Search results for ""Watkins Media""

Neythan is one of five young warriors trained and raised together by a mysterious brotherhood of assassins known as the Shedaím. When Neythan is framed for the murder of his closest friend, he pursues his betrayer – and in so doing learns there’s far more to the Brotherhood, and the machinations of the rulers of the warring kingdoms, than he’d ever thought possible. His journey will lead him across the five realms, from the Forest of Silences to the Ash Plains of Calapaar, and reveal the breaches that lie beneath the world, and the hidden truths of his oath. File Under: Fantasy [ Brothers at Arms | The Faceless Ones | Kings and Keepers | Creed of Assassins ]

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Every civilization has its myths. Only one is true. When eighteen year old Keiko Yamada’s father dies unexpectedly, he leaves behind a one way ticket to Japan, an unintelligible death poem about powerful Japanese spirits and their gigantic, beast-like Guardians, and the cryptic words: “Go to Japan in my place. Find the Gate. My camera will show you the way.” Alone and afraid, Keiko travels to Tokyo, determined to fulfil her father’s dying wish. There, beneath glittering neon signs, her father’s death poem comes to life. Ancient spirits spring from the shadows and chaos envelops the city. As Keiko flees its burning streets, her guide, the beautiful Yui Akiko, makes a stunning confession – that she, Yui, is one of a handful of spirits left behind to defend the world against the most powerful among them: a once noble spirit now insane. Keiko must decide if she will honour her father’s heritage and take her rightful place among the gods. File Under: Fantasy [ Gods and Guardians | A Father’s Secret | Longing for More | Cosmic Reinvention ]

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The fate of India lies in the hands of a young street urchin and the alien living inside her head in this rollicking sci-fi adventure from the author The Lives of Tao Ella Patel—thief, con-artist and smuggler—is in the wrong place at the wrong time. One night, on the border of a demilitarized zone run by the body-swapping alien invaders, she happens upon a man and woman being chased by a group of assailants. The man freezes, leaving the woman to fight off five attackers at once, before succumbing. As she dies, the sparkling light that rises from the woman enters Ella, instead of the man. She soon realizes she’s been inhabited by Io, a low-ranking Quasing who was involved in some of the worst decisions in history. Now, Ella must now help the alien presence to complete her mission and investigate a rash of murders in the border states that maintain the frail peace. With the Prophus assigned to help her seemingly wanting to stab her in the back, and the enemy Genjix hunting her, Ella must also deal with Io’s annoying inferiority complex. To top it all off, Ella thinks the damn alien voice in her head is trying to get her killed. And if you can’t trust the voices in your head, who can you trust?

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In the fantastical, gaslit underground city of Recoletta, oligarchs from foreign states and revolutionaries from the farming communes vie for power in the wake of the city's coup. The dark, forbidden knowledge of how the city came to be founded has been released into the world for all to read, and now someone must pay.Inspector Liesl Malone is on her toes, trying to keep the peace, and Arnault's spy ring is more active than ever. Has the city's increased access to knowledge put the citizens in even more danger? Allegiances change, long-held beliefs are adjusted, and things are about to get messy!File Under: Fantasy [ Buried Cities / Secrets & Lies / Revolutionary / Total War ]

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The gaslight and shadows of the underground city of Recoletta hide secrets and lies. When Inspector Liesl Malone investigates the murder of a renowned historian, she finds herself stonewalled by the all-powerful Directorate of Preservation – Recoletta’s top-secret historical research facility. When a second high-profile murder threatens the very fabric of city society, Malone and her rookie partner Rafe Sundar must tread carefully, lest they fall victim to not only the criminals they seek, but the government which purports to protect them. Knowledge is power, and power must be preserved at all costs…File Under: Science Fantasy [ Thriller | Society in Ruins | Fully Booked | New and Weird ]

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When an imaginary animal from her troubled teenage years reappears, Virgin takes it to mean one of two things: a breakdown (hers!) or a warning. When the dead bodies start piling up around her and Nate, she decides on the latter. Something terrible is about to happen in the park and Virgin and her new partner are standing in its path...Virgin Jackson is the senior ranger in Birrimun Park - the world's last natural landscape, overshadowed though it is by a sprawling coastal megacity. She maintains public safety and order in the park, but her bosses have brought out a hotshot cowboy to help her catch some drug runners who are affecting tourism. She senses the company is holding something back from her, and she's not keen on working with an outsider like Nate Sixkiller.File Under: Science Fiction

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When mild-mannered Chesney Arnstruther accidentally summons a demon and causes Hell to go on strike, he doesn’t expect to wind up as what he had always dreamed of being: the Actionary, a costumed crimefighter with a weasel-headed fiend for a sidekick. But that’s just the beginning of a journey that will see the “high-functioning” autistic actuary enmeshed in the schemes of a greedy televangelist, romancing a pepper-spray-wielding manicurist, and sitting down to a poker game with the Devil where the stakes include his immortal soul. File Under: Fantasy [ Expletives Deleted | Up, Up And Away | Endless Loveliness | Life’s Great Author ]

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Anti-Oculus is a work of conceptual espionage: an assemblage of polemical tracts complete with a gallery of graphic illustrations inspired by postmodern and pulp classics from Anti-Oedipus to Ways of Seeing. Through the concept of "Ocularity", the Acid Horizon crew trace the political, medical, and historical ways power sees us through its categories of control and counter-insurgency. From the thermodynamics of policing in the cyberpunk present, to the psychiatric colonization of the image, to bodies that "go astray" in an increasingly reactionary society; Anti-Oculus maps out the ways we are captured under the eyes of cyber-capital, and provokes us to find each other in pursuit of emancipation, community, and new forms of life.

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TED Talks speaker and mental health advocate Hannah Brencher inspires readers to unplug from technology and cultivate a life of presence, connection and wonder.

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Inspired by J.M. Barrie's beloved children storyPeter Panand focusing onfamily, freedom and choice,These Deathless Shoresis an exciting genderbentorigin story told from the perspective Captain Hook, perfect for fans of Jade Cityby Fonda Lee.

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"Beautifully written and bursting with spirit, How to Read Like a Parasite is destined to be vital reading." - Matthew McManus, author of Nietzsche and the Politics of Reaction How to Read Like a Parasite overturns the whitewashed and defanged version of Nietzsche that has been made popular by generations of translators and academic philosophers who have presented his work as apolitical and without a core reactionary agenda. The central argument of the book is that Nietzsche’s philosophy does have a center, and that the left learns a great deal from Nietzsche when we read him as driven by a highly sophisticated reactionary political vision that informs all his major concepts and ideas. The most important Nietzschean concepts — from perspectivism, ressentiment, eternal return to the pathos of distance — are analyzed in the historical context in which Nietzsche lived and wrote, and several case-studies of prominent left-Nietzscheans from Jack London, Gilles Deleuze, Wendy Brown to Huey Newton are discussed. How to Read Like a Parasite makes a persuasive case for how we can overcome Nietzsche’s damaging influence on the left, showing us how to read and understand his work without becoming victims of it.

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"I would recommend Tony’s new book to anybody who wants to improve their thinking and achieve Mind Map mastery themselves." – Dominic O’Brien, eight-time World Memory Champion and bestselling author Tony Buzan invented the Mind Map technique five decades ago. Seeing the transformational impact it had on people, he has been spreading the thinking tool across the world ever since. The Mind Map technique has gathered amazing praise and an enormous worldwide following over the last few decades, but as with any very successful idea, there have been many sub-standard imitators. With Mind Map Mastery, Tony Buzan re-establishes the essential concepts that are the core of the Mind Map with a clarity and practicality unrivalled by other books. If you are looking to improve your memory, plan your business strategy, become more organized, study for an exam or plan out your future, this is the book for you. With a clarity and depth that far exceeds any other book on the subject, it includes the history of the development of the Mind Map, an explanation of what makes a Mind Map (and what isn't a Mind Map) and why it's such a powerful tool, illustrated step-by-step techniques for Mind Map development – from simple to complex applications – and how to deal with Mind Maps that have “gone wrong”. Developed both for those new to the Mind Map concept as well as more experienced users who would like to revise and expand their expertise, Mind Map Mastery is the one Mind Mapping book needed on the shelf of every student and business person across the world.

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We live in uncertain times, and in our search for solutions to the problems of the world The Seer offers a new way of thinking and living.Praised for its visionary and transformative power, this incredible true story has attracted tens of thousands of readers from across the globe, with more discovering it every day.The Seer is the first book in the Grail Trilogy, otherwise known as The O Manuscript.

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How did Manchester became the poster-child of neoliberal urbanisation, and whatcan the people that live there do about it?

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Analysing a wide range of online communities and subcultures, Alice Capelle shows how an unprecedented backlash against women is being orchestrated online. Covering everything from the reactionary politics of the "manosphere" to hookup culture, traditional feminity, the politics of sexual liberation and liberal-friendly lifestyle content, Collapse Feminism shows how the future of feminism is being determined in these online spaces, and what this means for women in the twenty-first century. As conservative and anti-feminist political groups grow in power and popularity online and in the real world, it is urgent that we collectively reject political ideas that harm people of all genders, and instead work to create a freer, fairer and more creative future for all.

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A woman checks herself into an insane asylum to solve the mystery of her sister’s murder, only to lose her memory and maybe her mind. From the subversive voice behind The Phlebotomist comes a story that combines the uncanny atmosphere of Don’t Worry Darling with the narrative twists of The Last House on Needless Street What would guilt make you do? Hadleigh Keene died on the road leading away from Hollyhock Asylum. The reasons are unknown. Her sister Morgan blames herself. A year later with the case still unsolved, Morgan creates a false identity, that of a troubled housewife named Charlotte Turner, and goes inside. Morgan quickly discovers that Hollyhock is… not right. She is shaken by the hospital’s peculiar routines and is soon beset by strange episodes. All the while, the persona of Charlotte takes on a life of its own, becoming stronger with each passing day. As her identit

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A horror-story history of capitalism and its relationship to the haunted and the gothic, and a manifesto of Gothic Marxism, which finds revolutionary hope in the nightmare of modernity.

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Providing a searing insight and honest portrayal of post-industrialcommunities ravaged by decades of abandonment, How Black Was MyValley is the story of lives defined by poverty, catastrophe and thefading dreams of better futures.

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"Unfortunately making the greatest rap album of all time was to be put on hold as the insidious Job Centre advisors had finally had enough of my shit. I would be forced to sign up to one of the town's two recruitment agencies, or I would be starved of weed money." Leonard Swanson lives in an obscure north-western town — the kind that "has a knack for swallowing you whole". He is supposed to be making the greatest rap album of all time, Swan Songs, but instead is forced to work in one of the town's factories, "picking things up and putting them down for twelve hours in a giant white room". Swan Songs follows Leonard as he works, quits, signs on, and travels the country, playing in small capacity venues for even smaller capacity audiences, for which he gets "paid in booze, drugs and a night on a bed bug-ridden mattress somebody dragged in from the street", all the while making the album he thinks will change hip-hop forever. Part Alan Sillitoe and part William Burroughs, UK rapper Lee Scott's debut novel, partially based on his own experiences of becoming a rapper in Runcorn, is an experimental and humorous modern satire about the perils of being a hip-hop visionary far from the beaten track...

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Towards the end of 1974, a stranger arrived in the small town of Sheerness on the Isle of Sheppey in Kent. He could often be found sitting at the bar in the Napier Tavern, drinking lager and smoking Gauloises while flicking through the pages of the Kent Evening Post. "Charles" was the name he offered to his new acquaintances. But this unexpected immigrant was actually Uwe Johnson, originally from the Baltic province of Mecklenburg in the GDR, and already famous as the leading author of a divided Germany. What caused him to abandon West Berlin and spend the last nine years of his life in Sheerness, where he eventually completed his great New York novel Anniversaries in a house overlooking the outer reaches of the Thames Estuary? And what did he mean by detecting a “moral utopia” in a town that others, including his concerned friends, saw only as a busted slum on an island abandoned to “deindustrialisation” and a stranded Liberty ship full of unexploded bombs? Patrick Wright, who himself abandoned north Kent for Canada a few months before Johnson arrived, returns to the “island that is all the world” to uncover the story of the East German author’s English decade, and to understand why his closely observed Kentish writings continue to speak with such clairvoyance in the age of Brexit. Guided in his encounters and researches by clues left by Johnson in his own “island stories”, the book is set in the 1970s, when North Sea oil and joining the European Economic Community seemed the last hope for bankrupt Britain. It opens out to provide an alternative version of modern British history: a history for the present, told through the rich and haunted landscapes of an often spurned downriver mudbank, with a brilliant German answer to Robinson Crusoe as its primary witness.

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Nisha Katona is here to change the way you think about rice forever. This reissue of her 2015 classic - with a gorgeous new cover - is a celebration of dishes from Nisha's home kitchen and around the globe. Pimp My Rice will show you how to make the most of a rainbow of rice types and explains how to cook them perfectly every time. Try the fresh tastes of a Killer Cucumber and Wild Rice Salad, the sunshine flavours of Lebanese Rose Petal Rice, or even a Black Rice and Coconut Sorbet. Enjoy the tastes of Creole Cinnamon Fritters for breakfast or a Beefed-Up Bibimap for dinner. From arancini to kedgeree, risotto to old-fashioned rice pudding, this is the ultimate collection of pimped-up rice recipes.

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The Essential Guide to Crystals is an authoritative, superbly illustrated book that displays crystals in all their dazzling beauty and reveals every aspect of their ancient, mysterious power. It covers the many ways in which crystals can be used to heal our spirit and otherwise enhance our life. An introductory section presents a historical overview and then gives guidance on techniques such as crystal healing and meditation, the use of amulets and birthstones, and working with crystals that correspond to our auras, chakras or reflexology points. The Essential Guide to Crystals guides readers through how to build up and maintain a collection. The second and main section of the book gives an in-depth profile of over 100 crystals, arranged according to colour groups. For each crystal there is a full-colour photograph, with descriptive text and reference notes on appearance, healing properties and other practical uses, as well as associated myths and legends. Key words identify each crystal so you can pick the stone to suit your needs, whether your purpose is cleansing, soothing or energising. The Essential Guide to Crystals is the perfect gift for any crystal lover, healer or collector.

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This is a unique entry point to a life-changing system. These cards help you discover new spiritual inspiration and find harmony in every aspect of your life.

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Written by Japanologist Natalie Leon, this beautiful guide unlocks the secrets of Japan's seasonal culture to help you relishthe seasons wherever you are.

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Noticing synchronicity - or random coincidences that strike us as meaningful - allows us to align our life path with the flow of the universe. This is the first-ever oracle to draw on the power of synchronicity to give you insight into your problems, answer your questions and highlight previously unconsidered patterns and potential pathways in your life. There are 57 hexagonal cards in the deck, each with 8 symbols, plus an 80pp booklet profiling each of the 57 symbols and giving instructions on how to use the cards. For instant insight, choose two cards at random and find the symbol that matches - there will only be one. Information about the meaning of the symbolism is given in the booklet, but ultimately it's up to you to interpret the symbol based on what it means for you. For a more in-depth answer to your problem, choose two cards for each of these three questions: Where are you coming from? Where are you now? Where are you going? Note the matching symbol in each case and see what it mean to you and what insights it throws up for the past, present and future of your situation. Then arrange the chosen cards in a circle, pull the final card - the intuition card - and place it in the centre. Which symbols match? Which ones predominate? What does it mean to you? The booklet offers a contemplation and a meditation for each symbol to help you interpret the symbols. The deck uses a wide range of symbols, including Jungian archetypes, contemporary icons, and images from alchemy, science and mysticism - from the Kabbalah's tree of life and the yin yang symbol to images of an anchor, a wave, a spider's web, and a mirror. As you search for the synchronicity and enjoy the magic of finding it through this deck, you will find that synchronicity comes up more and more in your everyday life. What can synchronicity tell you?

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Invite magic into every single day with an easy spell or ritual based on ancient wisdom. Tree Carr, an expert in the realms of dreams, divination and esoteric magic, brings together 365 simple rituals, spells and enchantments to enrich your life and help you discover new powers. From spells that you can cast on-the-go, to incantations to solidify healthy boundaries, to charms to expand your consciousness for astral projection, there are hundreds of spells to calm, inspire and delight. The spells combine the arts of potions, rituals, lucid dreams, herb magic, candle magic, planetary magic, crystal magic, incantations, ceremonies, divinations, tarot readings and so much more, making this is the first book of its kind to bring together multiple realms of magic for the everyday into one place. Gorgeously illustrated throughout, the spells within this book are easy to do, inexpensive, practical and offer profound insight and power.

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Waters of life. Distilled spirits of all kinds have borne that name, in various tongues, since time immemorial. Aqua vita. Eau de vie. Uisge Beatha. Tom Morton has travelled the world in search of the finest drams the planet has to offer. His journeys reveal the links between faith and alcohol, between spirits and the spiritual. From Christianity’s Holy Communion to the temple libations of Japan, through the rum concoctions of Haitian Voodoo to the monastic producers of every liquid from beer to "tonic" wine. And of course Tom’s beloved whisky, brewed in many corners of the world. Holy Waters is Tom’s journey to the spiritual heart of whisky, sake, rum, Champagne, beer, mead and a variety of wines. With great insight, humour and for the most part sobriety, he traces the links between brewing, winemaking, distilling and worship, from ancient pagan rites to the most modern Trappist technology. He revels in the lore and mysteries of craft production, the elemental, magical love stories, the passionate relationships between human and landscape, grain and pure water, grape and fire. And he does so on a motorcycle which, to his astonishment, runs very well on cask-strength Islay single malt. This book is a celebration of cultures and artisan craft, a book for food and drink, travel and history lovers.

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"This is the joy we need in our lives." – George Monbiot. "This book, practical and realistic as well as visionary, will keep that positive message before the reader’s eyes. Joy is after all one of the best motivations we can have for change." – Dr Rowan Williams. Finally! A book about saving our planet that is fast, funny and inspiring too. Written in short chapters for busy people, Isabel doesn’t bother with an examination of the problem but gets right on with the solutions. Her aim: to look for every single way we can take care of the planet; how we live and work, travel, shop, eat, drink, dress, vote, play, volunteer, bank – everything. And to do this wholeheartedly, energetically and joyfully. Beginning with losing her cool in a restaurant that will only provide plastic cutlery, Isabel journeys through native tree planting in the Highlands of Scotland, playing Samba drums with Extinction Rebellion, interviewing in person the people that supply her energy and food – through every solution she can find – until both narrator and reader are fully equipped to be part of the pollution solution. "She gave my spirit a lift and my feet somewhere to stand." – Sir Mark Rylance

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Antony Cummins and Yoshie Minami have brought the teachings of the famed samurai school Natori-Ry? back to life through The Book of Samurai series, and present the lost arts of the samurai in the English language for the first time. BOOK ONE is a translation of two secret scrolls and establishes the Fundamental Teachings of a samurai student, revealing the basic traditions of Natori-Ry?. The first scroll, Heika J ?dan, contains 290 lessons that define the baseline for samurai during times of peace, a time which is considered as preparation for war, focusing each student on expanding their own ability and conduct, giving them the mind-set needed for any battles to come. The second scroll, Ippei Y?k?, moves the student onto the field of battle, giving them an understanding of what is expected of them during a campaign of war and providing the necessary guidance for samurai who are to take up arms for the first time. These first two Natori-Ry? documents are an in-depth and detailed account of the practicality of samurai warfare, opening up the lost world of these Japanese warriors to all modern readers.

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The world''s greatest maestro of memory offers you the secret of a super-sharp memory - and all the life benefits that come with it.

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This book outlines symptoms of pelvic floor dysfunction, and shows you how to fix them. What is pelvic organ prolapse – which 50% of women will experience – and can it be prevented? Urinary incontinence is treatable with physio. Women on average suffer symptoms for 7 years before going to a healthcare professional which has a huge effect on mental health. Pelvic floor issues are often only talked about in relation to pregnancy and childbirth. This is not just a "mum issue": high impact exercise (running, HIIT, CrossFit) affect the pelvic floor. Young athletes/gymnasts who have never had children are highly likely to suffer from incontinence. Women should not accept dysfunction as a "normal part of being a woman", but instead need to prioritize their pelvic floor health – this book shows that it is never too early and, crucially, never too late to do so.

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Align your days to the power of the universe. This beautifully illustrated astrological diary, which a features a foil cover and ribbon, will bring lunar wisdom into your everyday, with life-coaching tools and tips for each week. Organised around the zodiac, it shows you how to use the signs to inform your decisions and align your life with the energy of the Universe. For example, Pisces is the dreamer, so when the sun enters Pisces, it's time to implement steps to move closer to your dream life. It also explains the mysterious effects of planetary conjunctions, like how Mercury entering retrograde affects your decision making and fortunes. This year’s diary has more interactive features than ever situated at the crossover of astrology and natural magic, with spells and rituals for you to try at home, like the sacred altar ritual, as well as tarot information, horoscopes and customizable astral charts. Astrology is a wonderful tool you can use everywhere; you don’t need to be mystical to enjoy it.

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The universe is alive with powerful, positive and loving energy - energy that can help bring about all that you desire in your life. The Law of Attraction states that thoughts, both conscious and unconscious, can have powerful effects; the more positive your thoughts, the more you attract positive energy. The steps to harnessing this law are: first, to know what you want and ask the universe for it; then, to believe and behave as if the object of your desire is on its way; and finally, to be truly open to receiving. This beautifully designed deck of 52 meditation cards offers practical wisdom to help harness this abundance and bring it into your life. The cards are divided into four suits, each focused on an area of life - Love and Relationships; Career and Prosperity; Creativity; and Spiritual Growth. Each suit features an inspiring illustration inspired by the heavens and appropriate to that theme. On the reverse you will find a key word to help bring each card into focus along with a visualisation, meditation, exercise, technique or inspiring quotation. With a wealth of inspirational practices, this deck will be an essential companion for everyone seeking abundance in their life.

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Firefighter Cole Brannigan is on the verge of retirement after 30 years on the job, and a decade fighting dragons. But during his final fire call, he discovers he’s immune to dragon smoke. It’s such a rare power that he’s immediately conscripted into the elite dragon-fighting force known as the Smoke Eaters. Retirement cancelled, Brannigan is re-assigned as a lowly rookie, chafing under his superiors. So when he discovers a plot to take over the city’s government, he takes matters into his own hands. With hundreds of innocent civilians in the crosshairs, it’s up to Brannigan and his fellow Smoke Eaters to repel the dragon menace. File Under: Fantasy [ Scaly Firestarters | Final Call Out | Wraith of Flames | Enter the Fireman ]

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When you wake up without your memories, who can you really trust? Pioneering scientist Iris Henderson chose to be her own first test-subject for an experimental therapy, placing a piece of technology into her brain. At least, this is what everyone tells her. Trouble is, Iris is now without her memories so she doesn't know what the therapy is or why she would ever decide to volunteer for it. Everyone warns her to leave it alone, but Iris doesn't know who to trust. As she scratches beneath the surface of her seemingly happy marriage and successful career, a catastrophic chain of events is set in motion. Secrets will be revealed that have the capacity to destroy her whole life, but Iris can't stop digging.

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During their temporary research post on Apech-a planet ravaged by a time distorting illness-Wilhelmina Ming and four other elite students of the Crysthian empire have witnessed such illogical brutality that they've resorted to psychedelic antidepressants and group sex to take the edge off. After a night of indulgence following a gruesome execution, they wake to find an oblique warning in the form of an impaled corpse dangling from the exterior of their residence. When their subsequent investigation uncovers a web of collusion and conspiracy in the ranks of their own diplomatic corps, the envoys find themselves caught in the middle of a bloody civil war. As bodies pile up above ground, a deranged fanatic stokes an existential threat below, coaxing the embers of a forgotten god, and its temporal virus, to life.

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The long-awaited new book from multi-award winner Geoff Ryman An extraordinary science-fiction novel about identity, divinity and alternate reality - the story of the son of God. --- "Women, of course, can not be sons of God," In the village of Nazareth, virgin Maryam and the wife of Yosef barLevi gives birth to a miracle: a little girl. She is named Avigayil, after her grandmother. But as Avigayil grows, it's clear she believes that she is destined to be someone greater than just the daughter of Maryam. From leading a gang of village boys to challenging the priests in the temple, Avigayil is determined to find her way as Yeshu, a man. Yeshu can work miracles. He can see futures. He can speak for God. A gripping, thoughtful sci-fi novel, tackling family, the multiverse and the survival of love through immense change and crisis.

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Ledge is the heart-stopping beginning to The Glacian Trilogy from TikTok sensation Stacey McEwan @staceboookspace After being randomly selected as a human sacrifice, instead of death, Dawsyn finds herself on a quest to save her people from their icy prison... --- In a place known as the Ledge, a civilization is trapped by a vast chasm and sheer mountain face. There is no way for anyone to escape the frozen wasteland without befalling a deathly drop. They know nothing of the outside world except that it is where the Glacians reside - mystical and vicious winged creatures who bring meagre rations in exchange for a periodic human sacrifice. Dawsyn, ax wielder and only remaining member of her family, has so far avoided the annual culling, but her luck has run out. She is chosen and ripped from her icy home, the only world she knows. No one knows what will happen to her on the other side, least of all Dawsyn. Murdered? Enslaved? Worse? Fortunately, a half-Glacian called Ryon offers to help them both escape, but how can she trust one of the very creatures that plagued her life? Dawsyn is a survivor, and she is not afraid to cut anyone down to live. With a slow-burning romance, high stakes and even higher rewards, this richly created new fantasy series by popular TikToker Stacey McEwan will keep you gripped to the very end. File Under: Fantasy [ Ax-ing For It | The Cold Is Not Alive | Finding Freedom | Ledge-hanger ] *Content warnings* gratuitous violence & death; death of a minor; suicide; attempted sexual assaul t

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Great Britain has just left one Union, after years of bitter argument and divisive posturing. But what if the island's future lies in another Union altogether, with some of its former colonial “kith and kin” across the seas? Why be in a Union with your immediate neighbours, when you could instead be in a trans-oceanic super-state with our old friends in Canada, Australia and New Zealand? Welcome to the strange world of the 'CANZUK Union', the name for a quixotic but apparently serious plan to reunify the white-majority 'Dominions' of the British Empire under the flag of low taxes, strong borders and climate change denialism. Artificial Islands tests the idea that Britain's natural allies and closest relations are in these three countries in North America and the Antipodes, through a good look at the histories, townscapes and spaces of several cities across the settler zones of the British Empire. These are some of the most purely artificial and modern landscapes in the world, British-designed cities that were built with extreme rapidity in forcibly seized territories on the other side of the world from Britain. Were these places really no more than just a reproduction of British Values planted in unlikely corners of the globe? How are people in Auckland, Melbourne, Montreal, Ottawa and Wellington re-imagining their own history, or their countries' role in the British Empire and their complicity in its crimes? And do they have any interest in a union with us?

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From Anthony Barnett, the creator and former editor-in-chief of openDemocracy, comes this blazing response to the confrontation between Trumpism and Biden in America, that sets out how the future of humankind is at stake. On 6 January 2021, Donald Trump tried to seize the US presidency by force. His aim: to consolidate his nativist rule. He was, and still is, supported by tens of millions of Americans. In response, Joe Biden's administration promises a massive economic shift while a decisive contest unfolds over voter suppression. This contest is of epochal importance. As the future of humankind passes through the prism of the most powerful country in the world, Barnett reflects on the stark, limited spectrum of possible outcomes. He shows that the frustration of Trumpism is thanks to the decades long resistance to market fundamentalism. But it remains divided and incoherent. It is time for the left to embrace an open, ecological politics or the world will be subordinated to the regimes of the Iron Men and their successors.

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Rural England is a mythic space, a complex canvas on which people from many different backgrounds project all kinds of fantasies, prejudices, desires and fears. This book seeks to challenge many of these ideas, showing how the artificial divide between rural and urban works to conceal the underlying relationship between these two fundamental poles of human settlement. This investigation of rurality is oriented from a fixed point in north-west Hampshire, marked by a signpost that points in four directions to two towns, four villages and two hamlets. Through stories, interviews and reportage gathered over two decades, the book demolishes tired notions of rural England that cast it as a separate realm of existence, whether marooned in a perpetual time-warp, or reduced to a refuge for the retired, wealthy urbanites, extreme nature-lovers, and, more recently, anyone tired of waiting out the pandemic in towns and cities. It poses two simple questions: what does the word rural mean today? What will it mean tomorrow? The author is an ambivalent native, held captive to the land by an umbilical cord but always on the verge of fleeing home to the city. Both argument and narrative are propelled by the urgent need to reconsider the concept of ‘countryside’ in the context of the climate emergency and the patent collapse of ecosystems due to intensive farming which has poisoned the land. She writes from a feminist, postcolonial standpoint that is alert to the slow violence of historical processes taking place over many centuries; enslavement, colonialism, industrialisation, globalisation.

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In 1963, the West Indian Marxist C.L.R. James posed the deceptively benign question: "What do they know of cricket, who only cricket know?" A challenge to the public to re-consider cricket and its meaning by placing the game in its true social, political and economic context, James was, all too subtly, attempting to counter the game’s orthodox history that, he argued, had played a key role in the formation of national culture. As a consequence, he failed, and the history of cricket in England has retained the same stresses and lineaments as it did a century ago — until now. In examining recreational rather than professional (first-class) cricket, Different Class does not simply challenge the widely accepted orthodoxy of English cricket, it demonstrates how the values and belief systems at its heart were, under the guise of amateurism, intentionally developed in order to divide the English along class lines at every level of the game. If the creation of opposing class-based cricket cultures in the North and South of England grew out of this process, the institutional structures developed by those in charge of English cricket continue to discriminate. But, as much as the exclusion of Black and South Asian cricketers from the recreational mainstream is the most obvious example, it is social class that remains the greatest barrier to participation in what used to be the national game.

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Modernity has been defined by humanity’s capacity for self-destruction. In this timely and explosive book, philosopher and YouTuber Jonas Ceika (aka Cuck Philosophy) re-invigorates socialism for the 21st century. Leaving behind its past associations with bureaucracy and state tyranny, and it's lifeless and drab theoretical accounts, Ceika instead uses the works of Marx and Nietzsche to reconnect socialism with its human element, presenting it as something not only affecting, but created by living, breathing, suffering human individuals. At a time when ecological collapse is hurtling towards us, and capitalism offers no solution except more growth and exploitation, How to Philosophise with a Hammer and Sickle shows us the way forward to a socialism grounded in human experience and accessible to all.

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Back in print after two decades, Junglist tells the compelling, comic, stream-of-consciousness story of four young Black men coming of age among the raves and Jungle music scene in London during the 1990s. Layered with poetic verse, prose and humour, this cult classic of underground British fiction documents the rollercoaster ride of a weekend spent raving during Jungle’s cultural takeover in the summer of 1994. Jungle, with its booming basslines and Jamaican patois, burst from the pirate radio stations and mixtapes into cavernous clubs, pulling a generation of Black British ravers with it. Originally written as a way to document street culture as it became a feature of London, charting a time when working-class kids, both Black and white, merged to dance as "one family", Junglist is both a testament to Black British sound system culture and a rawthentic account of inner-city life.

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Blue Light of the Screen is about what it means to be afraid - about immersion, superstition, delusion, and the things that keep us up at night. A creative-critical memoir of the author's obsession with the horror genre, Blue Light of the Screen embeds its criticism of horror within a larger personal story of growing up in a devoutly Catholic family, overcoming suicidal depression, uncovering intergenerational trauma, and encountering real and imagined ghosts.As Cronin writes, she positions herself as a protagonist who is haunted by what she watches and reads, like an antiquarian in an M.R. James ghost story whose sense of reality unravels through her study of arcane texts and cursed archives. In this way, Blue Light of the Screen tells the story of the author's conversion from skepticism to faith in the supernatural.Part memoir, part ghost story, and part critical theory, Blue Light of the Screen is not just a book about horror, but a work of horror itself.

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Some of the most prominent folk singers of the twentieth century, including Woody Guthrie, ‘Sis Cunningham, Pete Seeger, Lee Hays, Burl Ives, etc., were also political activists with various associations with the American Communist Party. As a consequence, the FBI, along with other governmental and right-wing organizations, were monitoring them, keeping meticulous files running many thousands of pages, and making (and carrying out) plans to purge them from the cultural realm. In The Folk Singers and the Bureau, Aaron J Leonard draws on an unprecedented array of declassified documents and never before released files to shed light on the interplay between left-wing folk artists and their relationship with the American Communist Party, and how it put them in the US government’s repressive cross hairs. At a time of increasing state surveillance and repression, The Folk Singers and the Bureau shows how the FBI and other governmental agencies have attempted to shape and repress American culture.

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Former insider turned critic Wendy Liu busts the myths of the tech industry, and offers a galvanising argument for why and how we must reclaim technology's potential for the public good. "Lucid, probing and urgent. Wendy Liu manages to be both optimistic about the emancipatory potential of tech and scathing about the industry that has harnessed it for bleak and self-serving ends." - Naomi Klein, author of On Fire: The Burning Case for a Green New Deal "An inspiring memoir manifesto...Technologists all over the world are realizing that no amount of code can substitute for political engagement. Liu's memoir is a road map for that journey of realization." - Cory Doctorow, author of Radicalized and Little BrotherInnovation. Meritocracy. The possibility of overnight success. What's not to love about Silicon Valley? These days, it's hard to be unambiguously optimistic about the growth-at-all-costs ethos of the tech industry. Public opinion is souring in the wake of revelations about Cambridge Analytica, Theranos, and the workplace conditions of Amazon workers or Uber drivers. It's becoming clear that the tech industry's promised "innovation" is neither sustainable nor always desirable. Abolish Silicon Valley is both a heartfelt personal story about the wasteful inequality of Silicon Valley, and a rallying call to engage in the radical politics needed to upend the status quo. Going beyond the idiosyncrasies of the individual founders and companies that characterise the industry today, Wendy Liu delves into the structural factors of the economy that gave rise to Silicon Valley as we know it. Ultimately, she proposes a more radical way of developing technology, where innovation is conducted for the benefit of society at large, and not just to enrich a select few.

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If there was a bomb hidden somewhere in a major city, and you had the person responsible in your custody, would you torture them to get the information needed to stop the bomb exploding, preventing a devastating terrorist attack and saving thousands of lives? This is the ticking bomb scenario — a thought experiment designed to demonstrate that torture can be justified. In How to Justify Torture, cultural critic Alex Adams examines the ticking bomb scenario in-depth, looking at the ways it is presented in films, novels, and TV shows — from Batman Begins and Dirty Harry to French military thrillers and home invasion narratives. By critiquing its argument step by step, this short, provocative book reminds us that, despite what the ticking bomb scenario will have us believe, torture can never be justified.

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