Dear Paulo: Letters from Those Who Dare Teach is a heartfelt response from teachers, academics, and community workers to the work of the internationally renowned educator and author Paulo Freire. From newly minted teachers terrified of facing their first day in the classroom to seasoned academics whose work has largely been inspired by Freire, this collection, accompanied by photographs of Freire with some of the letter writers, is both a loving memorial and a call to action to work for social justice, praxis, and democracy, ideals envisioned and brilliantly articulated by Paulo.
Set amidst the turbulence of WW1, Mary Wood’s evocative historical saga The Abandoned Daughter follows Ella, a voluntary nurse tormented by soldiers' cries and the wound of a shattered trust. As her friendships teeter, exacerbated by the strains of war, Ella's isolation deepens. Within the confines of a French military hospital, she finds companionship in Connie and Paddy, and comfort in the arms of a French officer, Paulo. As war rages around them, could Paulo be Ella's refuge? With the end of the war on the horizon, surely things have to get better? Ella grew up not knowing her real family but a clue leads her in their direction. What did happen to Ella’s parents, and why is she so desperate to find out? The second book in The Girls Who Went To War series, The Abandoned Daughter takes you on an emotional roller-coaster of love, deception, and the relentless pursuit of truth amidst war's chaos.
A young artist in Mussolini's Italy must work for the propaganda machine if he wants to continue to paint. His obsession with his muse Mathild drives him to make any sacrifice. But his adoration for her forces him into new and dangerous circles. The art world of 1940s Rome is beguiling and glamorous but threaded deep within is a frightening world where no-one should be trusted and it is very easy to disappear without a trace.
Regarded by many as one of America's finest-living writers, Cormac McCarthy has produced some of the most compelling novels of the last 40 years. Through the increasing number of cinematic adaptations of his work, including the Oscar-winning No Country for Old Men, and the Pulitzer Prize for The Road, McCarthy is entering the mainstream of cultural consciousness, both in the United States and abroad. In Adventures in Reading Cormac McCarthy, Peter Josyph considers, at length, the author's two masterworks Blood Meridian and Suttree, as well as the novel and film of All the Pretty Horses, McCarthy's play The Stonemason, and his film The Gardener's Son. The book also includes extended conversations with critic Harold Bloom about Blood Meridian; novelist and poet Robert Morgan about The Gardener's Son; critic Rick Wallach about Blood Meridian; and Oscar-winning screenwriter Ted Tally about his film adaptation of All the Pretty Horses. Drawing on multiple resources of an unconventional nature, this book examines McCarthy's work from original and sometimes provocative perspectives. Proposing a new notion of criticism, Adventures in Reading Cormac McCarthy will become a useful tool for critics, students, and general readers about one of the great literary talents of the day.
"How would Socrates and Plato react to a modern world where secularism and religious fundamentalism are growing while the gap between the human mind and animal mind is narrowing? Using some creative license mixed with real history, science, and philosophy, Seeking Perfection addresses that question. Matt J. Rossano uses a narrative/dialogue format to superimpose on modern times ancient Greece's two most eminent philosophers, along with its government and culture.The story begins with Plato's daring escape from Sicily, where he tutored Dionysius II in philosophy. On board his homebound ship, Plato recounts his experiences in Sicily. In this narrative, the intellectual difference between practical rewards and the pursuit of ideals provides the basis for a series of dialogue on science, secularism, religion, and the uniqueness of the human mind.Upon the ship's arrival home, Plato's mentor, Socrates, is arrested and his trial provides the venue for the book's final dialogue. The final dialogue serves as a counterweight to the earlier ones. Rossano begins and ends with a philosopher imprisoned by his views, indicative of one of its main messages: the true philosopher uses a well-disciplined mind and the best knowledge of the day to get as close to the truth as possible. In doing so, he invariably gets into trouble. This imaginatively constructed tale will absorb those interested in what the philosophical masters might say about today's world."
