Melissa Milgrom's Books

Still Life

Adventures in Taxidermy

By: Melissa Milgrom

Write a review Read reviews Take a Quiz Solve Book Puzzle

Still Life

Adventures in Taxidermy

By: Melissa Milgrom

After her curiosity is piqued by a safari gone awry, a journalist delves into the curious world of taxidermy and shares her findings. It’s easy to dismiss taxidermy as a kitschy or morbid sideline, the realm of trophy fish and jackalopes or an anachronistic throwback to the dusty diorama. Yet theirs is a world of intrepid hunter-explorers, eccentric naturalists, and gifted museum artisans, all devoted to the paradoxical pursuit of creating the illusion of life. Into this subculture of passionate animal-lovers ventures journalist Melissa Milgrom, whose journey stretches from the anachronistic family workshop of the last chief taxidermist for the American Museum of Natural History to the studio where an English sculptor, granddaughter of a surrealist artist, preserves the animals for Damien Hirst’s most disturbing artworks. She wanders through Mr. Potter’s Museum of Curiosities in the final days of its existence to watch dealers vie for preserved Victorian oddities, and visits the Smithsonian’s offsite lab, where taxidermists transform zoo skins into vivacious beasts. She tags along with a Canadian bear trapper and former Roy Orbison impersonator—the three-time World Taxidermy Champion—as he resurrects an extinct Irish elk using DNA studies and Paleolithic cave art for reference; she even ultimately picks up a scalpel and stuffs her own squirrel. Transformed from a curious onlooker to an empathetic participant, Milgrom takes us deep into the world of taxidermy and reveals its uncanny appeal. “Hilarious but respectful.” —Washington Post “Engrossing.” —New Yorker “[A] delightful debut . . . Milgrom has in Still Life opened up a whole world to readers.” —Chicago Tribune “Milgrom’s lively account will appeal to readers who enjoyed Mary Roach’s quirky science books.” —Library Journal

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

277

Publisher

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Published Date

ISBN 10

0547487053

ISBN 13

9780547487052

Still Life

Adventures in Taxidermy

By: Melissa Milgrom

Write a review Read reviews Take a Quiz Solve Book Puzzle

Still Life

Adventures in Taxidermy

By: Melissa Milgrom

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

277

Publisher

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Published Date

ISBN 10

0547487053

ISBN 13

9780547487052

Ritual in Deuteronomy

The Performance of Doom

By: Melissa D. Ramos

Write a review Read reviews Take a Quiz Solve Book Puzzle

Ritual in Deuteronomy

The Performance of Doom

By: Melissa D. Ramos

Ritual in Deuteronomy explores the symbolic world of Deuteronomy’s ritual covenant and curses through a lens of religious studies and anthropology, drawing on previously unexamined Mesopotamian material. This book focuses on the ritual material in Deuteronomy including commands regarding sacrifice, prayer objects, and especially the dramatic ritual enactment of the covenant including curses. The book’s most unique feature is an entirely new comparative study of Deut 27–30 with two ritual texts from Mesopotamia. No studies to date have undertaken a comparison of Deut 27–30 with ancient Near Eastern ritual texts outside of the treaty oath tradition. This fresh comparison illuminates how the ritual life of ancient Israel shaped the literary form of Deuteronomy and concludes that the performance of oaths was a social strategy, addressing contemporary anxieties and reinforcing systems of cultural power. This book offers a fascinating comparative study which will be of interest to undergraduate and graduate students in biblical studies, classical Hebrew, theology, and ancient Near Eastern studies. The book’s more technical aspects will also appeal to scholars of the Pentateuch, Deuteronomy, Biblical Law, Ancient Near Eastern History, Mesopotamian Studies, and Classics.

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

170

Publisher

Routledge

Published Date

ISBN 10

1351335170

ISBN 13

9781351335171

Thicker Than Water

The Origins of Blood as Symbol and Ritual

By: Melissa Meyer

Write a review Read reviews Take a Quiz Solve Book Puzzle

Thicker Than Water

The Origins of Blood as Symbol and Ritual

By: Melissa Meyer

Blood is more than a fluid solution of cells, platelets and plasma. It is a symbol for the most basic of human concerns--life, death and family find expression in rituals surrounding everything from menstruation to human sacrifice. Comprehensive in its scope and provocative in its argument, this book examines beliefs and rituals concerning blood in a range of regional and religious contexts throughout human history. Meyer reveals the origins of a wide range of blood rituals, from the earliest surviving human symbolism of fertility and the hunt, to the Jewish bris, and the clitoridectomies given to young girls in parts of Africa. The book also explores how cultural practices influence gene selection and makes a connection with the natural sciences by exploring how color perception influences the human proclivity to create blood symbols and rituals.

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

322

Publisher

Routledge

Published Date

ISBN 10

1135342075

ISBN 13

9781135342074

Fire by Night

Finding God in the Pages of the Old Testament

By: Melissa Florer-Bixler

Write a review Read reviews Take a Quiz Solve Book Puzzle

Fire by Night

Finding God in the Pages of the Old Testament

By: Melissa Florer-Bixler

What do we do with the Old Testament? How do we read words written in a world so different from ours, stories so ruthless and so filled with grace? In Fire by Night, pastor Melissa Florer-Bixler invites readers to marvel at the Old Testament. Page after page, in stories and poems and prophecies, the Hebrew Scripture introduces us to a God who is unwieldy and uncontrollable, common and extraordinary, and who brings both life and death. Using stories from Scripture and from her ministry, Florer-Bixler braids together the text with the sometimes ordinary, sometimes radical grace of God. The same passages that confuse and horrify and baffle us can, if we are paying attention, lure us closer toward God. This God has traveled with people through cloud and fire, by day and by night, since the beginning of time. The Old Testament is a perplexing book of profound grace, hope, and beauty. It’s a book of fire. To read the Old Testament is to draw close to God’s love, which continues to burn away our expectations and set us ablaze. This God has traveled with people through pillars of cloud and fire, by day and by night, since the days of the exodus.

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

164

Publisher

MennoMedia, Inc.

Published Date

ISBN 10

1513804200

ISBN 13

9781513804200

Book's by Melissa Milgrom

Still Life

Still Life

Still Life

Still Life

Ritual in Deuteronomy

Ritual in Deuteronomy

Thicker Than Water

Thicker Than Water

Fire by Night

Fire by Night

Username

Password

Username

Password

Password again

Birthday

Email