The Zahir: A Novel of Obsession
The Zahir, Paulo Coelho's new novel, is a perfect follow-on to The Alchemist. Paulo picks up the theme of the pilgrimage to Santiago but tells a very different, gripping story of love, loss and passionate obsession.
От издателя: Вполне вероятно, что вскоре критики назовут "Заир" лучшим из романов знаменитого бразильского писателя. Впрочем, такое случалось почти с каждой новой книгой Пауло Коэльо. И нашумевший "Алхимик", и жизнеутверждающая "Вероника решает умереть", и скандальные "Одиннадцать минут" - про все эти произведения в свое время было заявлено, что это-то и есть та самая вещь, благодаря которой имя автора останется в веках.
Но "Заир" - это не просто очередной бестселлер. Это книга личного откровения, что-то вроде исповеди, представленной в виде сюжетного повествования. Главный герой - популярный писатель, когда-то выходец отсталой страны, где "даже нет собственной литературной традиции", хиппи и наркоман, а ныне респектабельный житель Франции, богатый и известный - настолько напоминает самого Коэльо, что читателю трудно будет отвлечься от мысли, что рассказ идет о вымышленном персонаже, а не о самом авторе.
AUDIOBOOK LINKS ADDED
ДОБАВЛЕНЫ ССЫЛКИ НА АУДИОКНИГУ
The Strange Desire of Ms Small by Debbie Jones BBC Radio 4, Arts & Drama, The Afternoon Play.
Радиоспектакль BBC "Странное желание госпожи Смол" по пьесе Дебби Джоунса.
Лоис в сером окружении улицы встречает Элси, разочарованного клерка, моложе ее на 40 лет.
Lois has all but forgotten the flamboyant mischief of her past until, in the drab surrounding of a high street bank, she meets Elsie, a disillusioned clerk 40 years her junior and exquisitely desirable.
160 kbps, Stereo, 49,8 MB, 43 min
Sensation, Perception, and the Aging Process (24 lectures, 30 minutes/lecture)
Taught by Francis B. Colavita
University of Pittsburgh
Ph.D., University of Indiana
Why is it that we react to the world the way we do, not only in similar ways—turning our heads in the direction of a tap on the shoulder or a sudden movement in our peripheral vision, for example—but often in dramatically different ways as well?
What causes us to gasp in startled fear at a sharp sound that our spouse, even though blessed with excellent hearing, appears to barely notice? Why do children twist their faces in disgust when asked to sample the smallest bite of their parents' most recent culinary addiction? How is it that the physically adventurous young person you remember being—the one whose greatest passion was riding the scariest roller coaster imaginable—somehow grew into an adult whose stomach begins to churn nervously at even the thought of such a ride?
The answer, of course, is that each of us—whether a different person or a more recent model of ourselves—isn't reacting to the same world at all.
Even those who have never watched an episode of Star Trek will be entertained and enlightened by theoretical physicist Krauss’s adventurous investigation of interstellar flight, time travel, teleportation of objects and the possibility of extraterrestrial life. Case Western Reserve professor Krauss maintains that Star Trek’s writers were sometimes far ahead of scientists and famed astrophysicist Stephen Hawking’s foreword, endorsing the possibilities of faster-than-light travel and journeying back in time, supports that notion. On the other hand, Krauss also argues that the show is riddled with bloopers and huge improbabilities, as when the Voyager’s crew escapes from a black hole’s interior. This informal manual for Trekkers offers a porthole on the wonders of the universe as it ponders the potential existence of aliens, “wormholes” that allow astronauts to tunnel through space, other dimensions and myriad baby universes.
Sure, we all know Star Trek is fiction, but warp drives and transporters and holodecks don't seem altogether implausible. Are any of these futuristic inventions fundamentally outlawed by physics as we understand it today? The Physics of Star Trek takes a lighthearted look at this subject, speculating on how the wonders of Star Trek technology might actually work--and, in some cases, revealing why the inventions are impossible or impractical even for an advanced civilization. (Example: "dematerializing" a person for transport would require about as much energy as is released by a 100-megaton hydrogen bomb). The Physics of Star Trek deserves merit for providing a refresher course on topics such as relativity and antimatter, but let's face it: the reason most people will want to read this book is simply that it's fun to poke holes in the premises of their favorite science fiction shows!
16x30 min lectures Professor of English, Johns Hopkins University
At Harvard Allen Grossman received the Garrison Award for Poetry and the Prize of the American Academy of Poetry. He has also received the Golden Rose of the New England Poetry Club, three Pushcart Prizes (1975, 1987, 1990), the Witter Bynner Prize for Poetry of the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, a Guggenheim (1982), and a Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts (1985). In 1987 he received the Sara Teasdale Memorial Prize in Poetry of Wellesley College, and in 1988 the Sheaffer-PEN/Nex England Award for Literary Distinction. He is included in Scribner's Best Poems for 1988 (ed. Ashbery), 1991 (ed. (Simic), 1992 (ed. Strand), 1993 (ed. Gluck). In August 1989 he received a John D. and Catherine T. Mac Arthur Fellowship Prize to continue for a period of five years. In 1990, the Bassine Citation of the Academy of American Poets. In 1992 his book, The Ether Dome, was a National Book Critics Circle Award nominee.
In 1993 he was elected Fellow of The American Academy of Arts and Science.
His teaching has been primarily in the area of poetry, poetics, and general education. In 1979 he devised and put in place (with others) a General Education Program at Brandeis University and served for some years as Director in the Humanities Division of that program. In 1965 he received the A. B. Cohen Award for Teaching at Brandeis, and in 1982 the Brandeis University Distinguished Service Award. In 1987 he was the CASE Massachusetts State Professor of the Year and National Gold Medalist.
Sensation, Perception, and the Aging Process 
The Physics of Star Trek 
