The City of Mirrors

The City of Mirrors
Author: Justin Cronin
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Total Pages: 827
Release: 2016-05-24
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0804177643

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “A thrilling finale to a trilogy that will stand as one of the great achievements in American fantasy fiction.”—Stephen King You followed The Passage. You faced The Twelve. Now enter The City of Mirrors for the final reckoning. As the bestselling epic races to its breathtaking finale, Justin Cronin’s band of hardened survivors await the second coming of unspeakable darkness. The world we knew is gone. What world will rise in its place? The Twelve have been destroyed and the terrifying hundred-year reign of darkness that descended upon the world has ended. The survivors are stepping outside their walls, determined to build society anew—and daring to dream of a hopeful future. But far from them, in a dead metropolis, he waits: Zero. The First. Father of the Twelve. The anguish that shattered his human life haunts him, and the hatred spawned by his transformation burns bright. His fury will be quenched only when he destroys Amy—humanity’s only hope, the Girl from Nowhere who grew up to rise against him. One last time light and dark will clash, and at last Amy and her friends will know their fate. Look for the entire Passage trilogy: THE PASSAGE | THE TWELVE | THE CITY OF MIRRORS Praise for The City of Mirrors “Compulsively readable.”—The New York Times Book Review “The City of Mirrors is poetry. Thrilling in every way it has to be, but poetry just the same . . . The writing is sumptuous, the language lovely, even when the action itself is dark and violent.”—The Huffington Post “This really is the big event you’ve been waiting for . . . A true last stand that builds and comes with a bloody, roaring payoff you won’t see coming, then builds again to the big face off you’ve been waiting for.”—NPR “A masterpiece . . . with The City of Mirrors, the third volume in The Passage trilogy, Justin Cronin puts paid to what may well be the finest post-apocalyptic epic in our dystopian-glutted times. A stunning achievement by virtually every measure.”—The National Post “Justin Cronin’s Passage trilogy is remarkable for the unremitting drive of its narrative, for the breathtaking sweep of its imagined future, and for the clear lucidity of its language.”—Stephen King

Jerusalem: City of Mirrors

Jerusalem: City of Mirrors
Author: Amos Elon
Publisher: Plunkett Lake Press
Total Pages: 295
Release: 2019-08-15
Genre: History
ISBN:

A contemplation of the fabled city which for the Western mind is as much a myth as a physical reality. Amos Elon’s elegant, dazzling biography of Jerusalem gives a profound insight into the kaleidoscopic culture of this magical city. Battle-scarred from four thousand years of violent conflict, the holy city is a sacred symbol of Judaism, Islam and Christianity, and its religious wars of today reflect those of the past — Arab versus Jew, orthodox versus secular, continuity versus change. “[a] remarkable portrait of Jerusalem...” — Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, The New York Times “Jerusalem: City of Mirrors is a word portrait like none of those that have come before of the fabled city. It is from the loving but unsparing pen of Israel's most elegant iconoclast.” — Peter Grose, The New York Times “A brilliantly illuminating book.” — Philip Roth “Finely written and very readable... Elon’s contention, and convincing demonstration, that religious fanaticism and communal violence are deeply ingrained in Jerusalem’s geography and its long history (four thousand years) leave little hope for the ‘city of mirrors.’” — John C. Campbell, Foreign Affairs “Elon... has written a literary, and often lyrical, biography of the images of Jerusalem” — Roger Friedland and Richard Hecht, Los Angeles Times “Elon’s Jerusalem is both a learned book and a charming one... He places us before a veritable many-layered mountain of myth and history, a compressed symbol of our most sublime aspirations along with our most disgusting, hatefully brainless excursions into religious bigotry and fratricide. It is a book as complex and surprising as the city itself.” — Arthur Miller “A superbly readable study.” — Jewish Chronicle “A book which should be read by all.” — Catholic Herald “Jerusalem, the most longed-for and fought-for of all cities, is probably also the most written about. Yet, if I had to recommend one contemporary book about Jerusalem for everyone concerned with the city — both visitors and Jerusalemites — would certainly be this one.” — Dan Leon, Palestine-Israel Journal

Melanie

Melanie
Author: Wilian Arias
Publisher: WARIASBOOKS
Total Pages: 96
Release: 2022-11-22
Genre: Art
ISBN:

The Melanie saga, by the writer Wilian Arias, is a great story, an endearing narration with intense and well-developed characters, and at the same time a story with an unparalleled degree of complexity. In the complete development of Melanie's tetralogy, Wilian Arias plunges us into a convoluted plot line, which is full of narrative twists that make the story more complex, but at the same time, close circles and complete narratives in an elegant way and in its fair and precise time. There is a maxim in storytelling that a story is only as great as its best villain. In that sense, and in simple terms, the villains of most stories are made by a web of evil inherent to their being; beings who seek to cause evil and suffering for the mere fact of doing so and for the enjoyment that this produces. However, Wilian Arias shows us villains who are not villains, beings of light that can become villains and victims who, with the right twist, become victimizers and who, with the precise reason, show the reader why their actions, making them human and making the reader empathize with them. Thus, Wilian makes master use of a villain, putting good and evil in interchangeable positions. The complete Melanie saga is full of magic, fantasy, reality and social criticism, but in which Wilian Arias impeccably amalgamates, from beginning to end, the crudest aspects of reality, achieving a new style of modern magical realism. a sort of magical neo-realism, in which the fusion of value and anti-value, social, gender-sex and human behavior themes are intertwined in unexpected ways with a story that, from its beginnings, suggests an idyllic and chivalrous narration, but that with the passage of the first chapters is fully introduced into the deep message and human criticism that Wilian seeks to capture in his most extensive work. In the first book, we are introduced to the main characters, and with the use of a lively and changing narrative rhythm, the author establishes a fantastic and magical narrative voice and style, which will quickly transmute into what he visualized while creating his work: a text loaded with allegories, metaphors of life and criticism of human behavior. The second volume, Wilian delves into the story, the characters, the roots of the strongest and most intense antagonisms, through the use of an elaborate, mature, delicate and worked language, and opens narrative circles and character arcs that will masterfully work with the subsequent development of the work. In the third book of the saga, the narrative focuses primarily on the use of the retelling resource, going back steps on the story, providing explanations, reasons and elements that enrich the arc of the previously introduced characters, and that opens new nodes of interaction. For the fourth and final book, Wilian ends up impeccably closing the characters, their journeys through history, and their transformations and, in a unique way, manages to return to the main theme of the story, giving it a closure that produces very intense emotions for him. The Melanie saga is a tetralogy that is structured with novel elements, classic archetypes, its own narrative style and a unique voice, working on a story as old as time itself, but developed with a honeyed voice, an acid critic, a deep love for the lyrics and a message that should not go unnoticed.

A Companion to Nineteenth-Century Art

A Companion to Nineteenth-Century Art
Author: Michelle Facos
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 555
Release: 2018-12-06
Genre: Art
ISBN: 1118856368

A comprehensive review of art in the first truly modern century A Companion to Nineteenth-Century Art contains contributions from an international panel of noted experts to offer a broad overview of both national and transnational developments, as well as new and innovative investigations of individual art works, artists, and issues. The text puts to rest the skewed perception of nineteenth-century art as primarily Paris-centric by including major developments beyond the French borders. The contributors present a more holistic and nuanced understanding of the art world during this first modern century. In addition to highlighting particular national identities of artists, A Companion to Nineteenth-Century Art also puts the focus on other aspects of identity including individual, ethnic, gender, and religious. The text explores a wealth of relevant topics such as: the challenges the artists faced; how artists learned their craft and how they met clients; the circumstances that affected artist’s choices and the opportunities they encountered; and where the public and critics experienced art. This important text: Offers a comprehensive review of nineteenth-century art that covers the most pressing issues and significant artists of the era Covers a wealth of important topics such as: ethnic and gender identity, certain general trends in the nineteenth century, an overview of the art market during the period, and much more Presents novel and valuable insights into familiar works and their artists Written for students of art history and those studying the history of the nineteenth century, A Companion to Nineteenth-Century Art offers a comprehensive review of the first modern era art with contributions from noted experts in the field.

Anti/Vax

Anti/Vax
Author: Bernice L. Hausman
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Total Pages: 304
Release: 2019-04-15
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 1501735640

Antivaxxers are crazy. That is the perception we all gain from the media, the internet, celebrities, and beyond, writes Bernice Hausman in Anti/Vax, but we need to open our eyes and ears so that we can all have a better conversation about vaccine skepticism and its implications. Hausman argues that the heated debate about vaccinations and whether to get them or not is most often fueled by accusations and vilifications rather than careful attention to the real concerns of many Americans. She wants to set the record straight about vaccine skepticism and show how the issues and ideas that motivate it—like suspicion of pharmaceutical companies or the belief that some illness is necessary to good health—are commonplace in our society. Through Anti/Vax, Hausman wants to engage public health officials, the media, and each of us in a public dialogue about the relation of individual bodily autonomy to the state's responsibility to safeguard citizens' health. We need to know more about the position of each side in this important stand-off so that public decisions are made through understanding rather than stereotyped perceptions of scientifically illiterate antivaxxers or faceless bureaucrats. Hausman reveals that vaccine skepticism is, in part, a critique of medicalization and a warning about the dangers of modern medicine rather than a glib and gullible reaction to scaremongering and misunderstanding.

The Arcades Project

The Arcades Project
Author: Walter Benjamin
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Total Pages: 1100
Release: 1999
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780674043268

Focusing on the arcades of 19th-century Paris--glass-roofed rows of shops that were early centers of consumerism--Benjamin presents a montage of quotations from, and reflections on, hundreds of published sources. 46 illustrations.

Constellations of Reading

Constellations of Reading
Author: Carlo Salzani
Publisher: Peter Lang
Total Pages: 394
Release: 2009
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 9783039118601

How to read Walter Benjamin today? This book argues that the proper way is through an approach which recognizes and respects his own peculiar theorization of the act of reading and the politics of interpretation that this entails. The approach must be figural, that is, focused on images, and driven by the notion of actualization. Figural reading, in the very sui generis Benjaminian way, understands figures as constellations, whereby an image of the past juxtaposes them with an image of the present and is thus actualized. To apply this method to Benjamin's own work means first to identify some figures. The book singles out the Flâneur, the Detective, the Prostitute and the Ragpicker, and then sets them alongside a contemporary account of the same figure: the Flâneur in Juan Goytisolo's Landscapes after the Battle (1982), the Detective in Paul Auster's New York Trilogy (1987), the Prostitute in Dacia Maraini's Dialogue between a Prostitute and her Client (1973), and the Ragpicker in Mudrooroo's The Mudrooroo/Müller Project (1993). The book thereby, on the one hand, analyses the politics of reading Benjamin today and, on the other, sets his work against a variety of contemporary aesthetics and politics of interpretation.