{"id":69754,"date":"2020-11-23T14:08:00","date_gmt":"2020-11-23T19:08:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thebookbeat.com\/backroom\/?p=69754"},"modified":"2020-11-23T21:21:40","modified_gmt":"2020-11-24T02:21:40","slug":"obsessive-reader-sissy-test","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thebookbeat.com\/backroom\/2020\/11\/23\/obsessive-reader-sissy-test\/","title":{"rendered":"The Obsessive Reader Sissy Test"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Obsessive Reader Sissy Test is an “ultimate holiday gift book” catalog for obsessive readers without a budget, compiled with suggestions made by reviewer Tom Bowden. Books are available in store, by special order, or through links supplied in the reviews to our Bookshop.org<\/a> site. Please call Book Beat for any questions, orders or suggestions: (248) 968-1190 Thank you for shopping local and supporting local bookstores this holiday! <\/strong><\/p>\n

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For the Political History Fan
\n(who hasn’t yet read the best biography of a U.S. President)<\/h3>\n

\"\"Robert A. Caro’s The Years of Lyndon Johnson Set : The Path to Power; Means of Ascent; Master of the Senate; The Passage of Power<\/strong>
\nHardcover set, by special order, $184.95<\/p>\n

The political biography of our time, now available in a four-volume hardcover set.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Robert A. Caro\u2019s life of Lyndon Johnson is one of the richest, most intensive and most revealing examinations ever undertaken of an American president. It is the magnum opus of a writer perfectly suited to his task: the Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer-historian, chronicler also of Robert Moses in The Power Broker, whose inspired research and profound understanding of the nature of ambition and the dynamics of power have made him a peerless explicator of political lives.<\/p>\n

\u201cTaken together the installments of Mr. Caro\u2019s monumental life of Johnson . . . form a revealing prism by which to view the better part of a century in American life and politics during which the country experienced tumultuous and divisive social change. . .Gripping.\u201d –Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times<\/p>\n

\u201cBy writing the best presidential biography the country has ever seen, Caro has forever changed the way we think, and read, American history . . . It\u2019s his immense talent as a writer that has made his biography of Johnson one of America\u2019s most amazing literary achievements . . . As absorbing as a political thriller . . .A masterpiece, unlike any other work of American history published in the past. It\u2019s true that there will never be another Lyndon B. Johnson, but there will never be another Robert A. Caro, either.\u201d \u2013NPR<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the truly great political biographies of the modern age. A masterpiece\u201d –The Times (London)<\/p>\n

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Hobbit You Haven’t Read This 5,300-page Beast!<\/h3>\n

\"\"The History of Middle-Earth Boxed Set<\/a> <\/strong><\/h3>\n

This very special collector’s edition brings together all twelve books into three hardback volumes–over 5,000 pages of fascinating Tolkien material–and places them in one matching box.<\/p>\n

J.R.R. Tolkien is famous the world over for his unique literary creation, exemplified in The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion. What is less well known, however, is that he also produced a vast amount of further material that greatly expands upon the mythology and numerous stories of Middle-earth, and which gives added life to the thousand-year war between the Elves and the evil spirit Morgoth, and his terrifying lieutenant, Sauron.<\/p>\n

It was to this enormous task of literary construction that Tolkien’s youngest son and literary heir, Christopher, applied himself to produce the monumental and endlessly fascinating series of twelve volumes, The History of Middle-earth.<\/p>\n

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Five Decades of Photography: a Legendary Career<\/h3>\n

\"\"Gordon Parks: Collected Works: Study Edition<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

A self-taught polymath, Parks chronicled the African-American experience and retold his own personal history<\/strong><\/p>\n

This five-volume collection surveys five decades of Gordon Parks\u2019 (1912\u20132006) photography. It is the most extensive publication to document his legendary career. Widely recognized as the most important and influential African-American photographer of the 20th century, Parks combined a unique documentary and artistic style with a profound commitment to social justice.<\/p>\n

Working first for the Farm Security Administration and later for Life magazine, he specialized in extended-narrative picture stories on difficult subject matter. Covering crime, poverty, segregation, the politics of race and class, and controversial personalities, Parks became legendary for his ability to meld penetrating insight with a lyrical aesthetic. He was thus able to introduce a broad and diverse public to people, issues and ideas they might otherwise have ignored. Parks was remarkably versatile, traveling the world to photograph news events and fashion, as well as the worlds of art, literature, music, theater and film. Later in life, he reconceived his vision in fundamentally personal and poetic terms, producing color photographs that were allusive rather than descriptive, symbolic rather than literal.<\/p>\n

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The Ultimate Notebooks of the Unconscious Mind<\/h3>\n

\"\"The Black Books<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/h3>\n

Until now, the single most important unpublished work by C.G. Jung\u2014The Black Books.<\/strong><\/p>\n

In 1913, C.G. Jung started a unique self- experiment that he called his \u201cconfrontation with the unconscious\u201d: an engagement with his fantasies in a waking state, which he charted in a series of notebooks referred to as The Black Books. These intimate writings shed light on the further elaboration of Jung\u2019s personal cosmology and his attempts to embody insights from his self- investigation into his life and personal relationships. The Red Book drew on material recorded from 1913 to 1916, but Jung actively kept the notebooks for many more decades.<\/p>\n

Presented in a magnificent, seven-volume boxed collection featuring a revelatory essay by noted Jung scholar Sonu Shamdasani\u2014illuminated by a selection of Jung\u2019s vibrant visual works\u2014and both translated and facsimile versions of each notebook, The Black Books offer a unique portal into Jung\u2019s mind and the origins of analytical psychology.
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