Search results for ""author alex"

Sun, croissants and fine wine. Nothing can spoil the perfect holiday. Or can it?When thirty-one-year-old Emmy Jamieson arrives at La Cour des Roses, a beautiful guesthouse in the French countryside, she can’t wait to spend two weeks relaxing with boyfriend Nathan. Their relationship needs a little TLC and Emmy is certain this holiday will do the trick. But they’ve barely unpacked before he scarpers with Gloria, the guesthouse owner’s cougar wife.Rupert, the ailing guesthouse owner, is shell-shocked. Feeling somewhat responsible, and rather generous after a bottle (or so) of wine, heartbroken Emmy offers to help. Changing sheets in the gîtes will help keep her mind off her misery.Thrust into the heart of the local community, Emmy suddenly finds herself surrounded by new friends. And with sizzling hot gardener Ryan and the infuriating (if gorgeous) accountant Alain providing welcome distractions, Nathan is fast becoming a distant memory. Fresh coffee and croissants for breakfast, feeding the hens in the warm evening light; Emmy starts to feel quite at home. But it would be madness to walk away from her friends, family, and everything she’s ever worked for, to take a chance on a place she fell for on holiday – wouldn’t it?Fans of Jenny Colgan, Lucy Diamond and Nick Alexander will want to join Emmy for a glass of wine as the sun sets on the terrace at La Cour des Roses.Praise for The Little French Guesthouse:‘Like sunshine on a cloudy day this is a book to warm your heart. I loved it.’ Shellyback Books‘I loved every single page of this book and didn't want the story to end. It had me hooked from start to finish, had me giggling on the bus (rather embarrassing). It is one of those warm, cosy books that needs coffee and croissants.’ The Reading Shed‘Utterly delicious, I loved escaping into this delightful French community … definitely a feel good book that had me with a smile on my face and laughing out loud … You’ve just got to love Rupert ... With the sexy gardener providing a great distraction from Nathan’s desertion, new friends and new possibilities this is a real page turner that I thoroughly enjoye

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In her international bestseller SPQR, Mary Beard told the thousand-year story of ancient Rome, from its slightly shabby Iron Age origins to its reign as the undisputed hegemon of the Mediterranean. Now, drawing on more than thirty years of teaching and writing about Roman history, Beard turns to the emperors who ruled the Roman Empire, beginning with Julius Caesar (assassinated 44 BCE) and taking us through the nearly three centuries—and some thirty emperors—that separate him from the boy-king Alexander Severus (assassinated 235 CE). Yet Emperor of Rome is not your typical chronological account of Roman rulers, one emperor after another: the mad Caligula, the monster Nero, the philosopher Marcus Aurelius. Instead, Beard asks different, often larger and more probing questions: What power did emperors actually have? Was the Roman palace really so bloodstained? What kind of jokes did Augustus tell? And for that matter, what really happened, for example, between the emperor Hadrian and his beloved Antinous? Effortlessly combining the epic with the quotidian, Beard tracks the emperor down at home, at the races, on his travels, even on his way to heaven. Along the way, Beard explores Roman fictions of imperial power, overturning many of the assumptions that we hold as gospel, not the least of them the perception that emperors one and all were orchestrators of extreme brutality and cruelty. Here Beard introduces us to the emperor’s wives and lovers, rivals and slaves, court jesters and soldiers, and the ordinary people who pressed begging letters into his hand—whose chamber pot disputes were adjudicated by Augustus, and whose budgets were approved by Vespasian, himself the son of a tax collector. With its finely nuanced portrayal of sex, class, and politics, Emperor of Rome goes directly to the heart of Roman fantasies (and our own) about what it was to be Roman at its richest, most luxurious, most extreme, most powerful, and most deadly, offering an account of Roman history as it has never been presented before.

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Nolan Baker longs to be "thirty, flirty and thriving" in this charmingly quirky LGBTQIA+ romance that's one part 13 Going on 30 and one part One Last Stop.WHY CAN'T WE SKIP TO THE GOOD PART?Twenty-three-year-old Nolan Baker wants it all by the time he's thirty. Too bad he's single, barely able to cover his own expenses, and still paying his dues at a prominent NYC comedy club. When faced with his perfect sister's wedding, Nolan takes it as a wakeup call. It's time to quit comedy and make good on his practical dreams-most importantly, asking Drew Techler, his best friend, to be his date.But right as Nolan is about to give it all up, he's asked to fill a last-minute spot for a famous comedian. Score! He crushes his set, but stands Drew up, misses his sister's big day, and disappoints his entire family. After major blowouts with everyone he loves, Nolan desperately wishes on a set of gift "magical healing crystals" to skip to the good part of life. When he wakes the next morning, it's seven years later, he's a successful comedian, and he has everything he always thought he wanted. Everything, that is, except his friends and family, none of whom are taking his future self's calls.With nowhere else to turn, Nolan sets out to find the only person he trusts to help. Except Drew is all grown up now, too. He's hot, successful...and hates Nolan's guts. As Nolan works to get back to his younger self-and the life he so carelessly threw away-he'll have to prove he's not the man everyone thinks they know in order to regain Drew's trust, friendship, and maybe, ultimately, his heart.While part of a series, this book stands alone.People Are Raving About Timothy Janovsky:"This book made my queer heart so very full and deeply happy."-Anita Kelly"A cinematic daydream guaranteed to steal your heart."-Julian Winters"Wonderfully upbeat and sweet."-Suzanne Park"Full of hope and heart."-Alexandria Bellefleur"[A] fresh, sweet, and swoony love story that blends coming-of-age comedy with the nuances of exploring sexual identity."-Alison Cochrun

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Honest, timely and completely thrilling' REESE WITHERSPOON 'Furious and relevant... I loved it so much' CLARE MACKINTOSH ***THE INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER*** Don't miss Chandler Baker's utterly addictive new novel. THE HUSBANDS is available to pre-order now _____________'Ms. Sandberg was right about something. We had to lean in. It was the only way to hear the whispers...'Sloane, Ardie, Grace and Rosalita have worked in the same legal office for years. The sudden death of the firm's CEO means their boss, Ames, will likely take over the entire company. Each of the women has a different relationship with Ames, who has always been surrounded by whispers about how he treats women. Those whispers have been ignored, swept under the rug, hidden away by those in charge.But the world has changed, and the women are watching this latest promotion for Ames differently. This time, they've decided enough is enough.Sloane and her colleagues' decision to take a stand sets in motion something catastrophic and unstoppable: lies will be uncovered, secrets will be exposed and not everyone will survive. All their lives - as women, colleagues, mothers, adversaries - will be changed for ever._____________'Add another great book to your beach bag! This story has a workplace murder mystery that happens in today's #MeToo era. It's honest, timely and completely thrilling - I was so surprised to find out who the murderer was!'REESE WITHERSPOON'It's The Firm meets 9 To 5. This is a juicy air-punch of a novel' ALEXANDRA HEMINSLEY, GRAZIA'Slick, smart, fierce, it's Big Little Lies set against attorneys and recast in the light of #MeToo. Relevant, resonant and rage inducing' SARAH VAUGHAN'A barnstorming modern novel'EVENING STANDARD MAGAZINE'Smart, witty and scarily relateable... this is going to get everyone talking' FABULOUS MAGAZINE'Witty and timely will make you cheer for sisterhood'LIV CONSTANTINE'A timely and apposite #MeToo novel, but also a clever thriller, which highlights the many ways in which women are discriminated against in the workplace' SARA MANNING RED MAGAZINE'A primal roar of a novel. A fantastic read'RILEY SAGER'A thriller for the #metoo era'LUCY MANGAN, STYLIST

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Queen of French Noir, Johana Gustawsson returns with a spell-binding, dazzlingly dark gothic thriller that swings from Belle Époque France to 21st-century Quebec, with an extraordinary mystery at its heart … FIRST in a bewitching new series **Shortlisted for the CWA Crime in Translation Dagger** `A wonderfully dark, intricately woven historical thriller spanning three generations … it will have you hooked from the very first page' B A Paris `A gripping story of murder and black magic …Gustawsson slowly weaves together three seemingly disparate strands of her narrative with a skill that shows why she is such an admired crime writer in her native France´ The Times BOOK OF THE MONTH `Intriguingly dark and vivid, and so cleverly told through three different time frames´ Essie Fox ________________ Three women Three eras One extraordinary mystery…1899, Belle Époque Paris. Lucienne’s two daughters are believed dead when her mansion burns to the ground, but she is certain that her girls are still alive and embarks on a journey into the depths of the spiritualist community to find them. 1949, Post-War Québec. Teenager Lina’s father has died in the French Resistance, and as she struggles to fit in at school, her mother introduces her to an elderly woman at the asylum where she works, changing Lina’s life in the darkest way imaginable. 2002, Quebec. A former schoolteacher is accused of brutally stabbing her husband – a famous university professor – to death. Detective Maxine Grant, who has recently lost her own husband and is parenting a teenager and a new baby single-handedly, takes on the investigation. Under enormous personal pressure, Maxine makes a series of macabre discoveries that link directly to historical cases involving black magic and murder, secret societies and spiritism … and women at breaking point, who will stop at nothing to protect the ones they love… _________________ `This novel is a whirlpool that draws you irresistibly into levels of darkness so much deeper than you can possibly be ready for´ Ambrose Parry `I found myself racing through the book, always wanting one more page, one more chapter. A wonderfully creepy, unsettling read, with a superb twist in its tail´ James Oswald `Gustawsson’s writing is so vivid, it’s electrifying. Utterly compelling´ Peter James `I was hooked from the first page – a stunning and beautifully written gothic thriller full of atmosphere, intrigue and delight´ Alexandra Benedict `Brilliant … the last chapters knocked me sideways, and it’s a long time since that’s happened´ Lisa Hall `A dark world of elegance and grotesque … mesmeric´ Matt Wesolowski `Harrowing, compelling, haunting, vivid, twisty and shocking! ´ Noelle Holten `A powerful page-turner´ Livres Hebdo ***NUMBER ONE BESTSELLER IN FRANCE*** FOR FANS OF Laura Purcell, Stacey Halls, Bridget Collins, Anna Mazzola, Essie Fox, Ambrose Parry and Laura Shepherd-Robinson Praise for Johana Gustawsson `A satisfying, full-fat mystery´ The Times `Assured telling of a complex story´ Sunday Times `A real page-turner, I loved it´ Martina Cole `A bold and intelligent read´ Guardian `Utterly compelling´ Woman’s Own `Cleverly plotted, simply excellent´ Ragnar Jónasson `A must-read´ Daily Express `Gritty, bone-chilling, and harrowing – it’s not for the faint of heart, and not to be missed´ Crime by the Book `A relentless heart-stopping masterpiece´ New York Journal of Book

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"We're becoming like Europe." This expression captures many Americans' sense that something has changed in American economic life since the Great Recession's onset in 2008: that an economy once characterized by commitments to economic liberty, rule of law, limited government, and personal responsibility has drifted in a distinctly "European" direction. Americans see, across the Atlantic, European economies faltering under enormous debt; overburdened welfare states; governments controlling close to fifty percent of the economy; high taxation; heavily regulated labor markets; aging populations; and large numbers of public-sector workers. They also see a European political class seemingly unable--and, in some cases, unwilling--to implement economic reform, and seemingly more concerned with preserving its own privileges. Looking at their own society, Americans are increasingly asking themselves: "Is this our future?" In Becoming Europe, Samuel Gregg examines economic culture--the values and institutions that inform our economic priorities--to explain how European economic life has drifted in the direction of what Alexis de Tocqueville called "soft despotism," and the ways in which similar trends are manifesting themselves in the United States. America, Gregg argues, is not yet Europe; the good news is that economic decline need not be its future. The path to recovery lies in the distinctiveness of American economic culture. Yet there are ominous signs that some of the cultural foundations of America's historically unparalleled economic success are being corroded in ways that are not easily reversible--and the European experience should serve as the proverbial canary in the coal mine.

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In freewheeling 1920s Paris, Kiki de Montparnasse captivated as a nightclub performer, sold out gallery showings of her paintings, starred in Surrealist films, and shared drinks and ideas with the likes of Jean Cocteau and Marcel Duchamp. Her best-selling memoir—featuring an introduction by Ernest Hemingway—made front-page news in France and was immediately banned in America. All before she turned thirty. Kiki was once the symbol of bohemian Paris. But if she is remembered today, it is only for posing for several now-celebrated male artists, including Amedeo Modigliani and Alexander Calder, and especially photographer Man Ray. Why has Man Ray’s legacy endured while Kiki has become a footnote? Kiki and Man Ray met in 1921 during a chance encounter at a café. What followed was an explosive decade-long connection, both professional and romantic, during which the couple grew and experimented as artists, competed for fame, and created many of the shocking images that cemented Man Ray’s reputation as one of the great artists of the modern era. The works they made together, including the Surrealist icons Le Violon d’Ingres and Noire et blanche, now set records at auction. Charting their volatile relationship, award-winning historian Mark Braude illuminates for the first time Kiki’s seminal influence not only on Man Ray’s art, but on the culture of 1920s Paris and beyond. As provocative and magnetically irresistible as Kiki herself, Kiki Man Ray is the story of an exceptional life that will challenge ideas about artists and muses—and the lines separating the two.

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The thirty-nine poems of anima bring a distinctive, archetypal potency to the closing stages of Mario Petrucci's larger i tulips project, the 1111-strong sequence in which this sub-sequence crucially sits.Arising organically from prior modernist experiment, Petrucci's style nevertheless remains utterly contemporary. His mastery of the shape and sound of each poem makes for an intense and all-consuming experience, refocusing an array of influences through an acute lyrical sensibility. By yielding so completely to the power of linguistic transformation, these searing, necessary poems capture both the crisis and the beauty of the heart's innermost voyage."Mario Petrucci's anima is a revelation of the underside of a human heart submitting to the contradictions of love, doubt and mortality. This remarkable work reconfigures the soul as well as the mind, through language that shapes the ineffable into a visceral, triumphant poetry." Alexandra Burack, American poet and educator"The tensile delicacy of Petrucci's lines springs back with a very English baroque, Miltonic surprise: sense-ambush occurs in the next line, skewering what's gone before. Between these line-breaks rests a declamatory silence tested to snapping. This is major work to cast shadows." Álvaro de Campos [tr. Simon Jenner]"With a brio and tenderness all of their own, these new lyric poems are modernist marvels, word sculptures pared to their very essence… Petrucci's tulips promise to grow into a truly ambitious landmark body of work."Poetry Book Society Bulletin"Reminiscent of ee cummings at his best... vivid, generous and life-affirming." EnvoiMario Petrucci aspires to "Poetry on a geological scale" (Verse), whether exploring the tragedies of Chernobyl (Heavy Water, 2004) or immersing himself in heart-rending invention (i tulips, 2010).

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Spurgeon & the Psalms will guide you into reading and meditating on God's Word alongside profound excerpts from “the prince of preachers.Spurgeon & the Psalms will guide you into reading and meditating on God's Word with the insight of “the prince of preachers.” This devotional psalter features a brief extract from Charles Spurgeon's beloved The Treasury of David leading into each of the 150 chapters of Psalms.In this edition, Spurgeon's insights are paired with the trusted New King James Version. The NKJV balances the literary beauty and familiarity of the King James tradition with an extraordinary commitment to preserving the grammar and structure of the underlying biblical languages. The result is a Bible translation that is both beautiful and uncompromising—perfect for serious study, devotional use, and reading aloud.Features include: Devotional thoughts from renowned preacher Charles Spurgeon drawn from The Treasury of David provide new insights from the Psalms Presentation page allows you to personalize this special gift by recording a memory or note An exquisite edition of Psalms in the trusted NKJV translation Each psalm is set in a poetic-style single column on a right-hand page with room to journal your own meditations 1 satin ribbon makes it easy navigate and keep track of where you were reading Gilded page edges add a beautiful shine around the border of the paper Clear and readable 9.5 Point NKJV Comfort Print About the Maclaren Series: Named for noted Victorian-era preacher Alexander Maclaren, this series of elegant Bibles features regal blue highlights and verse numbers, and clear, line-matched text.

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Few areas on earth have more history, ancient and present, per inch of its territory than the Gaza Strip. In antiquity Gaza was a horn of plenty, the hub of fabulous networks of desert and maritime trade. Egyptian, Persian and Assyrian emperors fought over it, and so did Alexander the Great, Richard the Lionheart, Saladdin and Napoleon. More recently Gaza's fame has been of quite a different kind -- a place of crisis, anguish and misery. Since 170,000 Palestinian refugees arrived there in 1948, and the Strip became one more piece in the intractable Middle Eastern puzzle, it has gone through a succession of bloody upheavals: passing from Egyptian to Israeli to PLO to Hamas rule,- all the while remaining a volatile geopolitical flashpoint. Apart from separating between Israel and the refugees in the south-western corner of Palestine, the Strip's borders coincide with other momentous fault-lines: between Islamism and secularism, tradition and modernity, East and West -- and between the comfortable first and the wretched third world. Nathan Shachar is a veteran correspondent who has covered Gazan affairs for more than three decades. He has personally witnessed much of the turmoil which has made the Gaza Strip a permanent item of news bulletins for sixty years. This book relates the Gaza Strip's rich and tumultuous history in a highly readable text, which includes time-lines for all major events and personalities (from the Egyptian Pharaoh Thutmose III to Hamas' leader Ismai'l Haniye). It brings perspective to the recent Israeli invasion of the Strip and its political and social aftermath.

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'Jewellery in all its guises has been a signifier of glamour in the pages of Vogue since the magazine's inception in 1916...the jewellery always commands the image - infinitely powerful and desirable, inventive and extraordinary.' - Alexandra Shulman'This book sparkles with glamour and flamboyance.' - Daily Mail'From simple strings of gleaming pearls to showstopping tiaras, this book is perfect for anyone with a true love of jewels.' - Condé Nast TravellerIllustrated with fabulous images from Vogue's archive, Vogue: The Jewellery is the ultimate book for fashion and jewellery lovers.From couture to costume jewellery, the brilliant pieces featured on the pages of British Vogue for more than a century have encapsulated the fashion zeitgeist of each new age for which they were created. Adorning princesses and rock chicks alike, the jewels shown in Vogue: The Jewellery reveal a dazzling array of styles and moods - from fairytale romance to Jazz-age glamour, sculptural modernism to timeless elegance. On every page sumptuous jewellery is the star of the show, nourishing dreams in us all.Carol Woolton has curated a collection of more than 300 fabulous images within five thematic chapters: Show-stoppers, Rock Chick, Minimalist, Exotic and Classic. From diamond-encrusted tiaras and intricate jet chokers to sculptural silver cuffs and simple strings of pearls, the book provides an evocative celebration of a century of jewellery, while showcasing British Vogue's best photographers including Norman Parkinson, David Bailey, Arthur Elgort, Corinne Day, Cecil Beaton and Tim Walker.Now available in a new format with a luxurious real cloth cover, at a more pocket-friendly price of £30, this is essential reading for fashionistas everywhere.

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Spurgeon & the Psalms will guide you into reading and meditating on God's Word alongside profound excerpts from “the prince of preachers.Spurgeon & the Psalms will guide you into reading and meditating on God's Word with the insight of “the prince of preachers.” This devotional psalter features a brief extract from Charles Spurgeon's beloved The Treasury of David leading into each of the 150 chapters of Psalms.In this edition, Spurgeon's insights are paired with the trusted New King James Version. The NKJV balances the literary beauty and familiarity of the King James tradition with an extraordinary commitment to preserving the grammar and structure of the underlying biblical languages. The result is a Bible translation that is both beautiful and uncompromising—perfect for serious study, devotional use, and reading aloud.Features include: Devotional thoughts from renowned preacher Charles Spurgeon drawn from The Treasury of David provide new insights from the Psalms Presentation page allows you to personalize this special gift by recording a memory or note An exquisite edition of Psalms in the trusted NKJV translation Each psalm is set in a poetic-style single column on a right-hand page with room to journal your own meditations 1 satin ribbon makes it easy navigate and keep track of where you were reading Gilded page edges add a beautiful shine around the border of the paper Clear and readable 9.5 Point NKJV Comfort Print About the Maclaren Series: Named for noted Victorian-era preacher Alexander Maclaren, this series of elegant Bibles features regal blue highlights and verse numbers, and clear, line-matched text.

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A masterful new account of old regime France by one of the world's most prominent political philosophersFrance before 1789 traces the historical origins of France's National Constituent Assembly of 1789, providing a vivid portrait of the ancien régime and its complex social system in the decades before the French Revolution. Jon Elster writes in the spirit of Alexis de Tocqueville, who described this tumultuous era with an eye toward individual and group psychology and the functioning of institutions. Whereas Tocqueville saw the old regime as a breeding ground for revolution, Elster, more specifically, identifies the rural and urban conflicts that fueled the constitution-making process from 1789 to 1791. He presents a new approach to history writing, one that supplements the historian's craft with the tools and insights of modern social science. Elster draws on important French and Anglo-American scholarship as well as a treasure trove of historical evidence from the period, such as the Memoirs of Saint-Simon, the letters of Madame de Sévigné, the journals of the lawyer Barbier and the bookseller Hardy, the Remonstrances of Malesherbes, and La Bruyère's maxims.Masterfully written and unparalleled in scope, France before 1789 is the first volume of a trilogy that promises to transform our understanding of constitution making in the eighteenth century. Volume 2 will look at revolutionary America in the years leading up to the Constitutional Convention of 1787 while the third volume will examine all facets of the French and American assemblies, from how they elected their delegates and organized their proceedings to how they addressed issues of separation of powers and representation.

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A masterful new account of old regime France by one of the world's most prominent political philosophersFrance before 1789 traces the historical origins of France's National Constituent Assembly of 1789, providing a vivid portrait of the ancien régime and its complex social system in the decades before the French Revolution. Jon Elster writes in the spirit of Alexis de Tocqueville, who described this tumultuous era with an eye toward individual and group psychology and the functioning of institutions. Whereas Tocqueville saw the old regime as a breeding ground for revolution, Elster, more specifically, identifies the rural and urban conflicts that fueled the constitution-making process from 1789 to 1791. He presents a new approach to history writing, one that supplements the historian's craft with the tools and insights of modern social science. Elster draws on important French and Anglo-American scholarship as well as a treasure trove of historical evidence from the period, such as the Memoirs of Saint-Simon, the letters of Madame de Sévigné, the journals of the lawyer Barbier and the bookseller Hardy, the Remonstrances of Malesherbes, and La Bruyère's maxims.Masterfully written and unparalleled in scope, France before 1789 is the first volume of a trilogy that promises to transform our understanding of constitution making in the eighteenth century. Volume 2 will look at revolutionary America in the years leading up to the Constitutional Convention of 1787 while the third volume will examine all facets of the French and American assemblies, from how they elected their delegates and organized their proceedings to how they addressed issues of separation of powers and representation.

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THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER ‘Bella’s brilliant love letter to running turns into an extraordinarily brave and frank account of her battle with anxiety. A compassionate and important book’ Joe Lycett ‘Perfect for resetting a glum January mindset’ Alexandra Heminsley ‘My kind of role model’ Ben Fogle Divorced and struggling with deep-rooted mental health problems, Bella Mackie ended her twenties in tears. She could barely find the strength to get off the sofa, let alone piece her life back together. Until one day she did something she had never done of her own free will – she pulled on a pair of trainers and went for a run. That first attempt didn’t last very long. But to her surprise, she was back out there the next day. And the day after that. She began to set herself achievable goals – to run 5k in under 30 minutes, to walk to work every day for a week, to attempt 10 push-ups in a row. Before she knew it, her mood was lifting for the first time in years. In Jog On, Bella explains with hilarious and unfiltered honesty how she used running to battle crippling anxiety and depression, without having to sacrifice her main loves: booze, cigarettes and ice cream. With the help of a supporting cast of doctors, psychologists, sportspeople and friends, she shares a wealth of inspirational stories, research and tips that show how exercise often can be the best medicine. This funny, moving and motivational book will encourage you to say ‘jog on’ to your problems and get your life back on track – no matter how small those first steps may be.

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Shock, tears, anger, loss - X Factor 2012 had it all and much, much more! Fans all over the country were divided like never before, as they fought to defend their favorite acts with every tool at their disposal. Twitter, Facebook, blogs and phone lines were all clogged with opposing opinions from everyone from teens to grandmothers; politicians to well-known celebs. With name changes, shock exits and a few phoenix-like rises from the flames of elimination, our hearts were tugged in every way imaginable. And at the center of the show was the fiercest battle of all - the battle of the boy bands. Who could have known that this year would see one of the closest and tensest X Factor wars in history. Not since Boyzone took on Take That in the nineties had such a fierce battle been fought. The prize? A rare recording contract, yes, but most importantly the chance to follow in the footsteps of Alexandra Burke, JLS, One Direction and Little Mix - and become international stars. With so much at stake, each band ad to prove their worth over the other - in spite of their blossoming friendships. And when the battle was won, would fame and fortune come to either group? The ninth series of the X Factor began airing on ITV on August 18th, 2012. It was then that the world met Union J and District 3 - although neither band were called by those names when they first auditioned. It would be the start f some very big life changes for Josh, JJ, Jaymi, George, Greg, Dan and Mickey.

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‘Haunting’ Sara Sheridan ‘Intriguing, atmospheric, thought-provoking’ Alexandra Bell ‘Beautifully crafted, thrilling and atmospheric’ Rebecca Netley In the midst of the woods stands a house called Lichen Hall. This place is shrouded in folklore – old stories of ghosts, of witches, of a child who is not quite a child. Now the woods are creeping closer, and something has been unleashed. Pearl Gorham arrives in 1965, one of a string of young women sent to Lichen Hall to give birth. And she soon suspects the proprietors are hiding something. Then she meets the mysterious mother and young boy who live in the grounds – and together they begin to unpick the secrets of this place. As the truth comes to the surface and the darkness moves in, Pearl must rethink everything she knew – and risk what she holds most dear. Praise for The Ghost Woods . . . ‘Cooke has mixed the darkness of reality with a magical realism that will have you gripped’ Woman & Home ‘This chilling gothic tale is the perfect choice for a book club . . . atmospheric’ Prima ‘Original and compelling, The Ghost Woods is a beautifully written, chilling tale that will stay with the reader long after the book is finished’ Elizabeth Lee ‘[C.J. Cooke is] a master of the feminist gothic!’ Katherine May ’The Ghost Woods rattles along, with a twisty plot that defies expectations right from the start . . . highly enjoyable’ Sally Hinchcliffe ‘An eerie gothic thriller’ Samantha Downing ‘Deliciously unsettling, strangely believable’ Carly Reagon ‘With a great plot, this suspenseful and compelling story touches on the difficult history of women in mid-20th-century Scotland’ Candis

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"Mr. Dahlstrom...has written a superb history of the tractor and this long-forgotten period of capitalism in U.S. agriculture. We now know the whole story of when farming, business and the free-market economy diverged, divided and conquered." —Wall Street JournalDiscover the untold story of the “tractor wars,” the twenty-year period that introduced power farming—the most fundamental change in world agriculture in hundreds of years.Before John Deere, Ford, and International Harvester became icons of American business, they were competitors in a forgotten battle for the farm. From 1908-1928, against the backdrop of a world war and economic depression, these brands were engaged in a race to introduce the tractor and revolutionize farming. By the turn of the twentieth century, four million people had left rural America and moved to cities, leaving the nation’s farms shorthanded for the work of plowing, planting, cultivating, harvesting, and threshing. That’s why the introduction of the tractor is an innovation story as essential as man’s landing on the moon or the advent of the internet—after all, with the tractor, a shrinking farm population could still feed a growing world. But getting the tractor from the boardroom to the drafting table, then from factory and the farm, was a technological and competitive battle that until now, has never been fully told. A researcher, historian, and writer, Neil Dahlstrom has spent decades in the corporate archives at John Deere. In Tractor Wars, Dahlstrom offers an insider’s view of a story that entwines a myriad of brands and characters, stakes and plots: the Reverend Daniel Hartsough, a pastor turned tractor designer; Alexander Legge, the eventual president of International Harvester, a former cowboy who took on Henry Ford; William Butterworth and the oft-at-odds leadership team at John Deere that partnered with the enigmatic Ford but planned for his ultimate failure. With all the bitterness and drama of the race between Ford, Dodge, and General Motors, Tractor Wars is the untold story of industry stalwarts and disruptors, inventors, and administrators racing to invent modern agriculture—a power farming revolution that would usher in a whole new world.

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This NKJV Large Print Thinline Bible is inviting to pick up and hard to put down. Unique to this edition, the words of Christ are highlighted in a restful blue ink that’s easy to read and colorblind-friendly.The slim design of the NKJV Large Print Thinline Reference Bible means you can bring it along, wherever your day takes you. This large print edition features Thomas Nelson’s NKJV Comfort Print®, designed to provide a smooth reading experience of the accurate and beautiful New King James Version. And with features including extensive cross-references, concordance, and full-color maps, you’ll still have the tools to get more out of God’s Word. Features include: Presentation page to personalize this special gift by recording a memory or a note Words of Christ in blue quickly identify verses spoken by Jesus Double column provides a nice readable flow of the text End-of-page cross-references and translator notes allow you to find related passages quickly and easily Concordance for finding a word’s occurrences throughout the Bible Full-color maps show a visual representation of Israel and other biblical locations for better context Durable Smyth-sewn binding lies flat in your hand or on your desk Two satin ribbon markers for you to easily navigate and keep track of where you are reading Elegant, gilded page-edge design Clear and readable 10-point NKJV Comfort Print About the Maclaren Series: Named for noted Victorian-era preacher Alexander Maclaren, this series of elegant Bibles features regal blue highlights and verse numbers and clear, line-matched text.Trusted by millions of believers around the world, the NKJV remains a bestselling modern “word-for-word” translation. It balances the literary beauty and familiarity of the King James tradition with an extraordinary commitment to preserving the grammar and structure of the underlying biblical languages. And while the translator’s relied on the traditional Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic text used by the translators of the 1611 KJV, the comprehensive translator notes offer important insights about the latest developments in biblical manuscript studies. The result is a Bible translation that is both beautiful and uncompromising—perfect for serious study, devotional use, and reading aloud.

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This NKJV Large Print Thinline Bible is inviting to pick up and hard to put down. Unique to this edition, the words of Christ are highlighted in a restful blue ink that’s easy to read and colorblind-friendly.The slim design of the NKJV Large Print Thinline Reference Bible means you can bring it along, wherever your day takes you. This large print edition features Thomas Nelson’s NKJV Comfort Print®, designed to provide a smooth reading experience of the accurate and beautiful New King James Version. And with features including extensive cross-references, concordance, and full-color maps, you’ll still have the tools to get more out of God’s Word. Features include: Presentation page to personalize this special gift by recording a memory or a note Words of Christ in blue quickly identify verses spoken by Jesus Double column provides a nice readable flow of the text End-of-page cross-references and translator notes allow you to find related passages quickly and easily Concordance for finding a word’s occurrences throughout the Bible Full-color maps show a visual representation of Israel and other biblical locations for better context Durable Smyth-sewn binding lies flat in your hand or on your desk Two satin ribbon markers for you to easily navigate and keep track of where you are reading Elegant, gilded page-edge design Clear and readable 10-point NKJV Comfort Print About the Maclaren Series: Named for noted Victorian-era preacher Alexander Maclaren, this series of elegant Bibles features regal blue highlights and verse numbers and clear, line-matched text.Trusted by millions of believers around the world, the NKJV remains a bestselling modern “word-for-word” translation. It balances the literary beauty and familiarity of the King James tradition with an extraordinary commitment to preserving the grammar and structure of the underlying biblical languages. And while the translator’s relied on the traditional Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic text used by the translators of the 1611 KJV, the comprehensive translator notes offer important insights about the latest developments in biblical manuscript studies. The result is a Bible translation that is both beautiful and uncompromising—perfect for serious study, devotional use, and reading aloud.

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THE UPLIFTING AND HEARTWARMING LOVE LETTER TO FAMILY AND THE GREAT OUTDOORS'Cox is a natural storyteller... she brings that authentic voice to bear in her memoir. The tone is so intimate, chatty and friendly, so you feel as though she could be sitting next to you' Hannah Beckerman, Daily Express'endearing, engaging and very funny' Mirror'Coxy's memoir about growing up on a farm is as funny as you'd expect, genuinely touching and has some excellent 80s and 90s details. Her love of animals is infectious' Alexandra Heminsley, Grazia'The book is like a big warm hug, full of local characters and misadventures' Sophie Heawood, Observer'Made me laugh out loud...I loved it!' Lynda La Plante'Glorious springtime, haystacks and a herd of cows can all be found in this' Sunday Times Bestseller 'Warm and witty' - ExpressA funny and heart-warming love letter to childhood, family and growing up.Till the Cows Come Home is DJ and TV presenter Sara Cox's wonderfully written, funny coming of age memoir of growing up in 1980s Lancashire. The youngest of five siblings, Sara grew up on her father's cattle farm surrounded by dogs, cows, horses, fields and lots of 'cack'. The lanky kid sister - half girl, half forehead - a nuisance to the older kids, the farm was her very own dangerous adventure playground, 'a Bolton version of Narnia'. Her writing conjures up a time of wagon rides and haymaking and agricultural shows, alongside chain smoking pensioners, cabaret nights at the Conservative club and benign parenting. Sara's love of family, of the animals and the people around them shines through on every page. Unforgettable characters are lovingly and expertly drawn bringing to life a time and place. Sara later divided her childhood days between the beloved farm and the pub she lived above with her mother, these early experiences of freedom and adventure came to be the perfect training ground for later life.This funny, big-hearted and often moving telling of Sara Cox's semi rural upbringing is not what you'd expect from the original ladette, and one of radio's most enduring and well loved presenters.

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'Satisfying and entertaining.' - RT Book Reviews'Entertaining.... Holt has a zany humor that will appeal to fans of Terry Pratchett and Christopher Moore.' - Library JournalA HAPPY WORKFORCE, IT IS SAID, IS A PRODUCTIVE WORKFORCE.Try telling that to an army of belligerent goblins. Or the Big Bad Wolf. Or a professional dragon slayer. Who is looking after their well-being? Who gives a damn about their intolerable working conditions, lack of adequate health insurance, and terrible coffee in the canteen?Thankfully, with access to an astonishingly diverse workforce and limitless natural resources, maximizing revenue and improving operating profit has never really been an issue for the one they call 'the Wizard.' Until now.Because now a perfectly good business model-based on sound fiscal planning, entrepreneurial flair, and only one or two of the infinite parallel worlds that make up our universe-is about to be disrupted by a young man not entirely aware of what's going on.There's also a slight risk that the fabric of reality will be torn to shreds. You really do have to be awfully careful with these things.A story of overlords, underlings and inhuman resources, The Outsorcerer's Apprentice isthe hilarious new novel from comic fantasist Tom Holt.Books by Tom Holt: Walled Orchard Series Goatsong The Walled Orchard J.W. Wells & Co. Series The Portable Door In Your Dreams Earth, Air, Fire and Custard You Don't Have to Be Evil to Work Here, But It Helps The Better Mousetrap May Contain Traces of Magic Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Sausages YouSpace Series Doughnut When It's A Jar The Outsorcerer's Apprentice The Good, the Bad and the Smug Novels Expecting Someone Taller Who's Afraid of Beowulf Flying Dutch Ye Gods! Overtime Here Comes the Sun Grailblazers Faust Among Equals Odds and Gods Djinn Rummy My Hero Paint your Dragon Open Sesame Wish you Were Here Alexander at World's End Only Human Snow White and the Seven Samurai Olympiad Valhalla Nothing But Blue Skies Falling SidewaysLittle PeopleSong for NeroMeadowlandBarkingBlonde BombshellThe Management Style of the Supreme BeingsAn Orc on the Wild Side

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As the 2000 decision by the Supreme Court to effectively deliver the presidency to George W. Bush recedes in time, its real meaning comes into focus. If the initial critique of the Court was that it had altered the rules of democracy after the fact, the perspective of distance permits us to see that the rules were, in some sense, not altered at all. Here was a "landmark" decision that, according to its own logic, was applicable only once and that therefore neither relied on past precedent nor lay the foundation for future interpretations. This logic, according to scholar Jack Jackson, not only marks a stark break from the traditional terrain of U.S. constitutional law but exemplifies an era of triumphant radicalism and illiberalism on the American Right. In Law Without Future, Jackson demonstrates how this philosophy has manifested itself across political life in the twenty-first century and locates its origins in overlooked currents of post-WWII political thought. These developments have undermined the very idea of constitutional government, and the resulting crisis, Jackson argues, has led to the decline of traditional conservatism on the Right and to the embrace on the Left of a studiously legal, apolitical understanding of constitutionalism (with ironically reactionary implications). Jackson examines Bush v. Gore, the post-9/11 "torture memos," the 2005 Terri Schiavo controversy, the Republican Senate's norm-obliterating refusal to vote on President Obama's Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland, and the ascendancy of Donald Trump in developing his claims. Engaging with a wide array of canonical and contemporary political thinkers—including St. Augustine, Alexis de Tocqueville, Karl Marx, Martin Luther King Jr., Hannah Arendt, Wendy Brown, Ronald Dworkin, and Hanna Pitkin—Law Without Future offers a provocative, sobering analysis of how these events have altered U.S. political life in the twenty-first century in profound ways—and seeks to think beyond the impasse they have created.

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In 1798, a decade after the Founding Fathers created a nation based on the principles of liberty and equality, Charles Brockden Brown, then an unknown Philadelphia writer, invented the American Gothic novel. His first book, Wieland, is the story of a religious fanatic haunted by demonic voices instructing him to murder his wife and children; in subsequent works, a young country bumpkin confronts the depravities of city existence, an impecunious daughter becomes the erotic obsession of an insane egomaniacal rationalist, and a sleepwalker awakes to—and participates in—the extremes of frontier savagery. How could a glorious age of American history also give rise to the darkest of literary traditions, one that would inspire Edgar Allan Poe, Stephen King, and many other best-selling American writers? In Charles Brockden Brown's Revolution and the Birth of American Gothic, Peter Kafer carefully unravels the mystery of what compelled this pious Philadelphia Quaker to become fascinated with a peculiar form of dark European imagery and transform it into something wholly American. In the new nation, Kafer notes, there were no ancient monasteries, no haunted castles, no hierarchies of nobility to draw upon. Taking inspiration instead from his pacifist family's persecution at the hands of the American Revolutionaries, including the likes of Alexander Hamilton and John Adams, as well as from perverse expressions of European-American Protestantism and the suppressed histories of his native Pennsylvania, Brockden Brown wrote of the horrors that lurked below the triumphant veneer of the young American republic. In doing so, he became the literary conscience of his generation. Written with a witty and acutely critical eye, Charles Brockden Brown's Revolution and the Birth of American Gothic illuminates the social and political influences on the nation's first professional novelist and reveals the surprising origins of one of American literature's most popular and enduring genres.

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What to Expect When Black, Pregnant, and Expecting“This book stands as the modern-day guide to birthing while Black.” ―Angelina Ruffin-Alexander, certified nurse midwife2021 International Book Awards finalist in Health: Women’s Health#1 New Release in Pregnancy & Childbirth and Minority Demographic Studies, Medical Ethics, and Women's Health NursingWritten with lighthearted humor and cultural context, Oh Sis, You’re Pregnant! discusses the stages of pregnancy, labor, and motherhood as they pertain to pregnant Black women today.Tailored to today’s pregnant Black woman. In the age of social media, how do pregnant women communicate their big announcement? What are the best protective hairstyles for labor? Most importantly, how many pregnancy guides focus on issues like Black maternal birth rates and what it really looks like to be Black, pregnant, and single today? Written for the modern pregnant Black woman, Oh Sis, You’re Pregnant! is the essential what to expect when you're expecting guide to understanding pregnancy from a millennial Black mom’s point of view.Interviews, stories, and advice for pregnant women. Written by Black Moms Blog founder, the book tackles hard topics in a way that truly resonate with modern Black moms. With stories from her experiences through pregnancy, labor, and motherhood, and lessons learned as a mother at twenty-two, Oh Sis, You’re Pregnant! focuses on the common knowledge Black pregnant mothers should consider when having their first baby. It also shares topics beneficial to pregnant Black women on their second, third, or fourth born.Find answers to questions: Do I financially plan for my birth? Can I maintain my relationship and friendships during motherhood? Will I self-advocate for my rights in a world that already views me as less than? If you enjoyed books like Medical Apartheid, 50 Things To Do Before You Deliver, The Girlfriends' Guide to Pregnancy, or Birthing Justice, then you’ll love Oh Sis, You’re Pregnant!

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An artist’s record of the homes of 89 leading creatives from interior designers to ceramicists, antiques dealers, florists and chefs. SJ Axelby brings new life to interior portraiture, capturing in paint the favourite rooms of 89 leading creatives from interior designers to ceramicists and antiques dealers (and florists and chefs). A sumptuously illustrated record of a home or special project, each interior portrait is accompanied by a charming and quirky interview with the owner, in which we discover invaluable nuggets of design advice, cocktail choice, life hacks and so much more – all illustrated in watercolour by SJ. There is a long tradition of painting rooms to provide a record of grand homes, giving a glimpse into the life and times of previous generations. Today there is a resurgence of interest in our living spaces, but there is no book in the tradition of illustrated room portraiture to inspire you. SJ Axelby's Interior Portraits will take you into multiple unique and colourful homes, seen through the artist’s eye. Creating an authentic and characterful scheme is much like the composition of a painting: the shape, form, contrast, colour, pattern and texture all need to work in harmony. This pictorial guide includes not only Sarah-Jane’s original watercolours but scrapbook pages annotated with design wisdom from each room’s owners, which will enthuse and empower the reader to try new ideas in their own homes. It’s a creative who’s who of the international design world featuring mouth-watering compositions bursting with colour and pattern and displaying the true joy of a home that reflects its owner’s personality. With a foreword by Kit Kemp of Firmdale Hotels. Just a few of the creatives featured:Alexandra TolstoyAlice Stori LiechtensteinAnna SpiroAshley HicksBen Pentreath & Charlie McCormickCath Kidston PadghamErica DaviesFlora SoamesHenry HollandKit KempLucinda ChambersLulu LytleLuke Edward Hall & Duncan CampbellMatilda GoadPenny MorrisonRobert KimeSkye McAlpineSophie Conran

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THE GOOD AUDITION GUIDES: Helping you select and perform the audition piece that is best suited to your performing skills As an actor at any level – whether you are doing theatre studies at school, taking part in youth theatre, preparing for drama-school showcases, or attending professional acting workshops – you will often be required to prepare a duologue with a fellow performer. Your success is often based on locating and selecting a fresh, dynamic scene suited to your specific performing skills, as well as your interplay as a duo. Which is where this book comes in. This collection features twenty-five fantastic duologues for two women, almost all written since the year 2000 by some of our most exciting dramatic voices, offering a wide variety of character types and styles of writing. Playwrights featured include Alexi Kaye Campbell, Helen Edmundson, Vivienne Franzmann, Sam Holcroft, Anna Jordan, Chloë Moss, Rona Munro, Lynn Nottage, Evan Placey and Jessica Swale, and the plays themselves were premiered at the very best theatres across the UK including the National Theatre, Manchester Royal Exchange, Shakespeare's Globe, and the Almeida, Bush, Soho, Royal Court and Tricycle Theatres. Drawing on her experience as an actor, director and teacher at several leading drama schools, Trilby James equips each duologue with a thorough introduction including the vital information you need to place the piece in context (the who, what, when, where and why) and suggestions about how to perform the scene to its maximum effect (including the characters' objectives). The collection also features an introduction on the whole process of selecting and preparing a duologue, and how to present it to the greatest effect. The result is the most comprehensive and useful contemporary duologue book of its kind now available. 'Sound practical advice... a source of inspiration for teachers and students alike' Teaching Drama Magazine on The Good Audition Guides

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In this final installment in the acclaimed Black Girls Must Die Exhausted trilogy, Tabitha is juggling work, relationships, and a newborn baby—but will she find the happy ending she’s always wanted?After a whirlwind year, Tabitha Walker’s carefully organized plan to achieve the life she wanted—perfect job, dream husband, and stylish home—has gone off the rails. Her checklist now consists of diapers changed (infinite), showers taken (zero), tears cried (buckets), and hours of sleep (what’s that?).Don't get her wrong, Tabby loves her new bundle of joy and motherhood is perhaps the only thing that's consistent for her these days. When the news station announces that they will be hiring outside competitors for the new anchor position, Tabby throws herself into her work. But it’s not just maintaining her position as the station’s weekend anchor that has her worried. All of her relationships seem to be shifting out of their regular orbits. Best friend Alexis can’t manage to strike the right balance in her “refurbished” marriage with Rob, and Laila’s gone from being a consistent ride-or-die to a newly minted entrepreneur trying to raise capital for her growing business. And when Marc presents her with an ultimatum about their relationship, coupled with an extended “visit” from his mother, Tabby is forced to take stock of her life and make a new plan for the future.Consumed by work, motherhood, and love, Tabby finds herself isolated from her friends and family just when she needs them most. But help is always there when you ask for it, and Tabby’s village will once again rally around her as she comes to terms with her new life and faces her biggest challenge yet—choosing herself.

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'When Tom Holt's on form, the world seems a much cheerier place' - SFX'Frantically wacky and wilfully confusing ... gratifyingly clever and very amusing' - MAIL ON SUNDAYOnce upon a time (or last Thursday, as it's known in this matrix) everything was fine: Humpty Dumpty sat on his wall, Jack and Jill went about their lawful business, the Big Bad Wolf did what big bad wolves do, and the wicked queen plotted murder most foul.But the humans hacked, cried havoc, shut down the wicked queen's system (mirrors 3.1) and corrupted her database - and suddenly everything was not fine at all. But at least we know that they'll all live happily ever after. Don't we?Computers and fairy tales collide to hilarious effect in the latest sparkling cocktail of mayhem, wit and wonder from the master of comic fantasy.Books by Tom Holt: Walled Orchard Series Goatsong The Walled Orchard J.W. Wells & Co. Series The Portable Door In Your Dreams Earth, Air, Fire and Custard You Don't Have to Be Evil to Work Here, But It Helps The Better Mousetrap May Contain Traces of Magic Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Sausages YouSpace Series Doughnut When It's A Jar The Outsorcerer's Apprentice The Good, the Bad and the Smug Novels Expecting Someone Taller Who's Afraid of Beowulf Flying Dutch Ye Gods! Overtime Here Comes the Sun Grailblazers Faust Among Equals Odds and Gods Djinn Rummy My Hero Paint your Dragon Open Sesame Wish you Were Here Alexander at World's End Only Human Snow White and the Seven Samurai Olympiad Valhalla Nothing But Blue Skies Falling SidewaysLittle PeopleSong for NeroMeadowlandBarkingBlonde BombshellThe Management Style of the Supreme BeingsAn Orc on the Wild Side

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'Delightful' A HISTORY BOOK OF THE YEAR / BOOK OF THE WEEK, Daily Mail'Goodwood curator James Peill writes with a wonderfully light touch . . . The Goodwood story is extraordinary and rightly celebrated' Country LifeThe history of Goodwood, England's greatest sporting estateGoodwood has been the home of English sport for centuries. The story of how a small hunting lodge became the iconic location for the globally-renowned Festival of Speed, Glorious Goodwood and Goodwood Revival events is inextricably intertwined with the tale of the Dukes of Richmond. The Dukes were, variously, patrons of the arts, political influencers, royal confidantes, architectural innovators, horticultural enthusiasts and stewards of the community. Above all, they were passionate about the sports for which Goodwood is best known: horseracing, motor sports, foxhunting, cricket, shooting and golf. Drawing upon the wealth of the Goodwood archives, James Peill vividly captures the character of each Duke, some radical and others staunchly traditional, and the wide-ranging impact they had on the Goodwood of today.The broader context is a sweeping history of England, and one family's part in it. Beginning with Charles II and his mistress Louise de Keroualle, the parents of the first Duke, Glorious Goodwood takes the reader on a journey through time, from the seventeenth century to present day, via the Jacobite Rising, the Battle of Waterloo and the First and Second World Wars. There are cameo appearances from George Stubbs, Canaletto, Alexander, Emperor of Russia, Queen Victoria, Jackie Stewart and Edward VII, who famously hosted Privy Council meetings in the Tapestry Drawing Room during race week.Glorious Goodwood is a vivid and intimate portrait of a house and its inhabitants set against a dazzling, panoramic backdrop of English history. At the heart of this colourful and compelling story is a rich sense of the British heritage Goodwood embodies.

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One Good Soldier is the third book in the rapid-fire hard science military SF series of One Day on Mars and The Tau Ceti Agenda. In another 24-like narrative set six years after the events in The Tau Ceti Agenda, this exciting action story unfolds in a single critical day in the history of the United States of the Sol System, the extra-solar colonies, the Separatist Revolutionaries of the Tau Ceti system, and all of mankind. As another of Earth’s colonies, Ross 128, secedes from the union, the President of the United States, former marine major Alexander Moore, takes swift action to prevent a second American Civil War, this time on an interstellar scale. He sends the flagship of the U.S. Naval fleet through the Quauntum Membrane Teleporter based in the Oort Cloud to the seceding colony. But the Tau Ceti Separatists have stationed their own teleporter there and the flagship will be met with heavy resistance from the Separatist Navy. And, unknown to the president and first lady, their eighteen year old military school cadet daughter has been kidnapped and whisked away to the Separatist leader's house on Tau Ceti. Only the heroics and sacrifices of one good soldier after another can save the flagship, the Union, and the first daughter in an all-out winner-take-all showdown that reaches its final climax with frenzied hand-to-hand combat in the Oval Office itself.

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Revered as the birthplace of Western thought and democracy, Athens is much more than an open-air museum filled with crumbling monuments to ancient glory. Athens takes readers on a journey from the classical city-state to today’s contemporary capital, revealing a world-famous metropolis that has been resurrected and redefined time and again.Although the Acropolis remains the city’s anchor, Athens’ vibrant culture extends far beyond the Greek city’s antique boundaries. James H. S. McGregor points out how the cityscape preserves signs of the many actors who have crossed its historical stage. Alexander the Great incorporated Athens into his empire, as did the Romans. Byzantine Christians repurposed Greek temples, the Parthenon included, into churches. From the thirteenth to fifteenth centuries, the city’s language changed from French to Spanish to Italian, as Crusaders and adventurers from different parts of Western Europe took turns sacking and administering the city. An Islamic Athens took root following the Ottoman conquest of 1456 and remained in place for nearly four hundred years, until Greek patriots finally won independence in a blood-drenched revolution.Since then, Athenians have endured many hardships, from Nazi occupation and military coups to famine and economic crisis. Yet, as McGregor shows, the history of Athens is closer to a heroic epic than a Greek tragedy. Richly supplemented with maps and illustrations, Athens paints a portrait of one of the world’s great cities, designed for travelers as well as armchair students of urban history.

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These essays offer a historically rigorous dismantling of Western claims about the superiority of celibate priests. Although celibacy is often seen as a distinctive feature of the Catholic priesthood, both Catholic and Orthodox Churches in fact have rich and diverse traditions of married priests. The essays contained in Married Priests in the Catholic Church offer the most comprehensive treatment of these traditions to date. These essays, written by a wide-ranging group that includes historians, pastors, theologians, canon lawyers, and the wives and children of married Roman Catholic, Eastern Catholic, and Eastern Orthodox priests, offer diverse perspectives from many countries and traditions on the subject, including personal, historical, theological, and canonical accounts. As a collection, these essays push especially against two tendencies in thinking about married priesthood today. Against the idea that a married priesthood would solve every problem in Catholic clerical culture, this collection deromanticizes and demythologizes the notion of married priesthood. At the same time, against distinctively modern theological trends that posit the superiority, apostolicity, and “ontological” necessity of celibate priests, this collection refutes the claim that priestly ordination and celibacy must be so closely linked. In addressing the topic of married priesthood from both practical and theoretical angles, and by drawing on a variety of perspectives, Married Priests in the Catholic Church will be of interest to a wide audience, including historians, theologians, canon lawyers, and seminary professors and formators, as well as pastors, parish leaders, and laypeople. Contributors: Adam A. J. DeVille, David G. Hunter, Dellas Oliver Herbel, James S. Dutko, Patrick Viscuso, Alexander M. Laschuk, John Hunwicke, Edwin Barnes, Peter Galadza, David Meinzen, Julian Hayda, Irene Galadza, Nicholas Denysenko, William C. Mills, Andrew Jarmus, Thomas J. Loya, Lawrence Cross, and Basilio Petrà.

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These essays offer a historically rigorous dismantling of Western claims about the superiority of celibate priests. Although celibacy is often seen as a distinctive feature of the Catholic priesthood, both Catholic and Orthodox Churches in fact have rich and diverse traditions of married priests. The essays contained in Married Priests in the Catholic Church offer the most comprehensive treatment of these traditions to date. These essays, written by a wide-ranging group that includes historians, pastors, theologians, canon lawyers, and the wives and children of married Roman Catholic, Eastern Catholic, and Eastern Orthodox priests, offer diverse perspectives from many countries and traditions on the subject, including personal, historical, theological, and canonical accounts. As a collection, these essays push especially against two tendencies in thinking about married priesthood today. Against the idea that a married priesthood would solve every problem in Catholic clerical culture, this collection deromanticizes and demythologizes the notion of married priesthood. At the same time, against distinctively modern theological trends that posit the superiority, apostolicity, and “ontological” necessity of celibate priests, this collection refutes the claim that priestly ordination and celibacy must be so closely linked. In addressing the topic of married priesthood from both practical and theoretical angles, and by drawing on a variety of perspectives, Married Priests in the Catholic Church will be of interest to a wide audience, including historians, theologians, canon lawyers, and seminary professors and formators, as well as pastors, parish leaders, and laypeople. Contributors: Adam A. J. DeVille, David G. Hunter, Dellas Oliver Herbel, James S. Dutko, Patrick Viscuso, Alexander M. Laschuk, John Hunwicke, Edwin Barnes, Peter Galadza, David Meinzen, Julian Hayda, Irene Galadza, Nicholas Denysenko, William C. Mills, Andrew Jarmus, Thomas J. Loya, Lawrence Cross, and Basilio Petrà.

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When Alice is with Mathilde, her experience of the world shifts, as though Mathilde brings with her a force that charges everything around her: the park bench, the sticky linoleum floor of the supermarket, their interlocked hands, the buttons on a winter coat. But Mathilde is also mercurial and “perfectly” married to Alexander, and Alice is moving into a bigger flat with Simon who has just returned to her life. Alice’s precarious solution is to proceed into a quadrilateral relationship, impatient to define her own outline in the eyes of others.Elastic is a novel about being a woman. About being a woman among other women, among men, and about being alone with one’s female body. Alice doesn’t like being a woman. She feels estranged from her own body, from her gender. At the same time, Elastic is also a modern love story. About Alice’s silenced yet stormy crush on the enigmatic Mathilde. A crush that has no place neither in Alice's relationship with Simon, in Mathilde’s marriage, or even in Alice herself.Bille cleanly gleans the nebulous distinctions between love, sex and intimacy, exerting a softly fragmentary style that underpins Alice’s vacillations. She explores what it means to refuse settling – in a relationship, in society, and within oneself – and to want both love and community without being able to detach from the selfishness that brought us there in the first place. Praise for Elastic The tone of the novel is set from the very first page. Alice, a brilliantly honest main character, narrates the novel in a uniquely fragmented style. Bille uses creative imagery that is sometimes disturbing, but always poetic– Buzz MagazineAlice in Wonderland like you’ve never seen her before– Octavia BrightBille’s Alice has relatives or even sisters in Françoise Sagan’s 1950s novels – there is something Saganesque about Elastic and its depiction of open love affairs and the complicated triangulations, mirroring and conflicts they might entail– PolitikenA novel that speaks quietly and yet insistently of the loneliness of being in love and the feeling of being trapped in one’s own body– InformationElastic is difficult to let go of. It left me with the feeling of being seen. And not just seen: seen through– POV InternationalElastic is first and foremost a tale of Alice and her fumbling attempts to set love free. But it is the novel’s lonely, heartfelt voice and its unromantic depiction of love that gets stuck into your bones– ATLASJOHANNE BILLE (b.1993) is a Danish novelist based in Copenhagen. Elastic is her second novel, originally published in Danish by Forlaget Gladiator in 2018.SHERYLIN NICOLETTE HELLBERG is a literary translator. She has published translations of Tove Ditlevsen, Jonas Eika, and Ida Marie Hede. In 2018, she received an American-Scandinavian Foundation Award for her translation of Caspar Eric’s Nike.

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Tel Miqne-Ekron is one of the largest and most significant Iron Age archaeological sites in Israel. Based on fourteen seasons of excavations, this volume in the Tel Miqne series documents remarkable finds from the late Iron Age II Philistine temple.Immediately before its destruction at the hands of the Neo-Babylonians, the biblical city of Ekron had reached its zenith as a vassal of the Neo-Assyrian empire. The remains from Temple Complex 650 mirror Ekron’s wealth and position at the crossroads between Neo-Assyrian, Phoenician, and Philistine cultural traditions. This archaeological report contains stratigraphic analyses; a discussion of the temple’s architectural features; analyses of small finds, including a remarkable trove of ivory objects; comprehensive documentation, including quantification analyses of the vast ceramic assemblage; and, importantly, a discussion of the Ekron Royal Dedicatory Inscription, considered one of Israel’s most noteworthy archaeological finds of the twentieth century. Together with the evidence from the other fields of excavation, Tel Miqne-Ekron 10/1 establishes the basis for defining Ekron as the type-site for Philistia in the Iron Age II.An essential resource for archaeologists, biblical scholars, and historians specializing in the ancient Near East, Tel Miqne-Ekron 10/1 is of vital importance for reconstructing the history of the Southern Levant in the Iron Age.In addition to the coauthors, the contributors include Eleanor F. Beach, David Ben-Shlomo, Baruch Brandl, Jeffrey R. Chadwick, Alexandra S. Drenka, Adi Erlich, Amir Golani, Edward F. Maher, Ianir Milevski, Alla Rabinovich, Christa SchŠfer-Lichtenberger, and Anna de Vincenz.

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Bringing fresh insight to a century of writing by Native AmericansThe Political Arrays of American Indian Literary History challenges conventional views of the past one hundred years of Native American writing, bringing Native American Renaissance and post-Renaissance writers into conversation with their predecessors. Addressing the political positions such writers have adopted, explored, and debated in their work, James H. Cox counters what he considers a “flattening” of the politics of American Indian literary expression and sets forth a new method of reading Native literature in a vexingly politicized context. Examining both canonical and lesser-known writers, Cox proposes that scholars approach these texts as “political arrays”: confounding but also generative collisions of conservative, moderate, and progressive ideas that together constitute the rich political landscape of American Indian literary history. Reviewing a broad range of genres including journalism, short fiction, drama, screenplays, personal letters, and detective fiction—by Lynn Riggs, Will Rogers, Sherman Alexie, Thomas King, Leslie Marmon Silko, Louise Erdrich, Winona LaDuke, Carole laFavor, and N. Scott Momaday—he demonstrates that Native texts resist efforts to be read as advocating a particular set of politicsMeticulously researched, The Political Arrays of American Indian Literary History represents a compelling case for reconceptualizing the Native American Renaissance as a literary–historical constellation. By focusing on post-1968 Native writers and texts, argues Cox, critics have often missed how earlier writers were similarly entangled, hopeful, frustrated, contradictory, and unpredictable in their political engagements.

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Can ecstatic experiences be studied with the academic instruments of rational investigation? What kinds of religious illumination are experienced by academically minded people? And what is the specific nature of the knowledge of God that university theologians of the Middle Ages enjoyed compared with other modes of knowing God, such as rapture, prophecy, the beatific vision, or simple faith? Ecstasy in the Classroom explores the interface between academic theology and ecstatic experience in the first half of the thirteenth century, formative years in the history of the University of Paris, medieval Europe’s “fountain of knowledge.” It considers little-known texts by William of Auxerre, Philip the Chancellor, William of Auvergne, Alexander of Hales, and other theologians of this community, thus creating a group portrait of a scholarly discourse. It seeks to do three things. The first is to map and analyze the scholastic discourse about rapture and other modes of cognition in the first half of the thirteenth century. The second is to explicate the perception of the self that these modes imply: the possibility of transformation and the complex structure of the soul and its habits. The third is to read these discussions as a window on the predicaments of a newborn community of medieval professionals and thereby elucidate foundational tensions in the emergent academic culture and its social and cultural context. Juxtaposing scholastic questions with scenes of contemporary courtly romances and reading Aristotle’s Analytics alongside hagiographical anecdotes, Ecstasy in the Classroom challenges the often rigid historiographical boundaries between scholastic thought and its institutional and cultural context.

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Museums today are more than familiar cultural institutions and showplaces of accumulated objects; they are the sites of interaction between personal and collective identities, between memory and history. The essays in this volume consider museums from personal experience and historical study, and from the memories of museum visitors, curators, and scholars. Representing a variety of fields—history, anthropology, art history, and museum scholarship—the contributors discuss museums across disciplinary boundaries that have separated art museums from natural history museums or local history museums from national galleries. The essays range widely over time (from the Renaissance to the second half of the twentieth century), and place (China, Japan, the United States, and Germany), in exhibitions explored (photography, Native American history, and “Jurassic technology”), and institution (the Chinese Imperial Collection, Renaissance curiosity cabinets, and modern art museums). Memory operates thematically among the essays in diverse and provocative ways. The papers are organized according to three suggestive themes: experimental ways of theorizing and designing contemporary museums with an explicit interest in history and memory; discussions of personal encounters with historical exhibits; and the professional risks at stake for collectors and curators who shape the institutional presentation of history and memory. The contributors are Susan A. Crane, Wolfgang Ernst, Michael Fehr, Paula Findlen, Tamara Hamlish, Alexis Joachimides, Suzanne Marchand, Julia A. Thomas, and Diana Drake Wilson.

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To achieve justice and equal protection under the law, Latinos have turned to the U.S. court system to assert and defend their rights. Some of these cases have reached the United States Supreme Court, whose rulings over more than a century have both expanded and restricted the legal rights of Latinos, creating a complex terrain of power relations between the U.S. government and the country's now-largest ethnic minority. To map this legal landscape, Latinos and American Law examines fourteen landmark Supreme Court cases that have significantly affected Latino rights, from Botiller v. Dominguez in 1889 to Alexander v. Sandoval in 2001.Carlos Soltero organizes his study chronologically, looking at one or more decisions handed down by the Fuller Court (1888-1910), the Taft Court (1921-1930), the Warren Court (1953-1969), the Burger Court (1969-1986), and the Rehnquist Court (1986-2005). For each case, he opens with historical and legal background on the issues involved and then thoroughly discusses the opinion(s) rendered by the justices. He also offers an analysis of each decision's significance, as well as subsequent developments that have affected its impact. Through these case studies, Soltero demonstrates that in dealing with Latinos over issues such as education, the administration of criminal justice, voting rights, employment, and immigration, the Supreme Court has more often mirrored, rather than led, the attitudes and politics of the larger U.S. society.

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Born in the Brazilian countryside, and nearly six feet tall by the age of 14, Gisele Bündchen grew from humble roots into one of the most successful supermodels in the world. This book celebrates her 20-year milestone in the industry with a unique and spectacular collection of jaw-dropping glamour and intimate, personal insights. Gisele was just 18 when she made her breakthrough in the S/S 1998 ready-to-wear “Rain” show of Alexander McQueen, who chose “The Body” thanks to her ability to walk in towering heels on a slippery runway. The same year, Gisele secured her first British Vogue cover, and swiftly became the most in-demand cover girl of her generation. The following year, she was chosen for the cover of American Vogue, shot by Steven Meisel, and lauded as “the return of the sexy model” with her bronzed, athletic beauty defying late-’90s grunge. Since then, Gisele has appeared on more than 1,000 covers around the globe, in approximately 450 fashion shows, and in multinational campaigns for the biggest fashion and beauty brands. With more than 300 photographs, this book is curated and art directed by Giovanni Bianco. From Gisele’s legendary nude portrait by Irving Penn, chosen as the book’s cover, to iconic shots from such industry luminaries as Steven Meisel, Mario Testino, Peter Lindbergh, David LaChapelle, Juergen Teller, Inez & Vinoodh, Mert Alas & Marcus Piggott, and Corinne Day, it is a unique artistic presentation of the most famous Brazilian export together with Pelé and Senna and the highest-earning model in the world. The breathtaking image collection is accompanied by an introduction by Steven Meisel and tributes from Gisele’s closest friends, family, and fashion leaders, who shed light on how and why she has become one of the greatest models of all time.Gisele is donating all her proceeds from the book to charity.

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In 2014, Eric J. Wittenberg published “The Devil’s to Pay”: John Buford at Gettysburg. A History and Walking Tour, an award-winning study of Union cavalry delaying actions at Gettysburg. Fast-forward four years to 2018 and Wittenberg’s latest release, a companion Western Theater study entitled Holding the Line on the River of Death: Union Mounted Forces at Chickamauga, September 18, 1863. This volume focuses on the two important delaying actions conducted by mounted Union soldiers at Reed’s and Alexander’s bridges on the first day of Chickamauga. A cavalry brigade under Col. Robert H. G. Minty and Col. John T. Wilder’s legendary “Lightning Brigade” of mounted infantry made stout stands at a pair of chokepoints crossing Chickamauga Creek. Minty’s small cavalry brigade held off nearly ten times its number on September 18 by designing and implementing a textbook example of a delaying action. Their dramatic and outstanding efforts threw Confederate Gen. Braxton Bragg’s entire battle plan off its timetable by delaying his army’s advance for an entire day. That delay cost Bragg’s army the initiative at Chickamauga. Wittenberg brings his expertise with Civil War cavalry operations to bear with vivid and insightful descriptions of the fighting and places the actions in their full and proper historic context. This thoroughly researched and well-written book includes three appendices—two orders of battle and a discussion of the historic context of some of the tactics employed by the Union mounted force on September 18, and an epilogue on how the War Department and National Park Service have remembered these events. It also includes a detailed walking and driving tour complete with the GPS coordinates, a trademark of Wittenberg’s recent works. Complete with more than 60 photos and 15 maps by master cartographer Mark Anderson Moore, Holding the Line on the River of Death: Union Mounted Forces at Chickamauga, September 18, 1863 will be a welcome addition to the burgeoning Chickamauga historiography.

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The popularity of the musical, Hamilton, featuring the death of Alexander Hamilton in a duel with Aaron Burr, then Vice President of the United States, has revived interest in duelling, but also aroused incredulity that such events could ever have occurred. Where did the custom originate, and why did it spread so quickly all over Europe and the Americas? Duelling was once commonplace. Prime ministers and poets, artists and journalists, and even some ladies went out to the 'field of honour'. Casanova fought with a Polish nobleman in Warsaw, the Duke of Wellington duelled with an English earl in Hyde Park and the Russian poet Pushkin died in a duel in St Petersburg. There were many enigmas associated with the phenomenon. As well as displaying skills with the sword or the pistol, a duellist had to silence problems of conscience. Could duelling be squared with the commandment against killing one's neighbour? Did the fact that both parties were inspired by a gentlemanly code of Honour make the duel superior to a vulgar brawl? The moral justification of duelling intrigued thinkers and intellectuals. Dr Johnson returned to the issue several times, while Rousseau was baffled by the question. Duels added drama to mediocre novels or plays, but featured in the theatre of Shakespeare and later in the work of such masters as Walter Scott, Conrad, Chekhov and Pirandello. Duelling has been too long regarded as an embarrassing sideline in western culture, but for centuries it was an integral part of history. Joseph Farrell attempts to clarify what the duel actually was and why men ever behaved that way. Exploring the social and cultural forces that encouraged what now seems an extraordinary anachronism, he traces the international evolution of the duel - and its many representations in literature and art - from Renaissance Italy to the whole of Europe, including Britain, and onto the US.

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When his mother Joan was diagnosed with terminal cancer, Rory MacLean and his wife Katrin took her into their home. For five months, as their life fragmented and turned inward, they fought both to resist and to accept the inevitable. Each gave vent to their emotions in different ways, but all three kept a diary.Heartbreakingly honest and deeply moving, Gift of Time is the story of those days, in the words of a son, his wife and his mother. Woven together into a poignant meditation on life and death, they illuminate the courage and dignity of one woman who confronted what we all must face. Threaded through with wisdom and guilt, anger and acceptance, the story is punctuated by a family wedding and the hope of new life, by bin-bags of old letters and books rediscovered, by the end of winter and the first signs of spring.Powerful, raw and urgent, this slender volume is above all a celebration of life. Capturing every moment of beauty and pain it acknowledges that what survives all of us is love.Praise for Rory MacLean's previous titles:Stalin's Nose: 'The most extraordinary debut in travel writing since In Patagonia. A dark, sardonic and brilliant book which grows in stature with every page' William Dalrymple'A surreal masterpiece' Colin ThubronThe Oatmeal Ark: 'One of the most original and innovative travel books for years.' Alexander Frater'A truly astonishing performance' Jan Morris'Such a book as this rather marvellously explains why literature still lives.' John FowlesUnder the Dragon: 'I cannot imagine a better book on the beauty and terror of Burma. Read it. Read it. Read it.' Fergal Keane'It will make you cry and it will give you hope. ... It is astonishingly good.' Jeanette Winterson.Magic Bus: 'A disturbing, gripping and intensely passionate story' Esther Freud.

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Arranged in chronological order from the early Greek mathematicians, Euclid and Archimedes through to present-day Nobel Prize winners, 100 Science Discoveries That Changed the World charts the great breakthroughs in scientific understanding. Each entry describes the story of the research, the significance of the science and its impact on the scientific world. There is also a resume of each scientist’s career along with their other achievements, sometimes – in the case of Isaac Newton – in a completely unrelated field (laws of motion and the component parts of light). The book covers all branches of science: geometry, number theory, cosmology, the laws of motion, particle physics, electricity, magnetism, the laws of gasses, optical theory, cell biology, conservation of energy, natural selection, radiation, quantum theory, special relativity, superconductivity, thermodynamics, genomes, plate tectonics, and the uncertainty principal. Scientists include: Albert Einstein, Alessandro Volta, Alexander Fleming, Amedeo Avogrado, Andre Geim, Antoine Lavoisier, Antony van Leeuwenhoek, Archimedes, Benoit Mandelbrot, Carl Friedrich Gauss, Charles Darwin, Christian Doppler, Copernicus, Crick and Watson, Dmitri Mendeleev, Edwin Hubble, Enrico Fermi, Ernest Rutherford, Erwin Schrodinger, Euclid, Fermat, Frederick Sanger, Galileo Galilei, Georg Ohm, Georges Lemaitre, Heike Kamerlingh, Isaac Newton, Jacques Charles, James Clerk Maxwell, James Prescott Joule, Jean Buridan, Johanes Kepler, John Ambrose Fleming, John Dalton, John O’Keefe, Joseph Black, Josiah Gibbs, Lord Kelvin, Lord Rayleigh, Louis Pasteur, Marie Curie, Martinus Beijerinck, Michael Faraday, Murray Gell-Mann & George Zweig, Neils Bohr, Nicholas Steno, Peter Higgs, Pierre Curie, Ptolemy, Robert Boyle, Robert Brown, Robert Hooke, Roger Bacon, Rudolf Clausius, Seleucus, Shen Kuo, Stanley Miller, Tyco Brahe, Werner Heisenberg, William Gilbert, William Harvey, William Herschel, William Rontgen, Wolfgang Pauli.

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The fascinating untold story of how the ancients imagined robots and other forms of artificial life—and even invented real automated machines The first robot to walk the earth was a bronze giant called Talos. This wondrous machine was created not by MIT Robotics Lab, but by Hephaestus, the Greek god of invention. More than 2,500 years ago, long before medieval automata, and centuries before technology made self-moving devices possible, Greek mythology was exploring ideas about creating artificial life—and grappling with still-unresolved ethical concerns about biotechne, “life through craft.” In this compelling, richly illustrated book, Adrienne Mayor tells the fascinating story of how ancient Greek, Roman, Indian, and Chinese myths envisioned artificial life, automata, self-moving devices, and human enhancements—and how these visions relate to and reflect the ancient invention of real animated machines.As early as Homer, Greeks were imagining robotic servants, animated statues, and even ancient versions of Artificial Intelligence, while in Indian legend, Buddha’s precious relics were defended by robot warriors copied from Greco-Roman designs for real automata. Mythic automata appear in tales about Jason and the Argonauts, Medea, Daedalus, Prometheus, and Pandora, and many of these machines are described as being built with the same materials and methods that human artisans used to make tools and statues. And, indeed, many sophisticated animated devices were actually built in antiquity, reaching a climax with the creation of a host of automata in the ancient city of learning, Alexandria, the original Silicon Valley.A groundbreaking account of the earliest expressions of the timeless impulse to create artificial life, Gods and Robots reveals how some of today’s most advanced innovations in robotics and AI were foreshadowed in ancient myth—and how science has always been driven by imagination. This is mythology for the age of AI.

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Amazons--fierce warrior women dwelling on the fringes of the known world--were the mythic archenemies of the ancient Greeks. Heracles and Achilles displayed their valor in duels with Amazon queens, and the Athenians reveled in their victory over a powerful Amazon army. In historical times, Cyrus of Persia, Alexander the Great, and the Roman general Pompey tangled with Amazons. But just who were these bold barbarian archers on horseback who gloried in fighting, hunting, and sexual freedom? Were Amazons real? In this deeply researched, wide-ranging, and lavishly illustrated book, National Book Award finalist Adrienne Mayor presents the Amazons as they have never been seen before. This is the first comprehensive account of warrior women in myth and history across the ancient world, from the Mediterranean Sea to the Great Wall of China. Mayor tells how amazing new archaeological discoveries of battle-scarred female skeletons buried with their weapons prove that women warriors were not merely figments of the Greek imagination. Combining classical myth and art, nomad traditions, and scientific archaeology, she reveals intimate, surprising details and original insights about the lives and legends of the women known as Amazons. Provocatively arguing that a timeless search for a balance between the sexes explains the allure of the Amazons, Mayor reminds us that there were as many Amazon love stories as there were war stories. The Greeks were not the only people enchanted by Amazons--Mayor shows that warlike women of nomadic cultures inspired exciting tales in ancient Egypt, Persia, India, Central Asia, and China. Driven by a detective's curiosity, Mayor unearths long-buried evidence and sifts fact from fiction to show how flesh-and-blood women of the Eurasian steppes were mythologized as Amazons, the equals of men. The result is likely to become a classic.

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The character of the last Tsar, Nicholas II (1868-1918) is crucial to understanding the overthrow of tsarist Russia, the most significant event in Russian history. Nicholas became Tsar at the age of 26. Though a conscientious man who was passionate in his devotion to his country, he was weak, sentimental, dogmatic and indecisive. Ironically he could have made an effective constitutional monarch, but these flaws rendered him fatally unsuited to be the sole ruler of a nation that was in the throes of painful modernisation. That he failed is not surprising, for many abler monarchs could not have succeeded. Rather to be wondered at is that he managed, for 23 years, to hold on to power despite the overwhelming force of circumstances. Though Nicholas was exasperating, he had many endearing qualities. A modern audience, aware - as contemporaries were not - of the private pressures under which he lived, can empathise with him and forgive some of his errors of judgement. To some readers he seems a fool, to others a monster, but many are touched by the story of a well-meaning man doing his best under impossible conditions. He is, in other words, a biographical subject that engages readers whatever their viewpoint. His family was of great importance to Nicholas. He and his wife, Alexandra, married for love and retained this affection to the end of their lives. His four daughters, all different and intriguing personalities, were beautiful and charming. His son, the family's - and the nation's - hope for the future, was disabled by an illness that had to be concealed from Russia and from the world. It was this circumstance that made possible the nefarious influence of Rasputin, which in turn hastened the end of the dynasty.This story has everything: romance and tragedy, grandeur and misery, human frailty and an international catastrophe that would not only bring down the Tsar but put an end to the glittering era of European monarchies.

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