Search results for ""sublime""
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC Extenuating Circumstances
A collection of twenty-two disturbing tales of crime and suspense from literary icon Joyce Carol Oates, author of Blonde and 'America's preeminent fiction writer' (New Yorker). Two hitmen in a depressed rust belt town struggle with a job gone wrong. A girl witnesses a horrifying accident and carries it with her for the rest of her life. Medical students bring a severed foot to a college party. Five-time Pulitzer Prize finalist Joyce Carol Oates has made a career of exploring the forbidden corners of human experience, and the stories collected here, spanning her first three decades as a writer, are among her most unsettling and unforgettable works to date. Originally published in long out-of-print volumes, these tales have not appeared in any form this century – until now. They show a writer boldly engaging with disturbing truths and terrifying possibilities, and deconstructing the tropes and expectations of traditional prose writing as she does so. But beyond their stylistic ingenuity, these are creepy, suspenseful stories that cut straight to the bone; their darkness will linger long after the final page is turned. A must-read for long-time fans of Joyce Carol Oates and an excellent introduction for the uninitiated. Reviews for Joyce Carol Oates: 'Oates chillingly depicts the darkness lurking within the everyday.' Sunday Express 'Both haunting and sublime.' Literary Review 'Splendidly chilling.' Financial Times 'Visceral, psychologically involving, and socially astute.' Booklist
£9.99
Fordham University Press An Atmospherics of the City: Baudelaire and the Poetics of Noise
What happens to poetic beauty when history turns the poet from one who contemplates natural beauty and the sublime to one who attempts to reconcile the practice of art with the hustle and noise of the city? An Atmospherics of the City traces Charles Baudelaire’s evolution from a writer who practices a form of fetishizing aesthetics in which poetry works to beautify the ordinary to one who perceives background noise and disorder—the city’s version of a transcendent atmosphere—as evidence of the malign work of a transcendent god of time, history, and ultimate destruction. Analyzing this shift, particularly as evidenced in Tableaux parisiens and Le Spleen de Paris, Ross Chambers shows how Baudelaire’s disenchantment with the politics of his day and the coincident rise of overpopulation, poverty, and Haussmann’s modernization of Paris influenced the poet’s work to conceive a poetry of allegory, one with the power to alert and disalienate its otherwise inattentive reader whose senses have long been dulled by the din of his environment. Providing a completely new and original understanding of both Baudelaire’s ethics and his aesthetics, Chambers reveals how the shift from themes of the supernatural in Baudelaire to ones of alienation allowed a new way for him to articulate and for his fellow Parisians to comprehend the rapidly changing conditions of the city and, in the process, to invent a “modern beauty” from the realm of suffering and the abject as they embodied forms of urban experience.
£39.12
Chicken House Ltd The Girl Who Grew Wings
A stunning YA romantasy inspired by Greek mythology by the acclaimed author of The Fandom duology. 'Gorgeous and deeply heartfelt' BEA FITZGERALD 'This book has it all' ALEXANDRA CHRISTO 'A triumph of a book' ANN SEI LIN In the citadel of Appollis, the Gods bestow single gifts on a chosen few. Icari has always known she's a Healer, while her twin sister, Sephie, is cast as an Embalmer, despite showing early promise as an Alchemist - a secret the sisters keep to themselves for possessing two skills is punishable by death. While Sephie learns how to wrap the dead, Icari eases the suffering of others, including a charismatic enemy prisoner called Caszeil. And it's to Caszeil that Icari turns when demons rise up from the Underworld and kidnap her sister. With his help, perhaps she can rescue Sephie. Even if this means growing wings - and flying in the face of the devil himself . . . A thrilling YA fantasy adventure romance inspired by Greek mythology From the acclaimed author of The Fandom duology (as Anna Day) A tale of love, sisterhood, magic and the triumph of life and truth over death Set in a gorgeous desert world of Oases and citadels MORE PRAISE FOR THE GIRL WHO GREW WINGS: 'I was completely swept away' KATHERINE CORR 'Captured my heart from the start and never let go' BEX HOGAN 'Clever, angry, ferociously feminist' LAURA WOOD 'Sublime, evocative, and full of twists and turns' NATALI SIMMONDS 'Kept me guessing throughout' BEN OLIVER
£8.99
Pan Macmillan The Office of Historical Corrections: A Novella and Stories
‘Brilliant . . . These stories are sly and prescient, a nuanced reflection of the world we are living in.’ – Roxane Gay‘Evans is blessed with perfect pitch.’ – Tayari Jones‘Sublime short stories of race, grief, and belonging . . . an extraordinary new collection.’ New YorkerDanielle Evans is widely acclaimed for her blisteringly smart voice and X-ray insights into complex human relationships. With The Office of Historical Corrections, Evans zooms in on particular moments and relationships in her characters’ lives in a way that allows them to speak to larger issues of race, culture, and history.We meet Black and multi-racial characters who are experiencing the universal confusions of lust and love, and getting walloped by grief – all while exploring how history haunts us, personally and collectively. Ultimately, she provokes us to think about the truths of American history – about who gets to tell them, and the cost of setting the record straight.In ‘Boys Go to Jupiter’ a white college student tries to reinvent herself after a photo of her in a Confederate-flag bikini goes viral. In ‘Richard of York Gave Battle in Vain’ a photojournalist is forced to confront her own losses while attending an old friend’s unexpectedly dramatic wedding. And in the eye-opening title novella, a Black scholar from Washington DC is drawn into a complex historical mystery that spans generations and puts her job, her love life, and her oldest friendship at risk.
£9.04
Duke University Press The Orient of Style: Modernist Allegories of Conversion
In this study of modernist aesthetics, Beryl Schlossman reveals how for such writers as Marcel Proust, Gustave Flaubert, and Charles Baudelaire, the Orient came to symbolize the highest aspirations of literary representation. She demonstrates that through allegory, modernism became a style itself, a style that married the ancient and the modern and that emerged as both a cause and an effect, both an ideal construct and an textual materiality, all symbolized by the Orient—land of style, place of plurality, and site of the coexistence of holy lands.Toward the end of Remembrance of Things Past, the narrator describes the act of creating a work of art as a conversion of sensation into a spiritual equivalent. By means of such allegories of “conversion,” Schlossman shows, the modernist artist disappeared within the work of art and left behind the trace of his sublime vocation, a vocation in which he was transformed, in Schlossman’s words, “into a kind of priest kneeling at the altar of beauty before the masked divinity of representation.”The author shows how allegory—the representation of the symbolic as something real—was adapted by modernist writers to reflect subjectivity while masking an authorial origin. She reveals how modernist allegory arose, as Walter Benjamin suggests, at the crossroads of history, sociology, economics, urban architecture, and art—providing a kind of map of capitalism—and was produced through the eyes of a melancholic gazing at a “monument of absence.”
£27.99
University of Notre Dame Press The Extravagant: Crossings of Modern Poetry and Modern Philosophy
In The Extravagant Robert Baker explores the interplay between poetry and philosophy in the modern period, engaging a broad range of writers: Kant, Wordsworth, and Lyotard in a chapter on the sublime; Rimbaud, Nietzsche, and Bataille in a chapter on visionary quest; and Kierkegaard, Dickinson, Mallarmé, and Derrida in a chapter on apocalyptic negativity. His guiding concern is to illuminate adventures of “extravagant” or “wandering” language that, from the romantic period on, both poets and philosophers have undertaken in opposition to the dominant social and discursive frames of a pervasively instrumentalized world. The larger interpretative narrative shaping the book is that a dialectic of instrumental reason and creative negativity has been at work throughout modern culture. Baker argues that adventures of exploratory wandering emerge in the romantic period as displaced articulations of older religious discourses. Given the dominant trends of the modern world, however, these adventures repeatedly lead to severe collisions and crises, in response to which they are later revised or further displaced. Over time, as instrumental structures come to disfigure every realm of modern life, poetries and philosophies at odds with these structures are forced to criticize and surpass earlier voices in their traditions that seem to have lost a transformative power. Thus, Baker argues, these adventures gradually unfold into various discourses of the negative prominent in contemporary culture: discourses of decentering, dispersing, undoing, and erring. It is this dialectic that Baker traces and interprets in this ambitious study.
£92.70
Flame Tree Publishing Scottish Folk & Fairy Tales: Epic Tales
The folklore of Scotland has gripped the imagination for centuries, with its stories of sublime creatures, high adventures and uncanny spirits of all kinds. The human and fairy realms of Scotland’s mythical heritage blur seamlessly together: knights and clan leaders clash swords in the same lands where brownies and bogles romp; and simple farmers and fishermen frequently cross paths with the enchanting and formidable ‘fair folk’ of both land and sea. Long has been the exchange of culture between Scotland and Ireland, leading to some familiar characters cropping up in both countries’ mythologies. Nonetheless, Scotland’s folklore adds its own flavour to the telling of some well-known Gaelic tales, as well as a variety of stories that are uniquely Scottish. From legends of siege, chivalry and courage like ‘Conall Cra Bhuidhe’ and ‘Black Agnes’, to whimsical yarns such as ‘The Fairies of Merlin’s Crag’; from the frightening stories of ‘The Haunted Ships’ and ‘The Ghosts of Craig-Aulnaic’, to tales of animals such as ‘The Brown Bear of the Green Glen’ – this gorgeous collection of folk and fairy tales captures the essence of Scotland’s ancient and vibrant folkloric tradition. The Flame Tree Gothic Fantasy, Classic Stories and Epic Tales collections bring together the entire range of myth, folklore and modern short fiction. Highlighting the roots of suspense, supernatural, science fiction and mystery stories, the books in Flame Tree Collections series are beautifully presented, perfect as a gift and offer a lifetime of reading pleasure.
£18.00
Bonnier Books Ltd The Manor House Governess
'Tender, beautiful and bold. A very special novel.' LIZZIE HUXLEY-JONES, author of Make You Mine This Christmas'Fun, fresh and clever . . . a huge treat for all fans of Jane Eyre.' KATIE LUMSDEN, author of The Secrets of Hartwood Hall'A sublime and tenderly written novel.' BEA FITZGERALD, author of Girl, Goddess, QueenAll Brontë Ellis has ever known is life at St. Mary's all-boys boarding school, where he lingered first as a student and then as a teaching assistant. So when a chance to forge a new life in Cambridge presents itself, he seizes it with both hands. Arriving at Greenwood Manor as the new live-in tutor, Bron finds himself welcomed by all - the gregarious Mr Edwards, his precocious pupil Ada . . . except for Darcy, the elusive and tempestuous eldest son. Despite the rumours about him, Bron cannot help feeling drawn to the one person who seems determined to avoid him.When tragedy strikes the house, Bron begins to sense dark secrets smouldering beneath Greenwood Manor's surface. Soon he's not sure what to believe, or whether he even has a future at Greenwood. Only Darcy holds the key, if he can be persuaded to reveal his heart to Bron . . .'A love letter to the period drama, and one I could not put down.' WILLIAM HUSSEY, author of Broken Hearts and Zombie Parts'Clever and beautifully written, I loved this.' EMMA CARROLL, author of The Week at World's End
£9.79
Penguin Books Ltd Wagner's Parsifal: The Music of Redemption
A superbly insightful and moving exploration of Wagner's last opera, by one of Britain's leading intellectuals Wagner's last music-drama tells the story of Parsifal, the 'pure fool, knowing through compassion', who has been called to rescue the Kingdom of the Grail from the sins that have polluted it. The Grail is a symbol of purity in a world of lust and power, but although Parsifal is the culmination of Wagner's life-long obsession with the religious frame of mind, the redemption sought by his characters is far from the Christian archetype. For Wagner, redemption occurs inthis life, when compassion prevails over enslavement, and purity replaces spiritual pollution. His music here ties together suffering and contrition, sin and forgiveness, downfall and redemption in an inextricable knot, healing the fractures and uniting the warring elements in human life in a way that is clear, convincing and uncanny. More than any other of his works, Parsifal expresses in music a depth of feeling for which we do not have words.This short but penetrating book, by a writer who was uniquely both a leading philosopher and musicologist, shows us how Wagner achieves this profound work, explaining the story, its musical ideas, and their coming together into a sublime whole which gives us the musical equivalent of forgiveness and closure. There are few writers who can so enhance our understanding of one of the greatest works in western music.
£10.99
John Wiley and Sons Ltd Jung: A Feminist Revision
Jung: A Feminist Revision explores the relationship between feminist theory and Jungian studies. It combines an original student-friendly introduction to Jung, his life and work, his treatment of gender and the range of post-Jungian gender theory, with new research linking Jung to deconstruction, post-Freudian feminism, postmodernism, the sublime, and the postmodern body. Feminism has neglected Jung to its own detriment. While evaluating the reasons for this neglect, Jung: A Feminist Revision uses the diversity of feminist critical tools from historical analysis to poststructuralism. In a fresh and illuminating study, this book provides both a critique of Jung and demonstrates his positive potential for future feminisms. New theories are explored which develop relationships between the work of Jung and Jacques Lacan, Luce Irigaray, Hélène Cixous, Julia Kristeva and Judith Butler. Particular attention is paid to the growth of post-Jungian studies of gender. This includes a cogent study of the tradition of Jungian feminism that looks to ‘the feminine principle' and narratives of goddesses. Jungian 'goddess' feminism's enduring appeal is re-examined in the context of postmodern re-thinking of subjectivity and gender. The book proposes a re-orientation of Jungian studies in its relationship to feminism. The result is an accessible text that introduces Jung and sets out his relevance to contemporary feminisms. This book will be essential reading for undergraduates and postgraduates studying feminist theory, psychoanalytical theory, literature and psychology.
£55.00
Simon & Schuster Ltd A Gift For You: Warmth, wisdom and love on every page - if you treasured Maeve Binchy, read Patricia Scanlan
*** THE NUMBER ONE BESTSELLING AUTHOR *** A warm, wise, funny and heartfelt collection of short stories from bestselling novelist Patricia Scanlan - the perfect gift and the perfect treat! Collected to celebrate Christmas, Valentine's Day, Mother's Day and birthdays, as well as offering wise words on how to deal with difficult days, these stories will entertain and delight readers. Warmth, wisdom and love on every page - if you treasured Maeve Binchy, read Patricia Scanlan. Number 1 bestselling author Patricia Scanlan is set to capture the hearts and enchant the minds of a whole new generation of readers who will fall in love with her sublime storytelling. A trailblazing women’s fiction author, all of her novels have been #1 international bestsellers, most recently With All My Love, A Time for Friends, Orange Blossom Days and A Family Reunion. She writes multi-generational family dramas with compassion and authenticity, and a hint of comforting escapism. ‘If you love Maeve Binchy, you MUST try Patricia Scanlan' Woman & Home 'Utterly magical and wonderful... warmth and compassion shine through' MARIAN KEYES 'Like being enfolded in a hug from the great writer herself: warm, comforting and full of love' CATHY KELLY 'There can be little doubt that Patricia Scanlan is the prolific queen of contemporary Irish popular fiction' Sunday Times 'There is a heartbreaking authenticity in her observations' Irish Times 'The ultimate comfort read' Glamour ‘If you love Maeve Binchy, you will love Patricia Scanlan’ Mirror
£9.99
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC The Travelling Hornplayer
Selected as a Radio 4 Good Read by Maggie O'Farrell ______________________ ‘Sprinkled with magic’ - Sunday Times ‘Audacious, energetic and dazzing … There aren’t many novelists whose stories one doesn’t want to end, but Barbara Trapido is one of them’ - Philip Hensher, Mail on Sunday ______________________ Sisters Ellen and Lydia live out an idyllic girlhood in Oxford, their wayward adventures of no concern to their passive, donnish father and their chilly stepmother. Even when Lydia is killed in a car accident, death isn't enough to keep her from her sister, cheerfully returning to haunt her. But Ellen, unwittingly, is herself haunting the lives of those around her: there is Jonathan Goldman, whose flat Lydia is running from when she is knocked down; his daughter Stella, the 'nuisance chip'; and Stella's genius painter-boy lover Izzy. As Trapido's myriad pairings collide, part, and then reunite in breathtaking comedy of manners, The Travelling Hornplayer climaxes in a joyful and unexpected finale. ______________________ ‘Reading Barbara Trapido is sheer pleasure’ - Independent on Sunday Books of the Year ‘This woman is brilliant. And she actually makes you laugh … I enjoyed every page of this book, which is so shimmering with wit, hectic energy and crazy convolutions of plots that I ended up in a state of sublime, satiated exhaustion’ - Daily Mail 'She has the mind-teasing skills of a crime-writer combined with a sense of humour as dry as a Martini' - Sunday Telegraph
£9.99
Quercus Publishing Zorrie
Finalist for the 2021 National Book Award (Fiction)"It was Indiana, it was the dirt she had bloomed up out of, it was who she was, what she felt, how she thought, what she knew."As a girl, Zorrie Underwood's modest and hardscrabble home county was the only constant in her young life. After losing both her parents, Zorrie moved in with her aunt, whose own death orphaned Zorrie all over again, casting her off into the perilous realities and sublime landscapes of rural, Depression-era Indiana. Drifting west, Zorrie survived on odd jobs, sleeping in barns and under the stars, before finding a position at a radium processing plant. At the end of each day, the girls at her factory glowed from the radioactive material.But when Indiana calls Zorrie home, she finally finds the love and community that have eluded her in and around the small town of Hillisburg. And yet, even as she tries to build a new life, Zorrie discovers that her trials have only begun.Spanning an entire lifetime, a life convulsed and transformed by the events of the 20th century, Laird Hunt's extraordinary novel offers a profound and intimate portrait of the dreams that propel one tenacious woman onward and the losses that she cannot outrun. Set against a harsh, gorgeous, quintessentially American landscape, this is a deeply empathetic and poetic novel that belongs on a shelf with the classics of Willa Cather, Marilynne Robinson, and Elizabeth Strout.
£9.99
Orion Publishing Co A Home From Home
'As uplifting as summer sunshine' Sarah MorganSunshine, cider and family secrets...Dragonfly Farm has been a home and a haven for generations of Melchiors - arch rivals to the Culbones, the wealthy family who live on the other side of the river. Life there is dictated by the seasons and cider-making, and everyone falls under its spell. For cousins Tabitha and Georgia, it has always been a home from home. When a tragedy befalls their beloved Great-Uncle Matthew, it seems the place where they've always belonged might now belong to them...But the will reveals that a third of the farm has also been left to a Culbone. Gabriel has no idea why he's been included, or what his connection to the farm - or the Melchiors - can be.As the first apples start to fall for the cider harvest, will Dragonfly Farm begin to give up its secrets?A Home from Home is the very best of Veronica Henry's storytelling - gorgeous scenes you wish you could step into, a cast of characters who feel like friends, and an irresistibly feel-good family drama crossing three generations. Discover Veronica Henry - your favourite authors' favourite author: 'Wise, insightful, beautifully written. A delicious treat of a book' Milly Johnson 'An utter delight' Jill Mansell'Truly blissful escapism' Lucy Diamond 'A heart-warming, triumphant story combined with Veronica's sublime writing - the perfect mix!' Cathy Bramley'Veronica Henry has such a deft hand with families and their complications' Katie Fforde
£9.04
WW Norton & Co The Uncollected Stories of Allan Gurganus
Since the explosive publication of Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All, Allan Gurganus has dazzled readers as “the most technically gifted and morally responsive writer of his generation” (John Cheever). He has been praised as "one of America’s preeminent novelists, our prime conductor of electric sentences" (William Giraldi). Above all, Allan Gurganus is a seriously funny writer, an expert at evoking humor, especially in our troubled times. Now he offers nine classic tales—never before between covers. They attest to his mastery of the short story and the growing depth of his genius. Offering characters antic and tragic, Gurganus charts the human condition—masked and unmasked—as we live it now. “Once upon a time” collides with the everyday. We meet a mortician whose dedication to his departed clients exceeds all legal limits. We encounter a seaside couple fighting to save their family dog from Maine’s fierce undertow. A virginal seventy-eight-year-old grammar school librarian has her sole erotic experience with a polyamorous snake farmer. A vicious tornado sends twin boys aloft, leaving only one of them alive. And, in an eerily prescient story, cholera strikes a rural village in 1849 and citizens come to blame their doomed young doctor who saved hundreds. These meticulously crafted parables recall William Faulkner’s scope and Flannery O’Connor’s corrosive wit. Imbuing each story with charged drama, Gurganus, a sublime ventriloquist, again proves himself among our funniest writers and our wisest.
£13.73
Rizzoli International Publications The Fault Line: Traveling the Other Europe, From Finland to Ukraine
An award-winning writer travels the eastern front of Europe, where the push/pull between old empires and new possibilities has never been more evident. Paolo Rumiz traces the path that has twice cut Europe in two-first by the Iron Curtain and then by the artificial scaffolding of the EU-moving through vibrant cities and abandoned villages, some places still gloomy under the ghost of these imposing borders, some that have sought to erase all memory of it and jump with both feet into the West (if only the West would have them). In The Fault Line, he is a sublime and lively guide through these unfamiliar landscapes, piecing together an atlas that has been erased by modern states, delighting in the discovery of communities that were once engulfed by geopolitics then all but forgotten, until now. The farther south he goes, the more he feels he is traveling not along some abandoned Eastern frontier, but right in the middle of things: Mitteleuropa wasn't to be found in Viennese cafes but much farther east, beyond even Budapest and Warsaw. As in Ukraine, these remain places in flux, where the political and cultural values of the East and West have stared each other down for centuries. Rumiz gives a human face not just to what the Cold War left behind but to the ancient ties of empire and ethnicity that are still at the root of modern politics in flash-point areas such as this.
£21.03
Seagull Books London Ltd Lionheart
Richard I (1157–99) was king of England from 1189 until his death, but he is best known as a soldier, not a monarch. He earned his moniker Richard the Lionheart as a knight and military leader, and his revolt against his father Henry II and his conquest of Cyprus as part of the Crusades helped to solidify his historical legend. In Lionheart, Norwegian author Thorvald Steen, celebrated for his historical novels, brings his characteristic accuracy and artistic vision to the life of Richard I. Lionheart is the story of a man living in the shadow of his own myth, also a fanatic general who wants to conquer the world’s greatest sanctum and a king that is suddenly vulnerable. At the age of fifteen he leads an army against his father. Fourteen years later he is the Pope’s obvious choice to lead the third Crusade. But the Richard of Steen’s novel is less sure of himself and his role—is it true that he is God’s chosen one, like his mother says? Built on extensive research, Steen paints a dark and conflicted, yet credible and convincing, portrait of a man who has engrossed historians, poets, novelists and readers for centuries. "Thorvald Steen’s new novel Lionheart is a fascinating read. . . . Steen manages to give flesh and blood to a historical icon, and creates a story with energy, dressed in sober yet sublime language."—Dagsavisen, on the Norwegian edition
£16.98
University Press of Florida Panepiphanal World: James Joyce's Epiphanies
Panepiphanal World is the first in-depth study of the forty short texts James Joyce called "epiphanies." Composed between 1901 and 1904, at the beginning of Joyce's writing career, these texts are often dismissed as juvenilia. Sangam MacDuff argues that the epiphanies are an important point of origin for Joyce's entire body of work, showing how they shaped the structure, style, and language of his later writings. Tracing the ways Joyce incorporates the epiphanies into Dubliners, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Ulysses, and Finnegans Wake, MacDuff describes the defining characteristics of the epiphanies—silence and repetition, materiality and reflexivity—as a set of recurrent and inter-related tensions in the development of Joyce's oeuvre. MacDuff uses fresh archival evidence, including a new typescript of the epiphanies that he discovered, to show the importance of the epiphanies throughout Joyce's career. MacDuff compares Joyce's concept of epiphany to Classical, Biblical, and Romantic revelations, showing that instead of pointing to divine transcendence or the awakening of the sublime, Joyce's epiphanies are rooted in and focused on language. MacDuff argues that the Joycean epiphany is an apt characterization of modernist literature, and that the linguistic forces at play in these early texts are also central to the work of Joyce's contemporaries including Woolf, Beckett, and Eliot. A volume in the Florida James Joyce Series, edited by Sebastian D. G. KnowlesAn Open Access edition of this book was published with the support of the Swiss National Science Foundation.
£23.95
Columbia University Press Moved by the Past: Discontinuity and Historical Mutation
Historians go to great lengths to avoid confronting discontinuity, searching for explanations as to why such events as the fall of the Berlin Wall, George W. Bush's invasion of Iraq, and the introduction of the euro logically develop from what came before. Moved by the Past radically breaks with this tradition of predating the past, incites us to fully acknowledge the discontinuous nature of discontinuities, and proposes to use the fact that history is propelled by unforeseeable leaps and bounds as a starting point for a truly evolutionary conception of history. Integrating research from a variety of disciplines, Eelco Runia identifies two modes of being "moved by the past": regressive and revolutionary. In the regressive mode, the past may either overwhelm us-as in nostalgia-or provoke us to act out what we believe to be solidly dead. When we are moved by the past in a revolutionary sense, we may be said to embody history: we burn our bridges behind us and create accomplished facts we have no choice but to live up to. In the final thesis of Moved by the Past, humans energize their own evolution by habitually creating situations ("catastrophes" or sublime historical events) that put a premium on mutations. This book therefore illuminates how every now and then we chase ourselves away from what we were and force ourselves to become what we are. Proposing a simple yet radical change in perspective, Runia profoundly reorients how we think and theorize about history.
£45.00
Columbia University Press Loud Sparrows: Contemporary Chinese Short-Shorts
Extremely short stories-known as short-shorts-have become a global phenomenon, but nowhere have they been embraced as enthusiastically as in mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. The form's artistic and aesthetic freedoms allow authors to capture the tone, texture, and chaos of their rapidly changing societies in infinitely inventive ways. Fragments and contingencies reveal unofficial histories, undocumented memories, and the trials of everyday individuals, and the genre's lean format is a welcome antidote to a culture characterized by rampant excess. Loud Sparrows is a spirited collection of ninety-one short-shorts written by Chinese authors over the past three decades. Presenting diverse voices and perspectives by writers both well known and new to the art, the stories are culled from newspapers, magazines, literary journals, and personal collections. Their subjects range from the mundane to the sublime and illuminate everything from humanist ideals to traditional virtues to the material benefits of a commercialized society. The anthology is organized into thematic categories such as Change, Creatures, (In)fidelities, Grooming, Governance, Nourishment, and Weirdness, and includes notes to better understand the genre. Each section is introduced by an original piece of flash fiction written by Howard Goldblatt. The short-short, to borrow a Chinese saying, is "small as a sparrow but has all the vital organs" of a good story. Loud Sparrows offers a comprehensive introduction to a unique literary genre that has revolutionized world literature.
£72.00
HarperCollins Publishers The Chiffon Trenches
‘Honestly and candidly captures fifty sublime years of fashion’ Manolo Blahnik Discover what truly happens behind the scenes in the world of high fashion in this detailed, storied memoir from style icon, bestselling author and former Vogue creative director André Leon Talley. During André Leon Talley’s first magazine job assisting Andy Warhol at Interview, a fateful meeting with Karl Lagerfeld began a decades-long friendship and propelled Talley into the upper echelons by virtue of his shared knowledge and adoration of fashion. He moved to Paris as bureau chief of John Fairchild’s Women’s Wear Daily, befriending fashion’s most important designers. But as Talley made friends, he also made enemies. A fraught encounter with a member of the house of Yves Saint Laurent sent him back to New York and into the offices of Vogue under Grace Mirabella. There, he developed an unlikely but intimate friendship with Anna Wintour, and as she rose to the top of Vogue’s masthead, Talley became the most influential man in fashion. The Chiffon Trenches is a candid look at the who’s who of the last fifty years of fashion, and proof that fact is always fascinatingly more devilish than fiction. André Leon Talley’s engaging memoir tells the story of how he not only survived but thrived – despite racism, illicit rumours and all the other challenges of this notoriously cutthroat industry – to become one of the most legendary voices and faces in fashion.
£9.99
Hodder & Stoughton Love Lettering: The charming feel-good rom-com that will grab hold of your heart and never let go
'Lyrical and engrossing . . . bursting with humour' - Entertainment WeeklyThe thing is, the letters don't always tell me truths about myself. Sometimes they tell me truths about other people. And Reid Sutherland is - was - one of those people. In the last year, Meg Mackworth's beautiful hand-lettering skills have seen her rocket to social media fame, and now she has a booming business crafting stationery for the stars. But she has a secret: sometimes, she just can't resist hiding messages in her work. Slightly unprofessional, maybe - but harmless. Right? Analyst Reid Sutherland and his gorgeous fiancée had their future mapped out. Until he noticed a pattern in his wedding invitation that made him think twice.When Meg looks up from her desk one day and sees Reid standing in front of her with no wedding ring, holding the invitation she created, she thinks that her career is over.But her life may be about to begin . . .Escape into a beautiful world of craft and romance that will grab hold of your heart and never let go.Praise for Kate Clayborn'Clayborn is a thoughtful, very talented writer' - BookPage'Hilarious and moving and sexy' - Buzzfeed'A warm and lively romance' - New York Times'Clayborn's characters are bright and nuanced, her dialogue quick and clever, and the world she builds warm and welcoming' - Washington Post'A layered and memorable love story . . . smart, sexy and sublime' - USA Today
£9.99
Quercus Publishing White Shadow
The sequel to the Man Booker Prize-shortlisted The Unseen"A gifted writer, stylish, laconic and imaginative" Paul Owen, TLS"A beautiful sequel to The Unseen, set around the remote & unforgiving island of Barrøy during WWII. A note-perfect combination of taciturnity, austerity, passion and weather. Sublime" - Rónán Hession, author of Leonard and Hungry PaulNo-one can be alone on an island . . . But Ingrid is alone on Barrøy, the island that bears her name, while the war of her childhood has been replaced by a new more terrible war and Norway is under the Nazi boot.When the bodies from a bombed troopship begin to wash up on the shore, Ingrid cannot know that one will be alive and warm enough to erase a lifetime of loneliness.She cannot know what she will suffer in protecting her lover from the Germans and their Norwegian collaborators, nor the journey she will face, wrenched from her island once more, to return home.Or that, amid the suffering of war, among refugees fleeing famine and scorched-earth retreats, she will be given a gift whose value is beyond measure.Reviews for The Unseen"Easily among the best books I have ever read" Eileen Battersby, Irish Times"The Unseen is a blunt, brilliant book" Tom Graham, Guardian"The Unseen is a towering achievement that would be a deserved Booker International winner" Charlie Connolly, New EuropeanTranslated from the Norwegian by Don Bartlett and Don Shaw
£10.99
Little, Brown Book Group The Scholar: The thrilling crime novel from the bestselling author
'A truly fine police procedural' IRISH INDEPENDENT'Utterly compelling' JANE CASEY'A superbly paced, engaging read' WOMAN'S WAY BRILLIANCE CAN BE DEADLY . . . When Detective Cormac Reilly's girlfriend Emma stumbles across the victim of a hit and run early one morning, he is first on the scene of a murder that would never have been assigned to him. The investigation promises to be high profile and high pressure: the dead girl is carrying an ID, that of Carline Darcy, heir apparent to Ireland's most successful pharmaceutical company. Darcy Therapeutics has a finger in every pie, including the laboratory where Emma works.As Cormac investigates, evidence mounts that the death is linked to the lab and, increasingly, to Emma herself. Cormac is sure she couldn't be involved, but how well does he really know her? After all, this isn't the first time Emma's been accused of murder . . .******Praise for Dervla McTiernan:'Excellently written and, at times, heartcatchingly sad' MARIAN KEYES'Dervla McTiernan is a future star of the genre' CHRIS BROOKMYRE'Brilliantly crafted' SUNDAY MIRROR'An exciting new voice in Irish noir' SUNDAY TIMES'As moving as it is fast-paced' VAL McDERMID'Absolutely brilliant. Wonderful characters, authentic setting, and a sublime, twisty plot' IRISH EXAMINER'Fans of Tana French will love McTiernan's expertly plotted, complex web of secrets' KAREN DIONNE'Excellent . . . this one was a winner for me!' ALEX GRAY'Loved every page . . . Cormac Reilly is a brilliant new character' SAM BLAKE 'Intelligent, compassionate and believable' SINEAD CROWLEY
£9.99
Oxford University Press Critique of Judgement
'beauty has purport and significance only for human beings, for beings at once animal and rational' In the Critique of Judgement (1790) Kant offers a penetrating analysis of our experience of the beautiful and the sublime, discussing the objectivity of taste, aesthetic disinterestedness, the relation of art and nature, the role of imagination, genius and originality, the limits of representation and the connection between morality and the aesthetic. He also investigates the validity of our judgements concerning the apparent purposiveness of nature with respect to the highest interests of reason and enlightenment. The work profoundly influenced the artists and writers of the classical and romantic period and the philosophy of Hegel and Schelling. It has remained a central point of reference from Schopenhauer and Nietzsche through to phenomenology, hermeneutics, the Frankfurt School, analytical aesthetics and contemporary critical theory. J. C. Meredith's classic translation has been revised in accordance with standard modern renderings and provided with a bilingual glossary. This edition also includes the important 'First Introduction' that Kant originally composed for the work. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.
£13.99
Simon & Schuster The Kill Jar: Obsession, Descent, and a Hunt for Detroit's Most Notorious Serial Killer
Now the subject of the Discovery+ series Children of the Snow, a cold case murder investigation is cracked open by “a powerful, confident voice in the new true crime memoir genre” (James Renner, author of True Crime Addict).Four children were abducted and murdered outside of Detroit during the winters of 1976 and 1977, their bodies eventually dumped in snow banks around the city. J. Reuben Appelman was only six years old when the murders began and even evaded an abduction attempt during that same period, fueling a lifelong obsession with what became known as the Oakland County Child Killings. Autopsies showed that the victims had been fed while in captivity, reportedly held with care. And yet, with equal care, their bodies had allegedly been groomed post-mortem, scrubbed-free of evidence that might link to a killer. There were few credible leads, and equally few credible suspects. That’s what the cops had passed down to the press, and that’s what the city of Detroit, and Appelman, had come to believe. When the abductions mysteriously stopped, a task force operating on one of the largest manhunt budgets in history shut down without an arrest. Although no more murders occurred, Detroit remained haunted. Eerily overlaid upon the author’s own decades-old history with violence, The Kill Jar tells the gripping story of Appelman’s ten-year investigation into buried leads, apparent police cover-ups, con men, child pornography rings, and high-level corruption saturating Detroit’s most notorious serial killer case. “Always deft, often sublime, Appelman uses his investigation to draw us into his personal journey through darkness, to light and life” (Chip Johannessen, producer of Dexter).
£17.09
Pushkin Press Scorched Grace: A Sister Holiday Mystery
THE SENSATIONAL DEBUT CRIME NOVEL ABOUT A CHAIN-SMOKING, HEAVILY TATTOOED QUEER NUN TURNED AMATEUR DETECTIVE - 'UNIQUE AND CONFIDENT', GILLIAN FLYNN A Guardian Best Crime/Thriller Book of 2023 A New York Times Book Review Editor's Choice and New York Times 'Best Crime Books of the Year' 2023 One of Apple's Best Books of 2023 'Satisfies right up to the twisty end' KARIN SLAUGHTER 'Deliciously insubordinate' MEGAN ABBOTT Sister Holiday is more faithful than most, but she's no saint When Saint Sebastian's School becomes the target of a shocking arson spree, the Sisters of the Sublime Blood and their surrounding community are thrust into chaos. Unsatisfied with the authorities' response, chain-smoking, heavily tattooed, queer nun Sister Holiday becomes determined to unveil the mysterious attacker herself. To solve this high-stakes mystery, Sister Holiday will have to reckon with the sins of her chequered past. Her investigation leads down a twisty path of suspicion and secrets in the sticky, oppressive New Orleans heat, turning her against colleagues, students, and even fellow Sisters along the way. ------------------------------ 'A badass, brilliant queer nun solving a murder mystery in New Orleans? How could I not fall in love with this book?' MARA WILSON 'Skilfully plotted, propulsive, and deeply engaged with the communities it represents' DON WINSLOW 'A searing journey through faith, fire and female rage' ELIZABETH HAND 'Sister Holiday may be the most original character you'll come across for quite some time' CRIMEREADS 'Burns with the wholehearted energy of faith, love, and transgression' SOPHIE WARD 'If you're not sold by a punk rock nun solving mysteries then can your soul even be saved?' ELECTRIC LITERATURE
£9.99
Duke University Press The Poetics of Political Thinking
In The Poetics of Political Thinking Davide Panagia focuses on the role that aesthetic sensibilities play in theorists’ evaluations of political arguments. Examining works by thinkers from Thomas Hobbes to Jacques Rancière, Panagia shows how each one invokes aesthetic concepts and devices, such as metaphor, mimesis, imagination, beauty, and the sublime. He argues that it is important to recognize and acknowledge these poetic forms of representation because they provide evaluative standards that theorists use in appraising the value of ideas—ideas about justice, politics, and democratic life. An investigation into the intertwined histories of aesthetic and political accounts of representation—such as Panagia presents here—sheds light on how modes of poetic thinking delimit the questions of unity and diversity that continue to animate contemporary political theory.Panagia not only illuminates the structure of much contemporary political theory but also shows why understanding the poetics of political thinking is vital to contemporary society. Drawing on Gilles Deleuze’s critique of negation and his privileging of paradox as the source of political thought, Panagia suggests that a non-teleological concept of difference might generate insight into pressing questions about foreignness and citizenship. Turning to the liberal/poststructural debate that dominates contemporary political theory, he compares John Rawls’s concept of justice to Rancière’s ideas about political disagreement in order to demonstrate how, despite their differences, both thinkers comprehend aesthetic and moral reasoning as part and parcel of political writing. Considering the writings of William Hazlitt and Jürgen Habermas, he describes how the essay has become the exemplary genre of what is considered rational political argument. The Poetics of Political Thinking is a compelling reappraisal of the role of representation within political thought.
£23.99
Cornell University Press Corporate Wasteland: The Landscape and Memory of Deindustrialization
Deindustrialization is not simply an economic process, but a social and cultural one as well. The rusting detritus of our industrial past—the wrecked hulks of factories, abandoned machinery too large to remove, and now-useless infrastructures—has for decades been a part of the North American landscape. In recent years, however, these modern ruins have become cultural attractions, drawing increasing numbers of adventurers, artists, and those curious about a forgotten heritage.Through a unique blend of oral history, photographs, and interpretive essays, Corporate Wasteland investigates this fascinating terrain and the phenomenon of its loss and rediscovery. Steven High and David W. Lewis begin by exploring an emerging aesthetic they term the deindustrial sublime, explaining how the ritualized demolition of landmark industrial structures served as dramatic punctuations between changing eras. They then follow the narrative path blazed by urban spelunkers, explorers who infiltrate former industrial sites and then share accounts and images of their exploits in a vibrant online community. And to understand the ways in which geographic and emotional proximity affects how deindustrialization is remembered and represented, High and Lewis focus on Youngstown, Ohio, where residents and former steelworkers still live amid the reminders of more prosperous times. Corporate Wasteland concludes with photo essays of sites in Michigan, Ontario, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania that pair haunting images with the poignant testimonies of those who remember industrial sites as workplaces rather than monuments. Forcing readers to look beyond nostalgia, High and Lewis reinterpret our deindustrialized landscape as a historical and imaginative challenge to the ways in which we comprehend and respond to the profound disruptions wrought by globalization.
£17.99
HarperCollins Publishers The House on Rye Lane
‘Sublime, elegant and exciting… beautifully written and entirely gripping. I’m a big fan of Susan Allott’ CHRIS WHITAKER ‘The lovechild of Sarah Waters’ The Paying Guests and Lisa Jewell’s The Family Upstairs… confirms Susan Allott as a huge talent’ ERIN KELLY They thought they’d found their dream home. They were wrong. 2008. The house Maxine and Seb have just bought was a bargain – a huge Georgian townhouse on the edge of Peckham Rye, it needs a lot of work but Max couldn’t resist it. Now they are in, though, nothing seems to be going right – and as the problems mount up, Max starts to doubt her relationship as well as her decision. Is Seb all he seems to be? And why are the neighbours so evasive about the house’s previous owner? 1994. Cookie and his parents have been forced by his dad’s gambling debts to move into the attic room of a big old house, as lodgers. Tensions run high between them and their elderly landlady, and there’s something odd about the place that Cookie can’t quite put his finger on… 1843. Horatio built this house for his beloved wife, who then died in mysterious circumstances. After a second death on the premises, both his servants and the locals are starting to talk. Horatio’s grief is tinged with shame and guilt. What is he hiding? And will the house ever be free of his legacy? THE HOUSE ON RYE LANE is a tense, taut, beautifully crafted novel about the treachery of secrets and the many ways the past can echo into the present, from the acclaimed author of THE SILENCE.
£15.29
Inner Traditions Bear and Company Light Therapies: A Complete Guide to the Healing Power of Light
A comprehensive guide to the therapeutic benefits of light and color and how they affect our physical and psychological well-being Beginning with sun worship in prehistory and sunshine therapies in ancient Egypt, Greece, and India, light has long been associated with the sublime, the divine, and healing. Yet only recently have we begun to understand how different parts of the light spectrum, from infrared to ultraviolet, can affect our physical and psychological well-being. Covering the historic, scientific, and spiritual aspects of light and its role in energy medicine, Anadi Martel explores the vibrational nature of light and the interaction between light, biology, and consciousness. He demonstrates light’s incredible effects on the physical, energetic, and cognitive dimensions of life and examines several forms of light therapy, including chromotherapy (color therapy), heliotherapy (sun therapy), actinotherapy (ultraviolet therapy), and thermotherapy (infrared therapy). He details how to use light therapy daily, get optimal benefits from sunlight, and avoid the health risks of new artificial lighting such as compact fluorescents and LEDs. Combining his own 30 years of research with practical insight from the many phototherapy pioneers he’s encountered, the author examines scientific studies on how specific wavelengths of light influence our cells and DNA, brain function, sleep patterns, and emotional stability; speed the healing of wounds; and are effective in the treatment of disease, including arthritis, stroke, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and brain and nerve injuries. Exploring the spiritual aspects of light, the author explains why auras and halos have been used to represent sages and saints of all traditions, revealing the intimate link between light and consciousness.
£18.99
Vintage Publishing The In-Between: Unforgettable Encounters During Life's Final Moments – THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
AS SEEN ON THE KELLY CLARKSON SHOW - 'Heartfelt ... Gentle, refreshingly forthright' New York TimesHospice nurse and TikTok star Hadley Vlahos shares moving stories, life lessons and wisdom from her patients in this heart-warming memoir about how end-of-life care can teach us just as much about how to live as it does about how we die.'The combined beauty, faith, and compassion found in each patient's death is meaningful and sublime' Theresa Brown, author of The Shift'Vlahos's compassionate, beautifully written book contains profound wisdom' Katy Butler, author of The Art of Dying Well***We don't often talk about dying, even in the medical field, but death is a universal part of life. An ardent advocate for compassionate end-of-life care, Hadley Vlahos shows us that the end of our lives can be rich, beautiful and transformative by sharing moving stories about how her patients' final days have changed her life.Full of insights from real people, from the woman who never once questioned her faith until she was close to death, to the older man seeing visions of his late daughter, to the young patient who laments that she spent too much of her short life worrying about what others thought of her - each story raises vital questions about living, dying and the afterlife, inspiring us to live our lives to the fullest.***'Extraordinary ... helps dispel fear around death and dying - revealing it to be a natural part of our soul's evolution' Laura Lynne Jackson, author of The Signs'Tender and transformative . . . it makes dying feel like a peaceful, dynamic, and nourishing event' Christie Tate, author of Group
£18.99
Transworld Publishers Ltd Balancing Act: an absorbing and authentic novel from one of Britain’s most popular authors
Family and business, husbands and wives, parents and children. It's always a balancing act... In this emotional and thought-provoking novel, multi-million copy bestselling author Joanna Trollope expertly weaves a study of familial relationships with a lightness of tone and real sense of compassion. Fans of Elizabeth Noble, Erica James and Amanda Prowse will not be disappointed. 'To be relished.' -- The Times'Joanna Trollope's evocations of human relationships are, as ever, penetrating and engaging.' -- Daily Express'A joy to read' -- ***** Reader review'A great read, very engrossing and hard to put down' -- ***** Reader review 'A real page-turner' -- ***** Reader review'Sublime' -- ***** Reader review********************************************************************************************WHEN EVERYTHING YOU'VE WORKED TO ACHIEVE SUDDENLY FEELS PRECARIOUS, YOU'LL DO WHAT IT TAKES TO KEEP IT STABLE...Four strong women. All working in a family business. But what happens when they begin to want different things? And what about the men - and the children - in their lives?Susie Moran has always been the breadwinner in her family. Her husband was the one who was there for their three girls. But now he wants something of his past back - the life he had before Susie's career took off, before they had children. And those children don't see their mother's business the way she has always seen it, thereby threatening the balance she has worked so hard to achieve.And then, amidst the simmering tensions, someone significant from the past, someone almost forgotten, turns up. The problems of the past, the present, and the future all become challenges to the stability of both family and work. Which relationships - if any - will survive?
£9.99
Little, Brown & Company The High Sierra: A Love Story
Kim Stanley Robinson first ventured into the Sierra Nevada mountains during the summer of 1973. He returned from that encounter a changed man, awed by a landscape that made him feel as if he were simultaneously strolling through an art museum and scrambling on a jungle gym like an energized child. He has returned to the mountains throughout his life-more than a hundred trips-and has gathered a vast store of knowledge about them. The High Sierra is his lavish celebration of this exceptional place and an exploration of what makes this span of mountains one of the most compelling places on Earth.Over the course of a vivid and dramatic narrative, Robinson describes the geological forces that shaped the Sierras and the history of its exploration, going back to the indigenous peoples who made it home and whose traces can still be found today. He celebrates the people whose ideas and actions protected the High Sierra for future generations. He describes uniquely beautiful hikes and the trails to be avoided. Robinson's own life-altering events, defining relationships, and unforgettable adventures form the narrative's spine. And he illuminates the human communion with the wild and with the sublime, including the personal growth that only seems to come from time spent outdoors.The High Sierra is a gorgeous, absorbing immersion in a place, born out of a desire to understand and share one of the greatest rapture-inducing experiences our planet offers. Packed with maps, gear advice, more than 100 breathtaking photos, and much more, it will inspire veteran hikers, casual walkers, and travel readers to prepare for a magnificent adventure.
£31.50
Johns Hopkins University Press The Wonder of the Human Hand: Care and Repair of the Body's Most Marvelous Instrument
Using our hands, we interact with the environment in ways that are more sophisticated, more varied, and more productive than any other part of our body. The delicate instrument that is the hand makes it possible for us to knead dough and perform a heart transplant; make contact with strangers, friends, and lovers; throw a baseball; and create a scale model of a skyscraper and build that skyscraper. From the most mundane activity to our most sublime achievement, the hand has helped us shape the world and given us a deeper understanding of our place in it. In The Wonder of the Human Hand, surgeons and hand specialists from the world-renowned Curtis National Hand Center describe how the hand is used in work, sports, and music, and trace the human fascination with hands in religion and art. They relate awe-inspiring stories of people throughout history - including major league pitcher Jim Abbott, orthopedic surgeon Dr. Liebe Diamond, and pianist Leon Fleisher - who accomplished great things with one hand, or with impaired or injured hands, and they tell of marvelous surgeries that create fingers where none exist. Recounting how the hand interprets the environment and returns tactile information to the brain, the book underscores the importance of the hand to people who cannot see or hear. Throughout, the authors explore how medical science restores bones, tendons, nerves, muscles, and blood vessels in hands injured through disease, accident, and combat-ever aware of how the form and function of the human hand combine harmoniously in everyday activities and Herculean efforts alike.
£48.62
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC The Hunted
Set in a remote Scottish lodge in the depths of winter, this explosive and disturbing thriller asks what happens when dark secrets finally come to light. Perfect for fans of Lisa Jewell and Kerri Beevis. THE PERFECT WEEKEND AWAY. A REMOTE LODGE, OLD FRIENDS... AND MURDER. It's been twenty years since they were all at school together. So when a group of female friends gather at a beautiful but isolated Scottish island lodge for a weekend away, they're looking forward to relaxing, sharing updates on their lives, and reminiscing. The furthest thing from their minds is murder. But even though they've known each other since high school, some of these women have secrets. Dark secrets that can ruin friendships, ruin marriages – ruin lives. Things you thought you knew and loved can turn out to be your biggest nightmares. And when recriminations start to fly, it soon becomes clear: it's not a question of when, but if, these old friends will ever make it home again... 'A slow burn, tense thriller that kept me reading way past bedtime then kept me awake. P.R. Black at his very best.' Kerry Watts 'In The Hunted, the layers of deceit carefully built over years are torn off; the façade of normality slowly peeled away, all in an atmosphere of sublime menace. Black delivers a subtly written and engaging read.' Daniel Scanlan Reviews for P.R. Black: 'A slow-burning thriller that builds to a devastating dénouement' Mail on Sunday 'It's edge-of-the-seat stuff... A cracker' Bookbag 'Copious amounts of suspense' Novel Kicks
£9.99
Workman Publishing The Catch of a Lifetime: Moments of Flyfishing Glory
A Gorgeously Illustrated Collection of First-Person Stories on the Sublime Joy of FlyfishingEvery fly fisher has one: that moment-that ineffable, transcendent moment-they can point to and say, That's it. That was when time seemed to stop and I felt fully alive. That's why I fish.Collected and framed by the award-winning writer Peter Kaminsky, The Catch of a Lifetime presents the moving first-person stories of more than seventy anglers recounting their catch of a lifetime. With its tales of brown trout in Montana and bluefish at Montauk Point, smallmouth in Minnesota's Boundary Waters and unforgettable adventures with giant taimen on the steppes of central Asia, bonefish in New Caledonia, white marlin in the Baja, and golden dorado in the tribal lands along the Amazon's headwaters, this gorgeously illustrated anthology is a transporting testament to the call that all anglers heed-to get out there and be one with the water. It distills perfectly the magic of the sport; you can't read it and not want to go fishing.The contributor list is a diverse who's who of writers, artists, sportspeople, and others who've made flyfishing a singular passion, including Carl Hiaasen, Joan Wulff, Tom Colicchio, Charles Gaines, Rachel Maddow, Mark Kurlansky, Brittany Howard, John McPhee, Verlyn Klinkenborg, and Jared Zissu. Their encounters, their memories, the words they use to describe, say, a forty-pound salmon leaping into the air or the sight of a great blue heron soaring down the creek to steal a catch make this the book of a lifetime for any fly fisher.
£27.00
Stanford University Press Zarathustra’s Dionysian Modernism
In arguing that Nietzsche's Thus Spoke Zarathustra is a philosophical explanation of the possibility of modernism—that is, of the possibility of radical cultural change through the creation of new values—the author shows that literary fiction can do the work of philosophy. Nietzsche takes up the problem of modernism by inventing Zarathustra, a self-styled cultural innovator who aspires to subvert the culture of modernity (the repressive culture of the "last man") by creating new values. By showing how Zarathustra can become a creator of new values, notwithstanding the forces that hinder his will to innovate, Nietzsche answers the skeptic who proclaims that new-values creation is impossible. Zarathustra is a story of repeated clashes between Zarathustra's avant-garde, modernist intentions and figures of doubt who condemn those intentions. Through a close reading of Zarathustra, the author reconstructs Nietzsche's explanation of the possibility of modernism. Showing how parody, irony, and plot organization frame that explanation, he also demonstrates the central significance of Zarathustra's speeches on the body and the will to power. The author argues that Nietzsche's critique of the modern philosophy of the subject revises Kant's concept of the dynamical sublime and makes allegorical use of the myth of Theseus, Ariadne, and Dionysus. He also proposes an original interpretation of the thought of eternal recurrence (according to Nietzsche, the "fundamental conception" of Zarathustra). Breaking with conventional Nietzsche scholarship, the author conceptualizes the thought not as a theoretical or a practical doctrine that Nietzsche endorses, but as a developing drama that Zarathustra performs.
£29.99
University of Washington Press The Promise of Wilderness: American Environmental Politics since 1964
From Denali's majestic slopes to the Great Swamp of central New Jersey, protected wilderness areas make up nearly twenty percent of the parks, forests, wildlife refuges, and other public lands that cover a full fourth of the nation's territory. But wilderness is not only a place. It is also one of the most powerful and troublesome ideas in American environmental thought, representing everything from sublime beauty and patriotic inspiration to a countercultural ideal and an overextension of government authority. The Promise of Wilderness examines how the idea of wilderness has shaped the management of public lands since the passage of the Wilderness Act in 1964. Wilderness preservation has engaged diverse groups of citizens, from hunters and ranchers to wildlife enthusiasts and hikers, as political advocates who have leveraged the resources of local and national groups toward a common goal. Turner demonstrates how these efforts have contributed to major shifts in modern American environmental politics, which have emerged not just in reaction to a new generation of environmental concerns, such as environmental justice and climate change, but also in response to changed debates over old conservation issues, such as public lands management. He also shows how battles over wilderness protection have influenced American politics more broadly, fueling disputes over the proper role of government, individual rights, and the interests of rural communities; giving rise to radical environmentalism; and playing an important role in the resurgence of the conservative movement, especially in the American West. Watch the book trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jsq-6LAeYKk
£39.00
Jacana Media (Pty) Ltd Delicious travel
The author brings together in Delicious travel a collection of her culinary wanderings through some of the most remote and unchartered parts of South Africa - places we thought we knew - in different and completely unexpected ways. The author has an eye and ear for the idiosyncratic and the quirky, in her quest for great cuisine, she uncovers the eccentricities of the people who live - and cook - in the countryside. 'Great cuisine' isn't necessarily haute cuisine, but rather the ingredients, chefs and places, all conspiring to make an experience memorable. It rediscovers bits of history and paints vivid pictures of people and their stories as it traces culinary treasures down hidden paths. This is intelligent travel with a twist! We learn how to make mealiepap pie in Victoria West, and conversely, the most sublime of seared tuna with a tantalising Far East-flavoured topping in a remote Eastern Cape town. We discover how, just outside De Rust, Jans Rautenbach, the godfather of Afrikaans film, got to sport a cathedral window in his house; how the breeding of Arabian horses on a stud farm influences the cuisine in the area and what really happens at a Karoo cattle auction when everyone buys jerepigo in support of church coffers. We discover how Mpumalanga's Robbers' Pass got its name; how the creative writing process imposes on cooking; and we find out why writer/artist Braam Kruger is more famous for his perfect fish and chips than for his art and possibly most importantly, how to mix the perfect Bloody Mary or Martini.
£17.99
Headline Publishing Group You Can Stay: The chilling, heart-stopping new thriller
She's the perfect host. He's the perfect victim.Someone is hunting Connor. Alone, freezing, in the wilderness of Bodmin Moor, on an elite Special Forces training exercise, he'd be a fool to scorn the kindness of a local stranger. Wouldn't he?At first, Eilidh seems to be an impeccable host. She offers Connor food and a warm bed - he finds it nearly impossible to leave her charming farmhouse.But the choice isn't his to make.There have been others before. None, though, as perfect as him.Why would she let him leave?Praise for Elle Connel:"Down By The Water takes the reader on a weekend trip from hell... I loved the classy writing and ever-growing sense of unease in this clever subversion of a classic country house mystery" - Harriet Tyce"A chilling drama" Sunday Times"Misery for the Goop generation. You Can Stay is fantastic - an absolute treat of a book." - Catherine Simpson"Witty, grounded and entertaining, this is a thrilling read." - Lynsey May"You Can Stay was so gripping I read it in one compulsive sitting!" - Claire Askew"Sinister and atmospheric" - Chris Brookmyre"Absolutely loved this - so dark, yet laced with humour, and such clever plotting. Loved the characters, and the ending is sublime." - Susi Holliday"I have never fallen so hard for a book this far out of my comfort zone. A stunning book about gender and power, and a fine homage to Stephen King's Misery. Deeply unsettling, and impossible to put down." - Claire L Heuchan"A gripping mystery." - Nathan Ripley
£10.99
Windhorse Publications The Bodhisattva Ideal: 4
'The Bodhisattva ideal is a vast subject. It is the major distinctive emphasis of the phase of the development of Buddhism known as the Mahāyāna, which had its flowering for a period of around 500 years (0–500CE), but is still practised today in many different forms, from Tibetan Buddhism to Zen. To consider this topic is to place one’s hand on the very heart of Buddhism, and feel the beating of that heart.' Thus Sangharakshita introduces his theme. The first part of this volume describes the arising of the bodhicitta and the bodhisattva's path to Enlightenment in a weaving together of the sublime and the inspiringly practical, and the second part is a commentary on Śāntideva's classic 8th-century text, the Bodhicaryāvatara, based on a seminar given in 1973, in the very early days of Triratna, thus shaping the newly emerging Buddhist movement. The seminar was titled The Endlessly Fascinating Cry, echoing Śāntideva's fervent prayer: 'In order to grasp this jewel of the mind, I offer ... the endlessly fascinating cry of wild geese ...' The volume ends with 'The Bodhisattva Principle', a talk given in 1983 to a conference of scientists and mystics in which Sangharakshita presents a vision of the bodhisattva as an embodiment of the key to the evolution of consciousness, individual and collective. The subject of this book may be an ideal, but it offers many ways to take the first real steps on this most significant of all journeys, and much nourishment for the heart and mind of the would-be bodhisattva.
£19.95
Batsford Ltd Sea Pools: 66 saltwater sanctuaries from around the world
An ode to sea swimming – looking at the architecture, history and social significance of sea pools. The sea can be challenging and changeable. Protected from the dangers of currents, crashing waves and extreme cold, sea pools (also known as tidal or ocean pools) are manmade pools that provide a safe space for swimmers to enjoy the benefits of the sea at all states of the tide and weather. Sea Pools begins with an introduction to sea pools within the history of outdoor swimming, their unique designs and architectural significance and commentary on the resurgent appreciation for sea swimming in the 21st century. Chris Romer-Lee selects 70 of the most beautiful and culturally significant sea pools from around the world, including the 25-metre cliffside Avalon Rock Pool in new South Wales, Australia, the sublime Pozo de las Calcosas in Spain that is shrouded in volcanic rock, and Ireland's historic Vico Baths to name but a few. Sea Pools also includes four insightful essays: Nicola Larkin looks to the next generation of ocean pools in her exploration of how we can conserve, protect and regenerate the coastline; Therese Spruhan testifies to the healing and transformative benefits of ocean swimming; Freya Bromley discusses her odyssey to swim in every sea pool in Britain; and Kevin Fellingham on the importance of sea pools in South Africa. The book is illustrated throughout with beautiful colour photography, as well as fascinating archive material to give an insight into the provenance of these vital sanctuaries.
£22.50
Princeton University Press Morse Theory. (AM-51), Volume 51
One of the most cited books in mathematics, John Milnor's exposition of Morse theory has been the most important book on the subject for more than forty years. Morse theory was developed in the 1920s by mathematician Marston Morse. (Morse was on the faculty of the Institute for Advanced Study, and Princeton published his Topological Methods in the Theory of Functions of a Complex Variable in the Annals of Mathematics Studies series in 1947.) One classical application of Morse theory includes the attempt to understand, with only limited information, the large-scale structure of an object. This kind of problem occurs in mathematical physics, dynamic systems, and mechanical engineering. Morse theory has received much attention in the last two decades as a result of a famous paper in which theoretical physicist Edward Witten relates Morse theory to quantum field theory. Milnor was awarded the Fields Medal (the mathematical equivalent of a Nobel Prize) in 1962 for his work in differential topology. He has since received the National Medal of Science (1967) and the Steele Prize from the American Mathematical Society twice (1982 and 2004) in recognition of his explanations of mathematical concepts across a wide range of scienti.c disciplines. The citation reads, "The phrase sublime elegance is rarely associated with mathematical exposition, but it applies to all of Milnor's writings. Reading his books, one is struck with the ease with which the subject is unfolding and it only becomes apparent after re.ection that this ease is the mark of a master." Milnor has published five books with Princeton University Press.
£63.00
Harvard University Press The Veil of Isis: An Essay on the History of the Idea of Nature
Nearly twenty-five hundred years ago the Greek thinker Heraclitus supposedly uttered the cryptic words "Phusis kruptesthai philei." How the aphorism, usually translated as "Nature loves to hide," has haunted Western culture ever since is the subject of this engaging study by Pierre Hadot. Taking the allegorical figure of the veiled goddess Isis as a guide, and drawing on the work of both the ancients and later thinkers such as Goethe, Rilke, Wittgenstein, and Heidegger, Hadot traces successive interpretations of Heraclitus' words. Over time, Hadot finds, "Nature loves to hide" has meant that all that lives tends to die; that Nature wraps herself in myths; and (for Heidegger) that Being unveils as it veils itself. Meanwhile the pronouncement has been used to explain everything from the opacity of the natural world to our modern angst.From these kaleidoscopic exegeses and usages emerge two contradictory approaches to nature: the Promethean, or experimental-questing, approach, which embraces technology as a means of tearing the veil from Nature and revealing her secrets; and the Orphic, or contemplative-poetic, approach, according to which such a denuding of Nature is a grave trespass. In place of these two attitudes Hadot proposes one suggested by the Romantic vision of Rousseau, Goethe, and Schelling, who saw in the veiled Isis an allegorical expression of the sublime. "Nature is art and art is nature," Hadot writes, inviting us to embrace Isis and all she represents: art makes us intensely aware of how completely we ourselves are not merely surrounded by nature but also part of nature.
£23.36
Bradt Travel Guides Ivory Coast
This new, thoroughly updated second edition of Bradt's Ivory Coast remains the only English-language guidebook to focus solely on this culturally rich West African country, a place of crimson savannas, sublime mountains and cream-hued beaches that is becoming increasingly popular for ecotourism and wildlife, surfing and off-the-beaten track travel. Written in easy-to-navigate geographical structure, chapters on background and practical information are followed by dedicated sections on Abidjan and the surrounding area; the southeast, including Grand-Bassam and Assinie; the southwest, including Sassandra, San-Pe´dro and the Parc National de Tai¨; and the centre: Yamoussoukro, Bouake´, Daloa and Abengourou. Moving up the country, the Dix-Huit Montagnes area is covered, including Man and Touba, followed by a chapter on the North, including Odienne´, Korhogo, Kong, Parc National de la Comoe´ and Bondoukou. From wildlife and birdwatching to hiking, trekking, chocolate and twerking, Bradt's Ivory Coast lifts the lid on what gives this country its unique flavour. Tribal arts, vibrant reggae, Afrobeat and traditional folk-music scenes, and delicious Ivorian food are all covered, as are hotels, the extraordinary mud mosques of Kong and the far north, Drummologie and 'talking drums', football (the 2023 Africa Nations Cup will be held here), and unprecedented pricing and timetabling information for the full range of transport options. Having only recently re-opened for tourism, Ivory Coast is West Africa's hidden treasure. Packed with vivid descriptions, detailed maps and essential practical advice, Bradt's Ivory Coast is the ideal companion for a perfect trip, whatever your interest.
£19.99
Octopus Publishing Group Flavour: Over 100 fabulously flavourful recipes with a Middle-Eastern twist
'I am grateful to add Flavour, quite simply a gorgeous book, to my Sabrina Shelf. As ever, deliciousness abounds...' - Nigella Lawson'Sabrina Ghayour has a knack for colourful, intensely flavoured, no-fuss recipes ... Perfect for relaxed family suppers' - Daily Mail'Sabrina Ghayour's appeal is in offering simple Persian and Middle Eastern-inspired recipes that are fuss-free and burst with flavour... this new book has that appeal in spades - Delicious MagazineThe new collection of simple, delicious, crowd-pleasing recipes from the bestselling Middle-Eastern chef.Enjoy over 100 fabulously flavourful recipes with a Middle-Eastern twist - perfect for family, friends and every occasion. CONTENTS INCLUDE:SaladsChicken shawarma salad; Halloumi, blood orange & pistachio rocket salad; Spice roasted butternut & black rice saladLittle bites & savoury treatsCurried cheese & potato puffs; Tamarind chicken wings; My sweet, salty & sublime BHTMeat, poultry, fish & seafoodHerb koftas with warm yogurt sauce & spiced mint butter; Ras el Hanout & orange lamb cutlet platter; Pan-fried salmon with barberry butterVegetables & pulsesSmoked aubergine with lime & maple dressing; Charred broccoli with lemons, chillies & yogurt; Mama ghanoushPasta, noodles & grainsHarissa, tahini & lamb spaghetti; Nut butter noodles; samosa pastaSweetFeta, basil & strawberry cheesecake cups; Lime, coconut & cardamom loaf cake; Pistachio & chocolate dream cakePraise for Sabrina Ghayour:'Sabrina Ghayour's Middle-Eastern plus food is all flavour, no fuss - and makes me very, very happy' - Nigella Lawson'I don't think she could write a dull recipe if she tried. Every one an elegantly spiced delight.' - Tom Parker Bowles'The golden girl of Persian cookery' - Observer
£23.40
Johns Hopkins University Press The Wonder of the Human Hand: Care and Repair of the Body's Most Marvelous Instrument
Using our hands, we interact with the environment in ways that are more sophisticated, more varied, and more productive than any other part of our body. The delicate instrument that is the hand makes it possible for us to knead dough and perform a heart transplant; make contact with strangers, friends, and lovers; throw a baseball; and create a scale model of a skyscraper and build that skyscraper. From the most mundane activity to our most sublime achievement, the hand has helped us shape the world and given us a deeper understanding of our place in it. In The Wonder of the Human Hand, surgeons and hand specialists from the world-renowned Curtis National Hand Center describe how the hand is used in work, sports, and music, and trace the human fascination with hands in religion and art. They relate awe-inspiring stories of people throughout history - including major league pitcher Jim Abbott, orthopedic surgeon Dr. Liebe Diamond, and pianist Leon Fleisher - who accomplished great things with one hand, or with impaired or injured hands, and they tell of marvelous surgeries that create fingers where none exist. Recounting how the hand interprets the environment and returns tactile information to the brain, the book underscores the importance of the hand to people who cannot see or hear. Throughout, the authors explore how medical science restores bones, tendons, nerves, muscles, and blood vessels in hands injured through disease, accident, and combat - ever aware of how the form and function of the human hand combine harmoniously in everyday activities and Herculean efforts alike.
£27.64