Search results for ""penguin books""

It is impossible to imagine American popular culture without Marvel Comics. For decades, Marvel has published groundbreaking visual narratives that sustain attention on multiple levels: as metaphors for the experience of difference and otherness; as meditations on the fluid nature of identity; and as high-water marks in the artistic tradition of American cartooning, to name a few.This anthology contains twelve key stories from the first two years of Spider-Man's publication history (from 1962 to 1964). These influential adventures not only transformed the super hero fantasy into an allegory for the pain of adolescence but also brought a new ethical complexity to the genre-by insisting that with great power there must also come great responsibility.A foreword by Jason Reynolds and scholarly introductions and apparatus by Ben Saunders offer further insight into the enduring significance of The Amazing Spider-Man and classic Marvel comics.The Penguin Classics black spine paperback features full-colour art throughout.

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A fantastic floral adventure and the latest sensational coloring book from bestselling artist Johanna Basford This book invites you to travel the world and beyond into fantastical realms, discovering exotic blooms and extraordinary plants along the way. From floating gardens of water poppies in South Africa to delicate cosmos in Japan, and from fanciful toadstools to enchanted fairytale gardens, an abundance of fascinating florals awaits, ready for you to bring to life in color. Join “colorist queen” (New York Magazine) Johanna Basford on a dazzling floral adventure of fantasy and imagination, filled with countless new blooms and blossoms to discover. Beautiful and interactive, World of Flowers is a blissful and relaxing at-home activity for people of all ages.

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For the fiftieth anniversary of the Stonewall uprising, an anthology chronicling the tumultuous fight for LGBTQ rights in the 1960s and the activists who spearheaded itJune 28, 2019 marks the fiftieth anniversary of the Stonewall uprising - the most significant event in the gay liberation movement and the catalyst for the modern fight for LGBTQ rights in the United States. Drawing fromthe New York Public Library's archives, The Stonewall Reader is a collection of firsthand accounts, diaries, periodic literature and articles from LGBTQ magazines and newspapers that documented both the years leading up to and the years following the riots. Most importantly, this anthology shines a light on forgotten figures who were pivotal in the movement, such as Lee Brewster, head of the Queens Liberation Front and Ernestine Eckstine, one of the few out, African American, lesbian activists in the 1960s.

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AMERICAN COLONIES starts with the earliest years of human colonization of the American continent and environs with the Siberian migrations across the Bering Strait 15,000 years ago. It ends in around 1800 when the rough outline of the contemporary North America could be perceived.Dropping the usual Anglocentric description of North America's fate, Taylor brilliantly conveys the far more vivid and startling story of the competing interests--Spanish, French, English, Native, Russian--that over the centuries shaped and reshaped both the continent and its 'suburbs' in the Caribbean and the Pacific. It is one of the greatest of all human stories.

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CHOSEN AS A BOOK OF THE YEAR BY SUNDAY TIMES AND HISTORY TODAY'Absolutely stunning. . . a formidable achievement. A six-part historical thriller that is essential reading for both our politicians and the ordinary citizen' Kai BirdBest-selling historian Serhii Plokhy returns with an illuminating exploration of the atomic age through the history of six nuclear disasters In 2011, a 43-foot-high tsunami crashed into a nuclear power plant in Fukushima, Japan. In the following days, explosions would rip buildings apart, three reactors would go into nuclear meltdown, and the surrounding area would be swamped in radioactive water. It is now considered one of the costliest nuclear disasters ever. But Fukushima was not the first, and it was not the worst. . .In Atoms and Ashes, acclaimed historian Serhii Plokhy tells the tale of the six nuclear disasters that shook the world: Bikini Atoll, Kyshtym, Windscale, Three Mile Island, Chernobyl and Fukushima. Based on wide-ranging research and witness testimony, Plokhy traces the arc of each crisis, exploring in depth the confused decision-making on the ground and the panicked responses of governments to contain the crises and often cover up the scale of the catastrophe.As the world increasingly looks to renewable and alternative sources of energy, Plokhy lucidly argues that the atomic risk must be understood in explicit terms, but also that these calamities reveal a fundamental truth about our relationship with nuclear technology: that the thirst for power and energy has always trumped safety and the cost for future generations.

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'A landmark piece of non-fiction' Janet Maslin, The New York TimesFrom the winner of the Pulitzer Prize, this is one of the great untold stories of American history: the migration of black citizens who fled the south and went north in search of a better life From 1915 to 1970, an exodus of almost six million people would change the face of America. With stunning historical detail, Pulitzer prize-winning journalist Isabel Wilkerson gives us this definitive, vividly dramatic account of how these journeys unfolded. Based on interviews with more than a thousand people, and access to new data and official records, The Warmth of Other Suns tells the story of America's Great Migration through the lives of three unique individuals: Ida Mae Gladney, who in 1937 left sharecropping and prejudice in Mississippi for Chicago, where she achieved quiet blue-collar success and, in old age, voted for Barack Obama when he ran for an Illinois Senate seat; sharp and quick-tempered George Starling, who in 1945 fled Florida for Harlem, where he endangered his job fighting for civil rights, saw his family fall, and finally found peace in God; and Robert Foster, who left Louisiana in 1953 to pursue a medical career, the personal physician to Ray Charles as part of a glitteringly successful medical career.Wilkerson brilliantly captures their first treacherous and exhausting cross-country journeys, as well as how they changed their new homes forever.'You will never forget these people' Gay Talese'A brilliant and stirring epic' John Stauffer, Wall Street Journal 'The mass migration of African Americans out of the US south forever changed the country's cultural fabric - and Wilkerson's history of this period is full of sacrifice and hope ... a long overdue account' Lettecha Johnson, Guardian'A deeply affecting, finely crafted and heroic book. . . .Wilkerson has taken on one of the most important demographic upheavals of the past century and told it through the lives of three people ... lyrical and tragic' Jill Lepore, New Yorker

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The New York Times bestseller based on the Oscar nominated documentary filmIn June 1979, the writer and civil rights activist James Baldwin embarked on a project to tell the story of America through the lives of three of his murdered friends: Medgar Evers, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr. He died before it could be completed. In his documentary film, I Am Not Your Negro, Raoul Peck imagines the book Baldwin never wrote, using his original words to create a radical, powerful and poetic work on race in the United States - then, and today. 'Thrilling . . . A portrait of one man's confrontation with a country that, murder by murder, as he once put it, "devastated my universe"' The New York Times'Baldwin's voice speaks even more powerfully today . . . the prose-poet of our injustice and inhumanity . . . The times have caught up with his scalding eloquence' Variety 'A cinematic séance . . . One of the best movies about the civil rights era ever made' Guardian 'I Am Not Your Negro turns James Baldwin into a prophet' Rolling Stone

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'[He] inspired a generation ... He changed the course of history' Barack ObamaAs Martin Luther King, Jr. prepared for the Birmingham campaign in early 1963, he drafted the final sermons for Strength to Love, a volume of his best-known lectures. King had begun working on the sermons during a fortnight in jail in July 1962 and A Gift of Love includes these classic sermons, along with two new lectures. Drawing inspiration from both his Christian faith and the non-violent philosophy of Mahatma Gandhi, A Gift of Love illustrates King's vision of love and peaceful action as social and political forces for change.

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Transit Maps of the World is the first, comprehensive collection of every rapid-transit system on earth. Using glorious, colourful graphics, Mark Ovenden traces the history of urban transport systems, including rare and historic maps, diagrams, and photographs. Transit Maps could not be more relevant to our modern existence. It uncovers the way many of us are able live and work day to day. It is an inspiring compendium for graphic designers and transport enthusiasts alike.

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Originally written only for his personal consumption, Marcus Aurelius's Meditations has become a key text in the understanding of Roman Stoic philosophy. This Penguin Classics edition is translated with notes by Martin Hammond and an introduction by Diskin Clay.Written in Greek by an intellectual Roman emperor without any intention of publication, the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius offer a wide range of fascinating spiritual reflections and exercises developed as the leader struggled to understand himself and make sense of the universe. Spanning from doubt and despair to conviction and exaltation, they cover such diverse topics as the question of virtue, human rationality, the nature of the gods and Aurelius's own emotions. But while the Meditations were composed to provide personal consolation, in developing his beliefs Marcus also created one of the greatest of all works of philosophy: a series of wise and practical aphorisms that have been consulted and admired by statesmen, thinkers and ordinary readers for almost two thousand years.Martin Hammond's new translation fully expresses the intimacy and eloquence of the original work, with detailed notes elucidating the text. This edition also includes an introduction by Diskin Clay, exploring the nature and development of the Meditations, a chronology, further reading and full indexes.Marcus Aelius Aurelius Antoninus (121-80) was adopted by the emperor Antoninus Pius and succeeded him in 161, (as joint emperor with adoptive brother Lucius Verus). He ruled alone from 169, and spent much of his reign in putting down various rebellions, and was a persecutor of Christians. His fame rest, above all, on his Meditations, a series of reflections, strongly influenced by Epictetus, which represent a Stoic outlook on life. He was succeeded by his natural son, thus ending the period of the adoptive emperors.If you enjoyed Meditations, you might like Seneca's Letters from a Stoic, also available in Penguin Classics.

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'My mother died today. Or maybe yesterday, I don't know.'In The Outsider (1942), his classic existentialist novel, Camus explores the alienation of an individual who refuses to conform to social norms. Meursault, his anti-hero, will not lie. When his mother dies, he refuses to show his emotions simply to satisfy the expectations of others. And when he commits a random act of violence on a sun-drenched beach near Algiers, his lack of remorse compounds his guilt in the eyes of society and the law. Yet he is as much a victim as a criminal.Albert Camus' portrayal of a man confronting the absurd, and revolting against the injustice of society, depicts the paradox of man's joy in life when faced with the 'tender indifference' of the world. Sandra Smith's translation, based on close listening to a recording of Camus reading his work aloud on French radio in 1954, sensitively renders the subtleties and dream-like atmosphere of L'Étranger.Albert Camus (1913-1960), French novelist, essayist and playwright, is one of the most influential thinkers of the 20th century. His most famous works include The Myth of Sisyphus (1942), The Plague (1947), The Just (1949), The Rebel (1951) and The Fall (1956). He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1957, and his last novel, The First Man, unfinished at the time of his death, appeared in print for the first time in 1994, and was published in English soon after by Hamish Hamilton.Sandra Smith was born and raised in New York City and is a Fellow of Robinson College, University of Cambridge, where she teaches French Literature and Language. She has won the French American Foundation Florence Gould Foundation Translation Prize, as well as the PEN Book-of-the-Month Club Translation Prize.

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The Penguin English Library Edition of The Murders in the Rue Morgue and Other Tales by Edgar Allan Poe'... an agility astounding, a strength superhuman, a ferocity brutal, a butchery without motive, a grotesquerie in horror absolutely alien from humanity...'Horror, madness, violence and the dark forces hidden in humanity abound in this collection of Poe's brilliant tales, including - among others - the bloody, brutal and baffling murder of a mother and daughter in Paris in 'The Murders in the Rue Morgue', the creeping insanity of 'The Tell-Tale Heart', the Gothic nightmare of 'The Masque of the Red Death', and the terrible doom of 'The Fall of the House of Usher'.The Penguin English Library - 100 editions of the best fiction in English, from the eighteenth century and the very first novels to the beginning of the First World War.

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Continuing the saga begun in I, Claudius, Robert Graves's Claudius the God is a compelling fictional autobiography of the Roman emperor, published with an introduction by Barry Unsworth in Penguin Modern Classics.Claudius has survived the murderous intrigues of his predecessors to become, reluctantly, Emperor of Rome. Here he recounts his surprisingly successful reign: how he cultivates the loyalty of the army and the common people to repair the damage caused by Caligula; his relations with the Jewish King Herod Agrippa; and his invasion of Britain. But the growing paranoia of absolute power and the infidelity of his promiscuous young wife Messalina mean that his good fortune will not last forever. In this second part of Robert Graves's fictionalized autobiography, Claudius - wry, rueful, always inquisitive - brings to life some of the most scandalous and violent times in history.If you enjoyed Claudius the God, you might like Marguerite Yourcenar's Memoirs of Hadrian, also available in Penguin Modern Classics.'I, Claudius and Claudius the God are an imaginative and hugely readable account of the early decades of the Roman Empire ... racy, inventive, often comic'Daily Telegraph'One of the really remarkable books of our day, a novel of learning and imagination, fortunately conceived and brilliantly executed' The New York Times'Graves made Roman history funny and familiar'Guardian

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'POPism reads like a novel... Social history of the rarest kind, set down in ultra-sharp focus by someone who helped shape the events he describes' The New YorkerA cultural storm swept through the 1960s - Pop Art, Bob Dylan, psychedelia, underground movies - and at its centre sat a bemused young artist with silver hair: Andy Warhol. Andy knew everybody (from the cultural commissioner of New York to drug-driven drag queens) and everybody knew Andy. His studio, the Factory, was the place: where he created the large canvases of soup cans and Pop icons that defined Pop Art, where one could listen to the Velvet Underground and rub elbows with Edie Sedgwick and where Warhol himself could observe the comings and goings of the avant-guarde.

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'One of the best books I've ever read' Richard Osman'Tender and elegant' Guardian'Unlike anything else in modern English literature' D.J. Taylor, SpectatorA damaged survivor of the First World War, Tom Birkin finds refuge in the quiet village church of Oxgodby where he is to spend the summer uncovering a huge medieval wall-painting. Immersed in the peace and beauty of the countryside and the unchanging rhythms of village life he experiences a sense of renewal and belief in the future. Now an old man, Birkin looks back on the idyllic summer of 1920, remembering a vanished place of blissful calm, untouched by change, a precious moment he has carried with him through the disappointments of the years. Adapted into a film starring Colin Firth, Natasha Richardson and Kenneth Branagh, A Month in the Country traces the slow revival of the primeval rhythms of life so cruelly disorientated by the Great War.With an introduction by Penelope Fitzgerald

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Arthur Miller's classic parable of mass hysteria draws a chilling parallel between the Salem witch-hunt of 1692 - 'one of the strangest and most awful chapters in human history' - and the American anti-communist purges led by Senator McCarthy in the 1950s. The story of how the small community of Salem is stirred into madness by superstition, paranoia and malice, culminating in a violent climax, is a savage attack on the evils of mindless persecution and the terrifying power of false accusations.A depiction of innocent men and women destroyed by malicious rumour, The Crucible is also a powerful indictment of McCarthyism and the 'frontier mentality' of Cold War America.

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THE PULITZER PRIZE-WINNING BESTSELLER, NOW AN ACCLAIMED TV SERIESThis is the definitive account of the run-up to 9/11: from the man who lit the spark of radical Islam in 1948, to those who built up a terror network, and to the FBI agent whose warnings of 'something big' coming were ignored until the Twin Towers fell.'The Looming Tower is a thriller. And it's a tragedy, too' The New York Times'The most detailed (and thrilling) account we have of the events that led to the destruction of the Twin Towers' Observer, Books of the Year'Possibly the best book yet written on the rise of al-Qaeda ... beautifully written and wonderfully compelling' William Dalrymple'We meet some formidable schemers and killers ... fabulists crazed with blood and death' Martin Amis

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One of the most influential books of the 21st century: the ground-breaking psychology classic - over 10 million copies sold - that changed the way we think about thinking'There have been many good books on human rationality and irrationality, but only one masterpiece. That masterpiece is Thinking, Fast and Slow' Financial Times'A lifetime's worth of wisdom' Steven D. Levitt, co-author of FreakonomicsWhy do we make the decisions we do? Nobel Prize winner Daniel Kahneman, 'the world's most influential living psychologist' (Steven Pinker) revolutionised our understanding of human behaviour with Thinking, Fast and Slow. Distilling his life's work, Kahneman shows how there are two ways we make choices: fast, intuitive thinking, and slow, rational thinking. He reveals how our minds are tripped up by error, bias and prejudice (even when we think we are being logical) and gives practical techniques that enable us all to improve our decision-making. This profound exploration of the marvels and limitations of the human mind has had a lasting impact on how we see ourselves.'The godfather of behavioural science ... his steely analysis of the human mind and its many flaws remains perhaps the most useful guide to remaining sane and steady' Sunday Times

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How can your name affect how well you do in life? What do estate agents and the Ku Klux Klan have in common? Why do drug dealers live with their mothers?The answer: Freakonomics. It's at the heart of everything we do and the things that affect us daily: from sex to crime, parenting to politics, fat to cheating, fear to traffic jams. And we can use it to get to the heart of what's really happening under the surface of everyday life. This cult bestseller will show you how, by unravelling your life's secret codes, you can discover a totally new way of seeing the world.

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When Horace the elephant turns eleven, he celebrates instyle by inviting his exotic friends to a splendid costume party. But a mystery is afoot, for in the midst of the games, music, and revelry, someone has eaten the birthday feast. The rhyming text and lavish, detailed illustrations each provide clues, and it's up to the reader to piece them together and decide whodunit!"The fun of poring over the pictures is matched by the enjoyment derived from the textwitty, ingenious verses." -- Publishers WeeklyGraeme Base is the author of many award-winning books for children, including Animalia (Puffin), The Sign of the Seahorse, and most recently, The Discovery of Dragons.

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Towering over the rest of Greek tragedy, Sophocles' The Three Theban Plays are among the most enduring and timeless dramas ever written. This Penguin Classics edition is translated by Robert Fagles with introductions and notes by Bernard Knox.Collected here are Antigone, Oedipus the King and Oedipus at Colonus, in a translation by Robert Fagles which retains all of Sophocles' lucidity and power: the cut and thrust of his dialogue, his ironic edge, the surge and majesty of his choruses and, above all, the agonies and triumphs of his characters. Oedipus in exile, searching for his identity, desperately trying to avoid his fate, seeking the truth of his origins and achieving immortality; his daughter, Antigone, defending her integrity and ideals to the death - these heroic, tragic figures have captivated theatregoers and readers since the fifth century BC. It is Sophocles' characterisation of Oedipus that would, in the nineteenth century, inspire Sigmund Freud to a revolutionary conception of the human mind, and the tragedies in this volume continue to move and inspire us to this day.Sophocles (496-405 BC) was born at Colonus, just outside Athens. His long life spanned the rise and decline of the Athenian Empire; he was a friend of Pericles, and though not an active politician he held several public offices, both military and civil. The leader of a literary circle and friend of Herodotus, Sophocles wrote over a hundred plays, drawing on a wide and varied range of themes, and winning the City Dionysia eighteen times; though only seven of his tragedies have survived, among them Antigone, Oedipus Rex, Ajax and Oedipus at Colonus.If you enjoyed The Three Theban Plays, you might like Aeschylus' The Oresteia, also available in Penguin Classics.'I know of no better English version'Sir Hugh Lloyd-Jones, Oxford University'The most impressive verse translations of Sophocles that have been made'Stephen Spender

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Six Records of a Floating Life (1809) is an extraordinary blend of autobiography, love story and social document written by a man who was educated as a scholar but earned his living as a civil servant and art dealer. In this intimate memoir, Shen Fu recounts the domestic and romantic joys of his marriage to Yün, the beautiful and artistic girl he fell in love with as a child. He also describes other incidents of his life, including how his beloved wife obtained a courtesan for him and reflects on his travels through China. Shen Fu's exquisite memoir shows six parallel 'layers' of one man's life, loves and career, with revealing glimpses into Chinese society of the Ch'ing Dynasty.

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Published in the first month of the first year of the new century, Zadie Smith''s debut novel White Teeth - winner of the Guardian First Book Award and the Whitbread First Novel Award - was an immediate bestseller and stunningly acclaimed.One of the most talked about fictional débuts of ever, White Teeth is a funny, generous, big-hearted novel, adored by critics and readers alike. Dealing - among many other things - with friendship, love, war, three cultures and three families over three generations, one brown mouse, and the tricky way the past has of coming back and biting you on the ankle, it is a life-affirming, riotous must-read of a book.''Funny, clever ... and a rollicking good read'' Independent ''An astonishingly assured début, funny and serious ... I was delighted'' Salman Rushdie''The almost preposterous talent was clear from the first pages'' Julian Barnes, Guardian''Quirky, sassy and wise ... a big, s

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This new volume of eight short stories offers students of German at all levels the opportunity to enjoy a wide range of contemporary literature in the original, with the aid of parallel translations.The majority of these stories have been written in the past decade, and reflect a rich diversity of styles and themes. Complete with notes, the stories make excellent reading in either language.

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Enlighten yourself in 2019 with the simple but powerful teachings of Sri Ramana Maharshi - one of India's most revered spiritual masters. 'Our own Self-realization is the greatest service we can render the world'_________Be As You Are is the definitive guide to his knowledge, edited by the former librarian from Sri Maharshi's ashram, which can be found flourishing at the foot of the holy mountain of Arunchala. The book collects conversations with the many seekers who came to him for guidance, answering the questions sought on the road to enlightenment.Through this book, we can discover the essence of Sri Ramana's teaching: that self-realisation is the vital quest we must all pursue, before we can attempt to understand the world.Reissue of the classic spiritual work, updated with a new cover.

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Lawrence asserted that 'the proper function of a critic is to save the tale from the artist who created it'. In these highly individual, penetrating essays he has exposed 'the American whole soul' within some of that continent's major works of literature. In seeking to establish the status of writings by such authors as Poe, Melville, Fenimore Cooper and Whitman, Lawrence himself has created a classic work. Studies in Classic American Literature is valuable not only for the light it sheds on eighteenth- and nineteenth-century American consciousness, telling 'the truth of the day', but also as a prime example of Lawrence's learning, passion and integrity of judgement.

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A breathtaking, never-before-seen glimpse into life on tour with David Bowie, by the late singer's official tour photographerIn 1983 David Bowie set out on the Serious Moonlight Tour, his biggest ever. On the road with him was his official photographer, Denis O'Regan. Few artists and photographers have had such a close touring relationship. This book is the result: a never-before-seen photographic portrait of a year with Bowie, from the theatre of performance to his most unguarded moments. Introduced by O'Regan and with every single image personally approved by Bowie, this is an intimate view of an icon at the height of his fame.

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'A joyous treasure trove' Michael Morpurgo'A delight' Tom Jones'A Tour De Force' Roger PhillipsCook your way around the world with Cerys Matthews' Where the Wild Cooks Go, with a Spotify playlist ready for each country, as well as poems, proverbs, curiosities and some very surprising aspects of world history. The pages of her 'folk cookbook' are brim-full of generations' old nuggets of wisdom, as well as stories about Catatonia touring days and other escapades, plus over a hundred recipes and cocktail ideas from 15 countries.Easy haggis, vegan haggis, jambalaya, cawl, traditional and vegan Welsh cakes, tequila prawns, chocolate and Guinness fondants, thousand hole pancakes, pineapple and chilli, potato, chickpea and coconut curry, dahl and hedgerow salad are just some of delicious, sustainable and fuss free ideas served in this beautiful book.

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A FINANCIAL TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR 2020SHORTLISTED FOR THE ESTWA AWARD FOR ILLUSTRATED TRAVEL BOOK OF THE YEAR 2022One of the least-known places on the planet, the only continent on earth with no indigenous population, Antarctica is a world apart. From a leading cartographer with the British Antarctic Survey, this new collection of maps and data reveals Antarctica as we have never seen it before.This is not just a book of traditional maps. It measures everything from the thickness of ice beneath our feet to the direction of ice flows. It maps volcanic lakes, mountain ranges the size of the Alps and gorges longer than the Grand Canyon, all hidden beneath the ice. It shows us how air bubbles trapped in ice tell us what the earth's atmosphere was like 750,000 years ago, proving the effects of greenhouse gases. Colonies of emperor penguins abound around the coastline, and the journeys of individual seals around the continent and down to the sea bed in search of food have been intricately tracked and mapped. Twenty-nine nations have research stations in Antarctica and their unique architecture is laid out here, along with the challenges of surviving in Antarctica'sunforgiving environment.Antarctica is also the frontier of our fight against climate change. If its ice melts, it will swamp almost every coastal city in the world. Antarctic Atlas illustrates the harsh beauty and magic of this mysterious continent, and shows how, far from being abstract, it has direct relevance to us all.

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Edited with an introduction by ROBERT SKIDELSKY'Many of the greatest economic evils of our time are the fruits of risk, uncertainty, and ignorance'John Maynard Keynes was the most influential economist, and one of the most influential thinkers, of the twentieth century. He overturned the orthodoxy that markets were optimally self-regulating, and instead argued for state intervention to ensure full employment and economic stability. This new selection is the first comprehensive single-volume edition of Keynes's writings on economics, philosophy, social theory and policy, including several pieces never before published. Full of irony and wit, they offer a dazzling introduction to a figure whose ideas still have urgent relevance today.

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Probably the most famous living philosopher, Slavoj Žižek explores the concept of 'event', in the second in this new series of easily digestible philosophyWhat is really happening when something happens?In the second in a new series of accessible, commute-length books of original thought, Slavoj Žižek, one of the world's greatest living philosophers, examines the new and highly-contested concept of Event. An Event can be an occurrence that shatters ordinary life, a radical political rupture, a transformation of reality, a religious belief, the rise of a new art form, or an intense experience such as falling in love. Taking us on a trip which stops at different definitions of Event, Žižek addresses fundamental questions such as: are all things connected? How much are we agents of our own fates? Which conditions must be met for us to perceive something as really existing? In a world that's constantly changing, is anything new really happening? Drawing on references from Plato to arthouse cinema, the Big Bang to Buddhism, Event is a journey into philosophy at its most exciting and elementary.Slavoj Žižek is a Hegelian philosopher, Lacanian psychoanalyst, and Communist political activist. He is the author of numerous books on dialectical materialism, critique of ideology and art. His main work is Less Than Nothing, a study on the actuality of Hegelian dialectics.

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From the international bestselling author of Gomorrah, this is a deeply personal and candid portrait of Italy today: a place of trafficking and toxic waste, where votes can be bought and sold, where organized crime ravages both north and south - yet also where many courageous individuals defy the system, and millions work tirelessly for a better future. 'Saviano is a blazingly vivid and courageous writer' Independent 'A national hero' Umberto Eco'Saviano has an astonishing ability to write luminously yet subtly about terrible things' Le Parisien 'Brave and passionate' Guardian 'One of the world's finest investigative journalists' GQ

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'Shapton has created a mystical territory - a performance, an exhibition, a guestbook - in which I felt the ghost within myself; the thing that will outlive me. A fearless and exquisite book' Miranda JulyGuestbook explores the glimmering, unsettling things that haunt us in the midst of life, combining stories, vignettes and an evocative curiosity cabinet of artifacts and images - found photographs, original paintings, Instagram-style portraits - to transform the traditional ghost story into something else entirely.'Leanne Shapton has a way of making books entirely new, surreal, and uncanny ... Guestbook contains ghost stories for a world of images and captions, in which the ghosts are all of us, and our strange time' Sheila Heti, author of How Should a Person Be?

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In Mess, Keri Smith, creator of Wreck This Journal, asks readers to explore what it feels like to throw themselves off balance -- on purpose.Smith dares readers to drop some kind of coloured liquid (ink, tea, coffee) onto a page from a good height (at least five feet); draw in the dark (or with eyes closed); creatively misspell words; paint a picture in a water-based medium (pen, marker, watercolour, etc) and leave it out during a rain or snowstorm; and bury this book, then dig it up.This book is unlike any other you've encountered and will allow you to open yourself up to the possibility of creating something new and unexpected.

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A revelatory new account of the magus - the learned magician - and his place in the world of Renaissance EuropeAt the heart of the extraordinary ferment of the High Renaissance stood a distinctive, strange and beguiling figure: the magus. An unstable mix of scientist, bibliophile, engineer, fabulist and fraud, the magus ushered in modern physics and chemistry while also working on everything from secret codes to siege engines to magic tricks.Anthony Grafton's wonderfully original book discusses the careers of men who somehow managed to be both figures of startling genius and - by some measures - credulous or worse. The historical Faust, Marsilio Ficino, Pico della Mirandola, Johannes Trithemius and Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa are all fascinating characters, closely linked to monarchs, artists and soldiers and sitting at the heart of any definition of why the Renaissance was a time of such restless innovation. The study of the stars, architecture, warfare, even medicine: all of these and more were revolutionized in some way by the experiments and tricks of these extraordinary individuals.No book does a better job of allowing us to understand the ways that magic, religion and science were once so intertwined and often so hard to tell apart.

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Have you ever listened to an incredible piece of music and wondered exactly why it makes you want to dance or cry? Are you mystified by how musicians just 'know' what notes to play next when they're improvising? Or why certain notes sound great together and others clash? Discover the answers in this ear-opening tour of how music works. John Powell, a classically-trained composer and a physics professor, decided to write this entertaining, pain-free guide to the ingredients of music when he discovered that all the other books on the subject gave him a headache. Here he reveals the often little-known facts and fascinating science behind what we listen to, explaining the basics of harmony, scales, chords, keys and rhythm in a way that's easy for everyone to understand. He also shows us why a note has a different sound to a normal noise, why Chinese people are more likely to have perfect pitch, and even why Beethoven and Led Zeppelin are musically similar. This book reveals things that people who play music should know but often don't, and will help all of us - even if we can't read a note - increase our listening pleasure.

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A revelatory and exhilarating tour de force, Nicholas Ostler's The Last Lingua Franca: The Rise and Fall of World Languages explores the rise of a linguistic diversity we could never before have imagined. In the twenty-first century, can we really take the dominance of English for granted? In their time, Greek, Latin, Arabic, Sanskrit and Persian have each been world languages, sweeping the globe for centuries at a time. And yet they have all been displaced, just as Nicholas Ostler predicts English will be. What forces drive these linguistic currents? What characteristics do lingua francas share? And most importantly, how do they lose their power? 'Frequently jaw-dropping and never less than convincing' Henry Hitchings, Financial Times 'Sweepingly learned and engagingly garrulous' Sunday Times 'A much-needed challenge to conventional wisdom' Guardian A linguist of astonishing voracity ... the predictions are striking' Economist Nicholas Ostler is the author of Empires of the Word: A Language History of the World and Ad Infinitum: A Biography of Latin. He studied Greek, Latin and Philosophy at the University of Oxford and holds a Ph.D. in Linguistics from MIT. With a working knowledge of twenty-six languages, Nicholas now runs an institute for the protection of endangered languages.

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SHORTLISTED FOR THE JOHN MCGAHERN PRIZE 2022This critically acclaimed debut will be a guaranteed hit with literary fiction lovers this Christmas._____________A young woman comes of age in the shadow of her family's tragic pastWhen Beth Crowe starts university, she is shadowed by the ghost of her potential as a competitive swimmer. Free to create a fresh identity for herself, she finds herself among people who adore the poetry of her grandfather, Benjamin Crowe, who died tragically before she was born. She embarks on a secret relationship - and on a quest to discover the truth about Benjamin and his widow, her beloved grandmother Lydia. The quest brings her into an archive that no scholar has ever seen, and to a person who knows things about her family that nobody else knows.Holding Her Breath is a razor-sharp, moving and seriously entertaining novel about complicated love stories, ambition and grief - and a young woman coming fully into her powers.SHORTLISTED FOR THE IRISH BOOK AWARDS 2021SHORTLISTED FOR THE KATE O'BRIEN AWARD 2022__________'A stunning debut from this new Irish talent' STELLAR'A beautiful coming-of-age story told with impressive skill and lightness of touch . . . I absolutely loved it' LOUISE O'NEILL'Whip smart observations and addictive prose' SUNDAY TELEGRAPH'Precise, sure, engaging, and a joy to read' RODDY DOYLE'A moving debut with a satisfying conclusion' IRISH INDEPENDENT'Brilliant, vivid - I enjoyed this book ENORMOUSLY' MARIAN KEYES'Enthralling' IMAGE'A nimble account of student life with a darkly enjoyable undercurrent of secrecy and emotional turmoil' SARA BAUME'A truly compelling read, and one I wholeheartedly recommend' BUZZ'Through the dark sky of our times, Eimear Ryan arrives like a comet, a bright talent scorching through every page' DOIREANN NÍ GHRÍOFA, author of A Ghost in the Throat'Brilliantly realised, gripping, and moving . . . This is absolutely the real thing' KEVIN POWER'Written with a wonderful clarity and insight, Holding Her Breath lingers in the imagination. Beth's unravelling and re-ravelling is drawn with great skill and empathy. A brilliant debut' DONAL RYAN

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The Number One BestsellerShortlisted for the Irish Book Awards 2021'A great achievement . . . Brilliant, engaging and essential' Colm Tóibín'At once intimate and epic, this is a landmark book' Fintan O'TooleWhen Dubliner Derek Scally goes to Christmas Eve Mass on a visit home from Berlin, he finds more memories than congregants in the church where he was once an altar boy. Not for the first time, the collapse of the Catholic Church in Ireland brings to mind the fall of another powerful ideology - East German communism. While Germans are engaging earnestly with their past, Scally sees nothing comparable going on in his native land. So he embarks on a quest to unravel the tight hold the Church had on the Irish.He travels the length and breadth of Ireland and across Europe, going to Masses, novenas, shrines and seminaries, talking to those who have abandoned the Church and those who have held on, to survivors and campaigners, to writers, historians, psychologists and many more. And he has probing and revealing encounters with Vatican officials, priests and religious along the way.The Best Catholics in the World is the remarkable result of his three-year journey. With wit, wisdom and compassion Scally gives voice and definition to the murky and difficult questions that face a society coming to terms with its troubling past. It is both a lively personal odyssey and a resonant and gripping work of reporting that is a major contribution to the story of Ireland.'Reflective, textured, insightful and original ... rich with history, interrogation and emotional intelligence' Diarmaid Ferriter, Irish Times'An unblinking look at the collapse of the Church and Catholic deference in Ireland. Excellent and timely' John Banville, The Sunday Times'Engaging and incisive' Caelainn Hogan, author of Republic of Shame'Remarkable ... Essential reading for anyone concerned about history and forgetting' Michael Harding'Fair-minded ... thoughtful' Melanie McDonagh, The Times'Very pacey and entertaining ... and it changed how I regard Ireland and our history for good. Fantastic' Oliver Callan'Original, thought-provoking and very engaging' Marie Collins'A provocative insight into a time that many would rather forget' John Boyne'Challenging' Mary McAleese'Explores this subject in a way that I've never seen before' Hugh Linehan, Irish Times

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The must-have bestseller from the Happy Pear twins!'These lovely boys always create incredibly tasty food' Jamie OliverLet's face it: while we want to eat more fruit and veg and things we know are good for us, we sometimes fall short because we're not sure how to turn all that great produce into great food.Well, welcome to the Happy Pear way of eating - healthy but never worthy, easy but never dull, and packed with mind-blowing flavour, exciting texture and vibrant colour.The Happy Pear opened when David and Stephen Flynn, passionate about starting a food revolution in their home town, took over their local fruit and veg shop and later opened a café. Their revolution has not only succeeded, but it is spreading, and The Happy Pear's fans range from young parents to pensioners, ladies-who-lunch to teens-on-the-run, hipsters to Hollywood stars.David and Stephen's first cookbook is full of irresistible recipes for everything from everyday breakfasts, lunches and dinners, to scrumptious - and yes, still wholesome! - cakes and sweet treats, to special occasion splurges. David and Stephen also tell their story (how they transformed from jocks to hippies before finally finding their groove), share their top tips for maximizing taste and goodness in food, and explain how they've succeeded in building a food business based on flavour, health and community._____________'The poster boys for a healthy way of life' Sunday Times'Proper good food . . . hearty, decent and delicious' Russell Brand'I love The Happy Pear . . . genuinely good food that brings healthy eating in from the cold' Irish Times'My favourite [vegetarian cookbook] . . . packed with recipes, health advice and inspirational stories' Huffington Post'A healthy eating phenomenon' Mail on Sunday'These Irish twins are on a roll' Time Out'[They] couldn't look healthier or happier . . . the poster boys for vegetarianism in Ireland' The Times

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The No. 1 Bestselling Happy Pear twins are back! Vegan Cooking for Everyone is the vegan cooking bible, distilling their twenty years of plant-based cooking experience into ten chapters.David and Stephen's recipe grids show you just how many different meals you can make using the same key ingredients and methods. This means you can start adapting your favourite dishes to your taste, to your budget or to whatever you have in the cupboard.Their introductory chapters walk you through the fundamentals of taste and texture, teaching you the role of every ingredient you use. Once you understand this, you will have the confidence to swap ingredients in and out and even come up with recipes of your own.You will find over 200 versions of plant-based recipes anyone can make, from fluffy coconut granola for breakfast, to home-made vegan pizza for lunch, to creamy broccoli pie for dinner to carrot cake with vegan cream cheese frosting for dessert.From the plant-based newbie to the experienced vegan, this approach will inspire you to become the best plant-based cook you can possibly be.'These lovely boys always create incredibly tasty food' Jamie Oliver'Proper good food ... hearty, decent and delicious' Russell Brand'The poster boys for a healthy way of life!' Sunday Times'Their energy is almost tangible' Dr Rangan Chatterjee'A healthy-eating phenomenon' Mail on Sunday'Great people, unbelievable food' Joe Wicks

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'McLane is a Romantic poet out of time' Ange Mlinko'Passionate, erudite, sensuous . . . McLane probes the minutest currents of human feeling' Sarah Howe'My favourite living poet . . . [her work] bristles with life, feeling, argument' Parul SeghalThe witty, searching new collection by National Book Award finalist Maureen N. McLane, musing on the sea, ageing, love and the climate crisisIn her first book of poems since What I'm Looking For: Selected Poems 2005-2017, Maureen N. McLane offers a bravura collection of perceptive poetic meditations. What You Want is a book of landscapes, mindscapes, and shifting moods. Here are poems filled with gulls and harbours, blinking red lights and empty lobster traps, beach roses and rumoured sharks, eels and crows, wind turbines and superhighways. Sensitive, lyrical, alert to seasons and pressures on our shared life, McLane registers and gives form to an ambient unease. From Sappho to Constable, from constellations to microplastics, What You Want is a collection as alive to the cosmos as it is to our moment. This is McLane's cloudy-sky book: a voyage through lambent autumns and shining winters, in which an eye looks out on what it longs for, what it loves, and asks: will it survive the coming heat?

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'Vital and energetic . . . These are the poems of a certain age: scars so old others must tell you how they are made . . . Hayes is a singular poet, and this book a singular achievement' Nick LairdA dazzling new collection of poems from the T. S. Eliot Prize-shortlisted author of American Sonnets for My Past and Future AssassinIn So to Speak, the dazzling new collection by Terrance Hayes, the poet seeks to understand how we see ourselves now. He draws the reader into fabulous fables, American sonnets and do-it-yourself sestinas as he roves among the predicaments of the present and recent past, piecing together a new map of our times.Here, a tree frog sings to overcome its fear of birds. Talking cats tell jokes in the Jim Crow South. Green beans bling in the mouth of Lil Wayne, and elegies for David Berman and George Floyd unfold amid the global pandemic. Here, too, Hayes contemplates fatherhood, history and longing, in urgent, personal poems of a remarkable openness and humanity.Masterful, contemplative and massively alive, So to Speak shows one of contemporary poetry's great innovators at his muscular best. It is a treasure-trove of exploration, and an invitation to each of us to engage in the creativity that makes and remakes our world. It is, above all, the mature, restless work of a leading poetic voice.

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From a foremost expert on the science of emotions, a ground-breaking exploration into the history, psychology and meaning of aweSocial psychologist Dacher Keltner has spent his career speaking to different groups of people, from schoolchildren to prisoners to healthcare workers, about the good life. These conversations and his pioneering research into the science of emotion have convinced him that happiness comes down to one thing: finding awe.Awe allows us to collaborate with others, open our minds to wonder, and see the deep patterns of life. In his new book, Keltner presents a radical investigation into this elusive emotion. Drawing on his own scientific research into how awe transforms our brains and bodies, alongside an examination of awe across history, culture and within his own life during a period of immense grief, Keltner shows us how cultivating wonder leads us to appreciate what is most humane in our human nature. The book includes intensely moving, deeply personal stories of awe from people all over the world - doctors and veterans, environmentalists and filmmakers, indigenous scholars and hospice workers, ministers and midwives, poets and prisoners.At turns radical and profound, Awe is our field guide for how to uncover everyday wonder as a vital force within our lives.

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Adam White has been called many things but single dad was not one he expected. At twenty-three Adam’s life changed forever – suddenly he was the father to a son he never knew existed – but he’s spent the past ten years managing to raise his son and juggle his business. White Ice Training is now one of the best hockey training facilities in Vancouver. But when he recruits a new hockey trainer, she lights a flame inside of him that he thought had long since burnt out. One terrible game was all it took for Scarlett Carter to lose everything. After a career-ending injury destroys her chances of ever playing professional hockey again, she finds herself lost in a mess of broken dreams. Moving back home to Vancouver was never in the playbook.Scarlett wants to forget about the world that broke her, but a new job at White Ice won’t let that happen. The more time she spends with Adam, the harder she’s finding it to resist him. She can’t help but wonder why he cares so much about her. And more importantly, why can't she bring herself to skate away?

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Everyone knew the rules.Gracie Hutton was off-limits.But Tyler's never been one to follow rules.And now she's about to become his ultimate sin.Tyler Bateman doesn't know what easy means. He's never had an easy day in his damn life. Everything he has he's worked for. Blood, sweat, and tears.Hockey is his escape, a passion he never knew he could possess. He wants to succeed. He wants to prove that he's worth something.He wasn't expecting her to matter. He didn't want her to. But she had other plans, and now his best friend's sister is about to ruin his life.And he might just let her.

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Get ready for small towns stirred by mystery and desire in The Eden series, sexy fourth story . . .Eloise is so close to her dream she can almost taste it. Eloise Eden always knew one day she'd take over her family's hotel, The Eloise Inn, in Quincy, Montana. All she has to do is prove she's responsible to her parents. And that her immature, gullible, and reckless ways are long gone. But now her ideal future is at stake following a weekend in Las Vegas when she comes home married to a stranger. Jasper must have put her under a spell with those soul-deep eyes because after a single night together, they woke up husband and wife. Her only hope is to keep this marriage a secret until it's annulled. Then she'll pretend it never happened. Except Jasper begs her to stay married. To fake it for just three months so she can accompany him to a wedding. Maybe she's lost her mind to agree. But her brooding husband seems desperate. It's only three months, right? Then she'll say goodbye to Jasper Vale, and with any luck, hello to her new hotel.

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