Search results for ""notorious""

At the age of 18, Mansoor Adayfi left his home in Yemen for a cultural mission to Afghanistan. He never returned. Kidnapped by warlords and then sold to the US after 9/11, he was disappeared to Gauntánamo Bay, where he spent the next 15 years as Detainee #441.In the vein of Ishmael Beah's A Long Way Gone, Don't Forget Us Here tells two coming-of-age stories in parallel: a makeshift island outpost becoming the world's most notorious prison and an innocent young man emerging from its darkness. Arriving as a stubborn teenager, Mansoor survived the camp's infamous interrogation program and became a feared and hardened resistance fighter leading prison riots and hunger strikes. With time though, he grew into the man prisoners nicknamed "Smiley Troublemaker": a student, writer, historian, and dedicated pop culture fan. With unexpected warmth and empathy, he unwinds a narrative of fighting for hope and survival in unimaginable circumstances, illuminating the limitlessness of the human spirit.And through his own story as well as those who were there with him--detainees and guards--Mansoor also tells Gauntánamo's story, offering an unprecedented window into one of the most secretive places on earth. Putting a human face on the Gauntánamo we know from the news, as well as showing the side we never see--the art, the community, the joyful reclamation of stolen humanity--this book reconstructs the camp's history in human terms, bearing witness to the lives lost and destroyed there.Twenty years later, Gauntánamo remains open. At a moment of due reckoning, Mansoor helps us understand what actually happened there--both the horror and the beauty--offering a vital chronicle of an experience we cannot afford to forget.

Read more less

The cult of the female breast in contemporary American and European society is as pervasive as it is notorious. Our current fascination merely updates a long-standing obsession with the breast, which over the past twenty years has also become a subject of scholarly attention. Most historians and cultural theorists have focused on England and France, with virtually all research starting from the simple assumption that the breast is a signifier of the feminine and the female. With Missing the Breast, Simon Richter uses the texts of Enlightenment-era Germany to challenge that assumption, engaging instead the complexity of culturally constructed notions of the breast. Using the tools of medicine, literary theory, psychology, psychoanalysis, and etymology, Richter probes the breast-related fantasies underlying German culture and literature in the second half of the eighteenth century. His study reveals that, whereas in England and France and in the public imagination generally, the breast has been associated with the feminine and with abundance, the inherent “logic of the breast” in German culture unexpectedly pushes the breast toward masculinity and lack. Richter’s tour de force of textual and cultural analysis brings together the work of important German poets, writers, and dramatists, as well as major psychoanalysts and their critics, and writers and artists of the English-speaking world, to explore the tension between the plenitude of the breast and the implications of its absence. His engaging study draws the reader ineluctably toward a revolutionary possibility: the breast as an “unruly and uncontainable signifier,” the equal and more of what Lacan called the phallus. Missing the Breast will be an indispensable addition to the libraries of those interested in German textual studies, the history of sexuality, and theories of psychoanalysis. Its groundbreaking perspective will make a significant contribution to the fields of literary studies, gender studies, and women’s studies.

Read more less

THE NATIONAL BESTSELLER!"Ingeniously plotted, irresistibly readable, brimming with inside information about the high-stakes art world of theft, forgery, and murder...Also included are brilliantly rendered drawings by the author, who is as accomplished an artist as he is a writer of suspense thrillers." —Joyce Carol OatesFrom the author of the much-praised The Last Mona Lisa comes another thrilling story of masterpieces, masterminds, and mystery. For years, there have been whispers that, before his death, Van Gogh completed a final self-portrait. Curators and art historians have savored this rumor, hoping it could illuminate some of the troubled artist’s many secrets, but even they have to concede that the missing painting is likely lost forever.But when Luke Perrone, artist and great-grandson of the man who stole the Mona Lisa, and Alexis Verde, daughter of a notorious art thief, discover what may be the missing portrait, they are drawn into a most epic art puzzles. When only days later the painting disappears again, they are reunited with INTERPOL agent John Washington Smith in a dangerous and deadly search that will not only expose secrets of the artist’s last days but draws them into one of history’s darkest eras.Beneath the paint and canvas, beneath the beauty and the legend, the artwork has become linked with something evil, something that continues to flourish on the dark web and on the shadiest corridors of the underground art world.Alternating between Luke Perrone’s perilous hunt for the painting, and a history of stolen art and stolen lives, The Lost Van Gogh is an intricately layered historical thriller perfect for fans of The Last Mona Lisa and The Night Portrait.

Read more less

The extraordinary life and crimes of heiress-turned-revolutionary Rose Dugdale, who in 1974 became the only woman to pull off a major art heist.In the world of crime, there exists an unusual commonality between those who steal art and those who repeatedly kill: they are almost exclusively male. But, as with all things, there is always an outlier—someone who bucks the trend, defying the reliable profiles and leaving investigators and researchers scratching their heads. In the history of major art heists, that outlier is Rose Dugdale. Dugdale’s life is singularly notorious. Born into extreme wealth, she abandoned her life as an Oxford-trained PhD and heiress to join the cause of Irish Republicanism. While on the surface she appears to be the British version of Patricia Hearst, she is anything but. Dugdale ran head-first towards the action, spearheading the first aerial terrorist attack in British history and pulling off the biggest art theft of her time. In 1974, she led a gang into the opulent Russborough House in Ireland and made off with millions in prized paintings, including works by Goya, Gainsborough, and Rubens, as well as Lady Writing a Letter with her Maid by the mysterious master Johannes Vermeer. Dugdale thus became—to this day—the only woman to pull off a major art heist. And as Anthony Amore explores in The Woman Who Stole Vermeer, it’s likely that this was not her only such heist. The Woman Who Stole Vermeer is Rose Dugdale’s story, from her idyllic upbringing in Devonshire and her presentation to Elizabeth II as a debutante to her university years and her eventual radical lifestyle. Her life of crime and activism is at turns unbelievable and awe-inspiring, and sure to engross readers.

Read more less

The 3rd SS Panzer Regiment was part of the Totenkopf Division—one of the 38 Waffen-SS divisions active during World War II. Notorious for its brutality, most notably a mass execution of British prisoners in the battle of France, “Totenkopf” had a fearsome reputation. The 3rd SS Panzer Regiment was formed in France in late 1942, and transferred to the Eastern Front in early 1943 where it fought for the rest of the war.The regiment participated in a number of battles, and would be reduced and rebuilt a number of times. The panzers of 3rd SS Panzer Regiment fought at Kharkov, took part in Operation Citadel, fought in the battle of Krivoi Rog, and the relief of the Korsun Pocket. The regiment then retreated over the Dniester. They fought in Poland against the Russian advance, before being moved to Hungary where they participated in the attempt to relieve Budapest. They eventually surrendered in Czechoslovakia to the 11th US Armored Division.This Casemate Illustrated tells the story of the 3rd SS Panzer Regiment through the words of the veterans themselves, illustrated with a wealth of contemporary photographs, original documents and artifacts. Among the veterans whose accounts are included are Walter Weber, a member of a tank crew in 5. Kompanie who recounts their optimism and high spirits at the start of Operation Citadel as the Germans made initial advances, followed by retreat as winter set in and the Russians began to push them back. Unterscharführer Stettner recalls the fierce tank battles and the difficulties advancing across minefields and evading an often well-concealed foe. Corporal Fritz Edelmann records the attempts to relieve Budapest in 1945 that Totenkopf took part in, which ended in encirclement, defeat and surrender to the Americans on May 9, 1945.

Read more less

'The superb, funny, fascinating story of Lenin's trans-European rail journey and how it shook the world' Simon Sebag Montefiore, Evening Standard, Books of the Year'Splendid ... a jewel among histories, taking a single episode from the penultimate year of the Great War, illuminating a continent, a revolution and a series of psychologies in a moment of cataclysm and doing it with wit, judgment and an eye for telling detail' David Aaronovitch, The TimesBy 1917 the European war seemed to be endless. Both sides in the fighting looked to new weapons, tactics and ideas to break a stalemate that was itself destroying Europe. In the German government a small group of men had a brilliant idea: why not sow further confusion in an increasingly chaotic Russia by arranging for Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, the most notorious of revolutionary extremists, currently safely bottled up in neutral Switzerland, to go home?Catherine Merridale's Lenin on the Train recreates Lenin's extraordinary journey from harmless exile in Zurich, across a Germany falling to pieces from the war's deprivations, and northwards to the edge of Lapland to his eventual ecstatic reception by the revolutionary crowds at Petrograd's Finland Station.With great skill and insight Merridale weaves the story of the train and its uniquely strange group of passengers with a gripping account of the now half-forgotten liberal Russian revolution and shows how these events intersected. She brilliantly uses a huge range of contemporary eyewitnesses, observing Lenin as he travelled back to a country he had not seen for many years. Many thought he was a mere 'useful idiot', others thought he would rapidly be imprisoned or killed, others that Lenin had in practice few followers and even less influence. They would all prove to be quite wrong.

Read more less

Mobile Cultures provides much-needed, empirically grounded studies of the connections between new media technologies, the globalization of sexual cultures, and the rise of queer Asia. The availability and use of new media—fax machines, mobile phones, the Internet, electronic message boards, pagers, and global television—have grown exponentially in Asia over the past decade. This explosion of information technology has sparked a revolution, transforming lives and lifestyles, enabling the creation of communities and the expression of sexual identities in a region notorious for the regulation of both information and sexual conduct. Whether looking at the hanging of toy cartoon characters like “Hello Kitty” from mobile phones to signify queer identity in Japan or at the development of queer identities in Indonesia or Singapore, the essays collected here emphasize the enormous variance in the appeal and uses of new media from one locale to another. Scholars, artists, and activists from a range of countries, the contributors chronicle the different ways new media galvanize Asian queer communities in Taiwan, South Korea, Japan, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, India, and around the world. They consider phenomena such as the uses of the Internet among gay, lesbian, or queer individuals in Taiwan and South Korea; the international popularization of Japanese queer pop culture products such as Yaoi manga; and a Thai website’s reading of a scientific tract on gay genetics in light of Buddhist beliefs. Essays also explore the politically subversive possibilities opened up by the proliferation of media technologies, examining, for instance, the use of Cyberjaya—Malaysia’s government-backed online portal—to form online communities in the face of strict antigay laws.Contributors. Chris Berry, Tom Boellstorff, Larissa Hjorth, Katrien Jacobs, Olivia Khoo, Fran Martin, Mark McLelland, David Mullaly, Baden Offord, Sandip Roy, Veruska Sabucco, Audrey Yue

Read more less

From the frenetic atmosphere of Manhattan to the magnificent wide-open plains of Africa, The Sun Sister is the sixth epic tale in the Seven Sisters series by the number one bestseller Lucinda Riley. A breathtaking story of love and loss, inspired by the mythology of the famous star constellation.To the outside world Electra D’Aplièse, in her mid-twenties, seems to have it all: as one of the world’s top models, she is beautiful, rich and famous.Yet Electra’s already tenuous control over her state of mind has been rocked by the death of her father, Pa Salt, the elusive billionaire who adopted his six daughters from across the globe. Struggling to cope, she turns to alcohol and drugs. As those around her fear for her health, Electra receives a letter from a stranger claiming to be her grandmother . . .In 1939, Cecily Huntley-Morgan arrives in Kenya from New York to nurse a broken heart. Staying with her godmother, a member of the infamous Happy Valley set, she meets Bill Forsythe, a notorious bachelor and cattle farmer with close connections to the proud Maasai tribe. But after a shocking discovery, and with war looming, Cecily has few options. Moving up into the Wanjohi Valley, she is isolated and alone. That is, until she meets a young woman in the woods – and makes her a promise that will change the course of her life forever . . .The epic, multi-million selling series continues with The Missing Sister.Praise for the Seven Sisters:'A masterclass in beautiful writing' – The Sun'Heart-wrenching, uplifting and utterly enthralling' – Lucy Foley, author of The Hunting Party'A breathtaking adventure' – Lancashire Evening PostFive-Star Reader Reviews:'Absolutely incredible''Totally addictive''Ideal for when you need to escape'

Read more less

'Enthralling from beginning to shocking end' Hannah Whitten, bestselling author of For the WolfIn the luscious, dark conclusion to the series that began with One Dark Window, Elspeth must face the consequences of what she's wrought - perfect for readers of Hannah Whitten's For the Wolf and A Court of Thorns and Roses.Elspeth and Ravyn have gathered most of the twelve Providence Cards, but the last, and most important one remains to be found: The Twin Alders.If they are going to find it before the Solstice and cure the kingdom of the dark magic infecting it, they will need to journey beyond the dangerous mist-cloaked forest that surrounds their kingdom. And the only one who can lead them there is the monster that shares Elspeth's head. The Nightmare. And he's not eager to share any longer.Praise for One Dark Window:'An enchanting tale with sharp claws and teeth - Gillig's prose will pull you in and won't let you sleep. Pulse-pounding, darkly whimsical and aglow with treacherous magic, One Dark Window is everything I love in fantasy and more' Allison Saft, author of A Far Wilder Magic'A beautifully dark fairy tale of blood, rage and bitter choice, that whisked me away to mist-wreathed woods ripe with romance and menace' Davinia Evans, author of Notorious Sorcerer'An evocative tale of romance, mystery and alluring monsters, told in beautifully lush prose' Lyndall Clipstone, author of Lakesedge'Steeped in brooding romance, twisted magic and nail-biting intrigue, One Dark Window snares readers in its deliciously dark spell and leaves them desperate for more. I couldn't put it down' Kat Delacorte, author of With Fire in their Blood 'The steamy romance that emerges between Elspeth and Ravyn delights' Publishers Weekly

Read more less

'Thick fog, shifting alliances and clever magic make the perfect backdrop for a sweeping romance - One Dark Window is enthralling from beginning to shocking end' Hannah Whitten, bestselling author of For the WolfELSPETH NEEDS A MONSTER. THE MONSTER MIGHT BE HER.An ancient, mercurial spirit is trapped inside Elspeth Spindle's head - she calls him the Nightmare. He protects her. He keeps her secrets. But nothing comes for free, especially magic.When Elspeth meets a mysterious highwayman on the forest road, she is thrust into a world of shadow and deception. Together, they embark on a dangerous quest to cure the town of Blunder from the dark magic infecting it. As the stakes heighten and their undeniable attraction intensifies, Elspeth is forced to face her darkest secret yet: the Nightmare is slowly, darkly, taking over her mind. And she might not be able to stop him.For fans of Uprooted and For the Wolf comes a gothic fantasy romance about a maiden who must unleash the monster within to save her kingdom.Praise for One Dark Window:'An enchanting tale with sharp claws and teeth - Gillig's prose will pull you in and won't let you sleep. Pulse-pounding, darkly whimsical and aglow with treacherous magic, One Dark Window is everything I love in fantasy and more' Allison Saft, author of A Far Wilder Magic'An evocative tale of romance, mystery and alluring monsters, told in beautifully lush prose' Lyndall Clipstone, author of Lakesedge'The steamy romance that emerges between Elspeth and Ravyn delights' Publishers Weekly'A beautifully dark fairy tale of blood, rage and bitter choice, that whisked me away to mist-wreathed woods ripe with romance and menace' Davinia Evans, author of Notorious Sorcerer

Read more less

Unscrupulous bounty hunter. Cunning rogue trader, Sadistic interrogator. They're adversaries to avoid, but now they've found Jenna Stannis and Cally. The Amagons deceive enemies and allies alike. Dorian's glamour disguises his danger. And there's no hiding Shrinker's brutal intentions. These villains will have no mercy when they encounter our heroes. Contains three stories: 1. The Amagon Queen by Trevor Baxendale. Smugglers. Slave-traders. Bounty hunters. Jenna Stannis knows from personal experience that you just can’t trust the Amagons. So why has she delivered herself alone into the hands of the infamous Amagon Queen? And can Cally help her escape before a Federation commander and his ruthless mutoid track them all down? 2. The Deal with Dorian by Mark B Oliver. Jenna Stannis and Cally need supplies to repair the damaged Liberator, and treacherous dealer Dorian is the only one who can help. But he has dangerous plans of his own at a remote Federation research station. Will Cally and Jenna realise the danger they’re in before they fall under Dorian’s influence? 3. Everyone Talks to Shrinker by Andrew Smith. Captured and alone, Jenna Stannis is defenceless in the Federation’s clutches. Cally’s desperate to find her friend – and they are both far from the Liberator. In a hostile Federation battleground, Jenna discovers there can be no escape from her cruel interrogator, the notorious Shrinker. CAST: Sally Knyvette (Jenna Stannis), Jan Chappell (Cally), Laura Aikman (Mutoid/Pesh), Nicholas Asbury (Robard), Nigel Betts (Shrinker/Patrol Leader), Gabrielle Glaister (Skillane), Nicola Goodchild (Lana Tremayne), Matthew Gravelle (Dorian), Ahmed Hamad (Kelver/Young Shrinker), Alistair Lock (Zen/Orac), Tania Rodrigues (Mandala), Duncan Wisbey (Zander/Makavat), Shane Zaza (Spindler/Amagon King). Other parts played by members of the cast.

Read more less

'Atkinson on her finest form. A marvel of plate-spinning narrative knowhow, a peak performance of consummate control.' OBSERVER'This is the perfect novel for uncertain times.' THE TIMES'I can think of few writers other than Dickens who can match it' SUNDAY TIMES'Brilliant' RICHARD OSMAN'Kate Atkinson is simply one of the best writers working today, anywhere in the world' GILLIAN FLYNN____1926, and in a country still recovering from the Great War, London has become the focus for a delirious new nightlife. In the clubs of Soho, peers of the realm rub shoulders with starlets, foreign dignitaries with gangsters, and girls sell dances for a shilling a time.At the heart of this glittering world is notorious Nellie Coker, ruthless but also ambitious to advance her six children, including the enigmatic eldest, Niven whose character has been forged in the crucible of the Somme. But success breeds enemies, and Nellie's empire faces threats from without and within. For beneath the dazzle of Soho's gaiety, there is a dark underbelly, a world in which it is all too easy to become lost.With her unique Dickensian flair, Kate Atkinson brings together a glittering cast of characters in a truly mesmeric novel that captures the uncertainty and mutability of life; of a world in which nothing is quite as it seems._____'Seduction, betrayal, and larger-than-life characters that will have you hooked until the last page' SUNDAY TELEGRAPH'This book is one to savour, for the energy, for the wit, for the tenderness of characterisation that make Atkinson enduringly popular' GUARDIAN'As vividly filthy, populous, dangerous as anything described by Dickens, but writing is closer to Thackeray's...Atkinson is a novelist of unrivalled immediacy, authority, and skill.' FINANCIAL TIMES

Read more less

A FINANCIAL TIMES BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR "Powerful, important, and searing." -General David Petraeus, U.S. Army (ret.), former commander, U.S. Central Command, former CIA directorIn 2015, the White House claimed triumphantly "the longest war in American history is over." But for some, it was just the beginning of a new and covert war, fought far from public view, with limited resources, little governmental oversight, and contradictory orders.Take Hutch, a battle-worn Green Beret on his fifth combat tour in 2015, tasked with a high-stakes mission: lead a small band of men into Kunduz, recapture the city from the Taliban, and turn it over to the Afghan government. The U.S. role was meant to be a secret-after all, the war was over. Then, disaster struck. He called in an airstrike on a Doctors Without Borders hospital, killing dozens of doctors and patients.Or Caleb, who stepped on a bomb during a raid on a Taliban hideout in notorious Sangin. Or Andy, trapped in Marjah with a crashed Black Hawk and no air support. From Hutch to Caleb to Andy, Eagle Down is a dramatic and intimate portrayal of this ongoing forgotten war that moves from the desperate battlegrounds in muddy Afghan villages all the way to the White House.Pulitzer Prize Finalist Jessica Donati, with big picture insight and on-the-ground grit, reveals how America came to rely on U.S. Special Forces, through successive policy directives that ramped up the war under the Obama and Trump administrations. Donati shows how the covert war failed to stabilize Afghanistan, and undermined U.S. interests both at home and abroad.Relying on Donati's daring on-the-ground reporting, first-hand accounts from Special Forces, military documents, and declassified reports, Eagle Down is an account of the heroism, sacrifice, and tragedy experienced by those that fought America's longest war.

Read more less

'Drawing on the stories of the soldiers who were there, this dramatic history of the SAS is full of bravado. Forged to fight guerrillas in the sweltering jungles of Malaya... Ryan writes with the authority of a man familiar with every nuance of the regiment's tactics, training, weapons and equipment.' - Sunday Times CultureTasked with storming mountain strongholds in the desert. Trained to hunt down the world's most wanted terrorists. This is the extraordinary story of 22 SAS. The history of the modern SAS is one of the great successes of post-war Britain. Since it was revived in 1950 to combat Communist insurgents, the Regiment has gone from strength to strength, fighting covert wars in Oman, Borneo, Northern Ireland, the Falklands, the Persian Gulf and beyond. In the process, it has become one of the most indispensable, and at times controversial, units in the British armyToday, the SAS is regarded as the world's leading Special Forces unit, renowned for its demanding Selection course and its relentless ability to adapt to the changing nature of warfare. More than anything else, however, it is the determination and ingenuity of the SAS soldiers that has made the Regiment what it is today. Drawing on his extensive network of contacts and his own experiences, Chris Ryan tells the story of the men on the ground. From the earliest patrols in the Malayan jungle, through to the storming of the Iranian Embassy, the daring raids behind enemy lines in the Gulf War, and up-to-minute missions to capture or kill notorious terrorists - this is the gripping, no-holds-barred account of Regiment operations. Above all, it is a story of elite soldiers fighting, and triumphing, against seemingly impossible odds.

Read more less

From the detective who helped catch the Golden State Killer, a memoir about investigating America's toughest cold cases, and the rewards - and toll - of a life spent solving crime.For a decade, from 1973, The Golden State Killer stalked and murdered Californians in the dead of night, leaving entire communities afraid to turn off the lights. Then he vanished, and the case remained unsolved.In 1994, when cold-case investigator Paul Holes came across the old file, he swore he would unmask GSK and finally give these families closure. Twenty-four years later, Holes fulfilled that promise, identifying 73-year-old Joseph J. DeAngelo. Headlines blasted around the world: one of America's most prolific serial killers had been caught.That case launched Paul's career into the stratosphere, turning him into an icon in the true-crime world. But while many know the story of the capture of GSK, until now, no one has truly known the man behind it all.In UNMASKED, Paul takes us through his memories of a storied career and provides an insider account of some of the most notorious cases in contemporary American history, including Laci Peterson's murder and Jaycee Dugard's kidnapping. But this is also a revelatory profile of a complex man and what makes him tick: the drive to find closure for victims and their loved ones; the inability to walk away from a challenge - even at the expense of his own happiness. This is a story about the gritty truth of crime solving when there are no 'case closed' headlines. It is the story of a man and his commitment to his cases, and to the people who might have otherwise been forgotten.

Read more less

From the New York Times bestselling author of the beloved, million-copy selling Stark series, comes Dirtiest Secret, the provocative first book in the Stark S.I.N. series. For fans of Fifty Shades of Grey, Sylvia Day, Meredith Wild and Jodi Ellen Malpas.It was wrong for us to be together, but it was even harder to be apart.The memory of Dallas Sykes burns inside of me. Everyone knows him as a notorious playboy, a man for whom women and money are no object. But to me, he's still the one man I desperately crave - yet the one I can never have. Dallas knows me better than anyone else. We bear the same scars, the same darkness in our past. I thought I could move on by staying away, but now that we're drawn together once more, I can't fight the force of our attraction or the temptation to make him mine.We've tried to maintain control, not letting ourselves give in to desire. And for so long we've told ourselves no - but now it's finally time to say yes.Don't miss the entire sexy Stark S.I.N. series: Dirtiest Secret, Hottest Mess and Sweetest Taboo.Find out how it all began for Damien and Nikki Stark in J. Kenner's hot and addictive bestselling Stark series: Release Me, Claim Me, Complete Me, Take Me, Have Me, Play My Game, Seduce Me, Unwrap Me and Deepest Kiss.Return to the smoking hot Stark world with the Stark International trilogy: Say My Name, On My Knees and Under My Skin is the explosively emotional story of Jackson Steele and Sylvia Brooks.Don't miss J. Kenner's sizzling Most Wanted series of three enigmatic and powerful men, and the striking women who can bring them to their knees: Wanted, Heated and Ignited.

Read more less

The fourth book in Chris Ryan's Extreme series.The Chris Ryan Extreme books take you even further into the heart of the mission with more extreme action, more extreme language and more extreme pace. Like Call of Duty or Medal of Honour you'll feel part of the team.Chris Ryan Extreme: Silent Kill has previously been published as four separate shorter missions. Now in one book to keep you at the heart of the action. Northern Ireland, 1993. For high-flying MI5 officer Avery Chance the real war has only just begun. When Chance is abducted by the IRA's notorious Nutting Squad, her hopes lie in the hands of a young SAS recruit who must risk everything to bring her home. Twenty years after his act of self-sacrifice in Belfast ex-SAS legend John Bald is a scarred shadow of his former self. But when a face from the past appears and rescues him from deep trouble, Bald is offered one last shot at redemption. His target is Kurt Pretorius, a ruthless mercenary operating deep in the wilds of war-ravaged Somalia. In a world where rogue mercenaries operate beyond the reach of the law, Kurt Pretorius has transformed himself into a god. It is up to Bald to stop Pretorius before he turns Somalia into a terrorist haven. But Bald quickly finds himself sucked into a twisted game of survival, where the stakes could not be higher - and the price of failure is his life... With time running out, Bald must kill Pretorius before he brings down everyone around him. It's a mission Bald was born to do. Because sometimes, the only way to beat your deadliest enemy...is to be like your deadliest enemy.

Read more less

The Rape of the Lock and Other Major Writings is a collection of Alexander Pope's greatest works, edited with an introduction by Leo Damrosch in Penguin Classics.Alexander Pope was the greatest English poet of his age, whose acerbic insights into human nature have entered the language, and whose verse still astonishes with its energy and inventiveness centuries after his death. This new selection of Pope's work follows the path of his poetic genius over his lifetime. It contains early poems including the masterly mock-epic 'The Rape of the Lock', which satirizes a notorious society scandal through glorious heroic couplets, the brilliantly aphoristic 'An Essay on Criticism' and excerpts from his translation of the Iliad. Later poems represented include Pope's ironic adaptations of Horace's Epistles, Satires and Odes, and the remarkable 'Dunciad', a stinging attack on his literary rivals and the mediocrity of Grub Street hacks. Here too are selected prose works and letters from Pope to his contemporaries such as John Gay and Jonathan Swift.This edition contains a wide-ranging introduction that elucidates Pope's life, poetic art and contemporary contexts, as well as separate introductions to each piece, a chronology, further reading, a biography and extensive notes. Alexander Pope (1688-1744) was born in London in 1688, the son of a well-to-do Roman Catholic cloth merchant. In 1709 he launched his career with a set of four pastorals, followed by An Essay on Criticism, Windsor Forest and the mock-epic Rape of the Lock, which cemented his reputation as the greatest poet of the age. Later works included the Dunciad, Epistles to Several Persons and the ambitious Essay on Man.If you enjoyed The Rape of the Lock, you might like Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels, also available in Penguin Classics.

Read more less

When the Emperor and his notorious apprentice, Darth Vader, find themselves stranded in the middle of insurgent action on an inhospitable planet, they must rely on each other, the Force, and their own ruthlessness to prevail.“It appears things are as you suspected, Lord Vader. We are indeed hunted.”Anakin Skywalker, Jedi Knight, is just a memory. Darth Vader, newly anointed Sith Lord, is ascendant. The Emperor’s chosen apprentice has swiftly proven his loyalty to the dark side. Still, the history of the Sith Order is one of duplicity, betrayal, and acolytes violently usurping their Masters—and the truest measure of Vader’s allegiance has yet to be taken. Until now.On Ryloth, a planet crucial to the growing Empire as a source of slave labor and the narcotic known as “spice,” an aggressive resistance movement has arisen, led by Cham Syndulla, an idealistic freedom fighter, and Isval, a vengeful former slave. But Emperor Palpatine means to control the embattled world and its precious resources—by political power or firepower—and he will be neither intimidated nor denied. Accompanied by his merciless disciple, Darth Vader, he sets out on a rare personal mission to ensure his will is done.For Syndulla and Isval, it’s the opportunity to strike at the very heart of the ruthless dictatorship sweeping the galaxy. And for the Emperor and Darth Vader, Ryloth becomes more than just a matter of putting down an insurrection: When an ambush sends them crashing to the planet’s surface, where inhospitable terrain and an army of resistance fighters await them, they will find their relationship tested as never before. With only their lightsabers, the dark side of the Force, and each other to depend on, the two Sith must decide if the brutal bond they share will make them victorious allies or lethal adversaries.

Read more less

***WINNER OF THE CRIME WRITERS' ASSOCIATION ALCS GOLD DAGGER FOR NON-FICTION***'Meticulous and gripping - a thriller that disturbs for revelations about a singular act of murder, and the national security state which we call home' Philippe Sands, author of East West StreetA groundbreaking examination of a terrifying murder and its aftermath by the bestselling author of Hanns and Rudolf and The House by the Lake.On 14 June 2006, police were called to 9 Downshire Hill in Hampstead. The owner, Allan Chappelow, was a writer and notorious recluse who had not been seen for several weeks. Inside the darkened house, officers found piles of rubbish, trees growing through the floor, and the body of Chappelow, battered to death, partially burned and buried under four feet of paper.The man eventually arrested on suspicion of his murder was a Chinese dissident named Wang Yam, who claimed to be the grandson of one of Mao’s closest aides. His trial was the first in modern British history to be held ‘in camera’: closed, carefully controlled, secret. Wang Yam was found guilty, but has always protested his innocence. Did Wang Yam do it? Or was he framed for a crime he didn't commit?When everything is hidden, how do we know what's really true?www.bloodonthepage.com_________________'An In Cold Blood for our time – a brilliant and unflinching anatomy of a murder that is both brutal true crime and heartbreaking human tragedy' Tony Parsons'A fine and fascinating read, bolstered by exemplary research and nuanced insights.' Observer‘A real-life procedural... which might have important implications for us all.’ Guardian'Reads like a thriller... a rigorous investigation... a revealing piece of social history.' Sunday Times'Detailed, painstaking and fascinating.' Evening Standard

Read more less

Rather than providing a dictionary of superstitions, of which there are already numerous excellent, exhaustive and, in many cases, academic works which list superstitions from A to Z, Bainton gives us an entertaining flight over the terrain, landing from time to time in more thought-provoking areas. He offers an overview of humanity's often illogical and irrational persistence in seeking good luck and avoiding misfortune. While Steve Roud's two excellent books - The Penguin Dictionary of Superstitions and his Pocket Guide - and Philippa Waring's 1970 Dictionary concentrate on the British Isles, Bainton casts his net much wider. There are many origins which warrant the full back story, such as Friday the thirteenth and the Knights Templar, or the demonisation of the domestic cat resulting in 'cat holocausts' throughout Europe led by the Popes and the Inquisition. The whole is presented as a comprehensive, entertaining narrative flow, though it is, of course, a book that could be dipped into, and includes a thorough bibliography. Schoenberg, who developed the twelve-tone technique in music, was a notorious triskaidekaphobe. When the title of his opera Moses und Aaron resulted in a title with thirteen letters, he renamed it Moses und Aron. He believed he would die in his seventy-sixth year (7 + 6 = 13) and he was correct; he also died on Friday the thirteenth at thirteen minutes before midnight.As Sigmund Freud wrote, 'Superstition is in large part the expectation of trouble; and a person who has harboured frequent evil wishes against others, but has been brought up to be good and has therefore repressed such wishes into the unconscious, will be especially ready to expect punishment for his unconscious wickedness in the form of trouble threatening him from without.'

Read more less

Upon the completion of the Sicily and Salerno Campaigns in 1943, the paratroopers of Colonel Reuben Tucker’s 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment were among the first Allied troops to enter Naples. A ghost town at first sight, the residents soon expressed their joy at being liberated. Four weeks later the 504th face=Calibri>– upon the special request of General Mark Clark face=Calibri>– spearheaded Fifth Army’s drive through the notorious Volturno Valley face=Calibri>– the Germans’ next stand.January 1944 seemed to promise a period of rest, but the landing at Anzio meant deployment for the paratroopers again, this time by ship. A bombing raid during their beach landing was a forecast of eight weeks of bitter fighting. Holding the right flank of the beachhead along the Mussolini Canal, the paratroopers earned their nickname “Devils in Baggy Pants” for their frontline incursions into enemy lines, as well as their stubborn defense of the Allied salient.In this work H Company’s attachment to the British 5th Grenadier Guards face=Calibri>– and the Victoria Cross action of Major William Sidney face=Calibri>– are painted in comprehensive light for the first time. Also the story of Honorary Member of the 504th P.I.R., Italian veteran Antonio Taurelli, is included. Using war diaries, personal journals, letters and interviews with nearly 80 veterans, a close-in view of the 504th P.I.R. in the Fifth Army’s Italy Campaign is here provided in unsurpassed detail.This work is the third by Van Lunteren on the 504th P.I.R. In World War II following The Battle of the Bridges and Blocking Kampfgruppe Peiper. As readers will see, however, the Italian theater held second place to none in terms of grueling combat and courage against formidable odds, and an extremely expert enemy.

Read more less

After the publication of his best-selling novel, Joseph Heller usually chose to deny that any of his richly drawn characters were based on his actual war mates. However, to those who served with Heller in the 340th Bomb Group the novel’s characters were indeed recognisable; from the hard-drinking, vengeful, and disillusioned Chief White Half Oat; young, sliced-in-half Kid Sampson; shrieking, frenzied Hungry Joe; to Colonel Cathcart, Doc Dreedle, Yossarian and that capitalist supreme, Milo Minderbinder.In this book we finally encounter the real men and combat missions on which the novel was based. Blending fact, fancy and history with full-blown original illustrations and rare, previously unpublished photos of these daring USAAF flyers and their Corsican-based B-25 Marauders, along with descriptions of the 340th’s real wartime events, the work includes twelve men of the Bomb Group relating twelve richly told tales of their own.Now all of the men upon whom Heller based his characters are gone. However, the last survivor, George L. Wells, was an extraordinary combat pilot and the model for Catch-22s Capt. Wren, and he is the common thread who weaves through this book, allowing the reader to truly feel the war and even thumb through George’s well-worn mission book describing attacks on Axis ports, ships, bridges, and the notorious Brenner Pass. Author Patricia Chapman Meder has been a professional artist in both fine and commercial art for the past 35 years,13 of them in Europe. When Catch-22 was published it was quickly apparent that this book was based on the Bomb Group her father commanded in World War II. This true-life parallel book thus begged to be written.

Read more less

In 2004 the world was first introduced to The Filthy Thirteen, a book describing the most notorious squad of fighting men in the 101st Airborne Division who were the inspiration for the movie The Dirty Dozen. This is the long awaited work of Jack Womer, one of the squad’s integral members, and probably its best soldier. Womer was originally a member of the 29th Infantry Division and selected to be part of its elite Ranger battalion until, after a year of gruelling training under the eyes of British Commando instructors, they were suddenly dissolved. Bitterly disappointed, Womer asked for transfer to another elite unit, the Screaming Eagles, where room was found for him among the division’s most miscreant squad of brawlers, drunkards and goof-offs. Beginning on June 6, 1944, however, the Filthy Thirteen began proving themselves more a menace to the German Army than they had been to their own officers and the good people of England, embarking on a year of ferocious combat at the very tip of the Allied advance in Europe. In this work, with the help of Steven DeVito, Womer provides an amazingly frank look at close-quarters combat in Europe, as well as the almost surreal experience of dust-bowl-era GI’s entering country after country in their grapple with the Wehrmacht, finally ending up in Hitler’s mountaintop lair in Germany itself. Throughout his fights, Jack Womer credited his Ranger/Commando training for helping him to survive, even though most of the rest of the Filthy Thirteen did not. And in the end he found the reward he had most coveted all along; being able to return to his fiancée Theresa back in the States.

Read more less

Though not a member of the National Socialist Party, Leni Riefenstahl was the filmmaker darling of the Nazis and Adolf Hitler. First a successful dancer and actress in Germany, she became more notorious when she produced and directed Victory of Faith and Triumph of the Will, the chilling documentaries about Nazi Party Congresses at Nuremberg. Glenn Morris was an All-American farm boy from tiny Simla, Colorado, as well as a former college football star and student body president at the school now known as Colorado State University. At the 1936 Olympics, he won the decathlon, earning him the label “the world’s greatest athlete.” Among the American heroes at the Berlin Games, he was considered second only to Jesse Owens, who won four gold medals. Riefenstahl and Morris: An unlikely couple? Perhaps, but in her 1987 memoirs, the German filmmaker belatedly confirmed she had an affair with the American athlete during the filming of Olympia, Riefenstahl’s documentary about the Berlin Games. In fact, she portrayed it as much more than a dalliance, saying that she had dreamed of marrying Morris and that he broke her heart. Morris, who went on to Hollywood, the National Football League, and military service, spoke sparingly of the relationship, but mused late in life that he “should have stayed in Germany with Leni.” In Olympic Affair, author Terry Frei turns to historical fiction in a novel researched in much the same fashion as his widely praised works of nonfiction, including Horns, Hogs, and Nixon Coming and Third Down and a War to Go. Using deduction, imagination and narrative skill to augment documented fact (as well as debunk myths parroted for many years), Frei tells the story of their ill-fated affair . . . and beyond. Read the first chapter of Olympic Affair here.

Read more less

This is a life touched by tragedy and deprivation - childhood in her native. Ireland ending with the potato famine, immigration to Canada and then to the United States, marriage followed by the deaths of her husband and four children from yellow fever, and the destruction of her dressmaking business in the great Chicago fire of 1871 - forged the stalwart labor organizer Mary Harris 'Mother' Jones into a force to be reckoned with. Radicalized in a brutal era of repeated violence against hard-working men and women, Mother Jones criss-crossed the country to demand higher wages and safer working conditions. Her activism in support of American workers began after the age of sixty. The grandmotherly persona she projected won the hearts, and her stirring rhetoric the minds, of working people. She made herself into a national symbol of resistance to tyranny. Sometimes exaggerating her own experiences, she fought for justice in mines, factories, and workshops across the nation. For her troubles she was condemned as 'the most dangerous woman in America'. At her death in 1930 at the age of ninety-three, thousands paid tribute at a Washington, D.C., memorial service, and again at her burial in the only union-owned cemetery in America in the small mining town of Mount Olive, Illinois. As noted in ""The New York Times"", the Rev. W. R. McGuire, who conducted her burial, said, 'Wealthy coal operators and capitalists throughout the United States are breathing a sigh of relief while toil-worn men and women are weeping tears of bitter grief'. The courage of Mother Jones is notorious and admired to this day. Cordery effectively recounts her story in this accessible biography, bringing to life an amazing woman and explaining the dramatic times through which she lived and to which she contributed so much.

Read more less

Raised on Gunsmoke, Bat Masterson, and The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp, we know what it means to “get outta Dodge”—to make a hasty escape from a dangerous place, like the Dodge City of Wild West lore. But why, of all the notorious, violent cities of old, did Dodge win this distinction? And what does this tenacious cultural metaphor have to do with the real Dodge City?In a book as much about the making of cultural myths as it is about Dodge City itself, authors Robert Dykstra and Jo Ann Manfra take us back into the history of Dodge to trace the growth of the city and its legend side-by-side. An exploration of murder statistics, court cases, and contemporary accounts reveals the historical Dodge to be neither as violent nor as lawless as legend has it—but every bit as intriguing. In a style that captures the charm and chicanery of storytelling in the Old West, Dodge City and the Birth of the Wild West finds a culprit in a local attorney, Harry Gryden, who fed sensational accounts to the national media during the so-called “Dodge City War” of 1883. Once launched, the legend leads the authors through the cultural landscape of twentieth-century America, as Dodge City became a useful metaphor in more and more television series and movies. Meanwhile, back in the actual Dodge, struggling on a lost frontier, a mirror image of the mythical city began to emerge, as residents increasingly embraced tourism as an economic necessity. Dodge City and the Birth of the Wild West maps a metaphor for belligerent individualism and social freedom through the cultural imagination, from a historical starting point to its mythical reflection. In this, the book restores both the reality of Dodge and its legend to their rightful place in the continuum of American culture.

Read more less

An engaging invitation to rediscover Henry Miller—and to learn how his anarchist sensibility can help us escape “the air-conditioned nightmare” of the modern worldThe American writer Henry Miller's critical reputation--if not his popular readership—has been in eclipse at least since Kate Millett's blistering critique in Sexual Politics, her landmark 1970 study of misogyny in literature and art. Even a Miller fan like the acclaimed Scottish writer John Burnside finds Miller's "sex books"—including The Rosy Crucifixion, Tropic of Cancer, and Tropic of Capricorn—"boring and embarrassing." But Burnside says that Miller's notorious image as a "pornographer and woman hater" has hidden his vital, true importance—his anarchist sensibility and the way it shows us how, by fleeing from conformity of all kinds, we may be able to save ourselves from the "air-conditioned nightmare" of the modern world.Miller wrote that "there is no salvation in becoming adapted to a world which is crazy," and in this short, engaging, and personal book, Burnside shows how Miller teaches us to become less adapted to the world, to resist a life sentence to the prison of social, intellectual, emotional, and material conditioning. Exploring the full range of Miller's work, and giving special attention to The Air-Conditioned Nightmare and The Colossus of Maroussi, Burnside shows how, with humor and wisdom, Miller illuminates the misunderstood tradition of anarchist thought. Along the way, Burnside reflects on Rimbaud's enormous influence on Miller, as well as on how Rimbaud and Miller have influenced his own writing.An unconventional and appealing account of an unjustly neglected writer, On Henry Miller restores to us a figure whose searing criticism of the modern world has never been more relevant.

Read more less

In this blockbuster fantasy series, perfect for fans of Firekeeper’s Daughter and Iron Widow, fate binds two Black teenagers together as they journey into a magical jungle to hunt down a vicious monster.“Rich in magic and mythos, Beasts of Prey is a feast for all the senses.” —Renée Ahdieh, New York Times bestselling author of The BeautifulAn Instant New York Times and Indie BestsellerThere’s no such thing as magic in the broken city of Lkossa, especially for sixteen-year-old Koffi, who indentured to the notorious Night Zoo, knows the fearsome creatures in her care and paying off her family's debts to secure their eventual freedom can be her only focus. But the night those she loves are gravely threatened by the Zoo’s cruel master, Koffi unleashes a power she doesn’t fully understand, upending her life completely.As the second son of a decorated hero, Ekon is all but destined to become a Son of the Six—an elite warrior—and uphold a family legacy. But on the night of his final rite of passage, Ekon encounters not only the Shetani—a vicious monster that has plagued the city for nearly a century and stalks his nightmares—but Koffi who seems to have the power to ward off the beast. Koffi’s power ultimately saves Ekon, but his choice to let her flee dooms his hopes of becoming a warrior.Desperate to redeem himself, Ekon vows to hunt the Shetani and end its reign of terror, but he can’t do it alone. Koffi and Ekon form a tentative alliance and together enter the Greater Jungle, a world steeped in wild, frightening magic and untold dangers. The hunt begins. But it quickly becomes unclear whether they are the hunters or the hunted.“The hunt for your next YA fantasy book trilogy obsession has ended.” —Entertainment Weekly

Read more less

In the third instalment of Rachel Brimble's exciting Victorian saga series, The Ladies of Carson Street will open the doors on a thoroughly modern marriage – and William is about to get a lot more than he bargained for... He needs a wife... Manchester industrialist William Rose was a poor lad from the slums who pulled himself up by his bootstraps, but in order to achieve his greatest ambitions he must become the epitome of Victorian respectability: a family man. She has a plan... But the only woman who's caught his eye is sophisticated beauty Octavia Marshall, one of the notorious ladies of Carson Street. Though she was once born to great wealth and privilege, she's hardly respectable, but she's determined to invest her hard-earned fortune in Mr Rose's mills and forge a new life as an entirely proper businesswoman. They strike a deal that promises them both what they desire the most, but William's a fool if he thinks Octavia will be a conventional married woman, and she's very much mistaken if she thinks the lives they once led won't follow them wherever they go. Perfect for fans of Rosie Goodwin, Lizzie Lane and Emma Hornby. Readers love A Very Modern Marriage! 'Superb... A captivating Historical Romance' Dash Fan Book Reviews, 5* Review 'Passionate, compelling and immensely romantic... Unforgettable... Readers will be completely charmed' Bookish Jottings, 4* Review 'Heartwarming and romantic... A Very Modern Marriage is a step back in time with a wonderful romance at its heart!' Rae Reads, 4* Review 'Gripping... Kept me guessing and on the edge of my seat... Extremely well written' Ginger Book Geek, 4* Review 'Engrossing' Corinne Rodrigues, 4* Review 'Emotive... A story of shared love, goals and dreams' Quirky Book Reads, 4* Review 'Lavishly descriptive and utterly compelling' Chez Maximka, 4* Review 'Dramatic, accessible, escapist and interesting' Ceri's Lil Blog, 4* Review

Read more less

In 1939, a ten-year-old Igor Golomstock accompanied his mother, a medical doctor, to the vast network of labour camps in the Russian Far East. While she tended patients, he was minded by assorted 'trusty' prisoners – hardened criminals – and returned to Moscow an almost feral adolescent, fluent in obscene prison jargon but intellectually ignorant. Despite this dubious start he became a leading art historian and co-author (with his close friend Andrey Sinyavsky) of the first, deeply controversial, monograph on Picasso published in the Soviet Union. His writings on his 43 years in the Soviet Union offer a rare insight into life as a quietly subversive art historian and the post-Stalin dissident community. In vivid prose Golomstock shows the difficulties of publishing, curating and talking about Western art in Soviet Russia and, with self-deprecating humour, the absurd tragicomedy of life for the Moscow intelligentsia during Khruschev's thaw and Brezhnev's stagnation. He also offers a unique personal perspective on the 1966 trial of Sinyavsky and Yuri Daniel, widely considered the end of Khruschev's liberalism and the spark that ignited the Soviet dissident movement. In 1972 he was given ‘permission’ to leave the Soviet Union, but only after paying a ‘ransom’ of more than 25 years’ salary, nominally intended to reimburse the state for his education. A remarkable collection of artists, scholars and intellectuals in Russia and the West, including Roland Penrose, came together to help him pay this astronomical sum. His memoirs of life once in the UK offer an insider's view of the BBC Russian Service and a penetrating analysis of the notorious feud between Sinyavsky and Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. Nominated for the Russian Booker Prize on its publication in Russian in 2014, The Ransomed Dissident opens a window onto the life of a remarkable man: a dissident of uncompromising moral integrity and with an outstanding gift for friendship.

Read more less

In 1865, when just twenty-five years of age, Edward Whymper achieved the fame of which he had dreamt as a teenager by making the first ascent of the Matterhorn, the last great unclimbed summit in the Alps. With renown came notoriety and lasting sorrow, though, due to the catastrophic accident on the descent, which cost the lives of four of his party. Whymper's life was marked by the conquest of the Matterhorn, but his mountaineering achievements have overshadowed his distinction as a wood engraver and book illustrator. Before he had ever thought about the Alps, while a teenager fulfilling his apprenticeship in the family engraving studio, Whymper kept a diary for six years, detailing his daily life in Lambeth. Showing frequent glimpses of the dry and sardonic humour so characteristic of the older Whymper, the diary is written with a developing style which looks forward to his classic works on mountaineering, Scrambles amongst the Alps and Travels amongst the the great Andes of the Equator. Providing a rare picture of the workings of a wood engraving studio during the heyday of this reproductive medium, the diary also reveals the world of his father, Josiah, and those London-based artists seeking to make a living from their water-colour painting. An avid reader of The Times, the young Whymper's diary follows the events of the day - the Crimean War, trhe Indian Mutiny, the affairs of Parliament, notorious trials, business scandals - and also the many fires and daily catastrophes so prevalent in Victorian London. This edition reproduces the complete text of Whymper's first diary for the first time. Ian Smith is a librarian, who is writing a biography of Edward Whymper. He is a member of the Alpine Club and has climbed many of Whymper's first ascents. He is from south London and lives in Kennington.

Read more less

What if political rhetoric is unavoidable, an irreducible part of politics itself? In contrast to the familiar denunciations of political horse-trading, grandstanding, and corporate manipulation from those lamenting the crisis in liberal democracy, this book argues that the “politics of politics,” usually associated with rhetoric and sophistry, is, like it or not, part of politics from the start. Denunciations of the sorry state of current politics draw on a dogmatism and moralism that share an essentially metaphysical and Platonic ground. Failure to deconstruct that ground generates a philosophically and politically debilitating selfrighteousness that this book attempts to understand and undermine. After a detailed analysis of Foucault’s influential late concept of parrhesia, which is shown to be both philosophically and politically insufficient, close readings of Heidegger, Kierkegaard, and Derrida trace complex relations between sophistry, rhetoric, and philosophy; truth and untruth; decision; madness and stupidity in an exploration of the possibility of developing an affirmative thinking of politics that is not mortgaged to the metaphysics of presence. It is suggested that Heidegger’s complex accounts of truth and decision must indeed be read in close conjunction with his notorious Nazi commitments but nevertheless contain essential insights that many strident responses to those commitments ignore or repress. Those insights are here developed—via an ambitious account of Derrida’s often misunderstood interruption of teleology—into a deconstructive retrieval of the concept of dignity. This lucid and often witty account of a crucial set of developments in twentieth-century thought prepares the way for a more general re-reading of the possibilities of political philosophy that will be undertaken in Volume 2 of this work, under the sign of an essential scatter that defines the political as such.

Read more less

A landmark contribution to women's history that sheds new light on the Salem witch trials and one of its most crucial participants, Tituba of The Crucible In this important book, Elaine Breslaw claims to have rediscovered Tituba, the elusive, mysterious, and often mythologized Indian woman accused of witchcraft in Salem in 1692 and immortalized in Arthur Miller's The Crucible. Reconstructing the life of the slave woman at the center of the notorious Salem witch trials, the book follows Tituba from her likely origins in South America to Barbados, forcefully dispelling the commonly-held belief that Tituba was African. The uniquely multicultural nature of life on a seventeenth-century Barbadan sugar plantation—defined by a mixture of English, American Indian, and African ways and folklore—indelibly shaped the young Tituba's world and the mental images she brought with her to Massachusetts. Breslaw divides Tituba’s story into two parts. The first focuses on Tituba's roots in Barbados, the second on her life in the New World. The author emphasizes the inextricably linked worlds of the Caribbean and the North American colonies, illustrating how the Puritan worldview was influenced by its perception of possessed Indians. Breslaw argues that Tituba’s confession to practicing witchcraft clearly reveals her savvy and determined efforts to protect herself by actively manipulating Puritan fears. This confession, perceived as evidence of a diabolical conspiracy, was the central agent in the cataclysmic series of events that saw 19 people executed and over 150 imprisoned, including a young girl of 5. A landmark contribution to women's history and early American history, Tituba, Reluctant Witch of Salem sheds new light on one of the most painful episodes in American history, through the eyes of its most crucial participant.

Read more less

This book is the first substantial study in any language of one of revolutionary Russia's most distinguished and controversial engineers - Iurii Vladimirovich Lomonosov (1876-1952). Not only does it provide an outline of his remarkable life and career, it also explores the relationship between science, technology and transport that developed in late tsarist and early Soviet Russia. Lomonosov's importance extends well beyond his scientific and engineering achievements thanks to the rich variety and public prominence of his professional and political activities. His generation - Lenin's generation - was inevitably at the forefront of Russian life from the 1910s to the 1930s, and Lomonosov took his place there as one of the country's best known and ultimately notorious engineers. As well as an innovative engineer who campaigned to enhance the role of science, he played a major role in shaping and administering the Russian railways, and undertook several diplomatic and scientific missions to the West during the early years of the Revolution. Falling from political favour during an assignment in Germany (1923-1927), he achieved notoriety in Russia as a 'non-returner' by apparently declining to return home. Thereby escaping probable arrest and execution, he began a new life abroad (1927-1952) which included a research post at the California Institute of Technology in 1929-1930, collaborative projects with the famous physicist P.L. Kapitsa in Cambridge, a long-time association with the Institution of Mechanical Engineers in London, and work for the British War Office during the Second World War. From Marxist revolutionary to American academic, this study reveals Lomonosov's extraordinary life. Drawing on a wide variety of official Russian sources, as well as Lomonosov's own diaries and memoirs, a vivid portrait of his life is presented, offering a better understanding of how science, technology and politics interacted in early-twentieth-century Russia.

Read more less

Winner of the Carnegie Medal for ExcellenceFinalist for the Young Lions Fiction AwardOrphaned young, Ming Tsu, the son of Chinese immigrants, is raised by the notorious leader of a California crime syndicate, who trains him to be his deadly enforcer. But when Ming falls in love with Ada, the daughter of a powerful railroad magnate, and the two elope, he seizes the opportunity to escape to a different life. Soon after, in a violent raid, the tycoon's henchmen kidnap Ada and conscript Ming into service for the Central Pacific Railroad.Battered, heartbroken, and yet defiant, Ming partners with a blind clairvoyant known only as the prophet. Together the two set out to rescue his wife and to exact revenge on the men who destroyed Ming, aided by a troupe of magic-show performers, some with supernatural powers, whom they meet on the journey. Ming blazes his way across the West, settling old scores with a single-minded devotion that culminates in an explosive and unexpected finale.Written with the violent ardor of Cormac McCarthy and the otherworldly inventiveness of Ted Chiang, The Thousand Crimes of Ming Tsu is at once a thriller, a romance, and a story of one man's quest for redemption in the face of a distinctly American brutality."In Tom Lin's novel, the atmosphere of Cormac McCarthy's West, or that of the Coen Brothers' True Grit, gives way to the phantasmagorical shades of Ray Bradbury, Charles Finney's The Circus of Dr. Lao, and Katherine Dunn's Geek Love. Yet The Thousand Crimes of Ming Tsu has a velocity and perspective all its own, and is a fierce new version of the Westward Dream." -Jonathan Lethem, author of Motherless Brooklyn

Read more less

When Ernie López was a boy selling newspapers in Depression-era Los Angeles, his father beat him when he failed to bring home the expected eighty to ninety cents a day. When the beatings became unbearable, he took to petty stealing to make up the difference. As his thefts succeeded, Ernie's sense of necessity got tangled up with ambition and adventure. At thirteen, a joyride in a stolen car led to a sentence in California's harshest juvenile reformatory. The system's failure to show any mercy soon propelled López into a cycle of crime and incarceration that resulted in his spending decades in some of America's most notorious prisons, including four and a half years on death row for a murder López insists he did not commit. To Alcatraz, Death Row, and Back is the personal life story of a man who refused to be broken by either an abusive father or an equally abusive criminal justice system. While López freely admits that "I've been no angel," his insider's account of daily life in Alcatraz and San Quentin graphically reveals the violence, arbitrary infliction of excessive punishment, and unending monotony that give rise to gang cultures within the prisons and practically insure that parolees will commit far worse crimes when they return to the streets. Rafael Pérez-Torres discusses how Ernie López's experiences typify the harsher treatment that ethnic and minority suspects often receive in the American criminal justice system, as well as how they reveal the indomitable resilience of Chicanos/as and their culture. As Pérez-Torres concludes, "López's story presents us with the voice of one who—though subjected to a system meant to destroy his soul—not only endured but survived, and in surviving prevailed."

Read more less

Niccolò Machiavelli's brutally uncompromising manual of statecraft, The Prince is translated and edited with an introduction by Tim Parks in Penguin Classics.As a diplomat in turbulent fifteenth-century Florence, Niccolò Machiavelli knew how quickly political fortunes could rise and fall. The Prince, his tough-minded, pragmatic handbook on how power really works, made his name notorious and has remained controversial ever since. How can a leader be strong and decisive, yet still inspire loyalty in his followers? When is it necessary to break the rules? Is it better to be feared than loved? Examining regimes and their rulers the world over and throughout history, from Roman Emperors to renaissance Popes, from Hannibal to Cesare di Borgia, Machievalli answers all these questions in a work of realpolitik that still has shrewd political lessons for today. Tim Parks's acclaimed contemporary translation renders Machiavelli's no-nonsense original as alarming and enlightening as when it was first written. His introduction discusses Machiavelli's life and reputation, and explores the historical background to the work.Niccolò Machiavelli (1469-1527) was born in Florence, and served the Florentine republic as a secretary and second chancellor, as ambassador and foreign policy-maker. When the Medici family returned to power in 1512 he was suspected of conspiracy, imprisoned and tortured and forced to retire from public life. His most famous work, The Prince, was written in an attempt to gain favour with the Medicis and return to politics.If you enjoyed The Prince, you might like Plato's Republic, also available in Penguin Classics.'A gripping work, and a gripping translation'Nicholas Lezard, Guardian'Tim Parks's swift and supple new translation brings out all its chilling modernity' Boyd Tonkin, Independent

Read more less

Some paths lead only to the grave . . . Strangefields Farm is notorious for its sinister history ever since artist Jackson Temples lured young women there to model for disturbing works of art. Some of those girls never left the house alive.Now, decades later, Strangefields is to be transformed into a holiday village, but the developer's hopes of its dark history being forgotten are dashed when a skull is found on the site. And when a local florist is found murdered in an echo of Temples' crimes, DI Wesley Peterson fears that a copy-cat killer is at large. Especially when another brutal murder in a nearby village appears to be linked.As Wesley's friend, archaeologist Dr Neil Watson, uncovers the secrets of Strangefields' grisly past, it seems that an ancient tale of the dead returning to torment the living might not be as fantastical as it seems. And Wesley must work fast to discover who's behind the recent murders . . . before someone close to him is put in danger.The latest gripping mystery in the DI Wesley Peterson crime series from Kate Ellis, the award-winning author of the 2019 CWA Dagger in the Library.What readers are saying about Kate Ellis:'A beguiling author who interweaves past and present' The Times'Kate Ellis has got to be one of my favourite authors' Reader review, 5 stars'I loved this novel . . . a powerful story of loss, malice and deception' Ann Cleeves'The chilling plot will keep you spooked and thrilled to the end' Closer'Another brilliant book that keeps you gripped' Reader review, 5 stars'Haunting' Independent'Kate has you spellbound' Reader review, 5 stars'A fine storyteller, weaving the past and present in a way that makes you want to read on' Peterborough Evening Telegraph'Unputdownable' Bookseller

Read more less

"A page turner, even for those familiar with the subject...The surprising truth that emerges is no less human, and no less revealing about the Victorians than the myths; on the contrary it gives a far more compelling insight into what relationships, family and money really mean." — Country Life "Ruskin’s marriage was doomed from the start, but not for the reason most people think, argues this well-researched book." — The Times Effie Gray was an innocent victim of a male-dominated society, repressed and mistreated. Or was she? John Ruskin, the greatest art critic and social reformer of his time, was a callous misogynist and upholder of the patriarchy. Or was he? John Everett Millais, boy genius, rescued the heroine from the tyrannical clutches of the husband who left his wedding unconsummated for six years. Or did he? What really happened in the most scandalous love triangle of the 19th century? Was it all about impotence and pubic hair? Or was it about money, power and freedom? If so, whose? And what possibilities were there for these young people caught in a world racked by social, financial and political turmoil? The accepted story of the Ruskin marriage has never lost its fascination. History books, novels, television series, operas and now a star-filled film by Emma Thompson (to be released in 2013) have all followed this standard line. It seems to offer an easy take on the Victorians and how we have moved on. But the story isn't true. In Marriage of Inconvenience Robert Brownell uses extensive documentary evidence - much of it never seen before, and much of it hitherto suppressed - to reveal a story no less fascinating and human, no less illuminating about the Victorians and far more instructive about our own times, than the myths that have grown up about the most notorious marriage of the 19th century.

Read more less

Simply Lies is an intense thriller featuring Mickey Gibson, a former New Jersey detective, from the number one bestselling author David Baldacci.'This is Baldacci at his formidable best . . . Do not miss it' – Sunday Times NO TRUTHFormer Jersey City detective and single mother of two, Mickey Gibson, now works for global investigation company, ProEye, to track down assets of the wealthy who have tried to avoid their creditors. One day she gets a call from a colleague, Arlene Robinson, asking her to visit the home of a notorious arms dealer who has cheated some of ProEye’s clients in the past. Mickey arrives at the mansion to discover the body of a man hidden in a secret room.NO LIMITSIt turns out that nothing is at it seems. The arms dealer did not exist, and nobody at ProEye knew of Arlene Robinson. Mickey had been tricked and now the cops were involved. The body was that of Harry Langhorne, who’d been in Witness Protection having had links with the mob.NO FEARNow begins a cat-and-mouse showdown between hardened ex-cop, Mickey, and a woman with sociopathic tendencies who has no name and a mysterious past. She intends to get what she wants and people who get in her way will die. For Mickey to stop her, she must first discover her true identity and what damaged her all those years ago. And the truth behind why she selected Micky to become her nemesis . . .*****KILLER TWISTS. HEROES TO BELIEVE IN. TRUST BALDACCI.‘One of the world’s thriller masters’ – Daily Mail‘Baldacci is still peerless’ – Sunday Times‘One of the all-time best thriller authors’ – Lisa Gardner, author of One Step Too Far‘Baldacci delivers, every time!’ – Lisa Scottoline, author of Every Fifteen Minutes

Read more less

In The Dark Side of the Enlightenment, John V. Fleming shows how the impulses of the European Enlightenment—generally associated with great strides in the liberation of human thought from superstition and traditional religion—were challenged by tenacious religious ideas or channeled into the “darker” pursuits of the esoteric and the occult. His engaging topics include the stubborn survival of the miraculous, the Enlightenment roles of Rosicrucianism and Freemasonry, and the widespread pursuit of magic and alchemy. Though we tend not to associate what was once called alchemy with what we now call chemistry, Fleming shows that the difference is merely one of linguistic modernization. Alchemy was once the chemistry, of Arabic derivation, and its practitioners were among the principal scientists and physicians of their ages. No point is more important for understanding the strange and fascinating figures in this book than the prestige of alchemy among the learned men of the age. Fleming follows some of these complexities and contradictions of the “Age of Lights” into the biographies of two of its extraordinary offspring. The first is the controversial wizard known as Count Cagliostro, the “Egyptian” freemason, unconventional healer, and alchemist known most infamously for his ambiguous association with the Affair of the Diamond Necklace, which history has viewed as among the possible harbingers of the French Revolution and a major contributing factor in the growing unpopularity of Marie Antoinette. Fleming also reviews the career of Julie de Krüdener, the sentimental novelist, Pietist preacher, and political mystic who would later become notorious as a prophet. Impressively researched and wonderfully erudite, this rich narrative history sheds light on some lesser-known mental extravagances and beliefs of the Enlightenment era and brings to life some of the most extraordinary characters ever encountered either in history or fiction.

Read more less

“Polaris Rising is space opera at its best, intense and addictive, a story of honor, courage, betrayal, and love. Jessie Mihalik is an author to watch.”--Ilona Andrews, #1 New York Times bestselling authorA space princess on the run and a notorious outlaw soldier become unlikely allies in this imaginative, sexy space opera adventure—the first in an exciting science fiction trilogy.In the far distant future, the universe is officially ruled by the Royal Consortium, but the High Councillors, the heads of the three High Houses, wield the true power. As the fifth of six children, Ada von Hasenberg has no authority; her only value to her High House is as a pawn in a political marriage. When her father arranges for her to wed a noble from House Rockhurst, a man she neither wants nor loves, Ada seizes control of her own destiny. The spirited princess flees before the betrothal ceremony and disappears among the stars. Ada eluded her father’s forces for two years, but now her luck has run out. To ensure she cannot escape again, the fiery princess is thrown into a prison cell with Marcus Loch. Known as the Devil of Fornax Zero, Loch is rumored to have killed his entire chain of command during the Fornax Rebellion, and the Consortium wants his head.When the ship returning them to Earth is attacked by a battle cruiser from rival House Rockhurst, Ada realizes that if her jilted fiancé captures her, she’ll become a political prisoner and a liability to her House. Her only hope is to strike a deal with the dangerous fugitive: a fortune if he helps her escape.But when you make a deal with an irresistibly attractive Devil, you may lose more than you bargained for . . .

Read more less

In this breathtaking cultural history filled with exclusive, never-before-revealed details, celebrated rock journalist Joel Selvin tells the definitive story of the Rolling Stones' infamous Altamont concert, the disastrous historic event that marked the end of the idealistic 1960s. In the annals of rock history, the Altamont Speedway Free Festival on December 6, 1969, has long been seen as the distorted twin of Woodstock-the day that shattered the Sixties' promise of peace and love when a concertgoer was killed by a member of the Hells Angels, the notorious biker club acting as security. While most people know of the events from the film Gimme Shelter, the whole story has remained buried in varied accounts, rumor, and myth-until now. Altamont explores rock's darkest day, a fiasco that began well before the climactic death of Meredith Hunter and continued beyond that infamous December night. Joel Selvin probes every aspect of the show-from the Stones' hastily planned tour preceding the concert to the bad acid that swept through the audience to other deaths that also occurred that evening-to capture the full scope of the tragedy and its aftermath. He also provides an in-depth look at the Grateful Dead's role in the events leading to Altamont, examining the band's behind-the-scenes presence in both arranging the show and hiring the Hells Angels as security. The product of twenty years of exhaustive research and dozens of interviews with many key players, including medical staff, Hells Angels members, the stage crew, and the musicians who were there, and featuring sixteen pages of color photos, Altamont is the ultimate account of the final event in rock's formative and most turbulent decade.

Read more less

Mahler measure, a height function for polynomials, is the central theme of this book. It has many interesting properties, obtained by algebraic, analytic and combinatorial methods. It is the subject of several longstanding unsolved questions, such as Lehmer’s Problem (1933) and Boyd’s Conjecture (1981). This book contains a wide range of results on Mahler measure. Some of the results are very recent, such as Dimitrov’s proof of the Schinzel–Zassenhaus Conjecture. Other known results are included with new, streamlined proofs. Robinson’s Conjectures (1965) for cyclotomic integers, and their associated Cassels height function, are also discussed, for the first time in a book.One way to study algebraic integers is to associate them with combinatorial objects, such as integer matrices. In some of these combinatorial settings the analogues of several notorious open problems have been solved, and the book sets out this recent work. Many Mahler measure results are proved for restricted sets of polynomials, such as for totally real polynomials, and reciprocal polynomials of integer symmetric as well as symmetrizable matrices. For reference, the book includes appendices providing necessary background from algebraic number theory, graph theory, and other prerequisites, along with tables of one- and two-variable integer polynomials with small Mahler measure. All theorems are well motivated and presented in an accessible way. Numerous exercises at various levels are given, including some for computer programming. A wide range of stimulating open problems is also included. At the end of each chapter there is a glossary of newly introduced concepts and definitions. Around the Unit Circle is written in a friendly, lucid, enjoyable style, without sacrificing mathematical rigour. It is intended for lecture courses at the graduate level, and will also be a valuable reference for researchers interested in Mahler measure. Essentially self-contained, this textbook should also be accessible to well-prepared upper-level undergraduates.

Read more less

THINK YOU KNOW THE SAS?THINK AGAIN...From no.1 bestselling SAS hero Chris Ryan, comes MANHUNTER: the first book in an explosive new series featuring Josh Bowman, a battle-worn Regiment soldier hand-picked to join a shadowy unit within the SAS._________________When foreign governments act like gangsters, a new kind of SAS is needed . . .In London, assassins carry out a deadly chemical weapons attack at the royal wedding. All the signs point to a Kremlin-sanctioned hit. Their victim: a notorious mobster.'The Cell' is a shadowy unit within the SAS, dedicated to fighting global organised crime. In a world where the Russian government is the real mob, it's the job of the Cell to defend British interests at home and abroad. Only the elite are selected; only the very best will survive. For SAS staff sergeant Josh Bowman, whose young family was brutally murdered by an Albanian crime gang, it's a chance for revenge - and to bury his secret opioid addiction.But the Russians have only just begun. When the Cell uncovers a sinister plot against a British-backed tyrant in Africa, they are quickly drawn into a deadly race against time. Soon they find themselves fighting a terrifying enemy in a brutal fight to the death.Outnumbered, outgunned and with no military support, Bowman and his comrades are all that stand between Moscow and ultimate victory . . ._________________Praise for SAS legend Chris Ryan:'Ryan writes with the authority of a man familiar with every nuance of the regiment's tactics, training, weapons and equipment' - SUNDAY TIMES'Nobody takes you to the action better than Ryan' - EVENING STANDARD'Intelligent and enthralling' - FINANCIAL TIMES'The action comes bullet-fast' - THE SUN'Fearsome and fast-moving' - DAILY MAIL

Read more less

A #1 New York Times bestseller from the creator of a viral TikTok series about the sunshine assistant to the evil villain and their unexpected romance. ASSISTANT WANTED: Notorious, high-ranking villain seeks loyal, level-headed assistant for unspecified office duties, supporting staff for random mayhem, terror, and other Dark Things in General. Discretion a must. Excellent benefits.With ailing family to support, Evie Sage's employment status isn't just important, it's vital. So when a mishap with Rennedawn's most infamous Villain results in a job offer-naturally, she says yes. No job is perfect, of course, but even less so when you develop a teeny crush on your terrifying, temperamental, and undeniably hot boss. Don't find evil so attractive, Evie.But just when she's getting used to severed heads suspended from the ceiling and the odd squish of an errant eyeball beneath her heel, Evie suspects this dungeon has a huge rat...and not just the literal kind. Because something rotten is growing in the kingdom of Rennedawn, and someone wants to take the Villain-and his entire nefarious empire-out.Now Evie must not only resist drooling over her boss but also figure out exactly who is sabotaging his work... and ensure he makes them pay.After all, a good job is hard to find....Readers have fallen head over heels for Assistant to the Villain: 'The slow burn romance was done so well - all the tension and build up with the characters' relationship had me grinning like crazy''I absolutely raced through this novel . . . I loved this book so much, it was laugh out loud funny, the characters were amazing and the tension was high!''The perfect one-sitting binge read for any fantasy or rom-com lover''Perfect blend of fantasy, romance and laugh out loud writing!'Number 1 New York Times bestseller, September 2023

Read more less

NOMINATED FOR BEST HORROR NOVEL in the GOODREADS READERS CHOICE AWARDS...'A lurid, luscious debauch of a book.' Guardian'An unforgettable feast of decadence and depravity, House of Hunger cements Henderson's place as one of the great gothic writers of our generation.' S T GIBSON, author of A Dowry of BloodA young woman is drawn into the upper echelons of a society where blood is power in this dark and enthralling Gothic novel from the author of The Year of the Witching.WANTED: A bloodmaid of exceptional taste. Must have a keen proclivity for life's finer pleasures. Girls of weak will need not apply.Marion Shaw has been raised in the slums, where want and deprivation are all she knows. Despite longing to leave the city and its miseries, she has no real hope of escape until the day she spots a strange advertisement in the newspaper, seeking a 'bloodmaid'.Though she knows little about the far north - where wealthy nobles live in luxury and drink the blood of those in their service - Marion applies to the position. In a matter of days, she finds herself at the notorious House of Hunger. There, Marion is swept into a world of dark debauchery - and there, at the centre of it all is her.Her name is Countess Lisavet. Loved and feared in equal measure, she presides over this hedonistic court. And she takes a special interest in Marion. Lisavet is magnetic, charismatic, seductive - and Marion is eager to please her new mistress. But when her fellow bloodmaids begin to go missing in the night, Marion is thrust into a vicious game of cat and mouse. She'll need to learn the rules of her new home - and fast - or its halls will soon become her grave.

Read more less