Showing titles in Literary History & Criticism

Maya Angelou, one of the best-loved authors of our time, shares the wisdom of a remarkable life in this best-selling spiritual classic. This is Maya Angelou talking from the heart, down to earth and real, but also inspiring. This is a book to be treasured, a book about being in all ways a woman, about living well, about the power of the word, and about the power of spirituality to move and shape your life. Passionate, lively, and lyrical, Maya Angelou’s latest unforgettable work offers a gem of truth in every minute.

On the perimeter of Israel's Jezreel Valley, with the Carmel mountains rising up in the west, Meir Shalev has a beloved garden, "neither neatly organized nor well kept", as he cheerfully explains. Often covered in mud and scrapes, Shalev cultivates both nomadic plants and "house dwellers", using his own quirky techniques. He extolls the virtues of the lemon tree, rescues a precious variety of purple snapdragon from the Jerusalem-Tel Aviv highway, and does battle with a saboteur mole rat. He even gives us his superior private recipe for curing olives.

As an aging, tenacious Elizabeth I clung to power, a talented playwright probed the social causes, the psychological roots, and the twisted consequences of tyranny. In exploring the psyche (and psychoses) of the likes of Richard III, Macbeth, Lear, Coriolanus, and the societies they rule over, Stephen Greenblatt illuminates the ways in which William Shakespeare delved into the lust for absolute power and the catastrophic consequences of its execution.

Focused on the good, the great, and the problematic in the best-selling novel series The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher. Josh is an avid Dresderner, Alyssa is brand new!Together, they'll review and break down the series from different perspectives. Topics will include everything from the quality of the world-building and storytelling, to the problematic scenes and issues with the male gaze, and even to how accurate the crime scenes are (Alyssa is a coroner-investigator). Not to mention everything in between!New episodes every Sunday (Saturday with Patreon sub!)!https://www.patreon.com/...

William Shakespeare may have been the greatest playwright in the English language, but how does he measure up as a historian? In this brilliant comparison between the events and characters in Shakespeare's history plays and the actual events that inspired them, acclaimed historian John Julius Norwich examines the nine works that together amount to an epic masterpiece on England's most fascinating period.

A Podcast about Stephen King and His Books

Developed from Adam Sol’s popular blog, How a Poem Moves is a collection of 35 short essays that walks listeners through an array of contemporary poems. Sol is a dynamic teacher, and in these essays, he has captured the humor and engaging intelligence for which he is known in the classroom. With a breezy style, Sol delivers essays that are perfect for a quick listen or to be grouped together as a curriculum.

The major texts of Western culture are a gateway to wisdom that can widen your views on self and society in enduring ways. And now you can examine its most important works - whether drama, poetry, or narrative - in this series of 64 penetrating lectures that reveal astonishing common ground.

Los Angeles, 1948: Easy Rawlins is a black war veteran just fired from his job at a defense plant. Easy is drinking in a friend's bar, wondering how he'll meet his mortgage, when a white man in a linen suit walks in, offering good money if Easy will simply locate Miss Daphne Money, a blonde beauty known to frequent black jazz clubs.

This is a one-woman, (lecture style) Stephen King podcast that analyzes Stephen King’s lesser-known novels and short stories in depth and explores why Stephen King is the greatest fiction writer alive! Applying what I teach my Fiction students, in this podcast we will examine: Strong Writing, Storytelling Principles, Genre, Literary Analysis, Stephen King Universe Nerdery and the Constant Reader Community at Large! Old and New King Readers, gather near! UnderratedSK@gmail.com X: @UnderratedSKPod Instagram: @underrated_sk_podcast Patreon.com/dansewithkimc

In the second edition of his Very Short Introduction, Skinner includes new material on The Prince, showing how Machiavelli developed his neo-classical political theory, through engaging in continual dialogue with the ancient Roman moralists and historians, especially Cicero and Livy. The aim of political leaders, Machiavelli argues, should be to act virtuously so far as possible, but to stand ready "to be not good" when this course of action is dictated by necessity.

America's maestro reporter/novelist gives America an MRI at the dawn of a new age. Tom Wolfe scrutinizes everything from the sexual manners and mores of teenagers to the reasons why no one is celebrating the second American Century. Hooking Up is a chronicle of the here and now. Browse more Wolfe.

文学，是一种救赎。文学之美时而浪漫温暖，使人超然于简单的生活之上，挣脱现实的纠葛；时而伤感落寞，通过对伤痛的悲悯，使人反观内心深处，获得灵魂的净化。 继《蒋勋说唐诗》、《蒋勋说宋词》之后，蒋勋先生全面系统梳理中国文学脉络，以美学视角诠释从先秦到现代近三千年的中国文学之美。在本册中，蒋勋先生凭借深厚的美学功底及对现实生活的敏锐洞察，用平实的语言将《诗经》、《楚辞》、汉朝及魏晋文学中的经典作品娓娓道来...

Sayer describes Lewis’ early years, hinting at childhood evidence of the brilliance and eccentricity that would later become Lewis’ hallmarks. He discusses Lewis’ academic career, his life-transforming conversion to Christianity, and the role of religion in his life. With honesty and compassion, he covers Lewis’ controversial relationship with Mrs. Moore and his passionate marriage to Joy Davidman.

Reading, discussing and breaking down the books of the Star Wars Legends Expanded Universe.

The Master and Margarita is one of the most famous and best-selling Russian novels of the 20th century, despite its surreal environment of talking cats, Satan and mysterious happenings. Naxos AudioBooks presents this careful abridgement of a new translation in an imaginative reading by the charismatic Julian Rhind-Tutt. With War and Peace and Crime and Punishment among the Naxos AudioBooks best-sellers, this too promises to be a front title.

An audio book archive of all the literature and lore available in Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, and the world of Tamriel beyond.

The Pulitzer Prize-winning critic and memoirist Margo Jefferson has lived in the thrall of a cast of others—her parents and maternal grandmother, jazz luminaries, writers, artists, athletes, and stars. These are the figures who thrill and trouble her, and who have made up her sense of self as a person and as a writer. In her much-anticipated follow-up to Negroland, Jefferson brings these figures to life in a memoir of stunning originality, a performance of the elements that comprise and occupy the mind of one of our foremost critics.

In Finding God in the Land of Narnia, best-selling authors Kurt Bruner and Jim Ware explore the deep spiritual themes of redemption and grace found in the popular Chronicles of Narnia series by C.S. Lewis. With amazing clarity that captures the tone and style of C.S. Lewis himself, the authors offer a depth of insight that will surprise even the most ardent Lewis fan. Each chapter will help readers gain not only a deeper understanding of the popular Lewis series, but of God himself.

India, Josh, Peter, and AJ are reading The Malazan Book of the Fallen. A bad idea? Maybe, but we'll at least have fun along the way. Peter has read the series before, but it's Josh, India, and AJ's first time. Join us, as we talk through each book and enjoy the works of Steven Erikson.