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The razor-sharp first novel in the New York Times bestselling Night Angel series from master of modern fantasy Brent Weeks - an astonishing and epic tale of magic, violence and revenge.The perfect killer has no friends. Only targets. For Durzo Blint, assassination is an art. And he is the city's most accomplished artist, his talents required from alleyway to courtly boudoir.For Azoth, survival is precarious. Something you never take for granted. As a guild rat, he's grown up in the slums, and learned the hard way to judge people quickly - and to take risks. Risks like apprenticing himself to Durzo Blint.But to be accepted, Azoth must turn his back on his old life and embrace a new identity and name. As Kylar Stern, he must learn to navigate the assassins' world of dangerous politics and strange magics - and cultivate a flair for death.'Brent Weeks has a style of immediacy and detail that pulls the reader relentlessly into his story. He doesn't allow you to look away' Robin Hobb'Nobody does break-neck pacing and amazingly-executed plot twists like Brent Weeks' Brian McClellan'Weeks creates a rich blend of politics, culture and character . . . then throws in magic-using assassins' Peter V. Brett'Unforgettable characters, a plot that kept me guessing, non-stop action and the kind of in-depth storytelling that makes me admire a writer's work' Terry Brooks'Weeks has truly cemented his place among the great epic fantasy writers of our time' British Fantasy SocietyFor more from Brent Weeks, check out:Night AngelThe Way of ShadowsShadow's EdgeBeyond the ShadowsThe Kylar ChroniclesNight Angel NemesisPerfect Shadow: A Night Angel NovellaThe Way of Shadows: The Graphic NovelLightbringerThe Black PrismThe Blinding KnifeThe Broken EyeThe Blood MirrorThe Burning White

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SHORTLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE 2019'Expect vibrant, vivid and eye-opening descriptions of Middle Eastern life propelled by a tender storyline, all in Shafak's haunting, beautiful and considered prose' Vanity Fair'Incredibly sensuous and poetic and evocative' Pandora Sykes'Richly uplifting... truly beautiful writing' Nicola Sturgeon'In the first minute following her death, Tequila Leila's consciousness began to ebb, slowly and steadily, like a tide receding from the shore...'For Leila, each minute after her death recalls a sensuous memory: spiced goat stew, sacrificed by her father to celebrate the birth of a yearned-for son; bubbling vats of lemon and sugar to wax women's legs while men are at prayer; the cardamom coffee she shares with a handsome student in the brothel where she works. Each fading memory brings back the friends she made in her bittersweet life - friends who are now desperately trying to find her . . .'Simply magnificent, a truly captivating work of immense power and beauty, on the essence of life and its end' Philippe Sands'Elif Shafak brings into the written realm what so many others want to leave outside. Spend more than ten minutes and 38 seconds in this world of the estranged. Shafak makes a new home for us in words' Colum McCann 'Elif Shafak's extraordinary 10 Minutes, 38 Seconds in this Strange World is a work of brutal beauty and consummate tenderness' Simon Schama'A rich, sensual novel... This is a novel that gives voice to the invisible, the untouchable, the abused and the damaged, weaving their painful songs into a thing of beauty.' Financial Times'One of the best writers in the world today' Hanif Kureishi 'Haunting, moving, beautifully written. A masterpiece' Peter Frankopan 'Extraordinary' Guardian'Life-affirming' Stylist*** ELIF SHAFAK'S NEW NOVEL, THERE ARE RIVERS IN THE SKY, IS AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDER NOW ***

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'Ingenious and compelling' THE TIMES, SCIENCE FICTION BOOKS OF THE MONTH'Mind-bendingly clever and utterly gripping' DAILY MAIL, SCI-FI BOOKS OF THE MONTH'A fascinating and assured debut' THE GUARDIAN, BEST RECENT SCIENCE FICTIONIt's 1962 and physics student Grace Pulansky believes she has met the man of her dreams, Robert Jones, while serving up slices of pecan pie at the local diner. But then the FBI shows up, with their fedoras and off-the-rack business suits, and accuses him of being a bomb-planting mass-murderer.Finding herself on the run with Jones across America's Southwest, the discoveries awaiting Gracie will undermine everything she knows about the universe. Her story will reveal how scores of lives - an identity-swapping rock star, a mourning lover in ancient China, Nazi hunters in pursuit of a terrible secret, a crazed artist in pre-revolutionary France, an astronaut struggling with a turbulent interplanetary future, and many more - are interconnected across space and time by love, grief, and quantum entanglement.Spanning continents, centuries, and dimensions, this exquisitely crafted and madly inventive novel - a triple-disk, concept-album of a book - is a profound yet propulsive enquiry into the nature of reality - the perfect immersive read for fans of David Mitchell, Emily St. John Mandel, Neil Gaiman and Margaret Atwood.'A book designed to be more than the sum of its parts, and one that achieves that because love is the thing that binds it together. Vitally fresh' DOMINIC NOLAN'With strong echoes of David Mitchell, Haruki Murakami or Emily St John Mandel...this is a madcap ride to somewhere new with thrills to spare and a gallery of truly fascinating characters. One for the ages.' CRIME TIME'A trans-dimensional, kaleidoscopic mystery-box of a novel.... wholly and riotously original. Haddon is a mad scientist of genre and his epic is a tour de force.' PETER HO DAVIES

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WINNER OF THE 2017 PETER KATZENSTEIN BOOK PRIZE"BEST OF BOOKS IN 2017" BY FOREIGN AFFAIRSWINNER OF THE 2018 VIVIAN ZELIZER PRIZE BEST BOOK AWARD IN ECONOMIC SOCIOLOGY"How China Escaped the Poverty Trap truly offers game-changing ideas for the analysis and implementation of socio-economic development and should have a major impact across many social sciences."― Zelizer Best Book in Economic Sociology Prize Committee Acclaimed as "game changing" and "field shifting," How China Escaped the Poverty Trap advances a new paradigm in the political economy of development and sheds new light on China's rise. How can poor and weak societies escape poverty traps? Political economists have traditionally offered three answers: "stimulate growth first," "build good institutions first," or "some fortunate nations inherited good institutions that led to growth." Yuen Yuen Ang rejects all three schools of thought and their underlying assumptions: linear causation, a mechanistic worldview, and historical determinism. Instead, she launches a new paradigm grounded in complex adaptive systems, which embraces the reality of interdependence and humanity's capacity to innovate. Combining this original lens with more than 400 interviews with Chinese bureaucrats and entrepreneurs, Ang systematically reenacts the complex process that turned China from a communist backwater into a global juggernaut in just 35 years. Contrary to popular misconceptions, she shows that what drove China's great transformation was not centralized authoritarian control, but "directed improvisation"—top-down directions from Beijing paired with bottom-up improvisation among local officials. Her analysis reveals two broad lessons on development. First, transformative change requires an adaptive governing system that empowers ground-level actors to create new solutions for evolving problems. Second, the first step out of the poverty trap is to "use what you have"—harnessing existing resources to kick-start new markets, even if that means defying first-world norms. Bold and meticulously researched, How China Escaped the Poverty Trap opens up a whole new avenue of thinking for scholars, practitioners, and anyone seeking to build adaptive systems.

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Fyodor Dostoevsky's first novel, Netochka Nezvanova, written in 1849, remains the least studied and understood of the writer's long fiction, but it was a seedbed for many topics and themes that became hallmarks of his major works. Specifically, Netochka Nezvanova was the first in Dostoevsky's corpus to focus on the psychology of children and the first to feature a woman in a leading and narrative role. It was also the first work in Russian literature to deal with problems of the family. In Heroine Abuse, Thomas Marullo contends that Netochka Nezvanova also provides a striking example of what psychologists today call codependency: the ways—often deviant and destructive—in which individuals bond with people, places, and things, as well as with images and ideas, to cope with the vicissitudes of life. Marullo shows how, at age twenty-eight, Dostoevsky intuited and illustrated the workings of "relationship addiction" almost a century and a half before it became the scholarly focus of practitioners of mental health. The moral monsters, "infernal" women, children-adults, and adult-children who populate Netochka Nezvanova seek codependence in people, places, and things, and in images, ideas, and ideals to satiate cravings for love, dominance, and control, as well as to indulge in narcissism, sexual perversion, and other aberrant or alternative behaviors. (Indeed, in no other work would Dostoevsky examine such phenomena as pedophilia and lesbianism with such abandon.) Racing from tie to tie, bond to bond, and caught in a debilitating loop that they claim to detest, but sadomasochistically enjoy, the characters in Netochka Nezvanova wreak havoc on themselves and the world. They do so, moreover, with impunity, their addictions moving them from momentary exultation as self-styled extraordinary men and women, through prolonged darkness and despair, and once again, to old and new addictions for physical and emotional release. Readers of Heroine Abuse will see Netochka Nezvanova as a timeless model in depicting codependency in the world of the twenty-first century as it did in St. Petersburg in 1849. Marullo's original work will appeal to scholars and students of Russian and comparative fiction; to doctors, psychologists, and therapists; to laymen and women interested in relationship addiction; and, finally, to codependents and relationship addicts of all types.

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The heyday of American Indian activism is generally seen as bracketed by the occupation of Alcatraz in 1969 and the Longest Walk in 1978; yet Native Americans had long struggled against federal policies that threatened to undermine tribal sovereignty and self-determination. This is the first book-length study of American Indian political activism during its seminal years, focusing on the movement's largely neglected early efforts before Alcatraz or Wounded Knee captured national attention.Ranging from the end of World War II to the late 1960s, Daniel Cobb uncovers the groundwork laid by earlier activists. He draws on dozens of interviews with key players to relate untold stories of both seemingly well-known events such as the American Indian Chicago Conference and little-known ones such as Native participation in the Poor People's Campaign of 1968. Along the way, he introduces readers to a host of previously neglected but critically important activists: Mel Thom, Tillie Walker, Forrest Gerard, Dr. Jim Wilson, Martha Grass, and many others.Cobb takes readers inside the early movement - from D'Arcy McNickle's founding of American Indian Development, Inc. and Vine Deloria Jr.'s tenure as executive director of the National Congress of American Indians to Clyde Warrior's leadership in the National Indian Youth Council - and describes how early activists forged connections between their struggle and anticolonialist movements in the developing world. He also describes how the War on Poverty's Community Action Programs transformed Indian Country by training bureaucrats and tribal leaders alike in new political skills and providing activists with the leverage they needed to advance the movement toward self-determination.This book shows how Native people who never embraced militancy - and others who did - made vital contributions as activists well before the American Indian Movement burst onto the scene. By highlighting the role of early intellectuals and activists like Sol Tax, Nancy Lurie, Robert K. Thomas, Helen Peterson, and Robert V. Dumont, Cobb situates AIM's efforts within a much broader context and reveals how Native people translated the politics of Cold War civil rights into the language of tribal sovereignty.

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Mahala's biography gives insight into the life and writing of Can Themba (1924–1967), an iconic figure of the South African literary world and Drum journalist who died in exile Can Themba: The Intellectual Tsotsi, a Biography brings to life the iconic South African writer and journalist, Can Themba, (21 June 1924 – 8 September 1967) who died while exiled in Swaziland in 1967. Best known for his classic short story, ‘The Suit’, Themba has been somewhat of an enigma, with very little known about his personal life. This biography brings forth the voices of those who had personal interactions with him, shining the light on different aspects of his life including education, literature, journalism and political fraternities. It features interviews with prominent individuals including his former students, Abdul Bham, Pitika Ntuli, and Mbulelo Mzamane; journalistic mentees Juby Mayet and Joe Thloloe; as well as friends, colleagues and contemporaries Parks Mangena, Peter Magubane, Jurgen Schadeberg, Don Mattera, and Nadine Gordimer; in addition to artists and academics Mothobi Mutloatse, Muxe Nkondo and Njabulo S. Ndebele. Also featured in this biographical text are veteran political figures such as Mangosuthu Buthelezi, Lindiwe Mabuza and Ahmed Kathrada. Themba’s intellectual acumen, scholarly aptitude and witticism are some of his most revered characteristics amongst those who had interactions with him either in person or through comprehensive reading of his works. Mahala is a master storyteller and deftly weaves together the threads of Themba's dynamic life. In this edifying biography Mahala recreates the sparkle and pathos of Sophiatown of the 1950s and the Drum era. Can Themba’s successes and failures, as well as his triumphs and tribulations reverberate on the pages of this long-awaited biography.

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'Every new Agatha Raisin escapade is a total joy' ASHLEY JENSEN'No wonder she's been crowned Queen of Cosy Crime' MAIL ON SUNDAY'A Beaton novel is like The Archers on speed' DAILY MAIL'The detective novels of M C Beaton have reached cult status' THE TIMESPrivate Detective Agatha Raisin immerses herself in the glittering lifestyle of the fabulously wealthy when Sir Charles Fraith is accused of murder - and Agatha is named as his accomplice! A high-society wedding, a glitzy masked ball, and an introduction to the world of international show-jumping where the riders are glamorous, the horses are beautiful, and intrigue runs deep, leave Agatha with a list of suspects as long as a stallion's tail. Sinister evidence then emerges that appears to seal Sir Charles's fate and Agatha must uncover the truth before a net of skulduggery closes around him and he loses his ancestral home, his entire estate, and his freedom. And if events weren't complicated enough... Agatha's ex-husband James Lacey is back in Carsely and back in Agatha's heart...Praise for M. C. Beaton's Agatha Raisin mysteries:'Irresistible, unputdownable, a joy' Anne Robinson'Full of perfectly pitched interest, intrigue, and charm' Lee Child'Agatha is like Miss Marple with a drinking problem, a pack-a-day habit and major man lust. In fact, I think she could be living my dream life' Entertainment Weekly'M. C. Beaton's imperfect heroine is an absolute gem' Publishers Weekly'[Agatha] is a glorious cross between Miss Marple, Auntie Mame, and Lucille Ball . . . She's wonderful' St. Petersburg Times'Few things in life are more satisfying than to discover a brand-new Agatha Raisin mystery' Tampa Tribune-Times'Beaton has a winner in the irrepressible, romance-hungry Agatha' Chicago Sun-Times

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An intricate text filled to the brim with connotations of desire, home, and childhood—nests, food, beds, birds, fairies, bits of string, ribbon, goodnight kisses, appetites sated and denied—Reading Boyishly is a story of mothers and sons, loss and longing, writing and photography. In this homage to four boyish men and one boy—J. M. Barrie, Roland Barthes, Marcel Proust, D. W. Winnicott, and the young photographer Jacques Henri Lartigue—Carol Mavor embraces what some have anxiously labeled an over-attachment to the mother. Here, the maternal is a cord (unsevered) to the night-light of boyish reading.To “read boyishly” is to covet the mother’s body as a home both lost and never lost, to desire her as only a son can, as only a body that longs for, but will never become Mother, can. Nostalgia (from the Greek nostos = return to native land, and algos = suffering or grief) is at the heart of the labor of boyish reading, which suffers in its love affair with the mother. The writers and the photographer that Mavor lovingly considers are boyish readers par excellence: Barrie, creator of Peter Pan, the boy who refused to grow up; Barthes, the “professor of desire” who lived with or near his mother until her death; Proust, the modernist master of nostalgia; Winnicott, therapist to “good enough” mothers; and Lartigue, the child photographer whose images invoke ghostlike memories of a past that is at once comforting and painful.Drawing attention to the interplay between writing and vision, Reading Boyishly is stuffed full with more than 200 images. At once delicate and powerful, the book is a meditation on the threads that unite mothers and sons and on the writers and artists who create from those threads art that captures an irretrievable past.

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The epic story of legendary band Yothu Yindi and 'Treaty', the song that gave voice to a movementWITH INTRODUCTIONS BY YALMAY YUNUPINGU & WITIYANA MARIKA Sometimes a musical revolution can erupt from the most unlikely of places. Long before they were ARIA Hall of Fame inductees, Yothu Yindi were a bunch of Yolngu (Aboriginal people of East Arnhem Land) and balanda (non-Indigenous) mates rocking out in the remote Top End. Soon they were creating some of the coolest new music in the country, splicing traditional sounds with electric, and spreading a message of unity. Then, after singer Mandawuy Yunupiu penned the hit song 'Treaty' with Paul Kelly and Peter Garrett, and a remix dropped in 1991, Yothu Yindi shot out of Arnhem Land and into the hearts of music lovers across Australia and the world. Writing in the Sand, by Yothu Yindi's authorised biographer, Matt Garrick, is the epic story of one of Australia's most original bands and how 'Treaty' gave voice to Indigenous Australia's hard-fought struggle for recognition. Featuring photos from the band's archives never previously published, the book is based on extensive interviews with current and former band members, including mainstays Witiyana Marika, Stu Kellaway and Jodie Cockatoo, as well as family members such as Yalmay Yunupiu, Mandawuy's widow, and collaborators and fellow artists like Garrett, Kelly, Neil Finn, Joy McKean, Bart Willoughby and Andrew Farriss.Funny, poetic, heartfelt and steeped in the sights, smells and unique rhythms of East Arnhem Land, Writing in the Sand is a must-read for anyone who cares about Australian music, and Aboriginal culture and recognition, all of which were brilliantly woven together by one of the most exciting bands of our time.

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Michelangelo is best known for great artistic achievements such as the Sistine ceiling, the David, the Piet, and the dome of St. Peter's. Yet throughout his seventy-five year career, he was engaged in another artistic act that until now has been largely overlooked: he not only filled hundreds of sheets of paper with exquisite drawings, sketches, and doodles, but also, on fully a third of these sheets, composed his own words. Here we can read the artist's marginal notes to his most enduring masterpieces; workaday memos to assistants and pupils; poetry and letters; and achingly personal expressions of ambition and despair surely meant for nobody's eyes but his own. Michelangelo: A Life on Paper is the first book to examine this intriguing interplay of words and images, providing insight into his life and work as never before. This sumptuous volume brings together more than two hundred stunning, museum-quality reproductions of Michelangelo's most private papers, many in color. Accompanying them is Leonard Barkan's vivid narrative, which explains the important role the written word played in the artist's monumental public output. What emerges is a wealth of startling juxtapositions: perfectly inscribed sonnets and tantalizing fragments, such as "Have patience, love me, sufficient consolation"; careful notations listing money spent for chickens, oxen, and funeral rites for the artist's father; a beautiful drawing of a Madonna and child next to a mock love poem that begins, "You have a face sweeter than boiled grape juice, and a snail seems to have passed over it." Magnificently illustrated and superbly detailed, this book provides a rare and intimate look at how Michelangelo's artistic genius expressed itself in words as well as pictures.

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Based on the BBC television series, John Berger's Ways of Seeing is a unique look at the way we view art, published as part of the Penguin on Design series in Penguin Modern Classics.'Seeing comes before words. The child looks and recognizes before it can speak.''But there is also another sense in which seeing comes before words. It is seeing which establishes our place in the surrounding world; we explain that world with words, but word can never undo the fact that we are surrounded by it. The relation between what we see and what we know is never settled.' John Berger's Ways of Seeing is one of the most stimulating and influential books on art in any language. First published in 1972, it was based on the BBC television series about which the Sunday Times critic commented: 'This is an eye-opener in more ways than one: by concentrating on how we look at paintings . . . he will almost certainly change the way you look at pictures.' By now he has.John Berger (b. 1926) is an art critic, painter and novelist.born in Hackney, London. His novel G. (1972) won both the James Tait Black Memorial Prize and the Booker Prize. If you enjoyed Ways of Seeing, you might like Susan Sontag's On Photography, also available in Penguin Modern Classics.'Berger has the ability to cut right through the mystification of professional art critics ... he is a liberator of images: and once we have allowed the paintings to work on us directly, we are in a much better position to make a meaningful evaluation'Peter Fuller, Arts Review'The influence of the series and the book ... was enormous ... It opened up for general attention areas of cultural study that are now commonplace'Geoff Dyer in Ways of Telling'One of the most influential intellectuals of our time'Observer

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Jan Le Witt and George Him were a comparative rarity, a graphic design duo; signing their work as 'Lewitt-Him' they brought an innovative use of colour, imaginative abstraction and symbolism to commercial design. Both Polish by birth, they arrived in London in 1937, sponsored by the Victoria and Albert Museum and Lund Humphries. They established their reputation for fine poster work in World War II, and for their exhibition work with their much loved Guinness Clock at the Festival of Britain. In Poland their illustrations for Lokomotywa helped make it a children's classic and they continued with book illustration throughout their partnership. Of very different temperaments and artistic interests the partnership lasted some twenty years, to January 1955, when Le Witt left to develop his career as an artist. Him continued his commitment to graphic design - illustration, exhibitions and general commercial work - most remarkable of which were his witty illustrations marrying Stephen Potter's texts for Schweppes - 'Schweppshire', one of the longest lasting advertisement campaigns. The Design series is the winner of the Brand/Series Identity Category at the British Book Design and Production Awards 2009, judges said: "A series of books about design, they had to be good and these are. The branding is consistent, there is a good use of typography and the covers are superb." Also available: Claud Lovat Fraser ISBN: 9781851496631 GPO ISBN: 9781851495962 Peter Blake ISBN: 9781851496181 FHK Henrion ISBN: 9781851496327 David Gentleman ISBN: 9781851495955 David Mellor ISBN: 9781851496037 E.McKnight Kauffer ISBN: 9781851495207 Edward Bawden and Eric Ravilious ISBN: 9781851495009 El Lissitzky ISBN: 9781851496198 Festival of Britain 1951 ISBN: 9781851495337 Harold Curwen & Oliver Simon: Curwen Press ISBN: 9781851495719 Paul Nash and John Nash ISBN: 9781851495191 Rodchenko ISBN: 9781851495917 Abram Games ISBN: 9781851496778

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When a human skeleton is discovered at the site of a controversial new dam in remote northern Botswana, rookie Detective Kubu is drawn into a terrifying local feud, and discovers a deadly covenant that could change everything… ‘A wonderful, original voice – McCall Smith with a dark edge and even darker underbelly’ Peter James ‘Stanley gets everything – the dialogue, the terrain descriptions, the plot beats – right … and with a complex and endearing protagonist’ Publishers Weekly STARRED review ‘A real page turner, perfect for those who like their mysteries complex, and want something a little different’ Strand Magazine _____________________________________ While building a pipeline near the Okavango Delta, a contractor unearths the remains of a long-dead Bushman. Rookie Detective David ‘Kubu’ Bengu of Botswana CID and Scottish pathologist, Ian MacGregor, are sent to investigate, and MacGregor discovers eight more skeletons. Shortly after the gruesome discoveries, the elder of a nearby village is murdered in his home. The local police are convinced it was a robbery, but Kubu isn’t so sure … and neither is the strange woman who claims that an angry river spirit caused the elder’s death. As accusations of corruption are levelled and international outrage builds over the massacre of the Bushman families, Kubu and his colleagues uncover a deadly covenant, and begin to fear that their own lives may be in mortal danger… ____________________________ ’My favourite writing duo since Ellery Queen’ Ragnar Jónasson ‘Great African crime fiction’ Deon Meyer ‘Michael Stanley weaves together the core mystery and the landscape of Africa in magical ways’ Bolo Books ‘Kubu is an excellent, if large, companion for readers entering his unfamiliar land’ Reviewing the Evidence ‘What an outstanding read!’ Kings River Life magazine ‘The African Columbo’ Entertainment Weekly

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A hilarious rhyming story for princesses who are definitely NOT princessy.When a truly terrifying sound wakes everyone up, clever Princess Daisy soon figures out the problem, but her father, the King, just won't listen - how can a princess defeat a dragon? Then when the knights who come to the rescue prove to be a big bunch of nincompoop scaredy-cats, things start to look rather bad. Until . . . hang on . . . who's that mystery knight in the dragon's den? Why, it's Plucky Princess Daisy . . . OF COURSE! A feminist bedtime picture book that's just perfect for princesses and princes who don't need rescuing.Steven Lenton is the illustrator of the hugely successful Shifty McGifty series by Tracey Corderoy, and also illustrates books by David Baddiel, Frank Cottrell-Boyce and Peter Bently. His books have won awards such as the Sainsbury's Children's Book Award and have been selected for the WHSmith Children's Book of the Year and Tom Fletcher Book Club.Every Nosy Crow paperback picture book comes with a free 'Stories Aloud' audio recording - just scan the QR code and listen along!Read all the Shifty McGifty and Slippery Sam picture book adventures:Shifty McGifty and Slippery SamShifty McGifty and Slippery Sam: The Cat BurglarShifty McGifty and Slippery Sam: The Diamond ChaseShifty McGifty and Slippery Sam: The Missing MasterpieceHave you read Shifty and Sam's two-colour early readers?Shifty McGifty and Slippery Sam: Jingle Bells! Shifty McGifty and Slippery Sam: Up, Up and Away!Shifty McGifty and Slippery Sam: The Spooky SchoolShifty McGifty and Slippery Sam: The Aliens Are Coming!

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A Financial Times Best Book of the YearThe untold story of how Russian espionage in imperial China shaped the emergence of the Russian Empire as a global power.From the seventeenth to the nineteenth century, the Russian Empire made concerted efforts to collect information about China. It bribed Chinese porcelain-makers to give up trade secrets, sent Buddhist monks to Mongolia on intelligence-gathering missions, and trained students at its Orthodox mission in Beijing to spy on their hosts. From diplomatic offices to guard posts on the Chinese frontier, Russians were producing knowledge everywhere, not only at elite institutions like the Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg. But that information was secret, not destined for wide circulation.Gregory Afinogenov distinguishes between the kinds of knowledge Russia sought over the years and argues that they changed with the shifting aims of the state and its perceived place in the world. In the seventeenth century, Russian bureaucrats were focused on China and the forbidding Siberian frontier. They relied more on spies, including Jesuit scholars stationed in China. In the early nineteenth century, the geopolitical challenge shifted to Europe: rivalry with Britain drove the Russians to stake their prestige on public-facing intellectual work, and knowledge of the East was embedded in the academy. None of these institutional configurations was especially effective in delivering strategic or commercial advantages. But various knowledge regimes did have their consequences. Knowledge filtered through Russian espionage and publication found its way to Europe, informing the encounter between China and Western empires.Based on extensive archival research in Russia and beyond, Spies and Scholars breaks down long-accepted assumptions about the connection between knowledge regimes and imperial power and excavates an intellectual legacy largely neglected by historians.

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The Garden in the Machine explores the evocations of place, and particularly American place, that have become so central to the representational and narrative strategies of alternative and mainstream film and video. Scott MacDonald contextualizes his discussion with a wide-ranging and deeply informed analysis of the depiction of place in nineteenth- and twentieth-century literature, painting, and photography. Accessible and engaging, this book examines the manner in which these films represent nature and landscape in particular, and location in general. It offers us both new readings of the films under consideration and an expanded sense of modern film history. Among the many antecedents to the films and videos discussed here are Thomas Cole's landscape painting, Thoreau's Walden, Olmsted and Vaux's Central Park, and Eadweard Muybridge's panoramic photographs of San Francisco. MacDonald analyzes the work of many accomplished avant-garde filmmakers: Kenneth Anger, Bruce Baillie, James Benning, Stan Brakhage, Nathaniel Dorsky, Hollis Frampton, Ernie Gehr, Larry Gottheim, Robert Huot, Peter Hutton, Marjorie Keller, Rose Lowder, Marie Menken, J.J. Murphy, Andrew Noren, Pat O'Neill, Leighton Pierce, Carolee Schneemann, and Chick Strand. He also examines a variety of recent commercial feature films, as well as independent experiments in documentary and such contributions to independent video history as George Kuchar's Weather Diaries and Ellen Spiro's Roam Sweet Home. MacDonald reveals the spiritual underpinnings of these works and shows how issues of race, ethnicity, gender, and class are conveyed as filmmakers attempt to discover forms of Edenic serenity within the Machine of modern society. Both personal and scholarly, The Garden in the Machine will be an invaluable resource for those interested in investigating and experiencing a broader spectrum of cinema in their teaching, in their research, and in their lives.

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Critical Heuristics of Social Planning has been recognised as the seminal work on critical systems thinking. Ulrich offers a new approach both to practical philosophy (which has until now remained rather unpractical) and to systems thinking (which has reduced the systems idea to a tool of merely instrumental, rather than practical, reason). Critical systems heuristics (CSH), as the approach is now generally called, provides planners, practitioners and policy makers with a conceptual tool for practising practical reason. It will enable them to identify and discuss systematically the value implications of policies, plans, problem definitions, or program evaluations. In addition, the book offers the most thorough-going introduction available today to the espistemological foundations of critical systems thinking, including a practicable model of cogent argumentation on disputed value implications of designs. A must for practitioners and scholars who are interested in a self-critical and practicable understanding of the widespread call for holistic or systems thinking! "Critical Heuristics will be recognised as a very important book in the emerging systems discipline and will hold a significant position for many years to come". Peter B. Checkland, University of Lancaster, England. "An outstanding contribution to an adequate philosophical and heuristic framework for critical social inquiry and design". C. West Churchman, University of California, Berkeley, USA. "The book fills a major gap in the literature on the systems tradition". Michael C. Jackson, University of Hull, England. "Drawing on a profound knowledge of both Anglo?American systems theory and German practical philosophy, this book belongs to the best studies I have seen on the normative foundations of planning and systems design." Horst Steinmann, University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany. "Mandatory for libraries in the field of planning". John Friedmann, University of California, Los Angeles, USA.

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'Ought to become a classic. It is an enshrinement of [Meades's] intense baroque and catholic cleverness' Roger Lewis, The Times'One of the foremost prose stylists of his age in any register . . . Probably we don’t deserve Meades, a man who apparently has never composed a dull paragraph' Steven Poole, Guardian'There are more gems in this wonderful book than I could cram into a dozen of these columns' Simon Heffer, Daily Telegraph'Such a useful and important critic . . . He is very much on the reader’s side, bringing his full wit to bear on every single thing he writes' Nicholas Lezard, SpectatorThis landmark publication collects three decades of writing from one of the most original, provocative and consistently entertaining voices of our time. Anyone who cares about language and culture should have this book in their life.Thirty years ago, Jonathan Meades published a volume of reportorial journalism, essays, criticism, squibs and fictions called Peter Knows What Dick Likes. The critic James Wood was moved to write: ‘When journalism is like this, journalism and literature become one.’Pedro and Ricky Come Again is every bit as rich and catholic as its predecessor. It is bigger, darker, funnier and just as impervious to taste and manners. It bristles with wit and pin-sharp eloquence, whether Meades is contemplating northernness in a German forest or hymning the virtues of slang.From the indefensibility of nationalism and the ubiquitous abuse of the word ‘iconic’, to John Lennon’s shopping lists and the wine they call Black Tower, the work assembled here demonstrates Meades's unparalleled range and erudition, with pieces on cities, artists, sex, England, France, concrete, faith, politics, food, history and much, much more.

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'Anna Jacobs' books are deservedly popular. She is one of the best writers of Lancashire sagas around' - Historical Novels Reviews'Anna Jacobs' books have an impressive grasp of human emotions' - Sunday Times'Catherine Cookson fans will cheer!' - Peterborough Evening Telegraph***************The heartwarming third instalment of the Rivenshaw series from bestselling saga writer Anna Jacobs.After a stray bomb scored a direct hit on his childhood home in Hertfordshire, the only thing that has kept Francis Brady going while he works day and night salvaging what he can from the rubble is the thought that soon he'll be joining war-time friends Mayne, Daniel and Victor as electrician in their new dream building firm in Lancashire. But things are not going to plan: Mayne isn't answering any of his letters; Francis' wife is having a change of heart about moving up north - and her parents seem set on destroying his reputation... A lot of marriages are breaking up in these times of change, and Francis is loathe for his to be one of them... But how can he turn down the opportunity of a new life and career in Rivenshaw? Meanwhile in Rivenshaw itself, newly married Mayne and Judith's plans to convert Esherwood house into flats have come to an abrupt halt. While clearing out the house in readiness for the rebuild, they've discovered that someone has been stealing valuables and hiding them in the old Nissen hut. But who hid them there - and are they planning on returning for them? And are they also responsible for something else found in the shelter: a body, buried in a shallow grave...With so much going against them, can these four friends ever turn their dreams into reality?

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'I love Fiona Griffiths' Sharon BoltonA crime from the past. A murder from the future. DS Fiona Griffiths is bored. It's been months since she had a good corpse. Then she gets news; not just of a murder, but of a decapitation, and one committed with an antique sword no less. All that, and, a murder scene laid out like a gruesome crossword clue.Gaynor Charteris was an archaeologist excavating a nearby iron-age site. Genial, respected, well-liked, it was hard to see why anyone would want to kill her. But as Fiona starts to investigate, she finds evidence of a crime that seems to have its origins in King Arthur's greatest battle - a crime so bizarre that getting her superiors to take it seriously is going to be her toughest job. Especially since the crime hasn't yet been committed.Praise for the Fiona Griffiths mystery series:'Compelling and claustrophobic. Without a doubt, Fiona Griffiths is one of crime's most memorable heroines' Sarah Hilary'Compelling...a new crime talent to treasure' Daily Mail 'In a word - brilliant. One of the most enjoyable crime novels I've read in a while' James Oswald'Gritty, compelling...a procedural unlike any other you are likely to read this year' USA Today'Gripping...Fiona Griffiths kept me hooked to the last page and left me hungry for more' Rachel AbbottFans of Angela Marsons, Peter James and Ann Cleeves will be gripped by the other titles in the Fiona Griffiths mystery series: 1. Talking to the Dead2. Love Story, With Murders3. The Strange Death of Fiona Griffiths4. This Thing of Darkness5. The Dead House 6. The Deepest Grave (coming soon!)If you're looking for a crime thriller series to keep you hooked, then go no further: you've just found it.** Each Fiona Griffiths thriller can be read as a standalone or in series order **

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A hanged man. A stolen painting. An impossible crime.A marine engineer is found hanged in a locked apartment. Some artwork is stolen, then mysteriously returned. And a security guard is found dead at the base of a Welsh cliff.When Fiona Griffiths is tasked to look through a stackload of cold cases, her bosses don't expect her to find anything of interest. But then she discovers that an impossible robbery really happened. That the supposed suicide was anything but. That the dead security guard was almost certainly murdered.Before long, Fiona is embroiled in what will become the most terrifying case of her career so far - one that forces her to enter the heart of darkness, and a journey that will test her mental toughness to its very limits.Praise for the Fiona Griffiths mystery series: 'A stunner with precision plotting, an unusual setting, and a deeply complex protagonist' The Seattle Times'This cleverly plotted police procedural introduces a likeable, maverick detective destined for a bestseller following' Choice'Compelling...a new crime talent to treasure' Daily Mail 'Gritty, compelling...a procedural unlike any other you are likely to read this year' USA Today 'An original and complex character; a different kind of policewoman. Fiona Griffiths is a truly fascinating character' ShotsFans of Angela Marsons, Peter James and Ann Cleeves will be gripped by the other titles in the Fiona Griffiths mystery series: 1. Talking to the Dead2. Love Story, With Murders3. The Strange Death of Fiona Griffiths4. This Thing of Darkness5. The Dead House 6. The Deepest Grave (coming soon!)If you're looking for a crime thriller series to keep you hooked, then go no further: you've just found it.** Each Fiona Griffiths thriller can be read as a standalone or in series order **

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The Civil War fascinates Americans like no other war in their history. Many Americans are still fighting some of the war's issues in an Odyssey that stretches back to the first settlement and will persist until the end of time. The war itself was an Iliad of brilliant generals like Grant, Sherman, and Sheridan for the Union, or Lee, Jackson, and Forrest for the Confederacy; epic battles like Gettysburg and Chickamauga; epic sieges like Vicksburg and Petersburg; and epic naval combats such as Monitor versus Merrimack, or Kearsarge versus Alabama. It was America's most horrific war, with more dead than all others combined. Around 625,000 soldiers and 125,000 civilians died from various causes, bringing the total to 750,000 people. Of 31 million Americans, 2.1 million northerners and 880,000 southerners donned uniforms. Why did eleven states eventually ban together to rebel against the United States? President Jefferson Davis began an answer when he said: If the Confederacy falls, there should be written on its tombstone, Died of a Theory.' That theory justified the enslavement of blacks by whites as a natural right and duty of a superior race over an inferior race; a theory, it was believed, that morally and economically elevated both races. Although slavery was the Civil War's core cause, there were related chronic conflicts over the nature of government, citizenship, liberty, property, equality, wealth, race, identity, justice, crime, voting, power, and history - some of which issues have never entirely gone away. America's Unending Civil War is unique among thousands of books on the subject. None before has explored the Civil War's related and enduring conflicts of ideas and principles through four centuries of a nation's history.

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A unique compendium of foundational and contemporary writings in global justice, newly revised and expanded The Global Justice Reader is the first resource of its kind to focus exclusively on this important topic in moral and political philosophy, providing an expertly curated selection of both classic and contemporary work in one comprehensive volume. Purpose-built for course work, this collection brings together the best in the field to help students appreciate the philosophical dimensions of critical global issues and chart the development of diverse concepts of justice and morality. Newly revised and expanded, the Reader presents key writings of the most influential writers on global justice, including Thomas Hobbes, Immanuel Kant, John Stuart Mill, Martha C. Nussbaum, and Peter Singer. Thirty-nine chapters across eleven thematically organized sections explore sovereignty, rights to self-determination, human rights, nationalism and patriotism, cosmopolitanism, global poverty, women and global justice, climate change, and more. Features seminal works from the moral and political philosophers of the past as well as important writings from leading contemporary thinkers Explores critical topics in current discourses surrounding immigration and citizenship, global poverty, just war, terrorism, and international environmental justice Highlights the need for shared philosophical resources to help address global problems Includes a brief introduction in each section setting out the issues of concern to global justice theorists Contains complete references in each chapter and a fully up-to-date, extended bibliography to supplement further readings The revised edition of The Global Justice Reader remains an ideal textbook for undergraduate and graduate courses in global justice and human rights, cosmopolitanism and nationalism, environmental justice, and social justice and citizenship, and an excellent supplement for general courses in political philosophy, political science, social science, and law.

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For the last three decades Brian Clough has been the most charismatic manager in football. Funny, outrageous, sentimental, he stands out sharply from the bland men in suits. Though his talent has earned him a fortune, he remains a working-class hero. As a player he was one of the most gifted forwards of his day. He scored 251 goals in 274 League appearances - and would have scored more had a cruel injury not forced him to retire.As a manager his record was full of superlatives. He took both Derby County and then Nottingham Forest out of the doldrums of the Second Division and made them world-beaters. Tactically brilliant, Clough had an unmatched ability to motivate players. He is the best manager England never had. Behind his back, they call him Old Big 'Ead. He has never been far from controversy, and some of his rows, particularly with his long-standing managerial partner Peter Taylor, are the stuff of tabloid legend. Not so long ago he was televised running onto the pitch to wallop some unruly supporters. More recently he has taken legal advice to counter rumours about illegal ticket deals. Dull he isn't. Despite his outgoing nature, Clough has always guarded his privacy. At last he has decided to tell his full story: from terraced council house in Middlesbrough, to luxurious mansion in an exclusive suburb of Derby; from fitter to socialist millionaire. He speaks of the influence of his strong, proud mother, his courtship and marriage to his glamorous wife Barbara, his children, particularly his goal-scoring son Nigel, and his health, which has been the subject of press speculation and concern. This is an extraordinary life, told by an extraordinary man.

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‘One of the boldest thriller writers working today’ TESS GERRITSEN‘Her characters, plot, and pacing are unrivalled’ MICHAEL CONNELLY__________________________________A darkly comic tale about Mr Less-Than-Average in an average world from the No. 1 Bestseller.Crime fiction obsessive Martin Reed is the proverbial butt of everyone's jokes. Working as a glorified accountant at Southern Toilet Supply and still living with his cantankerous mother, he has become resigned to the world in which he lives - the school bullies now pick on him in the workplace, women still spurn him and his arch enemy is now his supervisor.But then he arrives at work one morning to find the police on site. A co-worker has been brutally murdered and her body abandoned in a ditch. And the overwhelming evidence points to Martin - especially when he can't or won't admit that he has an alibi. When a second victim is found in the company bathroom, things really conspire against Martin. The one bright star on his otherwise bleak horizon is the beautiful and sympathetic Detective Anther Albada, but even she's beginning to have her doubts about his innocence. Could Martin be guilty? Or is he just misunderstood?_________________________________________Crime and thriller masters know there’s nothing better than a little Slaughter:‘I’d follow her anywhere’ GILLIAN FLYNN‘Passion, intensity, and humanity’ LEE CHILD ‘A writer of extraordinary talents’ KATHY REICHS ‘Fiction doesn't get any better than this’ JEFFERY DEAVER ‘A great writer at the peak of her powers’ PETER JAMES ‘Raw, powerful and utterly gripping’ KATHRYN STOCKETT ‘With heart and skill Karin Slaughter keeps you hooked from the first page until the last’ CAMILLA LACKBERG ‘Amongst the world‘s greatest and finest crime writers’ YRSA SIGURÐARDÓTTIR

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NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER Power couple Marlo Thomas and Phil Donahue have created a compelling and intimate collection of intriguing conversations with famous couples about their enduring marriages and how they have made them last through the challenges we all share.What makes a marriage last? Who doesn’t want to know the answer to that question? To unlock this mystery, iconic couple Marlo Thomas and Phil Donahue crisscrossed the country and conducted intimate conversations with forty celebrated couples whose long marriages they’ve admired—from award-winning actors, athletes, and newsmakers to writers, comedians, musicians, and a former U.S. president and First Lady. Through these conversations, Marlo and Phil also revealed the rich journey of their own marriage. What Makes a Marriage Last offers practical and heartfelt wisdom for couples of all ages, and a rare glimpse into the lives of husbands and wives we have come to know and love. Marlo and Phil’s frequently funny, often touching, and always engaging conversations span the marital landscape—from that first rush of new love to keeping that precious spark alive, from navigating hard times to celebrating triumphs, from balancing work and play and family to growing better and stronger together. At once intimate, candid, revelatory, hilarious, instructive, and poignant, this book is a beautiful gift for couples of every age and stage.Featuring interviews with:Alan and Arlene Alda • Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick President Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter • James Carville and Mary Matalin Deepak and Rita Chopra • Patricia Cornwell and Staci Gruber Bryan Cranston and Robin Dearden • Billy and Janice Crystal Jamie Lee Curtis and Christopher Guest • Ted Danson and Mary Steenburgen Viola Davis and Julius Tennon • Gloria and Emilio EstefanMichael J. Fox and Tracy Pollan • Chip and Joanna Gaines Sanjay and Rebecca Gupta • Mariska Hargitay and Peter Hermann Neil Patrick Harris and David Burtka • Ron and Cheryl Howard Jesse and Jacqueline Jackson • Elton John and David Furnish John and Justine Leguizamo • LL COOL J and Simone I. Smith Melissa McCarthy and Ben Falcone • John McEnroe and Patty Smyth Mehmet and Lisa Oz • Rodney and Holly Robinson Peete Letty Cottin Pogrebin and Bert Pogrebin • Rob and Michele Reiner Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos • Al Roker and Deborah Roberts Ray and Anna Romano • Tony Shalhoub and Brooke Adams Judges Judy and Jerry Sheindlin • George Stephanopoulos and Ali Wentworth Sting and Trudie Styler • Capt. Chesley “Sully” and Lorrie Sullenberger Lily Tomlin and Jane Wagner • Judith and Milton Viorst Judy Woodruff and Al Hunt • Bob Woodward and Elsa Walsh

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Thirty poets from around the world read to you in person. This is a new concept in publishing: your own personal poetry festival brought into your home. Each poet reads to you for about ten minutes - up to half a dozen poems chosen from across the range of their work. "In Person" is a collaboration between Bloodaxe Books and award-winning film-maker Pamela Robertson-Pearce. Her style of filming combines directness and simplicity, sensitivity and warmth - the perfect combination for these intimate readings. It is as if the poet were sitting in the room with you, reading just to you, and sometimes saying a few things about the poems. Apart from one recording taken from a live public performance, all the films present informal, one-to-one readings. They enhance your appreciation of the poetry. You hear how the poems sound; you see how the poets read and present their work. T.S. Eliot once described poetry as 'one person talking to another', while W.H. Auden believed it was essential to hear poetry read aloud, for 'no poem, which when mastered, is not better heard than read is good poetry'. "In Person" presents the oral art of poetry in that spirit. There are four hours of readings on two DVDs pouched inside the back cover, and all the poems are printed in this book. "In Person" celebrates 30 years of poetry from a pioneering press. Founded in 1978, Bloodaxe has published nearly a thousand titles by three hundred writers. Until now you wouldn't be able to see or hear readings by many of Bloodaxe's international range of poets. "In Person" makes that possible for the first time, presenting readings by 30 essential voices from Britain, Ireland, America, Spain, Hungary, Palestine, Pakistan, China, New Zealand and the Caribbean. Four out of the 30 short films present the poets' work bilingually. Menna Elfyn's reading alternates between her Welsh poems and their English translations. Joan Margarit reads in Catalan in tandem with his translator Anna Crowe reading her English translations. Palestinian poet Taha Muhammad Ali reads in Arabic and then re-inhabits each poem as it is read in English by his translator Peter Cole. Yang Lian introduces his work in English, and reads the poems in Chinese. This anthology presents all their poems in both languages in a parallel-text format, enabling you to follow either language as the poems are read on the film. All the other readings are in English only, and in many varieties of English which will add greatly to your enjoyment and appreciation of the poetry: not just poems read in Scottish, Welsh and Irish English by Jackie Kay, W.N. Herbert, Gwyneth Lewis, Brendan Kennelly and Micheal O'Siadhail, but also George Szirtes' Hungarian-inflected English, Benjamin Zephaniah's melding of Jamaican and Birmingham, and the Caribbean lilt of John Agard and James Berry. The musical range of American voices is just as diverse, ranging from urban Detroit (Philip Levine) to the Ozark Mountains (C.D. Wright). There's also a 'bonus track': a short film of Bloodaxe's first poet, Ken Smith, made by Ivor Bowen just before Ken's untimely death.

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Business essentials and marketing strategies to help your firmsurvive and thrive . . . As a design professional running your own small firm, you expect towear many hats--designer, office manager, project manager--all in aday's work. But strategic marketer? No one prepared you for that!Marketing Basics for Designers is a long overdue resource fordesigners who need to become expert marketers fast. It providessolid practical advice on how to market your services, build yourclient base, and keep your customers coming back for more. You'll learn how to establish your design niche and develop yourown marketing plan to reach potential clients. You'll findtechniques for networking and using your contacts with otherprofessionals. And you'll find inside tips from 30 leadingdesigners who have had to develop their own marketing methods tosurvive. Positively packed with all the details you need, MarketingBasics for Designers helps you ensure your firm's future successand shows you how to: * Increase your firm's visibility within your community * Use past successes to generate future business * Perform beyond your clients' expectations * Utilize a show home to market your talents * Establish competitive and appropriate prices * Work successfully with other professionals * And much more If you are recently out on your own, planning to start your ownpractice, or already managing your own small firm, this is one ofthe most important books you will ever add to your professionallibrary. Marketing Basics for Designers What makes running a small design practice so much more challengingthan working for one of the big firms? You have to attract your ownclients and keep them, you're working with limited resources andpersonnel, and once you finally pull yourself away from yourdrawing board to concentrate on marketing your services, where doyou begin? You can't just sit there wondering why you didn't learnmore about marketing in design school. Here's a book to help you out. With a clear, no-nonsense approach,Jane D. Martin and Nancy Knoohuizen address the full range ofmarketing problems and solutions from the unique perspective of thesmall design firm. They understand that you often find yourselfshort of the time, money, and know-how it takes to advertise yourservices effectively. Drawing on their own experience as well asinterviews with more than 30 successful designers, Martin andKnoohuizen show you how to overcome these limitations and developan effective marketing campaign. This incomparable guide will help you put together your marketingcampaign, map out your strategy, and attract the attention ofpotential clients. Not everyone is a born salesperson, but Martinand Knoohuizen let you in on trade secrets that really work andoffer suggestions that will help you feel more comfortablemarketing yourself. You'll learn to build relationships byeffective use of referrals and word of mouth. You'll master thesubtleties of clinching the deal and discover how to keep yournewfound clients coming back for more. You'll also receive sound advice from those who have been therebefore you. Charles Gandy, B. J. Peterson, Mark Hampton, and CherylP. Duvall are among the illustrious designers who share theirwisdom, tips, and recommendations. You'll find out how these majordesigners have coped with many of the same problems you face now,and you'll learn from their mistakes as well as theirtriumphs. Whether you're just starting out in the design business, yearningto break free and become your own boss, or trying to create growthin an established firm, Marketing Basics for Designers helps youdevelop a successful marketing strategy based on your own needs,capabilities, and expectations.

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A captivating photographic odyssey spanning fashion, Hollywood and travel, this is the first publication in almost 40 years on the work of George Hoyningen-Huene, the photographer whose images defined an era. Baron George Hoyningen-Huene (19001968), known simply as Huene, worked during the golden age of couture fashion and Hollywood cinema. He was born in St Petersburg to a wealthy family, but they had to flee their home during the Russian revolution in 1917. Huene spent time in England before moving to Paris, where he was employed to create photographs for Vogue and Vanity Fair and rapidly established himself as a visual innovator, fusing elements of neoclassicism and surrealism to create chic, arresting images. In 1935, Huene joined Harper's Bazaar magazine, where he remained a contributor until 1946, following which he settled in California and embarked on a second career as a colour coordinator for Hollywood films. Supported by an international exhibition opening at Chanel Ne

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“Confessions of a Puppetmaster is a fast, funny, wild ride through some wild times. Plus, Charlie compares me to Harrison Ford, so I’m all in!” —Bill MaherRenowned producer, director, and “B movie” showman Charles Band takes readers on a wild romp through Hollywood’s decidedly un-Oscar-worthy underbelly, where mayhem and zombies reign supreme, and cheap thrills and entertainment are king"This book is a blast. It made me want to stay up all night and watch terrible movies." —Peter Sagal"One of the most entertaining film bios ever." —Larry Karaszewski"Reads like a Tarantino film written by Hunter S. Thompson." —BooklistZombies, aliens, a little skin, lots of gore—and even more laughs—the cinematic universe of Charles Band is legendary. From the toilet-invading creatures of Ghoulies to the time-travelling bounty hunter in Trancers to the pandemic-crashed Corona Zombies, Band has spent four decades giving B-movie lovers exactly what they love. In Confessions of a Puppetmaster, this congenial master of Grindhouse cinema tells his own story, uncut.Born into a family of artists, Band spent much of his childhood in Rome where his father worked in the film industry. Early visits to movie sets sealed young Charlie’s fate. By his twenties he had plunged into moviemaking himself and found his calling in exploitation movies—quick, low-budget efforts that exploit the zeitgeist and feed people’s desire for clever, low-brow entertainment. His films crossed genres, from vampire flicks to sci fi to erotic musical adaptations of fairy tales. As he came into his own as a director, he was the first to give starring roles to household names like Demi Moore, Helen Hunt, and Bill Maher.Off set, Band’s life has been equally epic. Returning to his beloved Italy, he bought both Dino De Laurentiis’s movie studio and a medieval castle. After Romania’s oppressive communist regime fell, he circumvented the U.S. State Department to shoot films in Dracula’s homeland. He made—and then lost—a moviemaking fortune. A visionary, Band was also at the vanguard of the transition to home video and streaming, making and distributing direct-to-video movies long before the major studios caught on.In this revealing tell-all, Band details the dizzying heights and catastrophic depths of his four decades in showbiz. A candid and engaging glimpse at Hollywood’s wild side, Confessions of a Puppetmaster is as entertaining as the movies that made this consummate schlockmeister famous.

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“If wilderness is outlawed, only outlaws can save wilderness.” Edward Abbey In a collection of gripping stories of adventure, Doug Peacock, loner, iconoclast, environmentalist, and contemporary of Edward Abbey, reflects on a life lived in the wild, asking the question many ask in their twilight years: “Was It Worth It?” Recounting sojourns with Abbey, but also Peter Matthiessen, Doug Tompkins, Jim Harrison, Yvon Chouinard and others, Peacock observes that what he calls “solitary walks” were the greatest currency he and his buddies ever shared. He asserts that “solitude is the deepest well I have encountered in this life,” and the introspection it affords has made him who he is: a lifelong protector of the wilderness and its many awe-inspiring inhabitants. With adventures both close to home (grizzlies in Yellowstone and jaguars in the high Sonoran Desert) and farther afield (tigers in Siberia, jaguars again in Belize, spirit bears in the wilds of British Columbia, all the amazing birds of the Galapagos), Peacock acknowledges that Covid 19 has put “everyone’s mortality in the lens now and it’s not necessarily a telephoto shot.” Peacock recounts these adventures to try to understand and explain his perspective on Nature: That wilderness is the only thing left worth saving. In the tradition of Peacock’s many best-selling books, Was It Worth It? is both entertaining and thought provoking. It challenges any reader to make certain that the answer to the question for their own life is “Yes!”

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The arrival of the Anthropocene brings the suggestion that we are only now beginning to speculate on an inhuman world that is not for us, only now confronting fears and anxieties of ecological, political, social, and philosophical extinction. While pointing out that reflections on disaster were not foreign to what we historically call romanticism, Last Things pushes romantic thought toward an altogether new way of conceiving the “end of things,” one that treats lastness as neither privation nor conclusion. Through quieter, non-emphatic modes of thinking the end of human thought, Khalip explores lastness as what marks the limits of our life and world. Reading the fate of romanticism—and romantic studies—within the key of the last, Khalip refuses to elegize or celebrate our ends, instead positing romanticism as a negative force that exceeds theories, narratives, and figures of survival and sustainability. Each chapter explores a range of romantic and contemporary materials: poetry by John Clare, Emily Dickinson, John Keats, Percy Shelley, and William Wordsworth; philosophical texts by William Godwin, David Hume, Immanuel Kant, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau; paintings by Hubert Robert, Caspar David Friedrich, and Paterson Ewen; installations by Tatsuo Miyajima and James Turrell; and photography by John Dugdale, Peter Hujar, and Joanna Kane. Shuttling between temporalities, Last Things undertakes an original reorganization of romantic thought for contemporary culture. It examines an archive on the side of disappearance, perishing, the inhuman, and lastness.

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'A memoir which is also a work of art' – Allan Massie, The Scotsman The story begins with Campbell, aged 14, in a police cell in Glasgow. He’s been charged with stealing books – five Mickey Spillane novels and a copy of Peyton Place. At 15, he became an apprentice printer, but gave that up in order to ‘go on the road’, fulfilling the only ambition he ever had while a pupil at King’s Park Secondary School in Glasgow – to be what RLS called ‘a bit of a vagabond’. On his hitchhiking journeys through Asia and North Africa, an interest in music, reading and writing grew. Campbell also took a keen interest in learning from interesting people. In 1972 he worked on a kibbutz, living in the neighbouring cabin to Peter Green, the founder and lead guitarist of Fleetwood Mac, with whom he formed a two-man musical combo. At the same time, he was part of a group of aspiring writers in Glasgow, including Tom Leonard. His literary heroes of the time were Alexander Trocchi and John Fowles: Campbell tracked them down to their homes and wrote extensively about both. The stories Campbell are recounted in this book. A crowning moment of his life was forming a friendship with the American writer James Baldwin. Campbell visited him more than once at his home in the South of France, and persuaded him to come to Edinburgh for the Book Festival in 1985. Campbell later wrote the acclaimed biography of Baldwin, Talking at the Gates.

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An enthralling locked-room murder mystery inspired by crime fiction of the Golden Age, Death and the Conjuror is the critically acclaimed debut novel by Tom Mead. Selected as one of Publishers Weekly's Mysteries of the Year. 1936, London. A celebrity psychiatrist is discovered dead in his locked study. There seems to be no way a killer could have escaped unseen. There are no clues, no witnesses, and no evidence of the murder weapon. Stumped by the confounding scene, Inspector Flint, the Scotland Yard detective on the case, calls on retired stage magician turned part-time sleuth Joseph Spector. Spector has a knack for explaining the inexplicable, but even he finds that there is more to this mystery than meets the eye. As he and the Inspector interview the colourful cast of suspects, they uncover no shortage of dark secrets... or motives for murder. And when a second murder occurs, this time in an impenetrable elevator, they realise the crime wave will become even more deadly unless they can catch the culprit soon. Reviews for Death and the Conjuror 'Pure escapism and an excellent puzzle, ingeniously expounded.' The Times 'Secrets, red herrings and sleights of hand abound in an ingenious piece of intriguing escapism.' Guardian 'An intricate "impossible" crime that completely fooled me.' Peter Lovesey 'A sharply drawn period piece with memorable characters.' New York Times 'A real treat for mystery fans.' Ragnar Jónasson 'A beautiful, dark, atmospheric story.' Victoria Dowd

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'Lush, dark, utterly real and above all achingly romantic' RUTH WARE Thrilling Regency romance, set against an Outlander-like background of passion and war, this will delight lovers of Poldark and Bridgerton. 1819: Cornwall and St Petersburg High society England is awash with gossip and scandal. For Lady Hester, it's just typical that the wickedest gossip focuses on her beautiful, impossible husband Crow. Hester loves him fiercely, but the Earl of Lamorna has a wild past. Rumours of a child with his black hair and grey eyes wound Hester more than she'll admit. Crow's enemies also want him tried for treason, and soon Hester and their own daughter are in danger. There's nothing Hester won't do to protect their child. So when Countess Lieven drops her guard and says, 'Take your baby, Hester, and run,' Hester does exactly that. Meanwhile, Crow will do anything to save his family, even accepting a final mission that might end in losing them both for good. Praise for Katy Moran: 'Passionate, smart and action-packed... Stuffed full of heart-pumping romance' SARAH HUGHES, Guardian 'A wonderfully thrilling, sweeping romantic historical adventure that keeps you gripped until the last page' ROWAN COLEMAN 'Badly behaved aristocrats, gloriously opinionated women and danger at every turn' iNews Best Books of 2019

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Disturbing. Original. Terrifying. The 'master of horror' is back with the chilling tale of what lurks in the walls of an abandoned hospital. The perfect Halloween read. In this abandoned hospital, pain lives on... and it wants revenge. St Philomena's military hospital has been abandoned for over three years. Now Lilian Chesterfield, who works for one of the most successful building companies in England, is in charge of developing it into a luxury housing complex. But as soon as she and her colleagues start work in the Jacobean-style mansion, their dream turns into a nightmare. They hear screaming from wards full of empty beds. They hear doors slamming and find cutlery scattered over the kitchen floor. Then they see faces peering at them from the mullioned windows. Lilian is pragmatic – she doesn't believe in the supernatural. But just when she's put her mind at rest by scouring the mansion from top to bottom and finding nothing, a former patient of St Philomena's arrives with a warning. The hospital is haunted. And it is haunted by something a thousand times more terrifying than ghosts... Perfect to read at Halloween and for fans of The Haunting of Hill House, The Shining and The Woman in Black. Praise for Graham Masterton: 'One of Britain's finest horror writers.' Daily Mail 'A true master of horror' James Herbert 'One of the most original and frightening storytellers of our time' Peter James

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In 1816, the climate went berserk. The winter brought extreme cold, and torrential rains unleashed massive flooding in Asia. Western Europe and North America experienced a ‘year without a summer’, while failed harvests in 1817 led to the ‘year of famine’. At the time, nobody knew that all these disturbances were the result of a single event: the eruption of Mount Tambora in what is now Indonesia – the greatest volcanic eruption in recorded history. In this book, leading climate historian Wolfgang Behringer provides the first globally comprehensive account of a climate catastrophe that would cast the world into political and social crises for years to come. Concentrating on the period between 1815 and 1820, Behringer shows how this natural occurrence led to worldwide unrest. Analysing events as diverse as the persecution of Jews in Germany, the Peterloo Massacre in the United Kingdom, witch hunts in South Africa and anti-colonial uprisings in Asia, Behringer demonstrates that no region on earth was untouched by the effects of the eruption. Drawing parallels with our world today, Tambora and its aftermath become a case study for how societies and individuals respond to climate change, what risks emerge and how they might be overcome. This comprehensive account of the impact of one of the greatest environmental disasters in human history will be of interest to a wide readership and to anyone seeking to understand better how we might mitigate the effects of climate change.

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Provides the first consideration of sound and the body in contemporary European art cinema Offers detailed analysis of the underexplored dimension of sound in the work of some of the best-known contemporary European art film directors Provides a stimulating contribution to theories of cinematic spectatorship showing how sound, noise and listening can rethink all aspects of the filmic experience Explores the conceptualisation of cinema as a resonant body Considers the sonic dimensions of cinema alongside prescient current debates in European film and criticism about the body, migration and exile, as well as anthropocentrism and anthropocentric modes of representation What does it mean to exist, in our experience of cinema, according to listening? How do sound and 'noise' reconfigure relations between spectators and screens, and by extension, spectators and their worlds? How do films raise questions about the ethics and politics of listening to different bodies? Resonant Bodies in Contemporary European Art Cinema answers these questions through an analysis of films by Catherine Breillat, Gaspar No , Tony Gatlif, Arnaud des Palli res, Lars von Trier and Peter Strickland. These post-millennial European directors have worked with sound in ways that resist the full-definition and perfect hearing offered by Dolby technology. Instead, they have privileged 'noise' - sounds that take us to the limit of what we can hear - in a move that foregrounds the body on screen and constructs spectators as listening bodies.

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It didn’t take long after Jimi Hendrix’s death for the artist to become a myth of music. He has been surrounded by a shroud of intrigue since he first came into the public eye, and the mystery has only grown with time. Much has been written and said about him by experts and fans and critics, some of it true and some of it not; Starting at Zero will set the record straight. This is Hendrix in his own words. The lyricism and rhythm of Jimi Hendrix’s writing will be of no surprise to his fans. Hendrix wrote prolifically throughout his life and he left behind a trove of scribbled-on hotel stationary, napkins and cigarette cartons. Starting at Zero weaves the scraps and bits together fluidly with interviews and lyrics revealing for the first time a continuous narrative of the artist’s life, from birth through to the final four years of his life. The result is a beautifully poetic, charming and passionate memoir as smooth and memorable as Hendrix’s finest songs. The pieces of Starting at Zero came together in large part because of the inspiration of Alan Douglas. Douglas first met Jimi Hendrix backstage at Woodstock, and soon after became Hendrix’s producer and close friend. In creating the book he joined forces with Peter Neal, who edited Hendrix’s writing with the reverence and light touch it deserved.

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Whither China? presents an in-depth and wide-angled picture of Chinese intellectual life during the last decade of the millennium, as China struggled to move beyond the shadow of the Tiananmen tragedy. Because many cultural and intellectual paradigms of the previous decade were left in ruins by that event, Chinese intellectuals were forced in the early 1990s to search for new analytical and critical frameworks. Soon, however, they found themselves engulfed by tidal waves of globalization, surrounded by a new social landscape marked by unabashed commodification, and stunned by a drastically reconfigured socialist state infrastructure. The contributors to Whither China? describe how, instead of spearheading the popular-mandated and state-sanctioned project of modernization, intellectuals now find themselves caught amid rapidly changing structures of economic, social, political, and cultural relations that are both global in nature and local in an irreducibly political sense. Individual essays interrogate the space of Chinese intellectual production today, lay out the issues at stake, and cover major debates and discursive interventions from the 1990s. Those who write within the Chinese context are joined by Western observers of contemporary Chinese cultural and intellectual life. Together, these two groups undertake a truly international intellectual struggle not only to interpret but to change the world.Contributors. Rey Chow, Zhiyuan Cui, Michael Dutton, Gan Yang, Harry Harootunian, Peter Hitchcock, Rebecca Karl, Louisa Schein, Wang Hui, Wang Shaoguang, Xudong Zhang

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In Listening Subjects, David Schwarz uses psychoanalytic techniques to probe the visceral experiences of music listeners. Using classical, popular, and avant-garde music as texts, Schwarz addresses intriguing questions: why do bodies develop goose bumps when listening to music and why does music sound so good when heard "all around?" By concentrating on music as cultural artifact, Listening Subjects shows how the historical conditions under which music is created affect the listening experience.Schwarz applies the ideas of post-Lacanian psychoanalytic theorists Slavoj Zizek, Julia Kristeva, and Kaja Silverman to an analysis of diverse works. In a discussion of John Adams’s opera Nixon in China, he presents music listening as a fantasy of being enclosed in a second skin of enveloping sound. He looks at the song cycles of Franz Schubert as an examination and expression of epistemological doubts at the advent of modernism, and traverses fantasy "space" in his exploration of the white noise at the end of the Beatles’ "I Want You (She’s So Heavy)." Schwarz also considers the psychosexual undercurrent in Peter Gabriel’s "Intruder" and the textual and ideological structures of German Oi Musik. Concluding with a reading of two compositions by Diamanda Galás, he reveals how some performances can simultaneously produce terror and awe, abjection and rage, pleasure and displeasure. This multilayered study transcends other interventions in the field of musicology, particularly in its groundbreaking application of literary theory to popular and classical music.

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The university classroom has been turned into an intensely bitter battlefield. Conservatives are attacking the academy's ability to teach, and at times its very right to educate. As the dust begins to settle, the contributors to this volume weigh in with a constructive and wide-ranging statement on the progressive possibilities of teaching. This is, in many ways, a book for the morning after the PC Wars, when the shouting dies down and the imperatives of pedagogy remain. Asserting a complex, inter-related agenda for teachers and students, Class Issues is an anthology of essays on radical teaching. Leading scholars of literary and cultural studies, queer studies, ethnic studies and working-class literature examine the challenges that confront progressive pedagogy, as well as the histories that lie behind the achievements of cultural studies. Class Issues offers a plan for the construction of an alternative public sphere in the rapidly changing space of the classroom in the academy. Class Issues is a compilation of important new work on the tradition of radical teaching as well as forceful suggestions for the mobilization of radical consciousness. Contributers: Goerge Lipsitz, Bruce Robbins, Maria Damon, John Mowitt, Donald K. Hedrick, Neil larsen, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, Peter Hitchcock, Alan Wald, Mike Hill, Ronald Strickland,Henry A. Giroux, Rachel Buff, Jason Loviglio, Carol Stabile, Timothy Brennan, Jeffrey R. di Leo, Christian Moraru, Vijay Prashad, Judith halberstam, Gregory L. Ulmer, John P. Leavey, Jr., Jeffrey Williams.

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It is 1996 and Anne Strelau is sitting on a plane bound for London, heading towards the man she has loved since her teens. Having tired of the pretence of living 'normally', she has given in to her 'madness' and decided to confront the object of her passion, Peter Hemstedt. In fact, there is little that is 'normal' about Anne. Most obviously, at 112 kg, she is grotesquely overweight. "This is Not a Love Song" is the story of Anne's ups and downs: of her unhappy childhood, her miserable adolescence, and the start of her obsession with her weight. 'The decision to embark on the first diet is a decisive, if not the most decisive, step in a girl's life', she decides. 'In any case, it is more important than the hugely overrated event of losing your virginity.' First anorexic then bulimic, she measures her self-worth in kilos and boyfriends. Then she falls for handsome, successful Hemstedt. When her love is not returned, she fakes 'normality' and gets a job. But still nothing works. 'I have reached a point', she records in her mid-thirties, 'where I no longer believe in anyone or anything, apart from chocolate.' A brilliantly black comedy about obesity, adult disappointment and cynicism, wars, ecological disasters and passing fashions, "This is Not a Love Song" serves up irresistibly macabre chic lit with a thick coating of grime and fat.

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Wittgenstein famously remarked in 1923, "Darwin's theory has no more relevance for philosophy than any other hypothesis in natural science." Yet today we are witnessing a major revival of interest in applying evolutionary approaches to philosophical problems. Philosophy after Darwin is an anthology of essential writings covering the most influential ideas about the philosophical implications of Darwinism, from the publication of On the Origin of Species to today's cutting-edge research. Michael Ruse presents writings by leading modern thinkers and researchers--including some writings never before published--together with the most important historical documents on Darwinism and philosophy, starting with Darwin himself. Included here are Herbert Spencer, Friedrich Nietzsche, Thomas Henry Huxley, G. E. Moore, John Dewey, Konrad Lorenz, Stephen Toulmin, Karl Popper, Edward O. Wilson, Hilary Putnam, Philip Kitcher, Elliott Sober, and Peter Singer. Readers will encounter some of the staunchest critics of the evolutionary approach, such as Alvin Plantinga, as well as revealing excerpts from works like Jack London's The Call of the Wild. Ruse's comprehensive general introduction and insightful section introductions put these writings in context and explain how they relate to such fields as epistemology, philosophy of mind, philosophy of language, and ethics. An invaluable anthology and sourcebook, Philosophy after Darwin traces philosophy's complicated relationship with Darwin's dangerous idea, and shows how this relationship reflects a broad movement toward a secular, more naturalistic understanding of the human experience.

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Everything the independent investor needs to know to effectively invest in gold With today's increasing economic uncertainties, a strong investment strategy is to put a portion of your net worth in gold. However, given investors' overall lack of knowledge about gold as an investment, as wealth insurance, or as a store of value, many are hesitant to enter this arena. That's why Jim Gibbons has created The Golden Rule. This book answers many questions, including: How do you purchase gold and in what form? Why gold now? When should you buy? And, most importantly, from whom? Throughout the book, Gibbons puts gold in perspective and shows you why it belongs in every investor's portfolio. Provides practical gold investment insights from New York Times bestsellers Peter Schiff, William Bonner, Doug Casey, Addison Wiggin, and James Turk as well as from leading experts in this field including: Congressman Ron Paul, Rick Rule, Adrian Day, and many others Demystifies gold by putting it in the context of twenty-first century economic realities Highlights a variety of ways to invest in gold-from mining stocks to buying gold coins and bullion With the financial markets more erratic than ever, gold appeals to investors looking for a safe haven for their assets. With The Golden Rule as your guide, you'll quickly learn how to make the best decisions possible with regards to this precious commodity.

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The first part of a sweeping two-volume history of the devastation brought to bear on Indian nations by U.S. expansion"An elegant, organized narrative of the United States' dispossession of Native lands east of the Mississippi. . . . A remarkable book in its breadth and scope."—Ashley Riley Sousa, Canadian Journal of History"Intense and well-researched, . . . ambitious, . . . magisterial. . . . Surviving Genocide sets a bar from which subsequent scholarship and teaching cannot retreat."—Peter Nabokov, New York Review of Books In this book, the first part of a sweeping two-volume history, Jeffrey Ostler investigates how American democracy relied on Indian dispossession and the federally sanctioned use of force to remove or slaughter Indians in the way of U.S. expansion. He charts the losses that Indians suffered from relentless violence and upheaval and the attendant effects of disease, deprivation, and exposure. This volume centers on the eastern United States from the 1750s to the start of the Civil War. An authoritative contribution to the history of the United States’ violent path toward building a continental empire, this ambitious and well-researched book deepens our understanding of the seizure of Indigenous lands, including the use of treaties to create the appearance of Native consent to dispossession. Ostler also documents the resilience of Native people, showing how they survived genocide by creating alliances, defending their towns, and rebuilding their communities.

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The prevailing interpretation of Kant’s First Critique in Anglo-American philosophy views his theory of a priori knowledge as basically a theory about the possibility of empirical knowledge (or experience), or the a priori conditions for that possibility (the representations of space and time and the categories). Instead, Robert Greenberg argues that Kant is more fundamentally concerned with the possibility of a priori knowledge—the very possibility of the possibility of empirical knowledge in the first place.Greenberg advances four central theses:(1) the Critique is primarily concerned about the possibility, or relation to objects, of a priori, not empirical knowledge, and Kant’s theory of that possibility is defensible; (2) Kant’s transcendental ontology must be distinct from the conditions of the possibility of a priori knowledge; (3) the functions of judgment, in Kant’s discussion of the Table of Judgments, should be seen according to his transcendental logic as having content, not as being just logical forms of judgment making; (4) Kant’s distinction between and connection of ordering relations (Verhaltnisse) and reference relations (Beziehungen) have to be kept in mind to avoid misunderstanding the Critique. At every step of the way Greenberg contrasts his view with the major interpretations of Kant by commentators like Henry Allison, Jonathan Bennett, Paul Guyer, and Peter Strawson. Not only does this new approach to Kant present a strong challenge to these dominant interpretations, but by being more true to Kant’s own intent it holds promise for making better sense out of what have been seen as the First Critique’s discordant themes.

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