The University In Crumbs

Occupying a space in-between conventional scholarship and imaginative storytelling, The University in Crumbs: A Register of Things Seen and Heard is an experimental work that dramatizes the everyday life of the academy. Consisting primarily of a series of five first-person reports, Robert Porter, Kerry-Ann Porter and Iain Mackenzie provide the reader with a number of stories that attempt to capture some of their everyday experiences of academic life in the UK, roughly between 2017 and 2022. Self-consciously written in a subjective and conversational register, and often in dialogical form, The University in Crumbs is an accessible series of interrelated narratives that allow us to develop a concrete sense of the grain, texture and feel for what it might be like to work in the academy at a specific point in time. These stories, first-person reports, dialogues, come alive, acquire their meaning, force and pragmatic effect by way of a rather unique circumlocutory form. There is a directedness to the everyday talk engaged in by Robert, Kerry-Ann and Iain that nonetheless, simultaneously, indirectly loops in and out of a kind of technical academic talk that provides the book its light and shade. University in Crumbs is an experimental work that implicitly and explicitly animates philosophy, social, cultural and political theory through first-person experiences and, in so doing, breathes new life into what can often otherwise remain rather conventional and technical academic language-games. More than that, this book dramatizes ideas and concepts in ways perhaps less burdened by the weight of canonical tradition, and encourages those readers with the talent to portray their social world differently to be more licentious and less bashful in putting such talents to work.

Set in an Iraqi village during the Iran-Iraq war, Scattered Crumbs critiques a totalitarian dictatorship through the stories of an impoverished peasant family. A father, a fierce supporter of Saddam Hussein - here called only the Leader - clashes with his artist son, who loves his homeland but finds himself literally unable to paint the Leader's portrait for his father's wall. The novel evokes the deterioration both of the country and of the individual characters caught up in the maelstrom. Scattered Crumbs was first published in Arabic in Cairo in 2000. This translation captures the subtle sarcasm of the original text and its elliptical rhythms.

A baking cookbook from The Great British Bakeoff contestant Ruby Tandoh, with a focus on charming, flavorful, and practical dishes that celebrate the joy of casual baking. Enjoy the pleasures that baking has to offer, from the exertion of a long knead to the crackle of a loaf cooling on the countertop. Crumb presents a simple yet exuberant sort of baking, with recipes such as Chamomile Vanilla Cupcakes, Rosemary Pecan Pie, Fennel Seed & Chile Crackers, and Chocolate Lime Mud Cake that excite the palate and bring bliss to everyday baking. A delight to read as well as to cook from, Crumb covers a range of projects from sweet to savory--including cakes, cookies, crackers, bread, pastries, pies, tarts, and more. This is baking stripped back and enjoyed for its own sake, with recipes you’ll return to over and over again.

Elena Gorokhova’s A Mountain of Crumbs is the moving story of a Soviet girl who discovers the truths adults are hiding from her and the lies her homeland lives by. Elena’s country is no longer the majestic Russia of literature or the tsars, but a nation struggling to retain its power and its pride. Born with a desire to explore the world beyond her borders, Elena finds her passion in the complexity of the English language—but in the Soviet Union of the 1960s such a passion verges on the subversive. Elena is controlled by the state the same way she is controlled by her mother, a mirror image of her motherland: overbearing, protective, difficult to leave. In the battle between a strong-willed daughter and her authoritarian mother, the daughter, in the end, must break free and leave in order to survive. Through Elena’s captivating voice, we learn not only the stories of Russian family life in the second half of the twentieth century, but also the story of one rebellious citizen whose curiosity and determination finally transport her to a new world. It is an elegy to the lost country of childhood, where those who leave can never return.

After moving into a dank and drafty basement suite in West Edmonton with her truck-driving father, nasty stepmother, and Ash, her taciturn twin brother, seventeen-year-old Greta doesn't have high expectations for her last year of high school. When she blacks out at a party and is told the next day that she's had sex, she thinks things can't get any worse. She's wrong. While Greta deals with the confusion and shame of that night, her stepmother and father choose that moment to disappear, abandoning Ash and Greta to the mercy of their peculiar landlord, Elgin, who lives upstairs. Even as Greta struggles to make sense of what happened to her, she finds herself enjoying her new and very eccentric family, who provide the shelter and support that has long been absent from her life. Much to Greta's surprise, she realizes there is still kindness in the world—and hope.

Here are five first books for fledgling readers that offer the enjoyment of a good story along with the thrill of accomplishment that comes from independent reading. Written in short, easy phrases with carefully selected vocabulary and plentiful illustrations, each book helps youngsters achieve success as they have fun. The series follows three friends who love to share stories. In each book, one is reminded of a well-known story: Little Red Riding Hood in It's Not About the Hunter!, Beauty and the Beast in It's Not About the Rose!, Snow White in It's Not About the Apple!, Cinderella in It's Not About the Pumpkin!, and Hansel and Gretel in It's Not About the Crumbs! As one friend starts, the others are reminded of versions they know so each volume has three stories within one framework. The stories come from around the world, and Veronika Martenova Charles provides a note at the end of each book to describe the origins. Easy-To-Read Wonder Tales is a great first step in developing a lifelong love of reading, and it makes a fine companion to Veronika Martenova Charles's series, Easy-To-Read Spooky Tales.

THE STORY: Recently widowed Godfrey, and his daughters Ernestine and Ermina, move from Florida to Brooklyn for a better life. Not knowing how to parent, Godfrey turns to religion, and especially to Father Divine, for answers. The girls absorb their