About this title: Fadiman returns to one of her favorite genres, the familiar essay--a beloved and hallowed literary tradition recognized for both its intellectual breadth and its miniaturist focus on everyday experiences.
Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Date Published: 2008-05-27
ISBN-13:9780374531317ISBN:0374531315
Description: Like New. May be shiny, in some instances dust jackets are not included, no missing pages, no damage to binding, may have a remainder mark. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
ISBN-13:9780374106621ISBN:0374106622
Description: Good. 0374106622 Former library item may have library binding and show stamps, stickers or other marks. Items not meeting quality expectations may be returned. Due to the large scale of our operation, we do not have access to the specific contents/condition of our items. read more
Description: Acceptable. Former Library book. Shows definite wear, and perhaps considerable marking on inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Date Published: 2007-06-12
ISBN-13:9780374106621ISBN:0374106622
Description: New. New-Fast shipping from trusted wholesaler with many exclusive publisher contracts. May have slight edge wear from being on the shelf. May have remainder mark. read more
Description: Good. No wear to binding, light edge wear to dust jacket at fold, protected in a new mylar Brodart cover. Pages are clean and unmarked. No remainder mark. Hardcover. read more
"Anne Fadiman is a wonderful writer. Anybody who's read Ex Libris knows this.
For those who don't know Ex Libris, it's a collection of essays about reading and the love of words. In At Large and At Small, Fadiman goes a bit further afield in her interests, but keeps that wonderful warm, thoughtful tone that makes her such a pleasure to take to bed with you. Uh... so to speak.
I think my favorite essays were "Ice Cream" and "Coffee", whose topics need no explanation. I even enjoyed the essays on topics that I don't know a thing about.
Each essay includes research, personal experience, and the feeling of getting to know someone better.
Overall my recommendation is: if you haven't read Ex Libris, read that first. Then enjoy this collection."
"A very quick read of several short essays. Fadiman begins her collection with a Preface defending the "Familiar Essay." The Familiar Essayist writes "about himself, he also wrote about a subject, something with which he was familiar and about which he was so enthusiastic, that he words were suffused with a lover's intimacy."
I have to admit familiar essays have always been my favorite kind of essay. I think I am a member of the exact audience this book was aimed at. Fadiman's humor, as well as her delight in each of her subjects, comes through in each essay. Her enthusiasm for her subjects is infectious; I found myself stopping to take notes about books she had mentioned that I wanted to read, people she brought up that I wanted to research."
"In this book of familiar essays on topics ranging from coffee to ice cream to collecting nature, Anne Fadiman dives into each topic, beautifully blending her own personal relationship with it with a world of history, facts, and interesting tidbits. It is so well written--wonderfully informative and rich. I ended up with a great list of vocabulary while reading it--dreckle, whiffling, crepuscular, omphalos--and a sense that I want to pick up my pencil and start writing and read, read, read more. I am planning on reading all of her books."
"I paid full price for this book; I only do that for books I really, really want to read.
The truth is that I was disappointed. I don't know why. Partly, I think, it was because the subjects of the essays were not of particular interest to me. But I think it was primarily that the essays felt forced, not written naturally out of love for the subject, but to meet the requirements of completing a book."
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