
The week's bestselling books, May 25
1. The Emperor of Gladness by Ocean Vuong (Penguin Press: $30) An unlikely pair develops a life-altering bond.
2. James by Percival Everett (Doubleday: $28) An action-packed reimagining of 'The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.'
3. Fever Beach by Carl Hiaasen (Knopf: $30) Two Floridians are plunged into a mystery involving dark money and darker motives.
4. My Friends by Fredrik Backman (Atria Books: $30) The bond between a group of teens 25 years earlier has a powerful effect on a budding artist.
5. My Name Is Emilia del Valle by Isabel Allende (Ballantine Books: $30) A young writer in the late 1800s travels to South America to uncover the truth about her father.
6. Great Big Beautiful Life by Emily Henry (Berkley: $29) Two writers compete for the chance to tell the larger-than-life story of an heiress.
7. Anima Rising by Christopher Moore (William Morrow: $30) The tale of a mad scientist, a famous painter and an undead woman's journey of self-discovery.
8. Audition by Katie Kitamura (Riverhead Books: $28) An accomplished actor grapples with the varied roles she plays in her personal life.
9. Marble Hall Murders by Anthony Horowitz (Harper: $31) Murder links past and present in a mind-boggling metafictional mystery.
10. The Wedding People by Alison Espach (Henry Holt & Co.: $29) An unexpected wedding guest gets surprise help on her journey to starting anew.
…
1. The Let Them Theory by Mel Robbins (Hay House: $30) How to stop wasting energy on things you can't control.
2. Abundance by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson (Avid Reader Press/Simon & Schuster: $30) A call to renew a politics of plenty and abandon the chosen scarcities that have deformed American life.
3. We Can Do Hard Things by Glennon Doyle, Abby Wambach and Amanda Doyle (The Dial Press: $34) The guidebook for being alive.
4. Mark Twain by Ron Chernow (Penguin Press: $45) The Pulitzer-winning biographer explores the life of the celebrated American writer.
5. The Book of Alchemy by Suleika Jaouad (Random House: $30) A guide to the art of journaling, with contributions from Jon Batiste, Salman Rushdie, Gloria Steinem and others.
6. Careless People by Sarah Wynn-Williams (Flatiron Books: $33) An insider's account of working at Facebook.
7. I Regret Almost Everything by Keith McNally (Gallery Books: $30) The restaurateur relates his gritty childhood and rise in the dining scene.
8. Notes to John by Joan Didion (Knopf: $32) Diary entries from the famed writer's journal.
9. Everything Is Tuberculosis by John Green (Crash Course Books: $28) The deeply human story of the fight against the world's deadliest infectious disease.
10. The Creative Act by Rick Rubin (Penguin: $32) The music producer on how to be a creative person.
…
1. Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt (Ecco: $20)
2. Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar (Vintage: $18)
3. All Fours by Miranda July (Riverhead Books: $19)
4. Tom Lake by Ann Patchett (Harper Perennial: $19)
5. The Paris Novel by Ruth Reichl (Random House Trade Paperbacks: $19)
6. One Golden Summer by Carley Fortune (Berkley: $19)
7. Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin (Vintage: $19)
8. The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley (Avid Reader Press/Simon & Schuster: $19)
9. Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros (Entangled: Red Tower Books: $21)
10. Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler (Grand Central: $20)
…
1. On Tyranny by Timothy Snyder (Crown: $12)
2. The Wager by David Grann (Vintage: $21)
3. Rich Relationships by Selena Soo (Rich Relationships LLC: $20)
4. All About Love by bell hooks (Morrow: $17)
5. The Backyard Bird Chronicles by Amy Tan (Knopf: $36)
6. The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion (Vintage: $18)
7. The Art Thief by Michael Finkel (Vintage: $18)
8. The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz (Amber-Allen: $13)
9. The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron (TarcherPerigee: $20)
10. The Body Keeps the Score by Dr. Bessel van der Kolk (Penguin: $19)
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30 minutes ago
Cyprus' lyrical duelists spit fierce rhymes as they battle it out to the licks of a fiddle
LARNACA, Cyprus -- Lyrical duelists in Cyprus spit rhymes in head-to-head contests, keeping alive a tradition known as 'tsiattista' that emerged centuries before the likes of Kendrick Lamar and Drake. Konstantinos Christou Grilias and Adamos Peratikos are among a new group of poets in this Mediterranean country who battle it out live on stage to the rhythms of the lute and fiddle. The battles are fierce, but you won't find any Kendrick-Drake style beef. Tsiattista made UNESCO's list of Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2011. The similarities with American hip-hop diss songs and battle rap are many: two duelists using their wits and turns of phrase to boast how superior they are, giving opponents a schooling in an onslaught of lyrical beatdowns. It's complete with assertive gestures and the hands-behind-the-back patience of the poet waiting to pounce. 'Even if you'd been a paramedic, I'd send you to hospital with a heart attack,' Peratikos told one adversary — a line with more snap in the Cypriot Greek dialect, whose syntax is akin to ancient Greek. Grilias dissed his opponent as a lightweight and a laughingstock. The audience of hundreds along a seaside promenade murmured in approval. Tsiattista battles which have been around since at least the end of the 19th century, are undergoing a bit of a revival, thanks to performers like Grilias and Peratikos. 'We urge other kids who like it to come along to safeguard this institution,' said Peratikos, 41. 'The goal isn't about awards, the goal is to keep tradition alive.' The 44-year-old Grilias said he's never really delved into the world of Kendrick Lamar or Jay-Z. 'Honestly, I've never listened to rappers. They told me that they battle in their own language, in their own way,' Grilias said as he prepared for a tsiattista duel at the peak of a festival for the Orthodox Christian Pentecost. 'Rappers don't know where Cyprus is," he added. The new group of performers, known as tsiattistaes, started to replace the older generation about 15 years ago at the premier competition in Larnaca during the annual Pentecost festival known as Kataklysmos, said ethnomusicologist Nicoletta Demetriou, who is director of the island nation's Music Archive. The new generation includes women, though few participate because of lingering social exclusion, Demetriou said. The current tsiattista format of a two-verse rhyme with a total of 15 syllables was developed in the late 18th to early 19th century, evolving from the introduction of the rhyming verse to the Greek-speaking world in the 15th and 16th centuries, Demetriou said. It draws on a tradition of poets matching wits from the times of Pericles in ancient Greece. The structure and musical accompaniment are simple, so that the rhymes are clear and understandable for both the audience and the adversary. Contests can address a range of themes, but the underlying premise is to determine who's the best at the diss. 'It's usually a fight, meaning 'I'd clobber you, kill you, bury you,' Grilias said. 'But I believe the public likes more a bit of humor, too.' For contestants, it's about who shows up ready, can stay cool and make the fewest mistakes in front of a crowd. 'Truth is, you're stressed, you're under pressure," Grilias said, and 'the person who can best handle this has the advantage.' One useful strategy is guessing how to get into your opponent's way of thinking, predicting possible responses to your lines, Peratikos said. He dismissed AI technology as incapable of coming up with effective rhymes in the Cypriot Greek dialect. 'There are words that we've heard but we don't even know, so there's no way artificial intelligence does,' Peratikos said. At the end of a long night of battling, Grilias and Peratikos finished fourth and fifth, respectively. A judging panel composed of men and women determined the winners. The two contestants took their places in stride. 'We're all friends, that's what's important,' Grilias said.


San Francisco Chronicle
2 hours ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
Cyprus' lyrical duelists spit fierce rhymes as they battle it out to the licks of a fiddle
LARNACA, Cyprus (AP) — Lyrical duelists in Cyprus spit rhymes in head-to-head contests, keeping alive a tradition known as 'tsiattista' that emerged centuries before the likes of Kendrick Lamar and Drake. Konstantinos Christou Grilias and Adamos Peratikos are among a new group of poets in this Mediterranean country who battle it out live on stage to the rhythms of the lute and fiddle. The battles are fierce, but you won't find any Kendrick-Drake style beef. Tsiattista made UNESCO's list of Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2011. The similarities with American hip-hop diss songs and battle rap are many: two duelists using their wits and turns of phrase to boast how superior they are, giving opponents a schooling in an onslaught of lyrical beatdowns. It's complete with assertive gestures and the hands-behind-the-back patience of the poet waiting to pounce. 'Even if you'd been a paramedic, I'd send you to hospital with a heart attack,' Peratikos told one adversary — a line with more snap in the Cypriot Greek dialect, whose syntax is akin to ancient Greek. Grilias dissed his opponent as a lightweight and a laughingstock. The audience of hundreds along a seaside promenade murmured in approval. Tsiattista battles which have been around since at least the end of the 19th century, are undergoing a bit of a revival, thanks to performers like Grilias and Peratikos. 'We urge other kids who like it to come along to safeguard this institution,' said Peratikos, 41. 'The goal isn't about awards, the goal is to keep tradition alive.' The 44-year-old Grilias said he's never really delved into the world of Kendrick Lamar or Jay-Z. 'Honestly, I've never listened to rappers. They told me that they battle in their own language, in their own way,' Grilias said as he prepared for a tsiattista duel at the peak of a festival for the Orthodox Christian Pentecost. 'Rappers don't know where Cyprus is," he added. The new group of performers, known as tsiattistaes, started to replace the older generation about 15 years ago at the premier competition in Larnaca during the annual Pentecost festival known as Kataklysmos, said ethnomusicologist Nicoletta Demetriou, who is director of the island nation's Music Archive. The new generation includes women, though few participate because of lingering social exclusion, Demetriou said. The current tsiattista format of a two-verse rhyme with a total of 15 syllables was developed in the late 18th to early 19th century, evolving from the introduction of the rhyming verse to the Greek-speaking world in the 15th and 16th centuries, Demetriou said. It draws on a tradition of poets matching wits from the times of Pericles in ancient Greece. The structure and musical accompaniment are simple, so that the rhymes are clear and understandable for both the audience and the adversary. Contests can address a range of themes, but the underlying premise is to determine who's the best at the diss. 'It's usually a fight, meaning 'I'd clobber you, kill you, bury you,' Grilias said. 'But I believe the public likes more a bit of humor, too.' For contestants, it's about who shows up ready, can stay cool and make the fewest mistakes in front of a crowd. 'Truth is, you're stressed, you're under pressure," Grilias said, and 'the person who can best handle this has the advantage.' One useful strategy is guessing how to get into your opponent's way of thinking, predicting possible responses to your lines, Peratikos said. He dismissed AI technology as incapable of coming up with effective rhymes in the Cypriot Greek dialect. 'There are words that we've heard but we don't even know, so there's no way artificial intelligence does,' Peratikos said. At the end of a long night of battling, Grilias and Peratikos finished fourth and fifth, respectively. A judging panel composed of men and women determined the winners. The two contestants took their places in stride. 'We're all friends, that's what's important,' Grilias said.
Yahoo
13 hours ago
- Yahoo
If You Had Wealthy (Or Famous) Classmates In High School Or College, Tell Us What Your Experience Was Like
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