Wednesday, January 11, 2012
Girl with a Pearl Earring, Deluxe Edition
- ISBN13: 9780452287020
- Condition: New
- Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!
⢠Eight Pages of Full-Color Plates Include Every Vermeer Painting Discussed in the Book
⢠French Flaps
⢠Rough Front
⢠Larger Trim Size
⢠Premium Stock
⢠With a New Foreword
Celebrate Tracy Chevalierâs modern classic Girl With A Pearl Earring, featuring a gorgeous new edition illustrated with eight pages of Vermeerâs masterworks. History and fiction merge seamlessly in this luminous novel about artistic vision and sensual awakening. The story of Griet, whose life is transformed by her brief encounter with a genius as she herself is immortalized in canvas and oil, is new a! gain.With precisely 35 canvases to his credit, the Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer represents one of the great enigmas of 17th-century art. The meager facts of his biography have been gleaned from a handful of legal documents. Yet Vermeer's extraordinary paintings of domestic life, with their subtle play of light and texture, have come to define the Dutch golden age. His portrait of the anonymous Girl with a Pearl Earring has exerted a particular fascination for centuries--and it is this magnetic painting that lies at the heart of Tracy Chevalier's second novel of the same title.
Girl with a Pearl Earring centers on Vermeer's prosperous Delft household during the 1660s. When Griet, the novel's quietly perceptive heroine, is hired as a servant, turmoil follows. First, the 16-year-old narrator becomes increasingly intimate with her master. Then Vermeer employs her as his assistant--and ultimately has Griet sit for him as a model. Chevalier vivi! dly evokes the complex domestic tensions of the household, ru! led over by the painter's jealous, eternally pregnant wife and his taciturn mother-in-law. At times the relationship between servant and master seems a little anachronistic. Still, Girl with a Pearl Earring does contain a final delicious twist.
Throughout, Chevalier cultivates a limpid, painstakingly observed style, whose exactitude is an effective homage to the painter himself. Even Griet's most humdrum duties take on a high if unobtrusive gloss:
I came to love grinding the things he brought from the apothecary--bones, white lead, madder, massicot--to see how bright and pure I could get the colors. I learned that the finer the materials were ground, the deeper the color. From rough, dull grains madder became a fine bright red powder and, mixed with linseed oil, a sparkling paint. Making it and the other colors was magical.In assembling such quotidian particulars, the author acknowledges her debt to Simon Schama's classic study! The Embarrassment of Riches. Her novel also joins a crop of recent, painterly fictions, including Deborah Moggach's Tulip Fever and Susan Vreeland's Girl in Hyacinth Blue. Can novelists extract much more from the Dutch golden age? The question is an open one--but in the meantime, Girl with a Pearl Earring remains a fascinating piece of speculative historical fiction, and an appealingly new take on an old master. --Jerry Brotton
Dirty Deeds (Unrated)
- An American Pie-style teen comedy in which a high school senior tries to become the first student to complete the coveted "10 Dirty Deeds" an outrageous series of challenges that must be completed between dusk and dawn on the Friday night of Homecoming weekend. The mild-mannered Zach, (Milo Ventimiglia) shows he is no pushover when he takes on the deeds to protect the younger brother of the girl o
Nathan LeBeau believes few women look at the Native American man beneath the filthy work clothes and hard hat. He's kept past liaisons casual-a fact his sister shared, hence Tate's sexy proposition of wanting a hands on demonstration of his sexpertise. But in truth, he's tired of relationships based solely on sex. His goal of proving he's not completely hopeless in matters of the heart is second only to his dream of expanding his business.
What happens when Tate desires no-holds-barred sex and Nathan favors a good old-fashioned rom! ance?
A battle of wills ensues.
And Tate is will! ing to g et down and dirty to get what she wants.
Warning, this title contains the following: steamy, explicit sex told in contemporary, graphic language.
Nathan LeBeau believes few women look at the Native American man beneath the filthy work clothes and har! d hat. He's kept past liaisons casual-a fact his sister shared, hence Tate's sexy proposition of wanting a hands on demonstration of his sexpertise. But in truth, he's tired of relationships based solely on sex. His goal of proving he's not completely hopeless in matters of the heart is second only to his dream of expanding his business.
What happens when Tate desires no-holds-barred sex and Nathan favors a good old-fashioned romance?
A battle of wills ensues.
And Tate is willing to get down and dirty to get what she wants.
Warning, this title contains the following: steamy, explicit sex told in contemporary, graphic language.
AC/DC remains one of the top-grossing bands of all time, and Markâs memoir is the first to reveal the band dynamic from behind the scenes, painting a portrait of five extremely hardworking, talented, and mischievous musicians who were yet culpable to the demons that drive many bands apart: sudden fame, sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll.
Adventures of Power
- ADVENTURES OF POWER (DVD MOVIE)
Changeling
- Condition: New
- Format: DVD
- AC-3; Color; Dolby; Dubbed; DVD; Subtitled; Widescreen; NTSC
Stills from Changeling (Click for larger image)
Saturday, January 7, 2012
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Widescreen Edition)
- Voldemort is tightening his grip on both the Muggle and wizarding worlds and Hogwarts is no longer the safe haven it once was. Harry suspects that dangers may even lie within the castle, but Dumbledore is more intent upon preparing him for the final battle that he knows is fast approaching. Together they work to find the key to unlock Voldemort s defenses and, to this end, Dumbledore recruits his
Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) suspects Draco Malfoy (Tom Felton) to be a new Death Eater recruit on a special mission for the Dark Lord. In the meantime, Professor Dumbledore (Michael Gambon) seems to have finally removed the shroud of secrec! y from Harry about the dark path that lies ahead, and instead ! provides private lessons to get him prepared. It's in these intriguing scenes that the dark past of Tom Riddle (a.k.a. Voldemort) is finally revealed. The actors cast as the different young versions of Riddle (Hero Fiennes-Tiffin and Frank Dillane) do an eerily fantastic job of portraying the villain as a child. While the previous movies' many new characters could be slightly overwhelming, only one new key character is introduced this time: Professor Horace Slughorn (with a spot-on performance by Jim Broadbent). Within his mind he holds a key secret in the battle to defeat the Dark Lord, and Harry is tasked by Dumbledore to uncover a memory about Voldemort's darkest weapon--the Horcrux. Despite the long list of distractions, Harry, Ron (Rupert Grint), and Hermione (Emma Watson) still try to focus on being teenagers, and audiences will enjoy the budding awkward romances. All of the actors have developed nicely, giving their most convincing performances to date.
More dramatic an! d significant things go down in this movie than any of its predecessors, and the stakes are higher than ever. The creators have been tasked with a practically impossible challenge, as fans of the beloved J.K. Rowling book series desperately want the movies to capture the magic of the books as closely as possible. Alas, the point at which one accepts that these two mediums are very different is the point at which one can truly enjoy these brilliant adaptations. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is no exception: it may be the best film yet. For those who have not read the book, nail-biting entertainment is guaranteed. For those who have, the movie does it justice. The key dramatic scenes, including the cave and the shocking twist in the final chapter, are executed very well. It does a perfect job of setting up the two-part grand finale that is to follow. --Jordan Thompson
The Amateur Marriage: A Novel
- Anne Tyler has taken the edgy, imperfect, exasperating moments of marriage and woven a tapestry of life and its changes in the course of a fifty-year relationship.
Rachel and Scott were never friends in college; her scholarly pursuits never fit with his party-boy attitude. She was the serious student, spending whatever time she had studying to become a doctor. Scott was just the opposite: a sexy frat boy more interested in booze and girls than books.
When they share a road trip after graduation, the only question is how they will tolerate each other for two days in close quarters. Everything changes when Scott's car breaks down in a small town, leaving them with only one opportunity to raise the money they n! eed. Now Rachel must come out of her scholarly shell and embrace the exhibitionist withinâ"and maybe show Scott there's more to her than her brain.
Unexpected car trouble leaves the doctor and the former party boy stranded during their cross-country trip, bringing them closer togetherâ"â"in every way possible.
Rachel and Scott were never friends in college; her scholarly pursuits never fit with his party-boy attitude. She was the serious student, spending whatever time she had studying to become a doctor. Scott was just the opposite: a sexy frat boy more interested in booze and girls than books.
When they share a road trip after graduation, the only question is how they will tolerate each other for two days in close quarters. Everything changes when Scott's car breaks down in a small town, leaving them with only one opportunity to raise the money they need. Now Rachel must come out of her scholarly shell and embrace the exhibitionist withinâ"and maybe! show Scott there's more to her than her brain.
This anthol! ogy is a thorough introduction to classic literature for those who have not yet experienced these literary masterworks. For those who have known and loved these works in the past, this is an invitation to reunite with old friends in a fresh new format. From Shakespeareâs finesse to Oscar Wildeâs wit, this unique collection brings together works as diverse and influential as The Pilgrimâs Progress and Othello. As an anthology that invites readers to immerse themselves in the masterpieces of the literary giants, it is must-have addition to any library.This is a pre-1923 historical reproduction that was curated for quality. Quality assurance was conducted on each of these books in an attempt to remove books with imperfections introduced by the digitization process. Though we have made best efforts - the books may have occasional errors that do not impede the reading experience. We believe this work is culturally important and have elected to bring the book back into print as par! t of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. This text refers to the Bibliobazaar edition.
Amateur hour has arrived, and the audience is running the show
In a hard-hitting and provocative polemic, Silicon Valley insider and pundit Andrew Keen exposes the grave consequences of todayâs new participatory Web 2.0 and reveals how it threatens our values, economy, and ultimately the very innovation and creativity that forms the fabric of American achievement.
Our most valued cultural institutions, Keen warnsâ"our professional newspapers, magazines, music, and moviesâ"are being overtaken by an avalanche of amateur, user-generated free content. Advertising revenue is being siphoned off by free classified ads on sites like Craigslist; television networks are under attack from free user-generated programming on YouTube and the like; file-sharing and digital piracy have devastated the multibillion-dollar music business and ! threaten to undermine our movie industry. Worse, Keen claims, ! our âc ut-and-pasteâ online cultureâ"in which intellectual property is freely swapped, downloaded, remashed, and aggregatedâ"threatens over 200 years of copyright protection and intellectual property rights, robbing artists, authors, journalists, musicians, editors, and producers of the fruits of their creative labors.
In todayâs self-broadcasting culture, where amateurism is celebrated and anyone with an opinion, however ill-informed, can publish a blog, post a video on YouTube, or change an entry on Wikipedia, the distinction between trained expert and uninformed amateur becomes dangerously blurred. When anonymous bloggers and videographers, unconstrained by professional standards or editorial filters, can alter the public debate and manipulate public opinion, truth becomes a commodity to be bought, sold, packaged, and reinvented.
The very anonymity that the Web 2.0 offers calls into question the reliability of the information we receive and creates an envir! onment in which sexual predators and identity thieves can roam free. While no Ludditeâ"Keen pioneered several Internet startups himselfâ"he urges us to consider the consequences of blindly supporting a culture that endorses plagiarism and piracy and that fundamentally weakens traditional media and creative institutions.
Offering concrete solutions on how we can reign in the free-wheeling, narcissistic atmosphere that pervades the Web, THE CULT OF THE AMATEUR is a wake-up call to each and every one of us.
They seemed like the perfect coupleâ"young, good-looking, made for each other. The moment Pauline, a stranger to the Polish Eastern Avenue neighborhood of Baltimore (though she lived only twenty minutes away), walked into his motherâs grocery store, Michael was smitten. And in the heat of World War II fervor, they! are propelled into a hasty wedding. But they never should hav! e marrie d.
Pauline, impulsive, impractical, tumbles hit-or-miss through life; Michael, plodding, cautious, judgmental, proceeds deliberately. While other young marrieds, equally ignorant at the start, seemed to grow more seasoned, Pauline and Michael remain amateurs. In time their foolish quarrels take their toll. Even when they find themselves, almost thirty years later, loving, instant parents to a little grandson named Pagan, whom they rescue from Haight-Ashbury, they still cannot bridge their deep-rooted differences. Flighty Pauline clings to the notion that the rifts can always be patched. To the unyielding Michael, they become unbearable.
From the sound of the cash register in the old grocery to the counterculture jargon of the sixties, from the miniskirts to the multilayered apparel of later years, Anne Tyler captures the evocative nuances of everyday life during these decades with such telling precision that every page brings smiles of recognition. Throughout! , as each of the competing voices bears witness, we are drawn ever more fully into the complex entanglements of family life in this wise, embracing, and deeply perceptive novel.
From the Hardcover edition.Anne Tyler's The Amateur Marriage is not so much a novel as a really long argument. Michael is a good boy from a Polish neighborhood in Baltimore; Pauline is a harum-scarum, bright-cheeked girl who blows into Michael's family's grocery store at the outset of World War II. She appears with a bloodied brow, supported by a gaggle of girlfriends. Michael patches her up, and neither of them are ever the same. Well, not the same as they were before, but pretty much the same as everyone else. After the war, they live over the shop with Michael's mother till they've saved enough to move to the suburbs. There they remain with their three children, until the onset of the sixties, when their eldest daughter runs away to San Francisco. Their marriag! e survives for a while, finally crumbling in the seventies. I! f this a ll sounds a tad generic, Tyler's case isn't helped by the characteristics she's given the two spouses. Him: repressed, censorious, quiet. Her: voluble, emotional, romantic. Mars, meet Venus. What marks this couple, though, and what makes them come alive, is their bitter, unproductive, tooth-and-nail fighting. Tyler is exploring the way that ordinary-seeming, prosperous people can survive in emotional poverty for years on end. She gets just right the tricks Michael and Pauline play on themselves in order to stay together: "How many times," Pauline asks herself, "when she was weary of dealing with Michael, had she forced herself to recall the way he'd looked that first day? The slant of his fine cheekbones, the firming of his lips as he pressed the adhesive tape in place on her forehead." Only in antogonism do Michael and Pauline find a way to express themselves. --Claire Dederer
Transcend 16 GB SDHC Class 10 Flash Memory Card TS16GSDHC10E
- Compatible with all SDHC-labeled host devices (not compatible with standard SD)
- RoHS compliant
- Easy to use, plug-and-play operation
- Fully compatible with SD 3.0 Standards
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