Search results for ""Author Rath"

"We do not live only with clear-cut forms;rather, we exist in a world of forms that are often indistinct and vague." —Takashi Sugimoto, architect and James Beard Award-winning authorSuper Potato Design presents the work of internationally-renowned Japanese designer Takashi Sugimoto. After studying metal sculpture at Tokyo University of Fine Arts, Sugimoto began his career designing a series of bars and restaurants including the iconic Radio Bar that became a favorite hangout for designers like Issey Miyake, Ikko Tanaka, Yohji Yamamoto and Tadao Ando. He was soon recruited to design retail spaces including the original Muji "no-brand" shops along with hotels, tea ceremony spaces and wedding chapels.Super Potato's striking interiors have totally revolutionized Japanese design through the use of exposed concrete surfaces, rough-hewn timber and unevenly cut stone juxtaposed with salvaged metal and repurposed objects to create a sense of power and timelessness. The design vocabulary created by Sugimoto is universally imitated today (in Japan and throughout the world). It is what we now think of as "modern Japanese design"—although Sugimoto's own work has never been surpassed.Super Potato Design presents 40 of Sugimoto's most important projects in 320 full-color photographs by Yoshio Shiratori, who has worked with the designer since the beginning. Author and architect Mira Locher introduces Sugimoto's work and provides a thorough description for each project. A foreword by Tadao Ando and discussions with architect Kiyoshi Sey Takeyama and graphic designer Kenya Hara explore the direction of Japanese design today. A list of Super Potato's complete works rounds off this fascinating book.

Read more less

A one-volume commentary, written and edited by South Asian Biblical scholars on all the books of the Bible.For the purposes of this commentary "South Asia" was defined as the SAARC countries, namely India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Bhutan and the Maldives.The contributing scholars from these countries—addressing these countries' specific concerns—have adopted the following key principles: Integrity: Articles are written within the confines of the Lausanne Covenant and all contributions are in line with and support the confessional direction of the Lausanne Covenant. Interpretation: The commentary offers readers a contextual and readable guide, interpreting the biblical text section by section rather than delving too deeply into critical and exegetical details. South Asian: All authors are scholars writing from within their own contexts for the people of South Asia. The focus of this commentary is three-fold: exegetical, contextual, and applied. Articles explain the meaning of the text, relate that meaning to the context, and apply it to wider life and ministry.Understanding what the Bible teaches book by book. The following features are specifically designed to help you as you study each book of the Bible: Introduction to each book sketches the context and main themes of the book and its relevance to South Asia. Outline shows the structure of the book and can help to identify preaching topics. Subheadings break the book up into manageable portions. Bold references highlight verses being discussed and help you find your place quickly. Italics identify quoted verses being discussed at that point in the commentary. Applications are built into the text in many places. Further reading: each of the authors suggest other commentaries you could consult.

Read more less

“Black women are dope because they rise and are yet rising. This dopeness is not hyperbolic or symbolic—rather, it is borne of persecution that has failed to frustrate a perseverant persistence to prevail.”Before sea to shining sea. Before spacious skies were pierced by purple mountains. Before the uniting of one nation. Black women learned to rise. In POWER: THE RISE OF BLACK WOMEN IN AMERICA, award-winning journalist and digital media executive Charity C. Elder posits that there has never been a better time to be a Black woman in the United States.POWER is an incisive disquisition on Black womanhood weaving theoretical frameworks of history and sociology with poignant interviews, ethnographic observation, and anecdotes gleaned from history, social media, pop culture, and the author’s lived experiences.Using data, the author substantiates the triumph of Black women. Original analysis of eighty years of US census data, prepared by the University of Minnesota and analyzed by Dr. Constance F. Citro, documents the remarkable ascension of Black women since the early twentieth century. An exclusive national survey conducted in partnership with the Marist Poll in 2021 not only reveals that 70 percent of Black women say they have been successful in life, but also that most believe they have the power to succeed.POWER does not shy away from the realities of structural oppression identified by the late Black feminist scholar bell hooks; rather it illuminates how Black women exercise agency to create meaningful lives. Success is not an anomaly, but a defining characteristic. Black women have amassed power—now, Elder posits, they need to acknowledge it and then wield the hell out of it.

Read more less

This is the most sophisticated and up-to-date econometric analysis of business cycles now available. Francis Diebold and Glenn Rudebusch have long been acknowledged as leading experts on business cycles. And here they present a highly integrative collection of their most important essays on the subject, along with a detailed introduction that draws together the book's principal themes and findings. Diebold and Rudebusch use the latest quantitative methods to address five principal questions about the measurement, modeling, and forecasting of business cycles. They ask whether business cycles have become more moderate in the postwar period, concluding that recessions have, in fact, been shorter and shallower. They consider whether economic expansions and contractions tend to die of "old age." Contrary to popular wisdom, they find little evidence that expansions become more fragile the longer they last, although they do find that contractions are increasingly likely to end as they age. The authors discuss the defining characteristics of business cycles, focusing on how economic variables move together and on the timing of the slow alternation between expansions and contractions. They explore the difficulties of distinguishing between long-term trends in the economy and cyclical fluctuations. And they examine how business cycles can be forecast, looking in particular at how to predict turning points in cycles, rather than merely the level of future economic activity. They show here that the index of leading economic indicators is a poor predictor of future economic activity, and consider what we can learn from other indicators, such as financial variables. Throughout, the authors make use of a variety of advanced econometric techniques, including nonparametric analysis, fractional integration, and regime-switching models. Business Cycles is crucial reading for policymakers, bankers, and business executives.

Read more less

Bestselling author of Emotional Intelligence Daniel Goleman and co-author Cary Cherniss reveal practical methods for applying the principles of emotional intelligence to enter an optimal state of high performance, offering a roadmap to being at your best, every day.There are moments when we achieve peak performance: an athlete plays a perfect game; a business has a quarter with once-in-a-lifetime profits. But these moments are often fleeting, and for every amazing day, we may have a hundred ordinary and even unsatisfying ones. Fulfillment doesn’t come from isolated peak experiences, or elusive ‘flow’ states, but rather from many consistent good days. So how do we sustain performance, while avoiding burnout and maintaining balance?In Optimal, Daniel Goleman and Cary Cherniss reveal how emotional intelligence can help us have a great day, any day. They explain how to set a realistic, attainable goal of feeling satisfied that you’ve had a productive day — to consistently work at your ‘optimal’ level. Based on research of how hundreds of people build the inner architecture of having a good day, they sketch what an optimal state feels like, and show how emotional intelligence holds the key to our best performance.Optimal is the culmination of decades of scientific discoveries bearing on emotional intelligence. Enhanced emotional intelligence pays off in improved engagement, productivity and more satisfying days. In this book, you’ll find the keys to competence in emotional intelligence, and practical methods for applying this skill set more readily. It will equip you to become a highly effective leader and enable you to build an organizational culture that empowers workers to sustain high performance.

Read more less

She’s on the hunt for a missing woman, but she’s being hunted herself. Clare is on the run. From her past, from her husband, from her own secrets. When she arrives in the remote mining town of Blackmore asking about Shayna Fowles, a local girl who disappeared, everyone wants to know who Clare really is and what she’s hiding. Everyone in Blackmore is hiding something, but Clare more than most, including what ties her to Shayna in the first place.Mysteries around Shayna’s disappearance abound - did she flee? Was she killed? Is it possible she’s still alive? As Clare unravels the truth, she must also come face-to-face with her own demons and confront what she’s really running from. A tense and gripping mystery from bestselling author Amy Stuart, perfect for fans of Liz Nugent and Lisa Gray. Praise for Still Mine ‘An impressive debut, rooted in character rather than trope, in fundamental understanding rather than rote puzzle-solving.’ The Globe and Mail‘Stuart is a sensitive writer who has given Clare a painful past and just enough backbone to bear it.’ New York Times‘A gripping page-turner, with a plot that takes hold of you and drags you through the story at breakneck speed. The characters are compelling, the setting chilling and the suspense ever-present.’ Toronto Star‘Author Amy Stuart has created a likable heroine, complete with some pretty serious flaws. Between Clare and the other characters of Blackmore, the story is both haunting and compelling.’ Vancouver Sun‘Twisty and swift, Amy Stuart’s Still Mine is a darkly entertaining mystery machine. But what will really surprise you is the emotional foundation on which it has been built.’ Andrew Pyper, bestselling author of The Homecoming‘Still Mine delivers all the nail-biting moments of a fast-paced thriller and filters them through the eyes of girl-with-a-past Clare O’Dey: deeply flawed yet instantly recognizable, O’Dey is a noir detective hero for a postmodern age. Author Amy Stuart sends one missing woman out to look for another one, and the result is chilling. You’ll find yourself turning the pages faster and faster.’ Elisabeth De Mariaffi, author of The Devil You Know‘An intricately woven thriller. . . . You’ll want desperately to solve the mystery not only of the missing Shayna, but of Clare O’Dey, Amy Stuart’s heartbreaking heroine, on the run from the darkest forces both within and without. . . A vivid and haunting debut.’ Holly LeCraw, author of The Swimming Pool‘From its evocative opening to its heart-pounding conclusion, Still Mine is a gripping mystery that I felt desperate to solve... A tense and absorbing read.’ Lucy Clarke author of The Castaways

Read more less

An important milestone of 20th Century philosophy was the rise of personalism. After the crimes and atrocities against millions of human beings in two World Wars, especially the Second, some philosophers and other thinkers began to seek arguments showing the value of each human being, to expose and denounce the folly of political structures that violate the inalienable rights of the individual person.Karol Wojty?a appeals to the ancient concept of 'person' to emphasize the particular value of each human being. The person is unique because of their subjectivity by which they possesses an unrepeatable interior world in the history of humanity. Their rational nature grants them a special character among living beings, among which is the transcendence to the infinite. Wojty?a magisterially shows how each human being's personhood is rooted in a conscious and free subjectivity, which is marked also by personal and social responsibility. Wojty?a's original philosophical analysis takes for its starting point the human act, in which consciousness and experience consolidate voluntary choices, which are objectively efficacious. By their acts, the person determines their own personhood. This self-dominion manifests the person and enables them to live together in a community in which one's neighbor can be a companion on the voyage of life.This work provides a clear guide to Karol Wojty?a's principal philosophical work, Person and Act, rigorously analyzing the meaning that the author intended in his exposition. An important feature of the work is that the authors rely on the original Polish text, Osoba i czyn, as well as the best translations into Italian and Spanish, rather than on a flawed and sometimes misleading English edition of the work.Besides the analysis of Wojty?a's masterwork, this volume offers three chapters examining the impact of Wojty?a's anthropology on the relationship between faith and reason.

Read more less

There was, in the nineteenth century, a distinction made between "writers" and "authors," Susan S. Williams notes, the former defined as those who composed primarily from mere experience or observation rather than from the unique genius or imagination of the latter. If women were more often cast as writers than authors by the literary establishment, there also emerged in magazines, advice books, fictional accounts, and letters a specific model of female authorship, one that valorized "natural" feminine traits such as observation and emphasis on detail, while also representing the distance between amateur writing and professional authorship. Attending to biographical and cultural contexts and offering fresh readings of literary works, Reclaiming Authorship focuses on the complex ways writers such as Maria S. Cummins, Louisa May Alcott, Elizabeth Keckley, Mary Abigail Dodge, Elizabeth Stuart Phelps, and Constance Fenimore Woolson put this model of female authorship into practice. Williams shows how it sometimes intersected with prevailing notions of male authorship and sometimes diverged from them, and how it is often precisely those moments of divergence when authorship was reclaimed by women. The current trend to examine "women writers" rather than "authors" marks a full rotation of the circle, and "writers" can indeed be the more capacious term, embracing producers of everything from letters and diaries to published books. Yet certain nineteenth-century women made particular efforts to claim the title "author," Williams demonstrates, and we miss something of significance by ignoring their efforts.

Read more less

In many organizations, management is the biggest obstacle to successful Agile development. Unfortunately, reliable guidance on Agile management has been scarce indeed. Now, leading Agile manager Jurgen Appelo fills that gap, introducing a realistic approach to leading, managing, and growing your Agile team or organization. Writing for current managers and developers moving into management, Appelo shares insights that are grounded in modern complex systems theory, reflecting the intense complexity of modern software development. Appelo’s Management 3.0 model recognizes that today’s organizations are living, networked systems; and that management is primarily about people and relationships. Management 3.0 doesn’t offer mere checklists or prescriptions to follow slavishly; rather, it deepens your understanding of how organizations and Agile teams work and gives you tools to solve your own problems. Drawing on his extensive experience as an Agile manager, the author identifies the most important practices of Agile management and helps you improve each of them. Coverage includes • Getting beyond “Management 1.0” control and “Management 2.0” fads • Understanding how complexity affects your organization • Keeping your people active, creative, innovative, and motivated • Giving teams the care and authority they need to grow on their own • Defining boundaries so teams can succeed in alignment with business goals • Sowing the seeds for a culture of software craftsmanship • Crafting an organizational network that promotes success • Implementing continuous improvement that actually works Thoroughly pragmatic–and never trendy–Jurgen Appelo’s Management 3.0 helps you bring greater agility to any software organization, team, or project.

Read more less

*Shortlisted for the Rathbones Folio Prize 2020**Winner of non-fiction book of the year at the Irish Book Awards*An extraordinarily intimate book of essays that chart the experiences that have made Sinéad Gleeson the woman and the writer she is today, for readers of The Last Act of Love and I Am, I Am, I Am.'Utterly magnificent. Raw, thought-provoking and galvanising; this is a book every woman should read.' – Eimear McBride, author of A Girl Is a Half-formed Thing.I have come to think of all the metal in my body as artificial stars, glistening beneath the skin, a constellation of old and new metal. A map, a tracing of connections and a guide to looking at things from different angles. How do you tell the story of a life in a body, as it goes through sickness, health, motherhood? How do you tell that story when you are not just a woman but a woman in Ireland? In the powerful and daring essays in Constellations Sinéad Gleeson does that very thing. All of life is within these pages, from birth to first love, pregnancy to motherhood, terrifying sickness, old age and loss to death itself.Throughout this wide-ranging collection she also turns her restless eye outwards delving into work, art and our very ways of seeing. In the tradition of some of our finest life writers, and yet still in her own spirited, generous voice, Sinéad takes us on a journey that is both uniquely personal and yet universal in its resonance. Here is the fierce joy and pain of being alive.'Breathtaking and sublime.' – Nina Stibbe'Absolutely extraordinary and life-enhancing.' – Daisy Buchanan, author of How to be Grown-up.

Read more less

This book describes a method for building real-world problem solving systems such as medical diagnostic procedures and intelligent controllers for autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) and other robots. The approach taken is different from other work reported in the artificial intelligence literature in several respects: * It defines schema-based reasoning, in which schemas -- explicitly declared packets of related knowledge -- are used to control not only the reasoner's planning, but also all other facets of its behavior. * It is a kind of reactive reasoning that the author calls adaptive problem solving -- the reasoner maintains commitments to future goals but is able to change its focus of attention as the problem-solving situation requires. * It is a context-sensitive reasoning method. Every decision it makes relies on the use of contextual knowledge to be appropriate for the current problem-solving situation. Furthermore, context is represented explicitly; by always keeping a current representation of the context in mind, the reasoner's behavior is automatically sensitive to the context with very little work needed per decision. * Schema-based reasoning -- a generalization of case-based reasoning -- extends the usual idea of case-based reasoning to encompass all aspects of the reasoner's behavior, and it extends it to make use of generalized "cases" (i.e., schemas) rather than particular cases, thus saving effort needed to transfer knowledge from an old case to a new situation. Though the work originated in the domain of medical diagnostic problem solving, treating diagnosis as a planning task, it is even more appropriate for controlling autonomous systems. The author is currently extending the approach by creating a robust controller for long-range autonomous underwater vehicles that will be used to carry out ocean science missions.

Read more less

When a dissertation crosses my desk, I usually want to grab it by its metaphorical lapels and give it a good shake. "You know something!" I would say if it could hear me. "Now tell it to us in language we can understand!" Since its publication in 2005, From Dissertation to Book has helped thousands of young academic authors get their books beyond the thesis committee and into the hands of interested publishers and general readers. Now revised and updated to reflect the evolution of scholarly publishing, this edition includes a new chapter arguing that the future of academic writing is in the hands of young scholars who meet the broader expectations of readers rather than the narrow requirements of academic committees. At the heart of From Dissertation to Book is the idea that revising the dissertation is fundamentally a process of shifting its focus from the concerns of a narrow audience - a committee or advisors - to those of a broader scholarly audience that wants writing to be both informative and engaging. William Germano offers clear guidance on how to do this, with advice on such topics as rethinking the table of contents, taming runaway footnotes, and confronting the limitations of jargon. Germano draws on his years of experience in both academia and publishing to show writers how to turn a dissertation into a book that an audience will actually enjoy, whether reading on a page or a screen. Germano also explores other, often overlooked, options for dissertations, such as journal articles or chapters in an edited work. With clear directions, engaging examples, and an eye for the idiosyncrasies of academic writing, From Dissertation to Book reveals to recent PhDs the secrets of careful and thoughtful revision - a skill that will be truly invaluable as they add "author" to their curriculum vitae.

Read more less

** A SUNDAY TIMES AND IRISH TIMES BESTSELLER **** Chosen as a Spectator, Irish Times and Irish Independent Book of the Year **THE NEW NOVEL FROM THE INTERNATIONALLY BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF FOSTER, ANTARCTICA AND WALK THE BLUE FIELDSWINNER OF THE ORWELL PRIZE FOR POLITICAL FICTION AND THE KERRY GROUP IRISH NOVEL OF THE YEAR. SHORTLISTED FOR THE RATHBONES FOLIO PRIZE AND THE IRISH NOVEL OF THE YEAR AT THE DALKEY LITERARY AWARDS'A single one of Keegan's grounded, powerful sentences can contain volumes of social history. Every word is the right word in the right place, and the effect is resonant and deeply moving.' Hilary Mantel (Winner of the Booker Prize 2009 and 2012)'This is a tale of courage and compassion, of good sons and vulnerable young mothers. Absolutely beautiful.' Douglas Stuart (Winner of the Booker Prize 2020)'Marvellous-exact and icy and loving all at once.' Sarah Moss'A haunting, hopeful masterpiece.' Sinéad Gleeson** A BBC TWO BETWEEN THE COVERS BOOK CLUB PICK****CHOSEN AS A BBC RADIO 4 BOOK AT BEDTIME**It is 1985, in an Irish town. During the weeks leading up to Christmas, Bill Furlong, a coal and timber merchant, faces into his busiest season. As he does the rounds, he feels the past rising up to meet him - and encounters the complicit silences of a people controlled by the Church. The long-awaited new work from the author of Foster, Small Things Like These is an unforgettable story of hope, quiet heroism and tenderness.'Astonishing. Claire Keegan makes her moments real - and then she makes them matter.' Colm Tóibín'A true gift of a book. a sublime Chekhovian shock.' Andrew O'Hagan'A moral tale that is unsentimental and deeply affecting, because true and right.' David Hayden

Read more less

"Through which framing do we perceive images? How does their reception change depending on editorial decisions? How comprehensively is our perception of global events influenced by their media treatment? Which contextualization comes closest to what is actually happening? Can there be objective coverage?" Raising questions like these—posed by art historian and photography theorist Mira Anneli Naß—rather than presenting answers, is a key to Jonas Höschl's artistic practice. Based on his media-reflexive work, the artist gathers perspectives of numerous theorists, artists, as well as authors dealing with media-theoretical questions in our increasingly fragile present that make our social inflammations and injuries painfully tangible.

Read more less

A magisterial survey of Normandy from its origins in the tenth century to its conquest some two hundred years later. In around 911, the Viking adventurer Rollo was granted the city of Rouen and its surrounding district by the Frankish King Charles the Simple. Two further grants of territory followed in 924 and 933. But while Frankish kings mightgrant this land to Rollo and his son, William Longsword, these two Norman dukes and their successors had to fight and negotiate with rival lords, hostile neighbours, kings, and popes in order to establish and maintain their authority over it. This book explores the geographical and political development of what would become the duchy of Normandy, and the relations between the dukes and these rivals for their lands and their subjects' fidelity. It looks, too, at the administrative machinery the dukes built to support their regime, from their toll-collectors and vicomtes (an official similar to the English sheriff) to the political theatre of their courts and the buildings in which they were staged. At the heart of this exercise are the narratives that purport to tell us about what the dukes did, and the surviving body of the dukes' diplomas. Neither can be taken at face value, and both tell usas much about the concerns and criticisms of the dukes' subjects as they do about the strength of the dukes' authority. The diplomas, in particular, because most of them were not written by scribes attached to the dukes' households but rather by their beneficiaries, can be used to recover something of how the dukes' subjects saw their rulers, as well as something of what they wanted or needed from them. Ducal power was the result of a dialogue, and this volume enables both sides to speak. Mark Hagger is a senior lecturer in medieval history at Bangor University.

Read more less

Reforestation and avoiding deforestation are methods of harnessing nature to tackle global warming - the greatest challenge facing humankind. In this book, Colin Hunt deals comprehensively with the present and future role of forests in climate change policy and practice. The author provides signposts for the way ahead in climate change policy and offers practical examples of forestry's role in climate change mitigation in both developed and tropical developing countries. Chapters on measuring carbon in plantations, their biodiversity benefits and potential for biofuel production complement the analysis. He also discusses the potential for forestry in climate change policy in the United States and other countries where policies to limit greenhouse gas emissions have been foreshadowed. The author employs scientific and socio-economic analysis and lays bare the complexity of forestry markets. A review of the workings of carbon markets, based both on the Kyoto Protocol and voluntary participation, provides a foundation from which to explore forestry's role. Emphasis is placed on acknowledging how forests' idiosyncrasies affect the design of markets for sequestered carbon. The realization of forestry's potential in developed countries depends on the depth of cuts in greenhouse gas emissions, together with in-country rules on forestry. An increase in funding for carbon retention in tropical forests is an immediate imperative, but complexities dictate that the sources of finance will likely be dedicated funds rather than carbon markets. This timely and comprehensive book will be of great value to any reader interested in climate change. Policy-makers within international agencies and governments, academics and students in the fields of geography, economics, science policy, forestry, development studies as well as carbon market participants and forest developers in the private sector will find it especially useful.

Read more less

Medieval European culture encompassed Judaic, Christian, Muslim, and pagan societies, forming a complex matrix of religious belief, identity, and imagination. Through incisive readings of a broad range of medieval texts and informed by poststructuralist, queer, and feminist theories, The Spectral Jew traces the Jewish presence in Western Europe to show how the body, gender, and sexuality were at the root of the construction of medieval religious anxieties, inconsistencies, and instabilities. Looking closely at how medieval Jewish and Christian identities are distinguished from each other, yet intimately intertwined, Kruger demonstrates how Jews were often corporealized in ways that posited them as inferior to Christians—archaic and incapable of change—even as the two mutually shaped each other. But such attempts to differentiate Jews and Christians were inevitably haunted by the knowledge that Christianity had emerged out of Judaism and was, in its own self-understanding, a community of converts. Examining the points of contact between Christian and Jewish communities, Kruger discloses the profound paradox of the Jew as different in all ways, yet capable of converting to fully Christian status. He draws from central medieval authors and texts such as Peter Damian, Guibert of Nogent, the Barcelona Disputation, and the Hebrew chronicles of the First Crusade, as well as lesser known writings such as the disputations of Ceuta, Majorca, and Tortosa and the immensely popular Dialogues of Peter Alfonsi. By putting the conversion narrative at the center of this analysis, Kruger exposes it as a disruption of categories rather than a smooth passage and reveals the prominent role Judaism played in the medieval Christian imagination. Steven F. Kruger is professor of English and medieval studies at Queens College and the Graduate Center, CUNY. He is author of several books and editor with Glenn Burger of Queering the Middle Ages (Minnesota, 2001).

Read more less

The eight essays in Fire in the Dark frame and probe Pascal's underlying contention that the darkling, "hidden" God of Christian revelation, though Himself a profound mystery, especially in the matter of his justice towardsfallen mankind, can nonetheless be used to demystify questions that matter most to us. Pascal's Pensées afford a deeply penetrating view of the human condition [or predicament] as a prelude to a luminously reasoned defense of the Christian faith. His Provincial Letters are best remembered as a wickedly funny satire of "obliging and accommodating" Jesuit moral theologians who, guided by policy rather than piety, are willing to put virtue and salvation within the easy reach of all but the diabolical. Both works are landmarks ofFrench prose that have fascinated readers of all sorts from his day to ours. The eight essays in Fire in the Dark, two of which are new and four of which first appeared in French, frame and probe Pascal's underlying contention that the darkling, "hidden" God of Christian revelation, though Himself a profound mystery, especially in the matter of his justice towards fallen mankind, can nonetheless be used to demystify questions that matter most to us. But can the Supremely Obscure, like a dark lantern that is supremely dark, really illumine our whence, whither, and what now -- our nature, destiny and duties? "Watchman, what of the night?" The answers Pascal offers to Isaiah's query, whether they finally shed light on our world's chiaroscuro or not, can at least claim the authority of coming from out of the dark. Charles Natoli is a member of the Department of Philosophy and Classical Studies at St. John Fisher College in Rochester, New York. He is also the author of Nietzsche and Pascal on Christianity [1985].

Read more less

'If we want to understand what has been lost to time, there is no way other than through the exercise of imagination ... imagination applied with delicate rather than broad strokes'. So wrote the award winning Japanese author Kyoko Nakajima of her story, Things Remembered and Things Forgotten, a piece that illuminates, as if by throwing a switch, the layers of wartime devastation that lie just below the surface of Tokyo's insistently modern culture. The ten acclaimed stories in this collection are pervaded by an air of Japanese ghostliness. In beautifully crafted and deceptively light prose, Nakajima portrays men and women beset by cultural amnesia and unaware of how haunted they are - by fragmented memories of war and occupation, by fading traditions, by buildings lost to firestorms and bulldozers, by the spirits of their recent past.

Read more less

Mystery readers and lovers of detective fiction are in for a real treat with the twelve intersected stories featuring the ace sleuth Lady Molly of Scotland Yard. Head of the female department at that redoubtable institution in 1910, Lady Molly invariably becomes the police chief's secret weapon and method-of-last resort when confronted with seemingly unsolvable crimes. The stories are narrated by Lady Molly's devoted assistant Mary Granard, a latter-day Dr. Watson, and they offer a fascinating look into the culture of London at the turn of the previous century. Lady Molly is one of the first mystery stories to feature a crack female detective, and she has been described as a valuable precursor to such modern-day detectives as V.I. Warshawski and Kinsey Millhone. Relying on brains rather than brawn, her incredibly capable female intuition allows her to catch clues that her fellows at the Yard, "the blundering and sterner sex," miss wholesale. Lady Molly also employs an admirable any-means-necessary approach to police detection, and she is not afraid to take spectacular chances in these wildly entertaining and erudite mystery stories. She can hold her own fight, as displayed in the story "The Irish Tweed Coat," and Lady Molly forever stays one step ahead of the miscreants. And she invariably gets her man, so to speak. Baroness Orczy (1865-1947), a well-known British novelist and playwright, was famous for her series of novels featuring the scarlet Pimpernel. a first-rate author of detective fiction, Orczy was a prolific author of novels, plays, short stories, and translations from her native Hungarian.

Read more less

Financial Times Business Books of the MonthEconomist Best Books of 2023 With a foreword by Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn'A handbook for disruptors' - Eric Schmidt, former CEO of GoogleWe’re living in a time of amazing innovation, but we’re not paying enough attention to one of the most important of all: the innovation to the company itself. Now, bestselling author of The Second Machine Age, Andrew McAfee, explains how engineers and geeks are changing the world of business – with extraordinary results.A new model is being pioneered by geeks; a radical new mindset that has shifted the paradigm entirely on what a business can – and should – be. They do not follow the rules of the Industrial era, with their hierarchies and bureaucratic ways of thinking. They do not follow the principles preached in business schools since the dawn of time. They have all dedicated themselves to approaching business as a geek would: through trial and error, egalitarianism, evidence and stress-testing ideas in a group setting – rather than relying on the boss’s instincts.By investigating and surveying the contemporary research in psychology, economics and the behavioural sciences, as well as first-hand accounts from the ‘geek’ leaders of today, McAfee's groundbreaking exploration of this emerging phenomenon gets to the heart of the tectonic shifts taking place all over the business world. We have entered a new age. And this age will transform how we achieve great things, now and into the future. The future is geek.'The most compelling analysis I've seen of what Silicon Valley has learned about building more effective organisations' - Adam Grant, host of TED podcast Re: Thinking and No. 1 New York Times bestselling author of Think Again

Read more less

A clear explanation of what being grateful is and the benefits that come from expressing it.What is gratitude? It's not just used for the big things, like birthday parties and iPhones. It's also important to be grateful for small things, like a cosy bed or a sunny day.This book doesn't teach kids how to pretend like everything is always OK, but rather to change their perspective in order to live bold, influential and authentic lives. Being thankful isn't always easy, but it's so worth it.Teach kids that being grateful can alter their perspective on life, and create a more positive mindset. This is one conversation that's never too early to start, and this book was written to be an introduction on the topic for kids.A Kids Book About Gratitude features: - A large and bold, yet minimalist font design that allows kids freedom to imagine themselves in the words on the pages.- A friendly, approachable, yet empowering, kid-appropriate tone throughout.- An incredible and diverse group of authors in the series who are experts or have first-hand experience of the topic.Tackling important discourse together! The A Kids Book About series are best used when read together. Helping to kickstart challenging, empowering, and important conversations for kids and their grownups through beautiful and thought-provoking pages. The series supports an incredible and diverse group of authors, who are either experts in their field, or have first-hand experience on the topic.A Kids Co. is a new kind of media company enabling kids to explore big topics in a new and engaging way. With a growing series of books, podcasts and blogs, made to empower. Learn more about us online by searching for A Kids Co.

Read more less

Why do majority congressional parties seem unable to act as an effective policy-making force? They routinely delegate their power to others—internally to standing committees and subcommittees within each chamber, externally to the president and to the bureaucracy. Conventional wisdom in political science insists that such delegation leads inevitably to abdication—usually by degrees, sometimes precipitously, but always completely. In The Logic of Delegation, however, D. Roderick Kiewiet and Mathew D. McCubbins persuasively argue that political scientists have paid far too much attention to what congressional parties can't do. The authors draw on economic and management theory to demonstrate that the effectiveness of delegation is determined not by how much authority is delegated but rather by how well it is delegated. In the context of the appropriations process, the authors show how congressional parties employ committees, subcommittees, and executive agencies to accomplish policy goals. This innovative study will force a complete rethinking of classic issues in American politics: the "autonomy" of congressional committees; the reality of runaway federal bureaucracy; and the supposed dominance of the presidency in legislative-executive relations.

Read more less

Malaysian Chinese (Mahua) literature is marginalized on several fronts. In the international literary space, which privileges the West, Malaysia is considered remote. The institutions of modern Chinese literature favor mainland China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong. Within Malaysia, only texts in Malay, the national language, are considered national literature by the state. However, Mahua authors have produced creative and thought-provoking works that have won growing critical recognition, showing Malaysia to be a laboratory for imaginative Chinese writing.Highlighting Mahua literature’s distinctive mode of evolution, Cheow Thia Chan demonstrates that authors’ grasp of their marginality in the world-Chinese literary space has been the impetus for—rather than a barrier to—aesthetic inventiveness. He foregrounds the historical links between Malaysia and other Chinese-speaking regions, tracing how Mahua writers engage in the “worlding” of modern Chinese literature by navigating interconnected literary spaces. Focusing on writers including Lin Cantian, Han Suyin, Wang Anyi, and Li Yongping, whose works craft signature literary languages, Chan examines narrative representations of multilingual social realities and authorial reflections on colonial Malaya or independent Malaysia as valid literary terrain. Delineating the inter-Asian “crossings” of Mahua literary production—physical journeys, interactions among social groups, and mindset shifts—from the 1930s to the 2000s, he contends that new perspectives from the periphery are essential to understanding the globalization of modern Chinese literature. By emphasizing the inner diversities and connected histories in the margins, Malaysian Crossings offers a powerful argument for remapping global Chinese literature and world literature.

Read more less

To mark the birthday of the world's most renowned evolutionary biologist, Oxford University Press has reissued the definitive edition of Darwin's classic-a brilliantly entertaining and accessible exploration of human and animal behavior. Renowned psychologist Paul Ekman's edited version of this book is the first to appear the way Darwin ultimately intended, with all of the corrections and additions that were in Darwin's notes for a revision that was never published during his lifetime. "Why do we shrug? Why do dogs wag their tails? Why do we scowl when angry and pout when sad rather than the other way around? What is the difference between guilt and shame? This would be an extraordinary book even if it had only answered these and scores of similar questions about the emotions in 1872 ...Darwin enriched his arguments with hundreds of insightful observations, many with the pathos and humor of great literature, as when he describes the terror of a man being led to his execution or the comical dejection of his dog as soon as it sensed that a walk might end ...This edition has the feel not of a lovingly restored museum piece but of a recent seminal work." --Steven Pinker, Science "Darwin's most readable and human book ...undiminished and intensely relevant even 125 years after publication."--Oliver Sacks, author of Musicophilia and The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat "The Expression of the Emotions predates Freud, and it will still be illuminating human psychology long after Freud's discrediting is complete."--Richard Dawkins, author of The God Delusion "Highly original ...this is scholarship at its best."--Simon Baron-Cohen, Nature "Ekman's edition is no mere reprint plus introduction."--Mark Ridley, Scientific American

Read more less

"There is no question that the value of a detailed account of Moroccan colonial history in English is an important addition to the field, and Wyrtzen's book will undoubtedly become a reference for Moroccan, North African, and Middle Eastern historians alike."―American Historical Review Jonathan Wyrtzen's Making Morocco is an extraordinary work of social science history. Making Morocco’s historical coverage is remarkably thorough and sweeping; the author exhibits incredible scope in his research and mastery of an immensely rich set of materials from poetry to diplomatic messages in a variety of languages across a century of history. The monograph engages with the most important theorists of nationalism, colonialism, and state formation, and uses Pierre Bourdieu’s field theory as a framework to orient and organize the socio-historical problems of the case and to make sense of the different types of problems various actors faced as they moved forward. His analysis makes constant reference to core categories of political sociology state, nation, political field, religious and political authority, identity and social boundaries, classification struggles, etc., and he does so in exceptionally clear and engaging prose. Rather than sidelining what might appear to be more tangential themes in the politics of identity formation in Morocco, Wyrtzen examines deeply not only French colonialism but also the Spanish zone, and he makes central to his analysis the Jewish question and the role of gender. These areas of analysis allow Wyrtzen to examine his outcome of interest—which is really a historical process of interest—from every conceivable analytical and empirical angle. The end-product is an absolutely exemplary study of colonialism, identity formation, and the classification struggles that accompany them. This is not a work of high-brow social theory, but a classic work of history, deeply influenced but not excessively burdened by social-theoretical baggage.

Read more less

Queen María of Castile, wife of Alfonso V, "the Magnanimous," king of the Crown of Aragon, governed Catalunya in the mid-fifteenth century while her husband conquered and governed the kingdom of Naples. For twenty-six years, she maintained a royal court and council separate from and roughly equivalent to those of Alfonso in Naples. Such legitimately sanctioned political authority is remarkable given that she ruled not as queen in her own right but rather as Lieutenant-General of Catalunya with powers equivalent to the king's. María does not fit conventional images of a queen as wife and mother; indeed, she had no children and so never served as queen-regent for any royal heirs in their minorities or exercised a queen-mother's privilege to act as diplomat when arranging the marriages of her children and grandchildren. But she was clearly more than just a wife offering advice: she embodied the king's personal authority and was second only to the king himself. She was his alter ego, the other royal body fully empowered to govern. For a medieval queen, this official form of corulership, combining exalted royal status with official political appointment, was rare and striking. The King's Other Body is both a biography of María and an analysis of her political partnership with Alfonso. María's long, busy tenure as lieutenant prompts a reconsideration of long-held notions of power, statecraft, personalities, and institutions. It is also a study of the institution of monarchy and a theoretical reconsideration of the operations of gender within it. If the practice of monarchy is conventionally understood as strictly a man's job, María's reign presents a compelling argument for a more complex model, one attentive to the dynamic relationship of queenship and kingship and the circumstances and theories that shaped the institution she inhabited.

Read more less

This rich study takes Insular art on its own terms, revealing a distinctive and unorthodox theology that will inevitably change how scholars view the long arc of English piety and the English literary tradition. Drawing on a wide range of critical methodologies, Aesthetics and the Incarnation in Early Medieval Britain treats this era as a “contact zone” of cultural clash and exchange, where Christianity encountered a rich amalgam of practices and attitudes, particularly regarding the sensible realm. Tiffany Beechy illustrates how local cultures, including the Irish learned tradition, received the “Word that was made flesh,” the central figure of Christian doctrine, in distinctive ways: the Word, for example, was verbal, related to words and signs, and was not at all ineffable. Likewise, the Word was often poetic—an enigma—and its powerful presence was not only hinted at (as St. Augustine would have it) but manifest in the mouth or on the page. Beechy examines how these Insular traditions received and expressed a distinctly iterable Incarnation. Often disavowed and condemned by orthodox authorities, this was in large part an implicit theology, expressed or embodied in form (such as art, compilation, or metaphor) rather than in treatises. Beechy demonstrates how these forms drew on various authorities especially important to Britain—Bede, Gregory the Great, and Isidore most prominent among them. Beechy’s study provides a prehistory in the English literary tradition for the better-known experimental poetics of Middle English devotion. The book is unusual in the diversity of its primary material, which includes visual art, including the Book of Kells; obscure and often cursorily treated texts such as Adamnán’s De locis sanctis (“On the holy lands”); and the difficult esoterica of the wisdom tradition.

Read more less

Author of The Mermaid of Black Conch, Rathbone Folio Prize 2021 longlisted, Winner of the Costa Best Novel Award 2020 & Winner of the Costa Book of the Year 2020 Gavin Weald lives with his six-year old daughter Océan and their dog Suzy in a newly rebuilt pink house. It is only a few months since a devastating flood swept through their home, with heartbreaking consequences. Gavin is trying desperately to carry on, but wakes each night to his daughter's cries and his own fears for the future. So one day he does the only thing he can think of: he takes his daughter and his dog down to the marina, to his old boat Romany which hasn't set sail in years, and embarks upon a voyage to make his peace with the waters. They set sail into deep open ocean, watch fish and dolphins leap from the waves, and head for the Caribbean archipelago that Gavin longed to explore as a younger man, before he fell in love with a woman and moored his boat for what he thought was the last time. Now Gavin has a new reason for wanderlust and an unexpected crew, who are about to discover the full power and majesty of the sea. A miraculous journey awaits, new sights and wonders - but it will take more than an ocean to put the memory of the flood behind them… Praise for Archipelago: 'There's a warmth to this book, an exuberance and a wisdom, that makes the experience of reading it feel not just pleasurable but somehow instructive. It's funny, sometimes bitingly poignant. A brilliant piece of storytelling' Andrew Miller, author of Pure, winner of the Costa Book of the Year 2011

Read more less

From the popular blogger and provocative author of Jesus Feminist comes a riveting new study of Christianity that helps you wrestle with - and sort out - your faith.In Out of Sorts, Sarah Bessey - award-winning blogger and author of Jesus Feminist, which was hailed as "lucid, compelling, and beautifully written" (Frank Viola, author of God's Favorite Place on Earth) - helps us grapple with core Christian issues using a mixture of beautiful storytelling and biblical teaching, a style well described as "narrative theology."As she candidly shares her wrestlings with core issues - such as who Jesus is, what place the Church has in our lives, how to disagree yet remain within a community, and how to love the Bible for what it is rather than what we want it to be - she teaches us how to walk courageously through our own tough questions.In the process of gently helping us sort things out, Bessey teaches us how to be as comfortable with uncertainty as we are with solid answers. And as we learn to hold questions in one hand and answers in the other, we discover new depths of faith that will remain secure even through the storms of life.

Read more less

Singapore Malays subscribe to mostly traditional rather than modern interpretations of Islam. Singapore state officials, however, wish to curb the challenges such interpretations bring to the country's political, social, educational and economic domains. Thus, these officials launched a programme to socially engineer modern Muslim identities amongst Singapore Malays in 2003, which is ongoing. Negotiating Muslim Identities documents a variety of ethnographic encounters that point to the power struggles surrounding two basic and very different ways of living. While the Singapore state has gained some successes for its project, it has also faced significant and multiple setbacks. Amongst them, state officials have had to contend with traditional Islamic authority that Malay elders carry and who cannot be ignored because these elders are time-entrenched authority figures in their community. One of the book's significant contributions is that it documents how Singapore, an avowedly secular state, has now turned to Islam as a tool for governance. Just as significant are the insights the study provides on another aspect of Singapore state governance, one usually described as 'authoritarian'. The book demonstrates that even 'authoritarian' states can face serious obstacles in the face of religion's influence over its followers. The academic literature on Singapore Malays is sparse: this work not only fills gaps in the existing academic literature but provides new and original research data. Its data-rich ethnographic and anthropological approach show the complexities of Malay and Muslim social contexts, and complements other works that examine Southeast Asian states ' management of Islam, which has attracted much scholarship given the global interest in Islam-based politics and social organisation.

Read more less

When it comes to large-scale public housing in the United States, the consensus for the past decades has been to let the wrecking balls fly. The demolition of infamous projects, such as Pruitt-Igoe in St. Louis and the towers of Cabrini-Green in Chicago, represents to most Americans the fate of all public housing. Yet one notable exception to this national tragedy remains. The New York City Housing Authority, America's largest public housing manager, still maintains over 400,000 tenants in its vast and well-run high-rise projects. While by no means utopian, New York City's public housing remains an acceptable and affordable option. The story of New York's success where so many other housing authorities faltered has been ignored for too long. Public Housing That Worked shows how New York's administrators, beginning in the 1930s, developed a rigorous system of public housing management that weathered a variety of social and political challenges. A key element in the long-term viability of New York's public housing has been the constant search for better methods in fields such as tenant selection, policing, renovation, community affairs, and landscape design. Nicholas Dagen Bloom presents the achievements that contradict the common wisdom that public housing projects are inherently unmanageable. By focusing on what worked, rather than on the conventional history of failure and blame, Bloom provides useful models for addressing the current crisis in affordable urban housing. Public Housing That Worked is essential reading for practitioners and scholars in the areas of public policy, urban history, planning, criminal justice, affordable housing management, social work, and urban affairs.

Read more less

The name Cliff Slade will be instantly recognised as a frequent and indefatigable correspondent to the Letters to the Editor columns. This book is written in the first person, as being most appropriate for someone who is speaking directly to his audience. This is a very personal journey in letters. It is touching and different insofar as it provides detailed insight into the life and mind of a man, the author, his relationships with his family and his take on local society, business, and politics. This is accomplished through the sharing of letters, only some of which have previously been published. However, this is not just a book of letters, along the lines of `The Times Great Letters’ as there is depth, emotion, pain, laughter, joy, sadness, and a progressive personal and emotional journey of accomplishment and enlightenment. Each correspondence is introduced, and most have accompanying explanations and information about the background and reason for each of the letters that have been included. Beginning with what motivated his writing, he reflects on his upbringing by delving into his childhood and the reasons that explain why he finds it easier to communicate through the written word, rather than verbally. An excellent sense of humour is clearly evident in the self-depreciatory letters written to the paper under a pseudonym and in his letters to himself. The account of when the author met his wife and their marriage, ups and downs and all, along with his thoughts about life as a parent and his children, is very touching in its openness and honesty. He doesn’t claim celebrity status and claims to be from an ordinary walk of life. In this remarkable book, Cliff shares his life and part of himself with the audience with a great deal of emotion. With an auto-biographical narrative, we are regularly moved from tears to amusement and back again.

Read more less

_______________ From the author of the bestselling No Matter What comes a reassuring tale about starting nursery or school. It’s a big day for Little Owl. His first day at school. Little Owl doesn’t want a big day though. He’d rather stay at home and have fun with Mummy and Baby Owl. But at school he gets to build a rocket, learn to fly and even make a tiny new friend. Maybe big days spent with friends can be lots of fun after all! From the bestselling creators of Little Owl’s Egg comes another gentle and comforting story about the lovable Little Owl. Perfect for any little one starting nursery or school.

Read more less

Design and Development of Biological, Chemical, Food and Pharmaceutical Products has been developed from course material from the authors’ course in Chemical and Biochemical Product Design which has been running at the Technical University Denmark for years. The book draws on the authors’ years of experience in academia and industry to provide an accessible introduction to this field, approaching product development as a subject in its own right rather than a sideline of process engineering In this subject area, practical experience is the key to learning and this textbook provides examples and techniques to help the student get the best out of their projects. Design and Development of Biological, Chemical, Food and Pharma Products aims to aid students in developing good working habits for product development. Students are challenged with examples of real problems that they might encounter as engineers. Written in an informal, student-friendly tone, this unique book includes examples of real products and experiences from real companies to bring the subject alive for the student as well as placing emphasis on problem solving and team learning to set a foundation for a future in industry. The book includes an introduction to the subject of Colloid Science, which is important in product development, but neglected in many curricula. Knowledge of engineering calculus and basic physical chemistry as well as basic inorganic and organic chemistry are assumed. An invaluable text for students of product design in chemical engineering, biochemistry, biotechnology, pharmaceutical sciences and product development. Uses many examples and case studies drawn from a range of industries. Approaches product development as a subject in its own right rather than a sideline of process engineering Emphasizes a problem solving and team learning approach. Assumes some knowledge of calculus, basic physical chemistry and basic transport phenomena as well as some inorganic and organic chemistry.

Read more less

___________________________________Change is hard. It doesn't have to be.We all know that change is hard. It's unsettling, it's time-consuming, and all too often we give up at the first sign of a setback.But why do we insist on seeing the obstacles rather than the goal? This is the question that bestselling authors Chip and Dan Heath tackle in their compelling and insightful book. They argue that we need only understand how our minds function in order to unlock shortcuts to switches in behaviour.Illustrating their ideas with scientific studies and remarkable real-life turnarounds - from the secrets of successful marriage counselling to the pile of gloves that transformed one company's finances - the brothers Heath prove that deceptively simple methods can yield truly extraordinary results.

Read more less

From the critically acclaimed author of Bunny comes a horror-tinted, gothic fairy tale about a lonely dress shop clerk whose mother’s unexpected death sends her down a treacherous path in pursuit of youth and beauty. Can she escape her mother’s fate and find a connection that is more than skin deep?A Most Anticipated Book of 2023 in The Guardian, i newspaper, The New York Times, Time, Globe and Mail, Bustle, The Millions, LitHub, TOR, Good Housekeeping, Our Culture Mag, and more! 'You think, “She’s not going to go there…yes, she is.' Margaret Atwood 'The trancelike, rhapsodic language and deepening atmosphere of unreality make for a narrative that oozes with unease.' The Guardian ‘Rouge is a must-read for anyone who has found themselves obsessively, and even dangerously, fixated on self-improvement. [...] Dreamline, hypnotic and enchanting in its language, Rouge proves Awad is a huge talent’ Stylist, Book of the Month ‘A tale of insidious damage of envy and our preoccupation with appearances. Anyone maintaining a ten-step Korean skincare regimen may feel seen. […] Awad ramps up the grand guignol hysteria rather splendidly, chucking in some film noir tropes for good measure as we hurtle towards a demonic denouement’ The Times ‘Rouge is a story in which dreams become nightmares and vice versa. Desire and danger walk hand-in-hand and Awad skilfully manipulates the vertiginous tension between them. The beauty industry is ripe for Awad’s signature treatment: gothic satire, bloody but beautifully done. Much of it is darkly hilarious. […] If you like your fairy tales dark and for adults only, then stick along for the wild ride.’ Daily Telegraph '[D]ark and seductive.' i newspaper 'An edgy fable on the perils of our modern fascination with beauty.' Vogue 'Awad is a genius, preternaturally gifted at creating vicious, hilarious tales about the depravity inside us.' Vulture For as long as she can remember, Belle has been insidiously obsessed with her skin and skincare videos. When her estranged mother Noelle mysteriously dies, Belle finds herself back in Southern California, dealing with her mother’s considerable debts and grappling with lingering questions about her death. The stakes escalate when a strange woman in red appears at the funeral, offering a tantalizing clue about her mother’s demise, followed by a cryptic video about a transformative spa experience. With the help of a pair of red shoes, Belle is lured into the barbed embrace of La Maison de Méduse, the same lavish, culty spa to which her mother was devoted. There, Belle discovers the frightening secret behind her (and her mother’s) obsession with the mirror—and the great shimmering depths (and demons) that lurk on the other side of the glass.Snow White meets Eyes Wide Shut in this surreal descent into the dark side of beauty, envy, grief, and the complicated love between mothers and daughters. With black humor and seductive horror, ROUGE explores the cult-like nature of the beauty industry—as well as the danger of internalizing its pitiless gaze. Brimming with California sunshine and blood-red rose petals, ROUGE holds up a warped mirror to our relationship with mortality, our collective fixation with the surface, and the wondrous, deep longing that might lie beneath. 'A brilliant, biting critique of western beauty standards as well as a soaring, phantasmagoric, Angela Carter-esque fairy tale about trauma and the loss of self. Rouge is deeply unsettling, funny, obsessive, and unlike anything I've read. A truly mesmerizing read.' Paul Tremblay, author of The Cabin at the End of the World 'Rouge is a fever dream—a brilliant, intense, unforgettable horror story about a beauty cult with a deeply moving mother-daughter story at its core. Mona Awad’s signature and singular imagination and black humor and empathy are on full display here, and her wild-ride of a tale is masterfully grounded in the emotional devastation of childhood and grief. I loved every word of this.' Laura Zigman, author of Small World 'There is nobody else like Mona Awad, daring enough to plunge her hands—rings and all—into the viscera of story and discover an unsettling beauty within. ROUGE is her most magnetic work yet, a thrilling dystopian romp that knows that beneath the glossy, aspirational veneer of self-care lurks the same old gothic abyss.' Alexandra Kleeman, author of Something New Under the Sun 'Unsettling, whimsical, and moving, Rouge is an authentic, innovative kind of narrative magic that's both surreal and absolute. A striking novel of incandescence and heart.' Iain Reid, author of I'm Thinking of Ending Things 'Awad’s latest is a dreamy (or perhaps nightmarish) gothic fairy tale about a mother, a daughter, and their shared obsession with their own beauty. Like all of Awad’s novels, it reels you in, shakes your brain until you’re not sure what you’re seeing, and then floats off cackling on a cloud of smoke. Metaphorically, that is. I’d forgive you for not being sure.' Lit Hub (Most Anticipated Books of 2023) 'Mona Awad, I will read everything you ever write. She is a writer of unbelievable talent.' Tor.com '[A] hypnotic tour de force… Awad approaches the increasingly well-trod ground of sinister wellness gurus with aplomb, creating an atmosphere of creeping discomfort and surreality right from the start. This is the stuff of fairy tales—red shoes, ballrooms, mirrors, and thorns but also sincerity, poignancy, and terror.' Kirkus (Starred Review) '[A] delightfully twisted fairy tale… The author’s acerbic wit radiates in this excoriating story of beauty’s ugly side.' Publisher's Weekly

Read more less

In Strategy: A History, Sir Lawrence Freedman, one of the world's leading authorities on war and international politics, captures the vast history of strategic thinking, in a consistently engaging and insightful account of how strategy came to pervade every aspect of our lives. The range of Freedman's narrative is extraordinary, moving from the surprisingly advanced strategy practiced in primate groups, to the opposing strategies of Achilles and Odysseus in The Iliad, the strategic advice of Sun Tzu and Machiavelli, the great military innovations of Baron Henri de Jomini and Carl von Clausewitz, the grounding of revolutionary strategy in class struggles by Marx, the insights into corporate strategy found in Peter Drucker and Alfred Sloan, and the contributions of the leading social scientists working on strategy today. The core issue at the heart of strategy, the author notes, is whether it is possible to manipulate and shape our environment rather than simply become the victim of forces beyond one's control. Time and again, Freedman demonstrates that the inherent unpredictability of this environment-subject to chance events, the efforts of opponents, the missteps of friends-provides strategy with its challenge and its drama. Armies or corporations or nations rarely move from one predictable state of affairs to another, but instead feel their way through a series of states, each one not quite what was anticipated, requiring a reappraisal of the original strategy, including its ultimate objective. Thus the picture of strategy that emerges in this book is one that is fluid and flexible, governed by the starting point, not the end point. A brilliant overview of the most prominent strategic theories in history, from David's use of deception against Goliath, to the modern use of game theory in economics, this masterful volume sums up a lifetime of reflection on strategy.

Read more less

In this study the social construction of dementia is examined closely for the first time. Nancy Harding and Colin Palfrey show how Western society sees dementia as a disease, rather than a natural part of the ageing process. They take issue with the constructed view of the body as a machine, whose parts 'break down' and need replacement. Furthermore, the authors argue, the various explanations of the causes of dementia are nothing but speculation dressed up as theories, which serve only to confuse the carers.Based on an intensive three-year-long evaluation of a community care service for older people with dementia, `The Social Construction of Dementia' looks at the experience of users and providers alike, and provides a refreshing new viewpoint on the `disease' of dementia.

Read more less

Most books dedicated to the issues of bio-sensing are organized by the well-known scheme of a biosensor. In this book, the authors have deliberately decided to break away from the conventional way of treating biosensing research by uniquely addressing biomolecule immobilization methods on a solid surface, fluidics issues and biosensing-related transduction techniques, rather than focusing simply on the biosensor. The aim is to provide a contemporary snapshot of the biosensing landscape without neglecting the seminal references or products where needed, following the downscaling (from the micro- to the nanoscale) of biosensors and their respective best known applications. To conclude, a brief overview of the most popularized nanodevices applied to biology is given, before comparing biosensor criteria in terms of targeted applications.

Read more less

A pleasingly absurd caper where kids outwit crooks, ghost are let out of the bag, and grandparents refuse to behave! From beloved and best-selling author Malorie Blackman. Grandma Gertie is rather strange. With her big square glasses and a parrot on her hat, Anna and Kasper don't know what to make of her. But Grandma's got a secret… Grandpa Bert is a ghost and he's travelled all the way from Barbados squished inside her handbag! Even worse, they're being followed and Grandpa Bert could be in very grave danger… Can Anna and Kasper help their grandparents before it's too late? A hilarious family adventure filled with ghosts and laughs.

Read more less

"This Malevole is one of the most prodigious affections that ever conversed with nature: a man, or rather a monster, more discontent than Lucifer." The Malcontent is a striking example of the new satiric tone and moral seriousness in English comedy of the early 1600s. The play's vision of a fallen humanity driven by lust and ambition is created partly by its depiction of Machiavellian intrigue in the court of Genoa, and partly by the disaffected Malevole, the malcontent of the title, who is actually the deposed Duke Altofronto in disguise. Marston's tragi-comedy is full of reversals, surprises and moral transformations and offers a thin disguise for the Jacobean court and its vices. This new student edition contains a lengthy new Introduction with background on the author, date and sources, theme, critical interpretation and stage history.

Read more less

‘Probably the most readable, exciting and authoritative writer on science we have. A new Lawrence Krauss book always goes to the top of the curious mind’s wish list.’ Stephen Fry “I loved the fight scenes and the sex scenes were excellent.” (Eric Idle) 'In the span of a century, physics progressed from skepticism that atoms were real to equations so precise we can predict properties of subatomic particles to the tenth decimal place. Lawrence Krauss rightly places this achievement among the greatest of all stories, and his book—at once engaging, poetic and scholarly—tells the story with a scientist’s penetrating insight and a writer’s masterly craft.' (Brian Greene, author of The Elegant Universe, and Director, Center for Theoretical Physics, Columbia University) "Unlike some very clever scientists, Lawrence Krauss is not content to bask on the Mount Olympus of modern physics. A great educator as well as a great physicist, he wants to pull others up the rarefied heights to join him. But unlike some science educators, he doesn’t dumb down. In Einstein’s words, he makes it 'as simple as possible but no simpler.'" (Richard Dawkins, author of The Magic of Reality) “In every debate I’ve done with theologians and religious believers their knock-out final argument always comes in the form of two questions: Why is there something rather than nothing? and Why are we here? The presumption is that if science provides no answers then there must be a God. But God or no, we still want answers. In A Universe From Nothing Lawrence Krauss, one of the biggest thinkers of our time, addressed the first question with verve, and in The Greatest Story Ever Told he tackles the second with elegance. Both volumes should be placed in hotel rooms across America, in the drawer next to the Gideon Bible." (Michael Shermer, Publisher Skeptic magazine, columnist Scientific American, Presidential Fellow Chapman University, author The Moral Arc.) "A Homeric tale of science, history, and philosophy revealing how we learned so much about the universe and its tiniest parts." (Sheldon Glashow, Nobel Laureate, 1979 in physics) “The Greatest Story Ever Told—So Far ranges from Galileo to the LHC and beyond. It's accessible, illuminating, and surprising—an ideal guide for anyone interested in understanding our accidental universe.” (Elizabeth Kolbert, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Sixth Extinction) “College students, hippies, squares, Christians, Muslims, democrats, republicans, libertarians, theists, even atheists—all of us—sit around BS-ing like: ‘So, how did all this, I mean everything, all of us, the whole universe, you know, man, everything, how did this all get here?’ While we were doing that, Lawrence Krauss and people like him were doing the work to figure it out. Then Krauss wrote this great book about it. ‘Wow, man, you mean, like we’re getting closer to really knowing? I guess we’ll have to go back to talking about politics and sex.’” (Penn Jillette, author of Presto!) “Discovering the bedrock nature of physical reality ranks as one of humanity’s greatest collective achievements. This book gives a fine account of the main ideas and how they emerged. Krauss is himself close to the field, and can offer insights into the personalities who have led the key advances. A practiced and skilled writer, he succeeds in making the physics ‘as simple as possible but no simpler.’ I don’t know a better book on this subject.” (Martin Rees, author of Just Six Numbers) “It is an exhilarating experience to be led through this fascinating story, from Galileo to the Standard Model and the Higgs boson and beyond, with lucid detail and insight, illuminating vividly not only the achievements themselves but also the joy of creative thought and discovery, enriched with vignettes of the remarkable individuals who paved the way. It amply demonstrates that the discovery that ‘nature really follows the simple and elegant rules intuited by the 20th- and 21st-century versions of Plato’s philosophers’ is one of the most astonishing achievements of the human intellect.” (Noam Chomsky, Institute Professor & Professor of Linguistics (Emeritus), MIT) “Charming... Krauss has written an account with sweep and verve that shows the full development of our ideas about the makeup of the world around us... A great romp.” (Walter Gilbert, Nobel Award, Chemistry, 1980) “History of science with an edge—humorous, personal, passionate, yet intellectually serious and authoritative.” (Frank Wilczek, Nobel Laureate, Physics)In the beginning there was light but more than this, there was gravity. After that, all hell broke loose... This is how the story of the greatest intellectual adventure in history should be introduced - how humanity reached its current understanding of the universe, one that is far removed from the realm of everyday experience. Krauss connects the world we know with the invisible world all around us, which is removed from intuition and direct sensation. He explains our current understanding of nature and the struggle to construct the greatest theoretical edifice ever assembled, the Standard Model of Particle Physics -- and then to understand its implications for our existence. Writing in the critically acclaimed style of A Universe from Nothing, Krauss celebrates the beauty and wonders of the natural world and details our place within it and how this shapes our understanding of it. Krauss makes this story accessible through profiles of the scientists responsible for these advances, and clear explanations of their discoveries. Krauss takes us on a tour of science and the brilliant personalities who shaped it, often against political and religious indoctrination, enduring persecution and ostracism. Krauss creates a captivating blend of research and narrative to invite us into the lives and minds of these figures,creating a landmark work of scientific history.

Read more less

'An almanac for the heart.' EVIE WOODS, author of The Lost Bookshop'Haunting prose that cracks the English pastoral novel and lets the darkness in. A pleasure to read.'SARAH MOSS, author of Ghost Wall'A clever, heartbreaking, heartwarming depiction of family love, grief and the possibility of hope.'JO BROWNING WROE, author of A Terrible Kindness'Poignant and unexpected . . . brave and subtle.'EMMA HEALEY, author of Elizabeth is Missing'Wonderful . . . brave in its deep truths about loss and love.'INGRID PERSAUD, author of Love After LoveAin't nothing wrong with being broken. Nothing at all. You're like these houses, not a whole brick in em and look how strong they are.As Tess traces the sunrise over the floodplains, light that paints the house a startling crimson, she yearns for the comforting chaos of life as it once was. Instead of Max and Sonny tracking dirt through the kitchen - Tess and Richard's 'rainbow twins' - Tess absorbs the quiet. The nights draw in, the soil cools and Richard fights to get his winter crops planted rather than deal with the discussion he cannot bear to have.Secrets and vines clamber over the broken red bricks and although its inhabitants seem to be withering, in the damp, crumbling soil Sonny knows that something is stirring . . . As the seasons change, and the cracks let in more light, the family might just be able to start to heal.This is the story of a broken family, what they see and what they cannot say laid bare in their overlapping perspectives. It is a tale of life in the cracks, because in the space for acceptance, of passing and of laying to rest, the possibilities of new energy, light and love, are seeded.Readers are loving The House of Broken Bricks:***** 'It's only the first week of January and already I have a strong candidate for my book of the year.' ***** 'Fiona Williams' stunning nature-writing and poetic prose, turns a relatively simple story into a hauntingly beautiful experience.' ***** 'This is one of those books that stays with you long after you've finished reading it.' *****'Absolutely spot-on in how it portrays children's emotional intuition, this is a beaut of a book.' ***** 'Blown away! This books is stunning and haunting and structurally beautiful.'

Read more less

TO ACHIEVE THE EXTRAORDINARY, FIRST EMBRACE THE UNKNOWN . . .Discover the definitive guide to our fear of uncertainty, and how we can stop it from holding us back'Groundbreaking' MARTIN SELIGMAN'One of my very favorite psychologists in the world' ANGELA DUCKWORTH'This is the book we've been waiting for' CAROL DWECK, bestselling author of Mindset: The New Psychology of Success____________Do you fear uncertainty?Why is the unknown so paralysing?And how can we use doubt to our advantage?Our safe modern world has wired us to fear the unknown, rather than use it to our benefit. But what if there was a way of turning that uncertainty into our greatest strength? Imagine being able to make important decisions without anxiety. Imagine being the calm at the centre of every storm.In Uncertain, the world-renowned psychologist Professor Arie Kruglanski shows us that there's only one certain way to face the unknown, and that is to fundamentally change the way we perceive it.This definitive book will transform the way you think about the unknown. Suddenly, you'll stop fearing uncertainty and learn to not only face it, but also harness the power that comes with it.Don't let uncertainty rule your life.Instead, embrace it and achieve the extraordinary.____________'This groundbreaking book is the place to go to discover how to embrace uncertainty and turn it to your growth and benefit' Martin Seligman, author of The Hope Circuit'One of my very favorite psychologists in the world tackles a subject that is both timeless and timely [and] shows us that though uncertainty is inevitable, how we react to it is not' Angela Duckworth, bestselling author of Grit'This is the book we've been waiting for. With his tremendous spirit, wit, knowledge, and wisdom, Kruglanski give us a book that helps us understand and navigate the uncertain world we live in. It's both based on science and filled with humanity-with deep compassion and benevolent guidance. It is a book for our time' Carol Dweck, author of Mindset: The New Psychology of Success'If you're not sure if you need this book, then you do. Original, insightful, and thought-provoking, the world's expert on the psychology of uncertainty reveals what science can tell us about our lives on the razor's edge' Daniel Gilbert, the New York Times bestselling author of Stumbling on Happiness'If there's anything I'm certain about, is that you'll love this book' Ayelet Fishbach, author of Get It Done

Read more less

This is a book about the ethics of authorship. Most directly, it explores different conceptualizations of the responsibilities of the author to the reader. But it also engages the question of what styles of authorship allow these responsibilities to be met. Style itself is an ethical issue, since the relation between the writing subject and the reader--and the dynamics of authority and influence, of gift giving and friendship in this relation--have as much to do with how one writes as what one says. The two writers who serve as the main subjects for this work, the German idealist philosopher G. W. F. Hegel and the Danish Christian existentialist Søren Kierkegaard, invite us to confront particularly challenging questions about the ethics of authorship. Each in his own way explores styles of authorship that employ a variety of strategies of seduction in order to entice the reader into his narratives, strategies that at least on the surface appear to be fundamentally manipulative and unethical. Further, both seek to enact their own deaths as authors, effectively disappearing as reliable guides for the reader. That might also seem to be ethically irresponsible, an abandonment of the reader, who has been seduced only to be deserted. This is the first work to undertake a sustained questioning of Kierkegaard's central distinction between his own "indirect" style of communication and the (purportedly) "direct" style of Hegel's philosophy. Hegel was in fact a much more subtle practitioner of style than Kierkegaard represents him as being, indeed, a practitioner whose style is in the service of an ambitious reconceptualization of the ethics of authorship. As for Kierkegaard, his own indirect style raises a whole series of ethical questions about how the reader is imagined in relation to the author. There is finally an either/or between Hegel and Kierkegaard, just not the one Kierkegaard proposes as between an author devoid of ethics and one who makes possible a true ethics of authorship. Rather, the either/or is between two competing practices of authorship, one daunting with the cadences of a highly technical style, the other delightful for its elegance and playfulness--but both powerful experiments in the ethics of style.

Read more less

This concise and engaging text argues that the Cold War and anti-colonial movements should properly be studied and taught together, not as distinct developments, but rather as interwoven aspects of a complex global transformation. The authors provide a cogent and concise description of the post–World War II era and reveal connective dimensions of that era that remain hidden in books that focus primarily on either the Cold War or the struggles against imperial rule. It not only deals with anti-colonialism and Cold War together but also portrays the Cold War as a contest between “anti-imperialist empires,” capped by the collapse of one of them—the multicultural trans-regional Soviet realm—in a work that is engaging and accessible to both students and general readers.

Read more less

This is the #1 New York Times bestselling introduction to racism from award-winning author and academic, Ibram X. Kendi. Take your first steps with Antiracist Baby! Or, rather, follow Antiracist Baby's nine easy steps for building a more equitable world.With bold illustrations and thoughtful, yet playful, text, Antiracist Baby introduces the youngest readers and the grown ups in their lives to the concept and power of antiracism. Providing the language necessary to begin critical conversations at the earliest age, Antiracist Baby is the perfect gift for readers of all ages dedicated to forming a just society.This edition includes additional discussion prompts to help readers recognise and reflect on bias in their daily lives.

Read more less