NCW Libraries

Similar to Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle explores another facet of good living by outlining the best governing practices that benefit the majority, and not the minority. In The Politics, he defines various institutions and how they should operate within an established system. The Politics provides an analysis of contemporary government as it relates to all people. Aristotle discusses the positive and negative qualities of authority and how they affect...

A collection of new and selected essays by the Pulitzer Prize–winner and former Poet Laureate. In addition to being one of America's most famous and commended poets, Charles Simic is a prolific and talented essayist. The Life of Images brings together his best prose work written over twenty-five years. A blend of the straightforward, the wry, and the hopeful, the essays in The Life of Images explore subjects ranging from literary criticism to philosophy,...

Brief Encounters represents a multitude of voices, perspectives, sensibilities, and forms, and features the work of nearly eighty writers, both emerging and established-among them Roxanne Gay, Eduardo Galeano, Leslie Jamison, Stuart Dybek, Patricia Hampl, and Hulian Barnes. From the rant to the rave, the meditation to the polemic, the confession to the valediction, this celebration of short creative nonfiction will enlarge your world. Book jacket....

Volume 1. This book contains all the essays and reviews that W.H. Auden wrote during the years when he was living in England, and also includes the full original versions of his two illustrated travel books, Letters from Iceland (written in collaboration with Louis MacNeice) and Journey to a War (written in collaboration with Christopher Isherwood). Auden's early prose ranges from extravagant indiscreet travel diaries through sharply observed critiques...

For the past year, a group of high school students met at a publishing house in San Francisco every Monday night to read literary magazines, chapbooks, graphic novels, and countless articles. This committee was assisted by a group of students that met in the basement of a robot shop in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Together, and under the guidance of guest editor Adam Johnson, these high schoolers selected the contents of The Best American Nonrequired Reading...

A collection of the very best essays and advice, from O the Oprah Magazine, themed on finding happiness.

"A sprightly dose of practical and insightful inspiration, a sprinkling of feel-good science, and a bounty of joyful stories by great writers, O's Little Book of Happiness features some of the best writing to have appeared in O, the Oprah Magazine over its fifteen year history. From an ode to the power of questions by Elizabeth Gilbert, a tribute to the animal who taught her everything by Jane Smiley, practical advice about boosting your bliss from...