A collection of novelist's non-fiction writings spanning more than thirty years addresses topics including the arts, science, literature, popular culture, and his own life.

From the much-acclaimed novelist and essayist, a beautifully rendered, poignant collection of personal essays, chronicling immigrant and Iranian-American life in our contemporary moment. Novelist Porochista Khakpour's family moved to Los Angeles after fleeing the Iranian Revolution, giving up their successes only to be greeted by an alienating culture. Growing up as an immigrant in America means that one has to make one's way through a confusing tangle of conflicting cultures and expectations. And Porochista is pulled between the glitzy culture of Tehrangeles, an enclave of wealthy Iranians and Persians in LA, her own family's modest life and culture, and becoming an assimilated American. Porochista rebels--she bleaches her hair and flees to the East Coast, where she finds her community: other people writing and thinking at the fringes. But, 9/11 happens and with horror, Porochista watches from her apartment window as the towers fall. Extremism and fear of the Middle East rises in the aftermath and then again with the election of Donald Trump. Porochista is forced to finally grapple with what it means to be Middle-Eastern and Iranian, an immigrant, and a refugee in our country today. Brown Album is a stirring collection of essays, at times humorous and at times profound, drawn from more than a decade of Porochista's work and with new material included. Altogether, it reveals the tolls that immigrant life in this country can take on a person and the joys that life can give.

Complete revision of the author's "Book reviewing", originally published in 1945.

Book Description: This widely used text provides invaluable guidelines for reading literature creatively. It presents various critical approaches to studying and evaluating the elements of literature, including fiction, drama and poetry.

The skill of good essay writing is essential if you are to achieve the kind of grades you want in the courses you are studying. This is true whether you are studying at GCSE, AS or A levels at school or college, or trying to gain a degree at university. The advice and practical guidance you receive in this book will enable you to improve your grade assessments by putting into practice some simple, but invaluable principles of essay writing. These approaches will work for you whether you are facing assessment in timed exam conditions or being judged by coursework assignments. This book will take you step by step from your opening to your closing paragraph, so that you focus your thoughts on answering the assignment appropriately and relevantly. It also contains ten sample essays and useful chapters on grammar, accuracy and spelling.

Stop Writing Wack Essays, the first book in the "I Can Write That" series, is a conversational, unfiltered appeal to college-level writers to not only think critically about their approach to composition and writing, but an encouraging, no-holds-barred guide for crafting a writing process that will give them the time and space to create their best work. From goal-setting and "Avoiding the 'Oh Crap!'" to grammar tips and best practices, this book is a companion piece for any college writer who's looking to fine-tune, or even re-design, their approach to essay writing and critical analysis.