from a stalker, Sunny accepts the case with some reluctance. After all, Goddard detests Rosie, Sunny's bull terrier, canine vacuum, and stakeout companion ("Rosie was in the passenger seat, staring out the side window, alert for the appearance of a strange dog at whom she could gargle ferociously."). It doesn't take Sunny long to track down and confront Lawrence Reeves, a particularly pestilential human being. But pestilence is no excuse for murder, so when Reeves and Gretchen Crane, one of Goddard's colleagues, are both found dead, Sunny dives into the murky waters of Boston's prostitution industry, where Reeves was a client and Gretchen was trying to unionize the workers. Politics and sexuality can be a nasty tangle, and the unraveling threads lead straight to mobster Tony Marcus's door. Tony may appreciate Sunny's sharp wit, but business is business: interference can--and does--lead to a bullet with her name on it. And as if all of this weren't enough, Sunny's sister and her best friend are in the throes of nasty divorces. Luckily, the leap from PI to marital counselor is well within Sunny's abilities.

While there's no doubt that rabid Parker fans will snap up anything the author turns out (and with reason), Perish Twice may be more appealing to new readers, for whom Sunny's charm will carry none of the uneasy echoes of private investigators past. --Kelly Flynn

Book Description

Spenser creator Robert B. Parker returns with his newest heroine, Boston P.I. Sunny Randall, coming to the aid of three very different women in three very dangerous situations. One is for business. One is for a friend. One is for family. And all could be fatal...

Customer Reviews:

High Heels Hang Out. Three Limbs Crack. Reading Spice. .......2007-08-11

Having sped through the first 4 chapters of PERISH TWICE, # 2 in Parker's Sunny Randall series, I forced a pause. I had intended to read only a couple paragraphs, as I usually do for a treat when receiving new books from Amazon. Finishing the first couple paragraphs, I said, "Just a couple more." I dodn't know where I forgot my promise. All I know was I didn't quit reading. Each time I paused, "... few more paragraphs."

Periodically I surfaced to notice how the book was holding me captive. With that awareness percolating, I began itching to open a PC file for review notes, to avoid losing some of my thoughts about how Sunny's snarky voice and approach to problems relentlessly re-kidnaped my focus.

Beginning chapter 5, I remembered the paperback back flap describing Sunny aiding three women, one business, one friendship, the other family. The family rescue was set up in the first 4 chapters. Sunny's sister Elizabeth had stopped by Sunny's loft, quickly snagging my attention with her puzzling, unappealing stupidity, in diametric contrast to Sunny, and as evidenced by Rosie's response to Elizabeth's self-centeredness reigning as the "Queen of doesn't get it" (quoting Elizabeth's Ivy League husband, Hal Reagan). It seemed like nothing in the universe could rescue Elizabeth from stuck prissiness... except, possibly, to get a nickname like "Bunny"? (Her new job as an divorced, single woman could be a high class call girl working for Xavier, specializing in handling Ivy League men.)

I craved to keep reading until I came naturally to a point at which I actually wanted to take a break and do something else (lots of else's needed doing). Maybe if I paused to type a few first reading responses, I'd be okay with allowing a full fall into PERISH TWICE.

Was I fighting perishing twice myself? First in fire, then in ice, per the Robert Frost poem prefacing the plot. To make sense out of that question, read Parker's dedication to Joan in this one, along with the opening lines from Frost.

Was Sunny fire; Elizabeth ice? I was hoping that Sunny could pull a Spenser and save Elizabeth, even though the first few chapters made a logic-tight case against the ice thawing, and retaining anything of a self beyond an amorphous puddle of stagnant fluid.

To think there would be two more female issues Sunny would be juggling in this plot knot. I was there.

Okay, enough. Don't be Elizabeth. Get it.

After writing this much of a first draft for a review, I got myself immediately back to reading. This book was too good to get out of, and too good to avoid pausing to explain why.

What about the aid Sunny provided for friendship and business? What entertaining contrasts of female angst those provided to the corruption of Elizabeth's stagnation. Julie's marriage shakedown temporarily took away her professional aura as an MSW and sanctioned a space for a short journey into insanity. A hard core feminist hired Sunny to stop a stalker. The situation trilogy was woven together with the perfection of a master of the relationship game as it played out into murder and pleas of insanity, hot and cold. Sunny sweats to get the acts on track in a cool "Who done what to whom." And, of course, we get bonus hints on "why."

Was Frost somehow prescient of mother earth juggling an Ice Age with a hot house to improve the human temperature? Is the big SHE using that puzzling contrast to help humans see she knows her job? But, is she a good mother, Sunny might want to know.

How might enigmatic Tony Marcus have answered that, as he fanned the flames of a fascinating role in PERISH TWICE. At a prime plot point, Sunny sagely observed, "Tony didn't seem to want to hear my theories of love, anger, and ambivalence. In truth I didn't either." But, I was compelled to read them... laughing heartily here and there. I'm thanking God (Goddess?) that Robert B. Parker understands, to a large degree, what it's like to be a woman (even if he doesn't relish walking in high heels).

Respectfully Submitted,
Linda Shelnutt

Minor Parker.......2007-02-26

This is the second book in the "Sunny Randall" series and is far inferior to the first. The plot of PERISH TWICE is pretty negligible and at least half of the book is devoted to the personal life of Sunny's friend and sister, neither of whom are particularly sympathetic.

Sunny's sister, in particular, is a thoroughly annoying caricature of a character. She is unlikable in a two-dimensional sense, lacking any sort of texture or depth. All of the scenes involving this character are almost painful to read. I wasn't entertained by these scenes in the least.

This book is mildly entertaining because Parker knows how to write good dialogue. I was also curious to see who committed the crime. But in the end, you can find identical dialogue and similar plotlines in other Parker novels that are far superior to this one. My advice is to skip this particular story unless you are a Parker completist. Instead, read the first Sunny Randall novel FAMILY HONOR, the first couple of Jesse Stone books, and the first ten or so Spenser books.

what happened?.......2006-09-28

I've never wrote a review but i wanted to share some comments. I read the first book in the series and i liked it but Perish Twice left me less than impressed. Am I the only one who wants to know what happened to Millie from the first book? There should of been at least some mention of her in the second book, since she was still living with her at the end of the last one. And why does this investigation end pretty much the same as the last one? I guess I'll read one more but if it doesn't get better it will probably be the last one.

Stalking.......2006-08-21

The central character in this book is not Spenser, but Sunny Randall, former cop, present PI and artist, age 35, no longer married to, but still involved with husband, Richie. The presenting problem is her sister, Elizabeth, age 38, who believes her husband is cheating on her.

It turns out that Elizabeth is correct, and Sunny and Elizabeth and Hal Reagan meet to discuss things. Hal is involved with another resident of Weston, Nancy Simpson. Next Sunny is asked by a friend who runs a restaurant at Quincy Market to provide security for a feminist, Mary Lou Goddard. She is being stalked by Lawrence Reeves. (Elizabeth is stalking Nancy Simplson and Hal Reagan.)

Sunny learns that Reeves has been killed. At this stage her curiosity has gotten the better of her since her client, Mary Lou Goddard, has fired her. She consults her friend, Julie, an MSW with a practice on Mount Auburn Street. She is advised that stalking is about control. Going from Boston to Cambridge to Weston it is learned that the Goddard matter intersects with organized crime and a need, supplied, for protection of Sunny by Richie's family, the Burkes.

In the meantime, since women's rights are featured in the story in clever indirect fashion, Sunny has to use all of her persuasive powers to try to tame the passions and educate her sister Elizabeth and her firend Julie as the consequences of liberation are experienced.

Parker shows Sunny Randall in an outing that is LIFE!.......2006-03-28

Family Honor, Sunny Randall's first outing, was a strong start to a new series for Robert Parker. This was the second book in the series, and it was a bit . . . unfocused. However, you know what? Honestly, this is just exactly like life - this is how life is. Life is NOT focused, life goes how it goes, lots of things happen at once, and maybe things don't tie up at the end in a nice neat package. Maybe this is what Robert Parker is getting at with this book and if so, he did a fine job. I had started to give it just 4 stars but when I started thinking about it, I realized that life was messy and although the book at first glance might seem messy, Mr. Parker is actually in complete control all the way. It's a work of art. If you were disappointed in it, re-read it from this point of view and think about it. Life in all its glorious chaos is celebrated in these covers.

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Perish Twice
Robert B. Parker
Manufacturer: Berkley Pub Group
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
ASIN: B000K6KRM0

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Perish Twice (Sunny Randall Novels)
Robert B. Parker
Manufacturer: Putnam Adult
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Perish Twice
Robert B. Parker
Manufacturer: Putnam
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Perish Twice - A Sunny Randall Novel
Robert B. Parker
Manufacturer: G. P. Putnam's Sons
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Book Description

This companion to Those of My Blood continues the story of the luren, a race of peaceful vampires who share the galaxy with the humans on Earth, as well as many other races. Two new players in the galaxy are introduced—the Teleod and the Metaji—who are in the middle of a horrific galactic war. As the war threatens to demolish the fragile space-time continuum, the future of space travel for all races is endangered. Kyllikki, a Teleod telepath working for the Metaji, is the only one capable of reconciling the different philosophies of the two groups. Few are willing to help her, but she finds allies in Zuchmul, a luren, and Elias, an earthling. Elias possesses a quality that makes him an ideal spy—his ability to dream. To save the governments and space travel Kyllikki must unleash certain powers within Elias. If she succeeds, she will face the fury of both the Teleod and the Metaji. Complicating her task further, Kyllikki struggles with her intense feelings for Elias, a rock star of a different race, with whom she never expected to fall in love.

Customer Reviews:

exciting space opera.......2004-05-04

The Teleod and the Metaji are at war each blaming the other for destroying the fabric of space-time that make such travel possible. Kyllikki, a high-ranking telepath from an elite Teleod family, has become an outlaw amongst her people as she has deserted them to join the Metaji Empire in an effort to stop the war from destroying the galaxy

As her vessel is destroyed the renegade telepath teams up with Zuchmul the Luren (intergalactic vampires) and Idom the Guide (astrogator). Together the trio rescues earthling Elias the Dreamer, who was illegally abducted and unlawfully bonded to Kyllikki's cousin, Zimor head of the Teleod. As they learn more about what is happening to the space-time fabric, the quartet concludes that they must destroy Zimor, but they don't even have a decent space ship and each question whether they can trust any of the other three allies.

Set in the same Lichtenberg galaxy as THOSE OF MY BLOOD, this exciting space opera can stand alone though readers would enjoy the first tale that furbishes further detail about several of the species especially the Luren. The story line is Star Wars in that it is basically a Good vs. evil plot. However, what makes this tale very special (and all of Ms. Lichtenberg's novels - see the Sime-Gen universe) is the intricate information provided on each species interwoven cleverly into the plot so that readers learn and understand cultures like the Luren, Teleod, and Metaji . Comparative anthropology inside an action packed outer space thriller means a fabulous time and adventure for fans.

Harriet Klausner

Awesome!.......2001-07-23

This book is very captivating. It's an action adventure, romance, drama that includes psychics and vampires as well as various alien races. A very cool and fun read.

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Dreamspy
Jacqueline Lichtenberg
Manufacturer: St Martins Pr
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OT2X48

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Cook It Quick: Weight Watchers

yum!

Weight Watchers does it again

The Best WW Book of them All

Not Impressed.

Cook It Quick!: Speedy Recipes with Low POINTS Value in 30 Minutes or Less
Weight Watchers
Manufacturer: Fireside
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Cooking, Food & Wine | Subjects | Books
General | Quick & Easy | Cooking, Food & Wine | Subjects | Books
Healthy | Special Diet | Cooking, Food & Wine | Subjects | Books
Low Fat | Diets | Diets & Weight Loss | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books
Weight Watchers | Diets | Diets & Weight Loss | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books
General | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books
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Weight Watchers Make It in Minutes: Easy Recipes in 15, 20, and 30 Minutes

Weight Watchers Take-Out Tonight! : 150+ Restaurant Favorites to Make at Home--All 8 POINTS or Less

Weight Watchers Simply the Best: 250 Prizewinning Family Recipes

Accessories:

Tanita BC533 Glass Innerscan Body Composition Monitor

ASIN: 0743245962

Book Description

GOT A HALF HOUR OR LESS?

THEN YOU CAN SOLVE YOUR DINNERTIME

DILEMMA-QUICKLY, HEALTHFULLY, AND DELICIOUSLY!

In today's overworked world, busy people have less and less time to cook the healthy, enticing meals their families crave. But now, Weight Watchers Cook It Quick! takes some of the work out of your workday by supplying you with fabulous fix-it-fast ideas for all your evening meals. Based on the FlexPoints® Weight Loss System, Cook It Quick! is packed with more than 150 speedy, savory recipes, and also offers helpful hints for easy substitutions and tasty tips for making these recipes even faster and more mouth-watering.

Each exciting recipe includes complete nutrition information and POINTS value -- and will never take you more than a half hour to cook! With so many fantastic 30-minutes-or-less recipes at your fingertips, what are you waiting for? Just check out what's in store for you within these colorful, tempting pages:

•Salads to Sink Your Teeth Into •Savory Soups & Stews •Pizza, Sandwiches, & Wraps •All-in-the-Family Favorites •Everybody Loves Pasta (Grains, too!) •Flash in the Pan: Stir Fries & Skillet Suppers •Elegantly Easy •About Last Night...Slow-Cooker Recipes •Plus an extra special bonus: 10 in 15: Best Ever 15-Minute Recipes!

Customer Reviews:

Cook It Quick: Weight Watchers.......2007-09-30

This is a great cookbook for everyone that is in a hurry, but still need to provide wholesome and appetizing meals. And this book has them. If you need something in 5 minutes up to 30 minutes, this cookbook has it for you. And the recipes are WONDERFUL! You will be surprised to know they are low fat. A great addition to your cookbook collection.

yum! .......2007-09-24

I am very satisfied with the condition that my cook book arrived in, it came in a very prompt manner and was exactly what I wanted. The timeliness of the product exceeded my expectations.

Weight Watchers does it again.......2007-08-30

Excellent book - not complicated to use and recipes are quite tasty...I have a vast collection of Weight Watchers cookbooks and they are the only ones I use now..

The Best WW Book of them All.......2007-06-27

I went to my local bookstore and searched through their entire rack of WW cookbooks before making a purchase. This book was by far the best. The recipes are fairly easy and I found myself tagging about every other page to try for later. The other WW books were either cheap in quality (pages were printed only in b/w or on thin paper) or their recipes were too hard or detailed to prepare. I like a cookbook that is short, yet packed full of recipes I'll actually use. When it comes to cookbooks boasting several hundred recipes - I find that I'll only use maybe a 1/4 of them, because so many are "filler" recipes or just too difficult to make. I mean come-on, when you've come home from a 10-hour work day, who wants to attempt to cook duck????

Anyway, this WW cookbook had the recipes I was looking for and I'm glad I made the purchase.

Not Impressed........2007-05-27

This is my first weight watchers cookbook. I find the recipes to be very uninspiring. The pasta with olives and capers is about the only one we like.

Average customer rating:

New England Traditions Worth Saving

Stonewall Kitchen Harvest

I'm not a great cook so this book helps

Ooh-la-la

Cooking Just Got Better

Stonewall Kitchen Harvest: Celebrating the Bounty of the Seasons
Jim Stott , Jonathan King , and Kathy Gunst
Manufacturer: Clarkson Potter
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Cooking, Food & Wine | Subjects | Books
New England | U.S. Regional | Regional & International | Cooking, Food & Wine | Subjects | Books
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Sara Foster's Casual Cooking: More Fresh Simple Recipes from Foster's Market

ASIN: 1400050774
Release Date: 2004-11-09

Amazon.com

It started with a line of jams and a card table at a New England farmers' market. Stonewall Kitchen today has grown to be a giant in the fancy food market, producing more that 170 types of preserves and condiments. If you don't bake your own bread or scones, you would buy the artisanal variety to live according to the Stonewall style. The catalog--in print and online--reaches out beyond jam to kitchen tools, dining room accoutrements, gardening tools, and more. Everywhere is the stamp of the two primary tastemakers, Jonathan King and Jim Stott. And the cookbook they have now produced to underscore the Stonewall life is no exception. Everything about Stonewall Kitchen is tasteful and Stonewall Kitchen Harvest, written with Kathy Gunst, is no exception.

Like the beginnings of the company Stonewall Kitchen Harvest follows a simple line and familiar raison d'etre. It's all about the seasons, the locale, the harvest, about what's truly fresh--whether fruit, vegetable, tuber, fish, shellfish, or meat. What is closest at hand? What is the best of the best? The seasons and the locale in this case are New England, specifically Maine. When critical ingredients aren't right at hand, there are suggestions about where to shop for them online.

The chapters break out not according to specific dish or kind of meal, but place of origin: "From the Garden," "From the Sea," "From the Root Cellar," "Fruits of the Earth," "Harvest Basics." So in "From the Garden" you'll find recipes to carry you from breakfast to dinner. Corn Fritters with Herb Butter. Warm Spring Artichoke Salad with Fava Beans. Lamb Chops with Rosemary-Chive Butter. There are appetizers, soups, side dishes, main courses, and sauces, and this is true for each chapter. The seafood chapter is particularly invigorating, the fruits of the earth chapter mouth watering from beginning to end. Roasted Carrots with Fresh Pomegranate Glaze. Maple Crepes with Summer Berries.

This is a cookbook about letting ingredients speak for themselves, and that calls for the best ingredients possible. Seasonal is nice. Local is nice. Having access to a good garden would be nice. Or a farmers' market. Maybe you'll find a jam maker selling off a card table. --Schuyler Ingle

Book Description

Ripe apples, just-dug clams, sugary-sweet maple syrup, impeccable lobster. For decades, visitors have flocked to New England to enjoy the unique tastes of the harvest from land and sea and to witness the beauty of this breathtaking landscape. Likewise, millions have adored the prepared foods and condiments from Maine's Stonewall Kitchen, which perfectly capture the very best of this region's earthy but refined style of cooking.

Stonewall Kitchen Harves t is a celebration of the ingredients and flavors that make modern New England cooking so seductive.

From the Garden offers recipes for the wide variety of crops that ripen at the height of summer. Enticing recipes include English Pea and Lettuce Soup with Chive Cream.

From the Sea showcases New England's world of seafood and shellfish. Recipes range from Trout with a Cornmeal Crust and Lemon Butter to the World's Best Fried Clams with Tartar Sauce.

From the Root Cellar celebrates the unsung world of root vegetables, showing how to transform them from plain to sulime. Dishes include Potato Galette Stuffed with Greens and Gruyér and Roast Chicken with Roasted Garlic-Herb Butter and Roasted Vegetables.

Fruits of the Earth captures the wonderfully simple flavors of local fresh fruit, from apples, pears, and berries to more unusual fruits like persimmons and pomegranates. Irresistible recipes include Blueberry-Lemon-Sour Cream Coffee Cake.

Illuminating ingredient sidebars and truly stunning photography—of flowering blueberry bushes, tiny eggplants, just-dug potatoes, and scores of finished dishes—bring the harvest theme to full bloom. Filled with beauty, style, and flavor, Stonewall Kitchen Harvest is the perfect way to taste New England's bounty.

Customer Reviews:

New England Traditions Worth Saving.......2006-04-18

This book presents an incredible array of possibilities for entertaining friends and family with easy to prepare dishes. It pulls together many New England classics from my favorite region. The approach is so simple and straight-forward, that even a kitchen-klutz like myself can muster an admirable presentation! The photos alone will make your stomach growl! It was a finalist in the IACP cookbook awards for 2005.

Stonewall Kitchen Harvest.......2006-03-13

This is a wonderful cookbook. Great range of recipes wih fresh fruits and vegetables as the stars of these colorful dishes. Great for casual dinners with friends. The extra information on cooking tips, serving suggestions are helpful. This also makes a great gift - the photos are beautiful.

I'm not a great cook so this book helps.......2005-12-05

This was a gift from a friend. I'm not a wonderful cook but I like to try new recipes. I have made made several recipes from this book and each has been perfect - very tasty - and not too difficult. Recently some friends came over for dinner and I made one of the dishes, and my friend now wants to go out and get it too. Highest praise, I'd say.

Ooh-la-la.......2004-12-09

Stonewall Kitchen Harvest is everything one wants in a new cookbook; lucious recipes and photos that lure the reader in. My first glimpse into the book elicited an "ooh, I want to try that" response. I was reminded that there is a small thrill in finding the freshest of ingrediants and this book celebrates those ingrediants with recipes that seem eminently do-able. Between Jim Stott and Jonathan King's stylish approach and Kathy's irresistable writing, they have produced a gorgeous cookbook.

Cooking Just Got Better.......2004-12-02

I live to cook. I love to eat. The Stonewall Kitchen Harvest cookbook is an inspiration for both. Call me a "foodie", but as they say, "Don't call me late." Cook your way through this user-friendly book and you're going to have a lot fun in the kitchen and meal-after-meal of really good food. I've been a fan of Stonewall's since discovering their jams a dozen or so years ago and when I saw the book, I thought it was just a collection of recipes using their products. Not. If their first book is this good, I'm going to order a used one. On second thought, I don't think I want a used cookbook. Eeeuu!

Book Description

Offering a rare and mystical glimpse into nature's splendor, this book is sure to delight anyone who is lured by the majesty and spirit of the wild horse.

Customer Reviews:

Fabulous Book.......2006-07-26

The book is wonderful. Beautifully written and photographed. However, people should know that Cloud's herd of wild horses is in great danger of being rounded up and permanently removed from the Pryor Mountains in Montana which has been cleared of all other herds of Mustangs. The Bureau of Land Management has caved in to cattle and sheep ranchers who want all wild horses removed from the range, including Public Lands and areas such as the Pryor Mountains where cattle are not grazed.

Cloud Wild Stallion of the Rockies.......2005-02-20

The heck with being a book for teen girls ----- it is a book for all horse lovers and non horse lovers alike! Beautiful photos and a GREAT TRUE Story! It is WONDERFUL!

Cloud: Wild Stallion of the Rockies.......2005-01-06

Cloud: Wild Stallion of the Rockies is an interesting book, with vivid photographs of mustangs. I received it as a gift back when I was still obsessed with horses, and could not get enough of it. Even now that I only slightly like horses anymore, I find this book very enjoyable.

Interspersed with moving photography, this is Ginger Kathrens' story of a wild stallion called Cloud. She followed his herd before he was born, and followed him all over afterwards. A simple but well-written documentary that, I can only imagine, rivals the show produced on Nature's television series, this is a must for any young horse-lover, or even an older one.

I highly recommend this book. The pictures are full-color and the story is superb; you will be getting your money's worth with this book. Long live Cloud!

BEST EVER!!!.......2004-08-30

Cloud, Wild Stallion of the Rockies is the BEST horse book that I have ever read! It is a true story about wild horses in Montana. It is interesting and very exciting! I also enjoy watching the DVD. I highly recommend this book to any one who likes horses! Definitely a 5 star book!

Cloud.......2002-04-01

I read and enjoyed the book it seems to portray the behavior of the wild stallion and his herd very well. Good readablity factor.

Book Description

Follow directions for making your own silk paper, then use your favorite hand or machine embroidery techniques to complete beautiful projects. Wrap an ordinary box with fabric scraps. Match an elegant silk-covered purse with a brooch, hat, evening accessories, and more. “A new craft that has a great deal of promise....Belongs in fiber arts collections as well as general crafts.”—Library Journal.

Book Description

Under the enlightened rule of the Buyid dynasty (945-1055 A.D.) the Islamic world witnessed an unequalled cultural renaissance. This book is an investigation into the nature of the environment in which the cultural transformation took place and into the cultural elite who were its bearers. After an extensive introductory section setting the stage, the book deals with the main schools and circles and with the outstanding individual representatives of this renaissance. The main expression of this renaissance was a philosophical humanism that embraced the scientific and philosophical heritage of Classical Antiquity as a cultural and educational ideal. Along with this philosophical humanism, a literary humanism was cultivated by litterateurs, poets, and government secretaries. This renaissance was marked by a powerful assertion of individualism in the domains of literary creativity and political action. It thrived in a remarkably cosmopolitan atmosphere -- Baghdad, the center of the bAbbasid empire and of Buyid rule.

Humanism in the Renaissance of Islam. The Cultural Revival during the Buyid Age.

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Humanism in the Renaissance of Islam. The Cultural Revival during the Buyid Age.
Joel L. Kraemer
Manufacturer: E. J. Brill
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000JLGG2Q

Book Description

Omprakash Valmiki's Joothan, an autobiographical account of his birth and upbringing as an untouchable, or Dalit, in the newly independent India of the 1950s, is one of the first portrayals of Dalit life in north India from an insider's perspective. "Joothan" literally means scraps of food left on a plate, destined for the garbage or for the family pet in a middle-class urban home. It is related to the word "jootha," which means polluted, and such scraps are characterized as "joothan" only if someone else eats them. India's untouchables have been forced to accept and eat joothan for their subsistence for centuries. The word encapsulates the pain, humiliation, and poverty of this community, which has lived at the bottom of India's social pyramid for millenia. Although untouchability was legally abolished in the constitution of the newly independent India in 1949, Dalits continue to face discrimination, economic deprivation, violence, and ridicule.

Traditionally, Indian literatures have either ignored untouchables or portrayed them as victims in need of saviors, as objects without voice or agency. Valmiki has broken new ground with an authentic recording of these unrepresented experiences. He tells the stories of life in the untouchable caste of Chuhra, at the bottom rung of society; his heroic struggle to survive this preordained life of perpetual physical and mental persecution; the cruel obstacles he overcame to become the first high school graduate of his neighborhood; his coming to consciousness under the influence of the great Dalit political leader B. R. Ambedkar; and his transformation into a speaking subject bearing witness to the oppression and exploitation that he endured as an individual and as a member of a stigmatized and oppressed community.

Dalits today constitute about one sixth of India's population. Spread over the entire country, speaking many languages, and belonging to many religions, they have become a major political force. As a document of the long silenced and long denied sufferings of the Dalits, Joothan is not only a contribution to the archives of Dalit history, but a manifesto for the revolutionary transformation of society and human consciousness.

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Joothan
Omprakash Valmiki; Arun Prabha Mukherjee
Manufacturer: Columbia University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OPC5HM

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