New Releases by David Wyatt

The prevailing mood of my early and Ann''s mid-fifties has been one of the sense of an ending, surely, but more than that, of a gathering urgency. . . . Fewer of the moments between us feel rehearsed, or forced. And now, just as we had begun to glimpse something like wisdom, glimmering over the horizon, the world smacks the hell out of us. I am strangely grateful, even so, if only for the felt return, in recent days, of the possibility of strong emotion. On the day of the terrorist attacks, a man begins writing down things said by his family and friends. The trauma appears to have marooned diarist David Wyatt in a shell-shocked present tense. But as he experiences all of the emotions of that fall, he is visited by deep memories that transform his daily journal-keeping into an "accidental memoir," a narrative that reaches a surprising and moving conclusion on Thanksgiving Day. Juggling the roles of English professor, restaurant owner, husband, father, son, and friend, Wyatt finds sustenance at the core of ordinary American life, resources at once so available and so elusive. Passionate about people, books, food, and landscapes present and lost--and absolutely unheroic--the voices summoned here counter the sanctimonious and the sentimental. Wyatt''s elegantly understated memoir reveals how the events of September 11 affected ordinary people and presents this anthology of thoughts, feelings, and interactions in a frank and immediate voice.

From the bestselling fantasy author comes a new epic, tumultuous tale. Three young people from different worlds meet in one and travel to a myriad of others in an attempt to unseat the false Merlin of Blest and unravel a conspiracy that threatens all of the magic in the multiverse.

This highly acclaimed book, the standard history of Thailand for almost twenty years, has now been completely revised by the author. David K. Wyatt has also added new sections examining the social and economic changes that have transformed the country in the past two decades. Praise for the previous edition: "Wyatt knows his subject well enough and has enough enthusiasm for it to make his book . . . entertaining as well as eminently educational."--David McElveen, Asiaweek "A very readable account. . . .We come away from reading it with a clearer understanding of where Thailand stands in relation to its neighbors, who the Thai people are, how the Thai government evolved into its present form."--James Stent, Asian Wall Street Journal "Concise, thorough, and readable."--John Gabree, New York Newsday

Hundreds of facts about America''s greatest natural resources and wonders. Containing examples from all 50 states, this book describes the tallest, longest, deepest, highest, and biggest features that can be found in the United States! A must for every traveling family, nature lover, park enthusiast, tourist or trivia buff. Includes inspiring photographs of Mother Nature at her best.

In this final part of Abby and Spike''s adventure, our young heroes and their incredible friends travel back in time to the Wild West. Here they find their old enemies disguised among the cowboys. But all is not what it seems, as the friends face the final showdown between good and evil.

Using his background in cultural history and literature, David Wyatt focuses this history of California on five events that swept through the state, altering its physical and political landscape. "Five Fires" provides a unique framework for understanding the recent developments in California and will prove an important contribution to the history of American culture. Photos.

This study looks at the cultural legacy of the sixties through ten creative figures who came of age during the Vietnam War.

In this book, David Wyatt examines the mythology of California as it is reflected in the literature of the region. He argues that the encounter with landscape played an important role in literature of the West, and distinguishes this particular characteristic from the literatures of other American regions. Wyatt discusses in depth the writings of Dana, Leonard, Fremont, Muir, King, Austin, Norris, Steinbeck, and Chandler, Jeffers and Snyder and their literary reactions to the landscape. By examining the changing role of the landscape in literature of California, the book sheds new light on an important theme in the American creative popular consciousness.

Is it really possible to fully define the human animal in terms of the natural Darwinian world? Naturalists say that the goal of the natural order is the survival of that order as a whole. If this is true, then there is inherent in that natural order a type of natural or primitive ethic, the ethic of the survival of the kind. Actions which encourage life are good, and those which provoke death are bad. Yet in the process of setting the human animal against the inclusively natural backdrop which defines him in the natural world, another type of ethic appears which is absolutely incongruous to the natural order, and which, instead of enhancing the human animal''s chances of survival, actually seems to jeopardize them. This other type of ethic, or Morals, which is characterized by motivations such as mercy and compassion, clearly did not arise from the natural order and cannot be justified in terms of that order. Since, therefore, Morals do not arise from man''s natural History, it is reasonable to begin looking for their origins in the texts of the human animal''s «mythic» History.

If Aristotle is to be believed, Speculative Philosophy came into being through a dilemma. It has always been evident that if some-«thing» is constantly changing, then it cannot be known as a «thing», for it is not, but always becoming other. And even as early as Heraclitus the Greek thinkers had asserted that the physical world was in a state of constant flux or change. The conclusion was obvious: the phenomenal world was neither the object of knowledge, nor knowable. The problem, however, and the dilemma, is that even though the physical world is indeed constantly changing and cannot therefore, at least theoretically, be known, that world is in fact known. It was, then, as a result of attempting to resolve this speculative problem that the Greeks created a new science which was to become known as Metaphysics. This study examines from an Aristotelian perspective the major thinkers of the transcendentalist school, from Plato to Descartes to Kant, and criticizes their attempt to resolve this dilemma by arguing for the existence of another, non-material level of reality situated beyond or behind this physical or material reality.