Pack Men


Alan Bissett - 2010
    '-means so much tay a man.'The crowd stamps and claps, a hundred and fifty thousand voices blending into one.In 2008 Glasgow Rangers FC reached a major European final. It was held in Manchester, a short hop from Scotland into England. Cue a colossal invasion: the largest movement of Scots over the border in history and the first time in hundreds of years that an English city was taken over. Chaos reigned.Pack Men is the fictional story of three pals and one child trapped inside this powderkeg. In a city rocking with beer, brotherhood and sectarianism, the boys struggle to hold onto their friendship, as they turn on each other and the police turn on them. And somehow one of them has to disclose a secret which he knows the others won't want to hear...With this novel, one of Scotland's leading young writers has created a scuffed comedy about male un-bonding and Britain unravelling.

Enchanted by the Mysterious Marquess


Fanny Finch - 2019
    Lavinia Bronson’s heart mourns for the loss of her beloved father and the bleak future that her mother is planning for her. But a mysterious man comes to upset the quiet procession and stir up scandal. Lavinia will be unable to forget his warnings… or his fathomless blue eyes. As secrets and lies weave a dangerous web around her, Lavinia will have to learn who to trust and who to fear… and risk her heart to an enigmatic Marquess who was vowed to protect her at all costs. If you like engaging characters, heart- wrenching twists and turns, and lots of romance, then you’ll love “Enchanted by the Mysterious Marquess!” Buy “Enchanted by the Mysterious Marquess” and unlock the exciting story of Lavinia Bronson today!

Through the Eyes of Leonardo da Vinci: Selected Drawings


Barrington Barber - 2005
    Each work is accompanied by a detailed description to enhance the appreciation of the artist's creation.

The New Penguin History of The World


J.M. Roberts - 1976
    Completely updated and revised by preeminent historian J. M. Roberts, this volume features ninety up-to-date maps, new sections, and extremely well-written and accessible articles throughout. Truly global and comprehensive, it succeeds in conveying the staggering diversity of the human experience across a vast range of climates and conditions. This is the one book for anyone interested in the variety and grandeur of history’s march.

A History of Pictures: From the Cave to the Computer Screen


David Hockney - 2016
    Here, in a collaboration with art critic Martin Gayford, he explores the many ways that artists have pictured the world, sharing sparkling insights and ideas that will delight every art lover and art maker. Readers who thrilled to Hockney’s Secret Knowledge know that he has an uncanny ability to get into the minds of artists. In A History of Pictures he covers far more ground, getting at the roots of visual expression and technique through hundreds of images—from cave paintings to frames from movies—that are reproduced. It’s a joyful celebration of one of humanity’s oldest impulses.

The Visions of the Children: The Apparitions of the Blessed Mother at Medjugorje


Janice T. Connell - 1992
    The author tells what has happened to the six apparitioners since the book was first published, and the Blessed Mother's monthly messages have been updated through 1997. There is also a new list of Marian Centers across the nation.The Visions of the Children features exclusive conversations with the six apparitioners who have been receiving, for more than fifteen years, visions and messages of the Virgin Mary, including extraordinary secrets about the final chapter in the history of the world. This book not only tells of the need for love and spiritual awakening, but casts a powerful perspective on the wholescale devastation in Bosnia during the last few years.

Art Since 1940: Strategies of Being


Jonathan Fineberg - 1991
    ARTnews hailed this lively volume as "a fascinating book" by "a superb critic and art historian". For this Second Edition, the author adds a new final chapter and extensively reworks the last quarter of the hook to incorporate current thinking on the art of the last 20 years.

Legendary Ladies: 50 Goddesses to Empower and Inspire You


Ann Shen - 2018
    Aphrodite, the Greek goddess whose love overcame mortality. Mazu, the Chinese deity who safely guides travelers home. Lakshmi, the Hindu provider of fortune and prosperity. These powerful deities and many more are celebrated in gorgeous artwork and enlightening essays that explore the feminine divine and encourage readers to empower themselves. Ann Shen's signature watercolors make Legendary Ladies a unique, gift-worthy homage to the mighty women within.

The Battle for Pakistan : The Bitter US Friendship and a Tough Neighbourhood


Shuja Nawaz - 2019
    

What Painting Is


James Elkins - 1998
    Alchemy provides a magical language to explore what it is a painter really does in her or his studio - the smells, the mess, the struggle to control the uncontrollable, the special knowledge only painters hold of how colours will mix, and how they will look.Written from the perspective of a painter-turned-art historian, What Painting Is is like nothing you have ever read about art.

Predator Nation: Corporate Criminals, Political Corruption, and the Hijacking of America


Charles H. Ferguson - 2012
    In Predator Nation, Ferguson exposes the networks of academic, government, and congressional influence--in all recent administrations, including Obama's--that prepared the path to conquest. He reveals how once-revered figures like Alan Greenspan and Larry Summers have become mere courtiers to the elite. And based on many newly released court filings, he details the extent of the crimes--there is no other word--committed in the frenzied chase for storied wealth that marked the 2000s. And, finally, he lays out a brief plan of action for how we might take it back.

Unveiling


Suzanne M. Wolfe - 2004
    As she uncovers layers of grime on what could prove to be a lost Flemish masterpiece, Rachel finds that layers of her own soul—layers that she would rather have kept hidden—are being stripped away.Imbued with historical and artistic detail, Unveiling will appeal to readers of A.S. Byatt’s Possession and Tracy Chevalier’s Girl with a Pearl Earring. Beautifully written, it brings the venerable city of Rome vividly to life and illuminates the power of art, imagination, and beauty to speak directly to the heart.

The Unanswered Question: Six Talks at Harvard


Leonard Bernstein - 1976
    These lectures, Mr. Bernstein's most recent venture in musical explication, will make fascinating reading as well. Virgil Thomson says of the lectures: "Nobody anywhere presents this material so warmly, so sincerely, so skillfully. As musical mind-openers they are first class; as pedagogy they are matchless."Mr. Bernstein considers music ranging from Hindu ragas through Mozart and Ravel, to Copland, suggesting a worldwide, innate musical grammar. Folk music, pop songs, symphonies, modal, tonal, atonal, well-tempered and ill-tempered works all find a place in these discussions. Each, Mr. Bernstein suggests, has roots in a universal language central to all artistic creation. Using certain linguistic analogies, he explores the ways in which this language developed and can be understood as an aesthetic surface. Drawing on his insights as a master composer and conductor, Mr. Bernstein also explores what music means below the surface: the symbols and metaphors which exist in every musical piece, of whatever sort. And, finally, Mr. Bernstein analyzes twentieth century crises in the music of Schoenberg and Stravinsky, finding even here a transformation of all that has gone before, as part of the poetry of expression, through its roots in the earth of human experience.These talks, written and delivered when Leonard Bernstein was Charles Eliot Norton Professor of Poetry at Harvard University, are the newest of the author's literary achievements. In addition to a distinguished career as conductor, pianist, and composer, Mr. Bernstein is the recipient of many television Emmys for the scripts of his Young People's Concerts, Omnibus programs, and others, and is the author of The Infinite Variety of Music and The Joy of Music, for which he received the Christopher Award.

Mishima's Sword: Travels in Search of a Samurai Legend


Christopher Ross - 2006
    In the decades since, people have asked endless far-ranging questions about this spectacular suicide. Christopher Ross wondered, What on earth happened to Mishima's sword? And so Ross sets off for Tokyo on a journey into the heart of the Mishima legend---the very heart of Japan. It was a country Ross knew well after nearly five years of living there--but nothing could have prepared him for this. While searching for the fabled sword, Ross encounters the rather startling range of those who knew Mishima...a world, or perhaps more accurately a demimonde, of craftsmen and critics, soldiers and swordsmen, boyfriends and biographers (even the man who taught Mishima hara-kiri). The trail Ross follows inspires a travelogue of the most eye-opening--and occasionally bizarre--sort, a window into the real Japan that is never seen by tourists and the occasion for digressions on, among other things, socks and the code of the samurai, nosebleeds and metallurgy... even how to dress for suicide. Mishima's Sword is a dazzling read--the perfect book for all those intrigued by things Japanese, from gangsters to Genji, from manga to Mishima.

Fresh Blood


Jessica Hicks - 2019
     Felix used to be a traveling salesman, drifting through the galaxy and hawking his wares. Used to be, that is, until a freak accident in an out of the way system. One rough landing later and Felix finds himself stranded on a wild, alien planet-- front and center in a deadly role he never auditioned for to entertain a secret audience. The upside? A fellow passenger made it to the escape pod with Felix. With this reptilian stranger at his side, he’s not totally alone. The downside? They don’t share a language. Worse, there’s not one scrap of survival know-how between them, and an ominous clawing is coming from outside the escape pod. As if the struggle to avoid becoming lunch and finding some of their own wasn’t enough, an autonomous implant from an unknown source seeks to integrate them into the system.