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Adultolescence
Brief Summary
Comedian Gabbie Hanna brings levity to the twists and turns of modern adulthood in this exhilarating debut collection of illustrated poetry.
In poems ranging from the singsong rhythms of children’s verses to a sophisticated confessional style, Gabbie explores what it means to feel like a kid and an adult all at once, revealing her own longings, obsessions, and insecurities along the way.
Adultolescence announces the arrival of a brilliant new voice with a magical ability to connect through alienation, cut to the profound with internet slang, and detonate wickedly funny jokes between moments of existential dread. You’ll turn to the last page because you get her, and you’ll return to the first because she gets you
ISBN:9781501178320
Author:Gabbie Hanna
Soft Magic
Brief Summary
'Soft magic.' is the debut collection of prose and poetry by Malawian writer, Upile Chisala.
This book explores the self, joy, blackness, gender, matters of the heart, the experience of Diaspora, spirituality and most of all, how we survive. 'Soft magic.' is a shared healing journey.
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The Art of Rhetoric
Brief Summary
Few, if any, writers in history have made major contributions to as many fields of knowledge as Aristotle...
'If there are two definitive features of ancient Greek civilization,' writes Hugh Lawson-Tancred in his wide-ranging Introduction, 'they are articulacy and competition.' In the city-states oratorical competence was an essential asset for politicians in the Assemblies and Councils and even for ordinary citizens in the courts of law.
In response, the technique of rhetoric rapidly developed, bringing virtuoso performances and a host of practical manuals for the layman. Yet if many of these were little more than collections of debaters' tricks, the hugely influential Art of Rhetoric has a far deeper purpose. It is here that Aristotle (384-322 B.C.) establishes the methods of informal reasoning, provides the first aesthetic evaluation of prose style and offers detailed observations on character and the emotions.
Persuasiveness,' suggests Lawson-Tancred, 'becomes for the first time a systematic and even scientific exercise; it can indeed be taught, but only by a deep grasp of some of the most central features of human nature.' His fine translation makes freshly available an epoch-making work of literary criticism.
ISBN:9780140445107
Author:Aristotle
Orientalism
Brief Summary
In this highly acclaimed work, Edward Said surveys the history and nature of Western attitudes towards the East, considering Orientalism as a powerful European ideological creation – a way for writers, philosophers and colonial administrators to deal with the ‘otherness’ of Eastern culture, customs and beliefs.
He traces this view through the writings of Homer, Nerval and Flaubert, Disraeli and Kipling, whose imaginative depictions have greatly contributed to the West’s romantic and exotic picture of the Orient. In his new preface, Said examines the effect of continuing Western imperialism after recent events in Palestine, Afghanistan and Iraq.
ISBN:9780394740676
Author:Edward W. Said
Native Son
Brief Summary
Right from the start, Bigger Thomas had been headed for jail. It could have been for assault or petty larceny; by chance, it was for murder and rape. Native Son tells the story of this young black man caught in a downward spiral after he kills a young white woman in a brief moment of panic.
Set in Chicago in the 1930s, Wright's powerful novel is an unsparing reflection on the poverty and feelings of hopelessness experienced by people in inner cities across the country and of what it means to be black in America.
ISBN:9780060837563
Author:Richard Wright
Quiet Power by Susan Cain
Brief Summary
The monumental bestseller Quiet has been recast in a new edition that empowers introverted kids and teens
Susan Cain sparked a worldwide conversation when she published Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking. With her inspiring book, she permanently changed the way we see introverts and the way introverts see themselves.
The original book focused on the workplace, and Susan realized that a version for and about kids was also badly needed. This book is all about kids' world—school, extracurriculars, family life, and friendship. You’ll read about actual kids who have tackled the challenges of not being extroverted and who have made a mark in their own quiet way. You’ll hear Susan Cain’s own story, and you’ll be able to make use of the tips at the end of each chapter. There’s even a guide at the end of the book for parents and teachers.
This insightful, accessible, and empowering book, illustrated with amusing comic-style art, will be eye-opening to extroverts and introverts alike.
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ISBN:9780803740600
Author:Susan Cain and Gregory Mone
So You Want to Talk About Race
Brief Summary
A current, constructive, and actionable exploration of today's racial landscape, offering straightforward clarity that readers of all races need to contribute to the dismantling of the racial divide
In So You Want to Talk About Race, Editor at Large of The Establishment Ijeoma Oluo offers a contemporary, accessible take on the racial landscape in America, addressing head-on such issues as privilege, police brutality, inter sectionalist, micro-aggressions, the Black Lives Matter movement, and the "N" word. Perfectly positioned to bridge the gap between people of color and white Americans struggling with race complexities, Oluo answers the questions readers don't dare ask, and explains the concepts that continue to elude everyday Americans.
Oluo is an exceptional writer with a rare ability to be straightforward, funny, and effective in her coverage of sensitive, hyper-charged issues in America. Her messages are passionate but finely tuned, and crystalize ideas that would otherwise be vague by empowering them with aha-moment clarity. Her writing brings to mind voices like Ta-Nehisi Coates and Roxane Gay, and Jessica Valenti in Full Frontal Feminism, and a young Gloria Naylor, particularly in Naylor's seminal essay "The Meaning of a Word."
ISBN:9781580056779
Author:Ijeoma Oluo
The Audacious Dreamer A story of fait...
Brief Summary
When a young girl takes the first steps of courage to leave behind the only life she knows, it opens up her world to all sorts of possibilities. Despite intimidating odds, she embraces different experiences that curve out a great path for her life. The audacious dreamer shares the experiences that will leave you curious to let your dreams be your compass and embrace everything that you encounter in life.
Peris Mbuthia is a Kenyan entrepreneur who runs a very successful Medical Spa in Nairobi. She is married to Martin Mbuthia, with whom they have two beautiful daughters; Sandra and Maxine.
Peris has been involved in the health and beauty industry internationally for over 20 years and has been actively involved in the Kenyan local media in promoting and educating people
on the importance of skincare. She has lived in the UK, USA and Canada and was actively involved in her local church's youth club. With the hope to inspire and transform lives, Peris has put all her gained knowledge and experiences into this book.
ISBN:9781773703107
Author:Peris Mbuthia
Three Daughters of Eve by Elif Shafak
Brief Summary
Peri, a wealthy Turkish housewife, is on her way to a dinner party at a seaside mansion in Istanbul when a beggar snatches her handbag. As she wrestles to get it back, a photograph falls to the ground - an old Polaroid of three young women and their university professor. A relic from a past - and a love - Peri had tried desperately to forget.
The photograph takes Peri back to Oxford University, as an eighteen year old sent abroad for the first time. To her dazzling, rebellious Professor and his life-changing course on God. To her home with her two best friends, Shirin and Mona, and their arguments about Islam and femininity. And finally, to the scandal that tore them all apart.
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ISBN:9780241288047
Author:Elif Shafak
Black Man White House
Brief Summary
Black Man, White House: An Oral History of the Obama Years
From legendary comedian D.L. Hughley comes a bitingly funny send-up of the Obama years, as "told” by the key political players on both sides of the aisle.
What do the Clintons, Republicans, fellow Democrats, and Obama’s own family really think of President Barack Obama? Finally, the truth is revealed in this raucously funny "oral history” parody.
There is no more astute—and hilarious—critic of politics, entertainment, and race in America than D. L. Hughley, famed comedian, radio star, and original member of the "Kings of Comedy.” In the vein of Jon Stewart’s America: The Book, Black Man, White House is an acerbic and witty take on Obama’s two terms, looking at the president’s accomplishments and foibles through the imagined eyes of those who saw history unfold.
Hughley draws upon satirical interviews with the most notorious public figures of our day: Mitt Romney ("What’s ‘poverty’? Is that some sort of rap jargon?”); Nancy Pelosi ("I play Fuck/Marry/Kill, and there’s a lot more kills than fucks in Congress, believe me.”); Rod Blagojevich ("You can’t sell political offices on eBay; I discovered that personally.”); Joe Biden ("I like wrestling.”); and other politicians, media pundits, and buffoons. It is sure to be the most irreverent— and perhaps the most honest—look at American politics today.
ISBN:9780062399793
Author:D.L. Hughley
All the Light We Cannot See by Anthon...
From the highly acclaimed, multiple award-winning Anthony Doerr, the stunningly beautiful instant New York Times bestseller about a blind French girl and a German boy whose paths collide in occupied France as both try to survive the devastation of World War II.
Marie-Laure lives in Paris near the Museum of Natural History, where her father works. When she is twelve, the Nazis occupy Paris and father and daughter flee to the walled citadel of Saint-Malo, where Marie-Laure’s reclusive great uncle lives in a tall house by the sea. With them they carry what might be the museum’s most valuable and dangerous jewel.
In a mining town in Germany, Werner Pfennig, an orphan, grows up with his younger sister, enchanted by a crude radio they find that brings them news and stories from places they have never seen or imagined. Werner becomes an expert at building and fixing these crucial new instruments and is enlisted to use his talent to track down the resistance. Deftly interweaving the lives of Marie-Laure and Werner, Doerr illuminates the ways, against all odds, people try to be good to one another.
The Vagina Monologues
Brief Summary
I decided to talk to women about their vaginas, to do vagina interviews, which became vagina monologues ... At first women were reluctant to talk.
They were a little shy. But once they got going, you couldn't stop them. Women secretly love to talk about their vaginas.
They get very excited, mainly because no one's ever asked them before.' Eve Ensler A poignant and hilarious tour of the last frontier, the ultimate forbidden zone, THE VAGINA MONOLOGUES is a celebration of female sexuality in all its complexity and mystery. Hailed as the bible for a new
ISBN:9781860499265
Author:Eve Ensler
Cry the Beloved Country by Alan Paton
Cry, the Beloved Country, the most famous and important novel in South Africa’s history, was an immediate worldwide bestseller in 1948. Alan Paton’s impassioned novel about a black man’s country under white man’s law is a work of searing beauty.
Cry, the beloved country, for the unborn child that is the inheritor of our fear. Let him not love the earth too deeply. Let him not laugh too gladly when the water runs through his fingers, nor stand too silent when the setting sun makes red the veld with fire. Let him not be too moved when the birds of his land are singing, nor give too much of his heart to a mountain or valley. For fear will rob him of all if he gives too much.
The eminent literary critic Lewis Gannett wrote, "We have had many novels from statesmen and reformers, almost all bad; many novels from poets, almost all thin. In Alan Paton’s Cry, the Beloved Country the statesman, the poet and the novelist meet in a unique harmony.”
Cry, the Beloved Country is the deeply moving story of the Zulu pastor Stephen Kumalo and his son, Absalom, set against the background of a land and a people riven by racial injustice. Remarkable for its lyricism, unforgettable for character and incident, Cry, the Beloved Country is a classic work of love and hope, courage and endurance, born of the dignity of man.
Why States Recover
Brief Summary
Why States Recover: Changing Walking Societies into Winning Nations, from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe.
State failure takes many forms. Somalia offers one extreme. A collapse of central authority as the outcome of a prolonged civil war, where authority descends into competing factions--warlords--around the spoils of local commerce, power and international aid. At the other end of the scale is Malawi under President Bingu.
During his abbreviated second term in office, the country's economy collapsed as a result of poor policies and personalized politics. On the surface, save the petrol queues, it was stable; underneath, the polity was fractured and the economy broken. Between these two extremes of state failure are all manner of examples.
This book uses field-work based case-studies of more than thirty countries, incorporating interviews with a dozen leaders, to disaggregate various state failures and identify instances of recovery--from Latin America, Asia and Africa, including Afghanistan, Congo, Sierra Leone, Kosovo, Somalia and Somaliland, Venezuela and Zimbabwe--while focusing on a key question: How do countries recover and what roles are there for insiders and outsiders?
ISBN:9781770103252
Author:Greg Mills
Emotional Chaos to Clarity
Brief Summary
Emotional Chaos to Clarity: How to Live More Skillfully, Make Better Decisions, and Find Purpose in Life.
This inspiring and prescriptive book leads us from the emotional chaos of the reactive mind to the clarity of the responsive mind
As Founder of the Life Balance Institute, Phillip Moffitt has observed that most people lack clarity about their life's direction and the ability to cope with its inevitable challenges. Now, in Emotional Chaos to Clarity, he provides the antidote by showing us the path of skillful living.
Grounded in Western psychology and Buddhist philosophy, each chapter introduces a mind state that prevents us from living skillfully, narrates stories from Moffitt's hundreds of students and clients, and provides step-by-step exercises for readers to find clarity in their own lives.
Among the many benefits of skillful living are being able to gain wisdom from both pleasant and unpleasant experiences and having an inner life which can flourish, even if our outer life is filled with difficulty.
ISBN:9781594630927
Author:Phillip Moffitt
Back from Africa
Brief Summary
After enthralling readers around the world with her incredible story of falling in love with and marrying the Masai warrior Lketinga-and living with his family and their daughter in Kenya-Corinne Hoffmann recounts her return to Switzerland and the difficulties she faced.
This frank and revealing memoir details how she built a new life for herself and her daughter while overcoming all obstacles with the same courage and optimism she employed in her life in the Kenyan outback.
Once again, Hoffmann proves herself to be an acute observer and an effective storyteller, and her astonishing and compelling tale will captivate fans new and old.
ISBN:9781905147328
Author:Corinne Hofmann
Joe Kadenge The Life of a Football Le...
Brief Summary
Kadenge na mpira...
This is the stuff of legend; a real tour de force, brilliant and uncompromising, told in simple conversational style that feels like listening to a great storyteller. This is a story that will capture the attention of all Kenyans. It's part birthday card, part an engrossing portrait to a legendary footballer. The story spans decades —from a crotchety start to the incising portrait of a great man of our times.
John Nene is a Kenyan journalist working for the BBC World Service as a sports producer, and is based at their East Africa Bureau office in Nairobi. He has covered sports in Kenya extensively and travelled widely to report on major international events. Some of the big international competitions he has covered are Olympic Games in 1988 (Seoul), 2004 (Athens) and 2008 (Beijing), World Athletics Championships in 1993 (Stuttgart), 2001 (Edmonton), 2007 (Osaka) and 2015 in Beijing, 1999 All-Africa Games in Johannesburg and 2012 Olympic boxing qualifiers in Casablanca, Morocco.
The climax to his illustrious career in sports journalism was when he covered the 2010 World Cup in South Africa in which he travelled by road, winning the hearts of sports fans in the region with his lively reports on his way to Johannesburg via Arusha, Morogoro, Mbeya, Kabwe, Lusaka, Livingstone, Francistown and Gaborone. He started his sports journalism career as a boxing correspondent for the defunct Weekly Review/Nairobi Times publications having himself been a boxer, then moved to Kenya Times, Kenya Television Network (KTN) as chief sports presenter, Daily Nation as a sports sub-editor and now with BBC. His creative, incisive, authoritative and well-researched stories have twice earned him the Kenya Media Council Sports Journalist of the Year award. He is currently working on his next book, boxing in Kenya.
ISBN:9789966478764
Author:John Nene
A Standard Swahili English Dictionary
Brief Summary
A Standard Swahili - English Dictionary: This dictionary is founded on Madan's original Swahili Dictionaries. It contains short explanations of Swahili words, phrases and idioms occurring in modern English. Many definitions and examples contained in this work are similar with those in Madan's dictionaries but others have been added or revised.
The Swahili language or Kiswahili is a Bantu language and the mother tongue of the Swahili people. It is spoken by various communities inhabiting the African Great Lakes region and other parts of Southeast Africa, including Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Mozambique and the Democratic Republic of Congo. The closely related Comorian language, sometimes (and incorrectly) considered a Swahili dialect, is spoken in the Comoros Islands.
Although only around five million people speak Swahili as their mother tongue, it is used as a lingua franca in much of Southeast Africa. The total number of Swahili speakers exceeds 140 million. Swahili serves as a national or official language of four nations: Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It is also one of the official languages of the African Union. Some Swahili vocabulary is derived from Arabic through contact with Arabic-speaking Muslim inhabitants of the Swahili Coast. It has also incorporated German, Portuguese, English, Hindi and French words into its vocabulary through contact with empire builders, traders and slavers during the past five centuries.
ISBN:9780195720075
Author:Frederick Johnson
Nairobi then and now 50 years by Step...
Brief Summary
This book is a window into Nairobi's past and a reminder of its present. The transformation we see is uneven - some things and places have evolved unrecognizably, while others remain constant. Nairobi is a place of great change. Rapid development and outward expansion is ever reshaping the landscape. Kenya and the UK have been partners in Nairobi's evolutionary journey throughout.
Not just government, but also in terms of trade and investment, technology, security, knowledge, and people. The Kenya-UK partnership will continue the journey down this road to the future, towards achieving the Kenyan Government's Vision 2030 and beyond.
50 years in the future many places shown in this book could be long gone. While a few special old places might remain, our vision for the 2063 edition of this book is an ultra-modern Nairobi, a major interchange of the globalized and interconnected world. And a place where we continue to learn from the lessons of the past, as we focus on the promise of the future.
In Between Dreams
Brief Summary
Growing up in a sleepy town with a beautiful mother and a father who seems to adore her, it’s difficult to understand why Frances is the way she is. Strange, manipulating, and at times cruel, she is a mystery to Marienne, her bewildered mother.
But, on closer inspection, hiding beyond the white picket fence and cherry-blossom tree that umbrellas their cozy life, something dark lies heavy on both Frances and her father. Following a disastrous 16th birthday party and a grandmother found dead in the bathtub, Frances is sent away to boarding school.
The Academy is a place rife with teenage rivalry, secret rendezvous, and budding friendships. And it’s here — alone for the first time — that Frances is forced to confront the true nature of her life. Intertwined with Frances’ narrative is that of her father James. Between them we discover a story of a young girl entering adulthood under the smoky weight of a terrible secret, of a life stolen and rediscovered, and, above all, of a tainted love affair and the fluid, easily traversed boundary between perversity and normality.
ISBN:9781780743967
Author:Iman Verjee
African Nights Kuki Gallmann
Brief Summary
African Nights: True Stories from the Author of I Dreamed of Africa
Africa evokes a deep sense of mystery. It is a place that retains what most of the world has lost: space, roots, traditions, awesome beauty, true wilderness, rare animals, and extraordinary people. In this wonderful and haunting collection of stories, Kuki Gallmann writes of her life in Africa, where every day brings challenge and adventure.
African Nightsis a treasury of memories, in which fascinating people and places are brought to life. The healing powers Africa can have on those who embrace the land as a place of mystery, superstition, danger, and beauty.
ISBN:9780060954833
Author:Kuki Gallmann
Istanbul A Tale of Three Cities
Brief Summary
Istanbul explores a city which stands as a gateway between the east and west, one of the indisputably greatest cities in the world. Previously known by the names Byzantium and Constantinople, this is the most celebrated metropolis in the world to sit on two continents, straddling the dividing line of the Bosphorus Strait between Europe and Asia.
During its long history, Istanbul has served as the capital of the Roman, Byzantine, Latin and Ottoman Empires. Its architecture reflects these many cultures, including the Hagia Sophia (Byzantine), the Blue Mosque (Ottoman), the Valens Aqueduct (Roman), the Topkapi Palace (Ottoman), and more modern Art Nouveau avenues built in the 19th and 20th centuries - many of which are UNESCO World Heritage sites.
With the founding of the Republic of Turkey by Ataturk in 1923, Istanbul was overlooked and Ankara became the capital. Over the next 90 years, Istanbul has undergone great structural change, and in the 1970s the population of the city rocketed as people moved to the city to find work, turning Istanbul into the cultural, economic and financial centre of Turkey. Events there recently have again brought Istanbul to the forefront of global attention. Indeed, while writing this book, Bettany was caught with her daughters in the crossfire of Taksim Square.
Bettany Hughes has been researching and writing this rich portrait of one of the world's most multi-faceted cities for over a decade. Her compelling biography of a momentous city is visceral, immediate and sensuous narrative history at its finest.
ISBN:9780297868484
Author:Bettany Hughes
Mama Made the Difference
Brief Summary
From the bestselling author of He-Motions comes a positive and inspirational book of lessons learned from his mother.
In the bestselling The Lady, Her Lover, and Her Lord, Bishop T. D. Jakes examined a woman's most important relationships in life: with God, with her man, and with herself. In the smash hit He-Motions, he turned his gaze to the hearts and minds of the other sex, offering both insight and empowerment to men and the women who love them.
Now, just in time for Mother's Day 2006, Bishop Jakes brings us a book that celebrates motherhood and promises to be his most intensely personal book yet.
Mama Made the Difference comes straight from the heart of the Jakes family to yours. In his uplifting and powerful voice, Bishop Jakes shares personal stories about growing up in his mother's home, revealing the time-honored lessons and values she taught him. Woven into his personal vignettes are inspirational biblical stories about mothers, heartfelt advice for modern-day moms, and testimonials from other prominent African-American figures about the importance of motherhood.
Driven by the Bible and stories straight from his own life and offering praise, inspiration, and instruction, T. D. Jakes has written a must-have for daughters and sons, brothers and sisters, parents and grandparents-and anyone else who has ever felt the mighty power of a mother's love.
ISBN:9780399153631
Author:T.D. Jakes
The Complete Father Brown
Brief Summary
Forty-nine quietly sensational cases investigated by the high-priest of detective fiction
FATHER BROWN
Immortalized in these famous stories, G.K. Chesterton's endearing amateur sleuth has entertained countless generations of readers. For, as his admirers know, Father Brown's cherubic face and unworldly simplicity, his glasses and his huge umbrella, disguise a quite uncanny understanding of the criminal mind at work.
This Penguin omnibus edition contains
• The Innocence of Father Brown
• The Wisdom of Father Brown
• The Incredulity of Father Brown
• The Secret of Father Brown
• The Scandal of Father Brown
ISBN:9780140097665
Author:G.K. Chesterton
The Reluctant Fundamentalist
Brief Summary
At a café table in Lahore, a bearded Pakistani man converses with an uneasy American stranger. As dusk deepens to night, he begins the tale that has brought them to this fateful encounter…
Changez is living an immigrant's dream of America. At the top of his class at Princeton, he is snapped up by an elite valuation firm. He thrives on the energy of New York, and his budding romance with elegant, beautiful Erica promises entry into Manhattan society at the same exalted level once occupied by his own family back in Lahore.
But in the wake of September 11, Changez finds his position in his adopted city suddenly overturned, and his relationship with Erica shifting. And Changez's own identity is in seismic shift as well, unearthing allegiances more fundamental than money, power, and maybe even love.
ISBN:9780151013043
Author:Mohsin Hamid
How to Be a Bawse
Brief Summary
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From the 2017 People’s Choice Award winner for Favorite YouTube Star comes the definitive guide to being a bawse: a person who exudes confidence, hustles relentlessly, and smiles genuinely because he or she has fought through it all and made it out the other side.
Lilly Singh isn’t just a superstar. She’s Superwoman—which is also the name of her wildly popular YouTube channel. Funny, smart, and insightful, the actress and comedian covers topics ranging from relationships to career choices to everyday annoyances. It’s no wonder she’s garnered more than a billion views. But Lilly didn’t get to the top by being lucky—she had to work for it. Hard.
Now Lilly wants to share the lessons she learned while taking the world by storm, and the tools she used to do it. How to Be a Bawse is the definitive guide to conquering life. Make no mistake, there are no shortcuts to success, personal or professional. World domination requires real effort, dedication, and determination. Just consider Lilly a personal trainer for your life—with fifty rules to get you in the game, including
• Let Go of FOMO (Fear of Missing Out): Temptation will try to steer you away from your goals. FOMO is just a test of your priorities, a test that a bawse is ready to pass.
• Be Nice to People: Treat niceness like an item on your daily to-do list. People will go out of their way to help and support you because you make them feel good.
• Schedule Inspiration: Lack of motivation isn’t permanent or a sign of weakness. Expect it and proactively schedule time to be creative.
• Be the Dumbest: Challenge yourself by surrounding yourself with people who know more than you do. It’s a vital way to learn and improve.
Told in Lilly’s hilarious, bold voice and packed with photos and candid stories from her journey to the top, How to Be a Bawse will make you love your life and yourself—even more than you love Beyoncé. (Yes, we said it!)
WARNING: This book does not include hopeful thoughts, lucky charms, or cute quotes. That’s because success, happiness, and everything else you want in life need to be worked for, not wished for. In Lilly’s world, there are no escalators, only stairs. Get ready to climb.
ISBN:9780425286463
Author:Lilly Singh
Beloved Vintage Classics
Brief Summary
Terrible, unspeakable things happened to Sethe at Sweet Home, the farm where she lived as a slave for so many years until she escaped to Ohio.
Her new life is full of hope but eighteen years later she is still not free. Sethe's new home is not only haunted by the memories of her past but also by the ghost of her baby, who died nameless and whose tombstone is engraved with a single word: Beloved.
ISBN:9780099511656
Author:Toni Morrison
Tar Baby by Toni Morrison
Military Power Explaining Victory and...
Brief Summary
In war, do mass and materiel matter most? Will states with the largest, best equipped, information-technology-rich militaries invariably win? The prevailing answer today among both scholars and policymakers is yes. But this is to overlook force employment, or the doctrine and tactics by which materiel is actually used. In a landmark reconception of battle and war, this book provides a systematic account of how force employment interacts with materiel to produce real combat outcomes.
Stephen Biddle argues that force employment is central to modern war, becoming increasingly important since 1900 as the key to surviving ever more lethal weaponry. Technological change produces opposite effects depending on how forces are employed; to focus only on materiel is thus to risk major error--with serious consequences for both policy and scholarship.
In clear, fluent prose, Biddle provides a systematic account of force employment's role and shows how this account holds up under rigorous, multi method testing. The results challenge a wide variety of standard views, from current expectations for a revolution in military affairs to mainstream scholarship in international relations and orthodox interpretations of modern military history.
Military Power will have a resounding impact on both scholarship in the field and on policy debates over the future of warfare, the size of the military, and the makeup of the defense budget.
ISBN:9780691128023
Author:Stephen Biddle
Exit West by Mohsin Hamid
In a country teetering on the brink of civil war, two young people meet—sensual, fiercely independent Nadia and gentle, restrained Saeed. They embark on a furtive love affair and are soon cloistered in a premature intimacy by the unrest roiling their city.
When it explodes, turning familiar streets into a patchwork of checkpoints and bomb blasts, they begin to hear whispers about doors—doors that can whisk people far away, if perilously and for a price. As the violence escalates, Nadia and Saeed decide that they no longer have a choice. Leaving their homeland and their old lives behind, they find a door and step through.
Exit West follows these characters as they emerge into an alien and uncertain future, struggling to hold on to each other, to their past, to the very sense of who they are. Profoundly intimate and powerfully inventive, it tells an unforgettable story of love, loyalty, and courage that is both completely of our time and for all time.
The Improbability Principle
Brief Summary
The Improbability Principle: Why coincidences, miracles and rare events happen all the time
In The Improbability Principle, the renowned statistician David J. Hand argues that extraordinarily rare events are anything but. In fact, they're commonplace. Not only that, we should all expect to experience a miracle roughly once every month.
But Hand is no believer in superstitions, prophecies, or the paranormal. His definition of "miracle" is thoroughly rational. No mystical or supernatural explanation is necessary to understand why someone is lucky enough to win the lottery twice, or is destined to be hit by lightning three times and still survive.
All we need, Hand argues, is a firm grounding in a powerful set of laws: the laws of inevitability, of truly large numbers, of selection, of the probability lever, and of near enough.
Together, these constitute Hand's groundbreaking Improbability Principle. And together, they explain why we should not be so surprised to bump into a friend in a foreign country, or to come across the same unfamiliar word four times in one day.
Hand wrestles with seemingly less explicable questions as well: what the Bible and Shakespeare have in common, why financial crashes are par for the course, and why lightning does strike the same place (and the same person) twice. Along the way, he teaches us how to use the Improbability Principle in our own lives?including how to cash in at a casino and how to recognize when a medicine is truly effective.
An irresistible adventure into the laws behind "chance" moments and a trusty guide for understanding the world and universe we live in, The Improbability Principle will transform how you think about serendipity and luck, whether it's in the world of business and finance or you're merely sitting in your backyard, tossing a ball into the air and wondering where it will land.
ISBN:9780593072813
Author:David J. Hand
The Evolution Of Desire Strategies of...
Brief Summary
If we all want love, why is there so much conflict in our most cherished relationships? To answer this question, says noted psychologist David Buss, we must look into our evolutionary past.
Based on the most massive study of human mating ever undertaken, encompassing more than 10,000 people of all ages from thirty-seven cultures worldwide, The Evolution of Desire is the first book to present a unified theory of human mating behavior.
Now in an updated edition with two new chapters by the author, The Evolution of Desire presents the latest research in the field, including starting new discoveries about the evolutionary advantages of infidelity, orgasm, and physical attractiveness.
ISBN:9780465008025
Author:David M. Buss
Find Your Why
Brief Summary
Find Your Why: A Practical Guide to Discovering Purpose for You and Your Team
With Start with Why, Simon Sinek inspired a movement to build a world in which the vast majority of us can feel safe while we are at work and fulfilled when we go home at night. However, many people have had trouble bringing the book's message into their own career and company. Now, along with two of his colleagues, Peter Docker and David Mead, he has created a guide to the most important step any business can take: finding your why.
This easy-to-follow guide starts with the search for your personal why, and then expands to helping your colleagues find your organization's why. With detailed instructions on every stage in the process, the book also answer common concerns, such as: What if my why sounds like my competitor's? Can you have more than one why? And, if my work doesn't match my why, what do I do?
Whether you're entry level or a CEO, whether your team is run by the founder or a recent hire, these simple steps will lead you on a path to a more fulfilling life and long-term success for you and your colleagues.
ISBN:9780143111726
Author:Simon Sinek, David Mead and Peter Docker
The Marriage Game
Brief Summary
It was an affair that shocked the world.
Elizabeth I is the most sought-after bride in Europe. But though she is formidably intelligent, brave and tempestuous, she is desperately insecure. The tragic events in her past mean she cannot give herself to any man, and yet she relishes the thrill of the chase, the lure of forbidden fruit.
And so, using sex and high-powered diplomacy, she plays what becomes known as the 'Marriage Game', dangling suitors to keep them friendly to her kingdom, while holding them off indefinitely.
But playing this tantalizing game with the married Robert Dudley, the son and grandson of traitors, could cost her the throne…
ISBN:9780099534624
Author:Alison Weir
The Fate of the Tearling
Brief Summary
In less than a year, Kelsea Glynn has grown from an awkward teenager into a powerful monarch and a visionary leader.
And as she has come into her own as the Queen of the Tearling, she has transformed her realm. But in her quest to end corruption and restore justice, she has made many enemies - chief among them the evil and feared Red Queen, who ordered the armies of Mortmesne to march against the Tear and crush them.
To protect her people from such a devastating invasion, Kelsea did the unthinkable - naming the Mace, the trusted head of her personal guards, Regent in her place, she surrendered herself and her magical sapphires to her enemy. But the Mace will not rest until he and his men rescue their sovereign from her prison in Mortmesne.
So, the endgame has begun and the fate of Queen Kelsea - and the Tearling itself - will be revealed...
With The Fate of the Tearling, Erika Johansen draws her unforgettable story full of magic and adventure to a thrilling close.
ISBN:9780593073131
Author:Erika Johansen
