Author: Edwin Smith File Type: pdf An Arkansas Florilegium is a late-flowering extension of the work initiated sixty years ago with University of Arkansas botanist Edwin B. Smiths first entries in his pioneering Atlas and Annotated List of the Vascular Plants of Arkansas. Soon after this seminal survey of the states flora was published in 1978, Kent Bonar, a Missouri-born Thoreau acolyte employed as a naturalist by the Arkansas Park Service, began lugging the volume along on hikes through the woods surrounding his Newton County home, entering hundreds upon hundreds of meticulous illustrations into Smiths work. Thirty-five years later, with Smith retired and Bonar long gone from the park service but still drawing, Bonars weathered and battered copy of the atlas was seized by a diverse cadre of amateur admirers motivated by fears of its damage or loss. Their fears were certainly justified after all, the pages were now jammed to the margins with some 3,500 drawings, and the volume had already survived one accidental dunking in an Ozark stream. An Arkansas Florilegium brings Smiths and Bonars knowledge and lifelong diligence to the world in this unique mix of art, science, and Arkansas saga. **

Author: Raquel Cepeda File Type: epub In 2009, when Raquel Cepeda almost lost her estranged father to heart disease, she was terrified shed never know the truth about her ancestry. Every time she looked in the mirror, Cepeda saw a mysterya tapestry of races and ethnicities that came together in an ambiguous mix. With time running out, she decided to embark on an archaeological dig of sorts by using the science of ancestral DNA testing to excavate everything she could about her genetic history. Digging through memories long buried, she embarks upon a journey not only into her ancestry but also into her own history. Born in Harlem to Dominican parents, she was sent to live with her maternal grandparents in the Paraiso (Paradise) district in Santo Domingo while still a baby. It proved to be an idyllic reprieve in her otherwise fraught childhood. Paraiso came to mean family, home, belonging. When Cepeda returned to the US, she discovered her family constellation had changed. Her mother had a new, abusive boyfriend, who relocated the family to San Francisco. When that relationship fell apart, Cepeda found herself back in New York City with her father and European stepmother attending tennis lessons and Catholic schools fighting vicious battles wih her father, who discouraged her from expressing the Dominican part of her hyphenated identity and immersed in the 80s hip-hop culture of uptown Manhattan. It was in these streets, through the prism of hip-hop and the sometimes loving embrace of her community, that Cepeda constructed her own identity. Years later, when Cepeda had become a successful journalist and documentary filmmaker, the strands of her DNA would take her further, across the globe and into history. Who were her ancestors? How did theyand shebecome Latina? Her journey, as the most unforgettable ones often do, would lead her to places she hadnt expected to go. With a vibrant lyrical prose and fierce honesty, Cepeda parses concepts of race, identity, and ancestral DNA among Latinos by using her own Dominican-American story as one example, and in the process arrives at some sort of peace with her father.

Author: Peter Conrad File Type: epub Weaves ancient myth into modern celebrity and consumerist culture to expose the absurdity and occasional insanity of twenty-first-century society, economy, and politicsDespite a proclaimed respect for scientific reason, humans are still as intrigued by myth as their remote ancestors. Laptops and smartphones are sold under a logo that invokes the forbidden fruit of the Garden of Eden skimpily clad classical nymphs cavort in TV reality shows Narcissus makes a comeback whenever we snap a selfie. Mythical creatures such as handsome vampires abound in best-selling novels. Myth has also invaded the political realm, now that terrorists brandish black flags and recite theological mantras as they martyr themselves.In twenty-seven self-contained entries, Conrad illuminates in his own remarkable way subjects from the British Queen to the Kardashians, via Banksy, vaping, and the inception of the Large Hadron Collider. In Judge Judy, he shows a matronly Roman goddess dispensing justice with a fly swatter. In the metamorphosis of Caitlyn Jenner from Olympic athlete and paterfamilias into idealized female form, he finds parallels to the transformations of the residents of Mount Olympus.Myths used to tell us where we came from. Now, alarmed but also elated by the pace of change in our society, we need them to tell us where we are going.**ReviewA deft updating of Parisian semiotics and midcentury cultural criticism for our own time. If youre a fan of Barthes and of the Umberto Eco of How to Travel with a Salmon, youll likely enjoy this entertaining rejoinder, [a] look at the hidden structures and unacknowledged tendencies of our day. Kirkus Reviews About the Author Peter Conrad is the author of over twenty books, including Creation, How the World Was Won, and Verdi andor Wagner.

Author: Gabrielle Wittkop File Type: epub Lex-lieutenant de LEast India Company et aventurier James Brooke annexe la region de Sarawak au nord de Borneo en 1839. A la tete de cet eden menace par les pirates malais et les interets superieurs de la Couronne, il fonde la dynastie des Rajahs blancs qui perdurera un siecle. Lui succederont Charles Brooke, batisseur douteux, puis son neveu Vyner, hedoniste irresponsable, secondes par une galerie de femmes entrainees malgre elles dans dobscurs jeux de pouvoir. A partir dun episode meconnu de la colonisation britannique, ce roman historique captivant recree un tumultueux et exotique theatre de lhumanite une chasse a la chimere ou se melent desir dailleurs et volonte de puissance. Loin de la verve sadienne de ses precedents succes, Gabrielle Wittkop penetre les arcanes dune utopie imperiale insensee et offre avec Les rajahs blancs une saga en apparence moins derangeante, mais dune cruelle lucidite.