Search results for ""Author Bill"

Woman as comestible. Woman as kingmaker. Woman as oblivion. Why is our culture governed by the principle of separation? Beginning with a devastating exploration of the 1960s, understood up until now as the era of female liberation, free love and the tribal sharing of drugs, Antonella Gambotto-Burke deconstructs the past two centuries and shows how we are, in fact, moving towards the age of the Nietzschean übermensch, in which femininity will, if we do not change, be erased. She skilfully draws together diverse threads, from the shockingly personal to the broadest societal trends and cutting-edge scientific research, to construct a brilliant and startling thesis that medicinal and recreational drugs have rewired our bodies and brains to an near-incomprehensible extent. Anxiety, artificial wombs, brutality, the class system, depression, dieting, racism and other issues – including the first plausible theory for rubber fetishism and other ‘kinks’ such as choking or breathplay – are explained within the context of the dominant cultural paradigm. A devastating uppercut to a patriarchal ideology that has marred billions of lives, Apple: Sex, Drugs, Motherhood and the Recovery of the Feminine completely revises our understanding of addiction, art, drug use, homosexuality, murder, pornography, sex, war, and, critically, the significance of birth, infancy and motherhood in relation to human existence. You will never see anything the same way again.

Read more less

Your insider guide to the stuff of life 3.8 billion years old and counting, there’s more than a little to know about the fundamentals of how life works. This friendly guide takes you from the primordial soup to the present, explaining how specialized cells have given rise to everything living, from the humblest amoeba to walking, talking human beings. Whether you’re enrolled in a cell or molecular biology course and need a straightforward overview, or are just curious about the latest advances, this fully updated edition is your all-access ticket to our inner world. Molecular & Cell Biology For Dummies decodes jargon and theories that can tax even the most devoted student. It covers everything from basic principles to how new technology, genetic testing, and microarray techniques are opening up new possibilities for research and careers. It also includes invaluable tips on how to prepare for—and ace—your exams! Explore the structure and function of the cells—and find out why cellular context is crucial to the study of disease Discover how molecular biology can solve world problems Understand how DNA determines traits and is regulated by cells Enhance your knowledge and results with online resources and study tips From microscopic details to macro concepts, this book has something for you.

Read more less

Develop key writing skills and become more confident when writing in English. If you want to get better at writing in English you need to practise writing different kinds of texts. Collins Writing (A2) presents 20 styles of writing for everyday situations, to help you choose the right style of writing and the right words and phrases. Improve your writing for:• text messages • postcards • making plans • invitations • advertisements • job applications • social networking sites e.g. Facebook and Twitter • Collins Writing (A2) is part of the English for Life series. It is suitable for self-study and classroom use, and can help towards Cambridge ESOL KET exam preparation. Suitable for pre-intermediate learners of English (CEF level A2). Twenty units with a clear design in full colour Authentic and adapted texts in a wide variety of styles Appendices contain detailed advice targeting specific writing skills, such as sentence structure and punctuation Mini-dictionary with definitions of the most difficult words in each unit, taken from the Collins COBUILD dictionary Answer key The English for Life series uses authentic material from the Collins Corpus. The 4.5-billion-word Collins Corpus is the world’s largest database of the English language and is updated every month. Also available in the Collins English for Life series: For Pre-Intermediate (A2) learners:Reading • Listening • Speaking For Intermediate (B1+) learners:Reading • Writing • Listening • Speaking

Read more less

What defines who we are? Until now, the biological answer has been our genes. Leading biologist Alfonso Martinez Arias breaks with popular tradition to make a bold argument: what defines us is our cells. Drawing on groundbreaking research, he reveals that we are composed of a thrillingly complex, constantly rearranging symphony of cells that know how to count, feel, and give form to our bodies. While DNA is important, nothing in your genes explains why your heart is on the left, why you have five fingers and not ten, why genetically identical twins have different sets of fingerprints, or why it's possible for a mother to apparently share no DNA with the children she gave birth to! At the heart of it all is a powerful new conception of the essence of life. Our identities are shaped by the interconnections between cells, working cooperatively, creating something greater than its parts - the unbroken lineage that connects us to the fertilized egg from which we developed and back through the billions of years of our planet's history, to the very first cell of all life on Earth. A sweeping revision of both the present and the history of life, The Master Builder puts forward a new paradigm for understanding biology, transforming our approach to where we come from, what shapes us, and where we are going - as individuals, a species, and the community of life itself.

Read more less

An illustrated gift book for coffee lovers. Coffee- It's a top source of antioxidants, a jump start to conversation and connection, and the preferred caffeine ritual of more than 1 billion people around the world. It's time there was a proper love letter to this small-but-mighty magic bean. With coffee puns, quotes, facts, and other caffeinated pick-me-ups, I Love You a Latte- A Celebration of Coffee is the perfect gift for the cold brew connoisseur, flat white fanatic, or regular old drip coffee devotee in your life. Fully illustrated by Marina Oliveira of Cottonflower Studio, the contents range widely from facts (such as, how to say "coffee" in 16 of the world's most spoken languages and stats on the health benefits of coffee) and artful diagrams (a comparison chart on milk-to-coffee ratios in espresso drinks, "The Little Illustrated Coffeemaker Guide"), to quotes, puns, and other treats (sweet renderings of different styles of coffee shops and a "What coffee mug are you?" spread). There are even recipes for delicious drinks like a Honey-Spiced Latte and a Frosty Caramel Cappuccino. With every page packed with charming illustrations and new reasons to love coffee, readers might find themselves asking... "Where have you bean all my life?"

Read more less

“Rosetti’s illustrations are personalized affirmations of the rights of women. They congratulate the empowered, comfort the survivors, and present rebuttals to the oppressive comments that rain down upon women from the heights of the patriarchy.” —BustThe message we receive from the world is clear: we’re not good enough. We’re not skinny enough, pretty enough, smart enough. Women is all about accepting ourselves. Carol Rossetti asks us instead to say, “We’re not good enough—we’re even better.”Despite the progress we’ve made as a society, there is still a cruel and subtle gender oppression that exists today—and many don’t realize it’s there. In response, Rossetti decided to draw women to focus on the issues we face. Her illustrations are of women who feel safe expressing themselves by showing the world their fashion, sexuality, relationships, religion, disabilities, and even traumatic experiences.Rossetti’s commanding images belong on billboards and street corners and in schools and offices to remind us that our unique experiences and expressions should make us feel beautiful, intelligent, and proud. We have the power to embrace who we are and can stop trying so hard to please the rest of the world. Carol Rossetti and Women offer us a vision of who we can be.

Read more less

Throughout the ages, adherents of religious traditions from around the world have set apart certain writings and teachings as special, calling them scriptures, sacred texts or classics. And they have developed particular approaches to reading these texts. In this insightful new guide, Unitarian Universalist minister, Jonalu Johnstone, provides an introduction to reading sacred texts, discusses Unitarian Universalist views of scripture and suggests ways to use sacred texts within our congregations. Each chapter explores an aspect of engaging with scripture and includes a reading from a sacred text - the Hebrew Scriptures, the Christian Bible, the I Ching, the Dhammapada, the Qur'an and others, including more modern sources - and offers progressive commentary based on scholarly and spiritual approaches to these writings. SCRIPTURE UNBOUND explores many of these approaches, including historical-critical reading, chant, feminist interpretation, Jewish midrash, Unitarian Universalist practice and more. It provides guidance on selecting translations, considers individual and communal spiritual practice and reflects on some of the dangers of interpreting scriptures, including cultural misappropriation. This engaging volume invites readers into an adventure of encountering first-hand the words and stories that have inspired billions throughout the centuries. Exploring the wisdom of the ages helps equip us to understand the world we share with a diverse and evolving collection of religious voices.

Read more less

A brand new edition of the finalist for the 2008 Casey Award, presented annually to the best baseball book, 101 Baseball Places to See Before You Strike Out profiles America’s greatest baseball museums, shrines, sports bars, pop culture landmarks and ballpark sites. From sandlots and skyboxes to TV rooms and sports bars, America’s love for baseball has inspired countless memories, discussions, and tributes. Josh Pahigian takes us across America to explore the places where the game’s history, culture, and lore come to life. Whether we travel by car or sit in the comfort of our favorite armchair, the book guides us to 101 amazing baseball places—including Ted Williams’ boyhood home, the Field of Dreams movie site, the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, the Chicago bar where the Cubs’ “Curse of the Billy Goat” was born, Babe Ruth’s grave, and scores of other captivating landmarks and curios. Replacing the now-extinct sites from the previous edition, updating entries for attractions that have moved, re-assigning coveted chapters to more inspiring baseball venues that have since opened, and including stunning color photos for nearly all of them, Josh Pahigian has created the perfect gift for any baseball fan.

Read more less

Bristol takes readers on a journey through the history of Glacier National Park, beginning over a billion years ago from the formation of the Belt Sea, to the present day climate-changing extinction of the very glaciers that sculpted most of the wonders of its landscapes. He delves into the ways in which this area of Montana seemed to have been preparing itself for the coming of humankind through a series of landmass adjustments like the Lewis Overthrust and the ice ages that came and went. First there were tribes of Native Americans whose deep regard for nature left the landscape intact. They were followed by Euro-American explorers and settlers who may have been awed by the new lands, but began to move wildlife to near extinction. Fortunately for the area that would become Glacier, some began to recognize that laying siege to nature and its bounties would lead to wastelands. Bristol recounts how a renewed conservation ethic fostered by such leaders as Emerson, Thoreau, Olmstead, Muir, and Teddy Roosevelt took hold. Their disciples were Grinnell, Hill, Mather, Albright, and Franklin Roosevelt, and they would not only take up the call but rally for the cause. These giants would create and preserve a park landscape to accommodate visitors and wilderness alike.

Read more less

Discover the fascinating story behind the rise of a new pop icon: Dua Lipa.When Dua Lipa was eleven, her music teacher told her she wasn’t good enough to join her school choir – her husky voice couldn’t reach the high notes.Now, she’s a global star. Her songs are pop anthems, streamed billions of times; she’s collaborated with everyone from Calvin Harris and Miley Cyrus to Madonna and Elton John; she’s won Grammys, BRITs and MTV awards; and she’s the biggest homegrown talent to emerge from the UK music scene since Ed Sheeran and Adele. Dua’s rise has been all the more impressive given that her Kosovan parents arrived in London as refugees, but her determination, hard work and undeniable voice have seen her transcend these humble beginnings, all while remaining fiercely proud of her heritage.In this revealing biography from the publishers of Harry, Ariana and Adele, pop music journalist Caroline Sullivan charts Dua’s incredible journey to pop superstardom. Spanning everything from her mainstream breakthrough to her sold-out Future Nostalgia Tour, and exploring her influences, activism and high-profile personal life, it paints the most complete portrait yet of this icon in the making.

Read more less

CRIMINAL ENTERPRISE by S. D. Perry Thomas Chase wakes up from cryosleep to his first day at a new job - as a pilot for a contraband drug company dropping a shipment on Fantasia, a planet hiding an elaborate drug manufacturing operation. Everything from synthetic heroin to MX7 is cooked here, in protected caves guarded by the savage Aliens. When Chase touches down on Fantasia, a chain of events begins that cannot be stopped. As criminals and competitors try to take over the drug empire from the dangerous kingpin, Chase and his brother Pete are caught in the crossfire... with the Aliens adding blood to the mix. NO EXIT by B. K. Evenson After thirty years of cryosleep, Detective Anders Kramm awakens to a changed world. The Alien threat has been subdued. Company interests dominate universal trade, with powerful men willing to do anything to assure dominance over other worlds. But Kramm has a secret. He knows why the Company killed its top scientists. He knows why the Aliens have been let loose on the surface of a contested planet. He knows that the Company will do everything it can to stop him from telling his secret to the world. Haunted by the brutal murder of his family, Kramm is set adrift amid billion-dollar stakes… with Aliens waiting around every corner.

Read more less

YOUR GUIDE TO SURVIVING AND THRIVING IN THE AI ECONOMY. No one can be completely sure what the future of work is going to look like, but one thing's for certain - it will be completely transformed by AI. That means an uncertain future for millennials, including the need to switch jobs and learn new skills. Taking steps towards financial freedom and early retirement now, on your own terms, will put you in the driving seat for the bumpy road ahead. In HOW TO BUILD AND AI-PROOF FINANCIAL FUTURE, Yahoo Finance reporter and Wall Street expert Scott Gamm's sets out a practical guide to financial freedom and early retirement. Discover:* Why retiring early will become a necessity, not just a goal. * How much money you'll need to live well without a steady 9-5 job.* The importance of reducing or eliminating debt.* How to invest in the stock market.* How to use alternative retirement savings vehicles.* And what some of the world's most respected billionaires advise for achieving financial independence in the new economy. HOW TO BUILD AN AI-PROOF FINANCIAL FUTURE is full of actionable investing tips that can be applied within minutes of reading. This is truly the first book to provide a clear plan for wealth-building and financial security in the automation era.

Read more less

'Brilliantly twisty' Publisher's Weekly'The plot twists will give you whiplash' Washington Post'The mystery is authentic, the lead-up genuinely suspenseful' Kirkus____________________________FIVE VICTIMS. ONE KILLER.When five teenage girls are abducted, Chicago PD Detective Billy Harney leads the investigation to find them.Harney and his partner, Carla, follow a lead to a remote house, only to find themselves caught in a deadly trap. A huge explosion rips through the building, killing Carla and allowing the kidnapper to escape.With the loss of his partner fuelling him, Harney strengthens his resolve to find her killer - and to make sure the body count ends there.____________________________Readers are loving Escape'Another cracking story''How could a James Patterson book not be good? A great story and great characters''If you love Jack Reacher you'll love this''Heart-pounding scenes''Loads of twists''Couldn't put it down''A great and gripping story''Keeps you reading until the very end'____________________________Praise for The Black Book series'A total page-turner that will keep you guessing from start to terrifying finish' Karin Slaughter'Deeply rooted characters, a touch of humour, and a climax nobody can see coming - it's vintage Patterson' Brad Taylor

Read more less

Commercial dating agencies that facilitate marriages across national borders comprise a $2.5 billion global industry. Ideas about the industry are rife with stereotypes—younger, more physically attractive brides from non-Western countries being paired with older Western men. These ideas are more myth than fact, Monica Liu finds in Seeking Western Men. Her study of China's email-order bride industry offers stories of Chinese women who are primarily middle-aged, divorced, and proactively seeking spouses to fulfill their material and sexual needs. What they seek in their Western partners is tied to what they believe they've lost in the shifting global economy around them. Ranging from multimillionaire entrepreneurs or ex-wives and mistresses of wealthy Chinese businessmen, to contingent sector workers and struggling single mothers, these women, along with their translators and potential husbands from the US, Canada, and Australia, make up the actors in this multifaceted story. Set against the backdrop of China's global economic ascendance and a relative decline of the West, this book asks: How does this reshape Chinese women's perception of Western masculinity? Through the unique window of global internet dating, this book reveals the shifting relationships of race, class, gender, sex, and intimacy across borders.

Read more less

In Borderline Citizen Robin Hemley wrestles with what it means to be a citizen of the world, taking readers on a singular journey through the hinterlands of national identity. As a polygamist of place, Hemley celebrates Guy Fawkes Day in the contested Falkland Islands; Canada Day and the Fourth of July in the tiny U.S. exclave of Point Roberts, Washington; Russian Federation Day in the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad; Handover Day among protesters in Hong Kong; and India Day along the most complicated border in the world. Forgoing the exotic descriptions of faraway lands common in traditional travel writing, Borderline Citizen upends the genre with darkly humorous and deeply compassionate glimpses into the lives of exiles, nationalists, refugees, and others. Hemley’s superbly rendered narratives detail these individuals, including a Chinese billionaire who could live anywhere but has chosen to situate his ornate mansion in the middle of his impoverished ancestral village, a black nationalist wanted on thirty-two outstanding FBI warrants exiled in Cuba, and an Afghan refugee whose intentionally altered birth date makes him more easy to deport despite his harrowing past. Part travelogue, part memoir, part reportage, Borderline Citizen redefines notions of nationhood through an exploration of the arbitrariness of boundaries and what it means to belong.

Read more less

‘Brilliant. Each story takes us into a new world but the collection is bound together by a unified sensibility and a belief in the power of adaptability.’ Michael Billington ‘A fox could be a shape-shifter, a spirit being. It could appear in human form if this suited its purposes; it could come and go as it pleased, play tricks, lead men astray.’ In Hackney, gigging filmmaker Nina has a fox problem in her garden. Actress Holly is implicated in the fallout of a scandal. Paul, an English tutor, gets too close to an oligarch. And Sebastian, a freelance journalist, hides a devastating secret. Portraying the young and mobile in a world of hustle, In the Time of Foxes takes the fox as its spirit animal. Gritty and surprising, the stories range from London to Spain, Moscow to Hong Kong, revealing the shapeshifting that goes on in modern life. Showing the short story collection at its most compelling and rewarding, In the Time of Foxes is deeply insightful about the times in which we live. It introduces Jo Lennan as an irresistible new storyteller. ‘A commanding debut.’The Sunday Times New Zealand ‘Lennan is a master at creating worlds. Above all, she is able to make the small details stick.’ The Saturday Paper ‘Stunning.’Australian Book Review ‘A writer to watch.’ The Australian ‘Lennan crafts each story as a complete world … an assured debut.’ Sydney Morning Herald

Read more less

British Columbia is celebrated as Canada’s principal centre of audiovisual production. Its billion-dollar industry trails behind only California and New York, the most well-established film production sites on the continent. Prior to the mid-1970s, however, British Columbia had little in the way of film production that could properly be called an industry.This timely book recounts the story of British Columbia’s rapid rise from relative obscurity in the film world to its current status as “Hollywood North.” Mike Gasher positions the industry as a model for commercial film production in the twenty-first century – one strongly shaped by a perception of cinema as a medium, not of culture, but of regional industrial development. Addressing the specific economic and geographic factors that contribute to the province’s success, such as the low Canadian dollar and BC’s proximity to Los Angeles, Gasher also considers the broader implications of the increasingly widespread trend towards location service production on national cinema and cultural production.Hollywood North is an important book that brings into focus the tension between globalization and localization in the film industry. It will have great appeal to those with an interest in debates on Canadian national cinema, the notion of cinema as industry, and the highly nuanced relationship between cinema and place.Selected as a BC Book for Everybody.

Read more less

How have American writers written about jazz, and how has jazz influenced American literature? In Fascinating Rhythm, David Yaffe explores the relationship and interplay between jazz and literature, looking at jazz musicians and the themes literature has garnered from them by appropriating the style, tones, and innovations of jazz, and demonstrating that the poetics of jazz has both been assimilated into, and deeply affected, the development of twentieth-century American literature. Yaffe explores how Jewish novelists such as Norman Mailer, J. D. Salinger, and Philip Roth engaged issues of racial, ethnic, and American authenticity by way of jazz; how Ralph Ellison's descriptions of Louis Armstrong led to a "neoconservative" movement in contemporary jazz; how poets such as Wallace Stevens, Hart Crane, Langston Hughes, and Frank O'Hara were variously inspired by the music; and how memoirs by Billie Holiday, Charles Mingus, and Miles Davis both reinforced and redeemed the red light origins of jazz. The book confronts the current jazz discourse and shows how poets and novelists can be placed in it--often with problematic results. Fascinating Rhythm stops to listen for the music, demonstrating how jazz continues to speak for the American writer.

Read more less

Silicon Valley technology is transforming the way we work, and Uber is leading the charge. An American startup that promised to deliver entrepreneurship for the masses through its technology, Uber instead built a new template for employment using algorithms and Internet platforms. Upending our understanding of work in the digital age, Uberland paints a future where any of us might be managed by a faceless boss. The neutral language of technology masks the powerful influence algorithms have across the New Economy. Uberland chronicles the stories of drivers in more than twenty-five cities in the United States and Canada over four years, shedding light on their working conditions and providing a window into how they feel behind the wheel. The book also explores Uber’s outsized influence around the world: the billion-dollar company is now influencing everything from debates about sexual harassment and transportation regulations to racial equality campaigns and labor rights initiatives. Based on award-winning technology ethnographer Alex Rosenblat’s firsthand experience of riding over 5,000 miles with Uber drivers, daily visits to online forums, and face-to-face discussions with senior Uber employees, Uberland goes beyond the headlines to reveal the complicated politics of popular technologies that are manipulating both workers and consumers.

Read more less

Since the rise of Napster and other file-sharing services in its wake, most of us have assumed that intellectual piracy is a product of the digital age and that it threatens creative expression as never before. The Motion Picture Association of America, for instance, claimed that in 2005 the film industry lost $2.3 billion in revenue to piracy online. But here Adrian Johns shows that piracy has a much longer and more vital history than we have realized - one that has been largely forgotten and is little understood. "Piracy" explores the intellectual property wars from the advent of print culture in the fifteenth century to the reign of the Internet in the twenty-first. Brimming with broader implications for today's debates over open access, fair use, free culture, and the like, Johns' book ultimately argues that piracy has always stood at the center of our attempts to reconcile creativity and commerce - and that piracy has been an engine of social, technological, and intellectual innovations as often as it has been their adversary. From Cervantes to Sonny Bono, from Maria Callas to Microsoft, from Grub Street to Google, no chapter in the story of piracy evades Johns' graceful analysis in what will be the definitive history of the subject for years to come.

Read more less

Since the rise of Napster and other file-sharing services in its wake, most of us have assumed that intellectual piracy is a product of the digital age and that it threatens creative expression as never before. The Motion Picture Association of America, for instance, claimed that in 2005 the film industry lost $2.3 billion in revenue to piracy online. But here Adrian Johns shows that piracy has a much longer and more vital history than we have realized - one that has been largely forgotten and is little understood. "Piracy" explores the intellectual property wars from the advent of print culture in the fifteenth century to the reign of the Internet in the twenty-first. Brimming with broader implications for today's debates over open access, fair use, free culture, and the like, Johns' book ultimately argues that piracy has always stood at the center of our attempts to reconcile creativity and commerce - and that piracy has been an engine of social, technological, and intellectual innovations as often as it has been their adversary. From Cervantes to Sonny Bono, from Maria Callas to Microsoft, from Grub Street to Google, no chapter in the story of piracy evades Johns' graceful analysis in what will be the definitive history of the subject for years to come.

Read more less

Amazon is the fastest company ever to reach $100 billion in sales and they didn't reach that landmark by staying in their comfort zone. Risk taking is the key that unlocked the door to growth at Amazon, but those risks were (and are) intentional, calculated, and strategic. Thomas Edison believed, "I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work." and Amazon's founder, Jeff Bezos, has always linked experimentation and failure with growth and success.But "risk taking" can be costly (even disastrous) if you don't know how to use it to your advantage. Fortunately, Bezos has provided every business owner a "hidden in plain sight" roadmap for how he grew Amazon through his Letter to Shareholders (or as he named them, share owners) that he has written annually for the past 20 years.For the first time, Technology and Risk expert Steve Anderson has analyzed and distilled these letters to reveal the key 14 Growth Principles that unlock the lessons, mindset, and steps Bezos has used to make Amazon the massive success it is today.Now, business owners, leaders, CEOs, employees, and managers can apply these same principles to grow their business to be more efficient, productive, and successful - fast!

Read more less

A TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR 2020BEST BOOKS OF 2020: SCIENCE - FINANCIAL TIMESSHORTLSTED FOR THE ANDRE SIMON AWARD The long awaited new book from Harold McGee, winner of the André Simon Food Book of the Year & the James Beard Award.What is smell? How does it work? And why is it so important?HAROLD McGEE, leading expert on the science of food and cooking, has spent a decade exploring our most overlooked sense.Nose Dive is the amazing result: it takes us on an adventure across four billion years and the whole globe, from the sulphurous early Earth to the fruit-filled Tian Shan mountain range north of the Himalayas, and back to the keyboard of your laptop, where trace notes of phenol and formaldehyde are escaping between the keys.A work of astounding scholarship and originality, Nose Dive distils the science behind smells and translates it into an accessible and entertaining sensory and olfactory guide. We'll sniff the ordinary (wet pavement and cut grass) and extraordinary (ambergris and truffles), the delightful (roses and vanilla) and the challenging (swamplands and durians). We'll smell each other. We'll smell ourselves. Here is a story of the world, of all of the smells under our noses.DIVE IN!

Read more less

Money-laundering, cyber-knavery and shell-company chicanery: Marty Hench is an expert in them all. He's Silicon Valley's most accomplished forensic accountant and well versed in the devious ways of Fortune 500s, divorcing oligarchs, and international drug cartels alike (and there’s more crossover than you might imagine). ** In cyber-security, RED TEAM plays attack. BLUE TEAM plays defence. Marty Hench’s career in tech is almost as old as Silicon Valley. He’s the most accomplished forensic accountant in town, an expert on the international money-laundering and shell-company chicanery used by Fortune 500s, divorcing oligarchs, and international drug cartels alike (there’s more crossover than you might imagine). Marty was born to play attack. If there’s a way to get under the walls and bring the castle down, he’s the one to do it. There’s no better financial Red Teamer in the Valley. Now he’s on the trail of a stolen key, one that unlocks an illicit backdoor to billions in crypto. More than reputation and fortune is on the line – Marty’s adversaries are implacable criminal sadists who will spill oceans of blood to get what they want. Finding the stolen key is going to be the least of Marty’s problems: now he has to save his skin. To do that, he’ll have to play defence. And Marty hates playing the Blue Team.

Read more less

Charting West Ham’s tumultuous 2022–23 season and epic triumph in the Europa Conference League final, this is the story of how the Hammers defied the odds to win their first trophy in forty-three years and first European trophy in fifty-eight years. After weathering misfiring signings, dissent among the fans and the near-sacking of David Moyes, the Irons eventually secured Premier League survival and found spectacular redemption in the Europa Conference League. They played fifteen games in Europe and were unbeaten. Captain Declan Rice ended his West Ham career by lifting a trophy, just like Bobby Moore and Billy Bonds before him. The outpouring of joy at the final whistle in Prague will never be forgotten by the club’s fans, many of whom were too young to have seen their team win its last trophy. Packed with hilarious anecdotes and whimsical musings, this is West Ham’s extraordinary 2022–23 season as told by superfan Pete May, who lived (and occasionally suffered) through every nail-biting moment and crucial game. Experience the goals, games and glory all over again in this witty and impassioned book – essential reading for any Hammers fan.

Read more less

The fun way to learn to speak Chinese With more than 1.2 billion speakers across the globe — and with nearly 3 million in the U.S. alone — Mandarin Chinese claims the top spot as the world’s most common language. If you want to learn this language to get ahead at school or work, or to make your travel to China easier, this is the handy reference you’ll want by your side. Chinese For Dummies teaches basic grammar, as well as the necessary vocabulary to make introductions and greetings, use proper etiquette, make small talk, make transportation arrangements, order food and beverages, ask directions, deal with money, shop, access recreation, and handle an emergency. Concentrates on Mandarin Chinese and features new and revised content Includes major updates to all the necessary foundational information needed to speak Chinese Covers grammar, verb conjugations, and pronunciations Offers a refreshed mini-dictionary complete with even more vocabulary Find free conversational audio tracks online As the Chinese economy continues to grow, the importance of Chinese as a trade language will also increase. If you’re a student or business professional who has a basic understanding of the language, you’ll be poised to surpass your peers when it comes to dealing with international markets. So get started today!

Read more less

Develop key reading skills and become more confident when reading in English. If you want to understand everything you read in English, you need to practise reading different kinds of texts. With Collins Reading (A2) you will learn how to get the information you need from every text you read. Includes both authentic and adapted texts in a wide variety of styles:• signs and labels • timetables and tickets • advertisements • newspapers and magazines • brochures • social networking sites • blogs • Twenty units with a clear design in full colour. Appendices contain detailed advice targeting specific reading skills. Mini-dictionary with definitions of the most difficult words in each unit, taken from the Collins COBUILD dictionary. Answer key Collins Reading (A2) is part of the English for Life series. It is suitable for self-study and classroom use, and can help towards Cambridge KET preparation. Suitable for pre-intermediate learners of English (CEF level A2). The English for Life series uses authentic material from the Collins Corpus. The 4.5-billion-word Collins Corpus is the world’s largest database of the English language and is updated every month. Also available in the Collins English for Life series: For Pre-Intermediate (A2) learners:Writing • Listening • Speaking For Intermediate (B1+) learners:Reading • Writing • Listening • Speaking

Read more less

Between the two World Wars, there was a dramatic upsurge of violence as rival criminal gangs vied for rich pickings from bookmakers at racetracks throughout England. With ready access to cash, 'bookies' were a magnet for mobsters' blackmailing demands. Refusal to pay resulted in severe punishment. Their justified fears spawned a ready 'protection' market . Conflict between rival gangs were frequent and increasingly violent. Charles 'Darby' Sabini with his brothers ran 'The Italian Mob' who clashed with Billy Kimber and his Brummagen Hammers. Uneasy partnerships were formed but seldom lasted. The Sabinis were friendly with the Cortesi family until a rift resulted in one of the Cortesis shooting Harryboy Sabini. Other gangs such as The Titanics and The Nile Mob were ready to fill voids. As well as broken alliances, internal friction and members changing sides resulted in bloodshed on the streets, in pubs and clubs and on the courses. Public order was so threatened that the Flying Squad was tasked with the eradication of the problem and, in 1936, the celebrated Battle of Lewes Racecourse brought matters to a bloody conclusion. This well researched and gripping account describes the vicious dramas played out in the 1920s and 1930s.

Read more less

Michael Poole finds himself in a very strange landscape . . . This is the centre of the Galaxy. And in a history without war with the humans, the Xeelee have had time to built an immense structure here. The Xeelee Belt has a radius ten thousand times Earth's orbital distance. It is a light year in circumference. If it was set in the solar system it would be out in the Oort Cloud, among the comets - but circling the sun. If it was at rest it would have a surface area equivalent to about thirty billion Earths. But it is not at rest: it rotates at near lightspeed. And because of relativistic effects, distances are compressed for inhabitants of the Belt, and time drastically slowed.The purpose of the Belt is to preserve a community of Xeelee into the very far future, when they will be able to tap dark energy, a universe-spanning antigravity field, for their own purposes. But with time the Belt has attracted populations of lesser species, here for the immense surface area, the unending energy flows. Poole, Miriam and their party, having followed the Ghosts, must explore the artefact and survive encounters with its strange inhabitants - before Poole, at last, finds the Xeelee who led the destruction of Earth...

Read more less

'Incredible wealth, beach houses, murder - how can you beat all that? Read this book!' JAMES PATTERSONWhen Terry Rourke arrives at his brother's luxurious wedding on the east coast of the USA - summer home to billionaires and Hollywood stars - his biggest worry is the best man speech. But this isn't the first time Terry has been to the Hamptons.As the designer tuxedos are pressed and the flowers arranged along the glittering surf, Terry can' t help but revisit an unsolved murder that scandalised the town - and tore his own family apart. He soon learns that digging up secrets can be a very dangerous activity... and quickly turn even the most beautiful beach wedding into a wake.Readers can't get enough of Michael Ledwidge:'Michael Ledwidge is a pro at writing pacey, in-the-moment prose . . . I was HOOKED.' ***** Goodreads review'You will be on the edge of your seat flipping pages as fast you can.' ***** Goodreads review'A non-stop adventure guaranteed to entertain.' ***** Goodreads review'A perfect story from start to finish.' ***** Goodreads review'This is one heck of a fast-paced book.' ***** Goodreads review'WOW, like being on a rollercoaster! If you like nonstop action, nail-biting, edge of your seat novels, this is it! Never wanted this to end.' ***** Goodreads review

Read more less

This beautiful hardback Ladybird edition of The Little Mermaid is a perfect first illustrated introduction to this classic fairy tale for young readers from 3+. The story is sensitively retold, following the tale of the young mermaid who falls in love with a human prince.Other exciting titles in the Ladybird Tales series include The Three Billy Goats Gruff, Cinderella, The Three Little Pigs, Jack and the Beanstalk, Goldilocks and the Three Bears, The Gingerbread Man, Hansel and Gretel, Little Red Riding Hood, Sleeping Beauty, Rumpelstiltskin, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Rapunzel, The Magic Porridge Pot, The Enormous Turnip, Puss in Boots, The Elves and the Shoemaker, The Big Pancake, Dick Whittington, The Princess and the Frog, The Princess and the Pea, Chicken Licken and The Little Red Hen.Ladybird Tales are based on the original Ladybird retellings, with beautiful pictures of the kind children like best - full of richness and detail. Children have always loved, and will always remember, these classic fairy tales and sharing them together is an experience to treasure. Ladybird has published fairy tales for over forty-five years, bringing the magic of traditional stories to each new generation of children.

Read more less

Predicting the shape of our future populations is vital for installing the infrastructure, welfare, and provisions necessary for society to survive. There are many opportunities and challenges that will come with the changes in our populations over the 21st century. In this new addition to the 21st Century Challenges series, Sarah Harper works to dispel myths such as the fear of unstoppable global growth resulting in a population explosion, or that climate change will lead to the mass movement of environmental refugees; and instead considers the future shape of our populations in light of demographic trends in fertility, mortality, and migration, and their national and global impact. How Population Change Will Transform Our World looks at population trends by region to highlight the key issues facing us in the coming decades, including the demographic inertia in Europe, demographic dividend in Asia, high fertility and mortality in Africa, the youth bulge in the Middle East, and the balancing act of migration in the Americas. Harper concludes with an analysis of global challenges we must plan for such as the impact of climate change and urbanization, and the difficulty of feeding 10 billion people, and considers ways in which we can prepare for, and mitigate against, these challenges.

Read more less

**The First Ever Maths Book to be a No.1 Bestseller**'Wonderful ... superb' Daily MailWhat makes a bridge wobble when it's not meant to? Billions of dollars mysteriously vanish into thin air? A building rock when its resonant frequency matches a gym class leaping to Snap's 1990 hit I've Got The Power? The answer is maths. Or, to be precise, what happens when maths goes wrong in the real world.As Matt Parker shows us, our modern lives are built on maths: computer programmes, finance, engineering. And most of the time this maths works quietly behind the scenes, until ... it doesn't. Exploring and explaining a litany of glitches, near-misses and mishaps involving the internet, big data, elections, street signs, lotteries, the Roman empire and a hapless Olympic shooting team, Matt Parker shows us the bizarre ways maths trips us up, and what this reveals about its essential place in our world.Mathematics doesn't have good 'people skills', but we would all be better off, he argues, if we saw it as a practical ally. This book shows how, by making maths our friend, we can learn from its pitfalls. It also contains puzzles, challenges, geometric socks, jokes about binary code and three deliberate mistakes. Getting it wrong has never been more fun.

Read more less

Criminals are not born in a vacuum, and Frank Lucas is no exception. At the age of six he watched his cousin die in a lynching and in that moment of Southern brutality, Frank Lucas, notorious gangster, billion-dollar-heroin importer and true-life inspiration for the film American Gangster was born.Original Gangster is the story of the most notorious black gangster to ever rule the streets of New York. He went from running numbers in the 50s, to importing millions of dollars of heroin in the 70s, before losing it all at the hands of a snitch. This is the ultimate tale of ambition, hubris and downfall. The original O.G., Lucas has gone down in history for his infamous business measure of cutting out middlemen in the drug trade, buying heroin directly from its source in Southeast Asia, and then smuggling it back in the coffins of dead US servicemen. Seven years of Lucas' life were dramatised for the Hollywood blockbuster American Gangster, but this is the first time that the mythical figure tells the story himself. The book delves even further into his extraordinary story, showing just what a folk hero Lucas is to contemporary urban audiences. It's a brutally honest account of a gangster and his times.

Read more less

‘Fascinating and powerful.’ Sunday Times What do you do with a hundred thousand idle spies? By 1990 the Berlin Wall had fallen and the East German state security service folded. For forty years, they had amassed more than a billion pages in manila files detailing the lives of their citizens. Almost a hundred thousand Stasi employees, many of them experienced officers with access to highly personal information, found themselves unemployed overnight. This is the story of what they did next. Former FBI agent Ralph Hope uses present-day sources and access to Stasi records to track and expose ex-officers working everywhere from the Russian energy sector to the police and even the government department tasked with prosecuting Stasi crimes. He examines why the key players have never been called to account and, in doing so, asks if we have really learned from the past at all. He highlights a man who continued to fight the Stasi for thirty years after the Wall fell, and reveals a truth that many today don’t want spoken. The Grey Men comes as an urgent warning from the past at a time when governments the world over are building an unprecedented network of surveillance over their citizens. Ultimately, this is a book about the present.

Read more less

Aim for Iconic Rise to Legendary Make History For over twenty-five years, leadership legend and personal mastery trailblazer Robin Sharma has mentored billionaires, business titans, professional sports superstars and entertainment royalty via a revolutionary methodology that has caused them to accomplish rare-air results. Now, in this groundbreaking book, he makes this transformational system available to anyone ready for undefeatable positivity, monumental productivity, deep spiritual freedom and a life of helpfulness to many.In The Everyday Hero Manifesto you will discover: · The hidden habits used by many of the world’s most creative and successful people to realize their visionary ambitions· Original techniques to turn fear into fuel, problems into power and past troubles into triumphs· A breakthrough blueprint to battle-proof yourself against distraction and procrastination so that you produce magic that dominates your domain· Pioneering insights on installing world-class routines, including rising early, achieving superhuman fitness and becoming the most disciplined person you know· Unusual wisdom knowledge to operate with far more simplicity, beauty and peace Part memoir on a life richly lived, part instruction manual for virtuoso-grade performance and part handbook for spiritual freedom in an age of high-velocity change, The Everyday Hero Manifesto will completely transform your life. Forever.

Read more less

Capture the fortune you're losing with every trade by learning to exploit options The Options Edge + Free Trial shows you how to capture the fortune you lose out on every day. Buying and selling traditional investments often entails instruments with optionality. Sometimes this optionality is explicit, while other times it is hidden. If you're not leveraging these embedded options to their fullest advantage, you're losing money. Most retail investors don't truly understand the nuances involved in successful options trading and instead rely on more comfortable instruments with fewer complex mechanics. If you're interested in optimizing your portfolio, it's time to step out of your comfort zone and learn what you've been missing. This book gives you the background you need to take full advantage of options in this booming market. The companion website features easy to use analytical tools that help investors find the best opportunities so you can start applying these methods right away. Whether or not you ultimately decide to start actively trading options, the concepts discussed will make you a better all-around trader with greater security in your financial affairs. Most investors buy and sell options every day without ever knowing it. This book relates stories of those who have leveraged options to make fortunes and those who have lost by not understanding the optionality of their financial endeavors. You must know the fundamentals of options, and then learn to recognize hidden options, in order to improve success in all of your investment activities. After taking these steps, you can go on to: Create hidden options at little or no cost Structure your finances to reduce risk and increase wealth Utilize a practical pricing model for smarter investing The listed options are currently the only growing exchange traded financial product in the developed markets, with a current average volume of 20 million contracts—equivalent to 2 billion shares—per day. Now is the perfect opportunity to fortify your finances, and The Options Edge + Free Trial gives you the understanding and practical tools you need to optimize your portfolio today.

Read more less

From her idyllic childhood in the American midwest, to her Oscar-nominated performance in Sunset Boulevard (1950) and the social circles of New York and Los Angeles, actress Nancy Olson Livingston has lived abundantly. In her memoir, A Front Row Seat, Livingston treats readers to an intimate, charming chronicle of her life as an actress, wife, and mother, and her memories of many of the most notable figures and moments of her time.Livingston shares reminiscences of her marriages to lyricist and librettist Alan Jay Lerner, creator of award-winning musicals Paint Your Wagon, Gigi, and My Fair Lady (which was dedicated to her), and Alan Wendell Livingston, former president of Capitol Records, who created Bozo the Clown and signed legendary musical artists including Nat King Cole, Frank Sinatra, Judy Garland, The Beach Boys, The Beatles, The Band and Don McLean. One of the last living actors of the Golden Age of Hollywood, Livingston shares memorable encounters with countless celebrities face=Calibri>– William Holden, Billy Wilder, Bing Crosby, Marilyn Monroe, and John Wayne to name a few face=Calibri>– and less pleasant experiences with Howard Hughes and John F. Kennedy that act as reminders of women's long struggle for equality and dignity.Entertaining and engrossing, A Front Row Seat deftly interweaves Livingston's life with her observations of the artists, celebrities, and luminaries with whom she came in contact – a paean to the 20th century and a treasure for readers enamored with a bygone era.

Read more less

Sure to be found controversial by some, compelling by all, this is the only available book-length examination of the way the U.S. Army and Department of Defense have tried to create the capabilities promised by the high-tech Revolution in Military Affairs (RMA). Of more immediate concern, it is also the only in-depth account of the effect RMA and transformation concepts had on the American operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. Many of the problems in both Iraq and Afghanistan, Adams argues, arose from the DoD's implacable desire to implement RMA-driven transformation concepts-whether they were appropriate or not. What we need to do, he maintains, is to fight the war we have, not the war we want. Over the last several decades, military theorists and others began to believe that new technologies were generating a "revolution in military affairs" (RMA), capabilities so revolutionary that they would redefine warfare. Spurred by these beliefs, and led by President George W. Bush and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, the Department of Defense (DoD) set out to transform the U.S. armed forces by adopting RMA concepts-and spending billions to make the hypothetical capabilities real. The entire structure of the armed forces changed as a result. This vision, however, was totally dependent on a set of unproven suppositions and often nonexistent capabilities, especially a network of information technologies. Moreover, the services, the media, Congress, and industry each had its own agenda, all of which continue to come into play in the development of RMA strategies. The interplay of politics, technology and military reality offers a fascinating narrative.

Read more less

Photographers shot millions of pictures of the black civil rights struggle between the close of World War II and the early 1970s, yet most Americans today can recall just a handful of images that look remarkably similar. In the popular imagination, the civil rights movement is remembered in dramatic photographs of protestors attacked with police dogs and fire hoses, firebombs and shotguns, tear gas and billy clubs. The most famous images of the era show black activists victimized by violent Southern whites. But there are other stories to be told. Blacks changed America through their action, not their suffering. In this groundbreaking catalogue, Martin Berger presents a collection of forgotten photographs that illustrate the action, heroism, and strength of black activists in driving social and legislative change. Freedom Now! highlights the power wielded by black men, women, and children in courthouses, community centers, department stores, political conventions, schools, and streets. Freedom Now! reveals that we have inherited a photographic canon—and a picture of history—shaped by whites’ comfort with unthreatening images of victimized blacks. And it illustrates how and why particular people, events, and issues have been edited out of the photographic story we tell about our past. By considering the different values promoted in the forgotten photographs, readers will gain an understanding of African Americans’ role in rewriting U.S. history and the high stakes involved in selecting images with which to narrate our collective past.

Read more less

What explains the massive worldwide success of video games such as Fortnite, Minecraft, and Pokémon Go? Game companies and their popularity are poorly understood and often ignored from the standpoint of traditional business strategy. Yet this industry generates billions in revenue by thinking creatively about digital distribution, free-to-play content, and phenomena like e-sports and live streaming. What lessons can we draw from its major successes and failures about the future of entertainment?One Up offers a pioneering empirical analysis of innovation and strategy in the video game industry to explain how it has evolved from a fringe activity to become a mainstream form of entertainment. Joost van Dreunen, a widely recognized industry expert with over twenty years of experience, analyzes how game makers, publishers, and platform holders have tackled strategic challenges to make the video game industry what it is today. Using more than three decades of rigorously compiled industry data, he demonstrates that video game companies flourish when they bring the same level of creativity to business strategy that they bring to game design. Filled with case studies of companies such as Activision Blizzard, Apple, Electronic Arts, Epic Games, Microsoft, Nexon, Sony, Take-Two Interactive, Tencent, and Valve, this book forces us to rethink common misconceptions around the emergence of digital and mobile gaming. One Up is required reading for investors, creatives, managers, and anyone looking to learn about the major drivers of change and growth in contemporary entertainment.

Read more less

In 1974, the Hughes Glomar Explorer, ostensibly an advanced deep-sea mining vessel owned by reclusive billionaire Howard Hughes, lowered a claw-like contraption to the floor of the Pacific Ocean. This high-tech venture was only a cover story for an even more improbable scheme: a CIA mission to retrieve a sunken Soviet submarine. Like a Jules Verne novel with an Ian Fleming twist, the saga of the Glomar Explorer features underwater espionage, impossible gadgetry, and high-stakes international drama. It also marks a key moment in the history of transparency—and not just for what became known as the Glomar response: “We can neither confirm nor deny. . . . ”M. Todd Bennett plumbs the depths of government secrecy in this new account of the Glomar mission and its consequences. Trawling through recently declassified documents, he explores the logistics, media fallout, and geopolitical significance of one of the most ambitious operations in intelligence history. Glomar, Bennett argues, played a pivotal but underappreciated role in helping the CIA ward off oversight amid a push for transparency and accountability. He reframes the operation’s history to offer an alternative perspective on the 1970s, a decade known for expansive openness, as well as the persistent tension between the demands of democracy and the need for secrecy in foreign policy. Combining keen historical analysis and gripping storytelling, Neither Confirm nor Deny brings to the surface fresh insights into the history of the security state, the politics of intelligence, and the CIA’s relationship with the media and the public.

Read more less

Perioden 1900-1935 var en meget rig og dynamisk periode i dansk og internationalt musikliv. I Impulser i Københavns koncertrepertoire 1900-1935 tegner Claus Røllum-Larsen et billede af musiklivet i datidens København, hvor komponister som Alban Berg, Claude Debussy, Percy Grainger, Paul Hindemith, Arthur Honegger, Gustav Mahler, Sergej Rachmaninov, Max Reger, Arnold Schönberg, Jean Sibelius m.fl. var med til at forny repertoiret. Bogen bygger på omfattende studier i 8 centrale musikalske selskaber og foreningers koncertprogrammer i årene fra århundredeskiftet, da Dansk Koncertforening blev stiftet, og frem til 1935, da radioen for alvor satte sig igennem i musiklivet. Blandt de mere overraskende fund er, at Mahler så tidligt som i 1897 blev opført i København og var i kontakt med dansk musikliv. Røllum-Larsen belyser forskellige aspekter af koncertlivets udvikling: forsøgene på at skaffe København en tilfredsstillende koncertsal og et stort symfoniorkester, og musikerstandens bekymring over truslen fra de nye, mekaniske musikinstrumenter, grammofonen og radioen, og fra tilrejsende, udenlandske musikere. Undervejs tegnes en række portrætter af den ny musiks frontkæmpere: Frederik Schnedler-Petersen og Georg Høberg, der som kapelmestre i hhv. Tivoli og på Det Kongelige Teater indtog nøgleroller i datidens musikliv, Radiosymfoniorkestrets første dirigent Launy Grøndahl, den senere kontroversielle dirigent Paul von Klenau, Nicolai Malko, m.fl. Dertil kommer omfattende ny dokumentation i form af repertoirefortegnelser, præsentationsdiagrammer og opførelsesdiagrammer, der gør bogen til et uomgængeligt opslagsværk for alle, der interesserer sig for periodens rige musikalske liv. Claus Røllum-Larsen, mag.art. og ph.d., er seniorforsker på Musikafdelingen, Det Kongelige Bibliotek. Han har tidligere udgivet Kong Frederik den 9. og musikken (1990).

Read more less

Once the Queendom of Sol was a glowing monument to humankind’s loftiest dreams. Ageless and immortal, its citizens lived in peaceful splendor. But as Sol buckled under the swell of an immorbid population, space itself literally ran out. . . . Conrad Mursk has returned to Sol on the crippled starship Newhope. His crew are the frozen refugees of a failed colony known as Barnard’s Star. A thousand years older, Mursk finds Sol on the brink of rebellion, while a fanatic necro cult is reviving death itself. Now Mursk and his lover, Captain Xiomara “Xmary” Li Weng, are sent on a final, desperate mission by King Bruno de Towaji—one of the greatest terraformers of the ages—to literally crush the moon. If they succeed, they’ll save billions of lost souls. If they fail, they’ll strand humanity between death and something unimaginably worse. . . . About Wil McCarthy: “McCarthy is an entertaining, intelligent, amusing writer, with Heinlein's knack for breakneck plotting and, at the same time, Clarke's thoughtfulness.”—Booklist “‘Imagination really is the only limit.’”—The New York Times “The future as McCarthy sees it is a wondrous place.”—Publishers Weekly “A bright light on the SF horizon.”—David Brin “Wil McCarthy demonstrates that he has a sharp intelligence, a galaxy-spanning imagination, and the solid scientific background to make it all work.”—Connie Willis “In nearly every passage, we get another slice of the science of McCarthy’s construction, and a deeper sense of danger and foreboding . . . McCarthy develops considerable tension.”—San Diego Union-Tribune “An ingenious yarn with challenging ideas, well-handled technical details, and plenty of twists and turns.”—Kirkus

Read more less

More than four hundred years ago, explorers of the New World carried a biscuit known as hardtack on their voyages. Hardtack was made from flour, water, and sometimes salt and was sturdy and long-lasting, making it suitable for hard, treacherous journeys. The composition and texture of the hardtack biscuit changed at the hands of the Jamestown settlers, who had access to three necessary ingredients that would transform the difficult-to-bite and bland tasting hardtack into a soft, delicious biscuit: soft winter wheat, fat in the form of lard from pigs, and milk or buttermilk from cows.Today’s version of biscuits barely resembles its predecessor. Our preference is for soft, billowy, flaky, and delicious biscuits that can be eaten alone, used as a vehicle for fillings and toppings, or incorporated as an ingredient in a recipe. While biscuits are wildly popular in our culture, they are known to intimidate home cooks. Jackie Garvin overcame her decades long biscuit-making failures by research and trial and error, and has emerged to write a cookbook that simplifies and demystifies biscuit baking and highlights the prevalence of biscuits throughout the United States.Rich in Southern history, as well as touching family memories, Biscuits presents a collection of more than seventy recipes including raspberry biscuit pudding with vanilla ice cream sauce, ham biscuits with honey mustard butter, loaded baked potato biscuits, and spicy pimento cheese bites. Also included are recipes for multiple gravies, toppings, and biscuit “neighbors” such as peach raspberry scones, chocolate toffee monkey bread, hush puppies, and chicken ’n’ dumplings.

Read more less

By the time Nate Fisher was laid to rest in a woodland grave sans coffin in the final season of Six Feet Under, Americans all across the country were starting to look outside the box when death came calling. Grave Matters follows families who found in "green" burial a more natural, more economic, and ultimately more meaningful alternative to the tired and toxic send-off on offer at the local funeral parlor. Eschewing chemical embalming and fancy caskets, elaborate and costly funerals, they have embraced a range of natural options, new and old, that are redefining a better American way of death. Environmental journalist Mark Harris examines this new green burial underground, leading you into natural cemeteries and domestic graveyards, taking you aboard boats from which ashes and memorial "reef balls" are cast into the sea. He follows a family that conducts a home funeral, one that delivers a loved one to the crematory, and another that hires a carpenter to build a pine coffin. In the morbidly fascinating tradition of Stiff, Grave Matters details the embalming process and the environmental aftermath of the standard funeral. Harris also traces the history of burial in America, from frontier cemeteries to the billion-dollar business it is today, reporting on real families who opted for more simple, natural returns. For readers who want to follow the examples of these families and, literally, give back from the grave, appendices detail everything you need to know, from exact costs and laws to natural burial providers and their contact information.

Read more less

In the past two decades, our understanding of the navigational and physiological feats that enable birds to cross immense oceans, fly above the highest mountains, or remain in unbroken flight for months at a stretch has exploded. What we’ve learned of these key migrations—how billions of birds circumnavigate the globe, flying tens of thousands of miles between hemispheres on an annual basis—is nothing short of extraordinary. Bird migration entails almost unfathomable endurance, like a sparrow-sized sandpiper that will fly nonstop from Canada to Venezuela—the equivalent of running 126 consecutive marathons without food, water, or rest—avoiding dehydration by "drinking" moisture from its own muscles and organs, while orienting itself using the earth’s magnetic field through a form of quantum entanglement that made Einstein queasy. Crossing the Pacific Ocean in nine days of nonstop flight, as some birds do, leaves little time for sleep, but migrants can put half their brains to sleep for a few seconds at a time, alternating sides—and their reaction time actually improves. These and other revelations convey both the wonder of bird migration and its global sweep, from the mudflats of the Yellow Sea in China to the remote mountains of northeastern India to the dusty hills of southern Cyprus. This breathtaking work of nature writing from Pulitzer Prize finalist Scott Weidensaul also introduces readers to those scientists, researchers, and bird lovers trying to preserve global migratory patterns in the face of climate change and other environmental challenges. Drawing on his own extensive fieldwork, in A World on the Wing Weidensaul unveils with dazzling prose the miracle of nature taking place over our heads.

Read more less

The poems in Moving On recreate moments of change, loss and epiphany. There are vivid glimpses of a pre-war Jamaican childhood - of sexual discovery under a billiard table and of the rude ingratitude of a goat saved from dissection in the school biology lab. The long sequence, 'Goodbye Aristotle, So Long America', explores the years of study at a Jesuit university in America and the making both of a lifetime's values and of the sense of irony which has made it possible to live with them.Other poems reflect on the experience of ageing, of increasing vulnerability, but also of an increased appreciation for what sustains human relationships through time.Jamaica is present in these poems as a place of aching natural beauty, but whose violent human energies can only be viewed with an ambivalent love and fear, where: 'In the city's bursting funeral parlours/ the corpses glow at night, nimbus of blue/ acetylene burning the darkness under the roof,/ lighting the windows - crunch of bone and sinew/ as a foot curls into a cloven hoof.'"It is exquisite poetry throughout. Images of 'the sun turning cynical', 'the ocean, washing colonial guilt/like seaweed from an unrepentant beach', of 'albino hawks' and 'a black Clint Eastwood' mocking; of 'an awning pulled up like the lid/of an eye afraid to blink' and of 'the lip of the sea and the lip of the sky/zip-locked the horizon' are pure art. Moving On is a feast."Sheila Garcia-Bisnott, The Weekly Gleaner.Ralph Thompson is a Jamaican. He paints as seriously as he writes poetry. His work has been published in a number of journals, including The London Magazine. He was the Senior Executive of one of his country's biggest companies.

Read more less