Kirjahaku

This is a book about the end of childhood. Much of it is drawn directly from a diary the author kept while he was a bright but insecure freshman at Harvard in the 1950s. From these pages emerges a precise description of the raw, half-understood experience of late adolescence-the anguish and arguments, the rivalry and anxiety about sex, the facile cynicism and desperate fumblings for purpose, the bull sessions held late at night-just as Peter Prescott recorded them only hours after the event. These diary excerpts are contained in a narrative that examines that freshman experience from a vantage point of twenty years. Thus, we are able to look at the past with a double perspective: The exact record, unclouded by memory or nostalgia, of what was said and done is set in a structure that reveals the form of the experience. The result is an ironic, witty, and often moving book. Writing with some compassion and even more asperity, Peter S. Prescott not only captures the conflicts and emotions of a single year, but probes beneath the surface of memory to explore certain tribal customs and rites of passage as they are played out in the classrooms and living quarters of the college. A few famous people-T. S. Eliot and Edith Sitwell among them-play brief parts in this chronicle, but young Prescott's attention was primarily engaged in his struggle with his extravagant roommates and an assortment of eccentric undergraduates.

This collection of essays discusses some of the important books, authors, and literary trends of a volatile era in American and world literature whose cultural repercussions are still being felt. Peter S. Prescott was one of the most penetrating, knowledgeable, and sensitive critics to write for a general audience in the tradition of Edmund Wilson. Readers will discover not only Prescott's acute and subtle comments on the enduring and/or representative books of the time, but also his humor and style, his way with an anecdote or aphorism, his talent for parody, and his ability to laugh at himself, as well as at the authors he sometimes skewers.Prescott's writing has an immediacy and vivacity that suggests what it was like to read new books during his time. Here is one critic's view--ironic and complex--of good books by famous writers like Norman Mailer, Jorge Luis Borges, Joyce Carol Oates, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, and Vladimir Nabokov, as well as of good books by little-known writers and others who would later achieve reknown. Here, too, is some astringent criticism of distinguished and popular authors who have fallen into self-indulgence. Prescott writes about the New Journalism in its early days and about fragmentary autobiography as a literary form--genres whose importance he was among the first to recognize. His essays also touch on theater, film, food, and politics.The criticism in this volume are examples of the literary essay in its truest sense--an attempt to explore, in however brief space allowed, what the author sees around him, and connections between books and other aspects of the way people live. Always personal and urbane, these essays are often hilarious, generally moving, and exemplify the essay as an art form.

Peter S. Prescott was one of the most informed and incisive American literary critics to write for the general public. Never content merely to summarize or to pronounce quick judgments, Prescott's reviews are witty and delightful essays to be enjoyed for their own sake as examples of civilized discourse. Whether he is exploring a well-known novelist's outlook and methods, or the peculiar deficiencies of a work of nonfiction, Prescott's grace, elegance, and insights make each piece proof that real criticism need not be pedantic, obscure, or interminably long.The focus in this second volume of Prescott's writings published by Transaction is on both fiction by American authors and on nonfiction reflecting our American unease. He casts an ironic eye on how we in this country think we live now; on what we are saying about ourselves in our fiction, our history, and our biography. Prescott considers some of our century's classic writers: Hemingway and Henry Miller; John Cheever and Thornton Wilder. He offers new insights regarding those who are still at work: Mailer, John Irving, Oates, Updike, Ozick, and Alice Walker. Some authors do not fare well. With his customary flair; Prescott explains why the reputations of Kurt Vonnegut and Barbara Tuchman, the Encyclopedia Britannica, and John Gardner, urgently need deflation. He includes essays on writers and books not generally noticed in collections of criticism: Stephen King, The Joy of Sex, fairy tales, science fiction, thrillers, books on survival and etiquette. Here is a critic with a personal voice and a sense of style. For essays published in this collection, Prescott received the most highly regarded prize in journalism: the rarely presented George Polk Award for Criticism.This is a chronicle of our contemporary American culture as revealed by its books, written with verve, intelligence, wisdom, and wit by a critic who's cruel only when appropriate. Encounters with American Culture is, quite simply, literary journalism at its urbane best.

This collection of essays discusses some of the important books, authors, and literary trends of a volatile era in American and world literature whose cultural repercussions are still being felt. Peter S. Prescott was one of the most penetrating, knowledgeable, and sensitive critics to write for a general audience in the tradition of Edmund Wilson. Readers will discover not only Prescott's acute and subtle comments on the enduring and/or representative books of the time, but also his humor and style, his way with an anecdote or aphorism, his talent for parody, and his ability to laugh at himself, as well as at the authors he sometimes skewers.Prescott's writing has an immediacy and vivacity that suggests what it was like to read new books during his time. Here is one critic's view--ironic and complex--of good books by famous writers like Norman Mailer, Jorge Luis Borges, Joyce Carol Oates, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, and Vladimir Nabokov, as well as of good books by little-known writers and others who would later achieve reknown. Here, too, is some astringent criticism of distinguished and popular authors who have fallen into self-indulgence. Prescott writes about the New Journalism in its early days and about fragmentary autobiography as a literary form--genres whose importance he was among the first to recognize. His essays also touch on theater, film, food, and politics.The criticism in this volume are examples of the literary essay in its truest sense--an attempt to explore, in however brief space allowed, what the author sees around him, and connections between books and other aspects of the way people live. Always personal and urbane, these essays are often hilarious, generally moving, and exemplify the essay as an art form.

Peter S. Prescott was one of the most informed and incisive American literary critics to write for the general public. Never content merely to summarize or to pronounce quick judgments, Prescott's reviews are witty and delightful essays to be enjoyed for their own sake as examples of civilized discourse. Whether he is exploring a well-known novelist's outlook and methods, or the peculiar deficiencies of a work of nonfiction, Prescott's grace, elegance, and insights make each piece proof that real criticism need not be pedantic, obscure, or interminably long.The focus in this second volume of Prescott's writings published by Transaction is on both fiction by American authors and on nonfiction reflecting our American unease. He casts an ironic eye on how we in this country think we live now; on what we are saying about ourselves in our fiction, our history, and our biography. Prescott considers some of our century's classic writers: Hemingway and Henry Miller; John Cheever and Thornton Wilder. He offers new insights regarding those who are still at work: Mailer, John Irving, Oates, Updike, Ozick, and Alice Walker. Some authors do not fare well. With his customary flair; Prescott explains why the reputations of Kurt Vonnegut and Barbara Tuchman, the Encyclopedia Britannica, and John Gardner, urgently need deflation. He includes essays on writers and books not generally noticed in collections of criticism: Stephen King, The Joy of Sex, fairy tales, science fiction, thrillers, books on survival and etiquette. Here is a critic with a personal voice and a sense of style. For essays published in this collection, Prescott received the most highly regarded prize in journalism: the rarely presented George Polk Award for Criticism.This is a chronicle of our contemporary American culture as revealed by its books, written with verve, intelligence, wisdom, and wit by a critic who's cruel only when appropriate. Encounters with American Culture is, quite simply, literary journalism at its urbane best.

This is a book about the end of childhood. Much of it is drawn directly from a diary the author kept while he was a bright but insecure freshman at Harvard in the 1950s. From these pages emerges a precise description of the raw, half-understood experience of late adolescence-the anguish and arguments, the rivalry and anxiety about sex, the facile cynicism and desperate fumblings for purpose, the bull sessions held late at night-just as Peter Prescott recorded them only hours after the event. These diary excerpts are contained in a narrative that examines that freshman experience from a vantage point of twenty years. Thus, we are able to look at the past with a double perspective: The exact record, unclouded by memory or nostalgia, of what was said and done is set in a structure that reveals the form of the experience. The result is an ironic, witty, and often moving book. Writing with some compassion and even more asperity, Peter S. Prescott not only captures the conflicts and emotions of a single year, but probes beneath the surface of memory to explore certain tribal customs and rites of passage as they are played out in the classrooms and living quarters of the college. A few famous people-T. S. Eliot and Edith Sitwell among them-play brief parts in this chronicle, but young Prescott's attention was primarily engaged in his struggle with his extravagant roommates and an assortment of eccentric undergraduates.

Atferden vår påvirker helsen, funksjonsevnen og muligheten til å oppnå mål i livet. Atferd og helse viser hvordan man kan styrke motivasjon, fatte slitesterke beslutninger og opprettholde endring over tid. Boken inneholder praktiske eksempler på endring av matvaner, fysisk aktivitet, nikotinavhengighet, gaming, sosial kontakt, fritidsaktiviteter og væremåter som utsettelsestendens, selvhevdelse og perfeksjonisme. Selv om mange lykkes med endring på egen hånd, er profesjonell hjelp ofte nødvendig. For profesjonsgrupper innenfor helse- og sosialfagene vil Atferd og helse være en nyttig ressurs når de skal veilede og snakke med pasienter, elever og klienter om hva de kan gjøre for å ta vare på helsen, redusere plagsomme symptomer, øke livskvaliteten og bedre funksjonsevnen. Boken henvender seg til studenter i en rekke profesjonsutdanninger. Peter Prescott er psykolog fra Universitetet i Bergen. Han er medforfatter av bøker om motiverende intervju og kognitiv atferdsterapi ved rusmiddelproblemer. Han har utviklet metoden for ferdighetstrening som brukes på Norsk forening for kognitiv atferdsterapis utdanninger.