Biography Books

Book SynopsisPart reminiscence, part meditation, Reveries of the Solitary Walker is Rousseau's last great work, the enduring testimony of an alienated person seeking self-knowledge. As he records his walks round Paris, he finds happiness in solitude and nature. The new translation includes an introduction and notes that explore the work and its contexts.

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Book SynopsisLeonard Bernstein, Mel Brooks, Betty Friedan, Norman Mailer. Brilliant, brash, yet soulful, they were 100 percent Jewish and 100 percent American. They upended the restrained culture of their forebears and changed American life.They worked in different fields, and, apart from clinking glasses at parties now and then, they hardly knew one another. But they shared a historical moment and a common temperament. For all four, their Jewish heritage was electrified by American liberty. The results were explosive.As prosperity for Jews increased and anti-Semitism began to fade after World War II, these four creative giants stormed through the latter half of the twentieth century, altering the way people around the world listened to music, defined what was vulgar, comprehended the relations of men and women, and understood the American soul. They were not saints; they were turbulent and self-dissatisfied intellectuals who fearlessly wielded their own newly won freedom

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Book SynopsisSujin Lee is one of Asia's most successful entrepreneurs of recent times. Starting with two desks and capital of only $50,000, Lee founded Yanolja, the South Korean super-app that provides hotel and travel bookings, and which today has revenues of $350 million. Before this, Lee was an orphaned child who spent his early 20s working as a hotel janitor. This book contains insights, thoughts and the experiences of Sujin Lee. Often candid and honest, it offers a rare and vivid look into the mind of an entrepreneur and the start-up of a company and its spectacular growth. Like most entrepreneurs, Lee experienced crises along the way, that forced him to start from scratch again. But he was able to continue going forwards, turning crisis into opportunity, and today Yanolja has evolved into a global, one-stop travel tech company, with further plans to expand into the cloud-based business

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Book SynopsisAn arresting study of the life, times, and achievement of one of the most influential writers of the twentieth centuryTrade Review“Benjamin Taylor’s Proust: The Search is a marvel of brief biography, reanimating the hapless, almost Chaplinesque figure who by all logic should never have accomplished what he did. With a kind of worldly tenderness, Taylor shows Proust’s work accruing amid personal pratfalls, French anti-Semitism and the catastrophe of World War I.”—Thomas Mallon, New York Times Book Review“This engaging book, invitingly elegant to handle with its beautiful deckle-edged pages, should encourage those who have quailed at the thought of Proust’s colossus to have another go.”—John Carey, Sunday Times“Taylor’s loose, multi-clausal sentences are as bendy as the master’s, and there is the same shimmery quality to the prose, like sunlight glancing off a shallow Normandy sea.”—Kathryn Hughes, Guardian“An excellent brief biography of Proust.”—Andrea Barrett, New York Times Book Review“Taylor’s slim and elegant biography will bring new readers to Proust, and remind us to see him as a true modern.”—Ingrid Wassenaar, Times Literary Supplement“An important contribution to the study of this complex individual. . . . A riveting summary of the rampant anti-Semitism found in late 19th-century France. . . . Excellent analysis of the Dreyfus affair and how it split French society. . . . A noteworthy biography of a great writer.”—Library Journal“Deeply researched, and immensely well considered, Benjamin Taylor’s own search is an outstanding addition to Proust studies.”—Robert McCrum, The Observer“If you’ve read Proust’s novel, Taylor is entertaining and tells you things you didn’t already know, deepening your appreciation of Proust and his world. For those who have been so far put off reading him, this biography is a peerless introduction.”—Max Liu, The Independent“Because Taylor has been willing to learn from Proust how to write his biography—be enjoyably clever but not too presumptuous—his book is unusually instructive about how we can read Proust. . . . Explains both formally and intimately, through straightforward documentary narrative and engaging interpretation, the facts and fictions of Proust’s extraordinarily improbable life.”—Adam Phillips, London Review of Books“Benjamin Taylor’s short readable biography of Proust . . . tells Proust’s life story briefly and well.”—David Herman, Jewish Chronicle“Benjamin Taylor’s brief life is immaculately executed. He writes with lithe concision, wry wit and deceptive lightness about his formidable and demanding subject. There are no cloying moments, but Taylor’s perceptive tenderness will bring tears to the eyes of dedicated Proustians. Every page has charm and acumen.”—Richard Davenport-Hines, The Oldie“Situates Proust in the milieu that nurtured his genius, at once specific and universal. . . . An important work. What he demonstrates about Proust’s life is true of everyone. We all change with time and time changes us all. Pass the madeleines, s’il vous plait.”—Elka Weber, Segula“Those who found reading Proust too grand an undertaking over the years because of distractions and deficiencies of their own, might well rush to reconsider after confronting this dazzlingly elegant biography.”—Philip Roth“Taylor’s endeavor is not to explain the life by the novel or the novel by the life but to show how different events, different emotional upheavals, fired Proust’s imagination and, albeit sometimes completely transformed, appeared in his work. The result is a very subtle, thought-provoking book.”—Anka Muhlstein, author of Balzac’s Omelette and Monsieur Proust’s Library

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Book SynopsisLooks at hundreds of autobiographies penned between 1760 and 1900 to offer an account of how the Industrial Revolution was experienced by the working class. This book shows how it raised incomes, improved literacy and offered exciting opportunities for political action.Trade Review“Liberty’s Dawn is a triumph, achieved in fewer than 250 gracefully written pages. They persuasively purvey Griffin’s historical conviction. She is intimate with her audience, wooing it and teasing it along the way.”—Anthony Fletcher, Times Literary Supplement -- Anthony Fletcher * Times Literary Supplement *“Griffin’s crisp and accessible prose rests on a foundation of scrupulous scholarship.”—Amanda Vickery, The Guardian -- Amanda Vickery * The Guardian *'A totally compelling account of the Industrial Revolution. Through a remarkable range of life stories, Emma Griffin opens up this extraordinary epoch of change, providing a brilliant chronicle of its social history and upending traditional interpretations in the process. With her light touch and rigorous scholarship, Griffin provides an important and rewarding overview of this defining moment in British history.' - Tristram Hunt, author of Building Jerusalem: The Rise and Fall of the Victorian City -- Tristram Hunt“This is a brave book that challenges accepted wisdom by offering a decidedly optimistic view of the impact of the Industrial Revolution on the opportunities, freedoms and choices available to the working class.”—Pat Hudson, Times Higher Education Supplement -- Pat Hudson * Times Higher Education Supplement *‘While the author’s purpose is a serious study, this won’t prevent anyone from lapping up the inspiring stories in this meaty and satisfying book.’—Lorraine Courtney, Irish Times * The Irish Times *'Emma Griffin's brilliant use of the voices of the poor that survive in memoirs allows us to grasp the ambiguiities and complexities of their encounter with the momentous changes of the Industrial Revolution as never before. It was not simply a time of harsdhip and disruption but of opportunity and release from social constraints. Griffin's stylish and accessible account marks a major shift in our understanding of this period that moves beyond economic abstractions: we hear the voices of those who lived through the creation of the world's first industrial society.' - Martin Daunton, author of Wealth and Welfare: An Economic and Social History of Britain, 1851-1951 -- Martin Daunton'Emma Griffin gives a new and powerful voice to the men and women whose blood and sweat greased the wheels of the Industrial Revolution.' - Tim Hitchcock, author of Down and Out in Eighteenth-Century London -- Tim Hitchcock“Through the ‘messy tales’ of more than 350 working-class lives, Emma Griffin arrives at an upbeat interpretation of the Industrial Revolution most of us would hardly recognise. It is quite enthralling.”—Elizabeth Grice, Oldie Magazine -- Elizabeth Grice * Oldie Magaizne *“A provocative study.”—The New Yorker * The New Yorker *‘This is a novel twist on the story behind the Industrial Revolution. Griffin does a fine job in personalising the social history of the period by trawling through hundreds of autobiographies from 1760-1900 to offer first-hand experiences of how this era impacted upon the working classes, including a rise in income and improved literacy.’—Steve Harnell, Who Do You Think You Are Magazine -- Stever Harnell * Who Do You Think You Are Magazine *‘Griffin’s excellent history of writing by those born in poverty. . .shine[s] a light on what working men endured. . .and what they felt about it, in their own words.’—Lesley McDowell, Sunday Herald -- Lesley McDowell * Sunday Herald *“An admirably intimate and expansive revisionist history.”—Publishers Weekly * Publishers Weekly *

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Book SynopsisSilbury Hill in Wiltshire has perplexed people for generations: was it part of a ritual landscape, an island, a way of remembering the dead, a place of celebration? In this acclaimed memoir Adam Thorpe returns to the landscape of his youth to explore its many meanings for him, and for us.

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Book Synopsis''IN THE RHODODENDRONS is vital consolation, amidst the amidst. It''s a triumph, an instant classic. Christle has become one of our art''s most urgent living practitioners'' Kaveh Akbar, author of Martyr!When Heather Christle realises that she, her mother, and Virginia Woolf share a traumatic history, she begins to rewrite and intertwine each of their stories, in search of a more hopeful narrative and a future she can live with.When Heather Christle realises that she, her mother, and Virginia Woolf share a traumatic history, she begins to rewrite and intertwine each of their stories, in search of a more hopeful narrative and a future she can live with.On a recent visit to London''s Kew Gardens, Christle''s mother revealed details of a painful story from her past that took place there, under circumstances that strangely paralleled Heather''s own sexual assault during a visit to London as a teenager.Her private, British mother''s revelation - a rare burst of vulnerability in their strained relationship - propels Christle down a deep and destabilising rabbit hole of investigation, as she both reads and wanders the streets of her mother''s past, peeling back the layers of family mythologies, England''s sanctioned historical narratives, and her own buried memories. Over the course of several trips to London, with and without her mother, she visits her family''s ''birthday hill'' in Kew Gardens, the now-public homes of the Bloomsbury set, the archives of the British Library, and the backyard garden where Woolf wrote her final sentence. All the while, she finds that Woolf and her writings not only constantly seem to connect and overlap with her mother''s story, but also that the author becomes a kind of vital intermediary: a sometimes confidante, sometimes mentor, sometimes distancing lens through which Christle can safely observe her mother and their experiences.Wide-ranging and prismatic, the fruit of an insatiably curious, delightfully brilliant mind, In the Rhododendrons is part memoir, part biography of Virginia Woolf, part reckoning with the things we cannot change and the ways we can completely transform, if we dare. This utterly original book will stir readers into new ways of seeing their own lives.

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Book SynopsisThe son of a coal miner from a small Illinois town, Cleveland Indians shortstop Ray Chapman lived the American dream until his untimely death at age twenty-nine. In his brief life, he reached the pinnacle of baseball success as the best shortstop in the American League. While many professional ballplayers struggled with meager salaries, the handsome Chapman had married heiress Kathleen Daly, one of Cleveland’s wealthiest women. With a child on the way and an executive job in the offseason, Chapman was moving toward a privileged place in society until an errant fastball fractured his skull and ended his life the next day.Late in the 1920 pennant race, the Indians were in New York for a key series against the Yankees. New York pitcher Carl Mays threw a high hard one that Chapman could not evade. He was taken to a nearby hospital, where doctors tried in vain to save his life. The tragedy did not end there. His widow took her own life eight years later, and their daughter, R

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Book SynopsisEvelyn Waugh chose the name Labels for his first travel book because, he said, the places he visited were already fully labelled in people''s minds. Yet even the most seasoned traveller could not fail to be inspired by his quintessentially English attitude and by his eloquent and frequently outrageous wit. From Europe to the Middle East and North Africa, from Egyptian porters and Italian priests to Maltese sailors and Moroccan merchants - as he cruises around the Mediterranean his pen cuts through the local colour to give an entertaining portrait of the Englishman abroad.

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Book SynopsisVex King is the Number 1 Sunday Times bestselling author of Things No one Taught Us About Love, Good Vibes, Good Life and Healing is the New High. As a child and young adult, he experienced many challenges: his father died when he was just a baby, his family were often homeless and he grew up in troubled neighbourhoods where he regularly experienced violence and racism. Despite this, Vex successfully turned his whole life around and is now leading a revolution for the next generation of spiritual seekers.Kaushal is a beauty & lifestyle content creator with over 3.5 million followers. Having worked with some of the biggest beauty bands in the world and was the first Indian influencer to have walked the red carpet at Cannes Film Festival, and featured on Piccadilly Circus billboards with L'Oreal True Match + Princess Trust campaigns.Together, alongside Vex's sister, Ruchi, they have founded The Rising Circle, a wellness community which aims to uplift and support people's inward journey by fostering high vibrational living.

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Book SynopsisThe plea of insanity in criminal cases can be traced back at least to the Babylonian Code of Hammurabi, which dates from 1755-1759 BC. It is a complicated defence, and its origins in modern law lie with the 'M'Naghten Rules' of 1843, formulated by British judges as a jury instruction in cases where a plea of insanity had been entered. Daniel M'Naghten shot and killed one Edward Drummond, believing him to be the British Prime Minister, Sir Robert Peel, and was acquitted on the grounds of insanity, and the M'Naghten Rules still exert considerable influence over defences today.Clearly a plea of insanity in murder cases is of critical importance when the death penalty is still applied, and even today it may still be the difference between a life sentence in a high-security prison, or an indeterminate one in a secure psychiatric hospital. Meanwhile, 27 of the USA's 50 states have retained or readopted the death penalty, and at least 54 other countries, inc

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Book SynopsisThe bestselling, much-loved classic account of an English couple escaping to enjoy the fruits of French rural summer living - an irresistible feast of humour and heart.Peter Mayle and his wife did what most of us only imagine doing when they made their long-cherished dream of a life abroad a reality: throwing caution to the wind, they bought a glorious two hundred year-old farmhouse in the Lubéron Valley and began a new life.In a year that begins with a marathon lunch and continues with a host of gastronomic delights, they also survive the unexpected and often hilarious curiosities of rural life. From mastering the local accent and enduring invasion by bumbling builders, to discovering the finer points of boules and goat-racing, all the earthy pleasures of Provençal life are conjured up in this enchanting portrait.''One of the most successful travel books of all time... Mayle created a new travel genre'' Guardian''Delightful'' Washington Post''Engaging, funny and richly appreciative'' New York Times Book Review''Stylish, witty, delightfully readable'' Sunday Times''I really loved this book'' Julia Child

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Book SynopsisFrom acclaimed authors Aimie K. Runyan, J'nell Ciesielski, and Rachel McMillan comes an evocative, three-part novel about a thread of connection during World War I--a single scarf that links three extraordinary women, each battling societal expectations, enduring the devastations of war, and striving for personal growth amidst the chaos.

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Book SynopsisBurke''s seminal work was written during the early months of the French Revolution, and it predicted with uncanny accuracy many of its worst excesses, including the Reign of Terror. A scathing attack on the revolution''s attitudes to existing institutions, property and religion, it makes a cogent case for upholding inherited rights and established customs, argues for piecemeal reform rather than revolutionary change - and deplores the influence Burke feared the revolution might have in Britain. Reflections on the Revolution in France is now widely regarded as a classic statement of conservative political thought, and is one of the eighteenth century''s great works of political rhetoric.Table of ContentsReflections on the Revolution in France AcknowledgmentsIntroductionBiographial NoteBurke's Prefatory NoteReflections on the Revolution in FranceNotesBibliographical Note

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Book SynopsisHarperCollins is proud to present its incredible range of best-loved, essential classics.It is with a heavy heart that I take up my pen to write these the last words in which I shall ever record the singular gifts by which my friend Mr. Sherlock Holmes was distinguished.'This collection of eleven stories depict Holmes and Watson at their very best and solving some of their most notorious cases, culminating in The Final Problem'. In this infamous tale, Holmes comes face-to-face with his greatest opponent, the criminal mastermind Professor Moriarty, at the Reichenbach Falls.Each of the stories was previously published in The Strand magazine before being released together in a single volume in 1894. This is a quintessential collection, and a must-have for collectors and fans of one of the finest sleuths in English literature.Trade Review‘Holmes is a mesmerising creation and Conan Doyle a master storyteller’ The Times ‘The immense talent, passion and literary brilliance that Conan Doyle brought to his work gives him a unique place in English letters’ Stephen Fry

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Book SynopsisThe fourth and final part of Helen Forrester's bestselling autobiography continues the moving story of her early poverty-stricken life with an account of the war years in Blitz-torn LiverpoolIn 1940 Helen, now twenty, is working long hours at a welfare centre in Bootle, five miles from home. Her wages are pitifully low and her mother claims the whole of them for housekeeping but she is still thrilled to be working and gaining some independence. The Second World War is affecting every part of the country and Hitler's Luftwaffe nightly seek to wreck havoc on her home city of Liverpool.Then, tragedy is brought shockingly close to home and Helen is left reeling when she receives some terrible news. But there is no let-up in the bombing and the Germans seem determined to bring the country to its knees. When a move brings more trouble for Helen, she is determined that she will face it, as ever, with courage and determination.Trade Review‘Remarkable that from so bleak and unloving a background came a writer of such affectionate understanding and unsettling honesty’Sunday Telegraph ‘It was the biography that I would have written if my parents had not been given benefits, if they’d had to rely on parish hand outs … [I] want to press this book into your hands and go, “You must read this”.’ Caitlin Moran ‘What makes this writer’s self-told tale so memorable?… An absolute recall, a genius for the unforgettable detail, the rare chance of subject’The Good Book Guide

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Book SynopsisThe second volume of Helen Forrester's powerful, painful and ultimately uplifting four-volume autobiography of her poverty-stricken childhood in Liverpool during the Depression.The Forrester family are slowly winning their fight for survival. But life remains extremely tough for fourteen-year-old Helen. Along with caring for her younger siblings and suffering terrible hardships she is also battling with her parents to persuade them to allow her to earn her own living. Helen is desperate to lead her own life after the years of neglect and inadequate schooling.Written with an unflinching eye, Helen's account of her continuing struggles against severe malnutrition and dirt (she has her first bath in four years) and, above all, the selfish demands of her parents, is deeply shocking. But Helen's fortitude and her ability to find humour in the most harrowing of situations make this make this a story of amazing courage and perseverance.Trade Review‘Remarkable that from so bleak and unloving a background came a writer of such affectionate understanding and unsettling honesty’Sunday Telegraph ‘It was the biography that I would have written if my parents had not been given benefits, if they’d had to rely on parish hand outs … [I] want to press this book into your hands and go, “You must read this”.’ Caitlin Moran ‘What makes this writer’s self-told tale so memorable?… An absolute recall, a genius for the unforgettable detail, the rare chance of subject’The Good Book Guide

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Book SynopsisFrom the #1 international bestselling author of THE REVENANT – the book that inspired the award-winning movie – comes the fascinating story of America’s first battle over the environment.Trade ReviewPraise for Michael Punke’s THE REVENANT: ‘A spellbinding tale of heroism and obsessive retribution’ Publishers Weekly Praise for FIRE AND BRIMSTONE: ‘Compelling if horrifying account of the fire and the trapped men is the heart of this yarn, its soul is Punke’s historical contextualization’ PUBLISHERS WEEKLY

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Book SynopsisReissued with a new foreword to mark the centenary of Harold Wilson's birth, Ben Pimlott''s classic biography combines scholarship and observation to illuminate the life and career of one of Britain''s most controversial post-war statesmen.Harold Wilson is one of the most enigmatic personalities of recent British history. He held office as Prime Minister for longer than any other Labour leader, and longer than any other premier in peacetime apart from Mrs Thatcher. His success at winning General Elections four in all has so far not been matched. His grasp of economic policy was better than that of any other Prime Minister, and he enjoyed a high reputation among foreign leaders. Yet, in retrospect, he seems a master tactician rather than a strategist and he is regarded today with more curiosity than respect, when he is not treated with contempt.Trade Review‘One of the great political biographies of the century’ A.N. Wilson, Evening Standard ‘Admirable and engrossing … Professor Pimlott’s picture of life at Number 10 and the strife within is vivid and unforgettable’ Daily Telegraph ‘A masterly piece of political writing’ New Statesman ‘The narrative gallops along, sweeping the reader with it in a rush of excitement. A mass of complex detail is marshalled with the art that conceals art’ Times Literary Supplement ‘Fascinating … Pimlott the X-ray has produced a work of formidable penetration’ Observer ‘His narrative is quite outstanding – clear, thoughtful and gripping … Some biographies enter the political discourse at once, thanks to their innate qualities and lucky timing. There are so many echoes of the Wilson years in the politics of today that this happy fate must surely belong to Pimlott’s book’ Andrew Marr, Independent

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Book SynopsisThe original authorised biography, and the only one written by an author who actually met J.R.R. Tolkien, reissued to mark Tolkien's 125th Anniversary.In more than 40 years since Tolkien's death in September 1973, millions have read The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion and become fascinated about the very private man behind the books.Born in Bloemfontein in January 1892, John Ronald Reuel Tolkien was orphaned in childhood, brought up in near-poverty and almost thwarted in adolescent romance. He served in the First World War, surviving the Battle of the Somme, where he lost some of his closest friends, and returned to academic life, achieving high repute as a scholar and university teacher, eventually becoming Merton Professor of English at Oxford.Then suddenly his life changed dramatically. One day while marking essay papers he found himself writing In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit' and worldwide renown awaited him.Humphrey Carpenter was given unrestricteTrade Review‘One of the most interesting and readable biographies of a literary figure.’ The Times ‘The story is rich and beautifully told.’ Sunday Times ‘Absolutely fascinating.’ Daily Mail ‘A painstaking and often moving account.’ Times Literary Supplement ‘Humphrey Carpenter’s plain, unvarnished tale is absolutely gripping.’ Times Literary Supplement

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Book SynopsisIn this dramatic true account about the power of sensationalized crime, one woman’s case is exposed for its sexism, flagrant disregard for the truth, and, ultimately, the dangers posed by an unbridled prosecution.Unwanted and neglected from birth, Barbara Graham had to overcome the odds just to survive. Her beauty was both a blessing and a curse—offering her too many options of all the wrong kind. Her innate sensitivity left her vulnerable to the harsh realities of the street, where she was left to fend for herself before she reached double digits. Her record of petty crimes spoke to a life that constantly teetered on the brink of disaster.But in 1953, a catastrophic twist of fate would catapult her out of obscurity and into the headlines.When a robbery spiraled out of control and escalated into a brutal murder, Barbara became the centerpiece of a media circus. Her beauty enraptured the press, and they were quick to portray her as a villainous

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Book SynopsisL.T.C. Rolt is still a towering figure in the fields of inland waterways, preserved railways and post-war conservation. A bridge and a locomotive have been named after him, and there is a Rolt Prize, Rolt Fellows and an annual Rolt Lecture. He played a crucial role in the revival of Britain''s inland waterways and pioneered the first preserved narrow-gauge railway. In this fascinating series of linked essays, Joseph Boughey explains aspects of Rolt's earlier life and work, and sets his writing and practice in a broader context, considering such themes as the landscapes Rolt knew; the nature of travel and country' writing; the 1930s/40s organicist movement; English canals and navigable rivers from the 1930s to the 50s, including practical campaigning; the background to early railway preservation; and the nature of craft, craftspeople and preservation.

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Book SynopsisThe engaging, passionate, always-honest, and often-hilarious memoir of actor Ron Perlman--his triumphant story of perseverance and determination navigating the slippery slopes of Hollywood, with a foreword by Guillermo del Toro Ron Perlman was a kid who had a myriad of self-image issues, yet he triumphed in an industry that trades on image and self-confidence. He landed a leading role in Quest for Fire. He won a Golden Globe for Beauty and the Beast. And he played the title role in two Hellboy movies, becoming along the way an icon among sci-fi and comic book fans worldwide. Although his name may be unknown to some, most people know Ron Perlman''s face, despite the fact that for nearly half his career he''s been disguised under feature-altering foam-rubber prosthetics. On his offbeat path to success, Ron has amassed nearly 200 stage, TV, voiceover, and major motion picture credits, including roles in Drive, Pacific Rim, and a six-year gig as the badass biker boss Clay Morrow in Sons of Anarchy. In Easy Street (the Hard Way), Ron shares his life story, starting with his up-by-your-bootstraps background in New York''s Washington Heights. His father, a Swing Era drummer, gave up his dream in order to feed his sons while his mother worked as a municipal clerk. Ron''s hard-earned road to Easy Street included bouts of abject poverty, heartbreaking familial episodes, and a long, often uncomfortable struggle for self-acceptance. He sheds light on his life as a working actor and also offers behind-the-scenes insight into the working styles of internationally famous directors, including Jean-Jacques Annaud, Jean-Pierre Jeunet, and Guillermo del Toro (Hellboy and Academy Award-winning Pan''s Labyrinth). He provides his own peek into Hollywood, up close and personal, where he has encountered the likes of Marlon Brando, Sean Connery, Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis, Jr., and others. Plus, he turns his eye on the trajectory of American culture--the good and the bad--as observed by a man who started out in a mom-and-pop world where the arts were disseminated by individuals rather than corporations.Easy Street (the Hard Way) will inspire anyone who has ever dared to dream and offers a roadmap to the next generation of dreamers.

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Book SynopsisFox News war correspondent Trey Yingst shares his gripping, firsthand account of the events of October 7, 2023, and the ensuing war, offering riveting insight and fresh facts that clarify the scope and magnitude of this latest and most dramatic outbreak in one of the bloodiest, most nuanced, and longest-standing conflicts in modern history. On the morning of October 7, 2023, the militant group known as Hamas launched a vicious attack on Israel in the most recent stage of the deeply complicated and decades-long Israel-Palestine conflict. The assault, which took place on Shabbat—the day of rest for the Jewish people—instantly became known among Israelis and the world as “Black Saturday.”On October 7, Fox News Correspondent Trey Yingst was on the ground along the Gaza border and witnessed firsthand the devastation, shock, and deep sorrow that whirled through Israel. A seasoned journalist who has reported from some of the most dangerous hotspots around the world, including the frontlines in Ukraine, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, Yingst was just one among many people plunged into the terrifying chaos of that horrific event. In this shocking and eye-opening chronicle, he pieces together the story of that tragic day and reveals how he risked his life searching for answers to essential questions in real time--who within Israel had been attacked; what happened to them; who, potentially, was next--while exploring the impact on both Israelis and Palestinians as a full-scale war ramps up and peace grows more elusive. “We have a responsibility now to account for and record these events—and tell the world the truth,” Yingst writes. “We cannot look away.”Committed to reporting the whole truth, on both sides of the Israel-Gaza border, Yingst interviewed a range of exclusive contacts to incorporate multiple perspectives. From conversations with Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and high-ranking soldiers, to interviews with Senior Hamas official Dr. Bassem Naim and Gazan journalist Nael Ghaboun, to heartbreaking accounts from civilians placed in the crosshairs of the attack and conflict that followed, Yingst takes us inside the newest phase of an old war in which thousands more people—men, women, and children—are suffering.Combining candor, grit, and veracity, Yingst paints a vivid picture of horrors and violence, matched by acts of courage and humanity that cut through the darkness. A testament to unwavering resilience and tenacity, Black Saturday is the riveting chronicle of one journalist’s experience relentlessly pursuing the truth in the face of terror.Black Saturday will include a 16-pages of full-color photographs.

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Book SynopsisThe first and only graphic novel to win the Pulitzer Prize, MAUS is a brutally moving work of art about a Holocaust survivor -- and the son who survives him''The first masterpiece in comic book history'' The New YorkerMaus tells the story of Vladek Spiegelman, a Jewish survivor of Hitler''s Europe, and his son, a cartoonist coming to terms with his father''s story. Approaching the unspeakable through the diminutive (the Nazis are cats, the Jews mice), Vladek''s harrowing story of survival is woven into the author''s account of his tortured relationship with his aging father.Against the backdrop of guilt brought by survival, they stage a normal life of small arguments and unhappy visits, studying the bloody pawprints of history and tracking its meaning for those who come next.HAILED AS THE GREATEST GRAPHIC NOVEL OF ALL TIME, THIS COMBINED, DEFINITIVE EDITION INCLUDES MAUS I: A SURVIVOR''S TALE AND MAUS II.___________________''The most affecting and successful narrative ever done about the Holocaust'' Wall Street Journal''A brutally moving work of art'' Boston Globe''No summary can do justice to Spiegelman''s narrative skill'' Adam Gopnik''Like all great stories, it tells us more about ourselves than we could ever suspect'' Philip Pullman''A capital-G Genius'' Michael ChabonTrade ReviewThe first masterpiece in comic book history * New Yorker *One of the clichés about the Holocaust is that you can't imagine it - Spiegelman disproves this theory * Independent *A brutally moving work of art * Boston Globe *In the tradition of Aesop and Orwell, it serves to shock and impart powerful resonance to a well-documented subject. The artwork is so accomplished, forceful and moving * TimeOut *Spiegelman has turned the exuberant fantasy of comics inside out by giving us the most incredible fantasy in comics' history: something that actually occurred. Maus is terrifying not for its brutality, but for its tenderness and guilt * New Yorker *An epic story told in tiny pictures * New York Times *The most affecting and successful narrative ever done about the Holocaust * Wall Street Journal *Maus is a book that cannot be put down, truly, even to sleep...when you finish Maus, you are unhappy to have left that magical world and long for the sequel that will return you to it -- Umberto EcoA remarkable feat of documentary detail and novelistic vividness...an unfolding literary event * New York Times Book Review *The Pulitzer Prize-winning Maus tells the story of Vladek Spiegelman, a Jewish survivor of Hitler's Europe, and his son, a cartoonist coming to terms with his father's story. Maus approaches the unspeakable through the diminutive. Its form, the cartoon (the Nazis are cats, the Jews mice), shocks us out of any lingering sense of familiarity and succeeds in 'drawing us closer to the bleak heart of the Holocaust' * New York Times *A quiet triumph, moving and simple - impossible to describe accurately, and impossible to achieve in any medium but comics * Washington Post *All too infrequently, a book comes along that' s as daring as it is acclaimed. Art Spiegelman's Maus is just such a book * Esquire *A remarkable work, awesome in its conception and execution... at one and the same time a novel, a documentary, a memoir, and a comic book. Brilliant, just brilliant -- Jules FeifferMaus is a masterpiece, and it's in the nature of such things to generate mysteries, and pose more questions than they answer. But if the notion of a canon means anything, Maus is there at the heart of it. Like all great stories, it tells us more about ourselves than we could ever suspect -- Philip PullmanSpiegelman's Maus changed comics forever. Comics now can be about anything -- Alison BechdelReading [his work] has been an amazing lesson in storytelling * Etgar Keret *It can be easy to forget how much of a game-changer Maus was. * Washington Post *

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Book SynopsisThe story of Emma and Carl Jung''s highly unconventional marriage, their relationship with Freud, and their part in the early years of Psychoanalysis.Emma Jung was clever, ambitious and immensely wealthy, one of the richest heiresses in Switzerland when, aged seventeen, she met and fell in love with Carl Jung, a handsome, penniless medical student. Determined to share his adventurous life, and to continue her own studies, she was too young to understand Carl's complex personality or conceive the dramas that lay ahead.Labyrinths tells the story of the Jungs' unconventional marriage, their friendship and, following publication of Jung's The Psychology of the Unconscious, subsequent rift with Freud. It traces Jung's development of word association, notions of the archetype, the collective unconscious, the concepts of extraversion and introversion and the role played by both Carl and Emma in the early development of the scandalous new Psychoanalysis movement.In its many twists and turns, tTrade Review‘Clay navigates the maze-like story with perspicacity and ease … It's a gripping story of two talented individuals, their fascinating, often troubled, but ultimately enduring partnership, and how together they shaped the brave new world of psychoanalysis’ Observer ‘Clay remains a clear, unostentatious narrator … Emma's voice – as well as her insight and daring – is loud and clear … admirable’ Daily Telegraph ‘Clay's book is a warm-hearted tribute to Emma's wisdom and tenacity’ Sunday Times ‘Labyrinths finally gives a voice to Emma … Clay's story is riveting because the patients’ stories are so gripping … Clay creates a wonderful atmosphere in her writing and … negotiates the labyrinth with aplomb’ The Times ‘Catrine Clay's absorbing new biography charts the twists and turns in some of the key lives involved in that historical moment, in particular those of Emma Jung and her more famous husband Carl’ Financial Times ‘Engaging … acute … For Clay, Emma Jung's quiet growth to dominance over the psychoanalytic establishment her husband had constructed seems the more significant’ Literary Review ‘This book will fascinate you’ Psychologies magazine

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Book SynopsisWhether in wartime or peace, tales of love, laughter and hardship from the girls in the Rowntrees factory in Yorkshire

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Book SynopsisThis is a triumph. A love letter to the ghosts of Edinburgh. I feel its hand upon my shoulder. Sara SheridanAs a writer of fiction, I found myself itching to lift some of these characters from the page into the fertile fields of my own imagination. Val McDermidAnyone who loves Edinburgh and is fascinated by its private histories will be entranced by this book. The ScotsmanAbout the book10 Scotland Street the story of an Edinburgh home and its cast of booksellers, silk merchants, sailors, preachers, politicians, cholera and coincidence and its widespread connections over two centuries across the globe.

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Book SynopsisHarperCollins is proud to present its new range of best-loved, essential classics.London society is full of women of the very highest birth who have, of their own free choice, remained thirty-five for years.'Including some of Oscar Wilde's most well-known and infamous plays, Lady Windermere's Fan, A Woman of No Importance, An Ideal Husband, and The Importance of Being Earnest, this collection of the infamous writer's works displays his brilliant, quick wit to its full glory. Wilde's pithy social comedies dissect the morals and idiosyncrasies of society in the 1890s and offer a view of the sexual politics of the time.

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Book SynopsisHarperCollins is proud to present its new range of best-loved, essential classics.The better part of valour is discretion.'King Henry IV's son, Prince Harry is quick-witted yet idle and irresponsible and lives a roguish existence keeping dubious company. However, when the kingdom is threatened, Prince Harry shows his true worth and heroism and begins a journey of transformation from layabout to noble leader.

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Book SynopsisThe inspiration behind the powerful new film starring Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Tom Wilkinson and Emily Watson, this is the story of Dido Belle, whose adoption by an aristocratic family challenged the conventions of 18th century England.In one of the most famous portraits in the world, a pretty girl walks through the grounds of Kenwood House, a vision of aristocratic refinement. But the eye is drawn to the beautiful woman on her right. Pointing at her own cheek, she playfully acknowledges her remarkable position in eighteenth-century society. For Dido Belle was the illegitimate, mixed-race daughter of a Royal Navy captain and a slave woman, adopted by the Earl of Mansfield. As Lord Chief Justice of England he would preside over the notorious Zong case the drowning of 142 slaves by an unscrupulous shipping company. His ruling provided the legal underpinning to the abolition of slavery in Britain.From the privileged yet unequal lives of Dido and her cousin Elizabeth, to the horrific treatment ofTrade Review‘A touching account … artfully constructed’ Sunday Times ‘The theatrical zest of the narrative, which is a tie-in with a movie of the same name, holds it all together’ The Times Praise for film previews of ‘Belle’: ‘A lovely, female-centric romance that completely reinvents the period movie in a way that will resound for quite some time’ Empire ‘Elegant and emotionally satisfying … this handsome period piece tells a continually fascinating, unusually layered story’ Variety Praise for Paula Byrne’s ‘The Real Jane Austen’: ‘The portrait of Austen that emerges is sparklingly multi-faceted, catching the light in intriguing ways … her Jane is far less likely to go for a quiet walk in the garden than she is to be whisked into town in search of a velvet cushion, a necklace or a smart new dress’ Mail on Sunday ‘Engaging, compelling, a delightful and engrossing book. Of course we all know that the "real" Jane Austen will forever be a mystery, but most 21st century Janeites will adore this one. Byrne's passion is nothing if not persuasive’ Sunday Times ‘Brilliantly illuminating … riveting. By focusing, chapter by chapter, on one thread or another of Austen's experience, Byrne allows us to grasp the richness of her inner life’ Simon Callow, Guardian

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Book SynopsisThe story and science of how animals find their way home.Home is the place we long for most, when we feel we have travelled too far, for too long. Since boyhood, acclaimed scientist and author Bernd Heinrich has returned every year to a beloved patch of woods in his native western Maine. But while it's the pull of nostalgia that informs our desire to go back, what is it that drives the homing instinct in animals?Heinrich explores the fascinating science behind the mysteries of animal migration: how geese imprint true visual landscape memory over impossible distances; how the subtlest of scent trails are used by many creatures, from fish to insects to amphibians, to pinpoint their home; and how the tiniest of songbirds are equipped for solar and magnetic orienteering over vast distances. Most movingly, Heinrich chronicles the spring return of a pair of sandhill cranes to their pond in the Alaska tundra. With his marvellously evocative prose, Heinrich portrays the psychological state of Trade Review‘Wonderful’ Sunday Telegraph Praise for Bernd Heinrich: ‘Heinrich, who combines his keen scientific eye with the soul of a poet, enthralls.’ New York Times ‘One of the finest living examples of that strange hybrid: the science writer.’ Los Angeles Times

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Book SynopsisThe story of a working class boy from Leicestershire who started out restoring cars with his father and went on to produce a low volume car that would shake the establishment: the Noble M12.

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Book Synopsis''Murder in the Gulag is brilliant journalistic writing: punchy, eloquent, page-turning and factual. It''s a powerful reminder of what an extraordinary man Navalny was'' - Roland Oliphant, TelegraphThe gripping sequel to the bestselling Killer in the Kremlin2:19pm, Moscow time, 16 February 2024. The Federal Penitentiary Service of the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous District announces that Alexei Navalny is dead. The news sends shockwaves around the world.In Murder in the Gulag, award-winning journalist John Sweeney goes behind the headlines to reveal what really happened to the Russian opposition leader in the freezing Polar Wolf penal colony in a remote part of Siberia. The book is less a whodunnit - Russian President Vladimir Putin''s machinery of repression killed Navalny - than a howdunnit.The narrative relates Navalny''s extraordinary life story in technicolour detail, from his childhood summers spent with his

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Book SynopsisDuring the height of the Rolling Stones''success, Bill Wyman kept a diary, recoding the churning chaos of the band''s creative evolution, power plays, recording sessions, tours, romances, drug busts, and financial disarray. Stone Alone is a meticulous, shrewd and humorous look at the complex personalities of the Stones and the role they played in the startling cultural revolution of the times.Table of Contents* Flash Forward * Roots and Routes * How the Stones got the Blues * Birth of the Legend * The Great Unwashed * The Selling of a Rebellion * The Unholy Trinity * Riots and Romances * Addictions and Frictions * (Drug) Trials and Tribulations * De-Klein * Little Boy Blues

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Book SynopsisA portrait in her own words of the female Lawrence of Arabia, the subject of the PBS documentary Letters from Baghdad, voiced by Tilda Swinton, and the major motion picture Queen of the Desert, starring Nicole Kidman, James Franco, Damian Lewis, and Robert Pattinson and directed by Werner HerzogGertrude Bell was leaning in 100 years before Sheryl Sandberg. One of the great woman adventurers of the twentieth century, she turned her back on Victorian society to study at Oxford and travel the world, and became the chief architect of British policy in the Middle East after World War I. Mountaineer, archaeologist, Arabist, writer, poet, linguist, and spy, she dedicated her life to championing the Arab cause and was instrumental in drawing the borders that define today’s Middle East. As she wrote in one of her letters, “It’s a bore being a woman when you are in Arabia.” Forthright and spirited, oTrade Review[A] well-chosen selection from [the] letters and memoirs [of] one of the most remarkable figures of the late 19th and early 20th century . . . Bell might be regarded as the much happier, female equivalent of T. E. Lawrence, who knew and admired her * Washington Post *A fascinating glimpse at [Bell's] larger-than-life personality . . . Timely and timeless . . . The genius of this collection is letting Bell tell her story in her own words-just as her fiercely independent spirit would have wanted. Impossible to put down, the book reads a bit like a travelog, part humorous wit and part educational lecture, allowing the reader an in-depth look at the life of a true heroine and the time period she inhabited and conquered * Library Journal *An impressive anthology . . . Howell brings the 'female Lawrence of Arabia' to life through judicious selections from Bell's massive public writings and personal papers. . . . Bell comes across as a compassionate, erudite quasi-diplomat worthy of great admiration * Kirkus Reviews *Tantalizing . . . Fascinating . . . Bell's own words showcase . . . a personality and intellect that glittered like the sun-drenched Arabian sands. . . . Readers will accompany her on some of her most daring exploits. . . . This is a nifty little volume that illuminates a remarkable life * Publishers Weekly *

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Book SynopsisNot just any fantasy, horror, and science fiction author could impress H. P. Lovecraft into calling him ''unexcelled by any other writer, dead or living''. Clark Ashton Smith - autodidact, prolific poet, amateur philosopher, bizarre sculptor, and unmatched storyteller - simply wrote like no one else, before or since. This new collection of his very best tales and poems is selected and introduced by supernatural literature scholar S. T. Joshi and allows readers to encounter Smith''s visionary brand of fantastical, phantasmagorical worlds, each one filled with invention, terror and a superlative sense of metaphysical wonder.Trade Review“[Smith] is a fantasist with a much subtler graph of what gives the genre known as ‘weird fiction’ its own peculiar delights...Smith’s vision echoes through popular culture...‘The Vaults of Yoh-Vombis’ [is] the template for later science fiction horrors such as Alien and The Thing—just as ‘The Dark Eidolon’ itself looks ahead to every evil sorcerer in fantasy novels and films.”—Peter Bebergal, Times Literary Supplement"In sheer daemonic strangeness and fertility of conception, he is perhaps unexcelled by any other writer, dead or living. Who else has seen such gorgeous, luxurious, and feverishly distorted visions of infinite spheres and lived to tell the tale?" —H. P. Lovecraft "Smith is sui generis, one of the most uninfluenced and original writers I know of. A germ from Poe, a little fire from George Sterling, perhaps an acid drop from Bierce, the color and cruelty of Eastern Legends." —Fritz Leiber "Incredible worlds, impossibly beautiful cities, and still more fantastic creatures. . . Take one step across the threshold of his stories and you plunge into colour, sound, taste, smell and texture: into language." —Ray Bradbury "It is often impossible to say where man's inspirations come from . . . my impetus remains as bright and compelling as it was the day I removed it from a library shelf . . . and passed—incredibly!—out of that building through a portal to the City where the Singing Flame lived." —Harlan Ellison

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Book SynopsisTrade ReviewOne of NPR’s Best Books of the YearOne of The Guardian’s Best Books of the Year“Sparkling . . . Marvelous . . . Wondrous . . . A monument of classical Islamic learning . . . Muhanna renders what might have been a rather baroque text in elegant prose. . . . The text opens a window into a lively and eclectic world of scholarship, a realm of humanist scribes and poetry-spouting polymaths. . . . Reading this compendium is like exploring a cabinet of curiosities, each section home to uncanny and startling mirabilia. . . . The pleasure of The Ultimate Ambition lies in exploring its bewildering scope, a range emblematic of the broad imaginations and curiosities of the 14th-century Islamic world.” —The New York Times Book Review“This bizarre, fascinating book . . . illustrate[s] the sprawlingly heterodox reality of the early centuries of Islam, so different from the crude puritanical myths purveyed by modern-day jihadis. . . . Reading it is like stumbling into a cavernous attic full of unimaginably strange artifacts, some of them unforgettable. . . . The book is full of strange myths and nostrums that hint at what mattered to people in the fourteenth century: sex, money, power, perfume. . . . From the alleged self-fellation of monkeys to the many lovely Bedouin words for the night sky . . . nothing seems to escape Nuwayri’s taxonomic ambitions.” —The New York Review of Books“This energetic primer to a staggeringly rich moment in time might end up being an indispensable addition to your library. . . . [It] is a celebration of knowledge for its own sake. . . . For feeding your curiosity, it handily succeeds.” —NPR.org“Ultimate Ambition lives up to its bold title—its eclectic, protean entries cover lunar cults, the sugary drinks in the sultan’s buttery, and how to attract your dream woman by burying a crow’s head.” —The Paris Review Daily“[It] spills over with insatiable curiosity at its most irrepressible: an elixir for dark days.” —Marina Warner, The Guardian, “Best Books of the Year”“A reader-friendly translation . . . with an extensive introduction and explanatory notes . . . There seems no reason why Al-Nuwayri’s vast compendium of useful, useless and curious knowledge should remain the province of scholars alone.” —Al-Ahram Weekly“A fascinating peek at the minds of our ancestors. You can see how man’s understanding of the world has changed drastically in some ways and remained startlingly constant in others. Plus the book is just plain fun to read.” —A. J. Jacobs, New York Times bestselling author of The Know-It-All and The Year of Living Biblically“A smart, exhilarating selection from a vast work. The scholarship is solid but unobtrusive, and the style, clear and flavorful, draws the reader in. Al-Nuwayri’s encyclopedia, somewhat like Vincent of Beauvais’s a hundred years before him, delights as it moves between learned tradition, jaw-dropping anecdote, and elegant (and elegantly translated) poetry. Dip in, and a distant world, endlessly colorful, comes to sparkling life.” —Andras P. Hamori, Princeton University“From the structure of the heavens to the curious anatomy of the hippopotamus, with stops to view everything from book-keeping to aphrodisiacs, this charming fourteenth-century encyclopedia gives a glimpse of the entire world as seen by a very learned Egyptian summing up the powerful tradition of medieval Islamic scholarship known in his time. Elias Muhanna’s very readable translation allows the reader to gain a rounded experience of a deeply interesting bygone world.” —Roy P. Mottahedeh, Harvard University“Finally, thanks to Elias Muhanna’s expert translation, editing, and explanatory notes, we have access to a real encyclopedia to place alongside Borges’s mythical Chinese text. An extraordinary work, The Ultimate Ambition in the Arts of Erudition strives for nothing less than an orderly, total account of the world, and Al-Nuwayri’s unique accomplishment in the encyclopedic tradition is not to suggest that wonder is to be found in the many oddities, rarities, and exceptions of the given world, but to show how, beneath these features, there is a deeper and more marvelous order.” —Elliott Colla, Georgetown University“This engaging volume lets you dip into the world of a fourteenth-century Egyptian encyclopedist who knew about the endless rain in England, the skillfulness of artists in China, how a woman can get away with claiming to be a prophetess, why a bureaucrat should never commit the size of the army to writing, and anything else worth knowing.” —Michael Cook, Princeton University“This delightful volume offers readers of English the first opportunity to sample the vast and varied literature of Arabic encyclopedism. Under Elias Muhanna’s expert guidance you will encounter advice and information strangely foreign and occasionally familiar, drawn from al-Nuwayri’s 14th-century perspective on history and politics, medicine and the natural world.” —Ann Blair, Harvard University“A veritable Wikipedia of its time . . . The erudition and breadth of the book is staggering, and it is a positively entertaining collection. . . . A valuable addition to the library of those who are interested in medieval miscellany [and] a corrective to narratives that might isolate the Islamic world from the wider cosmos of medieval thinking.” —Publishers Weekly“Fascinating . . . This condensed, abbreviated English-language rendition more than does justice to the Arabic text. . . . [A] clear, accessible translation . . . with copious notes and suggested further readings.” —Library Journal“In a time like ours, when one of the world’s great religions and cultures is under attack in the west, it might feel like a civic duty to learn more about the texture and history of Islamic tradition, but don’t read this book only for that reason. Read it because it is profoundly poetic and filled with sublime passages of the most extraordinary delicacy. For instance, ‘The enmity between the wolf and the sheep is so great that if some bowstrings are plucked together—one made from the intestines of a wolf, and several others from the intestines of a sheep—they will not make any sound.’ Or, ‘The night is divided into twelve hours, each with its own name given to it by the Bedouin Arabs: Sunset, dusk, darkness, blackness, the enfeebling hour, midnight, the heart of the night, the disgracing hour, the foretokens of morning, the first dawn, the second dawn, the widespread dawn.’ An accessible, delightful, and stirring record of 14th-century Islamic thought.” —Jeff Deutsch, Seminary Co-op Bookstore

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Book SynopsisBorn a free man in New York State in 1808, Solomon Northup was kidnapped in Washington, D.C., in 1841. He spent the next twelve years as a slave on a Louisiana cotton plantation. During this time he was frequently abused and often afraid for his life. After regaining his freedom in 1853, Northup published this gripping account of his captivity. As an educated man, Northup was able to present an exceptionally detailed description of slave life and plantation society. Indeed, this book is probably the fullest, most realistic picture of the ''peculiar institution'' during the three decades before the Civil War. Northup tells his story both from the viewpoint of an outsider, who had experienced thirty years of freedom and dignity in the United States before his capture, and as a slave, reduced to total bondage and submission. Very few personal accounts of American slavery were written by slaves with a similar history. This extraordinary slave narrative, new to Penguin Classics, has a new introduction by prize-winning historian and author Ira Berlin, an an essay by Henry Louis Gates Jr.Trade Review“I could not believe that I had never heard of this book. It felt as important as Anne Frank’s Diary, only published nearly a hundred years before. . . . The book blew [my] mind: the epic range, the details, the adventure, the horror, and the humanity. . . . I hope my film can play a part in drawing attention to this important book of courage. Solomon’s bravery and life deserve nothing less.” —Steve McQueen, director of 12 Years a Slave, from the Foreword“Frightening, gripping and inspiring . . . Northup’s story seems almost biblical, structured as it is as a descent and resurrection narrative of a protagonist who, like Christ, was 33 at the time of his abduction. . . . Northup reminds us of the fragile nature of freedom in any human society and the harsh reality that whatever legal boundaries existed between so-called free states and slave states in 1841, no black man, woman or child was permanently safe.” —Henry Louis Gates, Jr., from the Afterword “For sheer drama, few accounts of slavery match Solomon Northup’s tale of abduction from freedom and forcible enslavement.” —Ira Berlin, from the Introduction“If you think the movie offers a terrible-enough portrait of slavery, please, do read the book. . . . The film is stupendous art, but it owes much to a priceless piece of document. Solomon Northup’s memoir is history. . . . His was not simply an extraordinary story, but an account of the life of a great many ordinary people.” —The Daily Beast“An incredible document, amazingly told and structured. Tough, but riveting. The movie of it by Steve McQueen might be the most successful adaptation of a book ever undertaken; text and film complement each other wildly.” —Rachel Kushner, The New York Times Book Review“The best firsthand account of slavery.” —James M. McPherson, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Battle Cry of Freedom, in The New York Times Book Review“Northup published a memoir of his 12-year nightmare in 1853, the year after Uncle Tom’s Cabin came out, and it was so successful that he went on to participate in two stage adaptations. The book dropped from sight in the 20th century, but the movie tie-in will certainly reestablish its virtually unique status as a work by an educated free man who managed to return from slavery.” —The Hollywood Reporter

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Book Synopsis''I''m not past my prime. And neither are you!''Engaging and wise, A Work in Progress will resonate with every middle-aged woman who feels newly invisible, silenced, underestimated or diminished. From knowing our worth, looking ahead with excitement and possibility, and realising that we still have so much to give and enjoy, this is a book that will change lives.Sue Cleaver shares her experiences and life stories, reflects on how they made her feel and what she learned, and offers advice and tips for others who find themselves in similar situations. Are you a chronic overthinker, do you have anxiety, or suffer from self-doubt? Sue has been there, done that, and is still learning from it. Training as a therapist was only the start of her journey of self-discovery and at sixty she feels more empowered to live life to the full than ever before.''I''ve spent a lifetime feeling that I''m not enough or I don''t belong. It''s only now that I''m beg

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Book SynopsisThe author quit his job for the high adrenaline world of Indian advertising, a world where fun and merriment are combined with dead serious cut throat competion in equal measure. this book is a must for advertising and marketing professioanl, it combines memoirs, and business lessons in a highly readable style.

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