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| sparknotes bright lights big city: Bright Lights, Big City Jay McInerney, 2014-02-13 You are at a nightclub talking to a girl with a shaved head. The club is either Heartbreak or the Lizard Lounge. All might become clear if you could just slip into the bathroom and do a little more Bolivian Marching Powder. Then again, it might not... So begins our nameless hero's trawl through the brightly lit streets of Manhattan, sampling all this wonderland has to offer yet suspecting that tomorrow's hangover may be caused by more than simple excess. Bright Lights, Big City is an acclaimed classic which marked Jay McInerney as one of the major writers of our time. |
| sparknotes bright lights big city: Fahrenheit 451 Ray Bradbury, 2025-04-24 |
| sparknotes bright lights big city: The Giver Lois Lowry, 2014 The Giver, the 1994 Newbery Medal winner, has become one of the most influential novels of our time. The haunting story centers on twelve-year-old Jonas, who lives in a seemingly ideal, if colorless, world of conformity and contentment. Not until he is given his life assignment as the Receiver of Memory does he begin to understand the dark, complex secrets behind his fragile community. This movie tie-in edition features cover art from the movie and exclusive Q&A with members of the cast, including Taylor Swift, Brenton Thwaites and Cameron Monaghan. |
| sparknotes bright lights big city: Nineteen eighty-four George Orwell, 2022-11-22 This is a dystopian social science fiction novel and morality tale. The novel is set in the year 1984, a fictional future in which most of the world has been destroyed by unending war, constant government monitoring, historical revisionism, and propaganda. The totalitarian superstate Oceania, ruled by the Party and known as Airstrip One, now includes Great Britain as a province. The Party uses the Thought Police to repress individuality and critical thought. Big Brother, the tyrannical ruler of Oceania, enjoys a strong personality cult that was created by the party's overzealous brainwashing methods. Winston Smith, the main character, is a hard-working and skilled member of the Ministry of Truth's Outer Party who secretly despises the Party and harbors rebellious fantasies. |
| sparknotes bright lights big city: Bright, Precious Days Jay McInerney, 2016-08-02 From the best-selling author of Bright Lights, Big City: a sexy, vibrant, cross-generational New York story--a literary and commercial triumph of the highest order. Even decades after their arrival, Corrine and Russell Calloway still feel as if they’re living the dream that drew them to New York City in the first place: book parties or art openings one night and high-society events the next; jobs they care about (and in fact love); twin children whose birth was truly miraculous; a loft in TriBeCa and summers in the Hamptons. But all of this comes at a fiendish cost. Russell, an independent publisher, has superb cultural credentials yet minimal cash flow; as he navigates a business that requires, beyond astute literary judgment, constant financial improvisation, he encounters an audacious, potentially game-changing—or ruinous—opportunity. Meanwhile, instead of chasing personal gain in this incredibly wealthy city, Corrine devotes herself to helping feed its hungry poor, and she and her husband soon discover they’re being priced out of the newly fashionable neighborhood they’ve called home for most of their adult lives, with their son and daughter caught in the balance. Then Corrine’s world is turned upside down when the man with whom she’d had an ill-fated affair in the wake of 9/11 suddenly reappears. As the novel unfolds across a period of stupendous change—including Obama’s historic election and the global economic collapse he inherited—the Calloways will find themselves and their marriage tested more severely than they ever could have imagined. |
| sparknotes bright lights big city: Bright Lights, Big Ass Jen Lancaster, 2007-05-01 Jen Lancaster hates to burst your happy little bubble, but life in the big city isn't all it's cracked up to be. Contrary to what you see on TV and in the movies, most urbanites aren't party-hopping in slinky dresses and strappy stilettos. But lucky for us, Lancaster knows how to make the life of the lower crust mercilessly funny and infinitely entertaining. Whether she's reporting rude neighbors to Homeland Security, harboring a crush on her grocery store clerk, or fighting-and losing-the Battle of the Stairmaster- Lancaster explores how silly, strange, and not-so-fabulous real city living can be. And if anyone doesn't like it, they can kiss her big, fat, pink, puffy down parka. |
| sparknotes bright lights big city: The 57 Bus Dashka Slater, 2017-10-17 A NEW YORK TIMES Bestseller Stonewall Book Award Winner A TIME Magazine Best YA Book of All Time YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults Finalist A Boston Globe-Horn Book Nonfiction Honor Book Winner A Los Angeles Times Book Prize Finalist The riveting New York Times bestseller and Stonewall Book Award winner that will make you rethink all you know about race, class, gender, crime, and punishment. Artfully, compassionately, and expertly told, Dashka Slater's The 57 Bus is a must-read nonfiction book that chronicles the true story of an agender teen who was set on fire by another teen while riding a bus in Oakland, California. Two ends of the same line. Two sides of the same crime. If it weren’t for the 57 bus, Sasha and Richard never would have met. Both were high school students from Oakland, California, one of the most diverse cities in the country, but they inhabited different worlds. Sasha, a white teen, lived in the middle-class foothills and attended a small private school. Richard, a Black teen, lived in the economically challenged flatlands and attended a large public one. Each day, their paths overlapped for a mere eight minutes. But one afternoon on the bus ride home from school, a single reckless act left Sasha severely burned, and Richard charged with two hate crimes and facing life imprisonment. The case garnered international attention, thrusting both teenagers into the spotlight. But in The 57 Bus, award-winning journalist Dashka Slater shows that what might at first seem like a simple matter of right and wrong, justice and injustice, victim and criminal, is something more complicated—and far more heartbreaking. Don’t miss Dashka Slater’s newest propulsive and thought-provoking nonfiction book, Accountable: The True Story of a Racist Social Media Account and the Teenagers Whose Lives It Changed, the YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction Winner which National Book Award winner Ibram X. Kendi hails as “powerful, timely, and delicately written.” |
| sparknotes bright lights big city: The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind William Kamkwamba, Bryan Mealer, 2015-02-05 Now a Netflix film starring and directed by Chiwetel Ejiofor, this is a gripping memoir of survival and perseverance about the heroic young inventor who brought electricity to his Malawian village. When a terrible drought struck William Kamkwamba's tiny village in Malawi, his family lost all of the season's crops, leaving them with nothing to eat and nothing to sell. William began to explore science books in his village library, looking for a solution. There, he came up with the idea that would change his family's life forever: he could build a windmill. Made out of scrap metal and old bicycle parts, William's windmill brought electricity to his home and helped his family pump the water they needed to farm the land. Retold for a younger audience, this exciting memoir shows how, even in a desperate situation, one boy's brilliant idea can light up the world. Complete with photographs, illustrations, and an epilogue that will bring readers up to date on William's story, this is the perfect edition to read and share with the whole family. |
| sparknotes bright lights big city: Story of My Life Jay McInerney, 2010-03-12 A “brilliant” novel of a party girl in 1980s Manhattan, by the author of Bright Lights, Big City (The Sunday Times). Twenty-something aspiring actress Alison Poole is well versed in hopping the clubs, shopping Chanel, falling in and out of lust, and abusing other people’s credit cards. As she traverses nocturnal New York with her coterie of coke-addicted friends—and races toward emotional breakdown—the author of Brightness Falls and other acclaimed works of fiction gives us a funny, poignant portrait of a postmodern Holly Golightly coming to terms with a world in which everything is permitted and nothing really matters. “Jay McInerney has proven himself not only a brilliant stylist but a master of characterization, with a keen eye for incongruities of urban life.” —The New York Times Book Review “[McInerney’s] talent for capturing the nuances and idiosyncrasies of our culture [in Bright Lights, Big City] is even more powerfully evident in Story of My Life . . . Underneath Alison’s hip, party-girl exterior and flippant vernacular is McInerney’s disturbing depiction of a young woman caught in the traumatic reality of her times.” —San Francisco Chronicle “Story of My Life is quite as brilliant as Bright Lights, Big City and a lot funnier.” —The Sunday Times |
| sparknotes bright lights big city: Bright Lights, Big City Bright Lights Big City, 2010 |
| sparknotes bright lights big city: The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas John Boyne, 2007 The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas is told from the perspective of Bruno, a nine-year-old boy forced to leave his home in Berlin to live with his family in a strange and unwelcome environment. The only friend he finds in his drab new home is a little boy, Shmuel, separated from him by the big fence that separates Bruno's world from the very peculiar place on the other side. |
| sparknotes bright lights big city: Brightness Falls Jay McInerney, 2014-03-13 Corrine Calloway is a young stockbroker on Wall Street, her husband Russell an underpaid but ambitious publishing editor. The happily married couple head into New York's 1980s gold rush where prospects and money seem to be flying everywhere, and the best and the brightest vie with the worst and most craven for riches, fame and the love of beautiful people. But the Calloways soon find out that what goes up must come crashing down, both on Wall Street and at home. Brightness Falls captures lives-in-the-making: men and women confronting their sudden middle-age with wit and low behaviour, fear and confusion, and, just occasionally, a little honesty and decency. |
| sparknotes bright lights big city: The Good Life Jay McInerney, 2006 Gensyn med nogle af personerne fra romanen Brightness Falls (1992), som nu 10 år efter oplever 9/11 på nærmeste hold, en begivenhed som ændrer deres liv for altid og får dem til at reflektere over tilværelsens virkelige værdier |
| sparknotes bright lights big city: Summary of Karen Grassle's Bright Lights, Prairie Dust Everest Media,, 2022-03-21T22:59:00Z Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Sample Book Insights: #1 I grew up with the living embodiment of the strength, devotion, and intelligence Laura Ingalls Wilder described in her books. My mother, Frae Ella Berry, was a one-room-schoolhouse teacher who married a man who was a devoted partner but whose restlessness also challenged all her strength. #2 My mother’s story was that she and her sister Edith, her big sister, grew up in San Jose. Their father, who they called Daddy, had met their mother, Frae, in a take-out stand in Missouri. They left Missouri after their mother died. #3 My parents had wanted to have a family, but they had suffered several miscarriages. When they heard about Dr. Penland, they decided to try again. Their baby was positioned and ready, but I wasn’t. #4 I was born in 1942. My parents were very optimistic, and when the doctor delivered me, my parents were able to buy a house in Oakland. But things did not go well in Gilroy, and my parents had to move to help their sister. |
| sparknotes bright lights big city: Summary of Karen Grassle's Bright Lights, Prairie Dust Milkyway Media, 2022-05-03 Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Book Preview: #1 I grew up with the living embodiment of the strength, devotion, and intelligence Laura Ingalls Wilder described in her books. My mother, Frae Ella Berry, was a oneroomschoolhouse teacher who married a man who was a devoted partner but whose restlessness also challenged all her strength. #2 My mother’s story was that she and her sister Edith, her big sister, grew up in San Jose. Their father, who they called Daddy, had met their mother, Frae, in a takeout stand in Missouri. They left Missouri after their mother died. #3 My parents had wanted to have a family, but they had suffered several miscarriages. When they heard about Dr. Penland, they decided to try again. Their baby was positioned and ready, but I wasn’t. #4 I was born in 1942. My parents were very optimistic, and when the doctor delivered me, my parents were able to buy a house in Oakland. But things did not go well in Gilroy, and my parents had to move to help their sister. |
| sparknotes bright lights big city: Literature: An Introduction to Theory and Analysis Mads Rosendahl Thomsen, Lasse Horne Kjældgaard, Lis Møller, Lilian Munk Rösing, Peter Simonsen, Dan Ringgaard, 2017-03-09 How does literature work? And what does it mean? How does it relate to the world: to politics, to history, to the environment? How do we analyse and interpret a literary text, paying attention to its specific poetic and fictitious qualities? This wide-ranging introduction helps students to explore these and many other essential questions in the study of literature, criticism and theory. In a series of introductory chapters, leading international scholars present the fundamental topics of literary studies through conceptual definitions as well as interpretative readings of works familiar from a range of world literary traditions. In an easy-to-navigate format, Literature: An Introduction to Theory and Analysis covers such topics as: ·Key definitions – from plot, character and style to genre, trope and author ·Literature's relationship to the surrounding world – ethics, politics, gender and nature ·Modes of literature and criticism – from books to performance, from creative to critical writing With annotated reading guides throughout and a glossary of major critical schools to help students when studying, revising and writing essays, this is an essential introduction and reference guide to the study of literature at all levels. The companion website to the book litdh.au.dk focuses on digital humanities and literary studies. For each topic in the book you will find an introduction to computational aspects of the topic, approaches for both newcomers and advanced users, and references to tools, scripts and articles. The website also has a comprehensive and well-structured reference page. |
| sparknotes bright lights big city: The Last of the Savages Jay McInerney, 1997-04-29 From the bestselling author of Bright Lights, Big City and Brightness Falls comes a chronicle of a generation, as enacted by two men who represent all the passions and extremes of the class of 1969. Patrick Keane and Will Savage meet at prep school at the beginning of the explosive '60s. Over the next 30 years, they remain friends even as they pursue radically divergent destinies--and harbor secrets that defy rebellion and conformity. |
| sparknotes bright lights big city: After Dark Haruki Murakami, 2010-07-07 A short, sleek novel of encounters set in the witching hours of Tokyo between midnight and dawn, and every bit as gripping as Haruki Murakami’s masterworks The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle and Kafka on the Shore. At its center are two sisters: Yuri, a fashion model sleeping her way into oblivion; and Mari, a young student soon led from solitary reading at an anonymous Denny’s into lives radically alien to her own: those of a jazz trombonist who claims they’ve met before; a burly female “love hotel” manager and her maidstaff; and a Chinese prostitute savagely brutalized by a businessman. These “night people” are haunted by secrets and needs that draw them together more powerfully than the differing circumstances that might keep them apart, and it soon becomes clear that Yuri’s slumber—mysteriously tied to the businessman plagued by the mark of his crime—will either restore or annihilate her. After Dark moves from mesmerizing drama to metaphysical speculation, interweaving time and space as well as memory and perspective into a seamless exploration of human agency—the interplay between self-expression and understanding, between the power of observation and the scope of compassion and love. Murakami’s trademark humor, psychological insight and grasp of spirit and morality are here distilled with an extraordinary, harmonious mastery. |
| sparknotes bright lights big city: 30 Essential Literary Analysis Concepts in 7 Minutes Each Nietsnie Trebla, 30 Essential Literary Analysis Concepts in 7 Minutes Each Unlock the world of literature with 30 Essential Literary Analysis Concepts in 7 Minutes Each, a comprehensive guide designed for students, writers, and literature enthusiasts alike. This book helps you quickly grasp the fundamental concepts that illuminate the intricacies of literary works, all succinctly explained in just seven minutes per chapter. What You'll Discover: - Theme and Central Idea: Dive into the heart of a story and explore its underlying messages. - Characterization and Development: Understand how authors craft complex characters that drive narratives. - Setting and Its Impact: Analyze the significance of time and place in shaping a story’s context. - Plot Structure and Narrative Arc: Learn about the framework that supports storytelling and emotional engagement. - Point of View and Narrative Voice: Examine perspectives that influence how a tale is told. - Symbolism and Allegory: Uncover the deeper meanings behind various symbols and allegorical elements. - Tone and Mood: Feel the emotional texture of a text through its tone and atmosphere. - Language and Diction: Investigate the power of word choice and its impact on meaning. - Style and Literary Techniques: Discover the unique flair that authors bring to their writing through different techniques. - Conflict and Tension: Analyze the driving forces behind narratives within various forms of conflict. - Imagery and Sensory Details: Explore how vivid descriptions engage the senses and enhance understanding. - Irony and Paradox: Delve into the complexities of contradiction that enrich literature. - Motif and Recurring Elements: Identify themes and symbols that recur to deepen meaning. - Historical and Cultural Context: Contextualize literary works within the frameworks of their time. - Feminist Literary Criticism: Discuss texts through the lens of gender dynamics and empowerment. - Marxist Criticism: Examine literature in the context of socioeconomic class struggles. - Psychoanalytic Criticism: Explore the psychological dimensions of characters and narratives. - Ecocriticism: Understand literature's relationship with the natural environment. - Postcolonial Criticism: Analyze the impact of colonial history on literature and identity. - Reader-Response Theory: Discover how readers’ interpretations shape literary understanding. - Intertextuality and Allusion: Investigate links between texts and their broader literary landscape. - Transnational Literature: Explore works that cross borders and challenge national narratives. - Genre and Form: Classify texts according to their conventions and characteristics. - Adaptation and Transformation: Examine how stories evolve across different mediums. - Performance and Oral Traditions: Learn about the cultural significance of storytelling traditions. - Historical Narratives and Memory: Analyze how history is portrayed in literature. - Literary Canon and Canon Formation: Debate the texts that define literary history. - Social Justice and Literature: Discuss how literature reflects and influences social movements. - Digital Literature and New Media: Explore contemporary literature in the context of digital innovation. - The Role of the Author and Authorial Intent: Investigate how authors’ backgrounds influence their works. Whether you’re preparing for a class discussion, diving into writing your own analyses, or simply looking to enrich your understanding of literature, this book is the perfect resource for quick, insightful learning. Each chapter distills complex ideas into digestible formats, ideal for both individual learners and group studies. Join us on this literary journey and enhance your analytical skills in just seven minutes at a time! |
| sparknotes bright lights big city: The Juice Jay McInerney, 2013-05-23 Jay McInerney has written unique, witty, vinous essays for over a decade. Here, with his trademark flair and expertise, McInerney provides a master class in the almost infinite varieties of wine, creating a collage of the people and places that produce it all over the world, from historic past to the often confusing present. Stretching from France and South Africa to Australia and New Zealand, McInerney's tour is a comprehensive and thirst-inducing expedition that explores viticulture, investigates great champagne and delves into a vast array of styles, capturing the passion that so many people feel for the world of wine. |
| sparknotes bright lights big city: Before We Were Strangers Renée Carlino, 2015-08-18 From the USA TODAY bestselling author of Sweet Thing and Nowhere But Here comes a love story about a Craigslist “missed connection” post that gives two people a second chance at love fifteen years after they were separated in New York City. To the Green-eyed Lovebird: We met fifteen years ago, almost to the day, when I moved my stuff into the NYU dorm room next to yours at Senior House. You called us fast friends. I like to think it was more. We lived on nothing but the excitement of finding ourselves through music (you were obsessed with Jeff Buckley), photography (I couldn’t stop taking pictures of you), hanging out in Washington Square Park, and all the weird things we did to make money. I learned more about myself that year than any other. Yet, somehow, it all fell apart. We lost touch the summer after graduation when I went to South America to work for National Geographic. When I came back, you were gone. A part of me still wonders if I pushed you too hard after the wedding… I didn’t see you again until a month ago. It was a Wednesday. You were rocking back on your heels, balancing on that thick yellow line that runs along the subway platform, waiting for the F train. I didn’t know it was you until it was too late, and then you were gone. Again. You said my name; I saw it on your lips. I tried to will the train to stop, just so I could say hello. After seeing you, all of the youthful feelings and memories came flooding back to me, and now I’ve spent the better part of a month wondering what your life is like. I might be totally out of my mind, but would you like to get a drink with me and catch up on the last decade and a half? M |
| sparknotes bright lights big city: Anna and the French Kiss Stephanie Perkins, 2013-12-16 Anna had everything figured out – she was about to start senior year with her best friend, she had a great weekend job and her huge work crush looked as if it might finally be going somewhere... Until her dad decides to send her 4383 miles away to Paris. On her own. But despite not speaking a word of French, Anna finds herself making new friends, including Étienne St. Clair, the smart, beautiful boy from the floor above. But he's taken – and Anna might be too. Will a year of romantic near-misses end with the French kiss she's been waiting for? |
| sparknotes bright lights big city: The Hate U Give Angie Thomas, 2018-04 A powerful and brave YA novel about what prejudice looks like in the 21st century. Sixteen-year-old Starr lives in two worlds: the poor neighbourhood where she was born and raised and her posh high school in the suburbs. The uneasy balance between them is shattered when Starr is the only witness to the fatal shooting of her unarmed best friend, Khalil, by a police officer. Now what Starr says could destroy her community. It could also get her killed. Inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement, this is a powerful and gripping YA novel about one girl's struggle for justice. Movie rights have been sold to Fox, with Amandla Stenberg (The Hunger Games) to star. |
| sparknotes bright lights big city: Rhythm of War Brandon Sanderson, 2020-11-17 An instant #1 New York Times Bestseller and a USA Today and Indie Bestseller! The Stormlight Archive saga continues in Rhythm of War, the eagerly awaited sequel to Brandon Sanderson's #1 New York Times bestselling Oathbringer, from an epic fantasy writer at the top of his game. After forming a coalition of human resistance against the enemy invasion, Dalinar Kholin and his Knights Radiant have spent a year fighting a protracted, brutal war. Neither side has gained an advantage, and the threat of a betrayal by Dalinar’s crafty ally Taravangian looms over every strategic move. Now, as new technological discoveries by Navani Kholin’s scholars begin to change the face of the war, the enemy prepares a bold and dangerous operation. The arms race that follows will challenge the very core of the Radiant ideals, and potentially reveal the secrets of the ancient tower that was once the heart of their strength. At the same time that Kaladin Stormblessed must come to grips with his changing role within the Knights Radiant, his Windrunners face their own problem: As more and more deadly enemy Fused awaken to wage war, no more honorspren are willing to bond with humans to increase the number of Radiants. Adolin and Shallan must lead the coalition’s envoy to the honorspren stronghold of Lasting Integrity and either convince the spren to join the cause against the evil god Odium, or personally face the storm of failure. Other Tor books by Brandon Sanderson The Cosmere The Stormlight Archive ● The Way of Kings ● Words of Radiance ● Edgedancer (novella) ● Oathbringer ● Dawnshard (novella) ● Rhythm of War The Mistborn Saga The Original Trilogy ● Mistborn ● The Well of Ascension ● The Hero of Ages Wax and Wayne ● The Alloy of Law ● Shadows of Self ● The Bands of Mourning ● The Lost Metal Other Cosmere novels ● Elantris ● Warbreaker ● Tress of the Emerald Sea ● Yumi and the Nightmare Painter ● The Sunlit Man Collection ● Arcanum Unbounded: The Cosmere Collection The Alcatraz vs. the Evil Librarians series ● Alcatraz vs. the Evil Librarians ● The Scrivener's Bones ● The Knights of Crystallia ● The Shattered Lens ● The Dark Talent ● Bastille vs. the Evil Librarians (with Janci Patterson) Other novels ● The Rithmatist ● Legion: The Many Lives of Stephen Leeds ● The Frugal Wizard’s Handbook for Surviving Medieval England Other books by Brandon Sanderson The Reckoners ● Steelheart ● Firefight ● Calamity Skyward ● Skyward ● Starsight ● Cytonic ● Skyward Flight (with Janci Patterson) ● Defiant At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied. |
| sparknotes bright lights big city: Supper Club Lara Williams, 2020-09-01 Named a Best Book of the Year: Vogue * TIME * Real Simple * Kirkus Reviews A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice For fans of Sally Rooney's Normal People: A sharply intelligent and intimate debut novel about a secret society of hungry young women who meet after dark and feast to reclaim their appetites--and their physical spaces--that posits the question: If you feed a starving woman, what will she grow into? Roberta spends her life trying not to take up space. At almost thirty, she is adrift and alienated from life. Stuck in a mindless job and reluctant to pursue her passion for food, she suppresses her appetite and recedes to the corners of rooms. But when she meets Stevie, a spirited and effervescent artist, their intense friendship sparks a change in Roberta, a shift in her desire for more. Together, they invent the Supper Club, a transgressive and joyous collective of women who gather to celebrate, rather than admonish, their hungers. They gather after dark and feast until they are sick; they break into private buildings and leave carnage in their wake; they embrace their changing bodies; they stop apologizing. For these women, each extraordinary yet unfulfilled, the club is a way to explore, discover, and push the boundaries of the space they take up in the world. Yet as the club expands, growing in both size and rebellion, Roberta is forced to reconcile herself to the desire and vulnerabilities of the body--and the past she has worked so hard to repress. Devastatingly perceptive and savagely funny, Supper Club is an essential coming-of-age story for our times. |
| sparknotes bright lights big city: About the Author John Colapinto, 2009-03-17 Award–winning and New York Times–bestselling writer John Colapinto’s About the Author is “a thriller worthy of Hitchcock at his best” (Stephen King). Despite a severe case of writer’s block, Cal Cunningham dreams of writing a novel that will permit him to escape from his life as a penniless stockboy in dirty and dangerous upper Manhattan bookstore. However, when his roommate is suddenly killed in a bicycle accident, Cal is suddenly the author of a page-turning autobiography. Propelled to the top of the bestseller lists with million-dollar movie deals, Cal finds that he has realized his most outlandish fantasies of literary success. That is, until he discovers that someone knows his secret . . . A searingly funny psychological thriller, About the Author delves into the excesses of the publishing world and shows that sometimes the difference between reality and imagination can be fatal. “Splendid suspense.” —Stephen King “Clever and entertaining.” —Elle “Shamelessly entertaining.” —USA Today “A rare and successful mix of spoof and suspense.” —Entertainment Weekly “A well-paced and often darkly humorous thriller that scores direct hits on the publishing industry.” —New York Times Book Review “John Colapinto’s clever and delightfully nasty book . . . is the literary equivalent of M. C. Escher’s hands drawing each other.” —Baltimore Sun “John Colapinto’s comic literary thriller is a page-turning pleasure.” —San Francisco Chronicle |
| sparknotes bright lights big city: The Way of Kings Brandon Sanderson, 2014-03-04 A new epic fantasy series from the New York Times bestselling author chosen to complete Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time® Series |
| sparknotes bright lights big city: A Hedonist in the Cellar Jay McInerney, 2012-05-01 _______________ 'McInerney's wine judgements are sound, his anecdotes witty, and his literary references impeccable. Not many wine books are good reads; this one is' - New York Times 'A cracking read' - Daily Telegraph 'Personal, enlightening, and above all fun to read' - Michael Broadbent, Master of Wine of Christie's 'Brilliant, witty, comical and often shamelessly candid and provocative' - Robert M. Parker Jr, The Wine Advocate _______________ WINNER OF THE BEST WINE LITERATURE AWARD, GOURMAND WORLD COOKBOOK AWARDS Jay McInerney, internationally celebrated author of Bright Lights, Big City, turns his hand here to his lifelong love affair with wine. Peals of wisdom are offered on the subjects of the best wine for romantics, the parallels between Californian wines and floundering Hollywood stars, the choice of wine for the author's own debauched forty-eighth birthday party, the 'high-testosterone grape' that is Colin Farrell, absinthe, 'the wild green fairy', and what wine is best drunk with chocolate. At the same time McInerney is a genuine connoisseur, taking the reader on a tour through the wine regions of the world and imparting tried and tested advice on grapes and vintages, bouquets, noses and finishes. |
| sparknotes bright lights big city: LIFE AFTER GOD Douglas Coupland, 2010-05-11 In this compellingly innovative collection of stories, bestselling author Douglas Coupland cuts through the hype of modern living to find a rare grace amid our lives—uncovering a new kind of truth for a culture stuck on fast-forward: a culture seemingly beyond God. We are the first generation raised without God. We are creatures with strong religious impulses, yet they have nowhere to flow in this world of shopping and TV, Kraft dinners, and jets. How do we cope with loneliness? Anxiety? The collapse of relationships? How do we reach the quiet, safe layer of our lives? |
| sparknotes bright lights big city: Tuesday Nights in 1980 Molly Prentiss, 2016-05-26 LONGLISTED FOR THE 2016 CENTER FOR FICTION FIRST NOVEL PRIZE A dazzling literary debut about three lives colliding in 80s downtown New York On the eve of 1980, downtown New York is the centre of the universe. Here are the artistes and the socialites, the dealers, collectors, bartenders, freaks, party-goers and hangers-on-all looking to make it in the big city, teetering on the brink of selling out, searching for something to save them. Among them is painter Raul Engales, in exile from Argentina's Dirty War and his own past. Fresh on the downtown scene and posing as an art student, he has just caught the eye of New York's most infamous art critic: James Bennett. James has synaesthesia, experiencing life and art in wild, magical ways. He sees pictures as starbursts and fireworks, smells citrus when he says 'mother', and hears songs when he looks at sculptures. Art is James' gateway to endless new sensations, the secret to his success. In this city, his name is a byword for good taste - until the day his gift deserts him. And then there's Lucy: Raul's eager blonde muse. Newly escaped from the suburban nothingness of Idaho, impossibly young and still untouched by urban ennui, she is drawn like a firefly to the electric brilliance of the city-and especially to its artists... Over the course of one year, these three lives collide and remake each other. A brand new decade has just begun and New York is a crucible brimming with the energy of a million secret metamorphoses, poised to spill forth art, destruction and life itself into the waiting world. |
| sparknotes bright lights big city: Little Boy Lawrence Ferlinghetti, 2020-04-15 From the famed publisher and poet, author of the million-copy-selling collection A Coney Island of the Mind, his literary last will and testament -- part autobiography, part summing up, part Beat-inflected torrent of language and feeling, and all magical. A volcanic explosion of personal memories, political rants, social commentary, environmental jeremiads and cultural analysis all tangled together in one breathless sentence that would make James Joyce proud. . . —Ron Charles, The Washington Post In this unapologetically unclassifiable work Lawrence Ferlinghetti lets loose an exhilarating rush of language to craft what might be termed a closing statement about his highly significant and productive 99 years on this planet. The Little Boy of the title is Ferlinghetti himself as a child, shuffled from his overburdened mother to his French aunt to foster childhood with a rich Bronxville family. Service in World War Two (including the D-Day landing), graduate work, and a scholar gypsy's vagabond life in Paris followed. These biographical reminiscences are interweaved with Allen Ginsberg-esque high energy bursts of raw emotion, rumination, reflection, reminiscence and prognostication on what we may face as a species on Planet Earth in the future. Little Boy is a magical font of literary lore with allusions galore, a final repository of hard-earned and durable wisdom, a compositional high wire act without a net (or all that much punctuation) and just a gas and an inspiration to read. |
| sparknotes bright lights big city: Words of Radiance Brandon Sanderson, 2014-03-04 The war with the Parshendi moves into a new, dangerous phase, as Dalinar leads the human armies deep into the heart of the Shattered Plains. Meanwhile Shallan searches for the legendary city of Urithuru, and Kaladin, leader of the restored Knights Radiant, masters the powers of a Windrunner.--Publisher's description. |
| sparknotes bright lights big city: Trash Andy Mulligan, 2010-10-12 In an unnamed Third World country, in the not-so-distant future, three “dumpsite boys” make a living picking through the mountains of garbage on the outskirts of a large city. One unlucky-lucky day, Raphael finds something very special and very mysterious. So mysterious that he decides to keep it, even when the city police offer a handsome reward for its return. That decision brings with it terrifying consequences, and soon the dumpsite boys must use all of their cunning and courage to stay ahead of their pursuers. It’s up to Raphael, Gardo, and Rat—boys who have no education, no parents, no homes, and no money—to solve the mystery and right a terrible wrong. Andy Mulligan has written a powerful story about unthinkable poverty—and the kind of hope and determination that can transcend it. With twists and turns, unrelenting action, and deep, raw emotion, Trash is a heart-pounding, breath-holding novel. |
| sparknotes bright lights big city: Murder on the Orient Express: The Graphic Novel (Poirot) Agatha Christie, 2024-10-10 Experience Agatha Christie’s puzzling masterpiece as you've never seen it before with this official graphic novel adaptations! |
| sparknotes bright lights big city: Spy Notes on McInerney's Bright Lights, Big City, Janowitz's Slaves of New York, Ellis' Less Than Zero, and All Those Other Hip Urban Novels of the 1980s Spy Magazine, Spy Magazine Editors, 1989 Spy Notes is deadpan parody, a Cliffs Notes for the ultra hip pop novels that have served to define the fiction of the eighties. Summarizes drug-, sex-, and postadolescent-angst-filled plots in the flat, junior college, arch-academic tone characteristic of Cliffs and Monarch Notes. Doubleday. |
| sparknotes bright lights big city: Popular Music Theory and Analysis Thomas Robinson, 2017-04-21 Popular Music Theory and Analysis: A Research and Information Guide uncovers the wealth of scholarly works dealing with the theory and analysis of popular music. This annotated bibliography is an exhaustive catalog of music-theoretical and musicological works that is searchable by subject, genre, and song title. It will support emerging scholarship and inquiry for future research on popular music. |
| sparknotes bright lights big city: Fahrenheit 451 Ray Bradbury, 1993 A book burner in a future fascist state finds out books are a vital part of a culture he never knew. He clandestinely pursues reading, until he is betrayed. |
| sparknotes bright lights big city: Write and Revise for Publication Jack Smith, 2013-07-11 Your first draft is a work of imagination, but that doesn't mean it's a work of art--not yet. With Jack Smith's technical and inspirational guidance, you can turn your initial draft into a compelling story brimming with memorable characters and a page-turning plot. As Jack states inside Write and Revise for Publication, writing is a complex act, one that calls upon all the powers of our creative resources, imagination, and intellect. Top-notch storytelling is not achieved the first time around, nor should it be expected so soon. But it is possible. Through Jack's detailed instruction and precise methods, you will learn the revision techniques and fine-tuning skills needed to create powerful, polished works ready to submit to magazines, agents, and publishers. As inspiring as it is practical...combines great advice, apt examples, and a can-do spirit that will excite and improve any aspiring writer. --Ron Hansen, author of A Wild Surge of Guilty Passion and The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford I believe Jack Smith might have written THE BOOK on writing and revising for publication. Clean, direct, succinct--a book that is full of pure wisdom and truth, but also amazing technical advice. --Virgil Suarez, author of Latin Jazz, The Cutter, Havana Thursdays, and Welcome to he Oasis |
| sparknotes bright lights big city: Oathbringer Brandon Sanderson, 2017-11-14 The eagerly awaited sequel to the #1 New York Times bestselling Words of Radiance, from epic fantasy author Brandon Sanderson at the top of his game. In Oathbringer, the third volume of the New York Times bestselling Stormlight Archive, humanity faces a new Desolation with the return of the Voidbringers, a foe with numbers as great as their thirst for vengeance. Dalinar Kholin’s Alethi armies won a fleeting victory at a terrible cost: The enemy Parshendi summoned the violent Everstorm, which now sweeps the world with destruction, and in its passing awakens the once peaceful and subservient parshmen to the horror of their millennia-long enslavement by humans. While on a desperate flight to warn his family of the threat, Kaladin Stormblessed must come to grips with the fact that the newly kindled anger of the parshmen may be wholly justified. Nestled in the mountains high above the storms, in the tower city of Urithiru, Shallan Davar investigates the wonders of the ancient stronghold of the Knights Radiant and unearths dark secrets lurking in its depths. And Dalinar realizes that his holy mission to unite his homeland of Alethkar was too narrow in scope. Unless all the nations of Roshar can put aside Dalinar’s blood-soaked past and stand together—and unless Dalinar himself can confront that past—even the restoration of the Knights Radiant will not prevent the end of civilization. Other Tor books by Brandon Sanderson The Cosmere The Stormlight Archive The Way of Kings Words of Radiance Edgedancer (Novella) Oathbringer (forthcoming) The Mistborn saga Mistborn: The Final Empire The Well of Ascension The Hero of Ages Alloy of Law Shadows of Self Bands of Mourning Collection Arcanum Unbounded Other Cosmere Titles Elantris Warbreaker The Alcatraz vs. the Evil Librarians series Alcatraz vs. the Evil Librarians The Scrivener's Bones The Knights of Crystallia The Shattered Lens The Dark Talent Rithmatist The Rithmatist Other books by Brandon Sanderson The Reckoners Steelheart Firefight Calamity |
| sparknotes bright lights big city: The City of Ember Jeanne DuPrau, 2009-07-15 Many hundreds of years ago, the city of Ember was created by the Builders to contain everything needed for human survival. It worked - but now the storerooms are almost out of food, crops are blighted, corruption is spreading through the city and worst of all - the lights are failing. Soon Ember could be engulfed by darkness-But when two children, Lina and Doon, discover fragments of an ancient parchment, they begin to wonder if there could be a way out of Ember. Can they decipher the words from long ago and find a new future for everyone? Will the people of Ember listen to them? |
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SparkNotes is a resource you can turn to when you’re confuzzled. We help you understand books, write papers, and study for tests. We’re clear and concise, but we never leave out …
SparkNotes: Today's Most Popular Study Guides
SparkNotes are the most helpful study guides around to literature, math, science, and more. Find sample tests, essay help, and translations of Shakespeare.
LitCharts | From the creators of SparkNotes, something better.
From the creators of SparkNotes, something better. Understand more, faster. Free!
SparkNotes - Wikipedia
SparkNotes, originally part of a website called The Spark, is a company started by Harvard students Sam Yagan, Max Krohn, Chris Coyne, and Eli Bolotin in 1999 that originally provided study guides …
SPARKNOTES - Facebook
SPARKNOTES. 302,495 likes · 37 talking about this. The best study guides in the universe / the real MVP. Follow us on Twitter @SparkNotes Instagram...
Literature Study Guides - SparkNotes
Understand more than 700 works of literature, including To Kill a Mockingbird, The Catcher in the Rye, 1984, and Lord of the Flies at SparkNotes.com.
SparkNotes | Hachette Book Group
SparkNotes is a resource for students and teachers whose mission is to help students “make sense of confusing schoolwork.” It publishes books, blogs, quizzes, and flashcards, and offers multiple …
The 1000 Most Common SAT Words - SparkNotes
(After studying with SparkNotes and getting a great score on the SAT, Marlena happily realized that her goal of getting into an Ivy-League college was accessible .)
SparkNotes - Poem Analysis
On SparkNotes, readers can get access to physical and online study material, as well as resources for eReaders. On their website, there are summaries and critical analyses as well as around 500 …
SparkTeach: SparkNotes for Teachers
SparkNotes Plus subscription is $4.99/month or $24.99/year as selected above. The free trial period is the first 7 days of your subscription. TO CANCEL YOUR SUBSCRIPTION AND AVOID …
SparkNotes | Review & Analysis NoSweatShakespeare ️
SparkNotes is a resource you can turn to when you’re confuzzled. We help you understand books, write papers, and study for tests. We’re clear and concise, but we never leave out important info. …
