Washoe County Library System

Italian teenager Giovanna searches for a sense of identity and clear perspectives when she finds herself torn between the refinements and excesses of a divided Naples. "Giovanna's pretty face is changing, turning ugly, at least so her father thinks. Giovanna, he says, looks more like her Aunt Vittoria every day. But can it be true? Is she really changing? Is she turning into her Aunt Vittoria, a woman she hardly knows but whom her mother and father...

"From the New York Times bestselling author of Eating the Sun and Lost in Translation, a gorgeously illustrated love letter to everything that is beautiful, and a manifesto for those who are struggling to remember or recognize what beauty is People are increasingly baffled as to what they can call beautiful, what they should call beautiful, and whether or not they are able to apply beautiful to themselves or to the things around them. Our outdated...

In Japanese Design, Asian art expert and author Patricia J. Graham explains how Japanese aesthetics based in fine craftsmanship and simplicity developed. Her unusual, full-color presentation reveals this design aesthetic in an absorbing way, using a combination of insightful explanations and more than 160 stunning photographs Focusing upon ten elements of Japanese design, Graham explores how visual qualities, the cultural parameters and the Japanese...

"The Good, the True and the Beautiful asks questions about who we are and what makes life worthwhile. Michael Boylan offers an introduction to philosophy, exploring issues to do with ethics, knowledge and aesthetics and how they relate to our everyday lives. He proposes an understanding of the good, the true and the beautiful that seeks to answer many of the questions that have traditionally occupied philosophers. Using thought experiments to engage...

'Paris Review contributor Katy Kelleher explores our obsession with gorgeous things, unveiling the fraught histories of makeup, flowers, perfume, silk, and other beautiful objects. April recommended reading by the New York Times Book Review, Vanity Fair, Goodreads, Jezebel, and Next Big Idea Club One of Curbed’s best architecture, design, and urbanism books of the spring A most anticipated book of 2023 by The Millions Katy Kelleher has spent much...

"On the Shoulders of Giants collects previously unpublished essays from the last fifteen years of Umberto Eco's life. With humor and erudition, one of the great contemporary thinkers takes on the roots of Western culture, the origin of language, the nature of beauty and ugliness, the imperfections of art, and the lure of mysteries"--