`Is there one who understands me?' So wrote James Joyce towards the end of his final work, Finnegans Wake. The question continues to be asked about the author who claimed that he had put so many enigmas into Ulysses that it would `keep the professors busy for centuries' arguing over what he meant. For Joyce this was a way of ensuring his immortality, but it could also be claimed that the professors have served to distance Joyce from his audience, turning his writings into museum pieces, pored over and admired, but rarely touched. In this remarkable book, steeped in the learning gained from a lifetime's reading, David Pierce blends word, life and image to bring the works of one of the great modern writers within the reach of every reader. With a sharp eye for detail and an evident delight in the cadences of Joyce's work, Pierce proves a perfect companion, always careful and courteous, pausing to point out what might otherwise be missed. Like the best of critics, his suggestive readings constantly encourage the reader back to Joyce's own words. Beginning with Dubliners and closing with Finnegans Wake, Reading Joyce is full of insights that are original and illuminating, and Pierce succeeds in presenting Joyce as an author both more straightforward and infinitely more complex than we had perhaps imagined. T. S. Eliot wrote of Joyce's masterpiece, Ulysses, that it is `a book to which we are all indebted, and from which none of us can escape'. With David Pierce as a guide, the debt we owe to Joyce becomes clearer, and the need to flee is greatly reduced.

Rising from the drug-infested streets of '80s New York City, the incomparable Sonic Youth recorded some of the most important albums in alternative music history and influenced an entire generation of indie rockers. They helped spawn an alternative arts scene of underground films and comics, conceptual art, experimental music, even fashion. More than perhaps any band of their time, they brought art previously considered ''fringe'' into the mainstream - and irrevocably altered the cultural zeitgeist. Based on extensive research, exclusive band interviews, and unprecedented access to unreleased recordings and documents, Goodbye 20th Century is the definitive biography of the Velvet Underground of their generation.

DON'T LET BACK PAIN RUN YOUR LIFE! Anyone who experiences chronic or even minor back pain knows there are plenty of remedies for temporary pain relief -- but how do you know you're treating the correct problem in the most effective way? Top neurologist and pain management expert Emile Hiesiger draws on the newest medical information to target back pain at its source. From whiplash and sciatica to osteoporosis and spondylolysis, from faulty facets to herniated disks, Dr. Hiesiger identifies the origins of common problems, and arms you with essential information on Diagnostic tests and what they mean Key questions to ask your doctor Medical and surgical options from nerve blocks to vertebroplasty Exercises and lifestyle changes for pain relief and prevention Physical therapy Prescription drugs And much more Practical and accessible, this one-stop resource will take you from symptoms to diagnosis to cure, so you can say goodbye to back pain -- forever!

DIVDIVMcCoy’s hardboiled noir classic, about an Ivy League graduate’s criminal rampage through the seedy underground and glitzy high society of an unnamed American city/divDIV /divDIVTo escape prison, Ralph Cotter uses the same genius for planning and penchant for cold-hearted violence that helped earn him a spot in the slammer in the first place. On the lam in a city where he knows nobody, Cotter has nothing to lose, no conscience to hold him back, and no limit to his twisted ambition. But in the midst of a criminal spree, a grift leads him to the boudoir of wealthy heiress Margaret Dobson, a woman with the power to peel back the rotten layers of his psyche and reveal the damaged soul beneath./divDIV /divDIVVicious and thrilling, Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye is a look at one man’s relentless attack on American society, conjuring one of the most memorable antiheros of twentieth-century noir fiction./divDIV /divDIVThis ebook features an extended biography of Horace McCoy./div/div

Rhea Farrell carries the scars of a childhood accident in which she lost her arm. But she also carries scars from the loss of her mother, her father’s drinking, and her confusion around her sexuality. Running away to New York, she turns to her mother through letters.

In light of Russia's aggressive 2022 invasion of Ukraine, Goodbye, Eastern Europe is a crucial, elucidative read, a sweeping epic chronicling a thousand years of strife, war, and bloodshed, from pre-Christianity to the fall of Communism—illuminating the remarkable cultural significance and richness of a place perpetually lost to the margins of history "Eastern Europe" has gone out of fashion since the fall of the Soviet Union. Ask someone today, and they might tell you that Estonia is in the Baltics or Scandinavia, that Slovakia is in Central Europe, and that Croatia is in the eastern Adriatic or the Balkans. In fact, Eastern Europe is a place that barely exists at all, except in cultural memory. Yet it remains a powerful marker of identity for many, with a fragmented and wide-ranging history defined by texts, myths, and memories of centuries of hardship and suffering. Goodbye, Eastern Europe is a masterful narrative about a place that has survived being forgotten. Beginning with long-lost accounts of early pagan life, Mikanowski offers a kaleidoscopic tour of the various peoples who made Eastern Europe their home over the centuries, including the Roma, Jews, and Muslims; the great kingdoms of the medieval period; the rise and fall of the Ottoman, Habsburg, and Russian empires; the dawn of the modern era; the ravages of fascism and Communism; the birth of the modern nation-state and beyond. A student of literature, history, and the ghosts of his own family’s past, Mikanowski paints a magisterial portrait of a place united by diversity and eclecticism, and of people with the shared story of being the dominated rather than the dominating. The result is a loving and ebullient celebration of the distinctive and vibrant cultures that stubbornly persisted at the margins of Western Europe and Russia, and a powerful corrective that re-centers not only our understanding of how the modern Western world took shape but also the ways in which Eastern Europe has evolved throughout history to become what it is today.