Central Skagit Library District

In a future totalitarian state where books are banned and destroyed by the government, Guy Montag, a fireman in charge of burning books, meets a revolutionary schoolteacher who dares to read and a girl who tells him of a past when people did not live in fear ... This sixtieth-anniversary edition commemorates Ray Bradbury's masterpiece with a new introduction by Neil Gaiman ; personal essays on the genesis of the novel by the author; a wealth of critical...

"Jane Yolen has teamed up with Barbara Diamond Goldin ... to retell Bible stories from the point of view of twelve women (in nine chapters, as some come in pairs). After each story, there is a reflection 'imagine' piece written from the voice of each woman (written by Barbara) and a poem about her (written by Jane). Intermixed with the main text are sidebars called 'midrash' in the singular or 'midrashim' in the plural. These pose questions about...

Raised in a secular family but increasingly interested in the relevance of faith in our modern world, A. J. Jacobs decides to dive in headfirst and attempt to obey the Bible as literally as possible for one full year. He vows to follow the Ten Commandments. To be fruitful and multiply. To love his neighbor. But also to obey the hundreds of less publicized rules: to avoid wearing clothes made of mixed fibers; to play a ten-string harp; to stone...

Drawing on the Sermon on the Mount, Dietrich Bonhoeffer provides a seminal reading of the dichotomy between 'cheap grace' and 'costly grace.' Cheap grace is the grace bestowed on oneself, a grace without discipleship. Costly grace is the gospel that must be sought again and again, the girl who must be asked for, the door at which a man must know. It is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life....

A collection of both previously unpublished works and classic essays includes discussions of recent cultural and political events, social networking, libraries, and the failure to address global warming. "Since she burst spectacularly into view with her debut novel, White Teeth, almost two decades ago, Zadie Smith has established herself not just as one of the world's preeminent fiction writers, but also as a brilliant and singular essayist. She...

What do they want, the ghosts that, even in the age of science, still haunt our storytelling? Catherine Belsey's answer to the question traces Gothic writing and tales of the uncanny from the ancient past to the present - from Homer and the Icelandic sagas to Lincoln in the Bardo. Taking Shakespeare's Ghost in Hamlet as a turning point in the history of the genre, she uncovers the old stories the play relies on, as well as its influence on later writing....

From "The Star-Spangled Banner" to "Born in the U.S.A.," Jon Meacham and Tim McGraw take readers on a moving and insightful journey through eras in American history and the songs and performers that inspired us. Meacham chronicles our history, exploring the stories behind the songs, and Tim McGraw reflects on them as an artist and performer. Their perspectives combine to create a unique view of the role music has played in uniting and shaping a nation....

Women have written some of our most extraordinary literary works while living in societies and cultures that tried to silence them. These women dared to put pen to paper to express the multifaceted female experience. In Bookish Broads, Lauren Marino celebrates fierce, trailblazing female writers, reworking the literary canon that has long failed to recognize the immense contributions of women. Featuring more than 50 brilliant bookish broads, Marino...

Examining the popularity of low-budget cinema, particularly slasher, occult, and rape-revenge films, the author argues that, while such films have been traditionally understood as offering only sadistic pleasure to their mostly male audiences, in actuality they align spectators not with the male tormentor but with the females being tormented--particularly the slasher movie's "final girls"--Who endure fear and degradation before rising to save themselves.--Adapted...

Demonstrating how the Old Testament or Hebrew Bible represents the first, and one of the most elaborate, projects of peoplehood, Wright tells the dramatic story of the Bible's origins in relation to 1, a longstanding political division between North and South (Israel and Judah) and 2 the traumatic experience of defeat" --