Brian Morton

An elderly woman, content to sit down and write her memoir, is besieged by family members who involve her in a variety of dramas and follies. By the author of A Window Across the River. 25,000 first printing.

Florence Gordon

In the spirit of Fierce Attachments, Bettyville, and The End of Your Life Book Club, acclaimed novelist Brian Morton delivers a moving, darkly funny memoir of his mother’s vibrant life and the many ways in which their tight, tumultuous relationship was refashioned in her twilight years. Tasha Morton is a force of nature: a brilliant educator who’s left her mark on generations of students—and also a whirlwind of a mother, intrusive, chaotic, oppressively devoted, and irrepressible. For decades, her son Brian has kept her at a self-protective distance, but when her health begins to fail, he knows it’s time to assume responsibility for her care. Even so, he’s not prepared for what awaits him, as her refusal to accept her own fragility leads to a series of epic outbursts and altercations that are sometimes frightening, sometimes wildly comic, and sometimes both. Clear-eyed, loving, and brimming with dark humor, Tasha is an exploration of what sons learn from their mothers, a stark look at the impossible task of caring for an elderly parent in a country whose unofficial motto is “you’re on your own,” and a meditation on the treacherous business at the heart of every family—the business of trying to honor ourselves without forsaking our parents, and our parents without forsaking ourselves. Above all, Tasha is a vivid and surprising portrait of an unforgettable woman.

A Son's Memoir

Tasha

When graduate student Heather Wolfe sets out to meet the elderly novelist whose works have changed her life, she meets someone very different from her expectations

Starting Out in the Evening

florence gorden

A compelling few hours' reading for anyone with an interest in 20th-century music.' Kenneth Clarke, The Daily Mail Miles Davis (1926-91) was one of the great jazz musicians, bandleaders and composers. His recordings include several of the most acclaimed and popular jazz album, from the relaxed style of Birth of the Cool to the orchestral Sketches of Spain and the iconic Kind of Blue. And he never ceased to innovate. As the 1960s moved into the 1970s, he developed a darker, more complex sound and began increasingly to use electric instruments. The crowning achievement of his experiments, Bitches Brew (1969), became the bestselling jazz album of all time. In this biography, noted jazz critic Brian Morton takes us through the musical history of this remarkable and influential artist and illuminates the personality behind the sound.

Miles Davis

A Washington Post Best Nonfiction Book of the Year In the spirit of Fierce Attachments and The End of Your Life Book Club, acclaimed novelist Brian Morton delivers a “superb” (Maureen Corrigan, Fresh Air), darkly funny memoir of his mother’s vibrant life and the many ways in which their tight, tumultuous relationship was refashioned in her twilight years. Tasha Morton is a force of nature: a brilliant educator who’s left her mark on generations of students—and also a whirlwind of a mother, intrusive, chaotic, oppressively devoted, and irrepressible. For decades, her son Brian has kept her at a self-protective distance, but when her health begins to fail, he knows it’s time to assume responsibility for her care. Even so, he’s not prepared for what awaits him, as her refusal to accept her own fragility leads to a series of epic outbursts and altercations that are sometimes frightening, sometimes wildly comic, and sometimes both. Clear-eyed, “deeply stirring” (Dani Shapiro, The New York Times Book Review), and brimming with dark humor, Tasha is both a vivid account of an unforgettable woman and a stark look at the impossible task of caring for an elderly parent in a country whose unofficial motto is “you’re on your own.”

Florence Gordon ha settantacinque anni e vive a Manhattan. Femminista ebrea divorziata, scrittrice scorbutica, attivista testarda e orgogliosa, detesta la maggior parte delle cose che la gente trova piacevoli e ama mettere gli altri in difficoltà. Mentre è alle prese con la sua settima fatica, un libro di memorie, un articolo del «New York Times» la definisce “patrimonio nazionale”, catapultandola sotto le luci della ribalta e obbligandola a superare quel fi lo spinato che aveva eretto intorno a sé. La situazione precipita quando i suoi “cari” si trasferiscono da Seattle a New York: il figlio Daniel (che ha snobbato le orme letterarie dei genitori per diventare poliziotto), la nuora Janine (psicologa, pronta ad avere una relazione con il suo capo) e la nipote Emily (che sta cercando di capire cosa fare di una problematica storia d’amore). Tra i quattro, giorno dopo giorno, si intreccia una commedia irresistibile, all’insegna di una crudele sincerità ma anche di una sorprendente complicità emotiva. L’anziana signora, i cui corrosivi commenti sono una sorta di “versione di Barney” al femminile, non risparmia niente e nessuno. E forse proprio per questo i personaggi che la circondano (e i lettori di questo libro) finiranno per affezionarsi a lei e non poter più fare a meno della sua voce.

John Edward Morton

This book reviews the factors creating and maintaining Hong Kong's living shore, and describes the wide range of plants and animals found within the intertidal boundaries of the shore. A full range from exposure to shelter is to be found, from communities of the sheer rock faces, beaten by the storm waves of the South China Sea, to the denizens of mudflats in high shelter at the heads of harbours and inlets.

The Sea Shore Ecology of Hong Kong

John Morton

Hong Kong is strategically located between the temperate Japonic and the great tropical Indo-West-Pacific zoogeographic provinces. Influenced by the currents of the South China Sea and the huge outflow of fresh water from the Pearl River, Hong Kong's marine flora and fauna are extremely diverse. Temperate species may appear, if only briefly, during the cooler winter months. Conversely, air and water temperatures remain high enough for a strong tropical component: Hong Kong is comparatively rich in mangrove stands and reef corals are well developed subtidally. There is a strong north-west to south-east salinity gradient further enhancing diversity. Geologically, the Hong Kong shore is a 'drowned' coastline, deeply incised and with former mountain peaks represented by numerous off-shore islands. This book reviews the factors creating and maintaining Hong Kong's living shore, and describes the wide range of plants and animals found within the intertidal boundaries of the shore. A full range from exposure to shelter is to be found, from communities of the sheer rock faces, beaten by the storm waves of the South China Sea, to the denizens of mudflats in high shelter at the heads of harbours and inlets. For the first time the occupants of these various shores are illustrated and described, both as individual species and as components of a rich mosaic of life. The factors of pollution and development that are destroying the diversity of the rich complex of shores are described.

This is the annual journal of the Marine Biological Association of Hong Kong. It contains papers on marine subjects of interest to all Asian biologists.

Asian Marine Biology 7 (1990)

Sir Charles Maurice Yonge who died in 1986 was the foremost authority on the Bivalvia and one of the greatest marine biologists of this century. The volume is a memorial to his achievements and comprises 22 papers presented at a symposium in his honour during the IX International Malacological Congress, Edinburgh, Scotland, 1986. It contains 4 sections: Evolution, Feeding and Digestion, Functional Morphology, and Ecology, and will be of interest to all students of the Mollusca.

Proceedings of a Memorial Symposium in Honour of Sir Charles Maurice Yonge

The Bivalvia

A wise and entertaining novel about a woman who has lived life on her own terms for seventy-five defiant and determined years, only to find herself suddenly thrust to the center of her family's various catastrophes Meet Florence Gordon: blunt, brilliant, cantankerous and passionate, feminist icon to young women, invisible to almost everyone else. At seventy-five, Florence has earned her right to set down the burdens of family and work and shape her legacy at long last. But just as she is beginning to write her long-deferred memoir, her son Daniel returns to New York from Seattle with his wife and daughter, and they embroil Florence in their dramas, clouding the clarity of her days and threatening her well-defended solitude. And then there is her left foot, which is starting to drag.... With searing wit, sophisticated intelligence, and a tender respect for humanity in all its flaws, Brian Morton introduces a constellation of unforgettable characters. Chief among them, Florence, who can humble the fools surrounding her with one barbed line, but who eventually finds there are realities even she cannot outwit.

Following a three-year cycle, an International Workshop on the Marine Flora and Fauna of Hong Kong and Southern China was convened at the Swire Institute of Marine Science of the University of Hong Kong from 2-20 April 1995. Sixteen scientists from six countries and fifteen scientists and students from Hong Kong investigated aspects of the marine flora and fauna of the Cape d'Aguilar proposed marine reserve and the southeastern waters of Hong Kong. The marine flora and fauna of this area of Hong Kong is poorly known and, like others locally, is threatened by pollution. Such broad-based studies of this area of Hong Kong's waters are needed urgently. The Proceedings of the workshop contain thirty-one original research papers dealing with aspects of the taxonomy and ecology of Hong Kong's marine life with particular reference to the Cape d'Aguilar Marine Reserve and the benthic fauna of its territorial waters. The workshop was sponsored by the University of Hong Kong to bring scientists and students together to study the shores and seas around its infant institute of marine science. The success of the workshop is self-evident in the contents and scope of these proceedings. This venture, like the first workshop, convened in 1977, on the shores of the now disastrously polluted Tolo Harbour, is a landmark publication. It is a significant compilation of wide-ranging research papers on an area of Hong Kong that has been, hitherto, little-studied but which will, one day, be of vital conservation interest to local people, if any of the territory's now threatened marine life is to survive.

The Marine Flora and Fauna of Hong Kong and Southern China IV

Richard Cook

Lists and reviews jazz recordings covering more than seven decades, and includes biographical details, line-ups, recording information, and a critical rating for each recording

The Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD, LP and Cassette

Now fully updated--the critically acclaimed guide to the world of jazz on CDWhere can you find a complete set of Ella Fitzgerald's many songbook recordings? Who are the influences of Wynton Marsalis, Harry Connick, Jr., and Joshua Redman? What are the earliest available recordings of trumpeter Chet Baker? Leading critics Richard Cook and Brian Morton answer these and myriad other questions in The Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD--the most comprehensive critical guide to jazz recordings available.

The Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD

The Penguin Guide to Jazz on Compact Disc

Reviews jazz recordings and includes biographical details and lineups.

An updated listener's guide to recorded jazz features reviews of thousands of jazz recordings, organized by performer, and includes biographical details about and discographies for the musicians. Original.

The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings

Dougie's Telescope and other stories is a collection of tales set in a time when life was perhaps a little slower and when an adventure didn't have to be planned through a travel agent and financed by the bank. Dougie and his pals are somewhere between angels and delinquents just like most teenagers and the small town they live in has plenty of room for teenage activities. In the Garden is a more contemporary set of observations, made with a twinkle in the observant eye.

And Other Stories

Dougie's Telescope

Prince Rogers Nelson released his first album in 1978. In the years that followed until his death in April 2016, he became a superstar, a recluse, an inspiration, an enigma, a slave and a symbol. He was a master of reinvention, but the one constant in his astonishing career was his genius: as a singer, a songwriter, a performer and a musician. He sold more than 100 million albums, won seven Grammys, a Golden Globe and an Oscar. His ability to fuse styles and genres made him one of the most unique, influential and beloved artists in music history. In Prince: A Thief in the Temple, acclaimed journalist and broadcaster Brian Morton reveals the highs and lows of a remarkable musical life.

Brian Morton

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