Search results for ""Author Alex Palmer""

A festive, delightfully-illustrated compendium that features holiday traditions from around the world. From Jólabókaflóð (Christmas Book Flood) in Iceland to Festa dei sette pesci (Feast of Fishes) in Italy and Christmas lanterns in the Philippines, The Atlas of Christmas uncovers the fascinating (and sometimes, downright odd) ways that people and nations celebrate the holiday season, and inspires us to share these unique traditions together with family and friends.Do you know that in Guatemala there's a "Burn the Devil" tradition to kick off the Christmas season, where people gather to set fire to devil-piñatas? Or that in Sweden, a popular figure in Christmas traditions is the Yule Goat, a rowdy, menacing character who demands gifts? Serbian men traditionally throw grain and corn at a tree, then kiss its bark, before they cut it down to make a Yule Log. And in Japan, a big bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken has become the classic Christmas Day feast. These and many other global Christmas traditions are featured here in this delightful little book. From decorations and activities to feasts and special treats, there's a wide range of both lovely and unusual traditions from around the globe.

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Packed with fascinating facts, Literary Miscellany is sure to please both professor and pleasure reader alike. Wouldn’t it be great to be a fly on the wall as the great writers took pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard)? While reading this work, you’ll be just that. Here are behind-the-book stories and facts about authors, publishing and everything literary that will entertain both casual and serious readers. Among the questions asked and answered: • When Did Literature Finally Get Sexy? • Is Coffee or Opium Better for Literary Creativity? • Why Are the Best Autobiographies so Embarrassing? • Why Do Some Detectives Use Their Minds and Others Their Fists? Who knew that bestseller lists and children’s books could be the source of intense controversy? Or that even the biggest writers had to scrape by, with odd jobs and inventions like the Mark Twain Self-Pasting Scrapbook? In Literary Miscellany, examine the trend of “fake memoirs,” with a list of who lied about what, and a rogues’ gallery of hoaxers dating back centuries. From epic poetry and Homer to pulp fiction and Harry Potter, Literary Miscellany, now available for the first time in paperback, is a breezy tour through the literature of today and yesterday, packed with enough interesting facts to entertain both the erudite professor and pleasure reader.

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Before the charismatic John Duval Gluck, Jr. came along, letters from New York City children to Santa Claus were destroyed, unopened, by the U.S. Post Office. Gluck saw an opportunity, and created the Santa Claus Association. The effort delighted the public, and for 15 years money and gifts flowed to the only group authorized to answer Santa’s mail. Gluck became a Jazz Age celebrity, rubbing shoulders with the era’s movie stars and politicians, and even planned to erect a vast Santa Claus monument in the center of Manhattan — until Gotham’s crusading charity commissioner discovered some dark secrets in Santa’s workshop. The rise and fall of the Santa Claus Association is a caper both heartwarming and hardboiled, involving stolen art, phony Boy Scouts, a kidnapping, pursuit by the FBI, a Coney Island bullfight, and above all, the thrills and dangers of a wild imagination. It’s also the larger story of how Christmas became the extravagant holiday we celebrate today, from Santa’s early beginnings in New York to the country’s first citywide Christmas tree and Macy’s first grand holiday parade. The Santa Claus Man is a holiday tale with a dark underbelly, and an essential read for lovers of Christmas stories, true crime, and New York City history.

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