Search results for ""Notorious""

Exposing ethical dilemmas of neuroscientific research on violence, this book warns against a dystopian future in which behavior is narrowly defined in relation to our biological makeup. Biological explanations for violence have existed for centuries, as has criticism of this kind of deterministic science, haunted by a long history of horrific abuse. Yet, this program has endured because of, and not despite, its notorious legacy. Today's scientists are well beyond the nature versus nurture debate. Instead, they contend that scientific progress has led to a nature and nurture, biological and social, stance that allows it to avoid the pitfalls of the past. In Conviction Oliver Rollins cautions against this optimism, arguing that the way these categories are imagined belies a dangerous continuity between past and present. The late 1980s ushered in a wave of techno-scientific advancements in the genetic and brain sciences. Rollins focuses on an often-ignored strand of research, the neuroscience of violence, which he argues became a key player in the larger conversation about the biological origins of criminal, violent behavior. Using powerful technologies, neuroscientists have rationalized an idea of the violent brain—or a brain that bears the marks of predisposition toward "dangerousness." Drawing on extensive analysis of neurobiological research, interviews with neuroscientists, and participant observation, Rollins finds that this construct of the brain is ill-equipped to deal with the complexities and contradictions of the social world, much less the ethical implications of informing treatment based on such simplified definitions. Rollins warns of the potentially devastating effects of a science that promises to "predict" criminals before the crime is committed, in a world that already understands violence largely through a politic of inequality.

Read more less

The first biography of critically acclaimed then critically derided filmmaker Michael Cimino—and a reevaluation of the infamous film that destroyed his careerThe director Michael Cimino (1939–2016) is famous for two films: the intense, powerful, and enduring Vietnam movie The Deer Hunter, which won Best Picture at the Academy Awards in 1979 and also won Cimino Best Director, and Heaven’s Gate, the most notorious bomb of all time. Originally budgeted at $11 million, Cimino’s sprawling western went off the rails in Montana. The picture grew longer and longer, and the budget ballooned to over $40 million. When it was finally released, Heaven’s Gate failed so completely with reviewers and at the box office that it put legendary studio United Artists out of business and marked the end of Hollywood's auteur era.Or so the conventional wisdom goes. Charles Elton delves deeply into the making and aftermath of the movie and presents a surprisingly different view to that of Steven Bach, one of the executives responsible for Heaven’s Gate, who wrote a scathing book about the film and solidified the widely held view that Cimino wounded the movie industry beyond repair. Elton’s Cimino is a richly detailed biography that offers a revisionist history of a lightning rod filmmaker. Based on extensive interviews with Cimino’s peers and collaborators and enemies and friends, most of whom have never spoken before, it unravels the enigmas and falsehoods, many perpetrated by the director himself, which surround his life, and sheds new light on his extraordinary career. This is a story of the making of art, the business of Hollywood, and the costs of ambition, both financial and personal.

Read more less

Half of Indonesia’s massive population still lives on farms, and for these tens of millions of people the revolutionary promise of land reform remains largely unfulfilled. The Basic Agrarian Law, enacted in the wake of the Indonesian revolution, was supposed to provide access to land and equitable returns for peasant farmers. But fifty years later, the law’s objectives of social justice have not been achieved. Land for the People provides a comprehensive look at land conflict and agrarian reform throughout Indonesia’s recent history, from the roots of land conflicts in the prerevolutionary period and the Sukarno and Suharto regimes, to the present day, in which democratization is creating new contexts for people’s claims to the land. Drawing on studies from across Indonesia’s diverse landscape, the contributors examine some of the most significant issues and events affecting land rights, including shifts in policy from the early postrevolutionary period to the New Order; the Land Administration Project that formed the core of land policy during the late New Order period; a long-running and representative dispute over a golf course in West Java that pitted numerous local farmers against the government and local elites; Suharto’s notorious “million hectare” project that resulted in loss of access to land and resources for numerous indigenous farmers in Kalimantan; and the struggle by Bandung’s urban poor to be treated equitably in the context of commercial land development. Together, these essays provide a critical resource for understanding one of Indonesia’s most pressing and most influential issues. Contributors: Afrizal, Dianto Bachriadi, Anton Lucas, John McCarthy, John Mansford Prior, Gustaaf Reerink, Carol Warren, and Gunawan Wiradi.

Read more less

Although the importance of Elvis Presley's Southern heritage has long been recognized, few have considered the complex connection between the performer's career and his Southern roots. This study investigates how that identity affected each stage of Presley's career. Elvis Presley's career can be divided into three phases, each of which is signified by a specific image. Each image is coded by a certain style of music, mode of dress, and arena of performance. The evolution from one career phase to another was instigated by a specific event and represented a deliberate calculation on the part of Presley's manager to attract a wider audience. The first stage spans the years 1956 through 1958, after the singer was introduced to a national audience and before he was drafted into the army. His image as a notorious rock 'n' roller created a national controversy and was spurred by negative depictions of Presley in the media-many attributing his controversial performing style and appearance to his Southern background. His music was a fusion of rhythm and blues and country-western; or, two types of music indigenous to the South and foreign to the mainstream entertainment industry based in New York City. The second phase of Elvis' career included his stint as a movie star, in which most aspects of his Southern identity were extracted from his leading man image to enhance his appeal to the mainstream. And, finally, the last stage of his career focused on his image as a Las Vegas performer. Despite the gaudy costumes, Elvis reconnected to his identity as a Southerner in the 1970s by returning to country music and songwriters as a source of inspiration.

Read more less

New perspectives on the history of famine—and the possibility of a famine-free worldFamines are becoming smaller and rarer, but optimism about the possibility of a famine-free future must be tempered by the threat of global warming. That is just one of the arguments that Cormac Ó Gráda, one of the world's leading authorities on the history and economics of famine, develops in this wide-ranging book, which provides crucial new perspectives on key questions raised by famines around the globe between the seventeenth and twenty-first centuries.The book begins with a taboo topic. Ó Gráda argues that cannibalism, while by no means a universal feature of famines and never responsible for more than a tiny proportion of famine deaths, has probably been more common during very severe famines than previously thought. The book goes on to offer new interpretations of two of the twentieth century’s most notorious and controversial famines, the Great Bengal Famine and the Chinese Great Leap Forward Famine. Ó Gráda questions the standard view of the Bengal Famine as a perfect example of market failure, arguing instead that the primary cause was the unwillingness of colonial rulers to divert food from their war effort. The book also addresses the role played by traders and speculators during famines more generally, invoking evidence from famines in France, Ireland, Finland, Malawi, Niger, and Somalia since the 1600s, and overturning Adam Smith’s claim that government attempts to solve food shortages always cause famines.Thought-provoking and important, this is essential reading for historians, economists, demographers, and anyone else who is interested in the history and possible future of famine.

Read more less

This book is the first comprehensive account of how Australia attained the world's highest living standards within a few decades of European settlement, and how the nation has sustained an enviable level of income to the present. Why Australia Prospered is a fascinating historical examination of how Australia cultivated and sustained economic growth and success. Beginning with the Aboriginal economy at the end of the eighteenth century, Ian McLean argues that Australia's remarkable prosperity across nearly two centuries was reached and maintained by several shifting factors. These included imperial policies, favorable demographic characteristics, natural resource abundance, institutional adaptability and innovation, and growth-enhancing policy responses to major economic shocks, such as war, depression, and resource discoveries. Natural resource abundance in Australia played a prominent role in some periods and faded during others, but overall, and contrary to the conventional view of economists, it was a blessing rather than a curse. McLean shows that Australia's location was not a hindrance when the international economy was centered in the North Atlantic, and became a positive influence following Asia's modernization. Participation in the world trading system, when it flourished, brought significant benefits, and during the interwar period when it did not, Australia's protection of domestic manufacturing did not significantly stall growth. McLean also considers how the country's notorious origins as a convict settlement positively influenced early productivity levels, and how British imperial policies enhanced prosperity during the colonial period. He looks at Australia's recent resource-based prosperity in historical perspective, and reveals striking elements of continuity that have underpinned the evolution of the country's economy since the nineteenth century.

Read more less

From the New York Times bestselling author of Washington’s Spies, the thrilling story of the Confederate spy who came to Britain to turn the tide of the Civil War—and the Union agent resolved to stop him.“Entertaining and deeply researched…with a rich cast of spies, crooks, bent businessmen and drunken sailors…Rose relates the tale with gusto.” -The New York Times In 1861, soon after the outbreak of the Civil War, two secret agents—one a Confederate, the other his Union rival—were dispatched to neutral Britain, each entrusted with a vital mission.The South’s James Bulloch, charming and devious, was to acquire a cutting-edge clandestine fleet intended to break President Lincoln’s blockade of Confederate ports, sink Northern merchant vessels, and drown the U.S. Navy’s mightiest ships at sea. The profits from gunrunning and smuggling cotton—Dixie’s notorious “white gold”—would finance the scheme. Opposing him was Thomas Dudley, a resolute Quaker lawyer and abolitionist. He was determined to stop Bulloch by any means necessary in a spy-versus-spy game of move and countermove, gambit and sacrifice, intrigue and betrayal. If Dudley failed, Britain would ally with the South and imperil a Northern victory. The battleground was the Dickensian port of Liverpool, whose dockyards built more ships each year than the rest of the world combined, whose warehouses stored more cotton than anywhere else on earth, and whose merchant princes, said one observer, were “addicted to Southern proclivities, foreign slave trade, and domestic bribery.”From master of historical espionage Alexander Rose, The Lion and the Fox is the astonishing, untold tale of two implacable foes and their twilight struggle for the highest stakes.

Read more less

'Powerful' Financial Times'More twists and turns than a Hollywood spy thriller' Spectator'A story we all need to hear' New Statesman'Gripping... Araujo's accretion of detail has a powerful effect' New York Times'Excellent' Kirkus ReviewsDeep in the heart of the Amazon, an entire region has lived under the control of one notorious land baron: Josélio de Barros. Josélio cut a grisly path to success: having arrived in the jungle with a shady past, he quickly made a name for himself as an invincible thug who grabbed massive tracts of public land, burned down the jungle and executed or enslaved anyone trying to stop him.Enter Dezinho, the leader of a small but robust farm workers' union fighting against land grabs, ecological destruction, and blatant human rights abuses. When Dezinho was killed in a shocking assassination, the local community held its breath. Would Josélio, whom everyone knew had ordered the hit, finally be brought to account? Or would authorities look the other way, as they had hundreds of times before?Dezinho's widow, Dona Joelma, was not about to let that happen. After his murder, she stepped into the spotlight, orchestrating a huge push to bring national media attention to the injustices in the Amazon.Set against the backdrop of Bolsonaro's devastating cuts to environmental protections, Brazil's rapidly changing place in the geopolitical spectrum, and the Amazon's crucial role in climate change, Masters of the Lost Land is both a gripping epic into one of the last wild places on Earth and an urgent illustration of how people are fighting for - and winning - justice for their futures and the environment.

Read more less

Number One New York Times bestselling author Sandra Brown returns with another suspenseful thrillerWhen Jordie Bennet and Shaw Kinnard lock eyes across a disreputable backwater bar, something sparks. Shaw's dangerous vibe makes men wary and women sit up and take notice... Jordie included. It's an unlikely meeting. She doesn't belong in a seedy dive on the banks of a bayou, but here she is...and Shaw Kinnard is there to kill her.Jordie's certain her time is up, but Shaw has other plans. He abducts her, hoping to get his hands on the thirty million dollars her brother has stolen. However, he's not the only one looking for the fortune. Now on the run from the feds and a notorious criminal, Jordie and Shaw must rely on their wits - and each other - to stay alive.Miles away from civilization, Jordie's only chance of survival is to outwit Shaw, but it soon becomes clear that neither is entirely trustworthy. Was she in on her brother's scam, or is she an innocent pawn? And just how valuable is her life to Shaw? Burning for answers - and for each other - this unlikely pair make a desperate move that could be their last. With nonstop plot twists and the tantalizing sexual tension that has made Sandra Brown one of the world's best-loved authors, STING will keep readers on the edge of their seats until the final pages. Praise for Sandra Brown 'Suspense that has teeth' Stephen King 'Lust, jealousy, and murder suffuse Brown's crisp thriller' Publishers Weekly 'An edge-of-the-seat thriller that's full of twists . . . Top stuff!' Star

Read more less

This book focuses on the main challenges that cities, regions and other territories at sub-national level face when it comes to designing and implementing a territorial strategy for economic development and competitiveness. There is a widespread recognition that territories need to construct strategies that focus on shaping sustainable competitive advantages. To do this they draw upon their own unique resources and capabilities alongside intelligence on existing technological and market trends. However, there is still a notorious lack of both theoretical and empirical research on this issue.The first part of this book develops a theoretical framework for understanding and analysing territorial strategy. This framework asks three questions of territorial strategy – what for, what, and how – looking closely at the key relationship between strategy and policy. The second part is dedicated to exploring this framework in practice through application to a series of unique cases from around the world at different territorial levels, from regions such as the Basque Country, Navarre and Murcia in Spain, Okanagan (British Columbia) in Canada, Wales in the United Kingdom, and the cross-border region of the Øresund in Denmark–Sweden, as well as the city of Rafaela in Argentina. Each case offers something different and enables the framework to be thoroughly tested, generating concluding reflections that add real value for scholars and policy-makers interested in and working in the field of territorial strategy.This volume is intended for the academic community, the policy community (government leaders, policy-makers, policy researchers and consultants) and university students and teachers at different levels interested in the areas of territorial competitiveness, regional development, competitiveness policies and processes of territorial strategy.

Read more less

A groundbreaking biography of Milton’s formative years that provides a new account of the poet’s political radicalizationJohn Milton (1608–1674) has a unique claim on literary and intellectual history as the author of both Paradise Lost, the greatest narrative poem in English, and prose defences of the execution of Charles I that influenced the French and American revolutions. Tracing Milton’s literary, intellectual, and political development with unprecedented depth and understanding, Poet of Revolution is an unmatched biographical account of the formation of the mind that would go on to create Paradise Lost—but would first justify the killing of a king.Biographers of Milton have always struggled to explain how the young poet became a notorious defender of regicide and other radical ideas such as freedom of the press, religious toleration, and republicanism. In this groundbreaking intellectual biography of Milton’s formative years, Nicholas McDowell draws on recent archival discoveries to reconcile at last the poet and polemicist. He charts Milton’s development from his earliest days as a London schoolboy, through his university life and travels in Italy, to his emergence as a public writer during the English Civil War. At the same time, McDowell presents fresh, richly contextual readings of Milton’s best-known works from this period, including the “Nativity Ode,” “L’Allegro” and “Il Penseroso,” Comus, and “Lycidas.”Challenging biographers who claim that Milton was always a secret radical, Poet of Revolution shows how the events that provoked civil war in England combined with Milton’s astonishing programme of self-education to instil the beliefs that would shape not only his political prose but also his later epic masterpiece.

Read more less

This book is the first comprehensive account of how Australia attained the world's highest living standards within a few decades of European settlement, and how the nation has sustained an enviable level of income to the present. Why Australia Prospered is a fascinating historical examination of how Australia cultivated and sustained economic growth and success. Beginning with the Aboriginal economy at the end of the eighteenth century, Ian McLean argues that Australia's remarkable prosperity across nearly two centuries was reached and maintained by several shifting factors. These included imperial policies, favorable demographic characteristics, natural resource abundance, institutional adaptability and innovation, and growth-enhancing policy responses to major economic shocks, such as war, depression, and resource discoveries. Natural resource abundance in Australia played a prominent role in some periods and faded during others, but overall, and contrary to the conventional view of economists, it was a blessing rather than a curse. McLean shows that Australia's location was not a hindrance when the international economy was centered in the North Atlantic, and became a positive influence following Asia's modernization. Participation in the world trading system, when it flourished, brought significant benefits, and during the interwar period when it did not, Australia's protection of domestic manufacturing did not significantly stall growth. McLean also considers how the country's notorious origins as a convict settlement positively influenced early productivity levels, and how British imperial policies enhanced prosperity during the colonial period. He looks at Australia's recent resource-based prosperity in historical perspective, and reveals striking elements of continuity that have underpinned the evolution of the country's economy since the nineteenth century.

Read more less

Inspired by the true events of the most notorious evictions in Irish history… 1861, Donegal, Ireland Ten years ago Declan Conaghan’s father died in the Great Famine, and since then, Declan has kept his promise to keep his family out of the workhouse. But all that is threatened with the arrival of new landlord, John Adair. Adair is quick to cause trouble and fear among his tenants. When he turns them off his land, Declan has no option but to break his promise… Declan is in despair until he receives a letter from America offering him the chance of a new life and salvation for his family. But it would mean signing up to the US Army and fighting for Lincoln. Despite knowing nothing of war, or US politics, Declan leaves behind all he knows. Set against the wild landscapes of Ireland and the turbulent times of the American Civil War, this sweeping narrative takes us on an epic journey to understand the strength and endurance of the human spirit. Praise for Anne Madden: 'The author seems to have put all her love into this book … this historical fiction story is exceptional' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ‘A moving and fascinating historical fiction story that I could not put down!’ ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 'This has to be another of my 'best reads' for 2023’ ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ‘A gripping, realistic tale. Highly recommend.’ ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ‘I’ve been waiting for a book like this’ ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 'A solid book club pick!’ ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Read more less

An incredible thriller which will keep you up all night…Once you start reading you won’t be able to put it down! The murders have begun…Across England, a string of murders is taking place. Each different in method, but each horrifying and brutal. But the killer is just getting started…Jess Ambrose is plunged into the investigation when her house is set ablaze. With her husband dead and the police pointing at her, she runs. Her only hope is disgraced detective Nate Griffin, who is convinced Jess is innocent. And he’s going to shock the world…Soon, Jess and Griffin discover the unthinkable; this murderer is copying the world’s most notorious serial killers. And now, imitation isn’t enough. The killer dubbed The Echo Man is ready to create his own masterpiece, and it will be more terrifying than anything that has come before… ‘Evokes a classic, satisfying, red-blooded fear…a stellar debut’ A. J. Finn, author of The Woman in the Window ‘Sam Holland has created one of the most disturbing, shocking serial killers in recent memor’ M.W. Craven, author of The Puppet Show ‘Utterly compelling, the story rushes forward relentlessly…a writer to watch’ Daily Mail ‘Twisted and unsettling with complex, troubled characters’ Harriet Tyce, author of Blood Orange ‘I loved this book and absolutely devoured it…brilliant’ Catherine Cooper, author of The Chalet ‘I raced through this absolute page-turner and slept with the light on after finishing it!’ Elle Croft, author of The Guilty Wife ‘Sam Holland will keep you gripped’ Jo Furniss, author of All the Little Children

Read more less

She would know the world of vengeful gods and monsters, and the lengths one would go for love. And nothing would ever be the same for her again.Gifted thief Romeria steals jewels under a notorious New York City crime boss. But when an enigmatic woman secures her services at swordpoint, Romeria is wrenched from this world and transported into a realm of opposing thrones, warring elven societies and elemental magic.Waking up in the body of a treacherous elven princess, Romeria quickly realises she's entangled in a deadly plot and must hide her identity at all costs - not least from the princess's betrothed, King Zander, who detests her. Romeria is forced to play the smitten princess as the unwilling pair work together to uncover the danger that surrounds them.But with their enemies closing in - and as she fights her growing feelings for the king - it's time for Romeria to find out who she truly is.The first book in the captivating Fate & Flame series_______'THE SLOW BURN IS TO DIE FOR' 5* reader review'Political intrigue, sexual tension, slow burns, the most perfect enemies to lovers and swoony kings!... I did NOT realise how obsessed I would become.' 5* reader review'An exciting and unpredictable fantasy story with a chemistry-filled enemies-to-lovers romance... I loved it!' 5* reader review'Intense, action-packed, magical, and full of passion.' 5* reader review'An enchanting and incredibly well written book with outstanding world building and the kind of deeply rooted character development I love.' 5* reader review'I could not be more obsessed with this book.' 5* reader review

Read more less

'Captures the confusion, black humour, raw courage and sheer exhilaration of combat brilliantly' THE TIMES'Read this account of his stint with the 26-man strong X Platoon in the sweltering jungle, living on grubs, outnumbered 80 to one, battling heavily armed rebels with bamboo sticks and home-made grenades, and you'll be asking the question... Why wasn't he given TWO MCs?' SUNDAY SPORT2,000 blood-crazed rebels. 26 elite British soldiers. One man's explosive true story.Airlifted into the heart of the Sierra Leone jungle in the midst of the bloody civil war in 2000, 26 elite operators from the secret British elite unit X Platoon were sent into combat against thousands of Sierra Leonean rebels.Notorious for their brutality, the rebels were manned with captured UN armour, machine-guns and grenade-launchers, while the men of X Platoon were kitted with pitiful supplies of ammunition, malfunctioning rifles, and no body armour, grenades or heavy weapons.Intended to last only 48 hours, the mission mutated into a 16-day siege against the rebels, as X Platoon were denied the back-up and air support they had been promised, and were forced to make their stand alone. The half-starved soldiers, surviving on bush tucker, fought with grenades made from old food-tins and defended themselves with barricades made of sharpened sticks.Sergeant Steve Heaney won the Military Cross for his initiative in taking command after the platoon lost their commanding officer. OPERATION MAYHEM recounts his amazing untold true story, full of the rough-and-ready humour and steely fortitude with which these elite soldiers carried out operations far into hostile terrain.

Read more less

In The Man Who Built the Berlin Wall, Nathan Morley brings to life the story of the longtime leader of the German Democratic Republic. Drawing from a wealth of untapped archival sources - and firsthand interviews with Honecker's lawyers, journalists, and contemporary witnesses - Morley paints a vivid portrait of how an uneducated miner's son from the Saarland rose to the highest ranks of the German Communist Party. Having survived a decade of brutality in Nazi prisons, Honecker emerged as an ambitious political player and became the shadowy mastermind behind the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961, a crucial moment in twentieth-century history. Although frequently on the verge of being relegated to obscurity, he managed to overthrow strongman Walter Ulbricht at the height of the Cold War and reigned supreme over the GDR between 1971-1989. However, by 1980, the Honecker honeymoon was on the wane as a decade of economic and social difficulties blighted the GDR. Then, as tumultuous changes swept through the Soviet bloc, everything in and around him collapsed in 1989. His health, his certainties, his ideology, his apparatus of power, and his beloved SED party. Terminally ill, he was literally kidnapped from Russia to answer for his crimes in a Berlin court. A controversial figure, Honecker's notorious philandering, his difficult relationship with his wife Margot, penchant for porn, addiction to hunting, and gilded lifestyle at a forest settlement north of Berlin are all brought into sharp focus. Although haunted by the fall of the Berlin Wall, Erich Honecker died in 1994, still believing the GDR was the envy of the world.

Read more less

From its beginnings in Twilight fan-fiction to its record-breaking sales as an e-book and paperback, the story of the erotic romance novel Fifty Shades of Grey and its two sequels is both unusual and fascinating. Having sold over seventy million copies worldwide since 2011, E. L. James' lurid series about a sexual ingenue and the powerful young entrepreneur who introduces her to BDSM sex has ingrained itself in our collective consciousness. But why have these particular novels-poorly written and formulaic as they are-become so popular, especially among women over thirty? In this concise, engaging book, Eva Illouz subjects the Fifty Shades cultural phenomenon to the serious scrutiny it has been begging for. After placing the trilogy in the context of best-seller publishing, she delves into its remarkable appeal, seeking to understand the intense reading pleasure it provides and how that resonates with the structure of relationships between men and women today. Fifty Shades, Illouz argues, is a gothic romance adapted to modern times in which sexuality is both a source of division between men and women and a site to orchestrate their reconciliation. As for the novels' notorious depictions of bondage, discipline, and sadomasochism, Illouz shows that these are as much a cultural fantasy as a sexual one, serving as a guide to a happier romantic life. The Fifty Shades trilogy merges romantic fantasy with self-help guide-two of the most popular genres for female readers. Offering a provocative explanation for the success and popularity of the Fifty Shades of Grey novels, Hard-Core Romance is an insightful look at modern relationships and contemporary women's literature.

Read more less

A USA TODAY bestselling second chance romance about a young woman who reunites with a soulful artist after their magical one-night stand, from the bestselling author of Swear on this Life and Before We Were Strangers.Charlotte has spent her twenties adrift, searching for a spark to jump-start her life and give her a sense of purpose. She’s had as many jobs as she’s had bad relationships, and now she’s feeling especially lost in her less-than-glamorous gig at a pie-and-fry joint in Los Angeles, where the uniforms are bad and the tips are even worse. Then she collides—literally—with Adam, an intriguing, handsome, and mysterious painter. Their serendipitous meeting on the street turns into a whirlwind one-night stand that has Charlotte feeling enchanted by Adam’s spontaneity and joy for life. There’s promise in both his words and actions, but in the harsh light of morning, Adam’s tune changes, leaving Charlotte to wonder if her notorious bad luck with men is really just her own bad judgment. Months later, a new relationship with Seth, a charming baseball player, is turning into something more meaningful, but Charlotte’s still having trouble moving past her one enthralling night with Adam. Why? When she searches for answers, she finds the situation with Adam is far more complicated than she ever imagined. Faced with the decision to write a new story with Seth or finish the one started with Adam, Charlotte embarks on a life-altering journey, one that takes her across the world and back again, bringing a lifetime’s worth of pain, joy, and wisdom.

Read more less

Gold-Medal Winner of the Foreword Book of the Year Award Deadly, high-stakes art fraud case—Enter at your own risk! After graduating from Harvard Law with his closest friend, John McKedrick, Michael Knight practices with the U.S. Attorney’s office and with a prestigious trial firm in Boston. Then Michael and his mentor, the legendary trial attorney Lex Devlin, form Devlin & Knight to do criminal defense work, while John becomes sole associate of a notorious mob lawyer. Michael never lost hope that John McKedrick would escape to “cleaner pastures”—until John is murdered in a car bombing bearing the signature of his questionable clientele. How could two friends who were so close have taken such wildly divergent paths? In the wake of McKedrick’s murder, three men who took their own deviating paths will meet for the first time in forty years. Matt Ryan, a priest; Dominic Santangelo, a Mafia don; and Lex Devlin put the past aside to focus on a present concern—Dominic’s son has been charged with John McKedrick’s murder. At Lex’s urging, Michael Knight reluctantly agrees to represent the alleged bomber. In building a defense, Michael is drawn into a high-stakes art fraud that leads him from the seediest parts of Boston to the sophisticated Amsterdam inner sanctum of international crime.Perfect for fans of Dennis Lehane and John Grisham While all of the novels in the Knight and Devlin Thriller Series stand on their own and can be read in any order, the publication sequence is:Neon Dragon Frame-Up Black Diamond Deadly Diamonds Fatal Odds High Stakes

Read more less

Before September 11, 2001 we Americans did not think much about freedom or democracy in the Middle East. U.S. policy toward the region aimed to assure a reliable flow of oil, to encourage peace between the Arabs and Israel, and above all, during the Cold War, to prevent our rival from gaining any strategic advantage over us. 9/11 impelled us to reconsider. Now, as we are entangled in conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan the Mid-East's political and social quandaries lie at the very core of our foreign policy objectives. And yet, after years of blood and fortune spent on the democratization of the Middle East, the most identifiable personalities in the region are notorious terrorists, backwards autocrats and fanatical preachers. As Joshua Muravchik demonstrates in Trailblazers of the Arab Spring, there are in fact also heroic democrats and liberals in these lands of anti-democratic fanaticism, and the fight they are fighting is also our fight. Muravchik brings to light the stories of seven remarkable people, six Arabs and an Iranian. Five are men; two, women. Four are Sunnis, two are Shiites, and the seventh is mixed. All are devoted passionately to a cause, and, while the angles from which they attack it are varied, the larger goal is the same for all seven--to make their countries more open and democratic. Trailblazers of the Arab Spring reminds us that freedom is a prize that must be won through struggle and sacrifice, and it introduces us to our anonymous friends who have consecrated their lives to the birth of free societies in the Middle East.

Read more less

While the flames of World War II still raged, Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin issued a warning to the Nazi leaders. Those responsible for the torture and murder of millions of innocent and defenseless civilians were promised that "... the three Allied Powers will pursue them to the furthest corners of the earth and deliver them to their judges so that justice may be done." That promise was not kept. Justice was not done. In 1945, twelve of the most notorious Nazis were tried for crimes against humanity and sentenced to death by the International Military Tribunal convened at Nuremberg. (Martin Bormann, his whereabouts unknown, had been tried and convicted in absentia.) Subsequent war-crimes trials ended in the conviction of other offenders. But the majority of the torturers and murderers escaped, found sanctuary, and continued to work effectively toward the concept of eventual world domination. Nazism did not die at Nuremberg. This survival and resurgence was the result of a plan for the creation of a "brotherhood" initiated long before the end of the war by the least visible and most powerful of the Nazi war lords--Martin Bormann. The Brotherhood, backed by virtually unlimited funds, established "safe" houses inside Germany, escape routes to other countries and continents, and an extensive international group of industrial firms as financial reservoirs and as "fronts" for escaped Nazis. This chronicle, based upon independent investigation, including numerous exclusive interviews and the examination of declassified and revealing documents, casts a new light upon Bormann, his strange role in the Third Reich, and his devastating influence, which cuts mercilessly into our present. This is essential reading, as fascinating as it is meaningful.

Read more less

In this “heady tale of romance, intrigue, and empowerment” (Pam Jenoff, New York Times bestselling author) during the Gilded Age, a determined and remarkable female journalist is determined to uncover the truth of the legendary Hope Diamond—from the New York Times bestselling author of Tiffany Blues.New York, 1910: A city of extravagant balls in Fifth Avenue mansions and poor immigrants crammed into crumbling Lower East Side tenements. A city where the suffrage movement is growing stronger every day, but most women reporters are still delegated to the fashion and lifestyle pages. But Vera Garland is set on making her mark in a man’s world of serious journalism. Shortly after the world-famous Hope Diamond is acquired for a record sum, Vera begins investigating rumors about schemes by its new owner, jeweler Pierre Cartier, to manipulate its value. Vera is determined to find the truth behind the notorious diamond and its mysterious curses, especially when her reporting puts her in the same orbit as a magazine publisher whose blackmailing schemes led to the death of her beloved father. Appealing to a young Russian jeweler for help, Vera is unprepared when she begins falling in love with him…and even more unprepared when she gets caught up in his deceptions and finds herself at risk of losing all she has worked so hard to achieve. “Vivid…[and] memorable” (Publishers Weekly), Cartier’s Hope is “a twisting tale of greed, revenge, and masked identities that put love and lives at risk. A fast-paced historical novel that shines with as much intrigue and mystery as the Hope Diamond itself” (Beatriz Williams, New York Times bestselling author).

Read more less

Bestselling historian Peter Moore traces how Enlightenment ideas were exported from Britain and put into practice in America - where they became the most successful export of all time, the American Dream'Absorbing... fascinating... eloquent' THE TIMES'Engaging and thoroughly reader-friendly' TELEGRAPH'Wonderfully absorbing and stimulating' SARAH BAKEWELLEnlightenment Britain was ablaze with ambition and energy. Great writers like Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Paine, Samuel Johnson, John Wilkes and Catharine Macaulay were part of a pioneering generation that shaped and inspired the American Dream. For the first time, bestselling historian Peter Moore vividly traces the transatlantic friendships and revolutionary ideas that inspired the Declaration of Independence.'Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness' is the best-known phrase from that document, which was drafted by Thomas Jefferson in the summer of 1776. Today this line is evoked as a shorthand for that ideal we call the American Dream. But the vision it encapsulates – of a free and happy world – has its roots in Great Britain.This book tells the story of the years that preceded the Declaration. From the accession of King George III to the astonishing tale of John Wilkes, from the notorious Stamp Act to the Boston Tea Party, it shows how Britain and her American Colonies broke apart. Following a star cast of Enlightenment characters, through their letters, arguments and rivalries, it reveals the rise of a rebellious and daring ideology – one that gave rise to the democratic birth of the United States and the principles we live by to this day.'Deft insights and in clear prose' ALAN TAYLOR'A gripping account' STELLA TILLYARD'Rollicking...compulsive readability' WASHINGTON POST'A great read' LADY HALE

Read more less

'James Patterson and Mark Seal have brought Sin City to life' TELEGRAPHWhat happens in Vegas stays in Vegas - until now.Whether you're a Vegas regular or have only heard the city's tales through whispers, this book will surprise and astound you . . . It's not just the five-star dining, or the casinos, or the clubs, or the crowds. It's the electrifying chemistry of America's most round-the-clock city.In this dazzling 24-hour journey, James Patterson lifts the lid on America's notorious hub of gambling and excess. Fuelled by original interviews and in-depth reporting, What Really Happens in Vegas uncovers the vice, crime and entertainment that made Sin City an infamous desert mecca.This is Vegas as you've never seen it before, filled with unbelievable stories from the people who make the city tick, simmer - and even explode._____________________________PRAISE FOR JAMES PATTERSON'Patterson knows where our deepest fears are buried... there's no stopping his imagination' NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW'A writer with an unusual skill at thriller plotting' GUARDIAN'The master storyteller of our times' HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON'No one gets this big without amazing natural storytelling talent - which is what Jim has, in spades' LEE CHILD'Patterson boils a scene down to the single, telling detail, the element that defines a character or moves a plot along. It's what fires off the movie projector in the reader's mind' MICHAEL CONNELLY'James Patterson is The Boss. End of.' IAN RANKIN'It's no mystery why James Patterson is the world's most popular thriller writer ... Simply put: nobody does it better' JEFFREY DEAVER

Read more less

After a decadelong hiatus, African Americans once again began appearing regularly on television in the 1960s. Bill Cosby costarred on I Spy, Sammy Davis Jr. briefly hosted a variety show, and in 1968 Diahann Carroll debuted in the title role of Julia, the first television series to star an African American since the cancellation of Amos ’n’ Andy. Over the next ten years, shows with African American casts became more common; some, like Sanford and Son and Good Times, were hits with both black and white audiences. Yet many within the black community criticize these programs as perpetuating demeaning stereotypes and hampering the political progress made by African Americans. In Revolution Televised, Christine Acham offers a more complex reading of this period in African American television history, finding within these programs opposition to dominant white constructions of African American identity. She explores the intersection of popular television and race as witnessed from the documentary coverage of the civil rights and Black Power movements, the personal politics of Flip Wilson and Soul Train’s Don Cornelius, and the ways in which notorious X-rated comic Redd Foxx reinvented himself for prime time. Reflecting on both the potential of television to effect social change as well as its limitations, Acham concludes with analyses of Richard Pryor’s politically charged and short-lived sketch comedy show and the success of outspoken comic Chris Rock. Revolution Televised deftly illustrates how black television artists operated within the constraints of the television industry to resist and ultimately shape the mass media’s portrayal of African American life. Christine Acham is assistant professor in African American and African studies at the University of California, Davis.

Read more less

Quantum-Mechanical Signal Processing and Spectral Analysis describes the novel application of quantum mechanical methods to signal processing across a range of interdisciplinary research fields. Conventionally, signal processing is viewed as an engineering discipline with its own specific scope, methods, concerns and priorities, not usually encompassing quantum mechanics. However, the dynamics of systems that generate time signals can be successfully described by the general principles and methods of quantum physics, especially within the Schrödinger framework. Most time signals that are measured experimentally are mathematically equivalent to quantum-mechanical auto-correlation functions built from the evolution operator and wavefunctions. This fact allows us to apply the rich conceptual strategies and mathematical apparatus of quantum mechanics to signal processing.Among the leading quantum-mechanical signal processing methods, this book emphasizes the role of Pade approximant and the Lanczos algorithm, highlighting the major benefits of their combination. These two methods are carefully incorporated within a unified framework of scattering and spectroscopy, developing an algorithmic power that can be exported to other disciplines. The novelty of the author's approach to key signal processing problems, the harmonic inversion and the moment problem, is in establishing the Pade approximant and Lanczos algorithm as entirely algerbraic spectral estimators. This is of paramount theoretical and practical importance, as now spectral analysis can be carried out from closed analytical expressions. This overrides the notorious mathematical ill-conditioning problems with round-off errors that plague inverse reconstructions in those fields that rely upon signal processing.Quantum-Mechanical Signal Processing and Spectral Analysis will be an invaluable resource for researchers involved in signal processing across a wide range of disciplines.

Read more less

The Smoot-Hawley tariff of 1930, which raised U.S. duties on hundreds of imported goods to record levels, is America's most infamous trade law. It is often associated with--and sometimes blamed for--the onset of the Great Depression, the collapse of world trade, and the global spread of protectionism in the 1930s. Even today, the ghosts of congressmen Reed Smoot and Willis Hawley haunt anyone arguing for higher trade barriers; almost single-handedly, they made protectionism an insult rather than a compliment. In Peddling Protectionism, Douglas Irwin provides the first comprehensive history of the causes and effects of this notorious measure, explaining why it largely deserves its reputation for combining bad politics and bad economics and harming the U.S. and world economies during the Depression. In four brief, clear chapters, Irwin presents an authoritative account of the politics behind Smoot-Hawley, its economic consequences, the foreign reaction it provoked, and its aftermath and legacy. Starting as a Republican ploy to win the farm vote in the 1928 election by increasing duties on agricultural imports, the tariff quickly grew into a logrolling, pork barrel free-for-all in which duties were increased all around, regardless of the interests of consumers and exporters. After Herbert Hoover signed the bill, U.S. imports fell sharply and other countries retaliated by increasing tariffs on American goods, leading U.S. exports to shrivel as well. While Smoot-Hawley was hardly responsible for the Great Depression, Irwin argues, it contributed to a decline in world trade and provoked discrimination against U.S. exports that lasted decades. Peddling Protectionism tells a fascinating story filled with valuable lessons for trade policy today.

Read more less

A master storyteller presents a riveting drama of America's first "crime of the century"--from murder investigation to a church sex scandal to celebrity trial--and its aftermath. In December 1832 a farmer found the body of a young, pregnant woman hanging near a haystack outside a New England mill town. When news spread that Methodist preacher Ephraim Avery was accused of murdering Sarah Maria Cornell, a factory worker, the case gave the public everything they found irresistible: sexually charged violence, adultery, the hypocrisy of a church leader, secrecy and mystery, and suspicions of insanity. Murder in a Mill Town tells the story of how a local crime quickly turned into a national scandal that became America's first "trial of the century." After her death--after she became the country's most notorious "factory girl"--Cornell's choices about work, survival, and personal freedom became enmeshed in stories that Americans told themselves about their new world of industry and women's labor and the power of religion in the early republic. Writers penned seduction tales, true-crime narratives, detective stories, political screeds, songs, poems, and melodramatic plays about the lurid scandal. As trial witnesses, ordinary people gave testimony that revealed rapidly changing times. As the controversy of Cornell's murder spread beyond the courtroom, the public eagerly devoured narratives of moral deviance, abortion, suicide, mobs, "fake news," and conspiracy politics. Long after the jury's verdict, the nation refused to let the scandal go. A meticulously reconstructed historical whodunit, Murder in a Mill Town exposes the troublesome workings of criminal justice in the young democracy and the rise of a sensational popular culture.

Read more less

This is the untold story of the American federal agent who captured the world’s most-wanted drug-lord. Every generation has its larger-than-life criminal legend living beyond the reach of the law: Billy the Kid, Al Capone, Ronnie Biggs, Pablo Escobar. But for every one of these criminals, there’s a Wyatt Earp, Pat Garrett or Slipper of the Yard. For Joaquín Archivaldo Guzmán-Loera a.k.a. ‘El Chapo’ – the 21st century’s most notorious criminal – that man is D.E.A. Special Agent Andrew Hogan. This is the incredible story of Hogan’s seven-year-long chase to capture El Chapo, a multibillionaire drug-lord and escape-artist posing as a Mexican Robin Hood, who in reality was a brutal sociopath responsible for the murders of thousands. His greedy campaign to take over his rivals’ territories resulted in an unprecedented war with a body count of over 100,000. We follow Hogan on his quest to achieve the seemingly impossible: to cross the border into Mexico and arrest El Chapo, the leader of the Sinaloa Cartel, a billionaire and Public Enemy No. 1, who had been evading capture for more than a decade and had earned a reputation for being utterly untouchable. This intimate thriller tells how Hogan single-mindedly and methodically climbed the ladder within the hierarchy of the Sinaloa Cartel – the world’s wealthiest and most powerful drug-trafficking organization – by creating one of the most sophisticated undercover operations in the history of the D.E.A. From infiltrating Chapo’s inner circle to leading a white-knuckle manhunt with an elite brigade of Mexican Marines, Hogan left no stone unturned in his hunt for the world’s most powerful drug kingpin.

Read more less

In a dingy office in Fisherman's Wharf, the glass panel in the door bears the names of A. Kimrean and Z. Kimrean, Private Eyes. Behind the door there is only one desk, one chair, one scrawny androgynous P.I. in a tank top and skimpy waistcoat. A.Z., as they are collectively known, are twin brother and sister. He's pure misanthropic logic, she's wild hedonistic creativity. The Kimreans have been locked in mortal battle since they were in utero, which is tricky because they, very literally, share one single body. That's right. One body, two pilots. The mystery and absurdity of how Kimrean functions, and how they subvert every plotline, twist, explosion, and gunshot – and confuse every cop, neckless thug, cartel boss, ninja, and femme fatale – in the book is pure Cantero magic. Someone is murdering the sons of the ruthless drug cartel boss known as the Lyon in the biggest baddest town in California: San Carnal. The notorious A.Z. Kimrean must go to the sin-soaked, palm-tree-lined streets of San Carnal, infiltrate the Lyon's inner circle, and find out who is targeting his heirs, and while they are at it, rescue an undercover cop in too deep, deal with a plucky young stowaway, and stop a major gang war from engulfing California. They'll face every plot device and break every rule Elmore Leonard wrote before they can crack the case, if they don't kill each other (themselves) first. This Body's Not Big Enough for Both of Us is a brilliantly subversive and comic thriller celebrating noir detectives, Die Hard, Fast & Furious, and the worst case of sibling rivalry, that can only come from the mind of Edgar Cantero.

Read more less

Studs Terkel was an American icon who had no use for America's cult of celebrity. He was a leftist who valued human beings over political dogma. In scores of books and thousands of radio and television broadcasts, Studs paid attention - and respect - to "ordinary" human beings of all classes and colours, as they talked about their lives as workers, dreamers, survivors. Alan Wieder's Studs Terkel: Politics, Culture, But Mostly Conversation is the first comprehensive book about this man. Drawing from over fifty interviews of people who knew and worked with Studs, Alan Wieder creates a multi-dimensional portrait of a run-of-the-mill guy from Chicago who, in public life, became an acclaimed author and raconteur, while managing, in his private life, to remain a mensch. We see Studs, the eminent oral historian, the inveterate and selfless supporter of radical causes, especially civil rights. We see the actor, the writer, the radio host, the jazz lover, whose early work in television earned him a notorious place on the McCarthy blacklist. We also see Studs the family man and devoted husband to his adored wife, Ida. Studs Terkel: Politics, Culture, But Mostly Conversation allows us to realize the importance of reaching through our own daily realities - increasingly clogged with disembodied, impersonal interaction - to find value in actual face-time with real humans. Wieder's book also shows us why such contact might be crucial to those of us in movements rising up against global tyranny and injustice. The book is simply the best introduction available to this remarkable man. Reading it will lead people to Terkel's enormous body of work, with benefits they will cherish thr

Read more less

Movies don’t exist in a vacuum. Each MGM movie is a tiny piece of a large, colorful (although often black & white) quilt, with threads tying it into all of the rest of that studio’s product, going forward, yes, but also backwards, and horizontally and three dimensionally across its entire landscape. Not necessarily a “best of” compilation, this book discusses the films that for one reason or another (and not all of them good ones) changed the trajectory of MGM and the film industry in general, from the revolutionary use of “Cinerama” in 1962’s How the West Was Won to Director Alfred Hitchcock’s near extortion of the profits from the 1959 hit thriller North by Northwest. And there aere the studio’s on-screen self-shoutouts to its own past, or stars, in films like Party Girl (1958), the That’s Entertainment series, Garbo Talks (1984) Rain Man (1955) and De-Lovely (2004), or the studio’s acquisition of other successful franchises such as James Bond. But fear not, what we consider MGM’s classic films all get their due here, often with a touch of irony or fascinating anecdote. Singin in the Rain (1952), for example, was in its day neither a financial blockbuster nor crtitically acclaimed but rather an excuse the studio to reuse some old songs which the studio already owned. TheWizard of Oz (1939) cost almost as much to make as Gone With the Wind (also 1939) took ten years to recoup its costs. But still, the MGM mystique endures. Like the popular Netflix series “The Movies that Made Us,” this is a fascinating look behind the scenes of the greatest—and at times notorious—films ever made.

Read more less

NEW PAPERBACK EDITION ‘ Salmon’ s vivid use of recollections and dramatic quotes brings alive an unjustly forgotten conflict’ Time Out With even World War II now just on the edges of living memory, and with British forces now engaged in a lengthy, brutal and attritional old-fashioned war in Afghanistan, historical attention is starting to turn to the Korean War of the early 1950s. And remarkably, the most notorious and celebrated battle in that conflict, from a British point of view, has never previously been written about at length. Andrew Salmon’ s book, which has garnered excellent reviews and sold out two hardback printings already, has filled that gap. This is the story of the Battle of the Imjin River, when the British 29th Infantry Brigade, and above all the “ Glorious Glosters” of the Gloster Regiment, fought an epic last stand against the largest communist offensive of the war. It lasted three days, of bitter hand-to-hand combat. By the end of it one battalion of the Glosters – some 750 men – had been reduced to just 50 survivors. Andrew Salmon’ s definitive history, which gained excellent reviews in hardback and sold very steadily, is very much in the Antony Beevor mould: accessible, pacy, narrative, and painting a moving and exciting picture through the extensive use of eyewitness accounts of veterans, of whom he has tracked down and interviewed dozens. Andrew Salmon is a Seoul-based journalist who writes for The Times, The Washington Times, and Forbes magazine. He first became fascinated by the battle in 2001 when he met British veterans returning to the Imjin River to mark the 50th anniversary.

Read more less

LONGLISTED FOR THE WILLIAM HILL SPORTS BOOK OF THE YEAR PRIZE'Excellent and compellingly honest' Alyson Rudd, The TimesIn I Love This Game, the long-awaited autobiography of Patrice Evra, the former Manchester United and France star looks back on a remarkable life and career. Having played alongside some of the club's greatest legends, such as Cristiano Ronaldo, Wayne Rooney and Paul Scholes, in one of United's most successful eras, Evra has now found a new role as an in-demand pundit and social media star. But, as he reveals in this frank, often shocking, but always compelling memoir, beneath the surface things were not so simple, and he had to fight all the way to get to the top. Initially, it was football that saved him from being sucked into the gang culture of his tough neighbourhood of Les Ulis in the suburbs of Paris. Then, once he achieved his dream of becoming a professional, he had to deal with racism and a notorious dispute with Luis Suarez; he also became a central figure in the infamous ‘strike’ by the France national team in the 2010 World Cup; and there was the moment he launched an attack against a Marseille fan while warming up. ‘I Love This Game’ has become Evra’s catchphrase. Throughout this wonderful book, his passion for his sport shines through and there are revealing and entertaining behind-the-scenes insights about the players and managers he’s worked with, from Sir Alex Ferguson to Paul Pogba, who knows him as Uncle Pat. With infectious enthusiasm and sharp observation, Evra takes the reader where few football autobiographies dare to tread.

Read more less

What is it like to learn that your ordinary, loving father is a serial killer?In 2005, Kerri Rawson opened the door of her apartment to greet an FBI agent who shared the shocking news that her father had been arrested for murdering ten people, including two children.That's also when she first learned that her father was the notorious serial killer known as BTK, a name he'd given himself that described the horrific way he committed his crimes: bind, torture, kill. As news of his capture spread, the city of Wichita celebrated the end of a thirty-one-year nightmare. For Kerri Rawson, another was just beginning.In the weeks and years that followed, Kerri was plunged into a black hole of horror and disbelief. The same man who had been a loving father, a devoted husband, church president, Boy Scout leader, and a public servant had been using their family as a cover for his heinous crimes since before she was born. Everything she had believed about her life had been a lie.Written with candor and extraordinary courage, A Serial Killer's Daughter is an unflinching exploration of life with one of America's most infamous killers and an astonishing tale of personal and spiritual transformation.A Serial Killer's Daughter will give you the encouragement you need to learn how to: Pick up the pieces of your life when everything falls apart Begin to heal from the long-lasting effects of violence Trust that light will overcome the darkness Kerri Rawson's story offers the hope of reclaiming sanity in the midst of madness, rebuilding a life in the shadow of death, and learning to forgive the unforgivable.

Read more less

An investigation into the nature of violence, terror, and trauma through conversations with a notorious war criminal by Jessica Stern, one of the world's foremost experts on terrorism.Between October 2014 and November 2016, global terrorism expert Jessica Stern held a series of conversations in a prison cell in The Hague with Radovan Karadzic, a Bosnian Serb former politician who had been indicted for genocide and other war crimes during the Bosnian War and who became an inspiration for white nationalists. Though Stern was used to interviewing terrorists in the field in an effort to understand their hidden motives, the conversations she had with Karadzic would profoundly alter her understanding of the mechanics of fear, the motivations of violence, and the psychology of those who perpetrate mass atrocities at a state level and who—like the terrorists she had previously studied—target noncombatants, in violation of ethical norms and international law.How do leaders persuade ordinary people to kill their neighbors? What is the “ecosystem” that creates and nurtures genocidal leaders? Could anything about their personal histories, personalities, or exposure to historical trauma shed light on the formation of a war criminal’s identity in opposition to a targeted Other?In My War Criminal, Jessica Stern brings to bear her incisive analysis and her own deeply considered reactions to her interactions with Karadzic, a brilliant and often shockingly charming psychiatrist and poet who spent twelve years in hiding, disguising himself as an energy healer, while also offering a deeply insightful and sometimes chilling account of the complex and even seductive powers of a magnetic leader—and what can happen when you spend many, many hours with that person.

Read more less

At the height of Tim Maia’s soaring fame, he joined a radical, extraterrestrial-obsessed cult and created two plus albums of some of Brazil’s—and the globe’s—best funk and soul music. This book explores the career of the man often hailed as the James Brown or Barry White of Brazil, and the time of his radical transformation from a musician notorious for hedonistic living to a devoted follower of Manoel Jacinto Coelho’s Rational Culture. After suddenly joining Coelho’s cult in 1974 (which started first as an offshoot of the mystical Afro-Brazilian religion Umbanda), Maia gave up drugs and alcohol, threw away his material possessions, and released Racional Vols. 1 & 2 in the attempt to convert the entirety of Brazil and the world to the revelation of Rational Culture. Thayer explores this strange, brief, yet incredibly prolific period of Maia’s life wherein the reigning soul and funk artist of Brazil produced two albums, an EP, and a recently unearthed tape containing almost another full album of funky jams laced with spiritual content and scripture. For just as quickly as Maia became entranced with Coelho did he become disillusioned with the cult, disavowing and destroying everything having to do with that experience and refusing to speak of it for the rest of his life. 33 1/3 Global, a series related to but independent from 33 1/3, takes the format of the original series of short, music-based books and brings the focus to music throughout the world. With initial volumes focusing on Japanese and Brazilian music, the series will also include volumes on the popular music of Australia/Oceania, Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and more.

Read more less

HOW WAS A MAN KILLED WHILE ALONE IN A LOCKED ROOM? IS IT THE PERFECT MURDER?It's a case for FBI Special Agent Rose Blake. Still raw after a notorious serial killer slipped through her net, Rose will do whatever it takes - including putting her own life at risk - to nail the perpetrator this time. When a second body with identical wounds is discovered, Rose realises that a twisted murderer is playing a deadly game. A murderer who's not going to stop any time soon. But what links the victims? And who's next? No one is safe, and the clock is ticking...What readers are saying about Playing with Death:'An edgy, pacy, futuristic and oh so very polished cyber thriller...intelligent, perceptive...exciting' trevtwinem.booklikes.com'[A] fast-paced thriller of the highest quality...The pace of the story is relentless...Would highly recommend' Goodreads reviewer, 5 stars'Grips you from the beginning and races to a most exciting and enigmatic ending. It was one of those books that call you back every time you are dragged away. I absolutely loved it' www.crimesquad.com, 5 stars'A leading-edge thriller...My skin crawled quite a bit whilst reading this...A great novel that explores some brilliant concepts' Goodreads reviewer, 5 stars'Addictive...thought provoking...Definitely recommended' Goodreads reviewer, 4 stars'Makes you lie in bed and go over every possible theory in your head...I can't recommend this book enough. If you're a fan of Simon Scarrow or just love a good crime thriller then do not hesitate to read this book' Goodreads reviewer, 5 stars'A terrific thriller' Goodreads reviewer, 4 stars

Read more less

The Peak District has always been a formidable barrier to transport links across it, particularly railways. The first crude horse-drawn tramways fed canals on its eastern and western flanks, but in 1830 – only five years after the Stockton & Darlington Railway opened – a standard gauge line climbed over the top of the Peak District and down the other side on fearsome inclines to connect canals at Cromford and Whaley Bridge. Sheffield and Manchester were connected in 1845 by the first line across the Pennines through the notorious Woodhead Tunnel, followed by a gradual infilling of lines connecting Peak District towns and villages. Some of them became as famous as the Settle–Carlisle route, such were the engineering difficulties of driving a route through the limestone dales. The line between Dore and Chinley was the last main line in England to be driven across the Pennines in two huge tunnels. At its height the Peak District railway system encompassed a narrow gauge light railway for tourists, cable-hauled inclines to export limestone, seven of the UK’s twenty longest railway tunnels, and Britain’s first all-electric main line. The birth of British Railways in 1948 and the subsequent Beeching axe were the death knell for many of these unique railways. Today some of the tracks can still be followed on foot, bicycle or horseback thanks to the Peak District National Park and other leisure organisations. The historic tunnels, viaducts and stations on the most famous routes have been restored and reopened as long-distance footpaths and heritage lines – a renaissance to be enjoyed by today’s tourists.

Read more less

**Shortlisted for the 2018 General Outstanding Sports Book of the Year**One of the founder members in 1895 of what became the Rugby League, Batley was once a thriving centre of commerce, one of the bustling mill towns in the Heavy Woollen District of West Yorkshire. More than 120 years on, times have changed, even if the town's Victorian buildings remain, but one constant is the importance of the club as the centre of the community. And in 2016, the Batley Bulldogs brought more than their fair share of pride to the town. They were Underdogs, but gave their professional Super League rivals a run for their money in a season that surpassed all expectations.Given unprecedented access to the team - players, staff and fans - Tony Hannan charts a fascinating year in the life of a lower-league club, of labourers spilling blood and guts on to Batley's notorious sloping pitch before getting bruised bodies up for work on a Monday morning, of hand-to-mouth existence at the unglamorous and gritty end of British sport. And at their centre is the Bulldogs captain Keegan Hirst, the first rugby league player to come out as gay, and inspirational coach John Kear, just two men in the most colourful cast of characters. It was also a year when the town was plunged into tragedy by the brutal murder of local MP Jo Cox, a great supporter of the club.Underdogs is more than just a book about Batley though. It is the story of northern working-class culture, past and present, and a report from the front-line of a society struggling to find its identity in a changing world.

Read more less

Sherrilyn Kenyon returns with the next addictive novel in her globally bestselling Dark-Hunter series . . . There is nothing in the universe the cursed dragon, Falcyn, hates more than humanity . . . and in particular, Greek humans. In a war he wanted no part of, they systematically destroyed everything he'd ever cared for. Now he lies in seclusion, away from the world and waits for the day when evolution will finally rid him of the human vermin.Medea was born the granddaughter of the Greek god Apollo, and among the first of his people that he cursed to die. But she will not let anyone rule her life. Not even her notorious grandfather. And when Apollo sends a new plague to destroy what remains of her people, she refuses to standby and watch him take everything she loves from her again.This time, she knows of a secret weapon that can stop the ancient god and his army of demons. Once and for all. However, said device is in the hands of a dragon who wants nothing to do with politics, the gods, humanity, demons or Greek Apollites. And especially not her. He is the immovable object.When Apollo makes a strategic move that backfires, he forces Falcyn back into play. Now Medea either has the weapon she needs to save her people, or she's unleashed total Armageddon. If she can't find some way to control the dragon before it's too late, Falcyn will be an even worse plague on the world than the one Apollo has set loose. But how can anyone control a demonic dragon whose sole birthright is total destruction?

Read more less

Best known for his notorious 'Rivers of Blood' speech in 1968 and his outspoken opposition to immigration, Enoch Powell was one of the most controversial figures in British political life in the second half of the twentieth century and a formative influence on what came to be known as Thatcherism. Telling the story of Powell's political life from the 1950s onwards, Paul Corthorn's intellectual biography goes beyond a fixation on the 'Rivers of Blood' speech to bring us a man who thought deeply about - and often took highly unusual (and sometimes apparently contradictory) positions on - the central political debates of the post-1945 era: denying the existence of the Cold War (at one stage going so far as to advocate the idea of an alliance with the Soviet Union); advocating free-market economics long before it was fashionable, while remaining a staunch defender of the idea of a National Health Service; vehemently opposing British membership of the European Economic Community; arguing for the closer integration of Northern Ireland with the rest of the UK; and in the 1980s supporting the campaign for unilateral nuclear disarmament. In the process, Powell emerges as more than just a deeply divisive figure but as a seminal political intellectual of his time. Paying particular attention to the revealing inconsistencies in Powell's thought and the significant ways in which his thinking changed over time, Corthorn argues that Powell's diverse campaigns can nonetheless still be understood as a coherent whole, if viewed as part of a long-running, and wide-ranging, debate set against the backdrop of the long-term decline in Britain's international, military, and economic position in the decades after 1945.

Read more less

New to Penguin Modern Classics, the seminal work of gay literature that sparked an infamous legal trial for obscenity and went on to become a bestseller.The Well of Loneliness tells the story of tomboyish Stephen, who hunts, wears trousers and cuts her hair short - and who gradually comes to realise that she is attracted to women. Charting her romantic and professional adventures during the First World War and beyond, the novel provoked a furore on first publication in 1928 for its lesbian heroine and led to a notorious legal trial for obscenity. Hall herself, however, saw the book as a pioneer work and today it is recognised as a landmark work of gay fiction.This Penguin edition includes a new introduction by Maureen Duffy.'The archetypal lesbian novel' - Times Literary Supplement'One of the first and most influential contributions of gay and lesbian literature' - New StatesmanRadclyffe Hall was born in 1880. After an unhappy childhood, she inherited her father's estate and from then on was free to travel and live as she chose. She fell in love and lived with an older woman before settling down with Una Troubridge, a married sculptor. Hall wrote many books but is best known for The Well of Loneliness, first published in 1928. She died in 1943 and is buried in Highgate Cemetery in London.Maureen Duffy was born in 1933 and educated at Kings College London. She became a full-time writer in the 1960s, and has since written numerous screenplays, poetry and novels. A lifelong campaigner for gay rights and animal rights, Duffy is also president of the Authors' Licensing and Collecting Society.

Read more less

South Korea a democratic high-tech Asian Tiger and flamboyant host of the 2002 World Cup; North Korea a secretive dictatorship on Bush's notorious axis of evil', with a controversial nuclear program and a poverty-stricken population. These two Koreas seem worlds apart, separated along the 38th parallel by the last active cold war' frontier. But North and South Korea share a common history and culture of which both are deeply proud; the poignant scenes of reunited families when the borders were opened in 2000 show that, even though frustrated, the links between the two populations remain strong. Keith Pratt tells the story of this common heritage from the ancient states of Old Choson and Wiman Choson to the present relics of Cold War politics. He describes the physical and cultural landscape in which this history unfolds, dealing with religious identities and social aspects like food and drink, as well as more controversial issues such as punishment and torture, and the comfort women' of the Japanese occupation. In a series of short picture essays he introduces particular aspects of Korea's past, including the world's oldest observatory and the country's famous turtle boats. "Everlasting Flower: A History of Korea" reveals a country which, although sandwiched between the more familiar worlds of China and Japan, has a distinct and rich cultural identity of its own. With the DPRK's precarious relationship with the outside world brought to increasingly frequent crises in the aftermath of 9/11, the Korean peninsular looks certain to remain a geopolitical hotspot. The importance of understanding this part of the world has never been greater.

Read more less

Jack Foley has been prominent in the San Francisco Bay Area poetry scene since the mid-1980s. The Light of Evening traces the arc of his life since his birth in New Jersey in 1940. Foley has spent his life in the pursuit of ways to continue writing poetry in a world in which the status of poetry has been seriously diminished. This candid autobiography offers a portrait of an artist who has continued to produce experimental as well as traditional work and who created theoretical underpinnings for that work. His exciting “choruses” – duets performed with his late wife Adelle – established him as a unique presenter of poetry in an area in which poets abound. Along with his creative work, Foley studied at Cornell with the brilliant and notorious deconstructionist critic Paul de Man. He lived through the 1960s in and around Berkeley, California, attending the university at the height of the Free Speech Movement. Following on the heels of Kenneth Rexroth, he has presented poetry on KPFA-FM, Berkeley’s radical radio station, for over thirty years. He produced a 1300-page history of Californian poetry from 1940 to 2005 that has been called “an oddball masterpiece ... the first adequate account of California's complex and contradictory literary life.” At eighty, Foley looks back at a life in which he managed to maintain himself as a contrarian poet who never resorted to the academy for sustenance and who never courted fame from the East Coast literary hegemony. The Light of Evening is the story of a complex, always-in-motion public intellectual for whom poetry was first, last, and always.

Read more less

Two-time Mary Higgins Clark Award-Winning Author!A chilling story set in a former Magdalen Laundry in Manhattan that explores today’s #MeToo complexities."In a twisting, mesmerizing story that is as beautifully written as it is utterly propulsive, Goodman keeps us breathlessly turning the pages right to the shocking and poignant end. I absolutely loved this layered and moving novel!” —Lisa Unger, New York Times bestselling author You’re never really aloneJournalist Joan Lurie has written a seething article exposing a notorious newspaper tycoon as a sexual predator. But the night it goes live, she is brutally attacked. Traumatized and suffering the effects of a concussion, she moves into a highly secure apartment in Manhattan called the Refuge, which was at one time a Magdalen Laundry. Joan should be safe here, so how can she explain the cryptic incidents that are happening?Lillian Day is Joan’s new 96-year-old neighbor at the Refuge. In 1941, Lillian witnessed a mysterious murder that sent her into hiding at the Magdalen Laundry, and she hasn’t come out since. As she relates to Joan her harrowing story, Joan sees striking similarities to her own past.Melissa Osgood, newly widowed and revengeful, has burning questions about her husband’s recent death. When she discovers a suspicious paper trail that he left behind, she realizes how little she knew about her marriage. But it seems Joan Lurie might be the one who has the answers. As these three lives intersect, each woman must stay one step ahead of those who are desperate to make sure the truth is never uncovered.

Read more less

Lichfield, of all the towns and cities in the West Midlands, has the longest and most intriguing history. Its famous son, Dr. Samuel Johnson, called it 'a city of philosophers' and the extraordinary society of writers, scientists and thinkers who lived in the shadow of its great cathedral in the 18th century proved his point. By that time the city already had well over a thousand years of history under its belt, since St Chad came down from York in the 7th century and recognised Lichfield as a place of mystery and power, perfect for his new church. In the Middle Ages, powerful bishops fortified the town and the close and created one of the earliest markets in the Midlands. Such was its importance that every English king included it in his itinerary. In the 1640s Lichfield was the focus for one of the most dramatic conflicts of the Civil War, when within four years the city came under siege three times. In this important new book, Dr. Upton, who is as well known for his entertaining style of writing as for his erudition, has provided a comprehensive and compelling account of one of England's great cathedral cities from its early Saxon origins to its modern growth. A tale of two cities - the ecclesiastical centre of prime importance and the market town struggling to emerge from the shade of the three famous spires - it takes in a holy well, a royal prisoner, a notorious asylum and Dr. Darwin's amorous cat with many amusing stories of former residents and notable incidents. It is the book that Lichfield has been waiting for!

Read more less