Autobiography: science, technology and medicine Books
Purdue University Press The Sky Above: An Astronaut's Memoir of
Book Synopsis Looking up at the stars at the age of ten, John Casper dreamed of being a space explorer. The Sky Above tells how persistence and determination led to flying in space, after serving the nation as a combat fighter pilot and test pilot. Despite life-threatening experiences and failures, his spiritual faith was pivotal in overcoming life's challenges. Through vivid storytelling, the reader rides alongside the author in the cockpit, feeling the fear of enemy antiaircraft fire and the pressure of high g-forces during combat maneuvering. His insider accounts of four Space Shuttle missions vividly describe exhilarating launches, the magical experience of weightlessness, and the magnificent beauty of Earth from hundreds of miles above. A central theme running throughout Casper's life is his faith, as he struggles with the loss of fellow pilots and confronts life's inconsistencies and disappointments. This is a story about his growth and trust in his Creator, whose tenacious spirit never left him, even during the devastating Challenger and Columbia disasters. Readers interested in stories of true adventure or overcoming adversity will discover unique drama and insight. Those trying to reach their dreams, whatever they are, will find inspiration; those unsure or challenged in their faith will find encouragement. Table of Contents Part I 1. A Lesson in Courage 2. My Crazy Dream 3. First Adventures 4. Ramblin' Wrecks, Falcons, and Boilermakers Part II 5. Tweets, Talons, and Super Sabres 6. Combat with the Lucky Devils 7. Cold War Fighter Pilot 8. Experimental Test Pilot 9. Life in the Puzzle Palace Part III 10. Challenger and Return to Flight 11. Space Shuttle Rookie 12. Space Shuttle Commander 13. Microgravity Lab 14. Saving the Space Station 15. A Four-Rendezvous Flight Part IV 16. Safety Director 17. The Unthinkable Happens 18. Return to Flight . . . Again 19. First Test Flight of Orion Acknowledgments Appendix: Aircraft and Spacecraft Flown Glossary Notes Bibliography About the Author
£21.56
The Chinese University Press A Time and a Tide: Charles K. Kao: A Memoir
Book SynopsisCharles K. Kao was awarded the Nobel Prize in physics for "groundbreaking achievements concerning the transmission of light in fibers for optical communication." This memoir chronicles his personal and scientific odyssey from his an unfathomable childhood in war-torn Shanghai and Hong Kong to his seminal work with glass fibers. Kao shares his experiences as vice-chancellor of the Chinese University of Hong Kong and muses on his legacy as the "father of fiber optics." His groundbreaking research (based in part on the discovery that signal loss in fiber cables was a direct result of glass impurities rather than technology flaws) laid the groundwork for our present day communication infrastructure.
£24.71
YouCaxton Publications Come and Meet the Doctor
£10.22
Obelisco MIS Inventos
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£12.00
Cambridge University Press My Life
Book SynopsisAlfred Russel Wallace (1823?1913) was a British naturalist, explorer, geographer and biologist, best remembered as the co-discoverer, with Darwin, of natural selection. His extensive fieldwork and advocacy of the theory of evolution led to him being considered one of the nineteenth century''s foremost biologists. He was later moved by a variety of personal experiences to examine the concept of spirituality, but his exploration into the potential for compatibility between spiritualism and natural selection alienated him from the scientific community. He was also a social activist, highly critical of unjust social and economic systems in nineteenth-century Britain, and one of the first prominent scientists to express concern over the environmental impact of human activity. This autobiography was first published in 1905. Volume 2 deals with his many eminent acquaintances, including Darwin and Huxley, his lecture tour in America, and his involvement with spiritualism and with social activism.Table of Contents25. My friends and acquaintances – Darwin; 26. My friends and acquaintances – Spencer, Huxley, Mivart, etc.; 27. My friends and acquaintances – Sir James Brooke, Professor Rolleston, Mr. Aug. Mongredien, Sir Richard Owen, Dr. Richard Spruce; 28. My friends and acquaintances – Dr. Purland, Mr. Samuel Butler, Professor Haughton; 29. Sketch of my life and work, 1871-1886; 30. An American lecture tour – Boston to Washington; 31. Lecturing tour in America – Washington to San Francisco; 32. Lecturing tour in America – California to Quebec; 33. Literary work, etc., 1887-1905; 34. Land nationalization to socialism, and the friends they brought me; 35. Mesmerism to Spiritualism – correspondence with scientific and literary men; 36. Two biological inquirers: an episode in the history of Spiritualism; 37. Spiritualistic experiences in England and America; 38. The anti-vaccination crusade; 39. A chapter on money matters – earnings and losses – speculations and law-suits; 40. My character – new ideas – predictions fulfilled; Addendum; Index.
£37.99
Cambridge University Press Recollections of a Happy Life Volume 1
Book SynopsisMarianne North (183090), the Victorian botanist and painter, led a remarkable life, travelling independently to exotic locations to paint flora in their natural surroundings. This two-volume collection of her memoirs, edited by her sister and published in 1892, records her tropical journeys and the fascinating stories behind her art.Table of Contents1. Early days and home life; 2. Canada and United States; 3. Jamaica; 4. Brazil; 5. Highlands of Brazil; 6. Tenerife. California. Japan. Singapore; 7. Borneo and Java; 8. Ceylon and home; 9. India.
£35.99
Cambridge University Press Recollections of a Happy Life Volume 2
Book SynopsisMarianne North (183090), the Victorian botanist and painter, led a remarkable life, travelling independently to exotic locations to paint flora in their natural surroundings. This two-volume collection of her memoirs, edited by her sister and published in 1892, records her tropical journeys and the fascinating stories behind her art.Table of Contents10. Hill places in India; 11. Rajputana; 12. Second visit to Borneo. Queensland. New South Wales; 13. Western Australia. Tasmania. New Zealand; 14. South Africa; 15. Seychelles Islands, 1883; 16. Chili.
£33.99
HarperCollins Publishers Inc This Is Going to Hurt Tv TieIn
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£17.09
HarperCollins Publishers Inc Little Earthquakes
Book Synopsis“Sarah Mandel has done something remarkable here. I found myself weeping, laughing with delight and moved with love—all in the span of the day it took me to devour this book. Filled with deliciously specific images and metaphors, clear dialogue, and rich explorations of self and others, Mandel has written—among other things—a tender witness statement of and for her body.”—Hala Alyan, author of Salt HousesA psychologist, wife, and mother chronicles her extraordinary journey with cancer while pregnant with her second baby, and the insights into life, death, trauma, and healing that she gleaned—an utterly inspiring debut memoir reminiscent of the intimacy and emotional power of Paul Kalanithi’s When Breath Becomes Air and Kate Bowler’s No Cure for Being Human.When clinical psychologist Sarah Mandel was pregnant with her second child, she began preparing for her maternity leave, juggling the demands of her soon-to-be-new baby with the needs of her patients. Noticing a lump in her breast, she assumed it was most likely a clogged milk duct. But a biopsy revealed it was not. When she went into labor, she learned that she had Stage Four cancer—devastating news that forced her to confront terminal illness as she was bringing new life into the world.But Sarah''s illness took a highly improbable turn when, after three months of treatment, her second PET scan showed no evidence of disease. Sarah, however, was unable to celebrate the good news; she was frozen in a dissociated state caused by the emotional whiplash of going from oncology patient to new mother, from a terminal sentence to a shocking reprieve. As a therapist who specialized in trauma work, Sarah had utilized “narrative therapy” to help her patients. Now she wondered: Could the treatment that eased her patients’ pain successfully help her navigate her own trauma?Little Earthquakes is a beautiful and thought-provoking debut from a brave and unwavering new voice that captures the mind, sears the soul, and leaves its indelible mark on the heart.
£22.50
HarperCollins A Body Made of Glass
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£23.99
Legacy Lit Data Baby My Life in a Psychological Experiment
Book SynopsisA Belletrist Book Pick for December 2023Lab Girl meets Brain on Fire in this provocative and poignant memoir delving into a woman's formative experiences as a veritable 'lab rat' in a lifelong psychological study, and her pursuit to reclaim autonomy and her identity as a adult. What if your parents turn you into a human lab rat when you’re a child? Will that change the story of your life? Will that change who you are? When Susannah Breslin is a toddler, her parents enroll her in an exclusive laboratory preschool at the University of California, Berkeley, where she becomes one of over a hundred children who are research subjects in an unprecedented thirty-year study of personality development that predicts who she and her cohort will grow up to be. Decades later, trapped in what she feels is an abusive marriage and battling breast cancer, she starts to wonder how growing up under a mic
£23.20
Zondervan Gifted Hands 20th Anniversary Edition
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£18.99
Random House USA Inc Between Two Kingdoms
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£23.80
Random House USA Inc Everything Happens for a Reason
Book SynopsisNEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “A meditation on sense-making when there’s no sense to be made, on letting go when we can’t hold on, and on being unafraid even when we’re terrified.”—Lucy Kalanithi“Belongs on the shelf alongside other terrific books about this difficult subject, like Paul Kalanithi’s When Breath Becomes Air and Atul Gawande’s Being Mortal.”—Bill GatesNAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY REAL SIMPLE Kate Bowler is a professor at Duke Divinity School with a modest Christian upbringing, but she specializes in the study of the prosperity gospel, a creed that sees fortune as a blessing from God and misfortune as a mark of God’s disapproval. At thirty-five, everything in her life seems to point toward “blessing.” She is thriving in her job, married to her high school sweetheart, and loves life with her newborn son. Then she is diagnosed with stage IV colon cancer.The prospect of her own mortality forces Kate to realize that she has been tacitly subscribing to the prosperity gospel, living with the conviction that she can control the shape of her life with “a surge of determination.” Even as this type of Christianity celebrates the American can-do spirit, it implies that if you “can’t do” and succumb to illness or misfortune, you are a failure. Kate is very sick, and no amount of positive thinking will shrink her tumors. What does it mean to die, she wonders, in a society that insists everything happens for a reason? Kate is stripped of this certainty only to discover that without it, life is hard but beautiful in a way it never has been before. Frank and funny, dark and wise, Kate Bowler pulls the reader deeply into her life in an account she populates affectionately with a colorful, often hilarious retinue of friends, mega-church preachers, relatives, and doctors. Everything Happens for a Reason tells her story, offering up her irreverent, hard-won observations on dying and the ways it has taught her to live.Praise for Everything Happens for a Reason “I fell hard and fast for Kate Bowler. Her writing is naked, elegant, and gripping—she’s like a Christian Joan Didion. I left Kate’s story feeling more present, more grateful, and a hell of a lot less alone. And what else is art for?”—Glennon Doyle, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Love Warrior and president of Together Rising
£20.80
Penguin Putnam Inc Lights and Sirens
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£14.45
Random House USA Inc App Kid
Book SynopsisAn inspiring and deeply personal coming of age memoir from one of Silicon Valley’s youngest entrepreneurs—a second-generation Latino immigrant who taught himself how to code as a thirteen-year-old and went on to claim his share of the American dream.As his parents watched their restaurant business collapse in the wake of the Great Recession, Michael Sayman was googling “how to code.” Within a year, he had launched an iPhone app that was raking in thousands of dollars a month, enough to keep his family afloat—and in America. Entirely self-taught, Sayman headed from high school straight into the professional world, and by the time he was seventeen, he was Facebook’s youngest employe ever, building new features that wowed its founder Mark Zuckerberg and are now being used by more than half a billion people every day. Sayman pushed Facebook to build its own version of Snapchat’s Stories and, as a result, engagement on the pla
£13.29
Penguin Putnam Inc Life on Other Planets
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£22.40
Random House Publishing Group Fall Down 7 Times Get Up 8
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£15.30
Wisconsin Historical Society Press Limping Through Life
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£19.51
St Martin's Press Black Man in a White Coat
Book SynopsisA NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER ONE OF TIME MAGAZINE''S TOP TEN NONFICTION BOOKS OF THE YEARA LIBRARY JOURNAL BEST BOOK SELECTION A BOOKLIST EDITORS'' CHOICE BOOK SELECTIONOne doctor''s passionate and profound memoir of his experience grappling with race, bias, and the unique health problems of black AmericansWhen Damon Tweedy begins medical school, he envisions a bright future where his segregated, working-class background will become largely irrelevant. Instead, he finds that he has joined a new world where race is front and center. The recipient of a scholarship designed to increase black student enrollment, Tweedy soon meets a professor who bluntly questions whether he belongs in medical school, a moment that crystallizes the challenges he will face throughout his career. Making matters worse, in lecture after lecture the common refrain for numerous diseases resounds, More common in blacks than in whit
£16.20
St Martin's Press Heart A History
Book SynopsisThe bestselling author of Intern and Doctored tells the story of the thing that makes us tickFor centuries, the human heart seemed beyond our understanding: an inscrutable shuddering mass that was somehow the driver of emotion and the seat of the soul. As the cardiologist and bestselling author Sandeep Jauhar shows in Heart: A History, it was only recently that we demolished age-old taboos and devised the transformative procedures that have changed the way we live.Deftly alternating between key historical episodes and his own work, Jauhar tells the colorful and little-known story of the doctors who risked their careers and the patients who risked their lives to know and heal our most vital organ. He introduces us to Daniel Hale Williams, the African American doctor who performed the world's first open heart surgery in Gilded Age Chicago. We meet C. Walton Lillehei, who connected a patient's circulatory system to a healthy donor's, paving t
£16.15
St. Martin's Publishing Group Facing the Unseen
Book SynopsisFrom the New York Times bestselling author of Black Man in a White Coat comes a powerful and urgent call to center psychiatry and mental health care into the mainstream of medicineAs much as we all might wish that mental health problems, with their elusive causes and unsettling behaviors, simply did not exist, millions of people suffer from them, sometimes to an extreme extent. Many others face addiction to alcohol and other drugs, as overdose and suicide deaths abound. Yet the vast majority of doctors receive minimal instruction in treating these conditions during their lengthy medical training. This mismatch ignores the clear overlap between physical and mental distress, and too-often puts psychiatrists on the outside looking in as the medical system continues to fail many patients. In Facing The Unseen, bestselling author, professor of psychiatry, and practicing physician Damon Tweedy guides us through his days working in outpatient cl
£24.00
Picador The Weil Conjectures
Book SynopsisA New York Times Editors'' Pick and Paris Review Staff PickA wonderful book. --Patti SmithI was riveted. Olsson is evocative on curiosity as an appetite of the mind, on the pleasure of glutting oneself on knowledge. --Parul Sehgal, The New York TimesAn eloquent blend of memoir and biography exploring the Weil siblings, math, and creative inspirationKaren Olsson's stirring and unusual third book, The Weil Conjectures, tells the story of the brilliant Weil siblingsSimone, a philosopher, mystic, and social activist, and André, an influential mathematicianwhile also recalling the years Olsson spent studying math. As she delves into the lives of these two singular French thinkers, she grapples with their intellectual obsessions and rekindles one of her own. For Olsson, as a math major in college and a writer now, it's the odd detours that lead to discovery, to moments of insight. Thus The Weil Conjectures
£15.30
St Martin's Press What Doesnt Kill You
Book SynopsisShould be read by anyone with a body. . . . Relentlessly researched and undeniably smart.The New York TimesNamed one of BuzzFeed''s Best Books of 2021What Doesn't Kill You is the riveting account of a young journalist's awakening to chronic illness, weaving together personal story and reporting to shed light on living with an ailment forever.Tessa Miller was an ambitious twentysomething writer in New York City when, on a random fall day, her stomach began to seize up. At first, she toughed it out through searing pain, taking sick days from work, unable to leave the bathroom or her bed. But when it became undeniable that something was seriously wrong, Miller gave in to family pressure and went to the hospitalbeginning a yearslong nightmare of procedures, misdiagnoses, and life-threatening infections. Once she was finally correctly diagnosed with Crohn's disease, Miller faced another battle: accepting that sh
£16.99
St Martin's Press Birdgirl
Book SynopsisBritish-Bangladeshi birder, environmentalist and activist Mya-Rose Craig is an international force. In her moving memoir, Birdgirl, she chronicles her mother's struggle with mental illness, and shares her passion for social justice and fierce dedication to preserving our planet.Meet Mya-Rose otherwise known as Birdgirl. In her words: Birdwatching has never felt like a hobby, or a pastime I can pick up and put down, but a thread running through the pattern of my life, so tightly woven in that there's no way of pulling it free and leaving the rest of my life intact.Birdgirl follows Mya-Rose and her family as they travel the world in search of rare birds and astonishing landscapes. But a shadow moves with them, tooher mother''s deepening mental health crisis. In the face of this struggle, the Craigs turn to nature again and again for comfort and meaning. Each bird they see brings a moment of joy and reflection, instilling in Mya-Rose a deep
£22.40
WW Norton & Co Flight of the Diamond Smugglers A Tale of
Book Synopsis“Unforgettable. . . . An outstanding adventure in its lyrical, utterly compelling, and heartbreaking investigations of the world of diamond smuggling.” —Aimee Nezhukumatathil
£12.34
Johns Hopkins University Press Ordering Life
Book SynopsisThe broader social context in which scientists work is just as important to the project of naming, describing, classifying, and, ultimately, explaining life.Trade ReviewFor those with an interest in the history of natural history. -- Ian Paulsen, GrrlScientist Guardian A very readable account of the long-lived naturalist/entomologist Karl Jordan (1861-1959). Choice Any college-level natural history holding will find this enlightening. Midwest Book Review Karl Jordan's innovative methods of classifying insect species are highlighted in this biography of the early 20th century entomologist. Science News Ordering Life, by Kristin Johnson, is one part biography to three parts history and philosophy of science. 'Jordan serves as a useful guide', Johnson writes, 'not only to understanding how knowledge about biodiversity is obtained but how the answer to that question has changed over time and why'. -- Louise Fabiani Times Literary Supplement There are layers of richness in Johnson's book and readers will doubtless draw their own conclusions for Johnson's pleasong style leads the reader by means of historical narrtive rather than proselytization. -- Malcolm J. Scoble Biological Journal of the Linnean SocietyTable of ContentsIntroduction1. Joining the Naturalist Tradition"Beetles. Beautiful beetles"Becoming a ZoologistThe Cosmopolitan NaturalistsThe "nice berth": Curating a Zoological MuseumMobilizing the Naturalist Tradition2. Reforming EntomologyThe "strange mixture" of EntomologistsHow to Do EntomologyThe "making" of SpeciesA New Type of CollectionRetraining the Natural History Network3. Ordering Beetles, Butterflies, and Moths"The great desideratum"Revising the SwallowtailsMaking Systematics ScientificCrossing over to BiologyAmassing the Concreta4. Ordering NaturalistsMen of Two ClassesOrganizing EntomologistsThe End of Tring's Heyday"Science knows no country"A "nation of Entomologists"5. A Descent into DisorderTelling "which way the wind blows"The Balance of Europe Is UpsetThe StandstillRecovering Friends, Committees, and Congresses I"The requirements for a thorough investigation"Taxonomy in a Changed WorldThe Rise of Applied EntomologyThe Rise of Applied EntomologyVarious Utopias I: The Ithaca CongressVarious Utopias II: The International Entomological InstituteA Lad's Last Marble7. The Ruin of War and the Synthesis of BiologyThe Edges of EmpireWhere Subspecies Meet"The end of Tring as we have known and cherished it""Provided Europe does not get quite mad""Without the collection I am hopeless"8. Naturalists in a New LandscapeRecovering Friends, Committees, and Congresses IIThe Quest to "clear up the chaos" in Weevils and FleasAvoiding the Snake in the GrassGlorified Office BoysLate for a KnighthoodConclusionAcknowledgments
£37.50
Random House USA Inc A Honeybee Heart Has Five Openings: A Year of
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£21.56
Trafford Publishing Go Go Go
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£14.24
Gotham Books Life, on the Line: A Chef's Story of Chasing
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£19.95
WW Norton & Co Internal Medicine: A Doctor's Stories
Book SynopsisIn this “artful, unfailingly human, and understandable” (Boston Globe) account inspired by his own experiences becoming a doctor, Terrence Holt puts readers on the front lines of the harrowing crucible of a medical residency. A medical classic in the making, hailed by critics as capturing “the feelings of a young doctor’s three-year hospital residency . . . better than anything else I have ever read” (Susan Okie, Washington Post), Holt brings a writer’s touch and a doctor’s eye to nine unforgettable stories where the intricacies of modern medicine confront the mysteries of the human spirit. Internal Medicine captures the “stark moments of success and failure, pride and shame, courage and cowardice, self-reflection and obtuse blindness that mark the years of clinical training” (Jerome Groopman, New York Review of Books), portraying not only a doctor’s struggle with sickness and suffering but also the fears and frailties each of us—doctor and patient—bring to the bedside.Trade Review"[T]his book illuminates human fragility in tales both lyrical and soul-wrenching…. Holt dissects the medical experience in exquisite and restrained prose." -- Danielle Ofri - New York Times Book Review"Whether or not you classify this collection of nine stories as nonfiction, they ring true in both details and spirit, starting with a doctor’s evolution from the first night on call as an intern and ending with ethical questions that a physician ponders 40 months later, his residency complete… Dr. Holt never settles for easy answers, and the questions he poses—reflecting the frequent uncertainties of doctors and patients alike—will leave readers thinking long after the final page is turned." -- Alice Cary - BookPage"Holt, who also holds a master’s in fiction writing and a PhD in literature, is an excellent story teller… [T]he portrait Holt offers is artful, unfailingly human, and understandable." -- Dennis Rosen - Boston Globe"Holt’s new collection of stories, captures the feelings of a young doctor’s three-year hospital residency—the powerlessness, the exhaustion, the chaotic and seemingly endless shifts, and above all, the intensity of being with people in moments of extremity—better than anything else I have ever read… Holt’s unadorned prose and pitch-perfect dialogue contribute to the realism of these stories. At times they have the atmosphere of a hospital version of film noir, the narrator sounding as tough as Raymond Chandler’s Philip Marlowe in his effort to be efficient and unflappable… Anyone who’s considering becoming a doctor, or anyone who wants to know what’s at the core of a doctor’s initiation, should read this book." -- Susan Okie - The Washington Post
£14.11
WW Norton & Co Flight of the Diamond Smugglers: A Tale of
Book SynopsisFor nearly eighty years, a huge portion of coastal South Africa was closed off to the public. With many of its pits now deemed “overmined” and abandoned, American journalist Matthew Gavin Frank sets out across the infamous Diamond Coast to investigate an illicit trade that supplies a global market. Immediately, he became intrigued by the ingenious methods used in facilitating smuggling particularly, the illegal act of sneaking carrier pigeons onto mine property, affixing diamonds to their feet, and sending them into the air. Entering Die Sperrgebiet (“The Forbidden Zone”) is like entering an eerie ghost town, but Frank is surprised by the number of people willing—even eager—to talk with him. Soon he meets Msizi, a young diamond digger, and his pigeon, Bartholomew, who helps him steal diamonds. It’s a deadly game: pigeons are shot on sight by mine security, and Msizi knows of smugglers who have disappeared because of their crimes. For this, Msizi blames “Mr. Lester,” an evil tall-tale figure of mythic proportions. From the mining towns of Alexander Bay and Port Nolloth, through the “halfway” desert, to Kleinzee’s shores littered with shipwrecks, Frank investigates a long overlooked story. Weaving interviews with local diamond miners who raise pigeons in secret with harrowing anecdotes from former heads of security, environmental managers, and vigilante pigeon hunters, Frank reveals how these feathered bandits became outlaws in every mining town. Interwoven throughout this obsessive quest are epic legends in which pigeons and diamonds intersect, such as that of Krishna’s famed diamond Koh-i-Noor, the Mountain of Light, and that of the Cherokee serpent Uktena. In these strange connections, where truth forever tangles with the lore of centuries past, Frank is able to contextualize the personal grief that sent him, with his wife Louisa in the passenger seat, on this enlightening journey across parched lands. Blending elements of reportage, memoir, and incantation, Flight of the Diamond Smugglers is a rare and remarkable portrait of exploitation and greed in one of the most dangerous areas of coastal South Africa. With his sovereign prose and insatiable curiosity, Matthew Gavin Frank “reminds us that the world is a place of wonder if only we look” (Toby Muse).Trade Review"Intriguing.... With great eloquence, Matthew Gavin Frank weaves his personal losses into a riveting cultural tapestry. If Flight of the Diamond Smugglers induces justified discomfort about the dirty business of diamonds, it also rewards with a panoramic view of an ancient and mysterious trade." -- Martha Anne Toll - NPR"[A] rumination on brutality and resistance in the mines of South Africa. . . . The material in general — ghost towns, corporate cruelty, the centuries-old relationship between humans and a species almost magical in its abilities — is fabulous." -- Nate Blakeslee - New York Times Book Review"Unexpected connections abound in Frank's lyrical work . . . . [he] blends investigative journalism, historical research and rhapsodically written memoir to examine mankind's relentless exploitation of the Earth and all its creatures, including the humans themselves. . . . In refusing to romanticize the landscape or the piracy that takes place upon it, Frank's book suggests that perhaps what diamonds are forever really means is that so is avarice. But maybe so, too, is ‘the magic of the pigeons." -- Kathleen Rooney - Minneapolis Star Tribune"The humble pigeon gains a sense of grandeur as the author evokes a plethora of classical, mythical, and scientific accounts to paint a fascinating portrait of this commonplace species.... An attempt to capture and remember the collective tragedies and horror of the diamond mining industry.... Frank captures the Orwellian atmosphere.... examin[ing] the helplessness of the people who are trapped in this quagmire where hierarchies of race and class push them into making perilous decisions." -- Shweta Kumari - The Mantle"A perfect combination of memoir and investigative reporting.... a page-turning tale of suspense." -- Corné van Zyl - The South African"A work of strange beauty born of personal tragedy.... An often unsettling, thoroughly researched, poetically expressed mélange of memoir, historical analysis and philosophical meditation.... The narrative’s path is not linear; instead, Frank follows the flow of his prodigious curiosity.... Frank observes... with a sharp yet sympathetic eye.... Suspense builds as the pages turn.... there’s much to marvel at, from the far-reaching aftermath of diamond mining to the ways old memories have a hold on us. Readers will empathize with Frank’s efforts to process his grief and with Diamond Coast residents’ search for glints of hope in a grim desert. Through it all, pigeons soar in the sky and alight on the ground, offering companionship, a particular set of skills and thought-provoking fodder for metaphor." -- Linda M. Castellitto, Bookpage, starred review"Equal parts memoir and investigative reporting.... A page-turning tale of suspense.... With novelistic writing, Frank masterfully weaves a fast-paced history of South Africa's Diamond Coast, and the impact of De Beers controlling both the land and the government. His thorough reporting on mineworkers, their pigeons, and towns that have struggled in the wake of mine closures makes for compelling reading. The author excels in allowing people to speak for themselves, adding personal touches to a history of greed and trauma.... Frank writes a fascinating story of grief and history that will draw readers in from the first page. Must-read narrative nonfiction." -- Stephanie Sendaula, Library Journal, starred review"[T]he author [Frank] creates an intriguing and unusual blend of genres. Here he mixes natural history with anthropology and a twist of true crime in a tale of small-scale theft." -- Kirkus Reviews"For too long, the lowly pigeon has been seen as an urban nuisance, undeserving of our attention, and too common to be seen in a magical or heroic light. Matthew Gavin Frank’s compelling investigation into the bird’s unexpected role in the diamond trade is here to change that: Flight of the Diamond Smugglers is a lyrical portrait of a resilient species caught in the grinding gears of a cruel industry of extraction and exploitation." -- Kirk Wallace Johnson, author of The Feather Thief: Beauty, Obsession, and the Natural History Heist of the Century"From the depths of diamond pits where miners toil for starvation wages, to the skies above the South African coast where pigeons glide, Matthew Gavin Frank’s riveting exposé casts light on a little-known world that ensnares humans and animals alike in the pitiless pursuit of treasure and profit." -- Lauren Redniss, author of Oak Flat: A Fight for Sacred Land in the American West"A beautifully written book on diamond smuggling, the universe, life and much of what lies in between. . . . Throughout it all, this book reminds us that the world is a place of wonder if only we look." -- Toby Muse, author of Kilo: Inside the Cocaine Cartels—from the Jungles to the Streets"Hard-bitten and starkly poetic. Matthew Gavin Frank digs deep into South Africa’s brutal mining territories and strikes unlikely signs of life. The most precious gems in this story are, unexpectedly, flesh and feathers. An incredibly raw, personal, and original tale." -- Noah Strycker, author of Birding Without Borders: An Obsession, a Quest, and the Biggest Year in the World"This book is a rare gem indeed, smartly researched by someone with a big heart and a beautiful mind." -- Aimee Nezhukumatathil, author of World of Wonders: In Praise of Fireflies, Whale Sharks, and Other Astonishment
£19.94
Pegasus Books Landlines
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£18.95
Chicago Review Press Restoring Eden: Unearthing the Agribusiness
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£17.99
iUniverse Ascending the Fourteener of Recovery: A Mother
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£16.14
Green Writers Press Love, Sex & Mushrooms: Advenutres of a Woman in
Book SynopsisWhen a young girl, Cardy Raper told her mother, "When I grow up I want to be a scientist and make grand discoveries!" Her mother responded, "You could become a nurse." Science was a man's world then. Cardy refused to take "no" for an answer. Her dream seemed attainable when she met her mentor, Professor John "Red" Raper at the University of Chicago who said "Yes, you can be a scientist!" They became soul mates, fell in love, married, parented children, moved to Harvard, and did research together on the versatile sex life of fungi. Red's untimely death left Cardy alone in the competitive world of cutting-edge science. She carried on, obtained a doctoral degree, learned the techniques of molecular genetics, and established her own laboratory where she conducted pioneering research on the genetic and molecular determinants of sexual reproduction in a mushroom-bearing fungus with 20,000 different sexes. This fungus has served as a model organism for exploring the way in which sensing molecules, such as pheromones, function to communicate in more complex organisms.
£16.16
Belt Publishing Team Building: A Memoir about Family and the
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£16.16
Tin House Books Wise Hours
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£15.26
Barlow Book Publishing inc. Project Unthinkable: A Doctor's Gamble to Save
Book SynopsisThis is the memoir of one of the world's most effective health crusaders and his lifelong campaign to save lives around the globe. Author Derek Yach started out in a traditional way, at the World Health Organization, where he demonized Big Tobacco for causing the death of millions worldwide. Then, after engineering an international treaty to curb smoking around the world, he crossed the line. In an unorthodox move, he joined Pepsi to help its CEO transform the chips and soda behemoth into a more healthy company. The author's rationale was this: To save tens of millions of lives, you may have to go inside the enemy corporation to help it change. So when Philip Morris International (PMI) announced it was ready to switch from combustible cigarettes to smokeless ones, a move that could save untold lives, Yach made the most audacious gamble of his long career in global public health. Project Unthinkable is a biography embedded in several big themes: - Can a company that causes harm to human health change from the inside? - Can you cross the line and work with the opposition? - Will combustible cigarettes become history?Table of ContentsPrologue Chapter 1: Beginnings Chapter 2: Finding My Way Chapter 3: Leaving Home Chapter 4: Taking on Big Tobacco Chapter 5: The End of the Beginning Chapter 6: Treading Water Chapter 7: Opening Up a Can of Trouble Chapter 8: Inside Man at Pepsi Chapter 9: The Virtuous Cycle Chapter 10: In the Lair of the Enemy Chapter 11: The Battle Ahead
£19.76
Shackleton books Jane Goodall la mejor amiga de los chimpancés y
Book SynopsisLa mayoría de héroes que conocemos son seres extraordinarios con poderes mágicos y una capa ondeando en sus hombros. Pero también existen héroes de carne y hueso, tan humanos como tú y como yo, que algunas veces se equivocan y otras aciertan a lo grande.Jane Goodall fue una de ellos. Sus poderes fueron una curiosidad increíble por los chimpancés, unos prismáticos y mucha paciencia para conseguir hacerse su amiga. Gracias a todos ellos descubrió que estos primates se parecen más a los humanos de lo que se pensaba: como nosotros, también usan herramientas para alimentarse, tienen vida social y, lo más fascinante, cada uno tiene su propia personalidad. Tal es la proeza de Jane Goodall, y esta es su historia.Cuando era pequeña, a Jane Goodall le regalaron un chimpancé de peluche, y le cambió la vida. Desde entonces, su curiosidad por los primates no hizo más que crecer. Tras años fantaseando con Tarzán de la jungla, le surgió la oportunidad que esperaba: viajar al corazón de África para poder estudiarlos. Lo que debía ser un viaje de unos meses se convirtió en su destino para toda la vida. Con sus investigaciones nos demostró que los chimpancés se parecen a nosotros mucho más de lo que creíamos. Pero sobre todo nos enseñó a conocerlos, amarlos y protegerlos.Mis Pequeños Héroes es una colección de biografías ilustradas para niños y niñas en las que se rinde homenaje a las figuras de la historia que han hecho del mundo un lugar mejor.
£17.27
