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Powell's Staff:
Five Book Friday: In Memoriam
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Every year, the booksellers at Powell’s submit their Top Fives: their five favorite books that were released in 2023. It’s a list that, when put together, shows just how varied and interesting the book tastes of Powell’s booksellers are. I highly recommend digging into the recommendations — we would never lead you astray — but today...
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Brontez Purnell:
Powell’s Q&A: Brontez Purnell, author of ‘Ten Bridges I’ve Burnt’
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Rachael P.:
Starter Pack: Where to Begin with Ursula K. Le Guin
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The Swerve: How the World Became Modern
by
Greenblatt, Stephen
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Synopses & Reviews
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ISBN13:
9780393343403
ISBN10:
0393343405
Condition:
Standard
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$11.95
List Price:
$18.95
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Awards
2011 National Book Award Winner for Nonfiction
4.5
11
What Our Readers Are Saying
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Average customer rating 4.5 (11 comments)
`
Professor Colby Glass
, April 24, 2015
(view all comments by Professor Colby Glass)
Swerve is one of the best books I have ever read. It is well-written and erudite, covering such wonderful subjects as the humanists, Petrarch, printing, Aldus Menutius, scribes, Lucretius, palimpsests, Herculaneum, libraries, Cicero, lost manuscripts, Greek and Latin, Thomas Jefferson, the invention of alphabetic order by Zenodotus, Erasmus, and many other fascinating subjects. It is like sitting down and having a conversation with a really educated person. It focuses on the Renaissance and the discovery by Poggio Bracciolini of Lucretius' lost manuscript in a monastary. If you like the Renaissance, you will love this book.
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Jeffrey Bluhm
, November 04, 2013
(view all comments by Jeffrey Bluhm)
I started this novel with great reluctance - an obscure book hunter in the 1400s, searching for a poem I'd not heard of by an ancient author whose name I did not recognize. However, I found it to be surprisingly, and enjoyably, readable. The history, politics, and religion of the time are lucidly described. The education and life of the book hunter give a strong sense of his character (and who can dislike a guy named Poggio?). The core themes of the poem are outlined with the correct amount of detail, and the net result is an interesting, entertaining story of how modern secular precepts emerged from the intolerant theocratic European societies of the Middle Ages. One might argue with the primacy the author claims for the role of the poem, but the journey he takes the reader on illustrates how many of our modern social ideals evolved.
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Bernie Smith
, January 30, 2013
A fine read. Well researched. Scholarly. Absorbing and thought provoking.
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Anat
, January 30, 2013
(view all comments by Anat)
The fascinating tale of a search for a poem that ultimately changed the world. Reads like a thriller. With style and the amazing ability to excite an intellectual curiosity, S. Greenblat brings us history, philosophy literature and above all an Epicurean intellectual pleasure/
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ddt
, January 30, 2013
the wisdom of the ancients still resonates
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Portugalicia
, January 06, 2013
(view all comments by Portugalicia)
Habent sua fata libri. The destiny of one concrete book is always a fascinating story, especially when the book comes from the Classic times and it surfaces centuries later in one single copy. This is the case of Lucretius´ De rerum natura (On the Nature of Things). The history of its discovery and the life of the man who discovered it (Poggio Bracciolini) are indeed fascinating and worth reading. However, Greenblatt may be giving Epicureanism an importance it does not have.
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Donovan
, January 03, 2013
(view all comments by Donovan)
Rather fanciful description of what is going through 15th century minds but still thought provoking and interesting.
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Nancy Karp
, January 01, 2013
This is a brilliant book. Beautifully written and fascinating subject. It held my interest cover to cover.
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okay
, January 01, 2013
This is a fascinating look at the complexity of change and how long lived ideas are. The writer traces how a central idea is interpreted and reinterpreted in an engagingly written story.
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Lynette
, January 01, 2013
(view all comments by Lynette)
Fascinating, well-written, informative, and unexpectedly inspiring. To follow the wisdom of Epicurus from several centuries BC, through the life and experience of a scribe from the Middle Ages, to fruition in the art of the Renaissance, was a pure joy. I had no idea these ideas and insights were so ancient, or that they have had such a powerful influence over the centuries. I loved this book, have bought it for others and loaned mine out to friends. When I get it back, I'll read it again.
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Mary B
, January 01, 2013
If you love books and the history of ideas then you will want to read The Swerve. This is the tale of Poggio Bracciolini, a 15th century book hunter, who rediscovered an ancient text by Lucretius, On the Nature of Things.
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View all 11 comments
Product Details
ISBN:
9780393343403
Binding:
Trade Paperback
Publication date:
09/04/2012
Publisher:
W W NORTON & CO
Pages:
368
Height:
.94IN
Width:
5.55IN
Thickness:
1.25
Illustration:
Yes
Copyright Year:
2011
Author:
Stephen Greenblatt
Subject:
World History - Medieval and Renaissance
$11.95
List Price:
$18.95
Used Trade Paperback
Ships in 1 to 3 days
Qty
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1
Burnside
3
Cedar Hills
More copies of this ISBN
New, Trade Paperback, $18.95
Used, Trade Paperback, $9.95
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