Written in Greek by an intellectual Roman emperor without any intention of publication, the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius (AD 121-180) offer a wide range of fascinating spiritual reflections and exercises developed as the leader struggled to understand himself and make sense of the universe. Spanning from doubt and despair to conviction and exaltation, they cover such diverse topics as the question of virtue, human rationality, the nature of the gods and Aurelius's own emoti...
Left behind places can be found in prosperous countries—from South Yorkshire, integral to the industrial revolution and now England’s poorest county, to Barranquilla, once Colombia’s portal to the Caribbean and now struggling. More alarmingly, the poorest countries in the world are diverging further from the rest of humanity. Why have these places fallen further behind? And what can we do about it?World-renowned development economist Paul Collier has spent his life working in...
A book of the year for the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Time, Vulture, Esquire, Goodreads, Elle, NPR, Vox, New York Post, Lit Hub, Cosmo, People, Paste, Vanity Fair, Polygon, BookBub, BookRiot and more!'If you love King Arthur as much as I do, you’ll love The Bright Sword . . . the creator of The Magicians has woven another spell.'GEORGE R. R. MARTIN, author of A Game of Thrones‘Made me love fantasy again . . . For pretty much everyone, The Bright Sword is a must-read...
They thought they found heaven on earth. They discover a living hell.When Brandt 'Doc' Savage and his girlfriend Kira land on a desert island in the middle of the Atlantic, they think they've found a perfect utopia. An escape from their tumultuous pasts.But they don't have long to enjoy their new-found peace before they are violently separated and dragged to opposite ends of the earth.As Doc searches the seas and continents for Kira, he discovers they are entangled in a globa...
Is your cat happy? What can you do to help? And what can cats teach us?The relationship between humans and cats has never been simple. Cats are mysterious and contradictory, independent and affectionate, predator and prey. Their true nature continues to elude us, and their subtle and complex behavioural problems can often seem unsolvable or incomprehensible.In this ground-breaking book – a huge bestseller in its native France – veterinary doctor and psychiatrist Claude Béata ...
The Foucault Reader is the ideal introduction to one the most stimulating and influential writers of the past century. It includes detailed excerpts from all his richly textured historical studies - including Discipline and Punish and The History of Sexuality - as well as many of his best interviews.
This novel is an extraordinarily poignant evocation of a lost happiness that lives on in the memory. For years now the Ramsays have spent every summer in their holiday home in Scotland, and they expect these summers will go on forever. In this, her most autobiographical novel, Virginia Woolf captures the intensity of childhood longing and delight, and the shifting complexity of adult relationships. From an acute awareness of transcience, she creates an enduring work of art....
The clock is ticking.To save her life you must take another.When Jack Morgan is invited to the luxurious Monaco coast to set up a new Private office, it seems like the perfect opportunity to relax in an iconic destination.But the vacation is quickly cut short when Jack's partner Justine is abducted.The kidnappers send Jack clear instructions - and a gun. If he wants to see the woman he loves again, he must take a life in exchange for hers.Jack soon becomes entangled in a dang...
In this deeply personal book, Baldwin reflects on the experiences that shaped him as a writer and activist: from his childhood in Harlem to the deaths Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X. Exploring the visceral reality of life in the American South as well as Baldwin’s impressions of London, Paris and Hamburg, No Name in the Street grapples with the failed promises of global liberation movements in fearless, candid prose.Timeless, tender and profound, Baldwin’s searing narra...
Uplifting, heartwarming and joyful. Restored my faith in humankind' - Ruth JonesWhen age makes you invisible, secrets are easier to hideDaphne knows that age is just a number. She also knows that society no longer pays her any attention – something she’s happy to exploit to help her hide a somewhat chequered past.But finding herself alone on her 70th birthday, with only her plants to talk to and neighbours to stalk online, she decides she needs some friends. Joining a Senior ...
Few modern voices have had as profound an impact as Frantz Fanon. A major influence on civil rights, anti-colonial and black consciousness movements around the world, Black Skin, White Masks is an unsurpassed study of the black psyche in a white world.Hailed for its scientific analysis and poetic grace when it was first published in 1952, it established Fanon as a revolutionary thinker and remains just as relevant and powerful today.
Published in 1962, this is an emotionally intense novel of love, hatred, race and liberal America in the 1960s. Set in Greenwhich Village, Harlem and France, ANOTHER COUNTRY tells the story of the suicide of jazz-musician Rufus Scott and the friends who search for an understanding of his life and death, discovering uncomfortable truths about themselves along the way.
Ayn Rand's story of Howard Roark, a brilliant architect who dares to stand alone against the hostility of second-hand souls.
First published in 1943, this best-selling novel is a passionate defense of individualism and presents an exalted view of man's creative potential; it is a book about ambition, power, gold and love.
A group of friends gather in a country house for a birthday party.At their host’s request, they each write a short mystery. They draw names from a hat: in each story, one of the group is the killer, and another the victim.Of course, when given such a task, it’s only natural to use what you know. Secrets. Grudges. Illicit love.It’s just that once you put it in a story, the secret is out.Oh, and just one more thing: this is a story that ends with a murder…...
'To love, to sacrifice oneself, and to submit! Was this what all women were destined for?'When her carefree, aspirational childhood in a seaside town is brought brutally to an end, the nameless narrator of Sibilla Aleramo's blazing autobiographical novel discovers the shocking reality of life for a woman in Italy at the dawn of the twentieth century. As she begins to recognize the similarities between her own predicament and the plight of her mother and the women around her, ...
When the Nazis invaded Hungary in 1944, they sent virtually the entire Jewish population to Auschwitz. A Jew and a medical doctor, Dr. Miklos Nyiszli was spared from death for a grimmer fate: to perform "scientific research" on his fellow inmates under the supervision of the infamous "Angel of Death": Dr. Josef Mengele. Nyiszli was named Mengele's personal research pathologist. Miraculously, he survived to give this terrifying and sobering account.
Some secrets are best left in the dark... A gothic mystery with an immersive setting and strong heroine at its heartLondon, 1833Doctress Hester Reeves has been offered a life-changing commission.But it comes at a price. She must leave behind her husband and their canal-side home in Kings Cross and move to Tall Trees – a dark and foreboding house in Fitzrovia.If Hester can cure the ailing health of its owner, Gervaise Cherville, she will receive payment that will bring her eve...
A brilliant collection of short stories and short form fiction from the pen of Sir Terry Pratchett, one of the world's best-loved authors.'Clever, neatly constructed and funny … Pratchett is one of the great comic writers and storytellers of our time' GuardianA Blink of the Screen charts the course of Pratchett's long writing career: from his schooldays through to his first writing job on the Bucks Free Press; to the origins of his debut novel, The Carpet People; and on again...
This is the story of Charles Hythloday and the heroic squandering of the family inheritance. Featuring drinking, greyhound racing, vanishing furniture, more drinking, old movies, assorted Dublin lowlife, eviction and the perils of community theatre, Paul Murray's debut novel is a tour de force of comedic writing wrapped in an honest-to-goodness tale of a man - and a family - living in denial.
"I've been told that no one sings the word 'hunger' like I do. Or the word 'love'."Lady Sings the Blues is the inimitable autobiography of one of the greatest icons of the twentieth century. Born to a single mother in 1915 Baltimore, Billie Holiday had her first run-in with the law at aged 13. But Billie Holiday is no victim. Her memoir tells the story of her life spent in jazz, smoky Harlem clubs and packed-out concert halls, her love affairs, her wildly creative friends, he...
The townspeople of Oran are in the grip of a deadly plague, which condemns its victims to a swift and horrifying death. Fear, isolation and claustrophobia follow as they are forced into quarantine. Each person responds in their own way to the lethal disease: some resign themselves to fate, some seek blame, and a few, like Dr Rieux, resist the terror.An immediate triumph when it was published in 1947, The Plague is in part an allegory of France's suffering under the Nazi occup...
A TIMES AND SUNDAY TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR 2024'COMPLETELY TRANSFORMED MY WAY OF THINKING ABOUT DREAMS' Jay Shetty'A JOURNEY THROUGH NEUROSCIENCE, NEUROCHEMISTRY, MAGIC, MYSTERY . . . A FANTASTIC READ' Dr Rangan Chatterjee'TRANSFORMATIONAL' Julia Samuel'ELEGANTLY LIFTS THE CURTAIN ON THE DREAMSCAPE TERRITORY' David Eagleman'THIS BOOK WILL CHANGE YOUR LIFE' Lewis Howes'OUR POET LAUREATE OF NEUROSCIENCE' Greg Whyte'AN INSTANT CLASSIC' Bryan FogelDreams are a source of mystery. T...
An acknowledged masterpiece, this is the story of seven generations of the Buendía family and of Macondo, the town they have built. Though little more than a settlement surrounded by mountains, Macondo has its wars and disasters, even its wonders and miracles. A microcosm of Columbian life, its secrets lie hidden, encoded in a book and only Aureliano Buendía can fathom its mysteries and reveal its shrouded destiny. Blending political reality with magic realism, fantasy with c...
Meet Claude: an investment-bank drone longing for something more meaningful. Marooned in soggy Dublin, he yearns for art, philosophy, and a steady girlfriend. You could call him a modern-day everyman – or just another lonely banker.Now meet Paul: struggling novelist, strip-club enthusiast, pioneer of not-entirely-legal internet start-ups. Paul is willing to stoop to any level in pursuit of the riches he knows he deserves. You could call him a troubled genius – or a shameless ...
