Best of
21st-Century

2011

Dear Mr. Potter: Letters of Love, Loss, and Magic


Lily Zalon - 2011
    Potter: Letters of Love, Loss, and Magic features hundreds of letters and pictures from Harry Potter fans. Individually, these letters and pictures tell stories of how fans have been impacted and inspired by Harry Potter. Together they serve as proof of what all Potter fans know so well: the Harry Potter series changes lives.Along with fans from around the world, Dear Mr. Potter also features letters from Harry Potter actress Evanna Lynch (Luna Lovegood), New York Times-bestselling author John Green, Leaky Cauldron webmistress and author of New York Times-bestseller Harry, A History Melissa Anelli, Andrew Slack of the Harry Potter Alliance, Paul DeGeorge of Harry and the Potters, Andrew Sims and Eric Scull of MuggleNet, and Esther Earl’s mom, Lori.

Goodbye Sarajevo: A True Story of Courage, Love and Survival


Atka Reid - 2011
    Hana is twelve-years-old when she is put on one of the last UN evacuation buses fleeing the besieged city of Sarajevo. Her twenty-one-year-old sister, Atka, staying behind to look after their five younger siblings, is there to say goodbye. Thinking that they will be apart for only a few weeks, they make a promise to each other to be brave.But as the Bosnian war escalates and months go by without contact, their promise to each other becomes deeply significant. Hana is forced to cope as a refugee in Croatia, far away from home and family, while Atka battles for survival in a city where snipers, mortar attacks and desperate food shortages are a part of everyday life. Their mother, working for a humanitarian aid organisation, is unable to reach them and their father retreats inside himself, shocked at what is happening to his city. In Sarajevo, death lurks in every corner and shakes the foundation of their existence. One day their beloved uncle is killed while queuing up for bread in the market square, in a massacre similar to the one three months earlier which prompted a cellist to make a lone musical protest in the deserted streets. But when Atka finds work as a translator in an old, smoky radio station, and then with a photojournalist from New Zealand, life takes an unexpected turn, and the remarkable events that follow change her life, and those of her family, forever.Set in the middle of the bloodiest European conflict since the Second World War, Goodbye Sarajevo is a moving and compelling true story of courage, hope and extraordinary human kindness.

The Street Sweeper


Elliot Perlman - 2011
    From the civil rights struggle in the United States to the Nazi crimes against humanity in Europe, there are more stories than people passing one another every day on the bustling streets of every crowded city. Only some stories survive to become history.Recently released from prison, Lamont Williams, an African American probationary janitor in a Manhattan hospital and father of a little girl he can’t locate, strikes up an unlikely friendship with an elderly patient, a Holocaust survivor who was a prisoner in Auschwitz-Birkenau.A few blocks uptown, historian Adam Zignelik, an untenured Columbia professor, finds both his career and his long-term romantic relationship falling apart. Emerging from the depths of his own personal history, Adam sees, in a promising research topic suggested by an American World War II veteran, the beginnings of something that might just save him professionally, and perhaps even personally.As these men try to survive in early-twenty-first-century New York, history comes to life in ways neither of them could have foreseen. Two very different paths—Lamont’s and Adam’s—lead to one greater story as The Street Sweeper, in dealing with memory, love, guilt, heroism, the extremes of racism and unexpected kindness, spans the twentieth century to the present, and spans the globe from New York to Chicago to Auschwitz.Epic in scope, this is a remarkable feat of storytelling.

Dani's Story: A Journey from Neglect to Love


Diane Lierow - 2011
    Danielle spoke only in grunts and yelps, walked on her tiptoes, was not toilet-trained and drank from a bottle. She was almost seven years old. But hope and help were waiting for this little girl. In October 2007, Bernie and Diane Lierow, a hard-working couple with five boys of their own, adopted her and utterly transformed her life. This book tells the moving story of how the Lierows rescued Dani and helped her recover to the point where she can not only communicate, something once thought impossible, but can say of herself, "I pretty." Dani's Story was featured on Oprah and the subject of a Pulitzer Prize-winning article published by the St. Petersburg Times. The Lierows describe their struggle to adopt Dani, how they bonded with her and made a home for her, how they satisfied her craving for contact and stimuli, how Dani began to overcome her severe learning disabilities, how she learned she no longer had to steal food, and how their son Willie may be the greatest brother ever. Charting a perilous journey from hardship to hope, a new family, and a second chance at life, Dani's Story is a book you cannot put down and will never forget.

Memorial: An Excavation of the Iliad


Alice Oswald - 2011
    Alice Oswald has won several literary awards.

A Doctor in the House: The Memoirs of Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad


Mahathir Mohamad - 2011
    He has been described—typically and paradoxically—as a tyrannical dictator, a bête noir, as well as inspiring, courageous and an outspoken defender of the downtrodden, the Third World, and moderate Islam.At almost every turn Dr Mahathir rewrote the rules. This book reveals hitherto unknown aspects of this intensely private, but publicly bold, statesman. It provides a clear and compelling narrative of modern Malaysian political history as seen through the eyes of one its greatest shapers. It is neither apology nor defence, but a forceful, compelling and often exciting account of how Dr Mahathir achieved what he did in so short a time, and why.About AuthorTun Dr. Mahathir bin Mohamad ( born 10 July 1925) (Jawi:محتير بن محمد) was the fourth Prime Minister of Malaysia. He held the post for 22 years from 1981 to 2003, making him Malaysia's longest-serving Prime Minister, and one of the longest-serving leaders in Asia. Mahathir's political career spanned almost 40 years, from his election as a Malaysian federal Member of Parliament in 1964, until his resignation as Prime Minister in 2003.

Dancing on Our Turtle's Back: Stories of Nishnaabeg Re-Creation, Resurgence, and a New Emergence


Leanne Betasamosake Simpson - 2011
    In Dancing on Our Turtle's Back: Stories of Nishnaabeg Re-Creation, Resurgence, and a New Emergence activist, editor, and educator Leanne Simpson asserts reconciliation must be grounded in political resurgence and must support the regeneration of Indigenous languages, oral cultures, and traditions of governance.Simpson explores philosophies and pathways of regeneration, resurgence, and a new emergence through the Nishnaabeg language, Creation Stories, walks with Elders and children, celebrations and protests, and meditations on these experiences. She stresses the importance of illuminating Indigenous intellectual traditions to transform their relationship to the Canadian state.Challenging and original, Dancing on Our Turtle's Back provides a valuable new perspective on the struggles of Indigenous Peoples.

Heston Blumenthal At Home


Heston Blumenthal - 2011
    With meticulous precision, he explains what the most effective techniques are and why they work. Heston's instructions are precise and easy to follow, with lots of helpful tips, and each chapter is introduced with an explanation of Heston's approach to 1) Stocks 2) Soups 3) Starters 4) Salads 5) Meat 6) Fish 7) Sous-vide 8) Pasta and grains 9) Cheese 10) Sides and condiments 11) Ices 12) Desserts and sweets 13) Biscuits, snacks and drinks. Recipes include Green bean and radish salad; Prawn cocktail; Roast chicken; Shepherd's pie; Sea bass with vanilla butter; Liquorice poached salmon; Carbonara; The ultimate cheese toastie; Strawberry sundae; Liquid centre chocolate pudding and Raspberry sherbert. And, of course, Heston's famous Triple-cooked chips. Heston Blumenthal at Home will change the way you think about cooking forever - prepare for a culinary revolution!

Gentleman Practice


Buddy Wakefield - 2011
    It's a poetry book, from the perspective of a journal entry in the National Archives. The National Archives live in a building in Seattle behind barbed wire, directly next door to the Center for Spiritual Living. This is no accident. Gentleman Practice is a disarming de-haunting of accidents. There are no stunt doubles performing the honesty in this book. Head raised and victorious, he has crafted a translation of the human spirit on a small, practical patch, with a very fine tooth indeed. And, while many poetry books read like a thick epic series of sections, Gentleman Practice will no doubt rest in your hands like a well-oiled novel.

Frankenstein, Based on the Novel by Mary Shelley


Nick Dear - 2011
    Meeting with cruelty wherever he goes, and increasingly desperate and vengeful, he determines to track down his creator and strike a terrifying deal.I followed nature into her lair, and stripped her of her secrets! I brought torrents of light to a darkening world! Is that wrong?Urgent concerns of scientific responsibility, parental neglect, cognitive development and the nature of good and evil are embedded within this thrilling and deeply disturbing classic gothic tale.Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, adapted for the stage by Nick Dear, premiered at the National Theatre, London, in February 2011.

Dear Zari: The Secret Lives of the Women of Afghanistan


Zarghuna Kargar - 2011
    For the first time, Dear Zari allows these women to tell their stories in their own words: from the child bride given as payment to end of a family feud, to a life spent in a dark, dusty room weaving carpets, from a young girl being brought up as a boy, to a woman living as a widow shunned by society. Intimate, emotional, painful and uplifting, these stories uncover the suffering and strength of women in this deeply religious and intensely traditional society, and show how their courage is an inspiration to women everywhere.

My Milk Toof: The Adventures of ickle and Lardee


Inhae Lee - 2011
    The resulting blog phenomenon has captivated legions of devoted fans with its refreshingly sweet sentiment and hip appeal. Featuring brand-new stories alongside classic adventures, My Milk Toof follows two baby teeth named ickle and Lardee as they navigate the pleasures and perils of being very small in a very big world. With perfect comedic timing, the photographic tales in this book explore the world from the tiny perspective of a baby tooth (or milk toof), from taking a bath to exploring the outside world. Showcasing the intricate handcrafted universe that Lee has created, My Milk Toof has a quirky appeal that speaks to all ages. Whether they're baking a cake or spending a day at the pool, these two little guys are achingly sweet—but without the cavities.

The Churchills: In Love and War


Mary S. Lovell - 2011
    Lovell brilliantly recounts the triumphant political and military campaigns, domestic tragedies, happy marriages, and disastrous unions throughout generations of Churchills.The first Duke of Marlborough (1650–1722) was a soldier of such genius that a lavish palace, Blenheim, was built to honor his triumphs. Succeeding generations of Churchills sometimes achieved distinction but also included profligates and womanizers and were saddled with the ruinous upkeep of Blenheim. The Churchills were an extraordinary family, and they were connected with everyone who mattered in Britain. Winston Churchill—voted "the Greatest Briton" in a nationwide poll—dominates them all.

The No Hellos Diet


Sam Pink - 2011
    Find yourself working at a department store where everyone must wear red and khaki clothing. Find yourself throwing out garbage for fifty cents more than minimum wage. Find yourself worried about getting your arm ripped off by the box compactor. Find yourself talking about licking assholes with your co-worker. Find yourself driving away into a video game sunset with an Amish man.The No Hellos Diet reminds you of the time you burnt down your future ex-girlfriend's trampoline. It reminds you of the couple of times you smoked crack. And the time you meditated on the most important question of all: Can a cat be killed with a single punch? Find yourself stunned by the prose of a modern novel-master as he follows the course of your life for an entire year.

Lucky Peach: Issue 1


Chris Ying - 2011
    It is a creation of David Chang, the James Beard Award–winning chef behind the Momofuku restaurants in New York, Momofuku cookbook cowriter Peter Meehan, and Zero Point Zero Productions—producers of the Travel Channel’s Emmy Award–winning Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations.The result of this collaboration is a mélange of travelogue, essays, art, photography, and rants in a full-color, meticulously designed format. Recipes will defy the tired ingredients-and-numbered-steps formula. They’ll be laid out sensibly, inspired by the thought process that went into developing them.Each issue will focus on a theme (Issue One’s theme is “Ramen”), with contributions from Harold McGee, Ruth Reichl, John T. Edge, Todd Kliman and a cavalcade of other writers and artists. The reader will meander through arguments about the superiority of yellow alkaline noodles over Italian egg pasta; a taxonomy of ramen-package characters; an eating tour of Japan helmed by an over-stuffed and nauseated, but nevertheless intrepid, David Chang; and a booze-fueled rant on mediocrity in American cuisine with chefs Chang, Bourdain, and Wylie Dufresne set in the Spanish Basque country.The aim of Lucky Peach is to give a platform to a brand of food writing that began with unorthodox authors like Bourdain, resulting in a publication that appeals to diehard foodies as well as fans of good writing and art in general.

Cruel Optimism


Lauren Berlant - 2011
    Offering bold new ways of conceiving the present, Lauren Berlant describes the cruel optimism that has prevailed since the 1980s, as the social-democratic promise of the postwar period in the United States and Europe has retracted. People have remained attached to unachievable fantasies of the good life—with its promises of upward mobility, job security, political and social equality, and durable intimacy—despite evidence that liberal-capitalist societies can no longer be counted on to provide opportunities for individuals to make their lives “add up to something.”Arguing that the historical present is perceived affectively before it is understood in any other way, Berlant traces affective and aesthetic responses to the dramas of adjustment that unfold amid talk of precarity, contingency, and crisis. She suggests that our stretched-out present is characterized by new modes of temporality, and she explains why trauma theory—with its focus on reactions to the exceptional event that shatters the ordinary—is not useful for understanding the ways that people adjust over time, once crisis itself has become ordinary. Cruel Optimism is a remarkable affective history of the present.

Haiti: The Aftershocks of History


Laurent Dubois - 2011
    Maligned and misunderstood, the nation has long been blamed by many for its own wretchedness. But as acclaimed historian Laurent Dubois makes clear, Haiti's troubled present can only be understood by examining its complex past. The country's difficulties are inextricably rooted in its founding revolution—the only successful slave revolt in the history of the world; the hostility that this rebellion generated among the colonial powers surrounding the island nation; and the intense struggle within Haiti itself to define its newfound freedom and realize its promise.Dubois vividly depicts the isolation and impoverishment that followed the 1804 uprising. He details how the crushing indemnity imposed by the former French rulers initiated a devastating cycle of debt, while frequent interventions by the United States—including a twenty-year military occupation—further undermined Haiti's independence. At the same time, Dubois shows, the internal debates about what Haiti should do with its hard-won liberty alienated the nation's leaders from the broader population, setting the stage for enduring political conflict. Yet as Dubois demonstrates, the Haitian people have never given up on their struggle for true democracy, creating a powerful culture insistent on autonomy and equality for all.Revealing what lies behind the familiar moniker of "the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere," this indispensable book illuminates the foundations on which a new Haiti might yet emerge.

The Best of Chico & Delamar's The Morning Rush Top 10


Chico Garcia - 2011
    Released by Summit Books, the book compiles over 100 of their craziest, naughtiest, and most laugh-out-loud Top 10 lists.The Best of Chico & Delamar’s The Morning Rush Top 10 is guaranteed to keep a smile on your face all day with page after page of quotable quotes, pick-up lines, statements, and more. The Morning Rush with Chico & Delamar has been airing on RX 93.1 since 1996 and has already been awarded as Best Comedy Program in the 19th KBP Golden Dove Awards.-The Manila Bulletin Newspaper Online (mb.com.ph)

The Big Green Tent


Lyudmila Ulitskaya - 2011
    A sweeping saga, it tells the story of three school friends who meet in Moscow in the 1950s and go on to embody the heroism, folly, compromise, and hope of the Soviet dissident experience. These three boys—an orphaned poet; a gifted, fragile pianist; and a budding photographer with a talent for collecting secrets—struggle to reach adulthood in a society where their heroes have been censored and exiled. Rich with love stories, intrigue, and a cast of dissenters and spies, The Big Green Tent offers a panoramic survey of life after Stalin and a dramatic investigation into the prospects for integrity in a society defined by the KGB. Each of the central characters seeks to transcend an oppressive regime through art, a love of Russian literature, and activism. And each of them ends up face-to-face with a secret police that is highly skilled at fomenting paranoia, division, and self-betrayal. An artist is chased into the woods, where he remains in hiding for four years; a researcher is forced to deem a patient insane, damning him to torture in a psychiatric ward; a man and his wife each become collaborators, without the other knowing. Ludmila Ulitskaya’s big yet intimate novel belongs to the tradition of Dostoyevsky, Tolstoy, and Pasternak: a work of politics, love, and belief that is a revelation of life in dark times.

Red Heat: Conspiracy, Murder, and the Cold War in the Caribbean


Alex von Tunzelmann - 2011
    The men responsible included, from Cuba, the charismatic Fidel Castro, and his mysterious brother Raúl; from Argentina, the ideologue Che Guevara; from the Dominican Republic, the capricious psychopath Rafael Trujillo; and from Haiti, François "Papa Doc" Duvalier, a buttoned-down doctor with interests in Vodou, embezzlement and torture.Alex von Tunzelmann's brilliant narrative follows these five rivals and accomplices from the beginning of the Cold War to its end, each with a separate vision for his tropical paradise, and each in search of power and adventure as the United States and the USSR acted out the world's tensions in their island nations. The superpowers thought they could use Cuba, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic as puppets, but what neither bargained on was that their puppets would come to life. Red Heat is an intimate account of the strong-willed men who, armed with little but words and ruthlessness, took on the most powerful nations on earth.

Sciencia: Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, and Astronomy for All


Burkard Polster - 2011
    Lavishly illustrated with engravings, woodcuts, and original drawings and diagrams, Sciencia will inspire readers of all ages to take an interest in the interconnected knowledge of the modern sciences.Beautifully produced in thirteen different colors of ink, Sciencia is an essential reference and an elegant gift.Wooden Books was founded in 1999 by designer John Martineau near Hay-on-Wye. The aim was to produce a beautiful series of recycled books based on the classical philosophies, arts and sciences. Using the Beatrix Potter formula of text facing picture pages, and old-styles fonts, along with hand-drawn illustrations and 19th century engravings, the books are designed not to date. Small but stuffed with information. Eco friendly and educational. Big ideas in a tiny space. There are over 1,000,000 Wooden Books now in print worldwide and growing.

Cartooning: Philosophy and Practice


Ivan Brunetti - 2011
    . . Keep it right next to your desk where you can find it at a moment’s notice."—Tim O’Neil, PopMatters.comThe best cartooning is efficient visual storytelling—it is as much a matter of writing as it is of drawing. In this book, noted cartoonist and illustrator Ivan Brunetti presents fifteen distinct lessons on the art of cartooning, guiding his readers through wittily written passages on cartooning terminology, techniques, tools, and theory. Supplemented by Brunetti's own illustrations, prepared specially for this book, these lessons move the reader from spontaneous drawings to single-panel strips and complicated multipage stories.Through simple, creative exercises and assignments, Brunetti offers an unintimidating approach to a complex art form. He looks at the rhythms of storytelling, the challenges of character design, and the formal elements of comics while composing pages in his own iconic style and experimenting with a variety of tools, media, and approaches. By following the author's sophisticated and engaging perspective on the art of cartooning, aspiring cartoonists of all ages will hone their craft, create their personal style, and discover their own visual language.

Hurt Others


Sam Pink - 2011
    Someone had to be a bagger at a grocery store and fantasize about hitting children in the head with wine bottles. Someone had to fear a puddle floating at him from across the street. Someone had to celebrate beating up a pregnant woman. Someone just HAD to be a nanny, and stare at giant motorized spiders. Jeez oh man! Don't ask why a teenager in a Chicago Bulls overcoat is feeding baby rabbits to a toad. Don't ask why someone had to run around the backyard with a bedsheet cape after drinking moonshine. And don't ask why jumping down stairs feels like success.Just sit back, drink a piss-infused Bloody Mary, and learn to hurt others.

The Pregnant Body Book


Sarah Brewer - 2011
    The mysteries of DNA and genetics are unraveled and explained, including patterns of inheritance, such as hair or eye color. The largest section of the book examines the development of the baby in the womb and the parallel changes in the mother's body. Structured to follow the process week by week, every anatomical and physiological change is tracked in unprecedented detail.Specially commissioned 3-D artworks, illustrations, scans, and photography show exactly how a baby changes and grows during pregnancy, and how the female body adapts to carry it. A section on labor and birth explains these processes with step-by-step illustrations and easy-to-grasp text. Finally, a section on disorders provides straightforward illustrated information on problems that can occur before, during, and after birth.

The Hall of Uselessness: Collected Essays


Simon Leys - 2011
    The Hall of Uselessness forms the most complete collection yet of Leys’ fascinating essays, from Quixotism to China, from the sea to literature.Leys feuds with Christopher Hitchens, ponders the popularity of Victor Hugo and analyses the posthumous publication of Nabokov’s unfinished novel. He offers valuable insights into Mao’s Cultural Revolution and the Khmer Rouge, and discusses Orwell, Waugh and Confucius. He considers the intertwined nature of Chinese art, culture and history alongside the joys and difficulties of literary translation. The Hall of Uselessness is an illuminating compendium from a brilliant and highly acclaimed writer – a long-time resident of Australia who is truly a global citizen.

Being Human: The Companion Anthology to Staying Alive and Being Alive


Neil Astley - 2011
    "Being Human" is the third book in the "Staying Alive" poetry trilogy. "Staying Alive" and its sequel "Being Alive" have introduced many thousands of new readers to contemporary poetry. "Being Human" is a companion volume to those two books - a world poetry anthology offering an even broader, international selection of "real poems for unreal times". The range of poetry here complements that of the first two anthologies: hundreds of thoughtful and passionate poems about living in the modern world; poems that touch the heart, stir the mind and fire the spirit; poems about being human, about love and loss, fear and longing, hurt and wonder. There are more great poems from the 20th century as well as many recent poems of rare imaginative power from the first decade of the 21st century. But this book is also rare in reflecting the concerns of readers from all walks of life. Such has been the appeal of "Staying Alive" and "Being Alive" that many people have written not only to express their appreciation of these books, but also to share poems which have been important in their own lives. "Being Human" draws on this highly unusual publisher's mailbag, including many talismanic personal survival poems suggested by our readers.

Good People


David Lindsay-Abaire - 2011
    Lindsay-Abaire offers us both his "quiet three-dimensional depth" ("Los Angeles Times") and his carefully observed humor in this exploration of life in America when you're on your last dollar.

The Novice: A Story of True Love


Thich Nhat Hanh - 2011
    Fans of Thich Nhat Hanh’s Peace is Every Step and Anger, and Deepak Chopra’s Buddha, will appreciate Hanh’s wisdom and storytelling in his novel The Novice, which contains universal themes that transcend all boundaries of faith, creed, country, and era.Through the parable of a young woman who stays true to herself and her faith in the face of adversity, Vietnamese Zen Buddhist master and peace activist Thich Nhat Hanh enables readers to embark on their own path of introspection and self-discovery.With his trademark insight, Hanh presents a path to greater awareness of the means to manifest peace both inside oneself and in the world at large.

The F***ing Epic Twitter Quest of @MayorEmanuel


Daniel Sinker - 2011
    Now, fans can read the entire six months of collected tweets of @MayorEmanuel with commentary and annotations from creator Dan Sinker.     When rumors circulated that Rahm Emanuel would enter the Chicago mayor’s race, suddenly the “real” Rahm became overshadowed by a decidedly different Rahm, @MayorEmanuel. Via Twitter, this fake Rahm spun a faux-insider’s story unlike any other—in real time. Garnering a passionate following on Twitter and hailed by the press, @MayorEmanuel’s journey is an entertaining, modern-day anti-hero's quest as he travels a surrealistic Chicago landscape, picking up friends along the way, including advisor David Axelrod, Carl the Intern (a high-school-aged MacGyver), a puppy named Hambone, and a duck named Quaxelrod, to name a few.     Both a surprisingly literary romp as well as an inside peek into an historic mayoral race, The F***ing Epic Twitter Quest of @MayorEmanuel is a bold and exciting foray into a new form of participatory, real-time storytelling.

'White Girl Bleed A Lot': The Return of Racial Violence to America and How the Media Ignore It


Colin Flaherty - 2011
     Ferguson is just the latest of hundreds of examples of black mob violence around the country.White Girl Bleed a Lot: The Return of Racial Violence and How the Media Ignore It was written for the deniers: Reporters and public officials and others who deny black mob violence has reached epidemic levels.That is why so many readers get another copy: They send it to someone who needs to read it.Denial is not an option any more. Many of these cases are now on YouTube. And for the first time, readers will be able to scan QR codes to follow the black mob violence on video as they read about it in the book.For the first time, readers will be able to see the huge difference between what big city newspapers say is happening. And what the videos show is really happening.White Girl Bleed a Lot documents more than five hundred cases of black mob violence in more than one hundred cities around the country. Many in 2013. And how the local and national media ignore, excuse and even condone it.White Girl Bleed a Lot documents black mob violence in the bigger cities, such as Baltimore, Philadelphia, Chicago, New York, St. Louis. But also in places where the frequency and intensity of racial violence is not as well known: Milwaukee, Indianapolis, Charlotte, Seattle, Portland, Denver, Las Vegas, Kansas City, Peoria, Springfield, Greensboro, Des Moines, Cedar Rapids, Champaign, Madison and many more.Readers learn about "Beat Whitey Night" at a Midwest state fair. Or how a Chicago Police Chief blamed the violence on Sarah Palin and the Pilgrims. Or how Oprah Winfrey gave $1 million to a Philadelphia charter school, only to see its students on video assaulting a white person shortly thereafter.Or how gays and Asians and women are particular targets.And how one congressman and former mayor said his city should not crack down on the violence because that will "just make a lot of black kids angry." And how newspaper editors and reporters say they will not report racial violence. And how some people fight back.Praised by national talk show host Jesse Lee Peterson. The San Francisco Examiner gave it 5 Stars. More reviews at WhiteGirlBleedaLot.comColin Flaherty has won more than fifty awards for journalism, many from the Society of Professional Journalists. His story about a black man unjustly convicted of trying to kill his wife girl friend resulted in his release from state prison and was featured on NPR, the Los Angeles Times and Court TV.

Dead Men Risen: The Welsh Guards and the Real Story of Britain's War in Afghanistan


Toby Harnden - 2011
    The book draws on interviews, military documents and other sources which raise questions from beyond the grave that will unnerve politicians and generals alike.

The Pale King


David Foster Wallace - 2011
    But as he immerses himself in a routine so tedious and repetitive that new employees receive boredom-survival training, he learns of the extraordinary variety of personalities drawn to this strange calling. And he has arrived at a moment when forces within the IRS are plotting to eliminate even what little humanity and dignity the work still has.The Pale King remained unfinished at the time of David Foster Wallace's death, but it is a deeply compelling and satisfying novel, hilarious and fearless and as original as anything Wallace ever undertook. It grapples directly with ultimate questions--questions of life's meaning and of the value of work and society--through characters imagined with the interior force and generosity that were Wallace's unique gifts. Along the way it suggests a new idea of heroism and commands infinite respect for one of the most daring writers of our time.

Cambridge IELTS 8 Academic


University of Cambridge - 2011
    Each collection contains four complete tests for Academic candidates, plus extra Reading and Writing modules for General Training candidates. An introduction to these different modules is included in each book, together with an explanation of the scoring system used by Cambridge ESOL. A comprehensive section of answers and tapescripts makes the material ideal for students working partly or entirely on their own.

The Strength Training Anatomy Workout


Frédéric Delavier - 2011
    Now put those exercises to work for you with "The Strength Training Anatomy Workout.""The Strength Training Anatomy Workout "is your guide to creating the body and the results you want. Strengthen arms and legs; increase muscle mass; sculpt chest, back, and core; firm glutes; increase hip flexibility . . . it's all here, and all in the stunning detail that only Frederic Delavier can provide!Over 150 full-color illustrations allow you to get inside more than 200 exercises and 50 workouts to see how muscles interact with surrounding joints and skeletal structures. You'll also discover how variations, progressions, and sequencing can affect muscle recruitment, the underlying structures, and ultimately the results.The "Strength Training Anatomy Workout" includes proven programming for strength, power, bodybuilding, and toning that can be used in a gym or at home. You'll find targeted conditioning routines for optimal performance in more than 30 sports, including basketball, football, soccer, track and field, and golf.Former editor in chief of "PowerMag" in France, author and illustrator Frederic Delavier is a journalist for "Le Monde du" "Muscle" and a contributor to "Men's Health Germany "and several other strength publications. His previous publication, "Strength Training Anatomy," has sold more than one million copies.

101 Power Crystals: The Ultimate Guide to Magical Crystals, Gems, and Stones for Healing and Transformation


Judy Hall - 2011
    Sparkling, luminous, and colorful, it is no wonder crystals have always been regarded as a source of power from ancient times to present day. But with the enormous number of crystals now on the market, it can be a challenge to choose exactly the right stone. 101 Power Crystals is your guide to selection, introducing crystals that are powerful across a wide spectrum of uses. You will find:Arranged alphabetically, individual profiles for 101 power crystals that describe their mythology, healing and transformational properties, and how to harness their energyInstructions for choosing appropriate crystals, as well as purifying, activating, and maintaining their powersA chakra diagram followed by information on each chakra to assist you in your crystal workA glossary of crystal-related termsAccompanied by a large photograph of the crystal in breathtaking detail, each entry gives the chakra correspondences, physiological correspondences, and the vibration of the crystal; a discussion of its legendary power, its healing power, and transformational power; and instructions on how to harness those powers. With crystals for love, health, protection, abundance, longevity, justice, and more, this complete collection includes high vibration crystals to explore as you become a more experienced crystal practitioner as well as those with earthier vibrations that you can use to develop your sensitivities if you are just starting out. It also features some rare and recently discovered crystals and stones, such as Aurora Quartz, Que Sera, Trigonic Quartz, and Preseli Bluestone.101 Power Crystals is a must-have guidebook on your journey to well-being.

The Encyclopedia of Doris: Stories, Essays and Interviews


Cindy Gretchen Ovenrack Crabb - 2011
    Cindy writes her zine like she is figuring out the human condition. She makes writing about the simplest and most common things--playing music, childhood, cooking, or sex--resonate with universal understanding. She helps us make sense of more complex things like the satisfaction from doing useful work, natural curiosity, the ability to use logic, gender dynamics, introspection, the need for challenge and change, combating depression and creating art and literature. She shares and explores the emotions involved with having an abortion, rape, dealing with the death of family, or sexual harassment in a context that is enlightening and personal, feeling like a close friend opening up to you. What's most impressive though is that she relates these things into every article in her zine seamlessly.

The Sound of Music Family Scrapbook [With DVD]


Fred Bronson - 2011
    It has touched more than one generation, as over the years, many parents have shared the magic of this wonderful movie with their children. Seven very special children experienced The Sound of Music firsthand: the seven young actors cast as the von Trapp children. Now, for the first time, they tell their stories about making this celebrated film, from their auditions to rehearsals in Los Angeles to an incredible spring and summer in Salzburg, Austria. What was it like to work with Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer? How did they learn the songs and dances for the musical numbers? Who almost drowned when the boat tipped over? What was it like to attend the gala Hollywood premiere? What were their lives like after starring in this legendary movie? And how did they become a family in real life, remaining as close as any brothers and sisters for the last 45 years? The answers are revealed at last and as a bonus, they have collected their never-before-seen own home movie footage on a brand-new DVD. It is included here, along with personal cherished memorabilia, such as letters sent home to their families from Europe, a page from the script with edits written in the margin, and a ticket to the premiere. For anyone who is thrilled by the sight of Julie Andrews spinning around on top of a mountain, or who spontaneously bursts out singing "Do-Re-Mi," this captivating behind-the-scenes inside story is a must read.

The Shipping Man


Matthew McCleery - 2011
    In the end, he loses his hedge fund, but he gains a life - as a Shipping Man. Part fast paced financial thriller, part ship finance text book, The Shipping Man is 310 pages of required reading for anyone with an interest in capital formation for shipping.

Justin Bieber


Kristen Rajczak - 2011
    In this book, readers will discover how he got his start in the entertainment industry through fascinating facts and a timeline of his career so far. Exciting concert photographs and cute close-ups enhance the accessible text. Reluctant readers will have Bieber fever after reading this high-interest book.

Past the Shallows


Favel Parrett - 2011
    Everyday their dad battles the unpredictable ocean to make a living. He is a hard man, a bitter drinker who harbours a devastating secret that is destroying him. Unlike Joe, Harry and Miles are too young to leave home and so are forced to live under the dark cloud of their father's mood, trying to stay as invisible as possible whenever he is home. Harry, the youngest, is the most vulnerable and it seems he bears the brunt of his father's anger...

How to Make Bread: Step-by-step recipes for yeasted breads, sourdoughs, soda breads and pastries


Emmanuel Hadjiandreou - 2011
    The book starts by explaining the key to good bread: why flour, yeast and temperature are important, and which kitchen equipment makes life easier. In Basic Breads, you’ll learn how to make a Basic White Loaf with clear, step-by-step photos. With this method, you’ll have the base for a number of variations. The rest of the book covers Wheat- or Gluten-free Breads, Sourdoughs, Flavoured Yeasted Breads, and Pastries and Morning Bakes—in more than 60 easy-to-follow recipes.

A Step Away From Paradise


Thomas K. Shor - 2011
    Shor tracks down the surviving members of this visionary expedition and entwines their remarkable stories of faith and adventure with his own quest to discover the reality of this land known as Beyul. What emerges is a breathtaking story alive with possibility, bringing the reader as close to the Hidden Land as a book possibly can. As the astounding account unfolds, the reader is sure to repeat the question constantly raised by the author in his interviews: And then what happened?A Step Away From Paradise tells the story of Lama Tulshuk Lingpa’s life and his unlikely expedition to a land beyond cares while reflecting on what this means for the rest of us. It draws on both research and extensive interviews with the surviving members of this extraordinary expedition. The book is richly illustrated with portraits of those who went with Tulshuk Lingpa and the places he traveled to. The book also delves into the tradition within Tibetan Buddhism of Shambhala and the hidden valleys, which mirror legends around the world of utopias and lands of milk and honey, thus showing that the quest for the hidden land is a universal urge of humanity.WRITER AND PHOTOGRAPHER Thomas K. Shor was born in Boston, USA, and studied comparative religion and literature in Vermont. With an ear for unusual stories, the fortune to attract them and an eye for detail, he has travelled the planet’s mountainous realms—from the Mayan Highlands of southern Mexico in the midst of insurrection to the mountains of Greece and, more recently to the Indian Himalayas—to collect, illustrate and write stories, with a uniquely personal character often having the flavor of fable.Shor has lectured widely on his writings and has had solo exhibits of his photographs in Europe and in India. He is the author of Windblown Clouds and can often be found in the most obscure locales, immersed in a compelling story touching upon fundamental human themes.The author’s website is www.ThomasShor.com

The Maid's Tale: A Revealing Memoir of Life Below Stairs


Rose Plummer - 2011
    Born in 1910, Rose Plummer grew up in an East End slum, where she fought an unending battle with hunger and squalor.At the age of fifteen, Rose started work as a live-in maid, and despite the poverty of her childhood, nothing could have prepared her for the long hours, the backbreaking work and the harshness of a world in which servants were treated as if they were less than human.But however difficult life became, Rose found something to laugh about, and her remarkable spirit and gift for friendship shines through in her memories of a now-vanished world.

Tantra Song: Tantric Painting from Rajasthan


Franck André Jamme - 2011
    The volume included writings by Octavio Paz and Henri Michaux, and Jamme became fascinated by the images' affinity with modern art and poetry. He read voraciously and even journeyed to India, searching in vain for Tantric practitioners, until a bus accident on the road to Jaipur sent him home to France with serious injuries. When he returned a few years later, he met a soothsayer who proclaimed that Jamme had now paid sufficient tribute to the goddess Shakti and required him to take a vow: he must visit the tantrikas alone or only in the company of a loved one. Since then, Jamme has gained extraordinary access to very private communities of adepts and their intensely beautiful works. These contemporary, anonymous drawings from Rajasthan are unlike the more familiar strands of Tantric art--the geometric yantras, or erotic illustrations of the Kama Sutra. The progeny of seventeenth-century illustrated religious treatises, these drawings have evolved into a distinct visual lexicon designed to awaken heightened states of consciousness and are imbued with specific spiritual meanings (e.g. spirals and arrows for energy, an inverted triangle for Shakti). A revelatory volume on this occluded genre of Indian art, Tantra Song is a convergence of east and west, the spiritual and the aesthetic, the ancient and the modern.Franck Andr� Jamme is the author of more than a dozen volumes of poetry. His translated workds (by John Ashbery, Charles Borkuis, David Kelley and others) include New Exercises, Another Silent Attack, The Recitation of Forgetting and Extracts of the Life of a Beetle. He has collaborated on books with a number of artists including Philippe Favier, Suzan Frecon, Acharya Vyakul and Hanns Schimansk. A specialist in Art Brut, Tantric and tribal art of India, he has participated in exhibitions at Centre Pompidou, Beaux-Art de Paris and The Drawing Center, among others.

Little Red in the City


Ysolda Teague - 2011
    Part pattern collection, part resource book Ysolda shares all of her tips for successful sweaters that perfectly fit your body. Each of the seven inspiring designs is modelled by Ysolda herself and by her friend Amanda Allen, showing the garment in two different sizes and helping you envision how each design will look on your own shape. 15-17 sizes are included in each pattern, ranging from a 28-60 finished bust. With so many sizes to pick from, and guidance within each pattern on how to customise the fit, it should be easy to get a great result. The extensive reference section will equip you with all of the tools you need to achieve a perfect one.

Lost Christmas


David Logan - 2011
    Living with his increasingly senile Nan, his dog Mutt is the only thing keeping him sane. His only other friend is Frank, a former friend of his father. Frank's own life is falling apart and he has recruited Goose to help him carry out petty theft around the city. A year to the day since the accident that changed his life, Goose meets Anthony, a strange man who has forgotten who he is, but seems to know more about others than they know about themselves. When Mutt goes missing, Goose has no choice but to rely on Anthony to help find him. In an adventure that draws in Frank, who's lost his family, an old lady who's lost a precious bangle, an elderly doctor who's lost his wife and mother who's lost her daughter, Goose follows Anthony across Manchester. But at the centre of the mystery is Anthony himself: who is he, how does he know so much and can he help Goose and the others find what they're searching for? A delight to read from start to finish, David Logan takes the reader on a terrific journey through love, loss and the quest for home.

Paris: An Inspiring Tour of the City's Creative Heart


Janelle McCulloch - 2011
    Organized by arrondissement, Paris takes readers through the city's most charming streets, revealing best-kept secrets and little gems at every turn: ateliers overflowing with notions, cafés with their neat rows of macarons, markets abundant with fresh flowers, shaded parks, and creative hotspots. Packed with vibrant color photographs that capture the spirit of Paris and packaged as a hefty flexi-bound paperback with a ribbon page marker, the book is a beautiful object in its own right. The accessible writing invites readers to dip in and out and provides history and context for each spot on the journey. Visually rich and totally inspiring, Paris is a treasure for lovers of art, style, design, food, and, of course, Paris!

The Drawing Projects: An Exploration of the Language of Drawing


Mick Maslen - 2011
    The artists discuss the value of drawing in their own work, and invites you to think about how we view life, view art and view the story that they tell together.Drawing Projects includes fifteen projects to inspire you to join in and work through at your own pace. These detailed tutorials provide a how to draw these images guide. The combination of artists work and easy to follow projects make this a practical guide to inspire the artist in you.

Cherished


Belinda Boring - 2011
    It is now part of the full-length novel "Mystic Wolves".Can Darcy let go of the shame of failure consuming her or will Mason convince her that after all is said and done, she truly is...cherished?For a moment, Darcy almost convinced herself the last twelve hours didn't happen. As image after image hits her, the sinking realization of all she's lost overwhelms her and all she can think of is to run. Run far away where her shame can't find her, and most of all, where she'll never have to see the look of blame in Mason's eyes. Feeling like a complete failure, she scrambles to make plans. But the voice of her mate-to-be penetrates her frantic thoughts, asking for the chance to show her just how much she is loved.It hurts Mason deeply to hear Darcy's thoughts, knowing the events of the previous night have completely rattled her. Grieving over the death of his beloved sister Jasmine, Mason knows he has to act fast. Darcy is all he's ever wanted and the idea of life without her is unacceptable. Armed with his unswerving love and wolfish charm, he sets out to remind Darcy just how valuable she is and why there is no one else for him but her.

House of Cash: The Legacies of My Father, Johnny Cash


John Carter Cash - 2011
    Gathering together previously unpublished photographs, lyrics, art, notes, and recollections from the Cash family archives, John Carter paints a portrait of his father’s inner life, and the values he imparted to his son and family. A record of a deep and ongoing conversations between father and son about what matters in life, House of Cash explores Johnny Cash’s quest to live deliberately as he worked to determine his values, share them with those close to him, and reaffirm them on a daily basis. Topics covered include the nature of creativity, the responsibilities that come with fatherhood and friendship, the need for humility and morality, the value of reading, and the obligation we all have to sympathize with the downtrodden. An intimate exploration of the personality and legacy of Johnny Cash, this is a unique portrait of a deeply spiritual, creative, and passionate soul whose music sprang from the way he lived.

The Parihaka Woman


Witi Ihimaera - 2011
    As her world is threatened, Erenora must find within herself the strength, courage and ingenuity to protect those whom she loves. And, like a Shakespearean heroine, she must change herself before she can take up her greatest challenge and save her exiled husband, Horitana.The Parihaka Woman is a wonderfully surprising, inventive and deeply moving riff on fact and fiction, history and imagination from one of New Zealand's finest and most memorable storytellers.

A Love Story How God Pursued Me and Found Me: An Impossibly True Story


Samantha Ryan Chandler - 2011
    Even in bad times, they know that God will help them see things through and come out better when the trials have ended. But what about those who have not been raised with God in their lives? Samantha Ryan Chandler knows about living without God. Or at least she thought. In A Love Story: How God Pursued Me and Found Me, she tells her story of love, hatred, abuse, forgiveness, betrayal, greed, enlightenment, and fear. Born to a pagan mother and a former altar boy living in a land of denial, she recounts how God was involved in her life even before she knew who He was. She shares the story of her trip to the Holy Land and how her prayers at the Wailing Wall were interrupted because of a hamburger. Yes, despite her tribulations, her life has had its funny moments as well.You'll find inspiration in A Love Story: How God Pursued Me and Found Me-and like Chandler, you, too, may find themselves pursued by God.

One Man, Two Guvnors


Richard Bean - 2011
    Based on Carlo Goldoni's classic Italian comedy The Servant of Two Masters, in this new English version by prize-winning playwright Richard Bean, sex, food, and money are high on the agenda.

And Still Peace Did Not Come: A Memoir of Reconciliation


Agnes Kamara-umunna - 2011
    An army of children was approaching, under the leadership of Charles Taylor. It seemed like the end of the world. Slowly, they made their way to the safety of Sierra Leone. They were the lucky ones.After years of exile, with the fighting seemingly over, Agnes returned to Liberia--a country now devastated by years of civil war. Families have been torn apart, villages destroyed, and it seems as though no one has been spared. Reeling, and unsure of what to do in this place so different from the home of her memories, Agnes accepted a job at the local UN-run radio station. Their mission is peace and their method is reconciliation through understanding and communication. Soon, she came up with a daring plan: Find the former child soldiers, and record their stories. And so Agnes, then a 43-year-old single mother of four, headed out to the ghettos of Monrovia and befriended them, drinking Club Beer and smoking Dunhill cigarettes with them, earning their trust. One by one, they spoke on her program, Straight from the Heart, and slowly, it seemed like reconciliation and forgiveness might be possible.From Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, Africa's first female president, to Butt Naked, a warlord whose horrific story is as unforgettable as his nickname--everyone has a story to tell. Victims and perpetrators. Boys and girls, mothers and fathers. Agnes comforts rape survivors, elicits testimonials from warlords, and is targeted with death threats--all live on the air.Set in a place where monkeys, not raccoons, are the scourge of homeowners; the trees have roots like elephant legs; and peacebuilding is happening from the ground-up. Harrowing, bleak, hopeful, humorous, and deeply moving--And Still Peace Did Not Come is not only Agnes's memoir: It is also her testimony to a nation's descent into the horrors of civil war, and its subsequent rise out of the ashes.

Keeping an Eye Open: Essays on Art


Julian Barnes - 2011
    Braque thought the ideal state would be reached when we said nothing at all in front of a painting. But we are very far from reaching that state. We remain incorrigibly verbal creatures who love to explain things, to form opinions, to argue... It is a rare picture which stuns, or argues, us into silence. And if one does, it is only a short time before we want to explain and understand the very silence into which we have been plunged.'Julian Barnes began writing about art with a chapter on Géricault's The Raft of the Medusa in his 1989 novel A History of the World in 10½ Chapters. Since then he has written a series of remarkable essays , chiefly about French artists, for a variety of journals and magazines. Gathering them for this book, he realised that he had unwittingly been retracing the story of how art made its way from Romanticism to Realism and into Modernism.

100 Artists' Manifestos: From the Futurists to the Stuckists


Alex Danchev - 2011
    Artists' manifestos are nothing if not revolutionary. They are outlandish, outrageous, and frequently offensive. They combine wit, wisdom, and world-shaking demands. This collection gathers together an international array of artists of every stripe, including Kandinsky, Mayakovsky, Rodchenko, Le Corbusier, Picabia, Dali, Oldenburg, Vertov, Baselitz, Kitaj, Murakami, Gilbert and George, together with their allies and collaborators - such figures as Marinetti, Apollinaire, Breton, Trotsky, Guy Debord and Rem Koolhaas. This title is edited with an Introduction by Alex Danchev.

TARDIS Eruditorum - A Critical History of Doctor Who Volume 1: William Hartnell


Elizabeth Sandifer - 2011
    TARDIS Eruditorum tells the ongoing story of Doctor Who from its beginnings in the 1960s to the present day, pushing beyond received wisdom and fan dogma to understand that story not just as the story of a geeky sci-fi show but as the story of an entire line of mystical, avant-garde, and radical British culture. It treats Doctor Who as a show that really is about everything that has ever happened, and everything that ever will. This volume focuses on the earliest years of the program, looking at how it emerged from the existing traditions of science fiction in the UK and how it quickly found its kinship with the emerging counterculture of the 1960s. Every essay from the Hartnell era has been revised and expanded from its original form, and the eight new essays exclusive to the collected edition have been augmented by a further eleven, providing nineteen book-exclusive essays on topics like what happened before An Unearthly Child, whether the lead character's name is really Doctor Who, and how David Whitaker created the idea of a Doctor Who novel. Plus, you'll learn: How acid-fueled occultism influenced the creation of the Cybermen. Why The Celestial Toymaker is irredeemably racist. The Problem of Susan Foreman

Christmas with Miss Read: A Country Christmas, Christmas at Fairacre, Christmas at Thrush Green


Miss Read - 2011
    Children eagerly hang up their stockings, families go to church together, and everyone enjoys Christmas cake and other treats of the festive season. For heartwarming reading there is no writer to rival Miss Read, and this delightful Christmas collection of novels is packed with unforgettable characters, enchanting stories, and festive cheer.

Quiet Americans


Erika Dreifus - 2011
    A Jewish immigrant soldier and the German POWs he is assigned to supervise. A refugee returning to Europe for the first time and the massacre of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics. A son of survivors and technology's potential to reveal long-held family secrets. These are some of the characters and conflicts that emerge in QUIET AMERICANS, in stories that reframe familiar questions about what is right and wrong, remembered and repressed, resolved and unending.

Thor the Mighty Avenger, Vol. 2


Roger Langridge - 2011
    ROGER LANGRIDGE (Muppet Show, Eisner and Harvey Award nominee) and CHRIS SAMNEE (SIEGE: EMBEDDED, The Mighty) re-imagine the God of Thunder in THOR THE MIGHTY AVENGER! THRILL as he battles robots the size of cities! GASP as he tames the mightiest sea creatures! SWOON as he rescues damsels from the vilest villains! COLLECTING: Thor the Mighty Avenger #5-8, Journey Into Mystery #85-86

Virginia Woolf


Alexandra Harris - 2011
    She felt herself to be at a crossroads: “I shall be miserable, or happy; a wordy sentimental creature, or a writer of such English as shall one day burn the pages.”Today her prose is still blazing; perhaps it burns brighter than ever. This is the story of how a determined young woman with a notebook became one of the greatest writers of all time. It is a story that sparkles with wit and friendship, language and love, wicked jokes and passionate appreciation of ordinary things.In this illuminating new account, Alexandra Harris uses vivid flashes of detail to evoke Woolf’s changing backgrounds and preoccupations. We move from the close-packed rhythms of a Victorian childhood to the experiments of Bloomsbury and Woolf’s trial-and-error answers to the pressing question of how to live. We see her tackling challenging forms of writing, trying out different voices, following flights of fancy, and returning to earth. Above all, we see her making conscious decisions about what to do next.The book considers each of the novels in context, gives due prominence to a range of Woolf’s dazzlingly inventive essays, traces the contentious course of her “afterlife,” and shows why, seventy years after her death, Virginia Woolf continues to haunt and inspire us.

The 9/11 Wars


Jason Burke - 2011
    The storm broke on September 11th 2001. Since then much of the world has seen invasions, bombings, battles and riots. Hundreds of thousands of people have died.Jason Burke, a first hand witness of many of the conflict's key moments, has written the definitive account of its course. At once investigation, reportage and contemporary history, it is based on hundreds of interviews with participants including desperate refugees and senior intelligence officials, ministers and foot-soldiers, active militants and their victims. Burke reveals the true nature of contemporary Islamic militancy and the inside story of the fight against it. He cuts through the myth and propaganda of all sides to reveal the reality behind well-known - and lesser known - episodes, and brings characters, voices and a sense of place to a gripping narrative.The 9/11 Wars is an essential book for understanding the dangerous and unstable twenty-first century. Whether reporting on the riots in France or the killing of Bin Laden, suicide bombers in Iraq or British troops fighting in Helmand, Jason Burke tells the story of a world that changed forever when the hijacked planes flew out of the brilliant blue sky above Manhattan on September 11th 2001.

Partitions


Amit Majmudar - 2011
    A young Sikh girl, Simran Kaur, has run away from her father, who would rather poison his daughter than see her defiled. And Ibrahim Masud, an elderly Muslim doctor driven from the town of his birth, limps toward the new Muslim state of Pakistan, rediscovering on the way his role as a healer. As the displaced face a variety of horrors, this unlikely quartet comes together, defying every rule of self-preservation to forge a future of hope.A dramatic, luminous story of families and nations broken and formed, "Partitions" introduces an extraordinary novelist who writes with the force and lyricism of poetry.

Vitamin P₂: New Perspectives in Painting


Barry Schwabsky - 2011
    Since its publication, a whole new generation of painters has emerged, some inspired by the artists who appeared in that book, others taking cues from new sources.? Vitamin P2: New Perspectives in Painting introduces this new wave of painters to the world.The vast medium of painting continues to be a central pillar of artistic practice, and Vitamin P2 presents the outstanding artists who are currently engaging with and pushing the boundaries of the medium. Over 80 international critics, artists and curators have nominated the 115 artists who have made a fresh, unique or innovative contribution to recent painting. All of the artists in Vitamin P2 have recently emerged onto the international scene, and none appeared in the first Vitamin P.An introduction by Barry Schwabsky, who also wrote the introduction for Vitamin P, provides a broad overview of recent developments in the medium while also looking towards its future.

Selected Unpublished Blog Posts of a Mexican Panda Express Employee


Megan Boyle - 2011
    Megan Boyle's debut poetry collection is at once confessional, sociological, emotional, detached, funny, sad, delightful, reckless, and meditative. Written in the naturally meticulous, defaultedly complex, always affecting voice of a person too imaginative and self-aware and intelligent to be fully consumed by depression and loneliness but too aware of the meaninglessness and ephemeral nature of existence (and too depressed and lonely) to write on any level but an existential, emotionally-driven, unsimplified one, Megan Boyle's debut poetry collection is the rare work of art that conveys troubling and scary information, undiluted, about humans and the universe but in a way, ultimately, that makes you excited to be alive, eager to be troubled and scared, grateful to simply be here....unbelievably engaging and mesmerizing. Boyle writes with such openness about living in a world that constantly mystifies you, the strange act of watching yourself do things you can't quite understand, making a mess of things and figuring out how to keep living [...] I can't think of another book quite like it, can't think of a voice as distinctive and strange as Boyle's.--Kevin Wilson, author of The Family FangJust reading this collection, [Megan Boyle] immediately became one of my favorite modern poets.--Benn Ray, WYPR's The Signal[O]ne of the funniest, most satisfying, most original, most satisfying books of poetry I've come across in years.--Rachel Whang, Atomic Books[A] blunt work that challenges the reader, dares the reader to find out what this woman has on her mind. Boyle exhibits a generous exhibitionist quality that leaves one wondering if she might be the next Laurie Anderson.--Nicolle Elizabeth, The Brooklyn Rail

Puzzling People: The Labyrinth of the Psychopath


Thomas Sheridan - 2011
    Puzzling People takes an in-depth look at how the minds of psychopaths work and why, and focusses on what you can do to survive and thrive and ultimately escape forever. Delivered in a voice that makes it clear that the author lives what he writes, Puzzling People is an invaluable field guide to spotting and avoiding entities so completely lacking in empathy or compassion they may as well be counted as a different species entirely to human beings.

Peterson Field Guide to Freshwater Fishes of North America and Mexico


Lawrence M. Page - 2011
    In fact, in just the twenty years since publication of the first edition of the Peterson Field Guide to Freshwater Fishes, the number of species has risen by almost 150, including 19 marine invaders and 16 newly established nonnative species. This second edition incorporates all of these new species, plus all-new maps and a collection of new and revised plates. Some of the species can be told apart only by minute differences in coloration or shape, and these beautifully illustrated plates reveal exactly how to distinguish each species. The guide includes detailed maps and information showing where to locate each species of fish—whether that species can be found in miles-long stretches of river or small pools that cover only dozens of square feet. The ichthyologic world of the twenty-first century is not the same as it was in the twentieth, and this brand-new edition of the definitive field guide to freshwater fishes reflects these many changes.

A Book Forged in Hell: Spinoza's Scandalous Treatise and the Birth of the Secular Age


Steven Nadler - 2011
    . . by the devil himself." Religious and secular authorities saw it as a threat to faith, social and political harmony, and everyday morality, and its author was almost universally regarded as a religious subversive and political radical who sought to spread atheism throughout Europe. Yet Spinoza's book has contributed as much as the Declaration of Independence or Thomas Paine's Common Sense to modern liberal, secular, and democratic thinking. In A Book Forged in Hell, Steven Nadler tells the fascinating story of this extraordinary book: its radical claims and their background in the philosophical, religious, and political tensions of the Dutch Golden Age, as well as the vitriolic reaction these ideas inspired.It is not hard to see why Spinoza's Treatise was so important or so controversial, or why the uproar it caused is one of the most significant events in European intellectual history. In the book, Spinoza became the first to argue that the Bible is not literally the word of God but rather a work of human literature; that true religion has nothing to do with theology, liturgical ceremonies, or sectarian dogma; and that religious authorities should have no role in governing a modern state. He also denied the reality of miracles and divine providence, reinterpreted the nature of prophecy, and made an eloquent plea for toleration and democracy.A vivid story of incendiary ideas and vicious backlash, A Book Forged in Hell will interest anyone who is curious about the origin of some of our most cherished modern beliefs.

Best Behavior


Noah Cicero - 2011
    BEST BEHAVIOR, the new novel by Noah Cicero, is his boldest work yet. As the subject matter becomes increasingly autobiographical, the landscape more bleak, its impact is blunt, brutal, but somehow still hilarious. This is the literature of pain: of living in a world where nothing is right a temple to capitalism with no room for any kind of human spirit and, despite everything, trying to find some way to deal with it; then eventually failing. BEST BEHAVIOR might be the truest story ever told. BEST BEHAVIOR is slice-of-life, and that's as it should be. Where the classics have beginnings, middles, and ends that are relevant to the mainstream consciousness of the times, BEST BEHAVIOR is a couple of days in the life, making it a more honest and useful cultural artifact Rebecca Haze."

Superfood Kitchen: Cooking with Nature's Most Amazing Foods


Julie Morris - 2011
    Each recipe artfully combines natural ingredients that deliver amazing amounts of antioxidants, essential fatty acids (like omega-3), minerals, vitamins, and more. The mouthwatering superfood meals--from Goldenberry Pancakes to Quinoa Spaghetti with Cashew Cream Sauce and Chard--will make you feel as good as they taste. The pages glow with beautiful color photographs that will inspire home cooks to start enjoying the sumptuous pleasures of earth's best foods.

Of Thimble and Threat: A Novel of Catherine Eddowes, the Fourth Victim of Jack the Ripper


Alan M. Clark - 2011
    Each novel in the series is a standalone story.In Victorian London, the greatest city of the richest country in the world, the industrial revolution has created a world of decadence and prosperity, but also one of unimaginable squalor and suffering. Human degradation, filth, rats, parasites, danger, sorrow, and death are ever-present in its streets. Catherine Eddowes is found murdered gruesomely in the city's East End. The possessions, including clothes--over fifty personal items--carried on her person are listed in the police reports of the crime. Wearing several layers of clothing and having stayed the two night prior to the one of her death in the workhouse casual ward (homeless shelter), the possessions may have been everything she owned in the world. In OF THIMBLE AND THREAT, Alan M. Clark tells the heartbreaking story of Catherine Eddowes, the fourth victim of Jack the Ripper, explaining the origin and acquisition of the items found with her at the time of her death, chronicling her life from childhood to adulthood, motherhood, her descent into alcoholism, and finally her death. OF THIMBLE AND THREAT is a story of the intense love between a mother and a child, a story of poverty and loss, fierce independence, and unconquerable will. It is the devastating portrayal of a self-perpetuated descent into Hell, a lucid view into the darkest parts of the human heart.

Setting the Scene: The Art Evolution of Animation Layout


Fraser MacLean - 2011
    Animation fans and students can finally take a behind-the-scenes peek at the history of layout, the process by which artists plot scenes and stitch together the many elements of animated works. With in-depth text by veteran animator Fraser MacLean, this extraordinary book features previously unpublished art from major studios archives including Warner Bros., Pixar, Walt Disney, and more as well as interviews with some of the biggest names in animation and a foreword by Academy Award winning director Pete Docter. From the genre's earliest pioneers to the digital world of contemporary cinema, Setting the Scene provides an enchanting journey into the history of animation.

What Happened in Granite Creek


Robyn Bradley - 2011
    Jamie resents being "babysat" every day. Koty resents her lot in life: almost 30, mother of three, and trapped in an unhappy marriage in Granite Creek, a small New Hampshire town. But when Koty and Jamie come together in a sexually-charged situation, everything changes.While Koty continues to explore her relationship with Jamie, her life at home spirals out of control: her sometimes-abusive husband drinks too much, and her middle daughter is on a destructive path, skipping school and getting into fights, while Koty's other two girls are left to watch.What happens next, however, leaves everyone reeling, and the Fowler family must learn how to move forward, even as they struggle to understand what happened in their own backyard.Told in multiple viewpoints and spanning across nearly two decades, "What Happened in Granite Creek" brings readers on a journey of intrigue and unexpected twists while reminding us that nothing is ever what it seems.

On Critical Pedagogy


Henry A. Giroux - 2011
    This impassioned book starts with the crucial role of pedagogy in schools before extending the notion to the educational force of the wider culture. Giroux focuses on five crucial elements associated with critical pedagogy. First, he presents an overview of the term as it applies to schooling and to larger cultural spheres. Second, he analyzes the increasingly empirical orientation of teaching, focusing on the culture of positivism. Section Three examines some of the major economic, social, and political forces undermining the promise of democratic schooling in both public and higher education. Giroux then outlines increasing attempts by both right wing and liberal interests to reduce schooling to training and students merely to customers. Finally, the book focuses on the legacy of Paulo Freire and issues a fundamental challenge to educators, public intellectuals, and others who believe in the promise of a radical democracy.

Losing Small Wars: British Military Failure in Iraq and Afghanistan


Frank Ledwidge - 2011
    However, their recent performance in Iraq and Afghanistan is widely seen as—at best—disappointing; under British control Basra degenerated into a lawless city riven with internecine violence, while tactical mistakes and strategic incompetence in Helmand Province resulted in heavy civilian and military casualties and a climate of violence and insecurity. In both cases the British were eventually and humiliatingly bailed out by the US army.In this thoughtful and compellingly readable book, Frank Ledwidge examines the British involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan, asking how and why it went so wrong. With the aid of copious research, interviews with senior officers, and his own personal experiences, he looks in detail at the failures of strategic thinking and culture that led to defeat in Britain's latest "small wars." This is an eye-opening analysis of the causes of military failure, and its enormous costs.

Sherlock Holmes and The Element of Surprise: The Wormwood Scrubs Enigma


J. Andrew Taylor - 2011
    “Come Watson! The game is yet again afoot!” Do you remember the first time that you accompanied Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson through the dark and foggy side streets and lanes of Victorian London? Do you still thrill as you recall the way that the shadows played upon the fog and gas lit streetlamps, the distant sound of the clock tower at Westminster, the menacing sound of footsteps upon the cobblestone streets and a forlorn cry for help in the night?When two prison guards are found beheaded in the barren countryside surrounding Her Majesty’s Prison at Wormwood Scrubs, Inspector Lestrade seeks Holmes’ singular powers to determine how the murders could have been committed in separate locations with the only footprints being those of the murdered guards themselves.With Doctor Watson at his side, Holmes sets out on this new adventure and uncovers deeper mysteries still; mysteries that will not only test the detectives’ powers of observation and deduction, but his skepticism of the paranormal as well.

The Night Riders


Matt Furie - 2011
    As the friends make their way from forest to bat cave to ghost town to ocean to shore and beyond, new friends are discovered, a huge crab is narrowly avoided, and a world is revealed. Packed with colorful characters and surprising details on every hand-drawn page, The Night Riders is the ideal book for anyone who has ever wanted to surf to the mountains on the back of a dolphin.

Some Day


Shemi Zarhin - 2011
    The air is saturated with smells of cooking and passion. Seven-year-old Shlomi, who develops a remarkable culinary talent, has fallen for Ella, the strange girl next door with suicidal tendencies; his little brother Hilik obsessively collects words in a notebook.In the wild, selfish but magical grown-up world that swirls around them, a mother with a poet’s soul mourns the deaths of literary giants while her handsome, wayward husband cheats on her both at home and abroad.Some Day is a gripping family saga, a sensual and emotional feast that plays out over decades. The characters find themselves caught in cycles of repetition, as if they were “rhymes in a poem, cursed with history.” They become victims of inspired recipes that bring joy and calamity to the cooks and diners. Mysterious curses cause people’s hair to fall out, their necks to swell and the elimination of rational thought amid capitulation to unhealthy urges.This is an enchanting tale about tragic fates that disrupt families and break our hearts. Zarhin’s hypnotic writing renders a painfully delicious vision of individual lives behind Israel’s larger national story.

The Royal Wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton: Commemorative Edition with Pictures from the Ceremony


LIFE - 2011
     LIFE has covered all of the lavish royal weddings since even before Queen Elizabeth II wed in 1947, and of course the magazine documented in splendid, intimate detail the "wedding of the century," that of Prince Charles and Lady Diana, years later. Now LIFE celebrates the royal engagement of Prince William and Kate Middleton.This book includes intimate pictures of William and Kate as they grew to be the splendid adults they are today.The best photographs of royal weddings that have already been, including those of Charles and Diana, Grace Kelly and Rainier of Monaco, Fergie and Andrew, and many others.A detailed look at the Middletons and the Windsors-the latter, royal family dating back to Queen Victoria.Photography from Buckingham Palace insiders, includingpictures from Litchfield and Lord Snowdon.

Metaethics: An Introduction


Andrew Fisher - 2011
    In a work free of technical language and jargon, Andrew Fisher covers the main ideas that have shaped metaethics from the work of G.E. Moore to the latest thinking. Written specifically for students new to this subject, Metaethics assumes no prior philosophical knowledge. It also highlights ways to avoid common errors, offers hints and tips on learning the subject, includes a glossary of core terms, and provides guidance for further study.

Complete Guide to Life Drawing


Gottfried Bammes - 2011
    This sourcebook gives artists of all skill levels a classroom view of life drawing, from full-form views to close studies of hands, feet, faces and limbs.

The Talented Tenth


W.E.B. Du Bois - 2011
    The problem of education, then, among Negroes must first of all deal with the Talented Tenth; it is the problem of developing the Best of this race that they may guide the Mass away from the contamination and death of the Worst, in their own and other races. Now the training of men is a difficult and intricate task. Its technique is a matter for educational experts, but its object is for the vision of seers. If we make money the object of man-training, we shall develop money-makers but not necessarily men; if we make technical skill the object of education, we may possess artisans but not, in nature, men. Men we shall have only as we make manhood the object of the work of the schools-intelligence, broad sympathy, knowledge of the world that was and is, and of the relation of men to it-this is the curriculum of that Higher Education which must underlie true life. On this foundation we may build bread winning, skill of hand and quickness of brain, with never a fear lest the child and man mistake the means of living for the object of life. If this be true-and who can deny it-three tasks lay before me; first to show from the past that the Talented Tenth as they have risen among American Negroes have been worthy of leadership; secondly, to show how these men may be educated and developed; and thirdly, to show their relation to the Negro problem.

P. G. Wodehouse: A Life in Letters


P.G. Wodehouse - 2011
    Wodehouse's letters, edited with a commentary by Oxford academic Sophie Ratcliffe. One of the funniest and most admired writers of the twentieth century, P. G. Wodehouse always shied away from the idea of a biography. A quiet, retiring man, he expressed himself through the written word. His letters - collected and expertly edited here - provide an illuminating biographical accompaniment to legendary comic creations such as Jeeves, Bertie Wooster, Psmith and the Empress of Blandings.Drawing on hitherto unpublished sources, these letters give an unrivalled insight into Wodehouse, covering his schooldays at Dulwich College, the family's financial reverses which saw his hopes of university dashed, life in New York working in musical comedy with Jerome Kern and George and Ira Gershwin, the years of fame as a novelist, and the unhappy episode in 1940 where he was interned by the Germans and later erroneously accused of broadcasting pro-Nazi propaganda. It is a book every lover of Wodehouse will want to possess.

Let This Be Our Secret


Deric Henderson - 2011
    The location: a quiet, picturesque seaside town. The scene: two bodies in a car filled with carbon monoxide. Police officer Trevor Buchanan and nurse Lesley Howell have apparently taken their own lives, unable to live with the pain of their spouses’ affair with each other. The adulterous pair — Sunday school teacher Hazel Buchanan and dentist Colin Howell — had met in the local Baptist Church. Following the apparent double–suicide, they continue their affair secretly before both later remarrying. A series of disasters in Howell’s life — the death of his eldest son, massive losses in an investment scam and the revelation that he has been sexually assaulting female patients — lead to him declaring that he is a fraud and a godless man. He tells the elders of his Church that he and Hazel Stewart conspired together to murder their spouses nearly two decades earlier. What follows the dramatic confession are two of the most sensational murder investigations ever seen in Ireland, leading to both Howell’s conviction for murder in December 2010, and Stewart’s in March 2011 — despite her protestations of innocence.

Lonely Planet Not-For-Parents The Travel Book


Michael DuBois - 2011
    And it is definitely 'not-for-parents'. Cool stuff to know about every country in the world. Everyone knows the world s highest mountain, but do you know which country banned chewing gum? Or what s the world s stinkiest fruit? Or who invented roller skates? Or which building leans more than the Leaning Tower of Pisa? Or where can you eat fried spiders as a snack? The world is a very big place, and in The Not-for-Parents Travel Book we ve concentrated on the really interesting bits to create a snapshot of what each country is like. (Warning to parents: these might not be the same really interesting bits that you like where to buy coffee, how many stars the hotel has, what s the phone number for the airport, blah, blah, blah.) In this book are the epic events, amazing animals, hideous histories, funky foods, and crazy facts that make the world s 200 countries so fascinating. Each country has a dedicated page that s jam-packed with up-to-the-minute stats, record-breaking facts, hideous histories, epic events and wild and wacky critters.Each country features gotta-know facts such as population lingo, capital city, currency and national pastimeOver 1,800 photos and quirky graphics Be sure to also check out Not for Parents Paris, Rome, London and New York City.

Beyond Democracy: Why democracy does not lead to solidarity, prosperity and liberty but to social conflict, runaway spending and a tyrannical government


Frank Karsten - 2011
    Indeed, it is no exaggeration to say that democracy has become a secular religion. The largest political faith on earth. To criticize the democratic ideal is to risk being regarded an enemy of civilized society. Yet that is precisely what Karel Beckman and Frank Karsten propose to do. In this provocative and highly readable book, they tackle the last political taboo: the idea that our salvation lies in democracy. With simple, straightforward arguments they show that democracy, in contrast to popular belief, does not lead to freedom, civilization, prosperity, peace, and the rule of law, but the opposite: to loss of freedom, social conflict, runaway government spending, a lower standard of living and the subversion of individual rights. They debunk 13 great myths with which democracy is usually defended. What is more, they offer an appealing alternative: a society based on individual freedom and voluntary social relations. Do you wonder why government keeps growing bigger and the public debt keeps getting higher, while your freedom and prosperity look ever more threatened? After reading his book, you won't wonder anymore - you know why it is happening and what can be done about it. Beyond Democracy is a groundbreaking and fascinating book for everyone who wants to better understand current social problems and the economic crisis.

Trampling Out the Vintage: Cesar Chavez and the Two Souls of the United Farm Workers


Frank Bardacke - 2011
    It goes back more than four decades to the heyday of the United Farm Workers, an organization that at its height won many labor victories, secured collective bargaining rights for California farm workers and became a major voice for the Latino community, which was previously excluded from national politics. The UFW was once a transformative political force of a kind now largely lost in contemporary America. Trampling Out the Vintage is the authoritative account of the rise and fall of the United Farm Workers and its most famous and controversial leader, Cesar Chavez. Based on many years of interviews—with farm workers, organizers, and the opponents and friends of the UFW—the book tells a story of collective action and empowerment rich in evocative detail and stirring human interest. Beginning with the influence of the ideas of Saul Alinsky and Catholic Social Action at the union’s founding, through the UFW’s thrilling triumphs in the California fields, the drama concludes with the debilitating internal struggles that left the union a shadow of its former self. A vivid rendering of farm work and the world of the farm worker, Trampling Out the Vintage is a dramatic reappraisal of the political trajectory of Cesar Chavez and the United Farm Workers and an essential re-evaluation of their most tumultuous years.

Private Eye The First 50 Years


Adam Macqueen - 2011
    To mark the 50th anniversary of the magazine in 2011, Adam Macqueen has produced a fascinating A-Z history of Private Eye.

The Taste of River Water


Cate Kennedy - 2011
    Everything that suffuses her well-loved prose is here: compassion, insight, lyrical precision, and the clear, minimalist eye that reveals how life can turn on a single moment. Musing on the undercurrents and interconnections between legacy, memory, motherhood and the natural world, the poems in the collection begin on the surface and then take us, gracefully and effortlessly, to a far more thought-provoking place.

Post Everything: Outsider Rock and Roll


Luke Haines - 2011
    Post Britpop. The dawn of the rock and roll apocalypse. If it feels like there's nothing new under the sun, that's because there is nothing new under the sun. After the death of Kurt Cobain popular culture entered, and is still in, its final phase: post everything.Post Everything is the sequel to the hugely acclaimed Bad Vibes: Britpop and My Part in its Downfall. It is a story of survival in the music industry ... and the only way to survive the tyrannical scourge of Britpop is to become an Outsider.We open with Luke Haines - the 'avant-garde Arthur Scargill' - calling upon the nation's pop stars to down tools and go on strike. We get the story of Haines' post-Britpop art house trio Black Box Recorder (Chas and Dave with a chanteuse) then, barely pausing to put in a brief appearance on Top of the Pops, we meet a talking cat, two dead rappers (Notorious B.I.G. and Tupac Shakur), a mystical England football manager, and a shady transgender German Professor - exponent of a dangerous and radical 'Beatles denial' cult and author of The Theorem of the Moron (the most important book about rock that you've never heard of). Haines even finds time to write a musical for the National Theatre.Blisteringly funny and searingly scathing, Post Everything may quite possibly be the first and only truly surreal comic rock memoir. It even contains a killer recipe for scrambled eggs.

How to Grow Winter Vegetables


Charles Dowding - 2011
    It also covers growing for the ‘hungry gap’ from April to early June.Not much grows in winter, but a well-organised plot may nonetheless be quite full. You need to plan carefully, and well ahead (as early as spring) for sowing and planting at specific times through the year, so the main part of the book is an extensive month-by-month sowing, planting and growing calendar. Further sections cover harvesting, from garlic in July right through to the last of the overwintered greens in May, and storing your produce.Many salads can be grown in winter, especially with a little protection from fleece, cloches or larger structures. The book includes a whole section on frost-hardy salad plants, explaining how to ensure harvests of fresh leaves throughout winter. The beauty of winter and its produce is captured in glorious photographs from the author’s garden.

Healing the Soul: Pluto, Uranus and the Lunar Nodes


Mark Jones - 2011
    Taking us on a journey into the karmic underpinnings of the birth chart, this book provides tools for understanding the hidden forces driving not only our personality, but our soul. Jones outlines a method that anyone can use to learn more about the unconscious dynamics that drive us. The beginner will find this a useful reference text and the expert will enjoy the detailed chart explanations. For the professional astrologer, this book provides the tools necessary for incorporating this method into any current framework. Based on ten years of in-depth client study, Healing the Soul offers profound insight into the powerful soul dynamics that shape our experience. Its triumph is that it teaches us how to identify and transform powerful internal conflicts and feelings while acknowledging our regenerative capacity for spiritual healing and soul evolution.

Nelson


Rob Davis - 2011
    It is an unprecedented experiment to create one complete story – a collective graphic novel.London, 1968. A daughter is born to Jim and Rita Baker. Her name is Nel. This is her story, told in yearly snapshots. Each chapter records the events of a single day, weaving one continuous ribbon of pictures and text that takes us on a 43- year journey from Nel Baker’s birth to 2011.Based on an original idea by Rob Davis and co-edited by Davis and Woodrow Phoenix, Nelson celebrates the incredible diversity of talent in British comics today. Creators known for their editorial and national newspaper strips unite with those from humour comics such as the Beano, The Dandy, and MAD Magazine joining a wealth of talent from children’s books, indie publishing and webcomics, with the science fiction and superhero worlds of 2000AD, Marvel, DC, and Dark Horse.Part exquisite corpse and part relay race, Nelson spans decades of British history and a myriad of stylistic approaches in telling the story of one woman’s life by 54 creators, in 54 episodes, detailing 54 days. The result is a surprising and compellingly readable book that is sad, funny, moving, poignant, ridiculous, heartfelt, and real. This is a story like none you have seen before.--- Taken from Blank State Books website

Don't Know Much About Indians (But I Wrote a Book About Us Anyways)


Gyasi Ross - 2011
    They don t ride horses or get falling down drunk. They are not the stoic crying Indian from a commercial nor the flowing-haired warrior on the cover of a romance novel. The characters in these 18 stories and poems are regular Indians - people who have day jobs, college students, insecure folks, kids in love. These characters are unique, diverse, and just like the rest of America. The book is heartbreaking and life-affirming, controversial and heartwarming, funny and tragic. If you think you know about Indians or if you know that you don't, step into the lives of these characters and you will come away enlightened, discomfited, entertained and inspired.

Afterlife: Uncovering the Secrets of Life After Death


Barry Eaton - 2011
    Taking the reader on a journey through the realm of the spirit, the author details the whole process of crossing into the next life, from the journey “home,” to adapting to new living conditions in the afterlife, and even delving into what kinds of activities will be available there, and how we can be prepared for our own personal journey.   This book will give hope, alleviate fear, and provide comfort for anyone who has questions or concerns about life after death.

The War on Women in Israel: How Religious Radicalism Is Smothering the Voice of a Nation


Elana Maryles Sztokman - 2011
    This book looks at the struggles of Israeli women against this religious and political intrusion. Leading Jewish women's activist and columnist Elana Sztokman investigates their increasing oppression recently, including gender segregation on buses; erasing their faces in newspapers and ads; the silencing of women's voices in the army; and prominent female politicians being barred from conference and events. Blending interviews with original investigative research, Sztokman presents a portrait of this alarming reality and proposes ideas for creating a more egalitarian vision of religious culture in Israeli society.

The Story of Antigone


Ali Smith - 2011
    Ali Smith’s retelling of Sophocles’ tragedy, about a young Theban princess, who decides to bury her dishonoured brother Polynices, against King Creon’s express orders — with heart-breaking consequences.

REC-君が泣いた日 [REC - Kimi ga Naita Hi]


Aoi Makino - 2011
    She's awkward with her feelings, and she carries a camcorder to film everything she likes. Because of her quirks, she's labeled as a freak and alienated by her classmates. Satoru is her classmate and a recently retired teen actor who understands her. They quickly become friends, but what Minami doesn't know is that Satoru is hiding his secret from the world...

Changing The Immutable: How Orthodox Judaism Rewrites Its History


Marc B. Shapiro - 2011
    For reasons ranging from theological considerations to internal religious politics to changing religious standards, such Jewish self-censorship abounds, and author Marc B. Shapiro discusses examples from each category. His analysis is illustrated by a number of images of the original texts next to their censored versions, together with an explanation of what made them problematic and how the issue was resolved. Shapiro considers the concepts of history that underlie such changes, looking at how some Orthodox historiography sees truth as entirely instrumental. Drawing on the words of leading rabbis, particularly from the haredi world, he shows that what is important here is not historical truth, but a truth that leads to observance and faith in the Sages. He concludes with a discussion of the concept of truth in the Jewish tradition, and when this truth can be altered. Changing the Immutable also reflects on the paradox of a society that regards itself as traditional, but, at the same time, is uncomfortable with some of the inherited tradition, and thus feels the need to create an idealized view of the past. Shapiro considers this in context, detailing precedents in Jewish history dating back to talmudic times. Since the objects of censorship have included such figures as Maimonides, Bahya ibn Pakuda, Rashi, Naphtali Herz Wessely, Moses Mendelssohn, the Hatam Sofer, Samson Raphael Hirsch, A. I. Kook, the Lubavitcher Rebbe, and J. B. Soloveitchik, as well as issues such as Zionism, biblical interpretation, and attitudes to women and non-Jews, Shapiro's book also serves as a study in Jewish intellectual history and how the ideas of one era do not always find favor with later generations. *** "Just two weeks after its publication, Shapiro's book is the number-one bestseller on Amazon in its category - a notable accomplishment for an academic book that includes (untranslated) rabbinic rulings, talmudic texts, and medieval commentaries." -- New Jersey Jewish News, May 2015 *** "This is a fascinating book because Marc Shapiro is a professional historian, and to a historian nothing is more important than the facts, but he is also an Orthodox Jew, and so he understands that for an Orthodox Jew there are some values that trump the recording of the facts." -- Rabbi Jack Riemer, South Florida Jewish Journal, June 2015 *** "Shapiro's new book is a must read for all who want to understand how the current "slide to the right" is radically reforming Judaism to fit within the cacophonous landscape of contemporary values." -- Rabbi Dr. Shmuly Yanklowitz, Jewish Journal, June 2015 *** "Shapiro's scholarship has been so important, in part because of Orthodoxy's own success at covering up inconvenient aspects of its past." -- Ezra Glinter, Forward, July 2015 (also published in Haaretz) *** "One of the most popular and controversial writers in the Modern Orthodox world today, most famous perhaps for publicizing little-known - and often radical - positions in Jewish law and thought." -- Elliot Resnick, The Jewish Press, July 2015 *** "Shapiro takes the reader down a proverbial rabbit hole and into the underbelly of the ?aredi community, an Orwellian-like world of mind control by the clandestine suppression of ideas. Changing the Immutable is an outstanding work, meticulously describing the bubble of "artificial religious truth" surrounding ?aredi communities." -- Fred Reiss Ed.D., San Diego Jewish World, August 2015 *** "The book is a cri de Coeur, suggesting that truth should be a timeless commodity. Yet, the book has another, larger meaning. It outlines how Jewish tradition, a highly decentralized and in a modest way, a plastic entity, is shaped and changed." -- Susan M. Chambr, Jewish Book World, October 2015 [Subject: Jewish Studies, Religious Studies, History]

The Story of English in 100 Words


David Crystal - 2011
    The world's foremost expert on the English language takes us on an entertaining and eye-opening tour of the history of our vernacular through the ages.In this entertaining history of the world's most ubiquitous language, David Crystal draws on one hundred words that best illustrate the huge variety of sources, influences and events that have helped to shape our vernacular since the first definitively English word — ‘roe’ — was written down on the femur of a roe deer in the fifth century.Featuring ancient words ('loaf'), cutting edge terms that reflect our world ('twittersphere'), indispensable words that shape our tongue ('and', 'what'), fanciful words ('fopdoodle') and even obscene expressions (the "c word"...), David Crystal takes readers on a tour of the winding byways of our language via the rude, the obscure and the downright surprising.