Search results for ""author simon"
Simon & Schuster I Can't Draw
£16.64
Simon & Schuster The Dire Days of Willowweep Manor
Nimona meets Paper Girls with a literary twist in this wickedly funny graphic novel about a teenager who is swept up in a strange new universe and must save it from an all-consuming evil in order to return home.One dark and stormy night, Haley sees a stranger drowning in the river. Since her greatest passion is Gothic romance novels, she knows her moment has come. But when Haley leaps into the water to rescue the stranger, she awakens in Willowweep. It certainly looks like the setting of one of her favorite books: A stately manor. A sinister housekeeper. Three brooding brothers. There’s even a ghost. Except Willowweep is not what it seems. Its romantic exterior hides the workings of a pocket universe—the only protection our world has against a great force of penultimate evil, and its defenses are crumbling. Could cruel fate make Haley the heroine that Willowweep needs?
£9.99
Simon & Schuster The Adventures of Sophie Mouse Collection #2 (Boxed Set): The Maple Festival; Winter's No Time to Sleep!; The Clover Curse; A Surprise Visitor
Books five through eight of the Adventures of Sophie Mouse series are now available in one charming boxed set!Join Sophie Mouse and her friends in Silverlake Forest as they prepare for the Maple Festival, have fun in the winter snow, find a not-so-lucky four-leaf clover, and meet a surprise visitor in this four-book collection! With easy-to-read language and illustrations on almost every page, the Adventures of Sophie Mouse chapter books are perfect for beginning readers. This adorable collection includes: The Maple Festival Winter’s No Time to Sleep The Clover Curse A Surprise Visitor
£18.81
Simon & Schuster Forget-Me-Not Lake
£8.23
Simon & Schuster The Wind in the Willows
Since its beginnings as a series of stories told to Kenneth Grahame’s young son, The Wind in the Willows has gone on to become one of the best-loved children’s books of all time. The timeless story of Toad, Rat, Mole, and Badger has delighted readers of all ages for more than eighty years.Friendly Rat, mild-mannered Mole, wise Badger, and kind—but conceited—Toad all live on the banks of the Thames. While Mole and Rat are content to go out in a row boat or travel the roads in a caravan, Toad prefers the excitement of motor cars. He’s already wrecked seven! While his friends try to keep him out of trouble, his passion for cars eventually results in his being caught and kept prisoner in the remotest dungeon of the best-guarded castle in all the land. Somehow, he has to escape and get home but what will he find when he gets there? The Wind in the Willows is a book for those “who keep the spirit of youth alive in them; of life, sunshine, running water, woodlands, dusty roads, winter firesides.” So, wrote Kenneth Grahame of his timeless tale of Rat, Mole, Badger, and Toad.
£8.66
Simon & Schuster Baby's Box of Fun (Boxed Set): A Karen Katz Lift-the-Flap Gift Set: Where Is Baby's Bellybutton?; Where Is Baby's Mommy?: Toes, Ears, & Nose!
£18.29
Simon & Schuster Would You Come Too?
This whimsical and poignant picture book celebrates playing outside and invites readers to grab some friends, gear up their imaginations, and immerse themselves in nature.Can you imagine what it’s like to be a rock, a nest, a bird, or even a bubbling creek? A group of curious children is headed outside to find out… Would you come, too? Join in on an outdoor adventure to discover the magic and mystery of the living, breathing natural world all around us.
£12.99
Simon & Schuster Fuzzy Furry Ouch
£12.96
Simon & Schuster The Real Estate Game: The Intelligent Guide To Decisionmaking And Investment
The Real Estate Game is a comprehensive guide to successful real estate investment from one of the masters in the field. Drawing upon four decades of experience developing, owning, and managing properties and on almost thirty years of teaching at the Harvard Business School, William J. Poorvu offers an insider's perspective on how to make smart decisions about real estate.The real estate “game” is played by people, and it’s the stories of real people that make Poorvu’s introduction to the industry colorful and interesting. You will meet players ranging from real estate moguls to small-scale developers to individual investors in exotic investment instruments. Their stories evolve throughout the book and illustrate how these people—with all their complicated needs, talents, and motives—fit into the larger process and context. In clear and nontechnical language, Poorvu explains how variables—players, properties, capital markets, and the external environment—come together to influence the shape and outcome of a real estate deal. He explains the time frame for different kinds of real estate investments and walks the reader through the key “periods of play” in the real estate game: concept, commitment, development, operation, reward, and reinvestment. The Real Estate Game introduces a simple but powerful “back-of-the-envelope” technique for analyzing the financial implications of a potential deal. Using this tool and others, Poorvu shows readers how to use direct investments, syndicates, and REITs to get into the real estate game across a broad range of property types: residential, office, hotel, industrial, and retail. Offering unique insight into the ways that developers and investors can create value, The Real Estate Game is both a perfect introduction for the novice and an invaluable overview for the experienced professional.
£22.00
Simon & Schuster How to Win Friends and Influence People
£13.34
Simon & Schuster Ltd Dreamland: A postcard from a future that's closer than we think
For fans of Children of Men, Years and Years & Station Eleven, a postcard from a future Britain that’s closer than we think.An Evening Standard 'Best New Book' ‘A beautiful book: thought-provoking, eerily prescient and very witty.’ Brit Bennett, author of The Vanishing Half 'Water courses through its pages, as rising sea levels heighten inequalities, buoy populist politicians and wash away every certainty of civilisation. But there’s also the novel’s prose – its liquid grace and glinting sparkle – and the sheer irresistibility of a narrative that sweeps along with a force that feels tidal in its pull.' The Observer ''You said that you would come back. You looked me in the eye and said that. Well, if you had, this is what you would have seen: soft wood, black cracks, fridges in the road. The broken spines of old rides at Dreamland.' In the coastal resort of Margate, hotels lie empty and sun-faded ‘For Sale’ signs line the streets. The sea is higher – it’s higher everywhere – and those who can are moving inland. A young girl called Chance, however, is just arriving. Chance’s family is one of many offered a cash grant to move out of London - and so she, her mother Jas and brother JD relocate to the seaside, just as the country edges towards vertiginous change. In their new home, they find space and wide skies, a world away from the cramped bedsits they’ve lived in up until now. But challenges swiftly mount. JD’s business partner, Kole, has a violent, charismatic energy that whirlpools around him and threatens to draw in the whole family. And when Chance comes across Franky, a girl her age she has never seen before – well-spoken and wearing sunscreen – something catches in the air between them. Their fates are bound: a connection that is immediate, unshakeable, and, in a time when social divides have never cut sharper, dangerous. Set in a future unsettlingly close to home, against a backdrop of soaring inequality and creeping political extremism, Rankin-Gee demonstrates, with cinematic pace and deep humanity, the enduring power of love and hope in a world spinning out of control. 'She vividly captures the balance between ferocity and vulnerability as the two girls explore their burgeoning desire; one minute they’re greedy for each other, the next they’re proceeding more gingerly. Theirs is a great first love, blazing bright and furious amid the poverty and the pain, the perfect counterweight that’s needed to make the novel sing. Dreamland brings us face-to-face with much of what we’re on the threshold of losing; nevertheless, it manages to convince us that its characters have everything still to live for.' Guardian 'A great coming-of-age story, and a warning.' Evening Standard ‘This brutal read has moments of hope and love but also serves as a hideous warning to fight for what’s right’ Daily Mail ‘Brilliantly bleak… this compelling novel is horribly plausible, chilling and feels like a warning that’s come too late.’ Daily Mirror 'Chance’s life is filled with poverty, crime, drugs and fear – until she meets Franky, a girl unlike anyone else she knows. Their relationship brings light and love...' Daily Express 'Rankin-Gee’s novel is a triumph, being as much a love letter to the heady ups and crashing lows of youthful entanglements as it is a paean to the former grandeur of its stark coastal setting. Read this now.' GQ 'A writer of a new time… A writer we will all want to read again and again.' Monique Roffey, author of the Costa Book of The Year The Mermaid of Black Conch “Dazzling and shattering" Nell Dunn, author of Up The Junction and Talking to Women 'The writing clings like sand. Unexpected turns of phrase have burrowed deep into the recesses of my brain. She has created a vivid, textural portrait, teeming with life and granular, sensory detail as well as wisdom. It does what the most haunting of apocalyptic novels do, which is to shine a light on what is already happening around us and ask that we wake up.' Olivia Sudjic, author of Asylum Road ‘Entrancing… A dark and devastating funhouse ride through curtailed innocence and apocalyptic experience. And- most uniquely- a love letter to the waning magic and melancholy of British seaside towns. It is its own twist on the lucid dystopias of Diane Cook, Kirsten Roupenian and Emily St John Mandel. The book is also deeply cinematic- I was reminded, throughout, of Terry Gilliam's waterlogged neo-noir fantasy Tideland, as well as the dreamy realism of the films of Andrea Arnold and Lynne Ramsay.' Sharlene Teo, author of Ponti 'Rankin-Gee is a visionary empath. Every page of this book both broke my heart and made me laugh out loud. What a feat!' Jac Jemc, author of The Grip of It and False Bingo
£8.99
Simon & Schuster The Black Guy Dies First: Black Horror Cinema from Fodder to Oscar
A definitive and surprising exploration of the history of Black horror films, after the rising success of Get Out, Candyman, and Lovecraft Country from creators behind the acclaimed documentary, Horror Noire.The Black Guy Dies First explores the Black journey in modern horror cinema, from the fodder epitomized by Spider Baby to the Oscar-winning cinematic heights of Get Out and beyond. This eye-opening book delves into the themes, tropes, and traits that have come to characterize Black roles in horror since 1968, a year in which race made national headlines in iconic moments from the enactment of the 1968 Civil Rights Act and Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination in April. This timely book is a must-read for cinema and horror fans alike.
£9.99
Simon & Schuster The Speed of Trust: The One Thing that Changes Everything
From Stephen R. Covey's eldest son come a revolutionary book that will guide business leaders, public figures and their organizations towards unprecedented productivity and satisfaction. Trust, says Stephen M. R. Covey, is the very basis of the 21st century's global economy, but its power is generally overlooked and misunderstood. Covey shows you how to inspire immediate trust in everyone you encounter - colleagues, constituents, the marketplace - allowing you to forego the time-killing and energy-draining check and balance bureaucracies that are so often relied upon in lieu of actual trust.
£13.49
Simon & Schuster Ltd Brown Boy: A Memoir
Brown Boy is an uncompromising interrogation of identity, family, religion, race, and class, told through Omer Aziz’s incisive and luminous prose. In the early 2000s, Toronto, Omer Aziz’s working-class neighbourhood is miles away from the wealthy white downtown. A first-generation Pakistani Muslim boy, Omer struggles to find his place in a world of violence and uncertainty, torn between cultures old and new. Dreading the aimless, angry future that he sees other young men succumbing to, Omer clings to his love for books and education, dreaming of a wider world. That dream sees him through some of the most prestigious international institutions, from Ontario to Paris to Cambridge—and finally to Yale Law School. Yet despite his success, Omer has never banished the insecurities and doubts that come with being an outsider; a brown-skinned boy in an elite white universe that has never really accepted him. The more books he reads and the higher Omer soars, the stronger his need for community and identity becomes, pushing him to question everything and everyone around him. Was assimilation ever really an option? Can you truly transcend the barriers of race and class in a system that throws up obstacles at every turn? And can we—the collective West—ever honestly confront the darkness and consequences of our past? Weaving together Omer’s powerful personal narrative with the stories and people that moved him, Brown Boy is an articulation of contradictions, displacement, and belonging. It’s a book for anybody who has ever felt unwanted or out of place; a testament to the complex process of creating an identity that fuses where you’re from, what people see in you, and who you know yourself to be. "A sterling portrait of personal revelation, cuts to the bone." -- Publisher's Weekly (starred review) "A brilliant and moving memoir of, among other things, class migration and the choices made by outsiders. Aziz writes with sensitivity and honesty about the tensions between growing up in a working class immigrant home and the worlds of elite education and politics. This book will surely make it onto any reading list exploring the twin preoccupations of our time: race and class." -- Zia Haider Rahman, author of In The Light of What We Know "Omer Aziz’s astonishing journey from economic hardship and violence to Yale and becoming a foreign policy advisor would be fascinating even if it didn’t tell us things we absolutely need to know: Why have the white and minority communities withdrawn into their separate corners; what can be done to bring them together? An essential memoir." -- Akhil Sharma, author of Family Life and An Obedient Father. “This breathtaking, brilliant memoir had me from page one—I couldn’t put it down. Omer Aziz is a poet, his writing luminous. Brown Boy is eye-opening, achingly honest, alternately hilarious and heartbreaking—an unforgettable book.” —Amy Chua, author of Political Tribes and Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother "Brown Boy is a poignant, unflinching exploration of cultural identity: the roles we perform, the ways we are misperceived, and the conflicted feelings we can have about our pasts. Omer Aziz illuminates what it is like to be the child of immigrants and the unique invisibility that comes with being South Asian. I saw myself reflected in these pages. How rare, to encounter one’s story with such candor and vulnerability. How rare, and how necessary." —Maya Shanbhag Lang, author of What We Carry, a New York Times Editors’ Choice
£15.29
Simon & Schuster The Wedding Veil
This “masterfully woven…literary home run” (New York Journal of Books) follows four women across generations, bound by a beautiful wedding veil and a connection to the famous Vanderbilt family from the New York Times bestselling author of the Peachtree Bluff series.Four women. One family heirloom. A secret connection that will change their lives—and history as they know it. Present Day: Julia Baxter’s wedding veil, bequeathed to her great-grandmother by a mysterious woman on a train in the 1930s, has passed through generations of her family as a symbol of a happy marriage. But on the morning of her wedding day, something tells her that even the veil’s good luck isn’t enough to make her marriage last forever. Overwhelmed, she escapes to the Virgin Islands to clear her head. Meanwhile, her grandmother, Babs, is also feeling shaken. Still grieving the death of her beloved husband, she decides to move into a retirement community. Though she hopes it’s a new beginning, she does not expect to run into an old flame, dredging up the same complicated emotions she felt a lifetime ago. 1914: Socialite Edith Vanderbilt is struggling to manage the luxurious Biltmore Estate after the death of her cherished husband. With 250 rooms to oversee and an entire village dependent on her family to stay afloat, Edith is determined to uphold the Vanderbilt legacy—and prepare her free-spirited daughter Cornelia to inherit it—despite her family’s deteriorating financial situation. But Cornelia has dreams of her own, and as she explores more of the rapidly changing world around her, she’s torn between upholding tradition and pursuing the exciting future that lies beyond Biltmore’s gilded gates. In the vein of Therese Anne Fowler’s A Well-Behaved Woman and Jennifer Robson’s The Gown, The Wedding Veil is “a sparkling, fast-paced joy of a book that celebrates love, family, and the right to shape one’s own destiny” (Kristin Harmel, New York Times bestselling author).
£21.46
Simon & Schuster The Masjid Kamal Loves
From the author of Not Quite Snow White comes a story about a young Muslim boy celebrating the many reasons he loves going to his local masjid in this jubilant and playful picture book perfect for fans of Mommy’s Khimar and Abdul’s Story. Friday is Kamal’s favorite day of the week because he gets to go to the masjid for Jumu’ah prayer. The masjid is where he can be with his friends, hear the teachings of the imam, and pray with the community that he loves so dearly. He just can’t help the bounce in his step, the smile on his face, or the joy bubbling up in his chest every time Friday rolls around! Inspired by the famous nursery rhyme “This Is the House That Jack Built,” each spread in this buoyant picture book builds on the rhythmic list of things Kamal loves about the masjid.
£11.69
Simon Spotlight The Little Box of Life's Big Lessons (Boxed Set): Daniel Learns to Share; Friends Help Each Other; Thank You Day; Daniel Plays at School
£17.24
£16.44
Simon & Schuster Eve
Synopsis coming soon.......
£16.06
Simon & Schuster Den of Thieves
Synopsis coming soon.......
£13.49
Simon & Schuster The Anatomy of Motive
Synopsis coming soon.......
£9.65
Simon & Schuster Lessons of History
In this illuminating and thoughtful book, Will and Ariel Durant have succeeded in distilling for the reader the accumulated store of knowledge and experience from their five decades of work on the eleven monumental volumes of The Story of Civilization. The result is a survey of human history, full of dazzling insights into the nature of human experience, the evolution of civilization, and the culture of man. With the completion of their life's work, they look back and ask what history has to say about the nature, the conduct and the prospects of man, seeking in the great lives, the great ideas, the great events of the past for the meaning of man's long journey through war, conquest and creation - and for the great themes that can help us to understand our own era.
£9.99
Simon & Schuster Make Russia Great Again A Novel
£13.66
£8.81
Simon & Schuster Educating Caroline
With Meg Cabot’s signature “dazzling,” (Romantic Times Book Review) prose, this Victorian romance follows a young woman looking for lessons in love.Lady Caroline Linford is horrified to discover her fiancé, the Marquis of Winchilsea, in the arms of another woman. Unfortunately, for the rest of Victorian society, this sort of extracurricular activity is par for the course for most men and certainly not reason enough cancel the upcoming wedding. But Caroline is determined to make sure that the man she is to marry will desire only her, so she enlists the best teacher in the art of romance: London’s most notorious rake, Braden Granville. As their passionate tutelage begins, sparks fly and the lines between teacher and student get increasingly blurred. Now there is just one last lesson to learn: on the subject of true love, the heart chooses its own unpredictable ways.
£9.99
Simon & Schuster Undermoney
£11.60
Simon & Schuster In His Own Write and a Spaniard in the Works
£12.85
Simon & Schuster Play Dirty
£7.50
Simon Hildrew Imprimibles para infantil Dibuja las manecillas del reloj para que muestren la hora correcta
Un libro de actividades a todo color para niños de preescolar del Dr. James Manning ¿Ha estado buscando un método divertido y entretenido para ayudar a su hijo a desarrollar y perfeccionar sus habilidades motoras finas?¿Necesita una forma fácil pero divertida de ayudar a su hijo de edad preescolar a aprender lo básico?Permita que su hijo descubra un mundo lleno de posibilidades e imaginaciónEstas fichas de actividades para preescolar son una manera fantástica de hacer que sus hijos o sus alumnos se interesen en el maravilloso y creativo mundo del aprendizaje, al tiempo que les enseña los conceptos básicos de la educación. Estos sencillos ejercicios ayudarán a estimular sus mentes y a mejorar su atención. Cada libro contiene 30 fichas. Las fichas de este libro presentan diseños simples a la par que complejos, pensados para a
£4.98
Simon Hildrew Hojas de aprendizaje para infantil Dibuja las manecillas del reloj para que muestren la hora correcta
Un libro de actividades a todo color para niños de preescolar del Dr. James Manning ¿Ha estado buscando un método divertido y entretenido para ayudar a su hijo a desarrollar y perfeccionar sus habilidades motoras finas?¿Necesita una forma fácil pero divertida de ayudar a su hijo de edad preescolar a aprender lo básico?Permita que su hijo descubra un mundo lleno de posibilidades e imaginaciónEstas fichas de actividades para preescolar son una manera fantástica de hacer que sus hijos o sus alumnos se interesen en el maravilloso y creativo mundo del aprendizaje, al tiempo que les enseña los conceptos básicos de la educación. Estos sencillos ejercicios ayudarán a estimular sus mentes y a mejorar su atención. Cada libro contiene 30 fichas. Las fichas de este libro presentan diseños simples a la par que complejos, pensados para a
£4.98
Simon Hildrew Hojas de actividades para ninos de 4 anos Dibuja las manecillas del reloj para que muestren la hora correcta
£14.22
Simon & Schuster Silly Lullaby
What’s the best way to say good night? With a Silly Lullaby at bedtime from the beloved and bestselling Sandra Boynton! This board book is now available in an oversized lap edition!Curl up with your favorite little person and this charmingly unpredictable go-to-sleep book. Whether you are a parent, child, or just another snoozing chicken in the bathtub, Silly Lullaby is truly a sweet dream surprise. The sneakers in the freezer heartily concur. It’s BIG fun from Sandra Boynton in this big, big lap edition of this favorite board book. Your pajamas are on. There’s a duck on your head. I think that this means you are ready for bed.
£6.99
Simon & Schuster Wings of Ebony
In this riveting, keenly emotional debut fantasy, a Black teen from Houston has her world upended when she learns about her godly ancestry and must save both the human and god worlds. Perfect for fans of Angie Thomas, Tomi Adeyemi, and The Hunger Games!“Make a way out of no way” is just the way of life for Rue. But when her mother is shot dead on her doorstep, life for her and her younger sister changes forever. Rue''s taken from her neighborhood by the father she never knew, forced to leave her little sister behind, and whisked away to Ghizon—a hidden island of magic wielders. Rue is the only half-god, half-human there, where leaders protect their magical powers at all costs and thrive on human suffering. Miserable and desperate to see her sister on the anniversary of their mother’s death, Rue breaks Ghizon’s sacred Do Not Leave Law and returns to Houston, only to discover that Black kids are being forced into crime and violence. An
£17.99
Simon & Schuster Magic Dark and Strange
The Bone Witch meets Sherlock Holmes in this thrilling historical fantasy about a girl with the ability to raise the dead who must delve into her city's dangerous magical underworld to stop a series of murders.
£10.08
SIMON & SCHUSTER When We Were Young
£16.99
Simon & Schuster A Book about Love
£17.28
SIMON & SCHUSTER SUBSTANCE INSIDE NEW ORDER PA
£9.43
SIMON & SCHUSTER Different Kind of Evil
£13.49
SIMON & SCHUSTER UNKNOWN PLEASURES PA
£7.01
Simon & Schuster Nevermore
£13.61
Simon & Schuster The Awful Secret
As Sir John de Wolfe recovers from the broken leg inflicted at the end of 'Crowner's Quest', he finds himself embroiled in a strange death at Ilfracombe when a wreck is washed ashore with a corpse aboard.
£14.99
Simon & Schuster The Old Man and the Sea
£13.92
Simon & Schuster Silver Under Nightfall: Silver Under Nightfall #1
£17.05
Simon & Schuster The Christmas Movie Cookbook: Recipes from Your Favorite Holiday Films
Bring the merry festivities from the screen right to your own table with The Christmas Movie Cookbook with more than 65 scrumptious recipes inspired by scenes from your favorite Christmas films.Do you ever yearn for roast turkey while watching National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation? Or, for the more cynical, do you wish you could taste the roast beast from How the Grinch Stole Christmas? Well, top up your mug of eggnog and don your coziest ugly sweater: ‘tis the season to recreate the dishes from all of your favorite holiday movies with the help of The Christmas Movie Cookbook. This season you can indulge alongside your favorite Elf characters as they make special spaghetti and get tipsy with the Bad Moms crew while they imbibe their spiced cider. Just crack open The Christmas Movie Cookbook and discover sixty-five mouthwatering recipes to add joy to any holiday gathering. Recipes include: -Old Fashioned Meatloaf from A Christmas Story -Chicken, Broccoli, and Cheddar Cheese Soup from Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer -Christmas Pudding from A Christmas Carol -Breakfast Strata from The Family Stone -Really Rich Hot Chocolate from Polar Express -And much more! Complete with tips on entertaining and menu ideas for your merry gatherings, The Christmas Movie Cookbook is the perfect companion to your holiday season.
£13.49
Simon & Schuster The Woman Beyond the Attic: The V.C. Andrews Story
**Nominated for an Edgar Award for Best Critical/Biography**This celebration of the woman who took us to the heights of a secluded attic and the depths of our own dark psyches reveals an intimate portrait of the famously private V.C. Andrews—featuring family photos, personal letters, a partial manuscript for an unpublished novel, and more. Best known for her internationally, multi-million-copy bestselling novel Flowers in the Attic, Cleo Virginia Andrews lived a fascinating life. Born to modest means, she came of age in the American South during the Great Depression and faced a series of increasingly challenging health issues. Yet, once she rose to international literary fame, she prided herself on her intense privacy. Now, The Woman Beyond the Attic aims to connect her personal life with the public novels for which she was famous. Based on Virginia’s own letters, and interviews with her dearest family members, her long-term ghostwriter Andrew Neiderman tells Virginia’s full story for the first time.The Woman Beyond the Attic is perfect for V.C. Andrews fans who pick up every new novel or for fans hoping to return to the favorite novelist of their adolescence. Eye-opening and intimate, The Woman Beyond the Attic is for anyone hoping to learn more about the enigmatic woman behind one of the most important novels of the 20th century.
£18.00
Simon & Schuster Denial
£13.01
Simon & Schuster Only the Dead: A Thriller
£23.53
Simon & Schuster The Ugly History of Beautiful Things: Essays on Desire and Consumption
Paris Review contributor Katy Kelleher explores our obsession with gorgeous things, unveiling the fraught histories of makeup, flowers, perfume, silk, and other beautiful objects. April recommended reading by the New York Times Book Review, Vanity Fair, Goodreads, Jezebel, Christian Science Monitor, All Arts, and the Next Big Idea Club One of Curbed’s and Globe and Mail’s (Toronto) best books of the spring A most anticipated book of 2023 by The MillionsKaty Kelleher has spent much of her life chasing beauty. As a child, she uprooted handfuls of purple, fragrant little flowers from the earth, plucked iridescent seashells from the beach, and dug for turquoise stones in her backyard. As a teenager she applied glittery shimmer to her eyelids after religiously dabbing on her signature scent of orange blossoms and jasmine. And as an adult, she coveted gleaming marble countertops and delicate porcelain to beautify her home. This obsession with beauty led her to become a home, garden, and design writer, where she studied how beautiful things are mined, grown, made, and enhanced. In researching these objects, Kelleher concluded that most of us are blind to the true cost of our desires. Because whenever you find something unbearably beautiful, look closer, and you’ll inevitably find a shadow of decay lurking underneath. In these dazzling and deeply researched essays, Katy Kelleher blends science, history, and memoir to uncover the dark underbellies of our favorite goods. She reveals the crushed beetle shells in our lipstick, the musk of rodents in our perfume, and the burnt cow bones baked into our dishware. She untangles the secret history of silk and muses on her problematic prom dress. She tells the story of countless workers dying in their efforts to bring us shiny rocks from unsafe mines that shatter and wound the earth, all because a diamond company created a compelling ad. She examines the enduring appeal of the beautiful dead girl and the sad fate of the ugly mollusk. With prose as stunning as the objects she describes, Kelleher invites readers to examine their own relationships with the beautiful objects that adorn their body and grace their homes. And yet, Kelleher argues that while we have a moral imperative to understand our relationship to desire, we are not evil or weak for desiring beauty. The Ugly History of Beautiful Things opens our eyes to beauty that surrounds us, helps us understand how that beauty came to be, what price was paid and by whom, and how we can most ethically partake in the beauty of the world.
£21.43