News from The Village - Aegean Friends

David Masson

Summary

A memoir of friendship, history, and longing in a Greek village that “introduces us to a rich cast of writers and ex-pats, shepherds and urbanites” (A.E. Stallings, Pulitzer Prize for Poetry finalist).   In his twenties, an American manual laborer and poet found himself living with his beautiful wife in a village in southern Greece.  Their first encounter with that country would prove an unrecoverable dream of intimate magic, but through decades of steadfast affection, David Mason grew to a deeper understanding of what it means to be a citizen of one’s own country and a citizen of the world.     From a writer praised for his “often intoxicating language” (Kirkus Reviews), News from the Village is a lyrical memoir of Aegean friends, including such figures as Orhan Pamuk, Bruce Chatwin, Katerina Anghelaki-Rooke, Yiorgos Chouliaras, and Patrick Leigh Fermor, each of whom comes fully alive, along with a brilliant cast of lesser-known characters.  Fearing he has lost Greece and everything it has meant in his life, Mason goes back again and again to the country he knew as a young man.  He encounters Turkey and Greece together in the shadow of 9/11; follows the lives of his friends, whose trials sometimes surpass his own; and brings them all together in the circle of this generous narrative.  Ultimately, Mason’s memoir is about what we can hold and what slips away, what sustains us all through our griefs and disappointments.    “Mason realizes he must confront shifting politics, village tensions, family tragedy, and history with blood on its hands before he can love Greece as she is rather than as he would have her be.  Along the way, he introduces us to a rich cast of writers and ex-pats, shepherds and urbanites—and travels that stretch from the Rockies to the Bosphorus—the journey of a lifetime.”—A.E. Stallings, Pulitzer Prize finalist and author of Like

Available since: 01/01/2012.

Print length: 312 pages.

Other books that might interest you

Churchill and the Generals

Barrie Pitt

A history of Prime Minister Churchill’s relationships with British and American Allied military generals during World War II. 
 
This book vividly brings alive the dramatic situation facing Europe and the Allies after the loss of Dunkirk. Churchill and his generals—Alexander, Brooke, Wavell and Montgomery – were faced with many disasters that required courageous decisions in order to pursue their aim of victory. This is the inside story of the situations they faced, the decisions they made and the outcome of those choices. An incredible portrayal of the courage, the nerve and the commitment of those brave men who affected the course of history.

Show book

Trotsky - Downfall of a...

Bertrand M. Patenaude

In Trotsky: Downfall of a Revolutionary, Stanford University lecturer Bertrand M. Patenaude tells the dramatic story of Leon Trotsky's final years in exile in Mexico. Shedding new light on Trotsky’s tumultuous friendship with painter Diego Rivera, his affair with Rivera’s wife Frida Kahlo, and his torment as his family and comrades become victims of the Great Terror, Trotsky: Downfall of a Revolutionary brilliantly illuminates the fateful and dramatic life of one of history’s most famous yet elusive figures.

Show book

Summary and Analysis of Between...

Worth Books

So much to read, so little time? This brief overview of Between the World and Me tells you what you need to know—before or after you read Ta-Nehisi Coates’s book. Crafted and edited with care, Worth Books set the standard for quality and give you the tools you need to be a well-informed reader.   This short summary and analysis of Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates includes:  Historical contextSection-by-section summariesThemes and symbolsDetailed timeline of key eventsImportant quotesFascinating triviaGlossary of termsSupporting material to enhance your understanding of the original work  About Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates:   Written in the form of a letter to his young son, Ta-Nehisi Coates’s National Book Award winner, Between the World and Me, is a powerful personal essay that addresses the history of racism in America and its impact on our lives today.   Using his own experiences and observations as a starting point, Coates poses questions and imparts insights about the systematic oppression of persons of color, covering topics from the dark days of slavery to growing up in Baltimore in a “black body” to all-too-common instances of police brutality and everyday discrimination.   The summary and analysis in this ebook are intended to complement your reading experience and bring you closer to a great work of nonfiction.

Show book

Women of History

Anonymous

An intriguing look at well known women in history from BC 500 to the mid 1800's. Each chapter is a brief overview of one woman's life. An interesting read. (Summary by Michele Eaton)

Show book

Batista Unleashed

Jeremy Roberts, Dave Batista

People around the world know Dave Batista as World Wrestling Entertainment's "the Animal," the rope-shaking, spine-busting World Heavyweight Champion, one of the most popular Superstars in recent years.The crowd turned Batista from heel to babyface after they were electrified by his awesome physique and physical wrestling style. Few fans, however, know that Batista didn't join the profession until he was thirty years old -- an age at which many wrestlers are thinking about hanging up their boots. Nor do most fans know the tremendous toll the climb to the top has taken on Batista's personal life. While successfully staying away from hard drugs and -- usually -- liquor, he found sex too tempting to resist. "Women were my drug of choice," the Animal confesses. That addiction cost him his marriage, destroying a relationship that had helped him climb from poverty to the pinnacle of sports entertainment in less than two years. Now, in Batista Unleashed, the WWE Superstar comes clean about the choices he made and the devastating effects they had on his family. He talks about the injury that stripped him of his title -- an injury he blames on Mark Henry's carelessness. While being sidelined cost Batista untold hundreds of thousands of dollars in lost income, it also set the stage for a tremendous comeback that cemented the Animal's reputation as a true champion. Batista talks about growing up in the worst part of Washington, D.C., where three murders occurred in his front yard before he was nine. He speaks lovingly about his mother -- a lesbian -- and how hard she worked to keep the family not just together but alive. He talks candidly about his own criminal past: a conviction on a drug charge and another, since overturned, on assault. He speaks of his days as a bouncer and a lifeguard, and tells how bodybuilding may have saved his life. Once he made it to the WWE, Batista realized he wasn't really ready for the big time. His career seemed headed for a fall until Fit Finlay took him under his wing. But his real education came when he joined Evolution and rode with Triple H and Ric Flair, two of sports entertainment's all-time greats. Batista talks about what they taught him, and details some of their wild times on the road. But the champ also reveals a kinder, gentler side. While his soft-spoken manner in the locker room has sometimes been misinterpreted as arrogance, in truth Batista's always been somewhat shy and quiet. Emotional by nature, he reveals for the first time that the tears fans saw at WrestleMania 21, when he won the World Heavyweight Championship for the first time, were very real. And he speaks movingly about his problems with his ex-wives and teenage daughters, and how it felt to become a grandfather. While his straight-shooting mouth has occasionally gotten him into trouble -- most notably in a backstage confrontation with Undertaker after some remarks about SmackDown! -- Batista is his own harshest critic. He explains his early limitations as a wrestler and the work he has done to overcome them. Interspersing his memoir with accounts from life on the road, Batista lightens the narrative with a surprising sense of humor. An Animal in the ring, he reveals himself as an honest and even humble man in everyday life.

Show book

Everest - The West Ridge

Thomas Hornbein, Jon Krakauer

In 1963, Jim Whittaker became the first American to summit Everest via the South Col route. Roughly two weeks after Whittaker's achievement, Tom Hornbein and Willi Unsoeld, fellow American mountaineers on the same expedition, became the first climbers ever to summit the world's highest peak via the dangerous and forbidding West Ridge—a route on which only a handful of climbers have since succeeded.This special fiftieth anniversary edition reintroduces the adventure in a larger format by members of the expedition, including leader Norman G. Dyhrenfurth and team doctor Jim Lester. In addition to a new foreword by Jon Krakauer, this volume also features a new preface by Hornbein along with a series of prefaces he wrote for earlier editions, including the original from 1965.

Show book