Ceremonial time is the moment when past, present, and future can be perceived simultaneously. Usually experienced only during ancient dances or rituals, this escape from time is the theme of this book, which traces the life on a single spot in New England from the last ice age through years of Indians, shamans, and bears, to the colonists, witches and farmers, and now the encroaching parks.

Ceremonial Time: Fifteen Thousand Years on One Square Mile

Business & Money

MITCHELL, John Hanson

Economics

Catapult

If there is such a thing as an Americana pilgrimage, it must be to Concord. One brilliant Columbus Day, John Mitchell made just such a pilgrimage, from an ancient burial site, along the Great Road followed during the Revolution by the minutemen, 15 miles to Sleepy Hollow Cemetery and the home not only of Thoreau but of Hawthorne, the Alcotts, and Emerson. Along the way of this narrative, natural and human history converge and the reader begins to understand what is meant by a sense of place and why this landscape is America's sacred site.

Walking Towards Walden: A Pilgrimage in Search of Place

Health, Fitness & Dieting

Mitchell, John H.

Exercise & Fitness

In this sparkling book, Theresa Maggio takes us on a journey in search of Sicily's most remote and least explored mountain towns. Using her grandparents' ancestral village of Santa Margherita Belice as her base camp, she pores over old maps to plot her adventure, selecting as her targets the smallest dots with the most appealing names. Her travels take her to the small towns surrounding Mt. Etna, the volcanic islands of the Aeolian Sea, and the charming villages nestled in the Madonie Mountains.Whether she's writing about the unique pleasures of Sicilian street food, the damage wrought by molten lava, the ancient traditions of Sicilian bagpipers, or the religious processions that consume entire villages for days on end, Maggio succeeds in transporting readers to a wholly unfamiliar world, where almonds grow like weeds and the water tastes of stone. In the stark but evocative prose that is her hallmark, Maggio enters the hearts and heads of Sicilians, unlocking the secrets of a tantalizingly complex culture.Although she makes frequent forays to villages near and far, she always returns to Santa Margherita, where she researches her family tree in the municipio, goes on adventures with her cousin Nella, and traces the town's past in history and literature. A beautifully wrought meditation on time and place, The Stone Boudoir will be treasured by all who love fine travel writing.

The Stone Boudoir: Travels Through the Hidden Villages of Sicily

Literature & Fiction

Maggio, Theresa

Essays & Correspondence

While teenage werewolf Kalix MacRinnalch is being pursued through the streets of London by murderous hunters, her sister, the Werewolf Enchantress, is busy designing clothes for the Fire Queen. Meanwhile, in the Scottish Highlands, the MacRinnalch Clan is plotting and feuding after the head of the clan suddenly dies intestate. As the court intrigue threatens to blow up into all-out civil war, the competing factions determine that Kalix is the swing vote necessary to assume leadership of the clan. Unfortunately, Kalix isn’t really into clan politics laudanum’s more her thing. Even more unfortunately, Kalix is the reason the head of the clan ended up dead, which is why she’s now on the lam in London. . . This expansive tale of werewolves in the modern world friendly werewolves, fashionista werewolves, troubled teenage werewolves, cross-dressing werewolves, werewolves of every sort is hard-edged, hilarious, and utterly believable.

Lonely Werewolf Girl

Science Fiction & Fantasy

Millar, Martin

Fantasy

The Pisstown Chaos is a novel about disease and forced-relocation. Political power seems to be solely in the hands of one Reverend Herman Hooker, an American Divine” who revels in the peoples' suffering as they are shifted” (separated from and then randomly coupled with one another) by decree every five years. There are up-shifts, down-shifts, and side-shifts, but no attempt to make harmonious pairings. Chaos rages on as parasitic infestations spread and the Reverend rules with an iron fist from his Templex headquarters, spouting platitudes to the ever-moving masses.

The Pisstown Chaos: A Novel

Ohle, David

United States

Self-described war nerd Gary Brecher knows he’s not alone, that there’s a legion of fat, lonely Americans, stuck in stupid, paper-pushing desk jobs, who get off on reading about war because they hate their lives. But Brecher writes about war, too. War Nerd collects his most opinionated, enraging, enlightening, and entertaining pieces. Part war commentator, part angry humorist àla Bill Hicks, Brecher inveighs against pieties of all stripes Liberian generals, Dick Cheney, U.N. peacekeepers, the neo-cons and the massive incompetence of military powers. A provocative free thinker, he finds much to admire in the most unlikely places, and not always for the most pacifistic reasons: the Tamil Tigers, the Lebanese Hezbollah, the Danes of 1,000 years ago, and so on, across the globe and through the centuries. Crude, scatological, un-P.C., yet deeply informed, Brecher provides a radically different, completely unvarnished perspective on the nature of warfare.

War Nerd

Humor & Entertainment

Brecher, Gary

Humor

The largest creatures ever to inhabit the Earth, whales have long inspired awe in humans. But because they spend virtually all of their time beneath the ocean surface, little has been known about their lives. Now, with advances in technology, new facts and stunning discoveries are coming to light about these magnificent mammals. In The Grandest of Lives, wildlife biologist Douglas H. Chadwick takes readers inside the world of modern-day scientific whale observation, from gathering data to weathering storms to spirited scientific debate. Chadwick, who has followed and reported on whales for more than a decade, paints detailed portraits of five species the humpback, northern bottlenose, blue whale, minke whale, and orca that represent a cross-section of the forms and behaviors of cetaceans worldwide. All move seamlessly between natural history and more personal observations, vividly expressing Chadwick’s fondness and admiration for these amazing creatures, as well as the sheer joy of being among them.

The Grandest of Lives: Eye to Eye with Whales

Biographies & Memoirs

Chadwick, Douglas

Leaders & Notable People

Wildlife and nature films are a hugely popular entertainment genre: networks such as Animal Planet and Discovery are stars in the cable television universe, viewers flock to IMAX theaters to see jaw-dropping footage from the wild, and the venerable BBC still scores triumphs with series such as Planet Earth. As cinematic technology brings ever more breathtaking images to the screen, and as our direct contact with nature diminishes, an ever-expanding audience craves the indirect experience of wild nature that these films provide. But this success has a dark side, as Chris Palmer reveals in his authoritative and engrossing report on the wildlife film business. A veteran producer and film educator, Palmer looks past the headlines about TV host Steve Irwin’s death by stingray and filmmaker Timothy Treadwell falling prey to his beloved grizzlies, to uncover a more pervasive and troubling trend toward sensationalism, extreme risk-taking, and even abuse in wildlife films. He tracks the roots of this trend to the early days of the genre, and he profiles a new breed of skilled, ethical filmmakers whose work enlightens as well as entertains, and who represent the future that Palmer envisions for the industry he loves.

Shooting in the Wild: An Insider's Account of Making Movies in the Animal Kingdom

Palmer, Chris

Movies

Clare, an L.A. ad executive, finds herself stranded on a remote island in the South Pacific. Barclay, an enigmatic local leader, cannot tell her when the next boat is coming, nor will he unravel the disturbing mysteries that pervade the island. Why is her hostess, Ngarima, indifferent to the intruder who attempts to rape Clare? Why does Ngarima's son brave the sea in a homemade boat in a desperate attempt to escape the island? And what has happened to the eerily misshapen boy who inhabits the lagoon?Women mob Harry, Clare's fellow castaway, so he has no patience for her growing fears. It is finally the island women - Breasts for Three, Clam Hold, and The Spreader - who reveal a life force gone awry and the terrifying secrets that force Clare to confront what she herself has shut away. Drawing on the author's own experience of Tahitian, Pukapukan, and Marshall Island cultures, the luminous prose of A Drink Called Paradise is haunted by living ghosts, islanders moving in the shadow of the past that we all must account for.

A Drink Called Paradise: A Novel

Svoboda, Terese

Community & Culture

Threads of Time: Recollections

Director Peter Brook reveals the myriad sources driving his lifelong passion for finding the most expressive way to tell a story. Over the years we watch his metamorphosis from traditionalist to radical innovator, witnessing his expanding field of vision and sense of dramatic possibility.

Brook, Peter

Arts & Literature

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