Great Plains
Great Plains

Author: Ian Frazier

Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Published: 2001-05-04

Total Pages: 320

ISBN-13: 1466828889

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National Bestseller Most travelers only fly over the Great Plains--but Ian Frazier, ever the intrepid and wide-eyed wanderer, is not your average traveler. A hilarious and fascinating look at the great middle of our nation. With his unique blend of intrepidity, tongue-in-cheek humor, and wide-eyed wonder, Ian Frazier takes us on a journey of more than 25,000 miles up and down and across the vast and myth-inspiring Great Plains. A travelogue, a work of scholarship, and a western adventure, Great Plains takes us from the site of Sitting Bull's cabin, to an abandoned house once terrorized by Bonnie and Clyde, to the scene of the murders chronicled in Truman Capote's In Cold Blood. It is an expedition that reveals the heart of the American West.

Grand Hotels
Grand Hotels

Author: Elaine Denby

Publisher: Reaktion Books

Published: 2002

Total Pages: 316

ISBN-13: 9781861891211

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From its beginnings as the humble inn, the hotel has undergone enormous changes over the centuries. Elaine Denby charts the development of the Grand Hotel and how it has kept pace with technological innovations.

A History of Building Types
A History of Building Types

Author: Nikolaus Pevsner

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2023-10-17

Total Pages: 943

ISBN-13: 0691252750

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An essential guide to vital and often overlooked features of the architectural and social inheritance of the West This book provides vital insights into the ways in which architecture reflects the character of society. Drawing on his immense erudition and keenly discerning eye, Nikolaus Pevsner describes twenty types of buildings ranging from the most monumental to the least, and from the ideal to the most utilitarian. He covers both European and American architecture, with examples chosen largely from the nineteenth century, the crucial period for diversification. Included are national monuments, libraries, theaters, hospitals, prisons, factories, hotels, and many other public buildings. Incisive and authoritative, A History of Building Types traces the evolution of each type in response to social and architectural change, and discusses differing attitudes toward function, materials, and style. Please note: All images in this ebook are presented in black and white and have been reduced.

Florence! Foster!! Jenkins!!!
Florence! Foster!! Jenkins!!!

Author: Darryl W. Bullock

Publisher: Abrams

Published: 2016-07-12

Total Pages: 150

ISBN-13: 1468314092

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An inspiring biography of the socialite and amateur soprano who didn’t let her terrible voice stop her—Now the subject of a major motion picture. Magazine Madame Jenkins couldn’t carry a tune in a bucket: despite that, in 1944 at the age of seventy-six, she played Carnegie Hall to a capacity audience and had celebrity fans by the score. Her infamous 1940s recordings are still highly prized today. In his well-researched and thoroughly entertaining biography, Darryl W. Bullock tells of Florence Foster Jenkins’s meteoric rise to success and the man who stood beside her, through every sharp note. Florence was ridiculed for her poor control of timing, pitch, and tone, and terrible pronunciation of foreign lyrics, but the sheer entertainment value of her caterwauling packed out theatres around the United States, with the “singer” firmly convinced of her own talent, partly thanks to the devoted attention for her husband and manager St. Clair Bayfield. Her story is one of triumph in the face of adversity, courage, conviction and of the belief that with dedication and commitment a true artist can achieve anything. “Darryl W. Bullock’s charming FLORENCE! FOSTER!! JENKINS!!! is just about right for those who want to know more about the world’s worst opera singer. . . . Thoroughly readable and entertaining. This appealing little biography―which arrives just as a film version of its heroine’s story, starring Meryl Streep and Hugh Grant, has been released in the U.S.―is warmhearted and delightful. At its core is a touching love story, as well as a message about the human spirit.” —Alexander McCall Smith, The New York Times Book Review