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Works that illuminate the mind at play and the body under stress.
Few writers have had a larger influence on American letters
in the last half-century than E. L. Doctorow. In novels
like Ragtime, Billy Bathgate and The March,
the lives of ordinary citizens collide with events that
will dwell in the nation's memory. His recent book of new and collected stories, All the Time
in the World, yields the penetrating moral investigations that characterize
all of the author's work. Here, E.L. Doctorow recommends three books
that expand our understanding of the mind's grasp and ambition's
reach.
Betraying Spinoza: The Renegade Jew Who Gave Us Modernity
By Rebecca Newberger Goldstein
"A highly personal consideration of the life and work of the great excommunicated Jewish secularist philosopher, I found it insightful and eloquently presented."
By Jonah Lehrer
"This is an original study of the poets, novelists, painters, and composers whose work anticipated the discoveries of contemporary cognitive science. A convincing case for the prophetic capacities of art."
South: The Endurance Expedition
By Ernest Shackleton
"Depicts Shackleton's disastrous transcontinental voyage across Antarctica -- how he and his men were stranded and the harrowing super-human means by which they survived their years on the ice and returned to civilization. This is a painfully beautiful work."
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Thespian-turned-P.I. Jasmine Sharp searches for a missing actress and veteran detective Catherine MacLeod tries to solve the case of a murdered one. Their paths intertwine amid the Scottish theater community with uproarious and gory results.
Recounting the struggles and eventual dissolution of a family textile business in Prato, Italy, Story of My People is a heartbreaking memoir about the personal impact of globalization.
A controversial sensation in Norway, A Man in Love is the second book of six in the series, detailing Knausgaard’s separation from his wife, his move to Stolkholm and the dogged pursuit of a mesmerizing poet.
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