It contains 20 books, including 'Rotten Romans', 'Terrible Tudors' and 'Awesome Egyptians'.

    Soon she finds herself drawn unwillingly into the tumultuous London art world, populated by exiled Russian oligarchs, avaricious Sheikas, desperate auctioneers and unscrupulous dealers, all scheming to get their hands on her painting - a lost eighteenth-century masterpiece called ‘The Improbability of Love’. Delving into the painting’s past, Annie will uncover not just an illustrious list of former owners, but some of the darkest secrets of European history – and in doing so she might just learn to open up to the possibility of falling in love again.

    The women are now in their seventies and time is rendering its Accounts Payable: arthritis, cataracts, forgetfulness, and departures.From the dawn of the new millennium - at which the anti-Christ unaccountably fails to appear, despite evangelist Gayle's predictions - Peggy soldiers on through new upheavals, including her ex-husband Vern's Alzheimer's diagnosis, and the death of one of her live-in friends. Then, on a clear blue day in September 2001, the US Air Force scrambles too late to save America from four hostile attacks, and for the first time Peggy wonders if being a USAF wife - the constant worry about your husband, the faraway postings in Alaska, Norfolk, Siberia, the lack of control over your own life - was worth it.You're getting very negative in your old age, Peggy Dewey, says Lois. Sure it was worthwhile. Leastways we're not speaking Russky. And besides, we had some fun. Didn't we have some fun?

    At just two years old, Nic experienced a searing pain that signaled the awakening of a new and deadly disease, one that would hurl Nic and his family up against the limits of modern medicine. For years, through false starts and failed cures, Nic holds on to life, buoyed up by his mother’s fierce drive to get him the care he needs. But when even the world’s experts are stumped by Nic’s illness, his doctors come up with a radical, long-shot plan: a step into the unknown. The next major scientific frontier, following the completion of the Human Genome Project, was to figure out how to use our new knowledge to save lives—to bring genomic or personalized medicine into reality. It’s a quest that is undertaken by researchers around the world. But it is only when geneticist Howard Jacob hears about young Nic that the finish line finally comes into sight: It’s no longer a race to make history. It’s a race to save this boy’s life. One in a Billion is an unforgettable tale of the lives that converged to launch a medical revolution. As pioneering geneticist Mary-Claire King pronounced upon learning Nic’s story: “It was as if one had heard about Case Zero of AIDS and the cure, all at once.”

    An exploration of how Edmund Perry, a 17 year old black honors student from Harlem, was killed soon after graduation by a young white plain clothes policeman in an alleged mugging attempt.

    Illustrated with over fifty photos, Civilizing Rituals merges contemporary debates with lively discussion and explores central issues involved in the making and displaying of art as industry and how it is presented to the community.Carol Duncan looks at how nations, institutions and private individuals present art, and how art museums are shaped by cultural, social and political determinants.Civilizing Rituals is ideal reading for students of art history and museum studies, and professionals in the field will also find much of interest here.

    Dividing the time into three periods: 600-900, 900-1500 and 1500-1800, they set the artistic development in each era within its historical context and use art as a window into Islamic culture. Written in a lively and accessible style, and illustrated throughout with photographs, maps and plans, the book captures the essence of Islamic culture as expressed in its buildings, books and applied arts, and provides an essential introduction to the subject for both the student and the general reader.

    In this thrill-ride across millennia and continents, the complete history of the planet comes to life: from the Earth's fiery birth to its near-obliteration in the Triassic period, and from the first signs of human life to the tentative future of a world with a burgeoning population and a global warming crisis. Covering a wide range of topics including astrophysics, zoology, and sociology, and complete with maps and illustrations, What on Earth Happened? In Brief is the endlessly entertaining story of the planet, life, and people.

    Longtime skateboard artist Sean Cliver put together this staggering survey of over 1,000 skateboard graphics from the last 30 years, creating an indispensable insiders' history as he did so.Alongside his own history, Sean has assembled a wealth of recollections and stories from prominent artists and skateboarders such as: Andy Howell, Barry McGee, Ed Templeton, Steve Caballero, and Tony Hawk.The end result is a fascinating historical account of art in the skateboard subculture, as told by those directly involved with shaping its legendary creative face.

    History textbook is a college-level, introductory textbook that covers the exciting subject of U.S. History. Volume II covers 1865 through the present day. Boundless works with subject matter experts to select the best open educational resources available on the web, review the content for quality, and create introductory, college-level textbooks designed to meet the study needs of university students.This textbook covers:Reconstruction: 1865-1877 -- The End of the War, The Aftermath of the War, The Battle over Reconstruction, Reconstruction in the South, The Reconstructed South, The Grant PresidencyThe Gilded Age: 1870-1900 -- The Gilded Age, The Second Industrial Revolution, The Rise of the City, The Rise of Big Business, The Rise of Immigration, Work in Industrial America, The Transformation of the West, Conquest in the West, The Transformation of the South, Politics in the Gilded Age, Urban Reform, Corruption and Reform, The Agrarian and Populist Movements, The Silver SolutionRace, Empire, and Culture in the Gilded Age: 1870-1900 -- Culture in the Gilded Age, Popular Culture, Cheap Amusements, Education, The Rise of Realism, Labor and Domestic Tensions, The Labor Wars, War, Empire, and an Emerging American World PowerThe Progressive Era: 1890-1917 -- The Progressive Era, Labor, Local, and Political Reform, The Politics of Progressivism, Grassroots Progressivism, Progressivism: Theory and Practice, Changing Ideas of Freedom, Roosevelt's Progressivism, Roosevelt's Second Term, From Roosevelt to Taft, Woodrow Wilson and Progressivism, The Limits of ProgressivismWorld War I: 1914-1919 -- The Wilson Administration, American Neutrality, America's Entry into the War, America and WWI, The War at Home, The "American", The Fight for Peace, Diplomacy & Negotiations at the War's End, The Transition to Peace: 1919-21From the New Era to the Great Depression: 1920-1933 -- The New Era, The Roaring Twenties, The Culture of Change, Resistance to Change, Wall Street Crash of 1929, The Great DepressionThe New Deal: 1933-1940 -- Franklin D. Roosevelt and the First New Deal, The New Deal, Critical Interpretations of the New Deal, The Social Cost of the Depression, Toward a Welfare State, Roosevelt's Second Term, Culture in the Thirties, The Second New Deal, The Legacy of the New DealFrom Isolation to World War II: 1930-1943 -- Non-Interventionism, The Beginning of the War, Conflict in Europe, Conflict in the Pacific, America's Early Involvement, Mobilization in the U.S., Social Effects of the War, The War in Germany, The War in the Pacific, The End of WWIIThe Cold War: 1947-1991 -- Origins of the Cold War, The Cold War, Truman and the Fair Deal, The Cold War and KoreaThe Politics and Culture of Abundance: 1943-1960 -- The Politics of Abundance, The Culture of Abundance, The Eisenhower Administration, The Policy of Containment, The Emergence of the Civil Rights MovementThe Sixties: 1960-1969 -- The Election of 1960, The Expansion of the Civil Rights Movement, Counterculture, The John F. Kennedy Administration, The Lyndon B. Johnson AdministrationThe Conservative Turn of America: 1968-1989 -- The Nixon Administration, Watergate, The Ford Administration, The Carter Administration, The Reagan AdministrationThe Challenges of Globalization and the Coming Century: After 1989 -- The George H.W. Bush Administration, America's Emerging Culture, The Clinton Administration, Globalization and the U.S.

    It's a book that has remained current for over half a century, fighting off critics and changing tastes in fiction. But do even its biggest fans know all there is to appreciate about The Great Gatsby?Maureen Corrigan, the book critic for "Fresh Air" and a Gatsby lover extraordinaire, points out that while Gatsby may be the novel most Americans have read, it's also the ones most of us read too soon -- when we were "too young, too defensive emotionally, too ignorant about the life-deforming powers of regret" to really understand all that Fitzgerald was saying ("it's not the green light, stupid, it's Gatsby's reaching for it," as she puts it). No matter when or how recently you've read the novel, Corrigan offers a fresh perspective on what makes it so enduringly relevant and powerful. Drawing on her experience as a reader, lecturer, and critic, her book will be a rousing consideration of Gatsby: not just its literary achievements, but also its path to "classic" (its initial lukewarm reception has been a form of cold comfort to struggling novelists for decades), its under-acknowledged debt to hard-boiled crime fiction, its commentaries on race, class, and gender.With rigor, wit, and an evangelistic persuasiveness, Corrigan will leave readers inspired to grab their old paperback copies of Gatsby and re-experience this great novel in an entirely new light.

    In a body of work spanning over a half-century, he was variously a draughtsman, a printmaker, a sculptor and a painter. This short book is both a biography and a guide to his art. It focuses on the extraordinary works that Henri Matisse made during the last period of his life - the large-scale cut-outs on coloured paper, including his famous Blue Nudes, The Snail and Large Composition with Masks.

    The professor swears it's a Vermeer -- but why exactly has he kept it hidden so long? The reasons unfold in a gripping sequence of stories that trace ownership of the work back to Amsterdam during World War II and still further to the moment of the painting's inception.

    It ultimately challenges the cultural assumptions of both conservatives and traditional liberals. 47 photographs.

    Khayat writes about his childhood days in Moss Point, Mississippi, the state s segregationist policies that prevented his SEC championship baseball team from playing in the College World Series, and the sadness of experiencing his father s arrest and guilty plea. These seemingly disparate events worked to prepare him to battle the vestiges of racial strife that continued to haunt the university s culture as he accepted the honor of becoming the university s 15th chancellor. Khayat s story gives readers a behind-the-scenes look at how a university moved from mediocrity to excellence. We relive, along with Khayat, the courting of an eccentric donor, as well as private conversations with a sitting U.S. President, governors, coaches and celebrities. We also see how a man worked to make amends for past mistakes. The Education of a Lifetime is a funny, touching and insightful memoir. And it is proof that one man a man dedicated to respecting the dignity of every individual can make lasting change.