Burnt Books

2010-10-19 Religion

Author : Rodger Kamenetz
Release : 2010-10-19
Genre : Religion
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : 337/5 ( reviews)

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Book Synopsis Burnt Books by : Rodger Kamenetz

Download or read book Burnt Books written by Rodger Kamenetz. This book was released on 2010-10-19. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the acclaimed author of The Jew in the Lotus comes an "engrossing and wonderful book" (The Washington Times) about the unexpected connections between Franz Kafka and Hasidic master Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav—and the significant role played by the imagination in the Jewish spiritual experience. Rodger Kamenetz has long been fascinated by the mystical tales of the Hasidic master Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav. And for many years he has taught a course in Prague on Franz Kafka. The more he thought about their lives and writings, the more aware he became of unexpected connections between them. Kafka was a secular artist fascinated by Jewish mysticism, and Rabbi Nachman was a religious mystic who used storytelling to reach out to secular Jews. Both men died close to age forty of tuberculosis. Both invented new forms of storytelling that explore the search for meaning in an illogical, unjust world. Both gained prominence with the posthumous publication of their writing. And both left strict instructions at the end of their lives that their unpublished books be burnt. Kamenetz takes his ideas on the road, traveling to Kafka’s birthplace in Prague and participating in the pilgrimage to Uman, the burial site of Rabbi Nachman visited by thousands of Jews every Jewish new year. He discusses the hallucinatory intensity of their visions and offers a rich analysis of Nachman’s and Kafka’s major works, revealing uncanny similarities in the inner lives of these two troubled and beloved figures, whose creative and religious struggles have much to teach us about the Jewish spiritual experience.

Burnt Sugar

2021-01-26 Fiction

Author : Avni Doshi
Release : 2021-01-26
Genre : Fiction
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : 265/5 ( reviews)

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Book Synopsis Burnt Sugar by : Avni Doshi

Download or read book Burnt Sugar written by Avni Doshi. This book was released on 2021-01-26. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Shortlisted for the 2020 Booker Prize, a searing literary debut novel set in India about mothers and daughters, obsession and betrayal “I would be lying if I say my mother’s misery has never given me pleasure," says Antara, Tara’s now-adult daughter. This is a love story and a story about betrayal—not between lovers but between a mother and a daughter. . . . In her youth, Tara was wild. She abandoned her arranged marriage to join an ashram, embarked on a stint as a beggar (mostly to spite her affluent parents), and spent years chasing a disheveled, homeless “artist,” all with little Antara in tow. But now Tara is forgetting things, and Antara is an adult—an artist and married—and must search for a way to make peace with a past that haunts her as she confronts the task of caring for a woman who never cared for her. Sharp as a blade and laced with caustic wit, Burnt Sugar unpicks the slippery, choking cord of memory and myth that binds mother and daughter: Is Tara’s memory loss real? Are Antara’s memories fair? In vivid and visceral prose, Avni Doshi tells a story at once shocking and empathetic of a mother-daughter relationship and a daughter’s search for self. A journey into shifting memories, altering identities, and the subjective nature of truth, Burnt Sugar is the stunning and unforgettable debut of a major new voice in contemporary fiction.

Burning the Books

2020-10-13 Literary Criticism

Author : Richard Ovenden
Release : 2020-10-13
Genre : Literary Criticism
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : 207/5 ( reviews)

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Book Synopsis Burning the Books by : Richard Ovenden

Download or read book Burning the Books written by Richard Ovenden. This book was released on 2020-10-13. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The director of the famed Bodleian Libraries at Oxford narrates the global history of the willful destruction—and surprising survival—of recorded knowledge over the past three millennia. Libraries and archives have been attacked since ancient times but have been especially threatened in the modern era. Today the knowledge they safeguard faces purposeful destruction and willful neglect; deprived of funding, libraries are fighting for their very existence. Burning the Books recounts the history that brought us to this point. Richard Ovenden describes the deliberate destruction of knowledge held in libraries and archives from ancient Alexandria to contemporary Sarajevo, from smashed Assyrian tablets in Iraq to the destroyed immigration documents of the UK Windrush generation. He examines both the motivations for these acts—political, religious, and cultural—and the broader themes that shape this history. He also looks at attempts to prevent and mitigate attacks on knowledge, exploring the efforts of librarians and archivists to preserve information, often risking their own lives in the process. More than simply repositories for knowledge, libraries and archives inspire and inform citizens. In preserving notions of statehood recorded in such historical documents as the Declaration of Independence, libraries support the state itself. By preserving records of citizenship and records of the rights of citizens as enshrined in legal documents such as the Magna Carta and the decisions of the US Supreme Court, they support the rule of law. In Burning the Books, Ovenden takes a polemical stance on the social and political importance of the conservation and protection of knowledge, challenging governments in particular, but also society as a whole, to improve public policy and funding for these essential institutions.

Land of the Burnt Thigh (Illustrated)

2016-11-05

Author : Edith Kohl
Release : 2016-11-05
Genre :
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : 877/5 ( reviews)

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Book Synopsis Land of the Burnt Thigh (Illustrated) by : Edith Kohl

Download or read book Land of the Burnt Thigh (Illustrated) written by Edith Kohl. This book was released on 2016-11-05. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Land of the Burnt Thigh tells the story of two sisters from a comfortable family in the Eastern United States, braving great perils to settle in the West. This book tells a simple yet inspiring tale of the hardships and adversity encountered by women in the pioneer culture of the 19th century. South Dakota was one of the States newly populated by adventurous peoples wishing to settle the great Western expanse. At the time, the federal government allowed settlers to keep a parcel of land for their own on the condition that they remained resident for eight consecutive months. The adverse weather, of snowstorms and blowing sands, tests the ability of the women who must endure these months in a spartan wooden shack. This edition of Land of the Burnt Thigh contains the original illustrations by Stephen J. Voorhies. "Interesting in its spirit and atmosphere, and it is told simply and well. . . This is an unusual record, well worth reading." - New York Times Book Review "Mrs. Kohl has told this story of South Dakota with a simplicity, a directness, and an understanding of its quietly heroic element which make her book an appealing as well as a significant contribution to the latter-day history of the pioneers." - Saturday Review

The Scent of Burnt Flowers

2023-09-05 Fiction

Author : Blitz Bazawule
Release : 2023-09-05
Genre : Fiction
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : 256/5 ( reviews)

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Book Synopsis The Scent of Burnt Flowers by : Blitz Bazawule

Download or read book The Scent of Burnt Flowers written by Blitz Bazawule. This book was released on 2023-09-05. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Fleeing persecution in 1960s America, a Black couple seeks asylum in Ghana, but fresh dangers and old secrets threaten their newfound freedom in this hypnotic debut novel. “I am truly blown away by this novel.”—Jacqueline Woodson, New York Times bestselling author of Red at the Bone ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: CrimeReads When the windshield of his Chevy Impala shatters in a dark diner parking lot in Alabama, Melvin moves without thinking. A split-second reaction marrows in his bones from the days of war, but this time it is the safety of his fiancé, Bernadette, at stake. Impulse keeps them alive, and yet they flee with blood on their hands. What is life like now that they are fugitives? Pack passports. Empty bank accounts. Set their old life on fire. The couple disguise themselves as a pastor and a reluctant pastor’s wife who’s hiding a secret from her fiancé. With a persistent FBI agent on their trail, they travel to Ghana to seek the help of Melvin’s old college friend who happens to be the country’s embattled president, Kwame Nkrumah. The couple’s chance encounter with Ghana’s most beloved highlife musician, Kwesi Kwayson, who’s on his way to perform for the president, sparks a journey full of suspense, lust, magic, and danger as Nkrumah’s regime crumbles around them. What was meant to be a fresh start quickly spirals into chaos, threatening both their relationship and their lives. Kwesi and Bernadette’s undeniable attraction and otherworldly bond cascades during their three-day trek, and so does Melvin’s intense jealousy. All three must confront one another and their secrets, setting off a series of cataclysmic events. Steeped in the history and mythology of postcolonial West Africa at the intersection of the civil rights movement in America, this gripping and ambitious debut merges political intrigue, magical encounters, and forbidden romance in an epic collision of morality and power.

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