Best Selling Books by David Brooks

This is a biography of Dan Levenson, an old-time banjo and fiddle player from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Between 1987 and 1991, Dan worked for Goose Acres Folk Music Center in Cleveland, Ohio, where he dove deeply into old-time music. In the late 1980s, he formed the Boiled Buzzards; they recorded four albums between 1989 and 1994 and were a consistently active presence at old-time music festivals. He also played with Bob Frank during that time as one-half of the Hotfoot Duo. In 1995, he teamed up with Kim Murley and recorded New Frontier: Instrumentals from China and America. Levenson undertook his first cross-country trip as a solo performer in 1996. His traveling workshop "Meet the Banjo" ran with the sponsorship of Deering Banjos from the late 1990s to the early 2000s. Dan recorded three projects in the first five years of the 2000s and began editing the quarterly "Old Time Way" section for Banjo Newsletter in 2005. He continues performing old-time music, teaching fiddle and banjo, writing instructional and repertoire books featuring banjo and fiddle tunes for Mel Bay, and making plans for more old-time music projects.

The Necessity of Atheism presents an overview of religious scepticism in the 1930s, and a look at on-going debate and like scepticism even today. Despite obvious conflict of its central topic coupled with the thorough deconstruction of all major religious figures and practices through time, I see this work as mainly offering a range of viewpoints on religious beliefs, systems and practices and not necessarily seeking to dissuade the reader from religious thought in anyway...I think this work is only for the open-minded or the free-thinker and even an opportunity for thought by those only previously exposed to religion, but it should not be employed as a tool for conflict.Plain speaking is necessary in any discussion of religion, for if the freethinker attacks the religious dogmas with hesitation, the orthodox believer assumes that it is with regret that the freethinker would remove the crutch that supports the orthodox. And all religious beliefs are "crutches" hindering the free locomotive efforts of an advancing humanity. There are no problems related to human progress and happiness in this age which any theology can solve, and which the teachings of freethought cannot do better and without the aid of encumbrances.

Guidelines are presented to help a person feel better about himself or herself. The book is premised on the four A''s: attitude, action, achievement, and acknowledgment. To assure successful repair or maintenance of self-esteem, one must have the right attitude, take the proper action--one that will lead to achievements--and then one must acknowledge those achievements. Exercises for self-esteem repair and enhancement, encouraging quotations, and recaps that emphasize significant points fill the book. The volume''s 10 chapters cover: (1) Setting the Stage; (2) Embarking on Your Journey; (3) Language--Discovering the Power of Self-Talk; (4) Framework for Success; (5) Envision; (6) Strategize; (7) Test; (8) Engage; (9) Evaluate; and (10) Maintenance. (DB)

A reality-based textbook program that helps students learn the soft skills and real-life competencies that lead to success. Intertwines examples from the world of work with skills practice lessons. Students learn a variety of careers, write job-related documents, and reflect on important literature that is linked to good character.

Evidently she knew who I was, or thought she did, since I had apparently needed no introduction and certainly hadn’t received one... She told stories. One could almost say she rushed into them, on the merest of pretexts, as if the world was ending very shortly and they had to be got through before it happened.A century of family secrets starts to unravel when Benedict Waters is summoned to an audience with an old friend of his mother. He is seduced by her storytelling and it takes time and an astonishing revelation before he realises that it is his own family he has been hearing about, his own life that is being undone.From the Blue Mountains to the Hawkesbury and from Sydney to the south coast of New South Wales, The Fern Tattoo takes us on a kaleidoscopic journey through several generations of three families. We meet a range of extraordinary characters including a bigamist bishop, a librarian tattooed from neck to knee, a young girl who kills her best friend in a tragic shooting accident and a pair of lovers who live each other’s lives for years after they have separated. As with all families, there are lost loves, tragic passions and unspoken - sometimes unspeakable - histories. The Fern Tattoo is a beguiling novel about the certainty of fate and the randomness of love that announces David Brooks’ return as one of Australia’s most distinctive literary novelists.

"The Balcony is a stunning follow-up to David Brooks long-awaited second collection of poems, Walking to Point Clear. His spare, existential lyrics arresting, candid, perceptive focus on language, new love and his enduring love of the coastal rainforests of southern New South Wales."--Provided by publisher.

David Brooks is an anthropologist who has worked with the Ngaanyatjarra people, including the people at Wanarn, for over twenty-five years. He researched and wrote the connection reports through which they gained native title rights over the huge tract of the Australian Western Desert that is their home, and has worked with them on matters from negotiating with mining companies to facing the challenges of making education meaningful to the youth. He has written extensively on the rich desert Tjukurrpa and art, and on the layers of social and cultural interconnectedness of the people. Brooks is an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Western Australia. Darren Jorgensen lectures in art history in the Faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Visual Arts at the University of Western Australia. He has written on Australian art, especially from the Kimberley and the Ngaanyatjarra Lands, for academic journals, art magazines and newspapers. He also writes on music and science fiction, enjoys surfing badly and drinking whisky well, and lives with his partner and two children in Perth.

Diasporic Identities and Empire: Cultural Contentions and Literary Landscapes explores traditional theories on hybridity, generated in consideration of multicultural infusions, and at times profusions, of colonial migrations. Arguments on defining Englishness and the insinuations of a ‘fixed centre’ for the marginalised are now considered on a global scale as postmodernity defies imperial homogeneity. Although postcolonial studies have largely been Anglocentric and Western in focus, developments elsewhere have opened up theoretical applications on cultural shifters such as that of the diaspora. The Arabian world, the Caribbean, North and Latin America, Australia, and more recently, countries such as Ireland and Scotland, have emerged as regions confronted with comparable power struggles. Mass migration, exile, refugee reshuffling and diasporic repositioning provide neo-hermeneutics on the predicament of the global, which is undergoing major geopolitical and cultural transformation. This volume addresses how writing from the peripheries is developing a new worldview through diasporic modes of thought. By moving beyond the facile search for an imperial ‘centre,’ these contributions provide an understanding of the rupture in identity since there is a feeling of ‘being held back from a place or state we wish to reach . . .’ (Brooks). This volume is a unique collaboration by academic scholars from four different continents, and a vast number of regions, critically converging on the contemporaneous debate that problematizes the diasporic identity.

Milky and vine, a parody of milk and honey comprises of a collection of best vine quotes ever created and shared in the form of poetry. Its truly a delight for the sensation of true comedy at home and thought provoking ideas for happy leaving. Get a copy and be glad you did.

The Sons of Clovis is a scholarly tour de force. It begins with the Ern Malley affair, establishing previously unrecognised connections between the Australian scene and French symboliste poetry, before embarking on a fascinating journey through literature, culture, and poetics.

Takes you on a journey through Alice Springs or Mparntwe as it is called by the Arrente people. Stories from the Dreamtime with skyline drawings.

From the influential and hugely popular "New York Times" columnist and bestselling author of "Bobos in Paradise" comes a landmark exploration of how human beings and communities succeed.

During World War 1 a friendship is forged on the battlefields of France between Axel and Edward, two young Englishmen. There, inspired by barrage balloons, they develop a mutual fascination that will change the course of their lives. After the war, as Axel''s passion for flight and freedom consume him, he sets off to balloon across the highlands of New Albion, a largely unexplored island north of Australia. When he fails to return, Edward travels to the island to solve the mystery of his friend''s disappearance and retrace his final journey. What he finds there will haunt him for the rest of his life. The Umbrella Club is a darkly compelling adventure into the depths of the human soul and to the frontiers of colonial exploration. In the aftermath of war, when there is nothing left to fear, sometimes the only possibility for recovery is flight. Praise for David Brooks'' The Fern Tattoo: '' . . . a sense of deliberation and imaginative power imbues his work. Take time for The Fern Tattoo.'' Age '' . . . a book of extraordinary sensuousness and beauty.'' Canberra Times

Born 15 June 1902, Dr. D. M. Brooks was a psychologist and a New York Times columnist.

Throughout literature, nomads have been romanticised for a lack of connection to a particular place; this issue of Southerly delves deeper into their solitary character, and features an interview with Jorge Luis Borges, and has essays by Mudrooroo, Stephen Muecke, and Robin Gerster.