Added by: Maria | Karma: 3098.81 | Audiobooks | 17 April 2009
31
This is an excellent account of the life and thought of Rousseau. It shows how this master of self- dramatization revolutionized the European world of thought. The first great Romantic the obsessive searcher and promoter of himself was one of the major thinkers leading to the French and then American Revolutions. Orphaned from his mother as a small child he made his way from his native Geneva to the then center of civilization'in Paris. On the way he promoted ideas, ' the pristine state of nature' ' the corruption brought to mankind by civilization'( Man is born free and is everywhere in chains) ' the centrality of subjective feeling in understanding the world' ' the need for social equality in the education of women' 'the social contract' that changed European mankind's way of thinking about itself. Strathern tells the story of Rousseau's not particularly noble life ( he and his former washerwoman, later wife's five children were put out to foundling homes at infants) including the story of his unusual sexual journey with a great deal of humor and wisdom. This is a good introduction to one of those truly rare people, one who actually did help change the course of history.
Added by: englishcology | Karma: 4552.53 | Fiction literature | 14 April 2009
36
Around the World in Eighty Days is a fantastic journey by an Englishman and his manservant in 1873. The story is a comedy filled with exotic locations, cultures, and suspense along the way. Phileas Fogg, an Englishman, with his French manservant, Passepartout, create an unusual pairing with their distinct cultural backgrounds. The journey challenges both Phileas Fogg and Passepartout in many ways, but both men come out as winners in the end. Fogg and Passepartout journey around the world to win a simple wager, but they leave an incredible story about loyalty and friendship in their wake.
Added by: otherwordly | Karma: 222.42 | Fiction literature | 29 March 2009
6
Dracula comes to modern-day Chicago to rescue the descendants of Mina Harker. The characters are three-dimensional and the story is gripping right up to the end.
- INFINITE DEBT: How Unlimited Interest Rates Destroyed the Economy by Thomas Geoghegan - SUBURBAN GHETTO: John Cheever, Misread and Misunderstood by Jonathan Dee - THE BLADE: A story by David Means - Also: Mark Twain on sound money & Ben Ehrenreich on Cambodia's Trials
Two of America's best-loved inspirational speakers share the very best of their collected stories and favorite tales that have touched the hearts of people everywhere. Canfield and Hansen bring you wit and wisdom, hope and empowerment to buoy you up through life's dark moments.
It's like homemade chicken soup that warms the chill and heals the ill. This collection of 101 stories is based on the belief that true testimonies of goodness and loving transformations can nourish us to the bone and heal the cynicism in our hearts. Indeed, most every story seeps in deeply. It's hard not to shed a tear of gratitude, feeling thrilled to have been touched and soothed so easily. Some of the authors are famous, such as Dan Millman, who writes an exquisite vignette on "Courage," and Gloria Steinem, who writes of "The Royal Knights of Harlem." Many, however, have a short, simple story to tell about an event, a person, an everyday miracle that exemplifies the best of the human spirit.
