Author: Andre Dubus File Type: epub Amazon.com ReviewTownie. You might think that following his fathers trade would have been natural and even obvious for the son and namesake of Andre Dubus, one of the most admired short story writers of his time, but it was anything but. His father left when he was 10, and as his mother worked long hours to keep them fed, her four children mostly raised themselves, stumbling through house parties and street fights in their Massachusetts mill town, so cut off from the larger world that when someone mentioned Manhattan when Andre was in college he didnt know what they were talking about. What he did know, and what he recalls with detailed intensity, were the battles in bars and front yards, brutal to men and women alike, that first gave him discipline, as he built himself from a fearful kid into a first-punch, hair-trigger bruiser, and then empathy, as, miraculously, he pulled himself back from the violence that threatened to define him. And it was out of that empathy that, wanting to understand the stories of the victims of brutality as well as those whose pain drove them to dish it out, he began to write, reconciling with his father and eventually giving us novels like --Tom NissleyFrom Publishers WeeklyStarred Review. Long before he became the highly acclaimed author of House of Sand and Fog, Dubus shuffled and punched his way through a childhood and youth full of dysfunction, desperation, and determination. Just after he turned 12, Dubuss family fell rapidly into shambles after his father--the prominent writer Andre Dubus--not only left his wife for a younger woman but also left the family in distressing poverty on the violent and drug-infested side of their Massachusetts mill town. For a few years, Dubus escaped into drugs, embracing the apathetic no-way-out attitude of his friends. After having his bike stolen, being slapped around by some of the towns bullies, and watching his brother and mother humiliated by some of the towns thugs, Dubus started lifting weights at home and boxing at the local gym. Modeling himself on the Walking Tall sheriff, Buford Pusser, Dubus paid back acts of physical violence with physical violence. Ultimately, he decided to take up his pen and write his way up from the bottom and into a new relationship with his father. In this gritty and gripping memoir, Dubus bares his soul in stunning and page-turning prose. (Feb.) br (c) PWxyz, LLC.

Author: Michael Fisch File Type: pdf With its infamously packed cars and disciplined commuters, Tokyos commuter train network is one of the most complex technical infrastructures on Earth. In An Anthropology of the Machine, Michael Fisch provides a nuanced perspective on how Tokyos commuter train network embodies the lived realities of technology in our modern world. Drawing on his fine-grained knowledge of transportation, work, and everyday life in Tokyo, Fisch shows how fitting into a system that operates on the extreme edge of sustainability can take a physical and emotional toll on a community while also creating a collective way of life--one with unique limitations and possibilities. An Anthropology of the Machine is a creative ethnographic study of the culture, history, and experience of commuting in Tokyo. At the same time, it is a theoretically ambitious attempt to think through our very relationship with technology and our possible ecological futures. Fisch provides an unblinking glimpse into what it might be like to inhabit a future in which more and more of our infrastructure--and the planet itself--will have to operate beyond capacity to accommodate our ever-growing population.

Author: James Stuart Tanton File Type: pdf From BooklistResearcher, author, and educator Tanton has compiled this encyclopedia to share his enthusiasm for thinking about and doing mathematics. More than 800 alphabetically arranged entries present a wide variety of mathematical definitions, theorems, historical figures, formulas, examples, charts, and pictures. Many cross-references serve to connect concepts or extend a concept further. A mathematical time line listing major accomplishments is available following the entries, along with a list of current mathematics organizations. The bibliography contains print and Web resources, and the index is helpful in locating terms and concepts. Each entry varies in length depending on the term, concept, or person being described. Six longer essays describe the history of the branches of mathematics. The writing style is straightforward and readable and sometimes contains parenthetical notes that add background or context. If an entry contains a word or words in capital letters, that term or person is also an entry in the encyclopedia.This source would be useful in a high-school library, public library, and academic library as a basic resource for students who wish to have a better understanding of simple or not-so--simple mathematical concepts. It is hoped that the author is rewarded in his goal of encouraging mathematics students to go beyond rote memorization of mathematical steps or skills. This encyclopedia will certainly assist them toward that goal. Kathryn OGorman American Library Association. lt

Author: Gilles Dauvé File Type: epub Rising out of the radical Marxist French millieu and events of 1968 to criticize global capitalism and encourage revolution in theory and practice, From Crisis to Communisation places libertarian communist theory in historical and contemporary context. Communisation means something quite straightforward a revolution that starts to change social relations immediately. The concept was born out of a specific period, and this book investigates how people personally and collectively experienced the crises of the 1960s and 1970s. The notion is now developing in the maelstrom of a new crisis, among other reasons because of its ecological dimension, that has the scope and magnitude of a crisis of civilization. This is not a book that glorifies existing struggles as if their present accumulation was enough to result in revolution. Radical theory is meaningful if it addresses this question how can proletarian resistance to exploitation and dispossession achieve more than aggravate the crisis? How can it reshape the world? **