Escape from Dubai


Herve Jaubert - 2009
    From a life of luxury in the opulent city of Dubai to promised ruination, Jaubert tells a tale of espionage and escape that rivals any best selling novel on the market. Immersed in a luxury submarine business, Jaubert was hired as CEO by Dubai World to develop and design miniature subs for the wealthy. Once problems developed within the business, Herve Jaubert became the scapegoat of government officials and found himself ensnared in a web of police threats, extortion, human rights abuses and coercion. With no chance to make it through their biased legal system, Jaubert planned the escape of his life.

Letters to the Earth: Writing Inspired by Climate Emergency


Anna Hope - 2019
    The invitation was open to all – to think beyond the human narrative and bear witness to the scale of the crisis. Letters of love, loss, hope and action were written by over 1000 people.Now published as a collection, Letters to the Earth brings together the voices of children and the public with authors, scientists and playwrights in the first creative project of its kind.Alongside letters from the public, Letters to the Earth received submissions from artist and peace activist Yoko Ono, actor Mark Rylance, writer and illustrator of The Lost Words Jackie Morris, novelist Anna Hope, environmental writer Jay Griffiths and Green Party MP Caroline Lucas . Together they are an invitation to consider how this existential threat affects the way we live our lives and the action we take.Lots of books consider the climate and ecological crisis from a political or scientific perspective, but Letters to the Earth is the first book to chronicle how humankind is collectively processing planetary crisis.

The Devil and All His Works (Black Magic, #11)


Dennis Wheatley - 1971
    The evidence of invisible influences on mankind, hypnosis, faith-healing, telepathy, is plentiful. The studies of astrology, numerology, palmistry, alchemy and the Cabala are described. Here is the history of religion and magic among the Sumerians, the Egyptians, the Greeks and the Incas, down to the present day.Here also are described the outward manifestations of those beliefs: human sacrifice, the mysteries of the Pyramids, the rituals of the Druids, witches' sabbaths, the perverted frenzies of the Black Mass, the conjuring up of the spirits of the dead.The Devil and All His Works, which includes 48 pages of colour plates, 167 black and white illustrations and 6 maps, is probably the most complete, most graphic survey of the forces of Darkness ever published.

Difficult Women


Roxane Gay - 2017
    Gay returns with Difficult Women, a collection of stories of rare force and beauty, of hardscrabble lives, passionate loves, and quirky and vexed human connection.The women in these stories live lives of privilege and of poverty, are in marriages both loving and haunted by past crimes or emotional blackmail. A pair of sisters, grown now, have been inseparable ever since they were abducted together as children, and must negotiate the elder sister's marriage. A woman married to a twin pretends not to realize when her husband and his brother impersonate each other. A stripper putting herself through college fends off the advances of an overzealous customer. A black engineer moves to Upper Michigan for a job and faces the malign curiosity of her colleagues and the difficulty of leaving her past behind. From a girls’ fight club to a wealthy subdivision in Florida where neighbors conform, compete, and spy on each other, Gay delivers a wry, beautiful, haunting vision of modern America reminiscent of Merritt Tierce, Jamie Quatro, and Miranda July.I will follow you --Water, all its weight --The mark of Cain --Difficult women --FLORIDA --La negra blanca --Baby arm --North country --How --Requiem for a glass heart --In the event of my father's death --Break all the way down --Bad priest --Open marriage --A pat --Best features --Bone density --I am a knife --The sacrifice of darkness --Noble things --Strange gods

Heads of the Colored People


Nafissa Thompson-Spires - 2018
    Some are darkly humorous—from two mothers exchanging snide remarks through notes in their kids’ backpacks, to the young girl contemplating how best to notify her Facebook friends of her impending suicide—while others are devastatingly poignant—a new mother and funeral singer who is driven to madness with grief for the young black boys who have fallen victim to gun violence, or the teen who struggles between her upper middle class upbringing and her desire to fully connect with black culture.Thompson-Spires fearlessly shines a light on the simmering tensions and precariousness of black citizenship. Her stories are exquisitely rendered, satirical, and captivating in turn, engaging in the ongoing conversations about race and identity politics, as well as the vulnerability of the black body. Boldly resisting categorization and easy answers, Nafissa Thompson-Spires is an original and necessary voice in contemporary fiction.

Reflections by Rosa Parks: The Quiet Strength and Faith of a Woman Who Changed a Nation


Rosa Parks - 2018
    She was not trying to start a movement. She was simply tired of the social injustice. Yet, her simple act of courage started a chain of events that forever shaped the landscape of American race relations.Now, decades after her quiet defiance inspired the modern civil rights movement, Mrs. Parks’s own words tell of her courageous life, her passion for freedom and equality, and her strong faith. Reflections by Rosa Parks celebrates the principles and convictions that guided her through a remarkable life. It is a printed record of her legacy—her lasting message to a world still struggling to live in harmony.Including historic and beautiful pictures, this collection of Rosa Parks’s reflections includes topics like dealing with fear, facing injustice, developing character and determination, faith in God, and her hope for the future.“I want to be remembered as a person who stood up to injustice,” writes Rosa Parks, “who wanted a better world for young people.” With Mrs. Parks’s words of wisdom, humility, and compassion, this book will inspire people of all races to carry on her great legacy.

Comfort Zones: women writers tackling unfamiliar ground in aid of Women for Women International


Sonder & Tell - 2019
    In a series of essays, letters and stories, the writers tackle themes and forms that are brave, vulnerable and new. All profits will go to the charity Women for Women International. Broadcaster Lindsey Hilsum says goodbye to her late friend Marie Colvin in a heartfelt letter, journalist Emma Gannon reflects on the life lessons she has learned at the age of 30, while author Poorna Bell details her path to finding happiness in her own company, from that of a dark, bottomless chasm into a dazzlingly bright portal lit with endless possibility. Elsewhere Mina Holland of The Guardian considers her relationship with her parents on the eve of becoming a mother, and novelist Elizabeth Day considers the meaning of success: A lot of the time it will feel like failure, like a challenge that needs to be overcome. Contributors have donated their time and skills bring this collection together. All profits will go to the charity Women for Women International, who work with at-risk women in countries affected by conflict and war. The collection has been curated by content agency Sonder & Tell and published by British fashion brand Jigsaw, with stories by:Alice-Azania Jarvis, Ana Santi, Anna Jones, Ariane Sherine, Brita Fernandez Schmidt, Charlie Brinkhurst-Cuff, Daisy Buchanan, Elizabeth Day, Emma Gannon, Farrah Storr, Funmi Fetto, Gillian Orr, Irenosen Okojie, Lindsey Hilsum, Marianne Power, Mina Holland, Natasha Lunn, Nellie Eden, Olivia Sudjic, Pandora Sykes, Phoebe Lovatt, Poorna Bell, Sophie Mackintosh, Sophie Wilkinson, Tahmina Begum, Vicky Spratt, Yomi Adegoke, Zing Tsjeng

The Names of My Mothers


Dianne Sanders Riordan - 2013
    In 1942 Elizabeth Bynam Sanders was a young woman who left home under false pretenses and travelled to Our Lady of Victory, a home for unwed mothers in upstate New York. Shortly after surrendering her daughter for adoption, she returned to her life in Johnston County, North Carolina. She never married and never had another child of her own. This powerful and moving memoir speaks of the profound need for connection. It is a story about identity, the hunger we feel for a sense of belonging and the ineffable significance of blood.

Granta 147: 40th Birthday Special


Sigrid Rausing - 2019
    In the years (and decades) that followed, Granta established itself as the one of the most prestigious literary publications in the English-speaking world. In that time Granta has published 26 Nobel Prize for Literature winners, defined new literary genres and paved the way for generations of young novelists. To celebrate forty years of brilliant publishing, Granta 147 brings together our best fiction and non-fiction from the last four decades, along with a selection of letters from behind the scenes. This will be a collector's issue and is not to be missed.Featuring...Angela CarterKazuo IshiguroTodd McEwenBruce ChatwinJames FentonPrimo LeviAmitav GhoshRaymond CarverPhilip RothJohn Gregory DunneRyszard KapuscinskiJoy WilliamsJohn BergerGabriel García MárquezBill BufordLindsey HilsumLorrie MooreHilary MantelIan JackEdward SaidDiana AthillEdmund WhiteVed MehtaAdrian LeftwichAlexandra FullerBinyavanga WainainaMary GaitskillLydia DavisJeanette WintersonHerta Müller

Dating (The Love Series)


The School of Life - 2019
    Dating sits on top of some of the largest themes of love: how to know whether or not someone is right for us; how soon to settle and how long to search; how to be at once honest and seductive; how to politely extricate oneself without causing offence. This indispensable guide teaches us about the history of dating, the reason why our dating days can be so anxious, how to optimise our attempts at dating and how to digest and overcome so-called ‘bad’ dates. The book is at once heartfelt and perceptive, and never minimises the agony, joys and confusions of our dating days and nights. It provides us with a roadmap to the varied, sometimes delightful, sometimes daunting realities of dating.

If You See Me, Don't Say Hi


Neel Patel - 2018
    His characters, almost all of who are first-generation Indian Americans, subvert our expectations that they will sit quietly by. We meet two brothers caught in an elaborate web of envy and loathing; a young gay man who becomes involved with an older man whose secret he could never guess; three women who almost gleefully throw off the pleasant agreeability society asks of them; and, in the final pair of linked stories, a young couple struggling against the devastating force of community gossip. If You See Me, Don't Say Hi examines the collisions of old world and new world, small town and big city, traditional beliefs (like arranged marriage) and modern rituals (like Facebook stalking). The men and women in these stories are full of passion, regret, envy, anger, and yearning. They fall in love with the wrong people and betray one another and deal with the accumulation of years of subtle racism. They are utterly compelling. Ranging across the country, Patel’s stories -- empathetic, provocative, twisting, and wryly funny -- introduce a bold new literary voice, one that feels more timely than ever.

From a Native Daughter: Colonialism and Sovereignty in Hawai'i


Haunani-Kay Trask - 1999
    This 1999 revised work includes material that builds on issues and concerns raised in the first edition: Native Hawaiian student organizing at the University of Hawai'i; the master plan of the Native Hawaiian self-governing organization Ka Lahui Hawai'i and its platform on the four political arenas of sovereignty; the 1989 Hawai'i declaration of the Hawai'i ecumenical coalition on tourism; and a typology on racism and imperialism. Brief introductions to each of the previously published essays brings them up to date and situates them in the current Native Hawaiian rights discussion.

Disability Visibility: First-Person Stories from the Twenty-first Century


Alice WongChristie Thompson - 2020
    Some disabilities are visible, others less apparent—but all are underrepresented in media and popular culture. Now, just in time for the thirtieth anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act, activist Alice Wong brings together this urgent, galvanizing collection of contemporary essays by disabled people.From Harriet McBryde Johnson’s account of her debate with Peter Singer over her own personhood to original pieces by authors like Keah Brown and Haben Girma; from blog posts, manifestos, and eulogies to Congressional testimonies, and beyond: this anthology gives a glimpse into the rich complexity of the disabled experience, highlighting the passions, talents, and everyday lives of this community. It invites readers to question their own understandings. It celebrates and documents disability culture in the now. It looks to the future and the past with hope and love.

Feel Free: Essays


Zadie Smith - 2018
    She contributes regularly to The New Yorker and the New York Review of Books on a range of subjects, and each piece of hers is a literary event in its own right.Arranged into five sections--In the World, In the Audience, In the Gallery, On the Bookshelf, and Feel Free--this new collection poses questions we immediately recognize. What is The Social Network--and Facebook itself--really about? "It's a cruel portrait of us: 500 million sentient people entrapped in the recent careless thoughts of a Harvard sophomore." Why do we love libraries? "Well-run libraries are filled with people because what a good library offers cannot be easily found elsewhere: an indoor public space in which you do not have to buy anything in order to stay." What will we tell our granddaughters about our collective failure to address global warming? "So I might say to her, look: the thing you have to appreciate is that we'd just been through a century of relativism and deconstruction, in which we were informed that most of our fondest-held principles were either uncertain or simple wishful thinking, and in many areas of our lives we had already been asked to accept that nothing is essential and everything changes--and this had taken the fight out of us somewhat."Gathering in one place for the first time previously unpublished work, as well as already classic essays, such as, "Joy," and, "Find Your Beach," Feel Free offers a survey of important recent events in culture and politics, as well as Smith's own life. Equally at home in the world of good books and bad politics, Brooklyn-born rappers and the work of Swiss novelists, she is by turns wry, heartfelt, indignant, and incisive--and never any less than perfect company. This is literary journalism at its zenith.

Killing Mother: A Son's Memoir


Robert Wallace - 2017
    This book was not “inspired by actual events,” or “based on a true story,” this is a true story. The pain, tears, soul-shattering grief and amazing triumph are all real. From the years of horrific abuse, through my pain-filled teens and twenties, this book details my thirst for vengeance and the final, miraculous event that changed my life. It is a raw, no holds barred, look at a life filled with tragedy and the demons spawned by a mother’s evil. From the terrible secrets we were forced to keep, to the bodies piling up, my quest to kill the demons of my youth took me down a path I barely survived. This book is the tale of that journey. I’ve bared my soul about all the years spent in darkness and the painful tragedies that fueled my grief. My brother and surviving sisters told me that no one would believe what had happened in that house. They questioned what good could come from unleashing the ghosts of our pasts. This book may shock you, but that is not its purpose. The purpose of this book is to hopefully, inspire you to realize that hope exists even in the most bitter despair. It is both a journey into darkness and a testament to the incredible power of the human soul.