Biography: general Books

Book SynopsisBen Hatch is on the road again. Commissioned to write a guidebook about France (despite not speaking any French) he sets off with visions of relaxing chateaux and refined dining. Ten thousand miles later his family''s been attacked by a donkey, had a run-in with a death-cult and, after a near drowning and a calamitous wedding experience involving a British spy, his own marriage is in jeopardy. A combination of obsessions about mosquitoes, French gravel and vegetable theme parks mean it''s a bumpy ride as Ben takes a stand against tyrannical French pool attendants, finds himself running with the bulls in Pamplona and almost starring in a snuff movie after a near fatal decision to climb into a millionaire''s Chevrolet Blazer. Funny and poignant, Road to Rouen asks important questions about life, marriage and whether it''s ever acceptable to tape baguette to your children''s legs to smuggle lunch into Disneyland Paris.Trade ReviewBen Hatch makes me laugh more and more -- John CleeseMagnifique! -- Terry WoganBen Hatch is a very funny writer. His work is fresh and heartfelt -- David JasonA French odyssey to rival the greatest adventures in history - if you like jokes, and a car full of cheese. Funny and touching * Danny Wallace *Highly recommended to anyone holidaying in France this year. Or to anyone holidaying anywhere. Or to anyone holidaying with kids. Or to anyone with kids but no holiday plans. Basically to anyone with a sense of humour * Sunday Express *Although Hatch's writing strength is in absurd comedy, there's a heart-warming spirit underpinning the book, that of the sheer joy of tackling what life throws at you as a united team and spending time together as a family. * Daily Mail *I am going to shout this very loudly. YOU MUST READ THIS BOOK. The funniest travel memoir you will read this year. Ben Hatch is a genius. The funny bits were so funny. The sad bits were so sad * Lisa Jewell *Parents will either roar with laughter or roll their eyes with recognition at this family road-trip memoir * Metro *Goes from one hilarious situation to another. Very entertaining. The author is naturally funny * The Sun *Fantastically funny and touching. I laughed and winced and will never look at baguettes in the same way again * Sophie Kinsella *I loved Ben Hatch's funny, honest, touching memoir * Jenny Colgan *A lovely, funny, scary adventure * Tim Brooke-Taylor *Haven't laughed as much in ages * Mike Gayle *A funny, poignant tale of life and surviving it * Guardian *

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Book Synopsis“Gripping . . . a highly readable tour de force that brings Queen Isabella vividly to life.”—The Washington Post Book World An “insightful and compelling” (USA Today) biography of Isabella of England, one of history’s most notorious and charismatic queens, from the New York Times bestselling author hailed as “the finest historian of English monarchical succession writing” (The Boston Globe) Isabella arrived in London in 1308, the spirited twelve-year-old daughter of King Philip IV of France. Her marriage to the heir to England’s throne was designed to heal old political wounds between the two countries, and in the years that followed, she would become an important figure, a determined and clever woman whose influence would come to last centuries. But Queen Isabella’s political machinations led generations of historians to malign her, earning her a reputation as a ruthless schemer and an odious nickname, “the She-Wolf of France.”The newly wed Isabella was denied the attentions of Edward II, a weak, sexually ambiguous monarch with scant taste for his royal duties. As their marriage progressed, Isabella was neglected by her dissolute husband and slighted by his favored male courtiers. Humiliated and deprived of her income, her children, and her liberty, Isabella escaped to France, where she entered into a passionate affair with Edward II’s mortal enemy, Roger Mortimer. Together, they deposed Edward and ruled in his stead as co-regents for Isabella’s young son, Edward III. Fate, however, was soon to catch up with Isabella and her lover.A work of extraordinary original research, Queen Isabella strips away centuries of propaganda, legend, and romantic myth, and gives a groundbreaking new perspective on Isabella, a truly remarkable woman who had a profound influence upon the age in which she lived and the history of western Europe.

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Book SynopsisJean Sasson grew up in a small town in America's deep south before moving to the Middle East in 1978 to work at a prestigious royal hospital in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. In 1985, she met Princess Sultana, who inspired the widely acclaimed Princess Trilogy. Jean later worked as freelance writer in Lebanon and Kuwait, conducting interviews with Kuwaitis who survived the first Gulf war, as well as high ranking Kuwaiti officials before, during and after the War. Her affection for the Middle East has been the motivation for a number of her books and Jean has spent her career sharing the personal stories of many courageous women. Princess: Stepping Out Of The Shadows is the latest book in the bestselling Princess series.Trade ReviewA very human look at the struggle of the Kurds in Iraq and one woman's heroism. * Booklist *

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Book SynopsisIn a career spanning four decades, Gerald R. North contributed groundbreaking research that continues to shape the modern field of climate science. However, the route he has taken was full of surprising twists and turns that included hate mail, eavesdropping by the KGB, and sometimes acrimonious debate with climate-change deniers.North's significant contributions to the field include his innovative 'toy model' analysis of climate change based on ingeniously simplified models and his lead proposal for and successful approval of the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite. Launched in 1997, the TRMM's purpose was to collect data on the global climate system. The TRMM operated successfully for 17 years before it was deactivated in 2015.In The Rise of Climate Science, North recounts in detail his life in the vanguard of modern climate science. He offers an insider look at the academic research and government initiatives around global warming and what that means for the planet. He includes stories of conversations with top Soviet climate scientists at the height of the Cold War in the late 1970s - complete with clandestine electronic surveillance. He also describes the experience of testifying before Congress and engaging in public exchanges with those who doubted the reality of the phenomenon his research field described.Climatology today has advanced into a mature phase. This book is an important contribution to understanding its development in the twentieth century and adds a distinctly human face and sensibility to the ongoing societal conversation around climate change and its implications for our future.

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Book SynopsisJack Currie DFC served as a stretcher bearer and later ambulance driver during the London Blitz before gaining his wings in the USA.

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Book SynopsisSLEEK. CHIC. NOTORIOUSLY GUARDED. WELCOME TO THE SECRET WORLD OF COCO CHANEL.Justine Picardie's definitive biography explores the dark mysteries hidden beneath the shimmering surface of a fabled fashion icon. Unveiling remarkable details about Coco Chanel's traumatic childhood and her flight into unconventional adulthood, this beautifully constructed portrait reveals her passionate and painful past, her turbulent loves and losses, her quest for fame and fortune, and how she transformed herself into her own most powerful creation.Feared and revered by her contemporaries, Chanel died in 1971, but her legacy lives on as an enduring global brand. Drawing on interviews with her last surviving friends and relatives, and unprecedented archival research, Justine Picardie brings Chanel out of hiding, unpicking the seams between reality and myth, and telling a timeless story that uncovers the true art and heart of fashion.This special new edition has been extensively revised and updated, and offers a uniquely authoritative account of the greatest designer in the world. Adding fresh insights and discoveries, it comes complete with a compelling array of previously unseen images from the Chanel archives.

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Book SynopsisCompelling and inspirational, Alien Nation is a celebration of immigration and an exploration of culture shock, isolation and community, loneliness and hope, heartbreak and promise—it’s a poignant reminder of our shared humanity at a time we need it greatly, and a thoughtful, entertaining tribute to cultural diversity.Trade ReviewA moving look at what the American dream means today. — Publishers Weekly

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Book SynopsisHow does an Italian become Italian? In An Italian Education Tim Parks focuses on his own young children in the small village near Verona where he lives, building a fascinating picture of the contemporary Italian family at school, at home, at work and at play.Trade ReviewSpot-on - a very accurate, very entertaining and at the same time rather profound book * Daily Telegraph *Parks is more than just an effortless raconteur playing for laughs...he offers detailed cultural observation, witty yet eagle-eyed, of what makes Italians so Italian * The Times *Tim Parks is Italian enough to understand the country, foreign enough to see its peculiarities and talented enough to make them funny without resorting to cliché * Daily Express *

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Book SynopsisOn leaving school or university, you feel pretty pleased with yourself. You''ve learnt a lot, your''e well-read and you know a whole bunch of obscure facts guaranteed at some point to appear in the questions on Mastermind or University Challenge. Then you get a job, and ten years later youre more eloquent and eager to argue about Britney and Big Brother than Beckett and the Brontes. Sound familiar?Well it happened to AJ Jacobs too. As an editor at Esquire, Jacobs had built up a rather impressive knowledge of celebrity trivia - and the cure was going to take a long time. While others might take to reading a broadsheet at the weekend, Jacobs chose to read the Encyclopaedia Britannica. All 33,000 pages of it. Bill Bryson meets Schott''s Original Miscellany meets Woody Allen. Part assemblage of fascinating trivia, part journey through adulthood, all laugh-out-loud funny.Trade Review'The Know-It-All is a terrific book. It's a lot shorter than the encyclopedia, and funnier, and you'll remember more of it. Plus, if it falls off the shelf onto your head, you'll live.' P.J. O'Rourke'A jape of a book...with Jacobs...coming across as a slightly younger and Jewish Bill Bryson. Some of his quips are worthy even of Woody Allen... Hilarious' Guardian'For those who enjoy learning about some of the stranger facts about the world in which we live and who appreciate having a guide of some charm, The Know-It-All will be something of a treat.' Sunday Times'The Know-It-All is one of the most informative humorous books and one of the funniest collections of information that I have seen in a long time. (Note to publishers: that's the sentence you can put on the back of the next edition if you like).' Daily Express'Frequently funny and sometimes downright hilarious, but this is also an unexpectedly moving book.' Daily Mail

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Book SynopsisChristopher Isherwood was born in 1904. He began to write at university and later moved to Berlin, where he gave English lessons to support himself. He witnessed first hand the rise to power of Hitler and the Nazi party in Germany and some of his best works, such as Mr. Norris Changes Trains and Goodbye to Berlin, draw on these experiences. He created the character of Sally Bowles, later made famous as the heroine of the musical Cabaret. Isherwood travelled with W.H Auden to China in the late 1930s before going with him to America in 1939. He died on 4 January 1986. His novel A Single Man was recently made into an award-winning film by Tom Ford, starring Colin Firth and Julianne Moore.Trade ReviewIsherwood has reinvented the spirit of devotion for the modern reader. If I had to propose a candidate for canonization, Isherwood - wry, self-conscious, scrupulously honest - would get my vote -- Edmund White * New York Times *A masterpiece of spiritual memoir * Los Angeles Times *What emerges is a record of a religious adventure that would have delighted Kierkegaard... Isherwood rejects conventional piety - all the humdrum apparatus of worship - in favor of a direct, even jaunty appreciation of how preposterous, certainly precarious, spirituality can be today. * New York Times *The sacred and the profane collide like never before -- Giles Foden * Conde Nast Traveller *

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Book SynopsisGeoffrey Robertson QC has been at the centre of internationally high-profile legal cases for over three decades. From representing Princess Diana to Salman Rushdie, to his involvement in the celebrated criminal trials of Oz magazine and Gay News, Robertson is an unfailing champion of human rights, justice, freedom and democracy. In this captivating memoir, Robertson reveals what draws him to each case, his ingenious analysis and interpretation of the courtroom proceedings, and the legal and civic consequences wrapping each case into a thrilling, rollercoaster sequence of events.Entertaining, scandalous and hugely insightful, The Justice Game provides a piercing behind-the-scenes look into courtroom cases, the practice of the law and the never-ending fight in striving to narrow the gap between the law and justice. A highly recommended read for those interested in current affairs, criminal and public law, legal history and the British legal system.This wondeTrade ReviewFor all his reputation as a radical lawyer, flailing at the Establishment, he proves himself to be a believer * Independent *This wonderful book...reads like a John Grisham, infused with moral anger * Independent *Well-written, powerful...Robertson's work has changed the way government works, and made it more accountable...a good read for people of any age -- Jack Straw * New Statesman *Geoffrey Robertson Q.C. is one of those few fearless and romantic lawyers dedicated to reducing the difference between law and justice -- David Jessel * Scotland on Sunday *Compellingly told, entertaining, sometimes hilarious and always illuminating -- John Mortimer

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Book SynopsisAnnie Hawes, originally from Shepherd's Bush, has lived in Liguria now for fifteen years.

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Book SynopsisOne of the greatest thinkers of the nineteenth century, Søren Kierkegaard often expressed himself through pseudonyms and disguises. Taken from his personal writings, these private reflections reveal the development of his own thought and personality, from his time as a young student to the deep later internal conflict that formed the basis for his masterpiece of duality Either/Or and beyond. Expressing his beliefs with a freedom not seen in works he published during his lifetime, Kierkegaard here rejects for the first time his father''s conventional Christianity and forges the revolutionary idea of the leap of faith required for true religious belief. A combination of theoretical argument, vivid natural description and sharply honed wit, the Papers and Journals reveal to the full the passionate integrity of his lifelong efforts to find a truth which is truth for me.For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.Table of ContentsPapers and Journals: A Selection Translator's Preface1834-1836: The First Journal Entries and Their Background1837-1839: Setting the Stage1840-1845: Berlin and the First Round1846-1847: Out of the Cloister1848-1849: The Widening of the Rift1850-1853: Preparing for the Fight1854-1855: The AttackPostscript: The End of the Beginning0Notes

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Book SynopsisLONGLISTED FOR THE GORDON BURN PRIZE 2017A hauntingly beautiful social history of the Thames Estuary, from the author of On Brick LaneOut at the eastern edge of England, between land and ocean, you will find beautiful, haunted salt marshes, coastal shallows and wide-open skies: the Thames Estuary. The estuary is an ancient gateway to England, a passage for numberless travellers in and out of London. And for generations, the people of Kent and Essex have lived and worked on the Estuary, learning its waters, losing loved ones to its deeps. Their heritage is a proud but never an easy one. In the face of a world changing around them, they endure.Rachel Lichtenstein spent five years exploring this unique community and recording its extraordinary chorus of voices, present and past. From mud larkers and fishermen to radio pirates and champion racers, from buried princesses to unexploded bombs, Estuary is a celebration of a haunting & profTrade ReviewPublisher's description. An immersive journey through the weird and haunting spaces of the Thames Estuary. Rachel Lichtenstein presents an extraordinary chorus of voices, from mudlarkers and fishermen to radio pirates and champion racers, capturing the incredibly diverse community of people who live and work in this ancient, wild and mesmerising place. * Penguin *Rachel Lichtenstein's electrifying exploration of the estuary * Spectator *The Thames Estuary changes constantly. How do you make such a landscape comprehensible, and how do you render it vividly for the reader? Lichtenstein's outstanding book shows how it should be done. * Irish Times *Immersive, engrossing, evocative * The Lady *

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Book SynopsisA precocious American youth who entered the orbit of American and British expatriates populating Paris and the South of France in the 1920s, George Platt Lynes went on to become a supremely assured portrait photographer documenting the great figures of literature, painting, opera, and dance of mid-twentieth century. This new biography tells his story in full.Trade ReviewIn 1927, Lynes had met a couple, Glenway Wescott and Monroe Wheeler, eventually a writer and an arts administrator (at the Museum of Modern Art in New York) respectively. .... The following year he joined them in the south of France. The relationship became triangular, though not equilaterally: poor Wescott was somewhat edged to one side, even though the three of them lived together for more than a decade. As Ellenzweig rightly comments, 'these three men designed a way of life that appears as inventively bohemian as the roundelay of London's Bloomsbury Group.' ... Both scholarly and gossipy, this book has a cast of hundreds ... but Ellenzweig marshals his material with a steady hand. * Gregory Woods, Emeritus Professor of Gay & Lesbian Studies, Nottingham Trent University, UK, and author of Homintern: How Gay Culture Liberated the Modern World *This book is rich in details about his life and the world that produced him. It is the sort of book that you can open to a random page and be caught by some detail that will have you racing to Google to learn more... For anybody looking to study or recreate gay life in the mid 20th century, this is a deluxe road map. * Skot Armstrong, ArtilleryMag.com *Ellenzweig spent many years researching his Lynes book, and his energy and enthusiasm for his subject never flag. He is a tireless scholar, but he is also an insightful critic who can do a close read of any of the Lynes photos printed in the book and make you understand them more intimately. I read George Platt Lynes: The Daring Eye slowly because I didn't want it to end. This is a significant and painstaking and immersive book, shining a light on all aspects of a very flawed man who himself was one of the first artists to shine a light on the beauty of the male form in photographs. * Dan Callahan, Out In Print *Ellenzweig's splendid biography shows more thoroughly than ever before the full range of his talent. * Joseph M. Ortiz, The Gay & Lesbian Review Worldwide *One of the great virtues of Ellenzweig's sweeping book ... is that it's as much cultural history as personal biography. Lynes was able to photograph so many luminaries because he moved in their circles, and his evident talent made him a likely collaborator on many of their artistic projects. Ellenzweig provides in-depth accounts of these figures and projects as they came into Lynes' orbit, from Paul Cadmus' portrait of Lynes and their friends, to [Lincoln] Kirstein's establishment of the New York City Ballet under [George] Balanchine, and to the dazzling premier of Virgil Thomson and Gertrude Stein's opera Four Saints in Three Acts. In this respect The Daring Eye follows the model of Martin Duberman's The Worlds of Lincoln Kirstein and Jerry Rosco's Glenway Wescott Personally, two biographies of Lynes' friends that show the extent to which 20th-century art was driven by a transatlantic circle of gay friends and lovers. * Joseph M. Ortiz, Gay & Lesbian Review *Ellenzweig takes on a herculean task of carefully documenting the life of one of the unsung icons of gay imagery as well as that of a master photographer. * Jeffrey Felner, New York Journal of Books *George Platt Lynes: The Daring Eye bursts with detail about painters, sculptors, writers, photographers, performers, patrons and socialites during a thrilling time for art. From the end of World War I into the fifties, the emergence of modernism and expressionism profoundly influenced American and European culture. Allen Ellenzweig brings that world to life alongside George Platt Lyne's artistic brilliance, complex temperament and untamed sensuality. The book is a breathless ride. * Claudia Keenan, BookTrib (booktrib.com) *Ellenzweig gives the great photographer George Platt Lynes his full due in this intimate, expansive, richly detailed biography. Lynes lived a tragically short life but his work and friendships put him at the center of 20th century American history. His portraits of artists and his pioneering work in the male nude both receive here the attention they deserve.The book is an encyclopedia of cultural and social changes before, during, and after World War II, exploring not just photography, but literature, dance, music, fashion, museum life, and sexuality. The huge cast includes Gertrude Stein, Virgil Thomson, Paul Cadmus, Katherine Anne Porter, Cecil Beaton, Lincoln Kirstein, and Alfred Kinsey, as well as Lynes's lovers, Glenway Wescott and Monroe Wheeler. But my favorite figure is George's younger brother, Russell Lynes, the historian, who remained loyal and supportive to his charming, high-energy brother throughout his life * Christopher Bram, author of Father of Frankenstein *This masterly biography is a triumph of comprehensive research and highly sophisticated analysis. Ellenzweig's graceful, nuanced assessments expand our understanding not only of Lynes the individual, but of an entire epoch of cultural history. This is scholarship of the first rank, as well as psychological acuity of remarkable depth. * Martin Duberman, author of The Worlds of Lincoln Kirstein *At last! A sweeping biography of George Platt Lynes, whose exquisite fashion photography, portraits of major cultural figures, and male and female nudes have attracted considerable interest in recent years. Drawing on his extensive research in Lynes's intimate correspondence and journals, Ellenzweig has unearthed illuminating new details about the once charmed and ultimately tragic life of this daring mid-century photographer and his influential gay circle. * George Chauncey, DeWitt Clinton Professor of History, Columbia University, and author of Gay New York: Gender, Urban Culture, and the Making of the Gay Male World, 1890-1940 *George Platt Lynes dramatically staged and photographed a cosmopolitan network of friends, collaborators, and lovers during the 1930s and 1940s, revolutionizing such genres as the male nude, dance photography, portraiture, and fashion photography. Allen Ellenzweig's deeply researched and engagingly written biography provides context for the (re)discovery of an influential modern culture-maker. * Tirza Latimer, Professor Emerita, History of Art and Visual Culture, California College of the Arts, San Francisco *Table of ContentsPart One: The Precocious Pup Chapter 1: Past is Prologue-1955 Chapter 2: Imperial Fantasies Chapter 3: The Great Barrington Boy Chapter 4: "Baby George" at the Stein Salon Chapter 5: Missing Miss Stein and Hating Yale Part Two: Three-Cornered Hats Chapter 6: The Triangle Takes Shape Chapter 7: The Hotel Welcome, Jean Cocteau, and the Return to Paris Chapter 8: A New Career Chapter 9: Camera Work Chapter 10: You've Got to Have Friends Chapter 11: Gertrude in Clover Amiably Chapter 12: Twice a Debutante Part Three: Three-Cornered Hats Times Two Chapter 13: The Mural Show and a Threat of Marriage Chapter 14: A Death in the Family Chapter 15: Four Saints and a ménage-à-trois Chapter 16: 50 Photographs and a Family Wedding without Pictures Chapter 17: A Country House; Cocteau in Coney Island; The Sleepwalker Chapter 18: A Return to Paris; Bachelor and PaJaMa Parties Part Four: The Height of Fashion Chapter 19: Models, Myths, 640 Madison Avenue Chapter 20: The Affair Beaton and a Conversation Piece Chapter 21: An Anthology of Faces at Pierre Matisse Part Five: Battles on the Homefront Chapter 22: The War Comes Home Chapter 23: Breaking Away Chapter 24: Fortune Tellers and Paying Debts Chapter 25: "Finis" Part Six: Paradise Lost Chapter 26: Exiles in Paradise Chapter 27: Vogue-vagueness Chapter 28: Dr. Kinsey, E.M. Forster, and Bob: the dinner party Chapter 29: Pornographers, Visual and Verbal Chapter 30: The Great Barrington Boy II Chapter 31: A Naked Legacy Chapter 32: Vapors and Friends Chapter 33: A Gutsy and Courageous Performance Index

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Book SynopsisA finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, Duong Van Mai Elliott''s The Sacred Willow illuminates recent Vietnamese history by weaving together the stories of the lives of four generations of her family. Beginning with her great-grandfather, who rose from rural poverty to become an influential landowner, and continuing to the present, Mai Elliott traces her family''s journey through an era of tumultuous change. She tells us of childhood hours in her grandmother''s silk shop, and of hiding while French troops torched her village, watching while blossoms torn by fire from the trees flutter like hundreds of butterflies overhead. She makes clear the agonizing choices that split Vietnamese families: her eldest sister left her staunchly anti-communist home to join the Viet Minh, and spent months sleeping in jungle camps with her infant son, fearing air raids by day and tigers by night. And she follows several family members through the last, desperate hours of the fall of Saigon-including one nephew who tried to escape by grabbing the skid of a departing American helicopter. Based on family papers, dozens of interviews, and a wealth of other research, this is not only a memorable family saga but a record of how the Vietnamese themselves have experienced their times.Trade ReviewThis family's saga is as engrossing as fine literary fiction and is, besides, indispensable to understanding Vietnam from a Vietnamese perspective. * The New Yorker *[Elliott] reverently weaves the tale of a century of tremendous upheaval...and shows how the tragedies of her family are a window to understanding the Vietnamese century. It is a wonderful book, written with care, and it is extremely suggestive. * Touchstone *This is an excellent text which provides an insightful, personal history of a Vietnamese family. Through one family the reader discovers the real ramifications of a country at war for most of the 20th century. * Seth Bardo, Phillips Academy *This is a family saga sweeping you along 4 generations of recent Vietnamese history. This should at last allow the American student of the war to understand 'the other side' both its steely willpower and tender hearts. * Guenter Bischf, University of New Orleans *Those of us who reported from Vietnam during the war never fully understood the Vietnamese and the hardships they endured. Duong Van Mai Elliott's account of her family's experiences is a vivid, poignant, often inspiring story that I wish we could have read before we became involved in a conflict that was tragic for both Vietnamese and Americans. * Stanley Karnow, author of Vietnam: A History *[This] story could not be more compelling.... Voices a perspective until now missing from the English-language body of work on the Vietnam conflict.... Objectivity marks Elliott's book and makes it the best kind of history, [one] we may escape from repeating by reading of this remarkable family. * Beth Hughes, San Francisco Examiner *Suspenseful and gripping, Elliott's writing becomes a masterful narrative as she tells the various misadventures her family experienced trying to flee Vietnam.... It may be the story of the Duong clan, but it's also a story many Vietnamese will recognize as their own, and it will allow others an insight into a war they never have understood. * San Jose Mercury News *A gripping and enlightening account of the trials and triumphs of one remarkable family, whose story brings Vietnam's turbulent past to life as no other book I have ever read. Its great strength is that it is the story of Vietnam through the eyes of the Vietnamese, something that has been sorely needed in the West. I found it excellent and recommend it highly. * Don Oberdorfer, Journalist-in-Residence, Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies, author of TET *For too long Vietnamese voices have been conspicuous by their absence in the Western literature on the Vietnam War, a fact that has led to the common misperception that the conflict was an American tragedy only. This book fills that gap admirably. In a riveting and frequently moving account, author Mai Elliott chronicles the lives of four generations of a Vietnamese family whose members are caught up in the throes of war and revolution. Their story is told with both insight and compassion, while presenting a poignant portrait of the difficult moral dilemmas faced by individuals trapped in the web of a bitter civil war. Highly recommended. * William J. Duiker, Penn State University, author of The Communist Road to Power in Vietnam *An extraordinary collective biography that spans the history of Vietnam from colonial conquest to `market socialism.' Fascinating and moving... there is nothing like it anywhere. * Marilyn B. Young, author of The Vietnam Wars *There can be no better vehicle for understanding the modern history of Vietnam than the microcosm of the family. . .With deep insight and empathy, Elliott skillfully weaves the life stories of her great- grandparents, grandparents, parents, uncles, aunts, sisters, brothers, and cousins into the intricate tapestry of modern Vietnamese history. This is a beautiful and utterly absorbing work, a book of extraordinary emotional power that is also a major contribution to historical understanding. It deserves the widest audience and belongs in all libraries. * Library Journal *This is a beautiful and utterly absorbing work, a book of extraordinary emotional power that is also a major contribution to historical understanding. It deserves the widest audience and belongs in all libraries. * Steven L. Levine, University of Montana, Missoula *It is rare to find a book on Vietnam that provides clear and reliable guidance to the general reader and at the same time opens up significant insights for the specialist scholar. Mai Elliot does both. Not only is there much in her account that is new and important and her perceptivity open and fresh, but her pen flows with a grace and eloquence that makes this salient era of Vietnam's history become vivid and alive to an extent normally possible only in a historical novel. But this is solid history at its very best * and fascinating to read." George McT. Kahin, Aaron L. Binenkorb Professor of International Studies Emeritus, Cornell University *In writing this splendid and engrossing history of her own family the author illuminates the extraordinary qualities in the Vietnamese people and how they have endured their own brutal history. There is no other book like this one: it is gripping and beautiful. * Gloria Emerson, author of Winners and Losers: Batles, Retreats, Gains, Losses, and Ruins from a Long War *Those familiar with the history of the Vietnam War will want to read The Sacred Willow for its portrayal of four generations of Vietnamese caught up in the conflict. But perhaps even more important, those who know nothing about the war will find the story irresistible. If you have room in your library for only a few books on Vietnam this book should be there. * Lloyd Gardner, Rutgers University, author of Approaching Vietnam : from World War II through Dienbienphu, 1941-1954 *There can be no better vehicle for understanding the modern history of Vietnam than the microcosm of the family.... With deep insight and empathy, Elliott skillfully weaves the life stories of her great-grandparents, grandparents, parents, uncles, aunts, sisters, brothers, and cousins into the intricate tapestry of modern Vietnamese history. This is a beautiful and utterly absorbing work, a book of extraordinary emotional power that is also a major contribution to historical understanding. * Library Journal (starred review) *In this deeply moving family saga, Elliott offers a microcosm of the history of modern Vietnam.... Elliott writes with unsparing candor about forging a new identity, about her nation's destruction and its partial revival with the reintroduction of free-market mechanisms and, above all, about her family's harrowing passage through a long, difficult history. * Publishers Weekly *Despite its heft, this sprawling memoir of a Vietnamese family is an immensly readable book. Author Duong Van Mai Elliott has compiled her remarkable story....It is Elliott's ability to share her family's flaws and admit her own shortcomings that makes this a work of such compelling human interest. * Barbara Lloyd McMichael,Seattle Times *This family's saga is as engrossing as fine literary fiction and is, besides, indispensable to understanding Vietnam from a Vietnamese perspective. * The New Yorker *Marvelously rich book.... The author, a middle daughter from whom not too much was expected, has absorbed her family's collective history with a novelist's eye for telling detail... Indeed, it is Mai Elliot's abiding talent for seeing things objectively combined with her writerly skills, her deep knowledge of her nation's history, and her immersion in her family's ongoing oral story of itself, that gives us... detailed eyewitness accounts of extraordinary things that lie beyond and behind the last war... These are aspects of history and culture that could never be presented with such immediacy by any foreign writer... All of this is delivered with a close-up immediacy that allows us to enter another world.... Its skillful writing is itself a kind of filial piety, while its objective sense of history summons up compassionate insights into the human struggles of family and nation. Fascinating. * John Balaban, The Washington Post Book World *Plunges readers into a fascinating story told from a Vietnamese point of view, explaining the war in a context much larger that the limited perspective of American involvement... a very unique and broad perspective. * Steve Galpern, Denver Rocky Mountain News *Table of ContentsPreface Acknowledgments Maps Family Tree 1. A Burial in the Night 2. Shut Gate and High Walls 3. The Silk Merchant 4. French Veneer, Confucian Soul 5. Taxes, Floods, and Robbers 6. The Third Month in the Year of the Famine 7. The Head on the Roof 8. Into the Resistance Zone 9. Poison and Bribes 10. The Fall of a Border Garrison 11. Sifting Through the Rubble 12. The New Mecca 13. Just Cause 14. Short Peace, Long War 15. Flying Into the Unknown 16. The Spoils of Victory 17. The Hours of Gold and Jade Epilogue: Across the Four Seas Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisDarwin''s theory that our ancestors were apes caused a furore in the scientific world and outside it when The Origin of Species was published in 1859. Arguments still rage about the implications of his evolutionary theory, and scepticism about the value of Darwin''s contribution to knowledge is widespread. In this analysis of Darwin''s major insights and arguments, Jonathan Howard reasserts the importance of Darwin''s work for the development of modern biology.ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.Trade ReviewJonathan Howard has produced an intellectual tour de force, a classic in the genre of popular scientific exposition which will still be read in fifty years' time. * Times Literary Supplement *Table of ContentsList of Illustrations ; 1. Darwin's life ; 2. The foundations of Darwinism ; 3. Natural selection and the origin of species ; 4. The evidence for evolution by natural selection ; 5. Sex, variation, and heredity ; 6. Man ; 7. Perfection and progress ; 8. Darwinism and ideology ; 9. Darwin as a scientist: an evaluation ; Further Reading ; Index

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Book SynopsisThe full story of Frank Ramsey''s extraordinary life.When he died in 1930 aged 26, Frank Ramsey had already invented one branch of mathematics and two branches of economics, laying the foundations for decision theory and game theory. Keynes deferred to him; he was the only philosopher whom Wittgenstein treated as an equal. Had he lived he might have been recognized as the most brilliant thinker of the century. This amiable shambling bear of a man was an ardent socialist, a believer in free love, and an intimate of the Bloomsbury set. For the first time, Cheryl Misak tells the story of his tragically short, but extraordinary life.Trade Reviewan engaging account of the lamentably short life of Ramsey... exemplary piece(s) of intellectual history... * New Statesman, Books of the Year *"Cheryl Misak's biography has helped shine some much-needed light on this shockingly underappreciated figure." * David Edmonds, Wall Street Journal *Frank Ramsey [...] makes noble reading. Ms Misak is a born teacher who explains tricky intellectual abstractions with a clarity that is exceptional. More than that, she writes with love. Her tenderness toward Ramsey, his parents and siblings, his wife and friends gives spirit and delicacy to the whole. There is astounding emotional intelligence in every chapter. One feels on each page Ms. Misak's fine mind concentrating hard on doing the best she can. This is an enthralling and glorious book. * Richard Davenport-Hines, The Wall Street Journal *Her book is unlikely to be bettered... Misak provides by far the most complete picture we have of Ramsey's personality and personal life. * London Review of Books *Cheryl Misak has done valuable work in producing the first biography of Frank Ramsey which is both comprehensive and detailed. Through meticulous documentary research (very well described in the preface), the biographer is able to lift the veil on some of the little-known aspects of Ramsey's intellectual journey and remedy some of the erroneous or magnified perceptions of his life and work. Various excerpts from his correspondences allow us, for example, to put in context Ramsey's depressive episode resulting from an impossible love...Cheryl Misak has successfully met the challenge of inspiring her readers to take the next step - following Ramsey - toward the high peaks of abstract thought in analytical philosophy, mathematical logic, economics, and pure mathematics. * Frédéric Morneau-Guérin, Université TÉLUQ, Mathematical Association of America *Fascinating ... combining insight, wit and affection with erudition, [Misak] conveys how lovable as well as how brilliant Ramsey was ... She has given Ramsey the biography that he richly deserves. * Jane O'Grady, Literary Review *In her important new work, Cheryl Misak [...] finally gives Ramsey the consideration he deserves ... it is an impressive work. She has a devotion to the archive and her book is thoroughly researched and well put together ... We should feel lucky that we have the work we do, and that Misak has done such a good job of drawing our attention to one of the most important and intriguing figures in 20th-century philosophy. * Alex Dean, Prospect *Thought-provoking, wide-ranging, and highly readable. * Matthew McKeever, The Philosopher's Magazine *Cheryl Misak's Frank Ramsey: A Sheer Excess of Powers is terrific... This biography is my book of the year so far. * enlightenmenteconomics *Table of ContentsForeword: 'Mind and Heart' Part I: Boyhood 1: The Ramseys 2: Winchester Nearly Unmade Him 3: 'We really live in a great time for thinking' Part II: The Cambridge Man 4: Undergraduate Life 5: 'To my generation, he was rather frightening' 6: Ramsey and the Early Wittgenstein 7: Vienna Interlude 8: 'The fundamentals are so philosophical' 9: The New Don 10: Passion Found Part III: An Astonishing Half Decade 11: Settling Down in Work and Life 12: Revolution in Philosophy 13: Two Crises 14: Cambridge Economics 15: Ramseyan Economics: The Feasible First Best 16: 1928 Return to Mathematics 17: Wittgenstein Comes Home 18: 'The problem of philosophy must be divided if I am to solve it' 19: The End and Meaning of a Life

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Book SynopsisThe Roman emperor Augustus gave his name to the age he dominated, from the latter half of the first century BC until the second decade of the following century. Yet he shared the age with several royal women who ruled parts of the Mediterranean world, in a symbiotic relationship with Rome. This book is the first detailed portrait of these remarkable women. Previous accounts of the period have centered on Augustus or Rome''s allied kings, with scant attention to the women who ruled as their partners or on their own. The most famous of these is Cleopatra Selene, the daughter of the great Cleopatra VII of Egypt and her partner, the Roman magistrate Marcus Antonius. Her very survival following Roman victory over her mother''s forces is itself noteworthy but she went on to rule Mauretania (northwest Africa) with her husband for more than twenty years. She even attempted to reconstitute her mother''s legacy in this remote region and, like her mother, was an ardent patron of the arts and schoTrade ReviewRoller has succeeded in synthesizing a considerable amount of information that is not necessarily widely known or readily accessible and making it engrossing and entertaining for both specialist and non-specialist readers. He has offered a fresh perspective not only on the subject of women in antiquity, but also on the Augustan Principate and the Julio-Claudian period. * Classical World *Studies of Hellenistic queenship usually end with the death of Cleopatra VII. Overcoming the inadequacies of the sources, Duane Roller demonstrates that the tradition of strong queens continued into the Principate in this illuminating study of the careers of seven royal women, including Cleopatra Selene of Mauretania, Salome of Judaea, and Dynamis of Bosporos. * Stanley M. Burstein, California State University, Los Angeles *Roller's careful and learned book offers its readers engaging accounts of the hard-to-recover lives of several redoubtable queens in the realms allied to Augustus' Roman empire. Roller shows how these women, although often operating under the most perilous of circumstances, managed to stay at the top, sometimes by deploying their regal heritage or glamour, at others by exploiting their imperial connections or wealth * but always by dint of their deep political acumen. This is a detailed, impressive historical investigation.W. Jeffrey Tatum, Victoria University of Wellington *A useful, enjoyable, deeply learned account of female dynasts of the era of Augustus. Roller introduces the period's politics, discusses terminology and precursors to late Hellenistic queens (this chapter is particularly well done), and offers excellent, concise biographical sketches of his seven subjects. He concludes with a discussion of Roman women vis-à-vis these queens. This is fine historian-as-detective work, using coins, literary references, and other evidence ... Highly recommended. * CHOICE *I think with a sound knowledge of Roman history and politics this book would fill in the gaps of these women, who are almost invisible in the records but who ruled different parts of the Roman Empire following the demise of the Egyptian queen Cleopatra VII. * Dr. Charlotte Booth *Table of ContentsPreface List of Illustrations Genealogical Chart Introduction Chapter 1: Queens and Royal Women Chapter 2: Cleopatra's Daughter Chapter 3: Glaphyra of Cappadocia Chapter 4: Salome of Judaea Chapter 5: Dynamis of Bosporos Chapter 6: Pythodoris of Pontos Chapter 7: Abe of Olbe and Mousa of Parthia Chapter 8: Royal Women and Roman Women Appendix 1: A Note on Flavius Josephus and Nikolaos of Damascus Appendix 2: The Girl Who Danced for the Head of John the Baptist Notes Abbreviations Bibliography List of Passages Cited Index

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Book SynopsisWhen he died in 1930 aged 26, Frank Ramsey had already invented one branch of mathematics and two branches of economics, laying the foundations for decision theory and game theory. Keynes deferred to him; he was the only philosopher whom Wittgenstein treated as an equal. Had he lived he might have been recognized as the most brilliant thinker of the century. This amiable shambling bear of a man was an ardent socialist, a believer in free love, and an intimate of the Bloomsbury set. For the first time Cheryl Misak tells the full story of his extraordinary life.Trade ReviewThis book is dedicated to the memory of Ramsey in a solemn and comprehensively devoted manner. The author has tried to satisfy all the parties interested in Ramsey for one reason or another...The result is an introduction to his work, as well as an account of his life. * Michael Otte, MathSciNet *Frank Ramsey: A Sheer Excess of Powers is a very well researched biography, thus is of great value to academic students and professional scholars alike. The book is a joy to read for not only economists but also mathematicians and philosophers too. * Jason Wakefield, Avello Publishing Journal *an engaging account of the lamentably short life of Ramsey... exemplary piece(s) of intellectual history... * New Statesman, Books of the Year *Frank Ramsey [...] makes noble reading. Ms Misak is a born teacher who explains tricky intellectual abstractions with a clarity that is exceptional. More than that, she writes with love. Her tenderness toward Ramsey, his parents and siblings, his wife and friends gives spirit and delicacy to the whole. There is astounding emotional intelligence in every chapter. One feels on each page Ms. Misak's fine mind concentrating hard on doing the best she can. This is an enthralling and glorious book. * Richard Davenport-Hines, The Wall Street Journal *Philosophers sometimes play the game of imagining how twentieth-century thought might have been different if Ramsey had survived and his ideas had caught on earlier. That exercise has become more entertaining with the publication of the first full biography ... Misak tells a more colorful story than one might have thought possible so long after such a short life ended. * Anthony Gottleib, The New Yorker *Misak' narrative is compelling. * Paolo Mancosu, Philosophia Mathematica *Her book is unlikely to be bettered... Misak provides by far the most complete picture we have of Ramsey's personality and personal life. * London Review of Books *As a whole, the book is a precious piece for the history of analytic philosophy, nicely written and supported by terrific archival research and a love for the author. It is worth reading it for the pleasure of good writing, for a picture of Cambridge at that time, and to learn more about one of the greatest intellects of the last century. * Caterina Sisti, Metascience *...a brilliant, evocative biography of Ramsey. * Pratap Bhanu Mehta, Open *It is thanks to Misak that we can now see Ramsey's mathematical economics from a new and thought-provoking perspective, and this is only one among many reasons why this book deserves to be read. * Carlo Cristiano, History of Economic Ideas *There is a lot of talk about Bloomsbury, and therefore about sexual freedom and the many instances that made up that freedom. There is unhappiness (Ramsey struggled coming into his own, as a sexual person). There is much talk of psychoanalysis, and of extended stays in Vienna to imbibe the same. There is, as anyone who has read Pigou's biography might guess, a great deal of walking in the mountains. There is Arthur's (Ramsey's father) tragic inattentiveness while driving his car. And there is Ramsey living openly with a woman while (mostly) maintaining his happy marriage. So, it isn't all just philosophy. But the philosophy does make for compelling reading ... one must read this excellent book. * David C.Coker, George Mason University , Erasmus Journal for Philosophy and Economics *A full intellectual biography of Frank Ramsey, examining both his complex personal life and his work in philosophy, mathematics, and economics. * Journal of Economic Literature *Cheryl Misak has done valuable work in producing the first biography of Frank Ramsey which is both comprehensive and detailed. Through meticulous documentary research (very well described in the preface), the biographer is able to lift the veil on some of the little-known aspects of Ramsey's intellectual journey and remedy some of the erroneous or magnified perceptions of his life and work. Various excerpts from his correspondences allow us, for example, to put in context Ramsey's depressive episode resulting from an impossible love...Cheryl Misak has successfully met the challenge of inspiring her readers to take the next step - following Ramsey - toward the high peaks of abstract thought in analytical philosophy, mathematical logic, economics, and pure mathematics. * Frédéric Morneau-Guérin, Université TÉLUQ, Mathematical Association of America *Fascinating ... combining insight, wit and affection with erudition, [Misak] conveys how lovable as well as how brilliant Ramsey was ... She has given Ramsey the biography that he richly deserves. * Jane O'Grady, Literary Review *In her important new work, Cheryl Misak [...] finally gives Ramsey the consideration he deserves ... it is an impressive work. She has a devotion to the archive and her book is thoroughly researched and well put together ... We should feel lucky that we have the work we do, and that Misak has done such a good job of drawing our attention to one of the most important and intriguing figures in 20th-century philosophy. * Alex Dean, Prospect *A monument to good scholarship while still conveying the human being at the centre ... A landmark book if you dwell among the modernists. * Richard Lofthouse, QUOD *Writing a biography of a man with such an amazing capacity and range of interests is itself extraordinarily demanding but the author succeeds admirably... hugely informative as well as entertaining and a vivid picture of the contemporary Cambridge intellectual landscape. * Paradigm Explorer *truly comprehensive 'life and works'. * William H Janeway, Project Syndicate *Thought-provoking, wide-ranging, and highly readable. * Matthew McKeever, The Philosopher's Magazine *Cheryl Misak's Frank Ramsey: A Sheer Excess of Powers is terrific... This biography is my book of the year so far. * enlightenmenteconomics *This is a gripping read about the twentieth century's forgotten genius. It provides a fascinating and meticulously detailed portrait of Frank Ramsey's life and times. Finally, Ramsey has the biography he deserves. * David Edmonds, co-author of Wittgenstein's Poker *In this brilliantly written biography of Frank Ramsey, the philosophical and mathematical genius, Cheryl Misak helps us to understand how this innovative thinker could transform so much of the intellectual world of the twentieth century in a short life that ended before he turned 27. The story of Ramsey - his life, his ideas and his engaging arguments with others - as told by Misak is both deeply insightful and much fun to read. * Amartya Sen, Harvard University *I read the book over three long nights of lockdown, in the middle of an Australian winter. Id expected to find it fascinating, but not to find it so gripping... she [Misak] takes us so successfully into Ramseys world, and we know how it ends... [she] pitches things just right. She takes us into Ramseys personal world, without over-dramatising it. * Huw Price, Society *Table of ContentsForeword: 'Mind and Heart' Part I: Boyhood 1: The Ramseys 2: Winchester Nearly Unmade Him 3: 'We really live in a great time for thinking' Part II: The Cambridge Man 4: Undergraduate Life 5: 'To my generation, he was rather frightening' 6: Ramsey and the Early Wittgenstein 7: Vienna Interlude 8: 'The fundamentals are so philosophical' 9: The New Don 10: Passion Found Part III: An Astonishing Half Decade 11: Settling Down in Work and Life 12: Revolution in Philosophy 13: Two Crises 14: Cambridge Economics 15: Ramseyan Economics: The Feasible First Best 16: 1928 Return to Mathematics 17: Wittgenstein Comes Home 18: 'The problem of philosophy must be divided if I am to solve it' 19: The End and Meaning of a Life

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Book SynopsisFor tens of millions of people around the world, a single name evokes the world of speed - Enzo Ferrari. Today''s Formula One would be unthinkable without the presence of the Ferrari cars on the grid. Win or lose, Ferrari attract more fans than all the other teams combined. And the cars unique appeal - their mystique, their myth - has its origins in the story of one man with a dictator''s will and the cunning of a Machiavelli. Going back to the origins of The Old Man, tracing his remarkable rise to prominence, and using sources which have hitherto remained silent, Richard Williams tells the story of a man who was one of the key figures of sport in the twentieth century, and whose influence over his sport is undiminished today, more than a decade after his death.Trade ReviewFast cars, fanatical fans, glamour and the brilliant writing of the Guardian's sports sage * GQ *Absorbing and authoritative... this book's trove of anecdotes is a treat * Daily Telegraph *Williams is clear and authoritative... he expertly unravels the myths from the facts * Scotland on Sunday *An engrossing read from start to finish - heartily recommended * Time Out *

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Book SynopsisVeronica Franco was a 16th-century Venetian beauty, poet, and protofeminist. This collection presents the eroticism and eloquence that set her apart from the chaste, silent woman prescribed by Renaissance gender ideology.

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Book SynopsisDistinguished literary biographer Robert Zaretsky upends our thinking on Simone Weil, bringing us a woman and a philosopher who is complicated and challenging, while remaining incredibly relevant.Trade Review"Simone Weil was merciless (not least on herself), sometimes alarming, always compelling, and unavoidably significant. This is a beautifully sharp and thoughtful account of her life and work--a fascinating read."--Sarah Bakewell, author of At the Existentialist Cafe Freedom, Being, and Apricot Cocktails with Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, Albert Camus, Martin Heidegger, Maurice Merleau-Ponty and Others;"Zaretsky's work is unfailingly eloquent, fascinating, and relevant. In treating both her life and her writings, The Subversive Simone Weil displays a subject who, by going too far toward goodness, reminds so many of us that we have not gone far enough. In Zaretsky's hands, her courage stands as a complicated but necessary lesson for us all." --Todd May, author of A Decent Life: Morality for the Rest of Us;"Reading Zaretsky's absorbing and tender intellectual portrait of Simone Weil, I was reminded on every page of her astonishing relevance to our own times. With her demanding vision of the life well lived, in her extreme judgments and through her punishing empathy, Weil emerges here as a figurehead for the intellectual and ethical challenges of the current moment. As he has done so beautifully in his books on Camus, Zaretsky has opened Weil's life and work to our understanding. For readers familiar with Weil's, The Subversive Simone Weil is a valuable synthesis; for those coming to her for the first time, an inspiring primer."--Alice Kaplan, author of Looking for "The Stranger" Albert Camus and the Life of a Literary ClassicTable of ContentsPreface Introduction Chapter One The Force of Affliction Chapter Two Paying Attention Chapter Three The Varieties of Resistance Chapter Four Finding Roots Chapter Five The Good, the Bad, and the Godly Epilogue Acknowledgments Notes Index

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Book SynopsisIn 1922 Robert Allertondescribed by the Chicago Tribune as the richest bachelor in Chicagomet a twenty-two-year-old University of Illinois architecture student named John Gregg, who was twenty-six years his junior. Virtually inseparable from then on, they began publicly referring to one another as father and son within a couple years of meeting. In 1960, after nearly four decades together, and with Robert Allerton nearing ninety, they embarked on a daringly nonconformist move: Allerton legally adopted the sixty-year-old Gregg as his son, the first such adoption of an adult in Illinois history. An Open Secret tells the striking story of these two iconoclasts, locating them among their queer contemporaries and exploring why becoming father and son made a surprising kind of sense for a twentieth-century couple who had every monetary advantage but one glaring problem: they wanted to be together publicly in a society that did not tolerate their love. Deftly exploring the nature of their design, domestic, and philanthropic projects, Nicholas L. Syrett illuminates how viewing the Allertons as both a same-sex couple and an adopted family is crucial to understanding their relationship's profound queerness. By digging deep into the lives of two men who operated largely as ciphers in their own time, he opens up provocative new lanes to consider the diversity of kinship ties in modern US history.Trade Review"The first lines of Nicholas Syrett’s third book, An Open Secret: The Family Story of Robert and John Gregg Allerton, had me hooked. . . [Syrett] takes us into the world of an Illinois couple—one born into a rich family with ties to the founding of the Union Stock Yards and the First National Bank of Chicago; the other an orphan in his early twenties, attending the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign for architecture with a part-time job and inheritance money." * Chicago Tribune *“The book brings a critical view to the gay intergenerational relationship. It reveals how same-sex love was transformed into familial ties but also into an open secret where the boundary between knowingness and unknowingness was always in suspension.” * DNA Magazine *"An intriguing, complicated, and critical account of a queer affair and one that demonstrates the difficulty of applying contemporary terminologies, practices, and values to past relationships, especially those with limited and latent evidence of queerness. . . . Highly recommended." * Choice *“Syrett’s expert portrait shakes up modern assumptions about queer coupledom. His richly nuanced interpretation reveals that the kinship claim of these men was not merely a front to hide their sexuality, but a deeply meaningful structure for their emotional and physical intimacy. Not quite the story of a same-sex marriage, An Open Secret shows that the history of male same-sex companionship is much queerer indeed.” * Rachel Hope Cleves, author of Unspeakable: A Life beyond Sexual Morality *“Syrett escorts us into a world of wealth and privilege and creatively examines the decades-long intimacy of Allerton and Gregg. Filled with surprising revelations, Syrett’s account offers a new angle on the forms that queer life and love has taken in the past.” * John D’Emilio, author of Queer Legacies: Stories from Chicago’s LGBTQ Archives *“Syrett has crafted an eye-opening and engaging narrative, making a provocative contribution to queer history in his assertion that Allerton and Gregg may have had a relationship akin to bothmarriage and father to son—and that the two are not mutually exclusive. The story of this moneyed conservative couple disturbingly reveals how the privileged found community and refuge in open and secretive ways during a time of heightened homophobia.” * Amy Sueyoshi, author of Queer Compulsions: Race, Nation, and Sexuality in the Affairs of Yone Noguchi *“An Open Secret is a beautifully written, powerful account of queer domesticity, sympathetically humane but never simplistically celebratory of its subjects. Syrett deftly situates his biography in a broader history of twentieth-century LGBTQ communities and culture, offering a hot new take on the expansive queerness that defined some same-sex relationships before the emergence of the modern LGBTQ rights movement.” * Jen Manion, author of Female Husbands: A Trans History *"With previous books on the history of white college fraternities and the history of child marriage in the United States, Nicholas Syrett has a reputation for selecting fresh topics and conducting sound research and analysis. Adept with context, he has an impressive way of seeing topics, situations, and individuals in their singularity and as a means of exploring broad cultural themes. An Open Secret continues Syrett’s tradition of originality, attention to context, and rigorous analysis. The book is rich in ideas gracefully expressed." * Journal of the History of Sexuality *"Syrett’s portrait of Allerton and Gregg is a masterful intervention into both family history and the history of queerness." * Journal of American History *Table of ContentsList of Illustrations Introduction 1 Allerton Roots 2 Robert Allerton’s Queer Aesthetic 3 Travel and Itinerant Homosexuality 4 Becoming Father and Son 5 Lord of a Hawaiian Island 6 Queer Domesticity in Illinois and Hawai‘i 7 Legally Father and Son Conclusion: John Wyatt Gregg Allerton Acknowledgments Notes Index

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Book SynopsisShe fought a lonely and almost single-handed fight, with the single-mindedness of a crusader, long before men or women of any race entered the arena; and the measure of success she achieved goes far beyond the credit she has been given in the history of the country.Alfreda M. Duster Ida B. Wells is an American icon of truth telling. Born to slaves, she was a pioneer of investigative journalism, a crusader against lynching, and a tireless advocate for suffrage, both for women and for African Americans. She co-founded the NAACP, started the Alpha Suffrage Club in Chicago, and was a leader in the early civil rights movement, working alongside W. E. B. Du Bois, Madam C. J. Walker, Mary Church Terrell, Frederick Douglass, and Susan B. Anthony. This engaging memoir, originally published 1970, relates Wells's private life as a mother as well as her public activities as a teacher, lecturer, and journalist in her fight for equality and justice. This updated edition includes a new foreword

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Book SynopsisIn this collection of poems, Peter Sacks draws upon his life as an expatriate and upon his early years in South Africa, including his time spent with the military. He lays bare his sense of both personal and historical losses, and his commitment to the works of mourning and cultural repair.Table of ContentsAcknowledgments The Gate Natal Command The Ridge Night Ferry May Eve The Thorn For Iris Hayter Nuttall Gardens Century Kronos Night Duty Words Judas Peak Truce Across the Field Larkin Drakensberg Kein Ander Only the Swimmer The Reins The Course Eclipse On the Path The Rock The Trench The Swimmer Blue Star Notes

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Book SynopsisMoving beyond merely biographical or textual interpretation, Claude Tannery traces the philosophy of life and art developed by André Malraux. With both sensitivity and expert interpretation he defines the issuespersonal and artistic as well as politicalthat underlie Malraux's writingsincluding early as well as late works, novels, speeches, and essays. The result is a new and subtle portrait of Malraux.

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Book SynopsisChristological terminology in its Biblical and Early Church contextsTable of ContentsAbbreviations Introduction Chapter 1. The Son of Man 1. Philological Problems and Problems connected with the History of Religion 2. The Son of Man Concept and the Preaching of Jesus 3. Words concerning the futre Action of the Son of Man 4. Words concerning the earthly Deeds of the Son of Man 5. Words concerning the Passion and Resurrection of the Son of Man Excursus I: The Idea of the Vicariously Suffering Servant of God in the Earliest Christianity Chapter 2. Kyrios 1. The Hellenistic and Old Testament Use of the Title of Lord 2. The Description of Jesus as Lord in the Palestinian Tradition 3. The 'Lord' who is to come again 4. The Exalted One as 'Kyrios' Excursus II: Psalm 110:1 and the Idea of the Exaltation of Jesus Chapter 3. Christos 1. The Background in teh Old Testament and Late Judaism 2. The Significance of the Messianic Concept in the Life of Jesus 3. The Messianism of Jesus in the Oldest Tradition 4. Jesus as Messiah in the Context of the Concept of Exaltaion 5. The Connection of the Passion-Tradition with the Christos Title 6. The Generalisation of the Christos Title and its Use as a Proper Name Excursus III: Analysis of Mark 8:27-33 Excursus IV: The Conception of the High Priestly Messiah and the Primitive Christian Tradition Chapter 4. Son of David 1. Jesus as Son of David in the Oldest Tradition 2. Jesus as Son of David in Hellenistic Jewish Christianity 3. JThe Davidic Sonsihip of Jesus in the Nativity Narratives of the Gospels of Matthew and Luke Chapter 5. Son of God 1. The Presumptions of the early Christian Title Son of God 2. Son of God as Designation of the Jesus who is to come again and of the Exalted One 3. The Son of God Conception in Hellensitic Jewish Christianity 4. Jesus as Son of God in Hellenistic Gentile Christianity 5. Jesus as 'the Son' Excursus V: Analysis of the Transfiguration and Baptism Narratives Retrospect Appendix: The Eschatological Prophet Index of Subjects Index of Biblical Passages

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Book SynopsisChristological terminology in its Biblical and Early Church contextsTable of ContentsAbbreviations Introduction Chapter 1. The Son of Man 1. Philological Problems and Problems connected with the History of Religion 2. The Son of Man Concept and the Preaching of Jesus 3. Words concerning the futre Action of the Son of Man 4. Words concerning the earthly Deeds of the Son of Man 5. Words concerning the Passion and Resurrection of the Son of Man Excursus I: The Idea of the Vicariously Suffering Servant of God in the Earliest Christianity Chapter 2. Kyrios 1. The Hellenistic and Old Testament Use of the Title of Lord 2. The Description of Jesus as Lord in the Palestinian Tradition 3. The 'Lord' who is to come again 4. The Exalted One as 'Kyrios' Excursus II: Psalm 110:1 and the Idea of the Exaltation of Jesus Chapter 3. Christos 1. The Background in teh Old Testament and Late Judaism 2. The Significance of the Messianic Concept in the Life of Jesus 3. The Messianism of Jesus in the Oldest Tradition 4. Jesus as Messiah in the Context of the Concept of Exaltaion 5. The Connection of the Passion-Tradition with the Christos Title 6. The Generalisation of the Christos Title and its Use as a Proper Name Excursus III: Analysis of Mark 8:27-33 Excursus IV: The Conception of the High Priestly Messiah and the Primitive Christian Tradition Chapter 4. Son of David 1. Jesus as Son of David in the Oldest Tradition 2. Jesus as Son of David in Hellenistic Jewish Christianity 3. JThe Davidic Sonsihip of Jesus in the Nativity Narratives of the Gospels of Matthew and Luke Chapter 5. Son of God 1. The Presumptions of the early Christian Title Son of God 2. Son of God as Designation of the Jesus who is to come again and of the Exalted One 3. The Son of God Conception in Hellensitic Jewish Christianity 4. Jesus as Son of God in Hellenistic Gentile Christianity 5. Jesus as 'the Son' Excursus V: Analysis of the Transfiguration and Baptism Narratives Retrospect Appendix: The Eschatological Prophet Index of Subjects Index of Biblical Passages

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Book Synopsis

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Book SynopsisArising out of a game of ''hide and seek'' played with two young children, Cardinal Basil Hume made each hiding place a setting for a discovery of something new about the spiritual life. He chose the title because, as he put it, ''my spiritual life is more a wandering in Blunderland than resting and relaxing in Wonderland. I would guess that most of us would say the same. What matters, however, is that minds and hearts should be involved in the search for God, where the seeking and the finding go hand in hand.'' This is one of the best loved religious books, enchanting young and old, believer and sceptic.

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Book SynopsisA defining collection from Alistair Cooke''s legendary BBC Radio broadcasts, guiding us through nearly sixty years of changing life in the United States''No one else succeeded in explaining to the English-speaking world ... the idiosyncrasies of a country at once so familiar, and yet so utterly foreign'' IndependentWhen Alistair Cooke retired in February 2004 he was acclaimed as one of the greatest broadcasters of all time. His Letter from America radio series, which began in 1946 and continued every week for fifty-eight years until his retirement, kept the world in touch with what was happening in America. Cooke''s wry, humane and liberal style both informed and entertained his audience. The selection here, made largely by Cooke himself and supplemented by his literary executor, gives us the very best of these legendary broadcasts. It covers key moments from the assassination of Kennedy through to the Vietnam War and Watergate to 9/11, the Iraq War and anticipates the 2004 elections. It includes portraits of the great and the good from Charlie Chaplin to Martin Luther King, Jr, and topics as varied as civil rights, golf, jazz and the changing colours of a New England fall. Each Letter contributes to a captivating portrait of a nation - and of a man.Trade ReviewCooke had a matchless ability to convey the feelings of the American people at times of great historical importance. Accustomed to hearing these pieces rather than reading them, one is also struck by the quality of Cooke's writing. His command of language and sharp eye for physical description shine in this collection as do his sense of humour and deep emotional sensitivity.In its perspective on the United States in the latter half of the 20th century, this is as insightful a history book as you are likely to find. Much more than that, it is a fitting record of an erudite, much loved man. -- Piers Moore Ede * Times Literary Supplement *No one else succeeded in explaining to the English-speaking world ... the idiosyncrasies of a country at once so familiar, and yet so utterly foreign * Independent *There is never going to be anyone else like Cooke, a chronicler of amazing times * Daily Telegraph *Cooke was the special relationship * Daily Mail *The range of Cooke's experiences was awesome but he always had the personal touch -- Jeremy Vine

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Book SynopsisGabriel Garcia Marquez, winner of the 1982 Nobel Prize for Literature and author of One Hundred Years of Solitude, started his literary career with the publication of The Story of a Shipwrecked Sailor . . . ''On February 22 we were told that we would be returning to Columbia''In 1955 eight crew members of Caldas, a Colombian destroyer, were swept overboard. Velasco alone survived, drifting on a raft for ten days without food or water. Marquez retells the survivor''s amazing tale of endurance, from his loneliness and thirst to his determination to survive. The Story of a Shipwrecked Sailor was Marquez''s first major work, published in a Colombian newspaper, El Espectador, in 1955 and then in book form in 1970.''The story of Velasco on his raft, his battle with sharks over a succulent fish, his hallucinations, his capture of a seagull which he was unable to eat, his subsequent droll rescue, has all the grip of archetypal mythTrade ReviewThe story of Velasco on his raft, his battle with sharks over a succulent fish, his hallucinations, his capture of a seagull which he was unable to eat, his subsequent droll rescue, has all the grip of archetypal myth. Reads like an epic. * The Independent *

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Book SynopsisA balanced biography of Golda Meir, who was both adored and abhorred, from award-winning author Deborah E. LipstadtTrade Review“Lipstadt offers a distilled, delicate account of Meir’s remarkable dedication to her nation that encourages a learned reckoning with her complex legacy.”—John Knight, New York Times Book Review“Engaging writing and fresh perspectives on key moments. . . . An important and captivating short biography of a unique figure in modern Jewish life.”—Avi Shilon, Literary Review“Israel owes Golda much of its legislation in support of working mothers, its housing projects for new immigrants, and the biggest crack yet in its glass ceiling—a female premier.”—Amit Assis, Segula“Deborah Lipstadt offers a comprehensive and fresh portrait of the former Israeli prime minister. Through her attention to gender, Lipstadt provides novel insights into the life of this iconic woman!”—Rabbi David Ellenson, author of Jewish Meaning in a World of Choice: Studies in Tradition and Modernity

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Book SynopsisUplifting and engaging, this story recounts the life and career of a rebellious 20th-century British artistTrade Review“A revelatory biography...reminds us that Craxton and Lucian Freud were once “thick as thieves”, 19-year-olds in wartime London carousing together at the Ritz in baggy blue jeans.”—The Daily Telegraph“This beautifully produced book is a feast for the eyes and senses, full of reproductions of Craxton’s paintings of Greece, the country he loved most on earth.”—Ysenda Maxtone Graham, Daily Mail ‘Book of the Week’“An account meticulous in detail and filled with incident...Craxton maintained a lifelong aversion to the prolix formulations of art critics, and it is easy to see how Collins, who excels at succinct yet suggestive glosses, was his ideal writer.”—James Cahill, Times Literary Supplement"A beautifully written book...Craxton spent most of his life wanting to live in Greece and when he finally got there it was everything he wanted it to be. Even reading it feels like being bathed in sunlight."—Mark Gatiss, The Times“An illuminating account, dotted with wonderful vignettes [and] numerous magnificently vibrant depictions of the artist’s work...This uplifting book about a man who sought every opportunity to live to the full offers readers much to enjoy.”—Martin Bentham, Evening Standard “Running through the highs and lows like a seam of gold is his distinctive body of work, beautifully illustrated, and the indomitable, teasing, sometimes rebarbative voice that charmed so many, always building up to the next joke, never taking itself too seriously, and sweeping all but the most cynical along with it."—Ariane Bankes, Spectator “No one knows more about Craxton than Ian Collins...A rich and sympathetic book.”—Tom Fleming, Apollo Magazine“[A] thoroughly researched, attractive and vivid biography”—Alexander Adams Art“A joyful adventure story of an artist's life...Collins's biography is constantly entertaining and visually rich with filmic moments.”—Gill Hedley, The Burlington Magazine“A full biography of a fascinating man who led a fascinating life”—Dancing Times“I enjoyed immensely reading this informative book...Stories are thrilling and picturesque, opinions contrarian, startling and corrective.”—David Lee, The Jackdaw“Ian Collins’s engagingly partisan biography conveys qualities not easily evoked, the appeal of a character whose default mode was happiness and who, if he had a tendency to ‘put his own interests first’ and to be ‘unreliable in an emergency’, had a care for others too. He made many friends, ‘mostly for life’.”—Rosemary Hill, London Review of BooksWinner of the Anglo-Hellenic League Runciman Award 2022Longlisted for the William M. B. Berger Prize for British Art History 2022

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Book SynopsisA timely and provocative essay about the parallel lives of Rosa Luxemburg and Hannah Arendt and their mission for a more humane societyTrade Review“An intimate and timely meditation on dark times, Hermsen’s illuminating essay offers readers a way to think with Hannah Arendt and Rosa Luxemburg about how to build a more humane world in common.”—Samantha Rose Hill, author of Hannah Arendt“In this profoundly beautiful book, Joke J. Hermsen offers a poignant analysis of Hannah Arendt and Rosa Luxemburg as they model thinking undeterred by fear. Advocating for love and collective responsibility for the world as a shared object of attention, Hermsen illuminates the ways that these two Jewish women geniuses enacted freedom in the only way we can—with others.”—Jane Anna Gordon, coeditor (with Drucilla Cornell) of Creolizing Rosa Luxemburg“In A Good and Dignified Life, the noted Dutch writer Joke J. Hermsen provides us with a tour d’horizon of our current social and political ills through the lens of two clear-eyed partisans of hope: Rosa Luxemburg and Hannah Arendt. Focusing on public freedom, the self-organization of ordinary citizens, and the need to combat the ever-increasing hegemony of the economic over the political sphere of life, this unique work surveys the current scene—and the seemingly dim future prospects that confront us—with a renewed appreciation of the promise of politics and of ‘acting together, acting in concert.’”—Dana Villa, University of Notre DamePraise for Joke J. Hermsen: “Despite the weight of the subject, Joke Hermsen succeeds in continuing to captivate her readers.”—Yves Joris, Tzum “Hermsen writes in long, full sentences, which are pregnant with meaning and at the same time remain flexible. You glide through the language, you sink into it wonderfully.”—Fleur Speet, De Morgen “Engagingly and with great vitality, Hermsen charts the richness of our inner lives.”—NRC Handelsblad

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Book SynopsisA feminist reinterpretation of the myths surrounding Cleopatra casts new light on the Egyptian queen and her legacyTrade Review“Francine Prose offers a feminist reinterpretation of the life of the Egyptian queen. Her chapter ‘Cleopatra on Film’ features biting observations.”—Martin Chilton, Independent, “Books of the Month”“What distinguishes this book from [previous biographies] is the author’s efficient and persuasive writing style. Prose’s prose is, predictably, beautiful. The urban Mediterranean, which forms the background for much of the narrative, is compellingly described. The author’s acerbic deconstruction of harmful tropes further adds to the book’s distinctive tone.”—Arienne King, World History Encyclopedia“This account stands out from the rest by highlighting the racist, imperialist and orientalist nature of Cleopatra’s portrayals, and for this it should be applauded.”—Emma Southon, author of A Fatal Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum

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Book SynopsisEssence Magazine 2023 Must ReadBet on Black is a call to action for Black people all over the world to adopt a fresh, highly informed mindset that will change their lives. Blackness is a rich, expansive place that centers resilience, excellence, beauty, panache, and brilliance. But these notions of Blackness have long been distorted by American racism, where for generations Black folks have been expected to live a subordinate, second-class existence in the country they call home. Williams delves into some of the cornerstones of leading a first-class Black life, including:    Don’t Let Anyone Make You Their Black Sidekick    Carry Your Blackness Proudly Everywhere You Go    Disrupt Oppressive Power Structures    No Need to Codeswitch    Black Community is Invincible When We Get Together In this book, journalist and attorney Eboni K. Williams delves into some of the cornerstones of leading a first-class Black life, ranging from understanding one’s history to investing in the sometimes challenging processes of success. She does this all while sharing intimate details of her own story. Bet on Black will reawaken your own self-worth and understanding of the value of celebrating Blackness—whether yours or others’. Williams boldly proclaims that Blackness is the single most misunderstood construct in America. Bet on Black invites you to join her on the quest to show the world what Blackness really is.

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Book SynopsisJoseph McGill Jr., a historic preservationist and Civil War reenactor, founded the Slave Dwelling Project in 2010 based on an idea that was sparked and first developed in 1999.Since founding the project, McGill has been touring the country, spending the night in former slave dwellings-throughout the South, but also the North and the West, where people are often surprised to learn that such structures exist. Events and gatherings are arranged around these overnight stays, and it provides a unique way to understand the often otherwise obscured and distorted history of slavery. The project has inspired difficult conversations about race in communities from South Carolina to Alabama to Texas to Minnesota to New York, and all over the United States.Sleeping with the Ancestors focuses on all of the key sites McGill has visited in his ongoing project and digs deeper into the actual history of each location, using McGill''s own experience and conversations with the co

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Book SynopsisMimi Koehl is a biomechanist. She uses engineering and physics to study the designs of living things that fly, swim, drift, and crawl. She loves solving riddles about how creatures 'from feathered dinosaurs to flying frogs' live and move. This book presents her story.Table of Contents1 Sample Chapter 1: Hope Calling

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Book SynopsisFor decades, Gloria Steinem has led a social revolution against injustice. In Revolution from Within -- called the ultimate self-help book by the Los Angeles Times -- she sets out to restore the self-authority that such injustice has undermined.A fine triumph...Succeeds in holding the feminist course while expanding its horizons to include everyone. --TimeRevolution from Within has a special sweetness -- that of triumph. Gloria Steinem dared to look behind the bravely smiling face she presented to the world for many years to encounter a not-so-bravely-smiling inner self. This meeting will strike sparks of recognition and encouragement. --Alice Walker, author of The Color Purple

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Book SynopsisFor years, Jenny and sister Kim suffered horrendous physical and sexual abuse at the hands of their father. They survived in part because of their closeness and their determination to be there for each other. Both sisters left home at the earliest opportunity to escape but before long, Jenny was embroiled in a relationship with an abusive man that kept her locked in a cycle of violence and fear. Their lives followed parallel paths, with first marriage, then kids and always the terror that things would never change. Eventually, with a lot of love, grit and courage they helped each other to climb out of the pit of despair and truly free themselves from the legacy of the past.Every bit as harrowing and inspiring as Behind Closed Doors, this is a story of the power of unstintingly loyal love.Trade ReviewThis woman is an inspiration and I am honoured to call her my mum * Martine McCutcheon *

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