Search results for ""Author Tara Isabella Burton""
Hodder & Stoughton Self-Made: Creating Our Identities from Da Vinci
Book Synopsis'We're all now self-makers, whether we like it or not - and this witty, sceptical book is the thought-provoking story of how we got here' GUARDIAN'This funny, startling, insightful story of the selfie, from Dürer to the Kardashians, is a must read if you want to understand how we reinvent ourselves every time we reveal ourselves' PETER POMERANTSEVToday's defining celebrities have crafted public personae that walk the tightrope between authenticity and artificiality. Ordinary people now follow suit: lovingly tending our 'personal brands' for economic gain and self-expression alike.Instagram culture is part of a story that goes back centuries. The vision that we not only can but should 'make' our own selves to shape our own destiny is an inextricable part of the formation of the modern world.As traditional powers of pre-modernity - church and throne - waned, a new myth took their place: that of the 'self-made man', whose unique powers of personality - or canny self-presentation - give him not just the opportunity, but the obligation, to remake reality in the image of what he wants it to be.From the Renaissance genius to the Regency dandy, the American prophets of capitalism to the aspirational übermensch of European fascism, Hollywood's Golden Age to today's Silicon Valley, Self-Made takes us on a dazzling tour of modern history's most prominent self-makers, uncovering both self-making's liberatory power, and the dangers this idea can unleash.'Both revelatory and a warning about the ways that focus on the self distorts our individual lives and the broader society' FRANCIS FUKUYAMATrade ReviewA fun, insightful romp . . . we're all now self-makers, whether we like it or not - and this witty, sceptical book is the thought-provoking story of how we got here -- Rachel Aspden * Guardian *A fast-moving train of a book . . . Burton is a confident conductor * New York Times *Throughout her gripping account Burton homes in on the tensions at the heart of all self-making acts: between authenticity and artificiality, and between the self that is given and the self that is desired * Times Literary Supplement *This funny, startling, insightful story of the selfie, from Dürer to the Kardashians, is a must read if you want to understand how we reinvent ourselves every time we reveal ourselves -- Peter Pomerantsev, author of This Is Not Propaganda: Adventures in the War Against RealitySelf-Made takes the reader on an incredible journey that begins in the Renaissance and ends with the Kardashians, Donald Trump, and Silicon Valley's extropians, tracing the peculiarly modern phenomenon of people who make themselves the objects of their life's work. It is both revelatory and a warning about the ways that focus on the self distorts our individual lives and the broader society -- Francis Fukuyama, author of The Origins of Political OrderTara Isabella Burton's thoughtful, beautifully written book charts the engrossing history of the self-made man (and woman) from the geniuses of the Renaissance to present-day reality TV stars. Philosophical, ethical and pragmatic by turns, Burton urgently interrogates the culturally dominant myths of individualism and self-realisation, asking what we lose when we gain what we think we really want: when we make ourselves into gods -- Carolyne Larrington, author of The Norse Myths: A Guide to Viking and Scandinavian Gods and HeroesBurton is that rare cultural critic who delivers insight with sass and wears her deep knowledge of history and philosophy with a lightness and grace. A dazzling cast of characters struts across these pages, but Burton is always fully in control; every case study and example accretes to build her argument, for we are not merely self-stylists but shapeshifters, not just makers, but gods -- Marina Benjamin, author of InsomniaRanging from Aristotle to OnlyFans by way of the Marquis de Sade and Frederick Douglass, Tara Isabella Burton delights, infuriates and instructs while offering some of the sharpest and most insightful social commentary being written today. This is a book you will not forget -- Walter Russell Mead, author of The Arc of a Covenant: The United States, Israel, and the Fate of the Jewish PeopleLooking around at the strange terrain of American politics, religion, culture, and media, almost everyone is asking, "What happened?" and "What's next?" This book tells us the story behind those questions. Those who wonder why almost every aspect of life seems to be, at best, a reality television series and, at worst, a dark science fiction drama, will need this important work. This book will shift the conversation, at perhaps just the right time -- Russell Moore, author of Losing Our Religion: An Altar Call for Evangelical AmericaWhat does the Marquis de Sade have to do with David Bowie? Oscar Wilde with Oprah Winfrey? Montaigne with Donald Trump? Learn the fascinating historical and philosophical connections over the past five centuries in this erudite and wildly entertaining study on the fine art of self-creation, one of the modern era's defining cultural traits long before Instagram made it a daily universal habit -- Tony Perrottet, author of The Sinner’s Grand Tour: A Journey Through the Historical Underbelly of EuropeIn the spirit of Kurt Andersen's Fantasyland and Barbara Ehrenreich's Bright Sided, Tara Isabella Burton delivers a fascinating intellectual and cultural history of our never-ending quest to reinvent ourselves. She masterfully balances high and low culture, ranging from Renaissance sculptors and Parisian Dandies, to American hucksters and Instagram selfies. Self-Made clears through the fog of our current moment and lets us see the methods behind our collective madness. An essential read for our era of Late-Stage Everything -- Jamie Wheal, author of Recapture the RaptureSince the rise of Instagram and Facebook, how we present ourselves to the world has become a contemporary obsession. But as Tara Isabella Burton shows in her new book, Self-Made, it has a long history, from Beau Brummel to the Kardashians. The result is a fascinating, deeply researched and entertaining tour de force -- Simon Worrall, author of Starcrossed: A True Romeo and Juliet Story in Hitler’s ParisWide-ranging . . . With clarity and authority, Burton sheds light on how the self-made indulge in the profitable "fantasy of selling yourself" and provide an escape from reality for their followers. It's an eye-opener * Publishers Weekly *Burton concludes that our search for self-definition is ultimately a search for what it means to be human: vulnerable and inextricably interconnected. A thoughtful, well-grounded cultural history * Kirkus *It's a remarkable journey we humans have been on . . . The heights of self-aggrandisement Burton encounters are dizzying . . . she does not condemn outright the modern urge for self-expression. Bounding from one historical anecdote to the next, she reveals the human ingenuity that is unleashed when God's plan for us is taken out of the equation -- Rachel Cunliffe * New Statesman *Burton is right and brave to surmise that hollow self-making offers the wrong kind of answers to the modern bourgeois or digital peasant who wants to live a happy or meaningful life * Wall Street Journal *
£19.80
Simon & Schuster Here in Avalon
Book Synopsis
£23.19
Hodder & Stoughton Self-Made: Creating Our Identities from Da Vinci
Book Synopsis'We're all now self-makers, whether we like it or not - and this witty, sceptical book is the thought-provoking story of how we got here'GUARDIAN'A fast-moving train of a book'NEW YORK TIMES'Gripping'TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT'Funny, startling . . . a must read'PETER POMERANTSEV, author of This Is Not Propaganda'Revelatory'FRANCIS FUKUYAMA, author of The Origins of Political OrderAs the forces of social media and capitalism collide, cultivating our 'personal brands' has become the norm. But this phenomenon is not new: Instagram culture is part of a story that goes back centuries. From the Renaissance genius to the Regency dandy, Hollywood's Golden Age to today's Silicon Valley and reality TV stars, Self-Made takes us on a dazzling tour of modern history's most prominent self-makers, uncovering both self-making's liberatory power, and the dangers this idea can unleash.Trade ReviewA fun, insightful romp . . . we're all now self-makers, whether we like it or not - and this witty, sceptical book is the thought-provoking story of how we got here -- Rachel Aspden * Guardian *A fast-moving train of a book . . . Burton is a confident conductor * New York Times *Throughout her gripping account Burton homes in on the tensions at the heart of all self-making acts: between authenticity and artificiality, and between the self that is given and the self that is desired * Times Literary Supplement *This funny, startling, insightful story of the selfie, from Dürer to the Kardashians, is a must read if you want to understand how we reinvent ourselves every time we reveal ourselves -- Peter Pomerantsev, author of This Is Not Propaganda: Adventures in the War Against RealitySelf-Made takes the reader on an incredible journey that begins in the Renaissance and ends with the Kardashians, Donald Trump, and Silicon Valley's extropians, tracing the peculiarly modern phenomenon of people who make themselves the objects of their life's work. It is both revelatory and a warning about the ways that focus on the self distorts our individual lives and the broader society -- Francis Fukuyama, author of The Origins of Political OrderTara Isabella Burton's thoughtful, beautifully written book charts the engrossing history of the self-made man (and woman) from the geniuses of the Renaissance to present-day reality TV stars. Philosophical, ethical and pragmatic by turns, Burton urgently interrogates the culturally dominant myths of individualism and self-realisation, asking what we lose when we gain what we think we really want: when we make ourselves into gods -- Carolyne Larrington, author of The Norse Myths: A Guide to Viking and Scandinavian Gods and HeroesBurton is that rare cultural critic who delivers insight with sass and wears her deep knowledge of history and philosophy with a lightness and grace. A dazzling cast of characters struts across these pages, but Burton is always fully in control; every case study and example accretes to build her argument, for we are not merely self-stylists but shapeshifters, not just makers, but gods -- Marina Benjamin, author of InsomniaRanging from Aristotle to OnlyFans by way of the Marquis de Sade and Frederick Douglass, Tara Isabella Burton delights, infuriates and instructs while offering some of the sharpest and most insightful social commentary being written today. This is a book you will not forget -- Walter Russell Mead, author of The Arc of a Covenant: The United States, Israel, and the Fate of the Jewish PeopleLooking around at the strange terrain of American politics, religion, culture, and media, almost everyone is asking, "What happened?" and "What's next?" This book tells us the story behind those questions. Those who wonder why almost every aspect of life seems to be, at best, a reality television series and, at worst, a dark science fiction drama, will need this important work. This book will shift the conversation, at perhaps just the right time -- Russell Moore, author of Losing Our Religion: An Altar Call for Evangelical AmericaWhat does the Marquis de Sade have to do with David Bowie? Oscar Wilde with Oprah Winfrey? Montaigne with Donald Trump? Learn the fascinating historical and philosophical connections over the past five centuries in this erudite and wildly entertaining study on the fine art of self-creation, one of the modern era's defining cultural traits long before Instagram made it a daily universal habit -- Tony Perrottet, author of The Sinner’s Grand Tour: A Journey Through the Historical Underbelly of EuropeIn the spirit of Kurt Andersen's Fantasyland and Barbara Ehrenreich's Bright Sided, Tara Isabella Burton delivers a fascinating intellectual and cultural history of our never-ending quest to reinvent ourselves. She masterfully balances high and low culture, ranging from Renaissance sculptors and Parisian Dandies, to American hucksters and Instagram selfies. Self-Made clears through the fog of our current moment and lets us see the methods behind our collective madness. An essential read for our era of Late-Stage Everything -- Jamie Wheal, author of Recapture the RaptureSince the rise of Instagram and Facebook, how we present ourselves to the world has become a contemporary obsession. But as Tara Isabella Burton shows in her new book, Self-Made, it has a long history, from Beau Brummel to the Kardashians. The result is a fascinating, deeply researched and entertaining tour de force -- Simon Worrall, author of Starcrossed: A True Romeo and Juliet Story in Hitler’s ParisWide-ranging . . . With clarity and authority, Burton sheds light on how the self-made indulge in the profitable "fantasy of selling yourself" and provide an escape from reality for their followers. It's an eye-opener * Publishers Weekly *Burton concludes that our search for self-definition is ultimately a search for what it means to be human: vulnerable and inextricably interconnected. A thoughtful, well-grounded cultural history * Kirkus *It's a remarkable journey we humans have been on . . . The heights of self-aggrandisement Burton encounters are dizzying . . . she does not condemn outright the modern urge for self-expression. Bounding from one historical anecdote to the next, she reveals the human ingenuity that is unleashed when God's plan for us is taken out of the equation -- Rachel Cunliffe * New Statesman *Burton is right and brave to surmise that hollow self-making offers the wrong kind of answers to the modern bourgeois or digital peasant who wants to live a happy or meaningful life * Wall Street Journal *
£10.44
Random House USA Inc Social Creature A Novel
Book SynopsisOne of the Best Books of the Year: Janet Maslin, The New York TimesVultureNPRSocial Creature is a wicked original with echoes of the greats (Patricia Highsmith, Gillian Flynn). —Janet Maslin, The New York TimesFor readers of Gillian Flynn and Donna Tartt, a dark, propulsive and addictive debut thriller, splashed with all the glitz and glitter of New York City.They go through both bottles of champagne right there on the High Line, with nothing but the stars over them... They drink and Lavinia tells Louise about all the places they will go together, when they finish their stories, when they are both great writers-to Paris and to Rome and to Trieste...Lavinia will never go. She is going to die soon. Louise has nothing. Lavinia has everything. After a chance encounter, the two spiral into an intimate, intense, and possibly toxic friendship. A Talented Mr. Ripley for the digi
£14.40
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC Social Creature
Book Synopsis''A Ripleyesque exploration of female insecurity set among the socialites of Manhattan'' Guardian, Books of the YearAn irresistible novel about a toxic friendship taken to the extreme' Elle Louise is struggling to survive in New York; juggling a series of poorly paid jobs, renting a shabby flat, being catcalled by her creepy neighbour, she dreams of being a writer. And then one day she meets Lavinia. Lavinia who has everything looks, money, clothes, friends, an amazing apartmentLavinia invites Louise into her charmed circle, takes her to the best underground speakeasies, the opera, shares her clothes, her drugs, her Uber account. Louise knows that this can't last for ever, but just how far is she prepared to go to have this life? Or rather, to have Lavinia's life?Trade Review[A] spectacularly impressive debut … A ridiculously assured first novel, told in an utterly original voice -- Alison Flood * Observer *If you crossed Gossip Girl with The Talented Mr Ripley and added Whit Stillman’s dialogue to the mix, you might come close to the feel of Burton’s glittering story of identity theft. Sure to be on every smart beach lounger this summer * The i *A formidable burlesque ... Sharp as a shard of broken mirror * New York Times Book Review *Burton does a brilliant job of depicting the toxic charm of such a world... [she] draws us in via her control of the material, the expert way she plays off Lavinia’s lavishness against Louise’s guile – and our fascination with those wild Manhattan parties * Guardian *An irresistible novel about a toxic friendship taken to the extreme, full of dark New York glamour, decadence and bohemia ... So many novels are compared to The Secret History and The Talented Mr. Ripley in the digital age, but in this case it’s absolutely justified * Elle *[Tara Isabella Burton] knows her way around good, evil and the eternally reader-friendly realm in between. Social Creature is a wicked original with echoes of the greats (Patricia Highsmith, Gillian Flynn) * New York Times *Imagine Gossip Girl grown up and gone very, very wrong, with a touch of The Secret History thrown in … A deliciously dark novel about excess and desperation * Stylist *Meet your new one-sitting read: a stunning New York-set novel about a woman with nothing who befriends a woman with everything, and decides that she’d like her life. Think The Talented Mr Ripley meets The Secret History meets Gossip Girl -- Sarra Manning * Red *It is hard to believe that Social Creature is Tara Isabella Burton's first book, such is its poise and individuality – not to mention verve and bravado ... Her novel is a Trojan horse – sharp observations and serious insights ensconced in the body of a glamorous, compelling page-turner * Times Literary Supplement *If you enjoyed The Talented Mr Ripley, you’ll love this … [A] gripping takedown of contemporary New York society * Stylist *This deliciously seductive novel is a wild, sinister ride through contemporary New York. A layered and incisive portrayal of our obsession with social media and toxic friendships * Book Riot *Glittering, breathless, and precise – Social Creature fearlessly explores identity in the modern world through a dangerous and magnetic friendship. Tara Isabella Burton’s prose is electrifying, her characters dazzlingly bright. This novel will consume you -- Danya Kukafka, bestselling author of Girl in SnowLethally well controlled … Addictive * Metro *I read Social Creature in one breathless rush. It’s a wild nightmarish ride through a New York City of decadence & broken dreams, faking it & fucking up, love & lies & lies & more lies. This is the missing link between Bret Easton Ellis & The Secret History -- Emma Flint, author of Baileys Prize longlisted, Little DeathsLavish and wild and bohemian, Social Creature swept me up in its spell, spun me round the streets of New York and left me wanting more. This book is ALL THAT JAZZ and then some -- Ali Land, author of Good Me, Bad MeSocial Creature is the perfect upmarket beach read for the summer -- Charlotte Heathcote * Sunday Express *A rollercoaster of a ride of the kind best read in one almighty gulp, turning the pages faster and faster as the awful unavoidable fate of both women slowly becomes clear… a very tightly plotted and hugely enjoyable novel, which slips down as smoothly as the champagne served at the glittering parties her characters attend, only to leave a satisfyingly bitter taste at its end * The i *Unflinching, cool, brutal. This book will make you its accomplice. You'll go willingly -- Georgia Clark, author of The RegularsIf this novel were a drink, it would be a martini – shockingly cold and clean, and to be slugged back in one gulp. It’s also tom Ripley updated for 21st-century Manhattan with added smartphones … Addictive * Metro *Like fireworks in the night sky, this explosive debut has darkness and glitz aplenty * Psychologies *A compulsively readable, razor sharp novel of manners for the social media age. Edith Wharton meets Patricia Highsmith -- Carol Goodman, bestselling author of The Lake of Dead Languages and The Widow’s HouseDevious and decadent. I couldn’t put it down -- Courtney Maum, author of Touch and I Am Having So Much Fun Here Without YouA mesmerizing and beautifully lyrical debut about sexuality, identity, envy, confusion, and the creepy ways in which we swallow one another in attempt to become ourselves -- Swan Huntley, author of The Goddesses and We CouldA hugely compulsive read....Imagine Genuine Fraud meets The Secret History in the world of Gossip Girl…This book is beautiful, bohemian, seedy, sharp - and as devastating as it is decadent -- Lydia Ruffles, author of The Taste of Blue LightA tarred-and-feathered shining gorgeous bloody obsessive compulsive shining shining shining nightmare fever dream of a book: The Secret History meets 2018 Gatsby meets The Talented Mr. Ripley -- Ella RisbridgerOne of the most anticipated releases of the summer … A Talented Mr Ripley-esque story that mischieviously weaves around the envy and obsession of social media … Total, brilliant carnage * Emerald Street *Social Creature is a millennial update on the well-trodden rags-to-riches fable – think Cinderella and The Great Gatsby meets the Kardashians – where pout-filled posts on Facebook and Uber rides are as much woven into its fabric as the iconic Manhattan skyline * Glasgow Herald *Like 1980s Jay McInerney, but with murder -- India Knight * Sunday Times *A Ripleyesque exploration of female insecurity set among the socialites of Manhattan -- Best Books of 2018 * Guardian *
£7.59
PublicAffairs,U.S. Strange Rites: New Religions for a Godless World
Book SynopsisIn Strange Rites, Tara Isabella Burton takes a tour through contemporary American religiosity. As the once dominant totems of civic connection and civil discourse--traditional churches--continue to sink into obsolescence, people are looking elsewhere for the intensity and unity that religion once provided. We're making our own personal faiths - theistic or not - mixing and matching our spiritual, ritualistic, personal, and political practices in order to create our own bespoke religious selves. We're not just building new religions in 2019, we're buying them, from Gwyneth Paltrow's gospel of Goop, to the brilliantly cultish SoulCycle, to those who believe in their special destiny on Mars.In so doing, we're carrying on a longstanding American tradition of religious eclecticism, DIY-innovation and "unchurched" piety (and highly effective capitalism). Our era is not the dawn of American secularism, but rather a brand-bolstered resurgence of American pluralism, revved into overdrive by commerce and personalized algorithms, all to the tune of "Hallellujah"--America's most popular and spectacularly misunderstood wedding song.
£13.29
Simon & Schuster Here in Avalon
Book Synopsis
£17.09
Simon & Schuster The World Cannot Give
Book Synopsis“The Secret History meets The Price of Salt” (Vogue) in this “equal parts dangerous and delicious” (Entertainment Weekly) novel about queer desire, religious zealotry, and the hunger for transcendence among the members of a cultic chapel choir at a Maine boarding school—and the ambitious, terrifyingly charismatic girl that rules over them. When shy, sensitive Laura Stearns arrives at St. Dunstan’s Academy in Maine, she dreams that life there will echo her favorite novel, All Before Them, the sole surviving piece of writing by Byronic “prep school prophet” (and St. Dunstan’s alum) Sebastian Webster, who died at nineteen, fighting in the Spanish Civil War. She soon finds the intensity she is looking for among the insular, Webster-worshipping members of the school’s chapel choir, which is presided over by the charismatic, neurotic, overachiever Virginia Strauss. Virginia is as fanatical about her newfound Christian faith as she is about the miles she runs every morning before dawn. She expects nothing short of perfection from herself—and from the member of the choir. Virginia inducts the besotted Laura into a world of transcendent music and arcane ritual, illicit cliff-diving and midnight crypt visits: a world that, like Webster’s novels, finally seems to Laura to be full of meaning. But when a new school chaplain challenges Virginia’s hold on the “family” she has created, and Virginia’s efforts to wield her power become increasingly dangerous, Laura must decide how far she will let her devotion to Virginia go. The World Cannot Give is a “hypnotic and intense” (Shondaland) meditation on the power, and danger, of wanting more from the world.Trade ReviewA most anticipated book of 2022 from Harper’s Bazaar, Nylon, Crimereads, and Bustle “The Secret History meets The Price of Salt” —Vogue "Burton has crafted a hypnotic and intense book readers won’t want to put down." —Shondaland "Tara Isabella Burton harnesses the fresh desire of teenage-dom in this story of a boarding school on the coast of Maine: A charismatic, devout, and sexually ambiguous young choir member manipulates her acolytes—to fatal ends." —Vanity Fair "Equal parts dangerous and delicious" —Entertainment Weekly "This new novel from the author of Social Creature plunges readers into a vortex of dark academia and queer desire." —Harper's Bazaar “Burton touches upon all the best parts of dark academia…She digs deep into the darkest corners of the human psyche to pose several poignant, thought-provoking questions about devotion, power, repression and the obsession of youth….If there is a writer better suited than Tara Isabella Burton to join the ranks of Donna Tartt, I certainly cannot think of one. She is not only a gorgeous prose writer, but also a brave one who, even when she makes you uncomfortable, is always pushing the envelope.” —Bookreporter "This exquisitely modern examination of the adolescent need to give oneself over to beauty and certainty, heedless of reality or consequences, is one of the best boarding school crime novels I’ve ever read." —Criminal Element "A defiantly distinct meditation on power, desire, and the search for self. Events unfold from Laura’s perspective via an increasingly breathless third-person-present narrative, conferring voyeuristic intimacy. Deftly drawn, deeply insecure characters complement the melodramatic plot, which crescendos to a devastating close." —Kirkus, Starred Review "Burton writes with a heart-stopping understanding of the micro-dynamics among adolescents still uncentered at their cores. The insular campus setting and small scenes in crypts, libraries, and dorm rooms that contain big emotions and powerful dialogue will make readers cringe at what they can see coming." —Booklist “THE WORLD CANNOT GIVE is the perfect book for anyone who loves A SEPARATE PEACE, anyone who hates A SEPARATE PEACE and anyone who has never read A SEPARATE PEACE. It is at once wonderfully old-fashioned yet thrillingly modern, rich in setting and character, specific and universal. In short: I loved it." —Laura Lippman, New York Times bestselling author of Lady in the Lake "Tara Isabella Burton has consistently revealed herself to be one of this country's most interesting writers. There is almost nothing she sets her pen to that isn't page-turningly fascinating. She roots around the dark corners of the human psyche, writing astutely about the dangers of repression and the psychological and physical violence it often breeds. The World Cannot Give was as unexpected as it was riveting." —Attica Locke, author of Heaven, My Home and Bluebird, Bluebird "I devoured this book in a single rapturous day, and finished it with the eerie satisfied sense that it had been written specifically for me, or someone like me. I have spent my life as a reader hunting for those books that hit every mark: gorgeous sentences, enthralling plot design, characters that I am wedded to or haunted by long after the book ends, a sense of the erotic that is as queer as it is and insistent and hypnotic, and a keyhole view of some cultish sect of social life that I don't want to join, but to which I want a front row seat. I simply cannot recommend this novel highly enough. It is, I think, a perfect book." —Melissa Febos, Nationally bestselling author of Girlhood and Whip Smart "Tara Isabella Burton is both one of our sharpest writers of witty, propulsive fiction and one of our most profound thinkers on the 21st Century's search for religious meaning. With The World Cannot Give, she has united her talents and written a fun, serious, surprising, necessary novel about the twin adolescent thirsts for sexual experimentation and "World-Historical" importance, and the way those thirsts shape and thwart each other. Calling to mind the work of writers such as Graham Greene, Muriel Spark, and Donna Tartt, The World Cannot Give gives and gives and gives." —David Burr Gerrard, author of The Epiphany Machine "I love this book. Tara Isabella Burton writes beautifully about beauty, and about transcendence and longing and desire. Her characters are so vibrantly alive, so searching, so raw, so foolish and so profound. Wonderful from start to finish." —Phil Klay, author of Missionaries and Redeployment "A finely drawn portrait of mystic passion and fevered yearning, THE WORLD CANNOT GIVE will keep you up long into the strange, dark, thrilling night." —Elisabeth Thomas, author of Catherine House "Burton’s second novel is just as deliciously involving as her debut Social Creature, but makes rather better use of her doctorate in theology and ongoing religious scholarship.... It’s a book about the nature of and limits of fervor, religious, sexual, and otherwise, and a spellbinding coming of age story that—despite being set in the Instagram-laden present—feels somehow plucked out of time." —Emily Temple, Crimereads
£16.19
PublicAffairs Self-Made: Creating Our Identities from Da Vinci
Book Synopsis An exploration into the curation of the self in Western civilization from Da Vinci to Kim Kardashian.In a technologically-saturated era where nearly everything can be effortlessly and digitally reproduced, we're all hungry to carve out our own unique personalities, our own bespoke personae, to stand out and be seen. As the forces of social media and capitalism collide, and individualism becomes more important than ever across a wide array of industries, 'branding ourselves' or actively defining our selves for others has become the norm. Yet, this phenomenon is not new. In Self-Made, Tara Isabella Burton shows us how we arrived at this moment of fervent personal-branding.As attitudes towards religion, politics and society evolved, our sense of self did as well, moving from a collective to individual mindset. Through a series of chronological biographical essays on famous (and infamous) 'self-creators' in the modern Western world, from the Renassiance to the Enlightenment to modern capitalism and finally to our present moment of mass media, Burton examines the theories and forces behind our never-ending need to curate ourselves. Through a vivid cast of characters and an engaging mix of cultural and historical commentary, we learn how the personal brand has come to be.
£22.50
PublicAffairs,U.S. Strange Rites: New Religions for a Godless World
Book SynopsisIn Strange Rites, Tara Isabella Burton takes a tour through contemporary American religiosity. As the once dominant totems of civic connection and civil discourse--traditional churches--continue to sink into obsolescence, people are looking elsewhere for the intensity and unity that religion once provided. We're making our own personal faiths - theistic or not - mixing and matching our spiritual, ritualistic, personal, and political practices in order to create our own bespoke religious selves. We're not just building new religions in 2019, we're buying them, from Gwyneth Paltrow's gospel of Goop, to the brilliantly cultish SoulCycle, to those who believe in their special destiny on Mars.In so doing, we're carrying on a longstanding American tradition of religious eclecticism, DIY-innovation and "unchurched" piety (and highly effective capitalism). Our era is not the dawn of American secularism, but rather a brand-bolstered resurgence of American pluralism, revved into overdrive by commerce and personalized algorithms, all to the tune of "Hallellujah"--America's most popular and spectacularly misunderstood wedding song.
£20.90
