Search results for ""Front Row""

The captivating inside story of the man who helmed National Geographic over the course of six decades is a front-row seat to iconic feats of exploration, from the successful hunt for the Titanic to Jane Goodall's field studies, offering a rare portrait of one of the most iconic media empires in history and making an impassioned argument for our enduring need to know and care for our world.Though his career path had been paved by four generations of his family before him, Gilbert M. Grosvenor left his own mark on the National Geographic Society, founded in 1888 and recognised the world over by its ubiquitous yellow border. In an unflinchingly honest memoir as big as the world and all that is in it, Grosvenor shows us what it was like to "grow up Geographic" in a family home where explorers like Robert Peary, Louis Leakey, and Jane Goodall regularly crossed the threshold. As staff photographer, editor in chief and then president of the organisation, Grosvenor oversaw the diversification into television, film, books, as well as its flagship magazine, which under his tenure reached a peak circulation of nearly 11 million. He also narrates the shift from a nonprofit, family-focused enterprise to the more corporate, bottom-line focused world of publishing today.For Grosvenor, running National Geographic wasn’t just a job. It was a legacy, motivated by a passion not just to leave the world a better place, but to motivate others to do so, too. Filled with world travel, charismatic explorers, and the complexities of running a publishing empire, A MAN OF THE WORLD is the story of one man, a singular family business, and the changing face of American media.

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A robust and engaging account of the single greatest threat faced by AI and ML systems In Not With A Bug, But With A Sticker: Attacks on Machine Learning Systems and What To Do About Them, a team of distinguished adversarial machine learning researchers deliver a riveting account of the most significant risk to currently deployed artificial intelligence systems: cybersecurity threats. The authors take you on a sweeping tour – from inside secretive government organizations to academic workshops at ski chalets to Google’s cafeteria – recounting how major AI systems remain vulnerable to the exploits of bad actors of all stripes. Based on hundreds of interviews of academic researchers, policy makers, business leaders and national security experts, the authors compile the complex science of attacking AI systems with color and flourish and provide a front row seat to those who championed this change. Grounded in real world examples of previous attacks, you will learn how adversaries can upend the reliability of otherwise robust AI systems with straightforward exploits. The steeplechase to solve this problem has already begun: Nations and organizations are aware that securing AI systems brings forth an indomitable advantage: the prize is not just to keep AI systems safe but also the ability to disrupt the competition’s AI systems. An essential and eye-opening resource for machine learning and software engineers, policy makers and business leaders involved with artificial intelligence, and academics studying topics including cybersecurity and computer science, Not With A Bug, But With A Sticker is a warning—albeit an entertaining and engaging one—we should all heed. How we secure our AI systems will define the next decade. The stakes have never been higher, and public attention and debate on the issue has never been scarcer. The authors are donating the proceeds from this book to two charities: Black in AI and Bountiful Children’s Foundation.

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As seen on The 700 Club! HE WAS THERE! Apple Records former US manager Ken Mansfield takes a touching and comprehensive look back on one of Rock’n’Roll’s most significant events, while bringing an insider’s perspective to the days leading up to those 42 fascinating minutes of the Beatles monumental Rooftop Concert.There are moments in time that cause us to stop and take notice of where we were and what we were doing when they happen in order to commit the experience to memory—how it made us feel, who was there with us, why it felt important. January 30, 1969 was one of those moments. There are those who were on the periphery of the event that day and heard what was going on; but as one of the few remaining insiders who accompanied the Beatles up onto the cold windswept roof of the Apple building, Ken Mansfield had a front row seat to the full sensory experience of the moment and witnessed what turned out to be beginning of the end. Ken shares in The Roof: The Beatles Final Concert, the sense that something special was taking place before his eyes that would live on forever in the hearts and souls of millions. As the US manager of Apple, Ken Mansfield was on the scene in the days, weeks, and months leading up to this monumental event. He shares his insights into the factors that brought them up onto that roof and why one of the greatest bands of all time left it all on that stage. Join Ken as he reflects on the relationships he built with the Fab Four and the Apple corps and what each player meant to this symphony of music history.

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Though less of a household name than his contemporaries in early twentieth century Paris, Jewish homosexual poet Max Jacob was Pablo Picasso’s initiator into French culture, Guillaume Apollinaire’s guide out of the haze of symbolism, and Jean Cocteau’s loyal friend. As Picasso reinvented painting, Jacob helped to reinvent poetry with compressed, hard-edged prose poems and synapse-skipping verse lyrics, the product of a complex amalgamation of Jewish, Breton, Parisian, and Roman Catholic influences. In Max Jacob, the poet’s life plays out against the vivid backdrop of bohemian Paris from the turn of the twentieth century through the divisions of World War II. Acclaimed poet Rosanna Warren transports us to Picasso’s ramshackle studio in Montmartre, where Cubism was born; introduces the artists gathered at a seedy bar on the left bank, where Max would often hold court; and offers a front-row seat to the artistic squabbles that shaped the Modernist movement. Jacob’s complex understanding of faith, art, and sexuality animates this sweeping work. In 1909, he saw a vision of Christ in his shabby room in Montmartre, and in 1915 he converted formally from Judaism to Catholicism—with Picasso as his godfather. In his later years, Jacob split his time between Paris and the monastery of Benoît-sur-Loire. In February 1944, he was arrested by the Gestapo and sent to Drancy, where he would die a few days later. More than thirty years in the making, this landmark biography offers a compelling, tragic portrait of Jacob as a man and as an artist alongside a rich study of his groundbreaking poetry—in Warren’s own stunning translations. Max Jacob is a nuanced, deeply researched, and essential contribution to Modernist scholarship.

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Peter Asher met the Beatles in the spring of 1963, the start of a lifelong association with the band and its members. He had a front-row seat as they elevated pop music into an art form, and he was present at the creation of some of the most iconic music of our times. Asher is also a talented musician in his own right, with a great ear for what is new and fresh. Once, when Paul McCartney wrote a song that John Lennon didn’t think was right for the Beatles, Asher asked if he could record it. “A World Without Love” became a global number-one hit for his duo, Peter & Gordon. A few years later Asher was asked by Paul McCartney to help start Apple Records; the first artist Asher discovered and signed up was a young American singer-songwriter named James Taylor. Before long he would be not only managing and producing Taylor but also (having left Apple and moved to Los Angeles) working with Linda Ronstadt, Neil Diamond, Robin Williams, Joni Mitchell, and Cher, among others. The Beatles from A to Zed grows out of his popular radio program “From Me to You” on SiriusXM’s The Beatles Channel, where he shares memories and insights about the Fab Four and their music. Here he weaves his reflections into a whimsical alphabetical journey that focuses not only on songs whose titles start with each letter, but also on recurrent themes in the Beatles’ music, the instruments they played, the innovations they pioneered, the artists who influenced them, the key people in their lives, and the cultural events of the time. Few can match Peter Asher for his fresh and personal perspective on the Beatles. And no one is a more congenial and entertaining guide to their music.

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The first known Chicago Tribune theater review appeared on March 25, 1853. An anonymous notice, it shared the page with two other announcements - one about a pair of thousand-pound hogs set to be slaughtered and another trumpeting the largest load of lumber ever to leave Chicago. "And thus Chicago's priorities were starkly laid out right there on that page," begins Chris Jones in the introduction to this new collection. "Hog butcher for the world and windy self-promoter, specializing in commerce-driven superlatives. The arts came a poor third. Critics would rail against that perceived set of civic priorities for years." The Chicago of today, on the other hand, is regarded as one of the world's premier cities for theater, and no one has had a more consistent front-row seat to its ascendance than the Chicago Tribune theater critics. Bigger, Brighter, Louder weaves together more than 150 years of Tribune reviews into a compelling narrative, pairing full reviews with commentary and history. With a sharp eye for telling details and a keen sense of historical context, Jones, longtime chief Tribune theater critic, takes readers through decades of highs and lows, successes and failures. The book showcases fascinating early reviews of actors and shows that would go on to achieve phenomenal success, including a tryout of A Raisin in the Sun with newcomer Sidney Poitier and the first major review of The Producers. It also delves into the rare and the unusual, such as a previously unpublished Tennessee Williams interview and a long conversation with Edward Albee's mother. Bigger, Brighter, Louder offers a vital store of primary documents about Chicago arts and a riveting look at the history behind the city's rise to theatrical greatness.

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LGBTQ writing from ancient times to yesterday, selected by award-winning translator Frank Wynne. Since the dawn of literature, queer people have turned to writing to document their existence: to share great triumphs and deep despairs; to praise the virtues of their lover, extol their loneliness and proclaim their lust; to tell of their peculiarities and mundanities. For almost as long, they have been censored and bowdlerised, persecuted and relegated to the margins. No longer. Alive in these pages, readers will hear Homer's Achilles beat his chest in grief for the loss of his Patroclus and Paul Verlaine exalt the arsehole of his lover. They will see Alison Bechdel tiptoe then leap out of the closet and Juno Dawson come out again, but differently. They will bite and lick and groan in sweet surprise with Roz Kaveney, and fall in and out of love alongside Qiu Miaojin in Paris and Taiwan. They will recognise queer saints and icons – Audre Lorde, Larry Kramer, Virginia Woolf – and meet young queer, trans and non-binary writers – Keith Jarrett, Zhang Yueran and Niviaq Korneliussen, among others. Frank Wynne allows their voices to ring out, unashamed and unabashed, in eighty pieces that straddle the spectrum of queer existence: short stories, poems, essays, extracts and scenes from countries the world over, from ancient times to yesterday. Reviews for Queer: 'A landmark anthology of queer writing' BBC Front Row 'A landmark collection of LGBTQ writing from ancient times to yesterday, featuring powerful voices in many literary forms' Spectator, Books of the Year 'A fearless and life-affirming celebration of what Gilbert Adair [...] called 'the second most natural thing in the world'' Review 31, Books of the Year

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The rollicking adventurous picture book from the number one bestselling author and illustrator of The Gruffalo, Stick Man and Zog. 'Give me your buns and your biscuits! Give me your chocolate eclairs! For I am the Rat of the highway, and the Rat Thief never shares!' Life is not safe for the other animals, as the villainous Highway Rat gallops along the highway, stealing their food. Clover from a rabbit; nuts from a squirrel - he even steals his own horse's hay. Will he finally meet his comeuppance, in the form of a cunning duck? Shiny foil highlights on the cover makes this a special gift for toddlers A fabulous, rollicking rhyme, in the style of the famous Alfred Noyes poem, 'The Highwayman', from the UK's number one picture book author and illustrator Perfect read-aloud rhyming text and stunning pictures on every page with lots of details to spot Adventure, friendship and learning to be kind are at the heart of this story The Highway Rat has been adapted into a popular animated film starring voices from David Tennant (Highway Rat), Nina Sosanya (Duck), Rob Brydon (Horse), Tom Hollander (Squirrel) and Frances de la Tour (Rabbit) The animated film of Tabby McTat stars voice artists including Jodie Whittaker (Doctor Who) as the narrator, Rob Brydon (Gavin and Stacey) as Fred, Sope Dirisu (Gangs of London) as Tabby McTat, alongside Cariad Lloyd, Joanna Scanlan and Susan Wokoma. Look out for Jonty Gentoo by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler in 2024. Praise for The Highway Rat: 'A classic picture book ... great to read aloud' BBC Radio 4 'Front Row' 'Donaldson's ear for rhyme is unequalled and Scheffler's busy, funny illustrations make this ideal for reading aloud' Daily Mail

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‘A lively picture of multiple operators scrambling to steal a march on the competition . . . Lavishly detailed’FINANCIAL TIMES ‘This is Shakespearean scholarship at its best, brilliantly researched yet compulsively readable. It's a book for our times, enduringly fascinating and appealing to both enthusiasts and the general reader. Highly recommended!’ ALISON WEIR FINANCIAL TIMES BOOK OF THE SUMMER A BBC HISTORY MAGAZINE BOOK OF THE YEAR 2023 A BBC RADIO 4 FRONT ROW NON-FICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR 2023 AN AUSTRALIAN BOOK REVIEW BOOK OF THE YEAR 2023 The year 2023 marks the 400th anniversary of Mr William Shakespeare’s Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies, known today simply as the First Folio. It is difficult to imagine a world without The Tempest, Twelfth Night, Antony and Cleopatra, The Winter’s Tale and Macbeth, but these are just some of the plays that were only preserved thanks to the astounding labour of love that went into creating the first collection. Shakespeare’s Book: The Intertwined Lives Behind the First Folio charts, for the first time, the manufacture of the First Folio against a turbulent backdrop of seismic political events and international tensions that intersected with the lives of its creators. Shakespeare scholar Dr Chris Laoutaris uncovers the friendships, bonds, social ties and professional networks that facilitated the production of Shakespeare ’ s book, as well as the personal challenges, tragedies and dangers that threatened its completion. And he considers how Shakespeare himself, before his death, may have influenced the ways in which his own public identity would come to be enshrined in the First Folio, shaping the transmission of his legacy to future generations and determining how the world would remember him ‘not of an age, but for all time’. ‘Beautifully written and utterly compelling… comprises all the drama, intrigue and surprises of a Shakespeare play' Tracy Borman

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Since Gareth Jones's historic press conference in Berlin in 1933 when he became the first journalist to reveal the existence and extent of the Holodomor, a Soviet-induced famine in Ukraine in which over four million people died, Jones and his professional reputation have been the focus of a determined campaign by those who deny the famine ever happened. Attempts to destroy Jones's character, which would de facto undermine the reliability of his reports of the Holodomor, have increased in recent years following global recognition and acclaim for the importance of his work. Citing his professional connections with the Nazis, including: Flying on Hitler's plane on the day he became German Chancellor Having a front row seat at a Nazi rally in Frankfurt Noting that he enjoyed a private dinner with Goebbels Having several acquaintances who later took key roles in the Third Reich His 1935 obituary in a Nazi paper which stated Jones was 'one of us' and his self-confessed love of Germany, speaking fluent German, and making annual visits from 1923-34, there have been a number of accusations that Jones was, in fact, a Nazi sympathiser and fascist collaborator. In this groundbreaking new study, Ray Gamache, an acknowledged expert on Gareth Jones and the reporting of the Holodomor, thoroughly examines Jones's extensive notebooks, letters, articles and speeches to investigate these claims. In Gareth Jones - On Assignment in Nazi Germany 1933-34, Gamache provides a compelling narrative which refutes claims of Jones's Nazi sympathies, stating: 'That he encountered some of the most impactful historical figures and events of the 1930s is beyond dispute, and his reporting of those events offers considerable insight into what responsible journalism looked like at that time.'

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Immerse yourself into the world of cinema and discover action-packed chases, epic journeys, and tear-jerking moments.Get the popcorn popping and keep the movies coming! From box office hits and cult classics to romcoms and thrillers, this is your go-to guide to movies, directors, genres and styles.This ultimate movie guide profiles more than 100 of the most significant films ever made and brings cinema to life in true blockbuster fashion. Discover the behind-the-scenes stories about timeless classics like Citizen Kane and The Godfather, and take a front-row seat at lavish blockbusters like Star Wars or Titanic.- Lists of top 10 film recommendations - What to watch boxes that explore specific plot lines, scenes, and images- Trivia sections to test your knowledge on Oscar-winning movies, biggest flops and banned films- Explains complex methods of film-making in familiar, non-technical jargon- High-resolution photography and stills allow for a deeper understanding of the nature of film-makingEach page of this film book takes you on a journey through the ever-changing landscape of cinema - from Hollywood to Bollywood and everything in between. It includes every film-making school from across the globe, behind-the-scenes shots, profiles of 100 influential directors, and lists more than 100 of the greatest movies ever made!Lights. Camera. Action!Whether you enjoy art films or sci-fi, going to the cinema or watching movies on Netflix, The Film Book covers it all. It's perfect for inspiring your next movie night!This updated version covers the best films and directors of the last 10 years, along with new discoveries in the history of cinema since the last edition from 2011. It's the ultimate gift for any film buff or critic.

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**Winner of the Sunday Times Sports Book of the Year Award 2023****Winner of the Rugby Book of the Year Award 2023****Longlisted for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award 2022****A perfect gift for Father's Day**'Powerful, moving' - The Guardian'A deeply affecting read [...] among the most important ever' - Daily Mail'So powerful. This book might just change the way you think about sport forever' - Sir Clive Woodward'As brave as they come' - Gareth Thomas'Moving and profound' - The Times'Heartbreaking' - Owen Slot, The Times'I'm in my early forties. There are days when I don't remember the names of my wife and four kids . . .'RUGBY, DEMENTIA AND THE FIGHT OF MY LIFEIn 2003, England won the Rugby World Cup. Steve Thompson was in England's front row, at the heart of the match, and at the heart of the scrum - one of sport's most violent battlegrounds. But triumph came at a cost. Today, he remembers nothing about playing in that final. In his words, watching the tape back is like watching a ghost. The years of hurt, and the culture of sucking up punishment and coming back for more, have taken a terrible toll. Steve has been diagnosed with early onset dementia, and serious progressive brain damage. Steve and his wife Steph had a happy family life planned, with decades ahead of them. Now he needs to capture these elusive memories for the sake of his children, before they disappear forever. With stories contributed by his world-cup winning teammates and his former manager, Sir Clive Woodward, Unforgettable is raw, powerful storytelling. This tale of hope and courage stands as testament to the ultimate strength of the human mind - and to a man no longer pushing himself to the limit for competition, but for his own place in the world.

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For a decade, award-winning New York Times journalist Amy Chozick chronicled Hillary Clinton's pursuit of the presidency. Chozick's front-row seat, initially covering Clinton's imploding 2008 campaign, and then her assignment to “The Hillary Beat” ahead of the 2016 election, took her to 48 states and set off a nearly ten-years-long journey in which the formative years of her twenties and thirties became – both personally and professionally – intrinsically intertwined to Clinton's presidential ambitions. Chozick's candor and clear-eyed perspective-from her seat on the Hillary bus and reporting from inside the campaign's Brooklyn headquarters, to her run-ins with Donald J. Trump and her globetrotting with Bill Clinton- provide fresh intrigue and insights into the story we thought we all knew. This is the real story of what happened, with the kind of dishy, inside details that repeatedly surprise and enlighten. But Chasing Hillary is also a rollicking, irreverent, refreshingly honest personal story of how the would-be first woman president looms over Chozick's life. And, as she gets married, attempts to infiltrate the upper echelons of political journalism and inquires about freezing her eggs so she can have children after the 2016 campaign, Chozick dives deeper into decisions Clinton made at similar points in her life. In the process, Chozick came to see Clinton not as an unknowable enigma and political animal but as a complex person, full of contradictions and forged in the political battles and media storms that had long predated Chozick's years of coverage. Trailing Clinton through all of the highs and lows of the most noxious and wildly dramatic presidential election in American history, Chozick comes to understand what drove Clinton, how she accomplished what no woman had before, and why she ultimately failed. Poignant, illuminating, laugh-out-loud funny, Chasing Hillary is a campaign book like never before that reads like a fast-moving political novel.

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Since around the turn of the millennium there has been a general acceptance that one of the more practical improvements one may make in the light of the shortfalls of the classical Black-Scholes model is to replace the underlying source of randomness, a Brownian motion, by a Lévy process. Working with Lévy processes allows one to capture desirable distributional characteristics in the stock returns. In addition, recent work on Lévy processes has led to the understanding of many probabilistic and analytical properties, which make the processes attractive as mathematical tools. At the same time, exotic derivatives are gaining increasing importance as financial instruments and are traded nowadays in large quantities in OTC markets. The current volume is a compendium of chapters, each of which consists of discursive review and recent research on the topic of exotic option pricing and advanced Lévy markets, written by leading scientists in this field. In recent years, Lévy processes have leapt to the fore as a tractable mechanism for modeling asset returns. Exotic option values are especially sensitive to an accurate portrayal of these dynamics. This comprehensive volume provides a valuable service for financial researchers everywhere by assembling key contributions from the world's leading researchers in the field. Peter Carr, Head of Quantitative Finance, Bloomberg LP. This book provides a front-row seat to the hottest new field in modern finance: options pricing in turbulent markets. The old models have failed, as many a professional investor can sadly attest. So many of the brightest minds in mathematical finance across the globe are now in search of new, more accurate models. Here, in one volume, is a comprehensive selection of this cutting-edge research. Richard L. Hudson, former Managing Editor of The Wall Street Journal Europe, and co-author with Benoit B. Mandelbrot of The (Mis)Behaviour of Markets: A Fractal View of Risk, Ruin and Reward

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"I was impressed by The Stones. They were dressed casually, had mischief in them and were different to other bands." Terry O Neill In July 1962, a group of young men played a gig at The Marquee Club on Oxford Street, London. They called themselves 'The Rollin' Stones' and little did they know they would soon be making music history. This evocative new book captures the youth, the times and the spirit of The Stones' formative early years. And documenting 1963-1965 were two young photographers just starting out in their careers. Terry O'Neill, aged just 25, had a few years' experience photographing musicians and knew that this group had the same magic as another British phenomenon that just recently started to chart, The Beatles. As the band was starting to record and tour, Gered Mankowitz came along. His first shoot, the now famous Mason's Yard session, was so fruitful, Gered was asked to tag along on tour to America. Gered was a mere 19 when he picked up his camera and joined the band on stage in 1965. Between these two legendary photographers, they chronicle the band's beginnings and these indelible images are forever placed in music's consciousness. The photography throughout this book is embellished with various memories and interviews, celebrating the early days and giving an insight into what it must have felt like to go from a small club in Soho with no record deal to touring the world a few years later with a number one record. Terry O'Neill and Gered Mankowitz, two of the most respected, collected and exhibited photographers in the world were sitting in the front-row. 2016 is set to be a huge year for the Rolling Stones, as London's Saatchi Gallery hosts the first ever major exhibition dedicated to the band: Exhibitionism, a career-spanning, museum-style display of Stones artefacts and memorabilia. ACC Editions' publication of this book is due to coincide with the opening of this ground-breaking exhibition.

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Since 1970, the Caribbean has lost half of its coral reefs, an ominous and accelerating phenomenon that extends around the world. Today’s remaining coral reefs – still a source of endless discovery and mystery for scientists – are at risk of disappearing by century’s end. Beyond the unfathomable heartbreak of the loss of such exquisite beauty from the earth’s surface, coral’s loss represents the annual loss of billions of dollars from the global economy and the end of a way of life for billions that depend on these ecosystems. Marine scientist and conservation leader David E. Guggenheim has had a front-row seat to this disaster. But when he began a new chapter of his career in Cuba, he found something completely unexpected: hope. After years and years of watching reefs deteriorate, Guggenheim was astonished to come face-to-face with Cuba's remarkably healthy coral reefs overflowing with fish and other life – ocean ecosystems that appear healthier than those he first encountered as a teenager more than four decades prior. Living Time Machine reveals the hidden potential that Cuba’s reefs may contain for the reefs of the world.Which begs the question: why are Cuba’s ocean waters so healthy? The answer is deeply intertwined with the country’s extraordinary and singularly unique history, from its dramatic political past to its world-class environmental protections influenced by an unlikely partner, Captain Jacques Cousteau. The result is that while the past 60 years have seen the worst decline in ocean health in human history, Cuba’s oceans and coral reefs remain remarkably healthy, a living laboratory never-before-seen by this generation of scientists. The author’s account includes interviews with colleagues, scientists, policymakers, and his own decades-long experience as an American working in Cuba with local marine scientists to study and protect its coastal waters and coral reef ecosystems. Living Time Machine tells the story of the demise of the world’s ocean ecosystems, the hard work of those desperately trying to save it, and an unexpected beacon of hope from an island full of mystery and surprises.

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In 1961, at the height of the Cold War, the United States severed diplomatic relations with Cuba, where a momentous revolution had taken power three years earlier. For more than half a century, the stand-off continued—through the tenure of ten American presidents and the fifty-year rule of Fidel Castro. His death in 2016, and the retirement of his brother and successor Raúl Castro in 2021, have spurred questions about the country’s future. Meanwhile, politics in Washington—Barack Obama’s opening to the island, Donald Trump’s reversal of that policy, and the election of Joe Biden—have made the relationship between the two nations a subject of debate once more. Now, award-winning historian Ada Ferrer delivers an “important” (The Guardian) and moving chronicle that demands a new reckoning with both the island’s past and its relationship with the United States. Spanning more than five centuries, Cuba: An American History provides us with a front-row seat as we witness the evolution of the modern nation, with its dramatic record of conquest and colonization, of slavery and freedom, of independence and revolutions made and unmade. Along the way, Ferrer explores the sometimes surprising, often troubled intimacy between the two countries, documenting not only the influence of the United States on Cuba but also the many ways the island has been a recurring presence in US affairs. This is a story that will give Americans unexpected insights into the history of their own nation and, in so doing, help them imagine a new relationship with Cuba; “readers will close [this] fascinating book with a sense of hope” (The Economist). Filled with rousing stories and characters, and drawing on more than thirty years of research in Cuba, Spain, and the United States—as well as the author’s own extensive travel to the island over the same period—this is a stunning and monumental account like no other.,

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"The best book of the summer." -- InStyle"I LOVED this novel....If you have ever sung along to a hit on the radio, in any decade, then you will devour Mary Jane at 45 rpm." —Nick HornbyAlmost Famous meets Daisy Jones & The Six in this "delightful" (New York Times Book Review) novel about a fourteen-year-old girl’s coming of age in 1970s Baltimore, caught between her straight-laced family and the progressive family she nannies for—who happen to be secretly hiding a famous rock star and his movie star wife for the summer.In 1970s Baltimore, fourteen-year-old Mary Jane loves cooking with her mother, singing in her church choir, and enjoying her family’s subscription to the Broadway Showtunes of the Month record club. Shy, quiet, and bookish, she’s glad when she lands a summer job as a nanny for the daughter of a local doctor. A respectable job, Mary Jane’s mother says. In a respectable house.The house may look respectable on the outside, but inside it’s a literal and figurative mess: clutter on every surface, Impeachment: Now More Than Ever bumper stickers on the doors, cereal and takeout for dinner. And even more troublesome (were Mary Jane’s mother to know, which she does not): the doctor is a psychiatrist who has cleared his summer for one important job—helping a famous rock star dry out. A week after Mary Jane starts, the rock star and his movie star wife move in.Over the course of the summer, Mary Jane introduces her new household to crisply ironed clothes and a family dinner schedule, and has a front-row seat to a liberal world of sex, drugs, and rock and roll (not to mention group therapy). Caught between the lifestyle she’s always known and the future she’s only just realized is possible, Mary Jane will arrive at September with a new idea about what she wants out of life, and what kind of person she’s going to be.

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Hillary Clinton dominated Amy Chozick’s life for more than a decade. Here, she tells the inside story of Clinton’s pursuit of the US presidency in a campaign book like no other. ‘A breathtaking, page-turning masterpiece’ Mary Karr A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER Amy Chozick’s assignments, covering Clinton’s imploding 2008 campaign and then her front-row seat to the 2016 election on ‘The Hillary Beat,’ set off a years-long journey in which the formative years of Chozick’s life became, both personally and professionally, intrinsically intertwined with Clinton’s presidential ambitions. As Clinton tried, and twice failed, to shatter ‘that highest, hardest glass ceiling,’ Chozick was trying, with various fits and starts, to scale the highest echelons of American journalism. In this rollicking, hilarious narrative, Chozick takes us through the high- and low-lights of the most noxious and dramatic presidential election in history. Chozick’s candour and clear-eyed perspective – from her seat on the Hillary bus and reporting from inside the campaign’s headquarters to her run-ins with Donald J. Trump – provide fresh intrigue and insights into the story we think we all know. But Chasing Hillary is also the unusually personal and moving memoir of how Chozick came to understand Clinton not as a political animal, but as a complete, complex person, full of contradictions and forged in the crucible of many earlier battles. In the process, Chozick develops an intimate understanding of what drives Clinton, how she accomplished what no woman had before, and why she ultimately failed. The results also make Chozick question everything she’d worked so hard for in the first place. Political journalism had failed. The elite world Chozick had tried for years to fit in with had been rebuffed. The less qualified, bombastic man had triumphed (as they always seem to do), and Clinton had retreated to the woods, finally showing the real person Chozick had spent years hoping to see. Illuminating, poignant, laugh-out-loud funny, Chasing Hillary is a campaign book unlike any other that reads like a fast-moving political novel.

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'It wasn't easy being a Churchill child - and only Mary managed it with serenity and aplomb, as her diary of wartime ATS service shows' ANNE DE COURCY, SUNDAY TELEGRAPH'Mary's affectionately intimate and emotionally volatile diaries [...] are an informal record that perfectly complements Churchill's own six authoritative volumes of memoirs of the second world war ... This is a happy book' SPECTATOR'A fascinating and intimate insight into the iconic Prime Minister's family life' DAILY TELEGRAPH 'I am not a great or important personage, but this will be the diary of an ordinary person's life in war time. Though I may never live to read it again, perhaps it may not prove altogether uninteresting as a record of my life'In 1939 seventeen-year-old Mary found herself in an extraordinary position at an extraordinary time: it was the outbreak of the Second World War and her father, Winston Churchill, had been appointed First Lord of the Admiralty; within months he would be Prime Minister.The young Mary Churchill was uniquely placed to observe this remarkable historical moment, and her diaries -- most of which have never been published -- provide a front-row view of the great events of war, as well as exchanges and intimate moments with her father. But they also capture what it was like to be a young woman during wartime. An impulsive and spirited writer, full of coming-of-age self-consciousness and joie de vivre, Mary's diaries are untrammelled by hindsight or self-censorship or nostalgia.From aid raid sirens at 10 Downing Street to seeing action with the ATS, from cocktail parties with presidents and royals to accompanying her father on key diplomatic trips, Mary's wartime diaries are full of colour, rich in historical insight, and a charming and intimate portrait of life alongside Winston Churchill.Compiled and edited by Mary's daughter, Emma Soames, in collaboration with The Churchill Archives Centre.

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Experience the stunning rise, fall, and legacy of N.W.A. and how they put their stamp on pop culture, black culture, and hip-hop music forever in this “incredibly vivid look at one of music’s most iconic groups” (Associated Press).In 1986, a group was formed that would establish the foundation of gangsta rap and push the genre forward, electrifying fans with their visceral and profane lyrics that glorified the dark ways of street life and brazenly challenged the police system. Eazy-E, Dr. Dre, Ice Cube, MC Ren, and DJ Yella caused a seismic shift in hip-hop when they decided to form N.W.A in 1986. With their hard-core image, bombastic sound, and lyrics that were equal parts poetic, lascivious, conscious, and downright in-your-face, N.W.A spoke the truth about life on the streets of Compton, California—then a hotbed of poverty, drugs, gangs, and unemployment. Going beyond the story portrayed in the 2015 blockbuster movie Straight Outta Compton, through firsthand interviews, extensive research, and top-notch storytelling, Los Angeles Times music reporter Gerrick Kennedy transports you back in time and offers a front-row seat to N.W.A’s early days and the drama and controversy that followed the incendiary group as they rose to become multiplatinum artists. Kennedy leaves nothing off the table in his pursuit of the full story behind the group’s most pivotal moments, such as Ice Cube’s decision to go solo after their debut studio album became a smash hit; their battle with the FBI over inflammatory lyrics; incidents of physical assault; Dr. Dre’s departure from the group to form Death Row Records with Suge Knight; their impact on the 1992 L.A. riots; Eazy-E’s battle with AIDS; and much more. A bold, riveting, “non-stop, can’t-put-it-down ride” (Library Journal), Parental Discretion Is Advised unveils the true and astonishing history of one of the most transcendent and controversial musical groups of the 1980s and 1990s.

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A SUMMER SPECIAL EDITION OF THE INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER, WITH EXCLUSIVE COVER AND EXTRA CONTENTWINNER OF THE 2021 BOOKS ARE MY BAG READERS' AWARD FOR YOUNG ADULT FICTIONNOMINATED FOR THE CARNEGIE MEDAL 2022"This summer's hottest YA debut." Entertainment WeeklyACE OF SPADES is Gossip Girl meets Get Out, with a shocking twist. Buried secrets come to light when two students are targeted by an anonymous bully with an explosive agenda.Hello, Niveus High. It's me. Who am I? That's not important. All you need to know is...I'm here to divide and conquer. - AcesWelcome to Niveus Private Academy, where money paves the hallways, and the students are never less than perfect. Until now. Because anonymous texter, Aces, is revealing the darkest secrets of two students.Talented musician Devon buries himself in rehearsals, but he can't escape the spotlight when his private photos go public.Head girl Chiamaka isn't afraid to get what she wants, but soon everyone will know the price she has paid for power.Someone is out to get them both. Someone who holds all the aces. And they're planning much more than a high-school game...Unputdownable and utterly compulsive, this high-octane thriller takes a powerful look at institutionalized racism. As seen in Vogue, The Guardian, Marie Claire, The New York Times, Elle, Buzzfeed, Cosmo and Entertainment Weekly, and on BBC Front Row, perfect for fans of Karen McManus, Holly Jackson and Angie Thomas.*This summer special features an exclusive cover from award-winning Kingsley Nebechi, and exciting extra content: an exclusive never-seen-before chapter and brand-new author letter.*"ACE OF SPADES is the thought-provoking thriller we ALL need." Nic Stone, #1 NYT bestselling author"A heart-racing and twisty thriller." Alice Oseman"Strong Gossip Girl vibes and a whole lot of mystery." Buzzfeed"Thunderous and terrifying. There's no way you're putting this down until you get to the last page." Maureen Johnson, NYT bestselling author

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With Leopard, Apple has unleashed the greatest version of Mac OS X yet, and David Pogue is back with another meticulous Missing Manual to cover the operating system with a wealth of detail. The new Mac OS X 10.5, better known as Leopard, is faster than its predecessors, but nothing's too fast for Pogue and this Missing Manual. It's just one of reasons this is the most popular computer book of all time. Mac OS X: The Missing Manual, Leopard Edition is the authoritative book for Mac users of all technical levels and experience. If you're new to the Mac, this book gives you a crystal-clear, jargon-free introduction to the Dock, the Mac OS X folder structure, and the Mail application. There are also mini-manuals on iLife applications such as iMovie, iDVD, and iPhoto, and a tutorial for Safari, Mac's web browser. This Missing Manual is amusing and fun to read, but Pogue doesn't take his subject lightly. Which new Leopard features work well and which do not? What should you look for? What should you avoid? Mac OS X: The Missing Manual, Leopard Edition offers an objective and straightforward instruction for using: * Leopard's totally revamped Finder * Spaces to group your windows and organize your Mac tasks * Quick Look to view files before you open them * The Time Machine, Leopard's new backup feature * Spotlight to search for and find anything in your Mac * Front Row, a new way to enjoy music, photos, and videos * Enhanced Parental Controls that come with Leopard * Quick tips for setting up and configuring your Mac to make it your own There's something new on practically every page of this new edition, and David Pogue brings his celebrated wit and expertise to every one of them. Mac's brought a new cat to town and Mac OS X: The Missing Manual, Leopard Edition is a great new way to tame it.

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"The best book of the summer." -- InStyle"I LOVED this novel....If you have ever sung along to a hit on the radio, in any decade, then you will devour Mary Jane at 45 rpm." —Nick HornbyAlmost Famous meets Daisy Jones & The Six in this "delightful" (New York Times Book Review) novel about a fourteen-year-old girl’s coming of age in 1970s Baltimore, caught between her straight-laced family and the progressive family she nannies for—who happen to be secretly hiding a famous rock star and his movie star wife for the summer.In 1970s Baltimore, fourteen-year-old Mary Jane loves cooking with her mother, singing in her church choir, and enjoying her family’s subscription to the Broadway Showtunes of the Month record club. Shy, quiet, and bookish, she’s glad when she lands a summer job as a nanny for the daughter of a local doctor. A respectable job, Mary Jane’s mother says. In a respectable house.The house may look respectable on the outside, but inside it’s a literal and figurative mess: clutter on every surface, Impeachment: Now More Than Ever bumper stickers on the doors, cereal and takeout for dinner. And even more troublesome (were Mary Jane’s mother to know, which she does not): the doctor is a psychiatrist who has cleared his summer for one important job—helping a famous rock star dry out. A week after Mary Jane starts, the rock star and his movie star wife move in.Over the course of the summer, Mary Jane introduces her new household to crisply ironed clothes and a family dinner schedule, and has a front-row seat to a liberal world of sex, drugs, and rock and roll (not to mention group therapy). Caught between the lifestyle she’s always known and the future she’s only just realized is possible, Mary Jane will arrive at September with a new idea about what she wants out of life, and what kind of person she’s going to be.

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'LOEB IS AN ASTRONOMICAL SHERLOCK HOLMES' Washington Post'A JOY IN CONJECTURE AND AN OMNIVOROUS SPIRIT OF INQUIRY. . . CARL SAGAN WOULD HAVE LIKED THIS BOOK' The Times In 2017, Avi Loeb, Chair of Harvard's Astronomy Department, went public with a theory that shook the scientific community - our solar system has been visited by advanced alien technology. His provocative and persuasive argument (and internationally bestselling book Extraterrestrial) has opened thousands of minds to the existence of intelligent life beyond Earth. This book tackles the huge question of what happens next?Long the stuff of science-fiction, here at last is the science fact. From advances in deep space probes to ongoing searches for extraterrestrial technology in our night sky, through the latest heated debates over the existence of Unidentified Aerial Phenomena, Interstellar offers a thrilling, front-row view of the technology and the ideas currently preparing us for contact with alien civilizations. Providing the first realistic and practical blueprint for how that might actually occur, Professor Loeb lays out the profound implications of our becoming - or not becoming - an interstellar species. In an urgent, eloquent appeal for more proactive engagement with the outer universe, he powerfully contends why we must seek out other life forms, and in the process, choose who and what we are within the universe.Combining cutting-edge science, physics, and philosophy, Loeb takes us on a mind-bending journey through the furthest reaches of science, space-time, and the human imagination. Interstellar is an eye-opening, necessary look at our future that proves, once again, that scientific curiosity offers the key to our survival.'LOEB IS SURELY CORRECT . . . SCIENTISTS STUDYING THE VASTNESS OF THE COSMOS SHOULD ENTERTAIN RISKY IDEAS MORE OFTEN, FOR THE UNIVERSE IS UNDOUBTEDLY MORE WILD AND UNEXPECTED THAN ANY EXTREMES CONJURED BY THE HUMAN IMAGINATION' Economist'A COMPELLING ARGUMENT FOR A MORE OPEN-MINDED APPROACH TO SCIENCE - A COMBINATION OF HUMILITY AND WONDER' New Statesman

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*A Wall Street Journal Business Bestseller*'A deeply reported and business-savvy chronicle of Tesla's wild ride' --Walter Isaacson'A masterclass in narrative journalism' --Bradley Hope'Exemplary' --The Times'An exceptional work' --Washington Post Inside the outrageous, come-from-behind story of Elon Musk and Tesla's bid to build the world's greatest car and the race to drive the future.Elon Musk is among the most controversial titans of Silicon Valley. To some he's a genius and a visionary and to others he's a mercurial huckster. Billions of dollars have been gained and lost on his tweets and his personal exploits are the stuff of tabloids. But for all his outrageous talk of mind-uploading and space travel, his most audacious vision is the one closest to the ground: the electric car.When Tesla was founded in the 2000s, electric cars were novelties, trotted out and thrown on the scrap heap by carmakers for more than a century. But where most onlookers saw only failure, a small band of Silicon Valley engineers and entrepreneurs saw potential and they pitted themselves against the biggest, fiercest business rivals in the world, setting out to make a car that was quicker, sexier, smoother, cleaner than the competition.Tesla would undergo a truly hellish fifteen years, beset by rivals, pressured by investors, hobbled by whistleblowers, buoyed by its loyal supporters. Musk himself would often prove Tesla's worst enemy--his antics repeatedly taking the company he had funded himself to the brink of collapse. Was he an underdog, an antihero, a conman, or some combination of the three?Wall Street Journal tech and auto reporter Tim Higgins had a front-row seat for the drama: the pileups, wrestling for control, meltdowns, and the unlikeliest outcome of all, success. A story of power, recklessness, struggle, and triumph, Power Play is an exhilarating look at how a team of eccentrics and innovators beat the odds... and changed the future.

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This is the untold, intimate, and eye-witness account of the character, integrity, service, faith, and dignity of former President George H.W. Bush and first lady Barbara Bush by their priest, pastor, and friend.George and Barbara Bush belonged to and were active members of a Houston church for more than 50 years. The rector of that church, Reverend Russell Jones Levenson, Jr., believes he was invited into private moments with these public individuals so he could serve as a witness: a witness to observe, and a witness to tell.With never-before shared correspondence, experiences, and personal stories, Levenson offers new insight into the Bushes' wit and wisdom; their commitment to family and friends; their tireless desire to bless the lives of others; and their steadfast loyalty to their church, their faith, and their God. Before embarking on writing this book on faith, Levenson sought and received the blessing of all the Bush children, including the 43rd president.Readers will laugh, cry, and be inspired as Levenson ponders how and why he was put in this unique pastoral position, asking questions like, "What on earth was I doing reading the sports section of the paper with the forty-first president, his cabinet member Brent Scowcroft, and a Chinese official on a breezy morning at Walker's Point in Kennebunkport, Maine?"Levenson writes with emotion about being with President Bush and Barbara Bush as they each took their last breaths on this earth. He then describes in full detail the surreal experience of planning a state funeral and giving a eulogy with other presidents in the front row.This is book is for readers who yearn for our public officials to serve with faith and integrity like the Bushes. But above all else, this book shows how powerful it is when world leaders are humbled before the power that rests above all powers.

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'First there was Fire and Fury, then there was Siege, now there is Landslide. The third is the best of the three' Guardian 'Cruel, unforgiving, muckracking, scandalous . . . Michael Wolff concludes his Trump trilogy - with the best book' Telegraph 'Wolff is the shrewdest chronicler of Trump' Sunday TimesPolitics has given us some shocking and confounding moments but none have come close to the careening final days of Donald Trump's presidency: the surreal stage management of his re-election campaign, his audacious election challenge, the harrowing mayhem of the storming of the Capitol and the buffoonery of the second impeachment trial. But what was really going on in the inner sanctum of the White House during these calamitous events? What did the president and his dwindling cadre of loyalists actually believe? And what were they planning?Drawing on an exclusive and wide range of sources who took part in or witnessed Trump's closing moments, Michael Wolff finds the Oval Office more chaotic and bizarre than ever before, a kind of Star Wars bar scene. At all times of the day, Trump, hunched behind the Resolute desk, is surrounded by schemers and unqualified sycophants who spoon-feed him the 'alternative facts' he hungers to hear - about COVID-19, Black Lives Matter protests, and, most of all, his chance of winning re-election. In this extraordinary telling of a unique moment in history, Wolff gives us front-row seats as Trump's circle of plotters is whittled down to the most enabling and the least qualified - and the president pushes the bounds of political convention, entertaining the idea of martial law and balking at calling off the insurrectionist mob that threatens the hallowed seat of democracy itself.Michael Wolff pulled back the curtain on the Trump presidency with his globally bestselling blockbuster Fire and Fury. Now, in Landslide, he closes the door with a final, astonishingly candid tale.

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The intimate, multi-generational story of the Kennedy family as seen through their Hyannis Port compound on Cape Cod—the iconic place where they’ve celebrated, mourned, and forged the closest of bonds—based on more than a hundred in-depth interviews by a respected Esquire writer. Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, is synonymous with the Kennedy family. It is where, for a hundred years, America’s most storied political family has come to celebrate, bond, play, and, also, grieve. It is also the setting of so many events we remember: JFK giving his presidential acceptance speech, Jackie speaking with a Life magazine reporter just days after her husband’s assassination, Senator Edward Kennedy seeking refuge after the Chappaquiddick crash, Maria Shriver and Arnold Schwarzenegger tying the knot—and even Conor Kennedy courting pop star Taylor Swift. Anyone who has lived in, worked at, or visited the Kennedy compound in Hyannis Port has had a front-row view to history. Now, with extraordinary access to the Kennedy family—and featuring more than fifty rarely-seen images—journalist Kate Storey gives us a remarkably intimate and poignant look at the rhythms of an American dynasty. Drawing from more than a hundred conversations with family members, friends, neighbors, household and security staff, Storey delivers a rich and textured account of the Kennedys’ lives in their summer refuge. From the 1920s, when Rose and Joseph P. Kennedy rented then bought a home known as The Malcolm Cottage, to today, when many Kennedys have purchased their own homes surrounding what’s now called The Big House, this book delivers many surprising revelations across the decades, including what matriarch Rose considered the family’s greatest tragedy, the rivalrous relationship between brothers Jack and Joe, details about Jackie’s life at the compound, and previously unknown glimpses into JFK Jr. and Carolyn Bessette’s loving and ill-fated relationship. Fascinating, engaging, and illuminating, White House by the Sea provides a sweeping history of an American dynasty that has left an indelible mark on our nation’s politics and culture.

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In the 1980s David Thomas was an unemployed plumber with a seemingly impossible dream: to become a fashion stylist. He ran away to London, landed a job selling cassettes in Tower Records, spent weekends and evenings washing dishes and working as a lavatory attendant, and every spare moment hammering on the doors of fashion editors until one of them opened a tiny crack. As well as telling the touching and funny story of the “Billy Elliot of fashion’s” bumpy ride to success, Vanity Project examines the fascinating relationship between the fairytale worlds fashion and celebrity. It describes how the discipline of styling has evolved from the 1980s to now, from the streets of London to the red carpets of Hollywood. This story is told largely in the words of those in the front row seats: actors, musicians, designers, photographers, editors, directors, artists, and music business power brokers. In short, people who have shaped popular culture over more than three decades. This beautifully designed book features more than 300 iconic images – photographs, sketches, magazine covers, Polaroids, iPhone snaps, and press cuttings – that illustrate the creative process from the mind of the stylist and the client's brief to the end result. The rich visual archive is brought right up to date with a specially commissioned portfolio of never-before-seen portraits by some of the world's leading contemporary photographers. Vanity Project is a tale of stars, of clothes, and of the skill and sweat that goes into creating those glittering moments on stage and screen. Above all, it’s the story of how, with the right kind of help and belief, one boy’s dream came true. The publisher will donate 10% of the cover price to The Prince’s Trust. The total amount donated to The Prince’s Trust is expected to be £5 per book. The Prince’s Trust is a registered charity incorporated by Royal Charter in England and Wales (1079675) and Scotland (SC041198).

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Witnessing a total solar eclipse is a wondrous and unforgettable event! Eclipse Chasers is a guide to past and future Australian total solar eclipses, exploring historical and cultural knowledge, as well as featuring five upcoming eclipses that will be visible in Australia.The science of eclipses is explained, as well as how to prepare for an eclipse and view it safely. For upcoming eclipses the best locations to view each one are revealed, alongside tips for taking photographs.The book also reveals untold stories of how past Australian astronomers observed the total eclipses that have occurred since European settlement, and how these eclipses were celebrated in popular culture, poetry and art. It explores the great significance of solar eclipses for First Nations peoples, and their observations and cultural meanings.Eclipse Chasers showcases the drama and beauty of total solar eclipses and is essential for anyone fascinated by these amazing events.IMPORTANT NEWS: The next total solar eclipse in Australia is set to occur April 20, 2023. The Ningaloo Eclipse will entice people from all over the world to travel to Exmouth in Western Australia to have front row seats.KEY INFO: Includes locations and times to safely view a series of total solar eclipses coming up over the next two decades in Australia: April 2023; July 2028, Nov 2030, July 2037 and December 2038. Interest in eclipses is set to surge in Australia as we will have the opportunity to view five over the next two decades. Worldwide there are usually just one or two total solar eclipses each year, so it is remarkable that so many can be seen in one location so close together. A media campaign will support the release of Eclipse Chasers with expected coverage in major newspapers and national radio. The book includes information for teachers, and teacher notes will be available from the CSIRO Publishing website.

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In rugby, there are the Flash Harrys and the Glory Boys: the fly-halves who run, kick and dazzle; the scrum-halves who nip and dart; the wingers who step and glide. These are the players who get the crowd on their feet, who set stadiums abuzz. But they only get to do these things because other, less glorified figures do all of the donkey work. Adam Jones is one such figure. And for a decade he was one of the world's best. On many occasions when George North or Shane Williams were careering under the posts to score a try, and the crowd was engulfed in rapturous joy, Adam Jones would be hauling himself up from the turf, spitting blood and mud, and massaging his aching neck. He hadn't scored the try; but more often than not it was his graft and strength which had made it. This is the story of 'Bomb': the self-effacing manual labourer from the Swansea Valley who traded laying paving slabs for running out in some of the world's most imposing sporting citadels. He rose to the pinnacle of his sport, winning virtually everything there was to be won: Grand Slams, Six Nations Championships, Lions tours, Pro12 titles. In a nation of rugby heroes, Adam Jones has become a legend. Only six Welshmen can say they've won three Grand Slams. He is one of them: not just as a bit-part player, but as the beating heart of the most successful squad in Welsh rugby history. His was one of the first names on the team sheet. He was - literally and metaphorically - the cornerstone of this Welsh side. In his autobiography, Jones reveals exactly what goes on in the murky depths of the front row: the tricks, the techniques, the physical and psychological warfare; and the mental fortitude it takes to endure in one of the hardest positions, in one of the world's toughest contact sports.

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She is the last hope for people seeking justice.True crime podcaster Rachel Krall has come to Neapolis, a small seaside town being torn apart by a devastating trial. A local golden boy – a swimmer destined for Olympic greatness – has been accused of raping the beloved granddaughter of the police chief.Used to being recognised for her voice, not her face, Rachel is unsettled when she finds a note on her car windshield, begging for her help. Twenty-five years ago, Jenny Stills drowned. Her sister insists it was murder.Rachel throws herself into covering the trial, but the letters keep coming. As the past and present start to collide, Rachel uncovers startling connections between the two cases. The truth will change the course of the trial, and the lives of everyone involved.An absolutely gripping thriller, featuring a true crime podcaster. Perfect for fans of Ashley Flowers and Riley Sager.Praise for The Night Swim:‘A blistering plot and crisp writing make The Night Swim an unputdownable read’ Sarah Pekkanen author of The Wife Between Us‘You get the courtroom drama, a front-row seat to an influential true crime podcast, and the uncovering of decades-long secrets buried within a small coastal town. Read this book, you won't regret it!’ Reader review ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐‘Expertly written’ Reader review ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐‘A slow burn, character driven thriller... horrifying, heartbreaking and brilliantly written. I can’t wait to read more books by this author’ Reader review ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐‘I really enjoyed the dual timeline and thought using the different formats of podcast episodes, letters and first person narrative was very clever. This book tackles a lot of big issues within a gripping plot. Powerful reading.’ ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Reader review‘Gripping and heartbreaking with an undercurrent of unease running through it… I couldn’t bear to put it down. So tightly plotted you don’t see the twists coming!’ ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Reader review‘I absolutely loved it! If you love legal thrillers, secrets and podcasts, you need to read this.’ ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Reader review

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'A daily love letter from a brave young woman to her adored father . . . immensely evocative of wartime Britain, extremely well edited, and occasionally powerfully moving' ANDREW ROBERTS, TLS'It wasn't easy being a Churchill child - and only Mary managed it with serenity and aplomb, as her diary of wartime ATS service shows' ANNE DE COURCY, SUNDAY TELEGRAPH'Mary's affectionately intimate and emotionally volatile diaries [...] are an informal record that perfectly complements Churchill's own six authoritative volumes of memoirs of the second world war ... This is a happy book' SPECTATOR'Gives a new and valuable perspective on Churchill in wartime' THE OLDIE 'A fascinating and intimate insight into the iconic Prime Minister's family life' DAILY TELEGRAPH 'I am not a great or important personage, but this will be the diary of an ordinary person's life in war time. Though I may never live to read it again, perhaps it may not prove altogether uninteresting as a record of my life'In 1939 seventeen-year-old Mary found herself in an extraordinary position at an extraordinary time: it was the outbreak of the Second World War and her father, Winston Churchill, had been appointed First Lord of the Admiralty; within months he would be Prime Minister.The young Mary Churchill was uniquely placed to observe this remarkable historical moment, and her diaries -- most of which have never been published -- provide a front-row view of the great events of war, as well as exchanges and intimate moments with her father. But they also capture what it was like to be a young woman during wartime. An impulsive and spirited writer, full of coming-of-age self-consciousness and joie de vivre, Mary's diaries are untrammelled by hindsight or self-censorship or nostalgia.From aid raid sirens at 10 Downing Street to seeing action with the ATS, from cocktail parties with presidents and royals to accompanying her father on key diplomatic trips, Mary's wartime diaries are full of colour, rich in historical insight, and a charming and intimate portrait of life alongside Winston Churchill.Compiled and edited by Mary's daughter, Emma Soames, in collaboration with The Churchill Archives Centre.

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'Dan is a national treasure and one of America s great songwriters. Elvis Costello. 'Dan s songs were funny, serious, and entertaining, and the combo of old-timey folk, country, and jazz knocked me out. Matt Groening, creator of The Simpsons. 'Dan Hicks is like lightning in a bottle. Bette Midler. Dan Hicks didn t have his heart set on a career in music. It all just sort of happened to him. It didn t hurt, of course, that he was in the right place at the right time San Francisco, 1966 and had a front-row seat for the birth and death of the counterculture. Among other things, this is a classic story of the 60s. More importantly, it s a story of musical genius. By the time the Summer of Love limped to a close in the fall of 67, Hicks had quit the Charlatans the pioneering psych-rock band with whom he played the drums and turned to jazz, the music he d secretly loved all along, as he began building his own band, the Hot Licks. 'I just started taking ingredients I liked and putting them together to see what came out, Hicks writes. What came out was an amazing blend of complex time signatures, unusual instrumentation, and intricate vocal harmonies that took him to the top of the 70s rock world but also into a downward spiral of drink and drug abuse. Emerging from a long wilderness, which he writes about here with wit and candour, the man described by Tom Waits as 'fly, sly, wily, and dry eventually returned to recording and performing, making a number of acclaimed albums, including Beatin The Heat, a set of duets with Waits, Costello, Rickie Lee Jones, and more. Along the way, his music continued to subtly permeate the culture, turning up everywhere from The Sopranos to commercials for Levi s and Bic. Hicks passed away in early 2016, but his music, and the stories he tells here, remain as fresh and irresistible as ever. I Scare Myself takes readers on a journey behind the music, and into the life and mind of the fantastic artist who created it.

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An innovative guide that identifies what distinguishes the best financial risk takers from the rest From 1987 to 1992, a small group of Wall Street quants invented an entirely new way of managing risk to maximize success: risk management for risk-takers. This is the secret that lets tiny quantitative edges create hedge fund billionaires, and defines the powerful modern global derivatives economy. The same practical techniques are still used today by risk-takers in finance as well as many other fields. Red-Blooded Risk examines this approach and offers valuable advice for the calculated risk-takers who need precise quantitative guidance that will help separate them from the rest of the pack. While most commentators say that the last financial crisis proved it's time to follow risk-minimizing techniques, they're wrong. The only way to succeed at anything is to manage true risk, which includes the chance of loss. Red-Blooded Risk presents specific, actionable strategies that will allow you to be a practical risk-taker in even the most dynamic markets. Contains a secret history of Wall Street, the parts all the other books leave out Includes an intellectually rigorous narrative addressing what it takes to really make it in any risky activity, on or off Wall Street Addresses essential issues ranging from the way you think about chance to economics, politics, finance, and life Written by Aaron Brown, one of the most calculated and successful risk takers in the world of finance, who was an active participant in the creation of modern risk management and had a front-row seat to the last meltdown Written in an engaging but rigorous style, with no equations Contains illustrations and graphic narrative by renowned manga artist Eric Kim There are people who disapprove of every risk before the fact, but never stop anyone from doing anything dangerous because they want to take credit for any success. The recent financial crisis has swelled their ranks, but in learning how to break free of these people, you'll discover how taking on the right risk can open the door to the most profitable opportunities.

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Britain’s gardens are a vast, living landscape and the home to hundreds of species of birds. Learn to pay attention to these visitors to your own garden or local park and you’ll have a front-row seat to the unfolding drama that is the garden bird’s year. As dawn breaks across your back garden, if you were paying attention, you would notice that the robin and the blackbird are always the first birds to arrive. These ground hunters have large eyes, so don’t mind the dim light of the early morning. And that’s just the beginning of what you can learn watching your own back garden. Ornithologist Mike Toms has spent a year avidly observing his own garden, and the result is a comprehensive picture of the lives of garden birds.From the crowded yet quiet January garden populated by migratory fieldfares and bramblings, to the riotous gardens of spring, filled with songbirds competing for mates, the garden ecosystem changes throughout the year. Learn to spot these changes, to greet the arrival of the swifts in May and the new crop of fledgling goldfinches and blackbirds in June, and you’ll find a new world opening up to you.A Garden Bird’s Year is the perfect introduction to this world. Supremely readable, it explains biology and behaviour to paint a picture of the lives of common bird species, while also offering practical information for watching and feeding the birds in your own backyard. Toms details birds’ preferences for particular plants, seeds and feeders, so you can learn to attract different species to your own garden. He also charts fascinating recent adaptations – urban birds sleep later than their rural counterparts, probably because cities are on average a few degrees warmer, and they sing either earlier or later, to avoid competing with local traffic; and the balance of migratory birds to Britain is being affected by the world’s changing climate. Many species of garden birds are threatened, but there is much that each one of us can do to support them, to attract them, and to help them thrive through the year.

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Come to the stage between two worlds—come to the Theatre of the Imagination. On this six-part live performance series, bestselling author and beloved cantadora (keeper of the old stories) Clarissa Pinkola Estés shares the work of her lifetime: myths, tales, and poetry with the power to nourish and heal. Contained within Theatre of the Imagination are the great universal themes—tales of loss and resurrection; of love and sacrifice; of the courage to survive—yet it is as if Dr. Estés is speaking only to you. With words that weave in and out of the interior and exterior worlds, she creates an amazing fabric of the purest wisdom—fought for, won, and preserved to teach all generations—that which is most worth knowing. You will hear more than 40 original poems, archetypal insights, and dozens of strengthening stories from Dr. Estés' own family's oral traditions. Dr. Estés teaches that each story holds a key to a deeper self-knowing: "Stories cut fine wide doors in previous blank walls, openings that lead to the dreamland, that lead to love and learning that lead us back to our own real lives." Presented in her one-of-a-kind lyrical style, Theatre of the Imagination seats you in the front row at these performances of a lifetime. More than five hours of signature stories, plus earthy and wise advice, archetypal insights, poetry, and much more. Six Healing Stories Include: Las Tres Osas Viejas (The Three Old Ones) • The Fisherman's Wife • Skeleton Woman • The Crescent Moon Bear • Sealskin/Soulskin • Wolfen Learn More About: The cycles of life and death • How the language of symbols translates into everyday life • Community and healing the homesickness within the soul • How to stop your destructive inner critic • Reclaiming the bodies we were born with • Facing the cycles of change in a relationship • Agelessness and the aerial view of the elder • How to awaken the 1,000 eyes of your intuition • Transformation through the four vital steps to forgiveness • The power of the Divine Child • Finding courage and the sacred center of the psyche • When others try to silence you: how to claim your strength

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*WINNER OF BEST SPORTS WRITING AT THE SPORTS BOOK AWARDS 2023**Out now: Includes brand new material*THE AWARD-WINNING SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER'Neville at his authentic best. [He] is the closest thing to a spokesman there is for English football.' Sunday Times'Brilliant.' Mail on Sunday'Gary Neville usually talks a lot of sense, and writes it too . . . Neville's words are timely.' Henry Winter, The Times__________The beautiful game is under threat. The greed and selfishness of the biggest clubs is harming the sport, with smaller clubs struggling for financial survival and supporters being left behind.It's time to fix football.__________Football is the people's game. A sport accessible to everyone and enjoyed by millions around the world.But football is broken. Beneath the glamourous sheen of the Premier League, it's a game that's rusting and rotten. The growing influence and wealth of the biggest teams is harming the game, leaving fans out of pocket and smaller clubs clinging to survival. The European Super League, which looked to eradicate competition in favour of guaranteed profits, was just the beginning.This isn't what football is about. Something's got to change. Enough is enough.Gary Neville has had a front-row seat in football for over 30 years, witnessing the sport at every level - as a player, a coach, a pundit and an owner. Most of all, he's a fan. Shocked by the state of the game, Gary looks to find out how we got into this mess, who's responsible, and what we can do about it.The People's Game is Gary's vision for a brighter future. Drawing on interviews with those at the epicentre of the sport's biggest issues - from the role of ownership to the lack of funding in the football league, the rise in racism, ownership models and the future of the women's game - he explains how football has sleepwalked into this mess and offers a new path forward. With stories from his own playing career, as well as insight into some of the biggest footballing decisions in recent history, this is a total look at the game today.This is a passionate, personal and critical account of how football lost its soul, and what we can do to get it back.__________

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THE INSTANT SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER 'Landslide cuts deeper than any previous book about this president, indeed about any president' The Times'First there was Fire and Fury, then there was Siege, now there is Landslide. The third is the best of the three . . . Required reading' Guardian 'Michael Wolff concludes his Trump trilogy - with the best book yet . . . Unforgettable' Telegraph'Wolff is the shrewdest chronicler of Trump' Sunday Times__________________________________________'We won. Won in a landslide. This was a landslide.'President Donald J. Trump, 6 January 2021Politics has given us some shocking and confounding moments but none have come close to the careening final days of Donald Trump's presidency: the surreal stage management of his re-election campaign, his audacious election challenge, the harrowing mayhem of the storming of the Capitol and the buffoonery of the second impeachment trial. But what was really going on in the inner sanctum of the White House during these calamitous events? What did the president and his dwindling cadre of loyalists actually believe? And what were they planning?Drawing on an exclusive and wide range of sources who took part in or witnessed Trump's closing moments, Michael Wolff finds the Oval Office more chaotic and bizarre than ever before, a kind of Star Wars bar scene. At all times of the day, Trump, hunched behind the Resolute desk, is surrounded by schemers and unqualified sycophants who spoon-feed him the 'alternative facts' he hungers to hear - about COVID-19, Black Lives Matter protests, and, most of all, his chance of winning re-election. In this extraordinary telling of a unique moment in history, Wolff gives us front row seats as Trump's circle of plotters whittles down to the most enabling and the least qualified - and the president overreaches the bounds of democracy, entertaining the idea of martial law and balking at calling off the insurrectionist mob that threatens the hallowed seat of democracy itself.Michael Wolff pulled back the curtain on the Trump presidency with his globally bestselling blockbuster Fire and Fury. Now, in Landslide, he closes the door on the presidency with a final, astonishingly candid tale.

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Ten-year-old Star Mackie lives in a trailer park with her flaky mom and her melancholy older sister, Winter, whom Star idolizes. Moving to a new town has made it difficult for Star to make friends, when her classmates tease her because of where she lives and because of her layered blue hair. But when Star starts a poetry club, she develops a love of Emily Dickinson and, through Dickinson’s poetry, learns some important lessons about herself and comes to terms with her hopes for the future. With an unforgettable voice with a lot of heart, Hope Is a Ferris Wheel is the story of a young girl who learns to accept her family and herself while trying to make sense of the world around her.Praise for Hope is a Ferris WheelSTARRED REVIEW "Herrera’s first novel is quite accomplished, with plenty of heart and humor, especially apparent in the spelling assignments Star has to complete but refuses to turn in, as she uses them as a sort of journal. Star is a unique, determined, and loving child making the best of a bad situation; readers cannot help but root for her." --School Library Journal, starred review "Well-constructed, thought-provoking and appealing, this first effort bodes well for the author’s future." --Kirkus Reviews "In her debut, Herrera has created a delightful narrator with a memorable voice and surrounded her with a unique supporting cast. Got fans of Joan Bauer in your neck of the woods? Send them this way." --Booklist "A tender and truthful novel that addresses stereotypes without promising easy answers or cookie-cutter closure." --Publishers Weekly "First-time author Herrera, telling the story from Star’s point of view, gives readers a front-row seat to all the embarrassment and angst of Star’s jumbled life—and all of the triumphs. Here’s hoping we hear more from this author." --The Horn Book Magazine "Star’s contemplation, through poetic metaphors and real-life relationships, of what really matters in her life is compelling. Additionally, the poetry angle offers food for thought for those just coming to understand the power and purpose of metaphor, and Star’s vocabulary assignments, occasionally interspersed between chapters, provide inspiration and entertainment for word-lovers." --Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books

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The Voice of America is the nation's largest publicly funded broadcasting network, reaching more than 90 million people worldwide in over forty languages. Since it first went on the air as a regional wartime enterprise in February 1942, VOA has undergone a spectacular transformation, and it now employs scores of reporters worldwide and broadcasts around the clock every day of every year, reaching listeners in the four-fifths of the world still denied a completely free press. Alan L. Heil, Jr., former deputy director of VOA, chronicles this remarkable transformation from a fledgling short wave propaganda organ during World War II to a global multimedia giant encompassing radio, the Internet, and 1,500 affiliated radio and television stations across the globe. Using transcripts of radio broadcasts and numerous personal anecdotes, Heil gives the reader a front-row seat to the greatest events of the past sixty years, from the Cold War and the Vietnam conflict to the Watergate and Lewinsky scandals, from Neil Armstrong's first steps on the moon in 1969 to ethnic strife in the Balkans and Rwanda in the mid-1990s, and from the outbreak of HIV/AIDS in the 1980s to the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. Yet Heil also relates the story of a perennially underfunded organization struggling against the political pressures, congressional investigations, massive reorganizations, and leadership purges that have attempted to shape-and, in some instances, control-VOA programming. Reporting first hand, high-quality news is a monumental task for any network, but the Voice faces obstacles unique to an organization that stands, as former director John Chancellor once observed, at "the crossroads of journalism and diplomacy." It is for this reason that many people still perceive VOA as an instrument of American propaganda. However, as a thirty-six-year veteran of VOA and its numerous policy wars, Heil believes that the Voice has always sought to deliver accurate, objective, and comprehensive news of the highest journalistic standard, news that reflects America's diversity and dynamism, and that presents not only U.S. policies but also critical debate about those policies. This in-depth history of VOA from its founding until its sixtieth anniversary is a vivid portrait of the people who made it great, depicting a news network that has overcome enormous challenges to steadfastly and faithfully report the most important news stories of our time.

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*OUT NOW*THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER 'Neville at his authentic best. [He] is the closest thing to a spokesman there is for English football.' Sunday Times 'Brilliant.' Mail on Sunday'Gary Neville usually talks a lot of sense, and writes it too . . . Neville's words are timely.' Henry Winter, The Times'The People's Game is [Gary's] call to mend football, harmed by the greed and selfishness of bigger clubs and associations.' Radio Times __________The beautiful game is under threat. The greed and selfishness of the biggest clubs is harming the sport, with smaller clubs struggling for financial survival and supporters being left behind.It's time to fix football. __________Football is the people's game. A sport accessible to everyone and enjoyed by millions around the world.But football is broken. Beneath the glamourous sheen of the Premier League, it's a game that's rusting and rotten. The growing influence and wealth of the biggest teams is harming the game, leaving fans out of pocket and smaller clubs clinging to survival. The European Super League, which looked to eradicate competition in favour of guaranteed profits, was just the beginning. This isn't what football is about. Something's got to change. Enough is enough. Gary Neville has had a front-row seat in football for over 30 years, witnessing the sport at every level - as a player, a coach, a pundit and an owner. Most of all, he's a fan. Shocked by the state of the game, Gary looks to find out how we got into this mess, who's responsible, and what we can do about it. The People's Game is Gary's vision for a brighter future. Drawing on interviews with those at the epicentre of the sport's biggest issues - from the role of ownership to the lack of funding in the football league, the rise in racism, ownership models and the future of the women's game - he explains how football has sleepwalked into this mess and offers a new path forward. With stories from his own playing career, as well as insight into some of the biggest footballing decisions in recent history, this is a total look at the game today. This is a passionate, personal and critical account of how football lost its soul, and what we can do to get it back. __________

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*OUT NOW*THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER 'Neville at his authentic best. [He] is the closest thing to a spokesman there is for English football.' Sunday Times 'Brilliant.' Mail on Sunday'Gary Neville usually talks a lot of sense, and writes it too . . . Neville's words are timely.' Henry Winter, The Times'The People's Game is [Gary's] call to mend football, harmed by the greed and selfishness of bigger clubs and associations.' Radio Times __________The beautiful game is under threat. The greed and selfishness of the biggest clubs is harming the sport, with smaller clubs struggling for financial survival and supporters being left behind.It's time to fix football. __________Football is the people's game. A sport accessible to everyone and enjoyed by millions around the world.But football is broken. Beneath the glamourous sheen of the Premier League, it's a game that's rusting and rotten. The growing influence and wealth of the biggest teams is harming the game, leaving fans out of pocket and smaller clubs clinging to survival. The European Super League, which looked to eradicate competition in favour of guaranteed profits, was just the beginning. This isn't what football is about. Something's got to change. Enough is enough. Gary Neville has had a front-row seat in football for over 30 years, witnessing the sport at every level - as a player, a coach, a pundit and an owner. Most of all, he's a fan. Shocked by the state of the game, Gary looks to find out how we got into this mess, who's responsible, and what we can do about it. The People's Game is Gary's vision for a brighter future. Drawing on interviews with those at the epicentre of the sport's biggest issues - from the role of ownership to the lack of funding in the football league, the rise in racism, ownership models and the future of the women's game - he explains how football has sleepwalked into this mess and offers a new path forward. With stories from his own playing career, as well as insight into some of the biggest footballing decisions in recent history, this is a total look at the game today. This is a passionate, personal and critical account of how football lost its soul, and what we can do to get it back. __________

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WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE IN HISTORY WINNER OF THE LOS ANGELES TIMES BOOK PRIZE IN HISTORY “Full of…lively insights and lucid prose” (The Wall Street Journal) an epic, sweeping history of Cuba and its complex ties to the United States—from before the arrival of Columbus to the present day—written by one of the world’s leading historians of Cuba.In 1961, at the height of the Cold War, the United States severed diplomatic relations with Cuba, where a momentous revolution had taken power three years earlier. For more than half a century, the stand-off continued—through the tenure of ten American presidents and the fifty-year rule of Fidel Castro. His death in 2016, and the retirement of his brother and successor Raúl Castro in 2021, have spurred questions about the country’s future. Meanwhile, politics in Washington—Barack Obama’s opening to the island, Donald Trump’s reversal of that policy, and the election of Joe Biden—have made the relationship between the two nations a subject of debate once more. Now, award-winning historian Ada Ferrer delivers an “important” (The Guardian) and moving chronicle that demands a new reckoning with both the island’s past and its relationship with the United States. Spanning more than five centuries, Cuba: An American History provides us with a front-row seat as we witness the evolution of the modern nation, with its dramatic record of conquest and colonization, of slavery and freedom, of independence and revolutions made and unmade. Along the way, Ferrer explores the sometimes surprising, often troubled intimacy between the two countries, documenting not only the influence of the United States on Cuba but also the many ways the island has been a recurring presence in US affairs. This is a story that will give Americans unexpected insights into the history of their own nation and, in so doing, help them imagine a new relationship with Cuba; “readers will close [this] fascinating book with a sense of hope” (The Economist). Filled with rousing stories and characters, and drawing on more than thirty years of research in Cuba, Spain, and the United States—as well as the author’s own extensive travel to the island over the same period—this is a stunning and monumental account like no other.

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The Voice of America is the nation's largest publicly funded broadcasting network, reaching more than 90 million people worldwide in over forty languages. Since it first went on the air as a regional wartime enterprise in February 1942, VOA has undergone a spectacular transformation, and it now employs scores of reporters worldwide and broadcasts around the clock every day of every year, reaching listeners in the four-fifths of the world still denied a completely free press. Alan L. Heil, Jr., former deputy director of VOA, chronicles this remarkable transformation from a fledgling short wave propaganda organ during World War II to a global multimedia giant encompassing radio, the Internet, and 1,500 affiliated radio and television stations across the globe. Using transcripts of radio broadcasts and numerous personal anecdotes, Heil gives the reader a front-row seat to the greatest events of the past sixty years, from the Cold War and the Vietnam conflict to the Watergate and Lewinsky scandals, from Neil Armstrong's first steps on the moon in 1969 to ethnic strife in the Balkans and Rwanda in the mid-1990s, and from the outbreak of HIV/AIDS in the 1980s to the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. Yet Heil also relates the story of a perennially underfunded organization struggling against the political pressures, congressional investigations, massive reorganizations, and leadership purges that have attempted to shape-and, in some instances, control-VOA programming. Reporting first hand, high-quality news is a monumental task for any network, but the Voice faces obstacles unique to an organization that stands, as former director John Chancellor once observed, at "the crossroads of journalism and diplomacy." It is for this reason that many people still perceive VOA as an instrument of American propaganda. However, as a thirty-six-year veteran of VOA and its numerous policy wars, Heil believes that the Voice has always sought to deliver accurate, objective, and comprehensive news of the highest journalistic standard, news that reflects America's diversity and dynamism, and that presents not only U.S. policies but also critical debate about those policies. This in-depth history of VOA from its founding until its sixtieth anniversary is a vivid portrait of the people who made it great, depicting a news network that has overcome enormous challenges to steadfastly and faithfully report the most important news stories of our time.

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SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2020 POLARI PRIZE'A magnificent achievement . . . I cannot remember a book where I cried so often. Brave, insightful, unflinching, funny, sad, triumphant . . . everything. And both a warning and a hope for the times to come' STEPHEN FRYDustin Lance Black wrote the Oscar-winning screenplay for Milk and helped overturn California's anti-gay marriage Proposition 8, but he grew up in a conservative Mormon household outside San Antonio, Texas. His mother, Anne, was raised in rural Louisiana, and contracted polio when she was two years old. She endured brutal surgeries, as well as braces and crutches for life, and was told that she would never have children or a family. Wilfully defying expectations, she found salvation in an unlikely faith, raised three sons, and escaped the abuse and violence of two questionably devised Mormon marriages before finding love and an improbable career in the U.S. civil service.When Lance came out to his mother at twenty-one, he was already studying the arts instead of going on his Mormon mission. She derided his sexuality as a sinful choice and was terrified for his future. Mama's Boy explores what it took to remain a family despite such division -- a journey that stretched from the steps of the U.S. Supreme Court to the woodsheds of East Texas. In the end, the rifts that have split a nation couldn't end this relationship that has defined and inspired their remarkable lives. Mama's Boy is their story. It's a story of the noble quest for a plane higher than politics - one of family, foundations, turmoil, tragedy, elation, and love. It is a story needed now more than ever.'To outsiders, my mom and I should have been enemies. Our house should have been divided -- North vs South, red vs blue, conservative vs progressive, or however you want to put it. Instead, my mom and I fuelled each other. Her oil lit my lamp, and eventually mine lit hers. The tools I'd learned to wield growing up in her conservative, Christian, southern, military home were the same I'd used to wage battles that had taken me from a broken-down welfare apartment where gunfire sang me to sleep, to the biggest stages in the world, and to the front row of the United States Supreme Court to fight for LGBTQ equality.'

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Two cities. Two spies. Which woman survives? Pianist: NOUN. Informal. A person who operates or controls a radio transmitter – often in code. July, 1940Blitz-ridden London: Marnie Fern’s life is torn apart when her grandfather is killed in an air raid. But once she discovers that he’d been working undercover as a radio operative – or pianist – for the Dutch resistance, Marnie knows she must complete his mission – no matter the cost… Nazi-occupied Amsterdam: At the other end of the wireless, fellow pianist Corrie Bakker is caught in a dangerous game of cat-and-mouse as she desperately tries to keep her loved ones out of the line of fire – even if it means sacrificing herself… Bound together by the invisible wires of their radios, the two women lead parallel lives in their home cities, as both are betrayed by those they trust the most. But when the Nazis close in on one of them, only the other can save her… The next gripping and heartbreaking WWII historical fiction novel from international bestseller, Mandy Robotham. Real readers love The War Pianist: ‘A story packed with everything historical fiction readers need: espionage and betrayal to plights and flights…I learnt so much!…Brilliantly paced with twists and turns, courage and bravery and a touch of romance.’ Real Reader Review, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ‘Rich in detail and almost impossible to put down…I loved it.’ Real Reader Review, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ‘A front row seat to the survival of the Blitz in London as well as the Dutch resistance work. Fascinating…riveting.’ Real Reader Review, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ‘A book that captures your attention from the first page to the last. Mandy Robotham is a master storyteller…the tension mounts on every page and I could not put it down. Highly recommended.’ Real Reader Review, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ‘My favourite of Mandy’s books so far. I loved Marnie, Willem and Corrie and the relationship among the three of them. The strength and resolve of these characters is so inspiring and captivating…A perfectly composed novel for lovers of historical fiction…Every bit of this novel comes alive. Bravo!’ Real Reader Review, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ‘A gripping and heartbreaking WWII novel…If you love historical fiction, then this is a must-read.’ Real Reader Review, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ‘Mandy Robotham has done it again! A thoroughly well researched and interesting narrative set during WWII…Another five star read for me.’ Real Reader Review, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

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