PODCAST · arts

Short Nonfiction Collection, Vol. 073 by Various

by Loyal Books

Twenty short nonfiction works chosen by the readers. "Salve! ye dumb hearts. Let us be still and wait by the roadside." With these words, Kate Chopin decries the "crushing feet, the clashing discords, the ruthless hands and stifling breath” that power the “mad pace" of everyday life. Broadway: the Backbone of New York presents a more up-beat view of city life. Reflections on difficult times are the substance of several volume 073 readings ; while the clash of people and cultures is examined in Everyday Japan , the Passing of Princess Kaiulani, Inca Land, Northern Europe and the Swiss Confederation, the Struggle between the Teutonic Order and Poland, and Pan-Turanism. Individual response to life's stresses and demands is the theme of Women Friendships, The Unadmiring, Spittler's Prometheus and Epimetheus, and Martha Maxwell, Taxidermist. Imagining the pleasures of home, Robert Louis Stevenson, in his The Ideal House, writes that "Bold rocks near hand are more inspiriting than distant Al