The Uncommon Reader is none other than HM the Queen who drifts accidentally into reading when her corgis stray into a mobile library parked at Buckingham Palace. She reads widely ( JR Ackerley, Jean Genet, Ivy Compton Burnett and the classics) and intelligently. Her reading naturally changes her world view and her relationship with people like the oleaginous prime minister and his repellent advisers. She comes to question the prescribed order of the world and loses patience with much that she has to do. In short, her reading is subversive. The consequence is, of course, surprising, mildly shocking and very funny
Currently in Bill Gates's bookbag and FT Books of 2018 Increasingly, the demands of identity direct the world's politics. Nation, religion, sect, race, ethnicity, gender: these categories have overtaken broader, inclusive ideas of who we are. We have built walls rather than bridges. The result: increasing in anti-immigrant sentiment, rioting on college campuses, and the return of open white supremacy to our politics. In 2014, Francis Fukuyama wrote that American and global institutions were in a state of decay, as the state was captured by powerful interest groups. Two years later, his predictions were borne out by the rise to power of a series of political outsiders whose economic nationalism and authoritarian tendencies threatens to destabilise the entire international order. These populist nationalists seek direct charismatic connection to 'the people', who are usually defined in narrow identity terms that offer an irresistible call to an in-group and exclude large parts of the population as a whole. Identity is an urgent and necessary book: a sharp warning that unless we forge a universal understanding of human dignity, we will doom ourselves to continual conflict.
From the Battle of Catterick (AD 598) to the premiership of Tony Blair, this title weaves together a narrative with various important and interesting dates.
Why are some things cute, and others not? What happens to our brains when we see something cute? And how did cuteness go global, from Edwardian children''s books to Disney characters?
Cuteness is an area where culture and biology get tangled up. Seeing a cute animal triggers some of the most powerful psychological instincts we have - the ones that elicit our care and protection - but there is a deeper story behind the broad appeal of Japanese cats and saccharine greetings cards.
Joshua Paul Dale, a pioneer in the burgeoning field of cuteness studies, explains how the cute aesthetic spread around the globe, from pop brands to Lolita fashion, kids'' cartoons and the unstoppable rise of Hello Kitty. Irresistible delves into the surprisingly ancient origins of Japan''s kawaii culture, and uncovers the cross-cultural pollination of the globalised world. If adorable things really do rewire our brains, it can help answer some of the biggest questions we have about our evolutionary history and the mysterious origins of animal domestication.
This is the fascinating cultural history of cuteness, and a revealing look at how our most powerful psychological impulses have remade global style and culture.
If you were to master the twenty languages discussed in Babel , you could talk with three quarters of the world's population. But what makes these languages stand out amid the world's estimated 6,500 tongues? Gaston Dorren delves deep into the linguistic oddities and extraordinary stories of these diverse lingua francas, tracing their origins and their sometimes bloody rise to greatness. He deciphers their bewildering array of scripts, presents the gems and gaps in their vocabularies and charts their coinages and loans. He even explains how their grammars order their speakers' worldview. Combining linguistics and cultural history, Babel takes us on an intriguing tour of the world, addressing such questions as how tiny Portugal spawned a major world language and Holland didn't, why Japanese women talk differently from men, what it means for Russian to be 'related' to English, and how non-alphabetic scripts, such as those of India and China, do the same job as our 26 letters. Not to mention the conundrums of why Vietnamese has four forms for 'I', or how Tamil pronouns keep humans and deities apart. Babel will change the way you look at the world and how we all speak.
Over a million copies sold Clear writing is the key to clear thinking. So think what you want to say, then say it as simply as possible. That's the thinking that underpins this much-loved guide, and the mantra for anyone wanting to communicate with the clarity, style and precision for which The Economist is renowned. The Economist Style Guide guides the reader through the pleasures and pitfalls of English usage. It offers advice on the consistent use of punctuation, abbreviations and capital letters, identifies common errors and cliches and contains an exhaustive range of reference material - covering everything from business ratios to mathematical symbols and common Latin phrases. It also tackles the key differences between British and American English. But this is no ordinary guide to English usage. It has a wit, verve and flair which make it much more than a simple work of reference. Here are just some examples: - anticipate does not mean expect. Jack and Jill expected to marry; if they anticipated marriage, only Jill might find herself expectant. - Take care with between. To fall between two stools, however painful, is grammatically acceptable. To fall between the cracks is to challenge the laws of physics. - critique is a noun. If you want a verb, try criticise. - use words with care. If This door is alarmed, does its hair stand on end? The Economist Style Guide is required reading for anyone who wants to communicate with style.
''Shockingly real, twisty and dark'' - INDEPENDENT ''Tense, thrilling and darkly comedic'' - HEAT ''The feminist update to Rosemary''s Baby we all needed'' - ANDREA BARTZ I wanted this baby so badly.
But she may be the death of me...
Anna Alcott is desperate to have a family. But as she tries to balance her increasingly public life as an indie actress with a gruelling IVF regime, she starts to suspect that someone is going to great lengths to make sure that never happens. Crucial medicines are lost. Appointments are unknowingly moved. She''s sure she''s being followed. And when she finally does get pregnant, someone breaks into her house and steals the ultrasound photograph of her baby. But despite everything she''s gone through, not even her husband is willing to believe that someone is playing twisted games with her.
Then her doctors tell her she''s lost the baby. Despite her grief, Anna ignores the grave-faced men lecturing her - because she can still feel the baby moving, can see the toll it''s taking on her weakened body. Isolated in a remote snowbound town, Anna is sure that whoever has been following her is closing in on her and her unborn child. And as her symptoms become more terrifying, she can''t help but wonder what exactly is growing inside her... and why no-one will listen when she says that something is horribly wrong.
Notebooks are everywhere, yet we rarely notice them and never stop to consider where they came from or how they work. We use them every day to scribble notes, remember dates, and list our chores, but an empty notebook has limitless potential; it gives us the space to reflect on our innermost thoughts, to untangle our knottiest problems, or to draw out ground-breaking new discoveries. Without their notebooks, Isaac Newton, Albert Einstein and Pablo Picasso - and a legion of other writers, artists and scientists - would never have achieved what they did.
In The Notebook: A History of Thinking on Paper, Roland Allen follows a trail of ideas, revealing how the notebook came to be our most durable tool for thinking. He shows how the blank book transformed life in Italy - prompting the rise of international banking and the intellectual advances of the renaissance - before becoming Europe''s most versatile information technology. Artists, writers, scientists, and engineers all came to rely on theirs; but so did fishermen, sailors, cooks, and thieves. The Notebook tells their stories, celebrating the infinite variety of our notebooks and their uses.
Referring to hundreds of fascinating examples, from 1300 to the present day, and drawing on the knowledge of a host of experts, Allen''s stories will ensure that you look at - and use - your humble notebook in a whole new way.
What's your type? Suddenly everyone's obsessed with fonts. Whether you're enraged by Ikea's Verdanagate, want to know what the Beach Boys have in common with easy Jet or why it's okay to like Comic Sans, this title has the answer.
'Scintillating ... thought-provoking ... one of the very best of the great crop of recent books on the subject.' Andrew Rawnsley, Observer Democracy has died hundreds of times, all over the world. We think we know what that looks like: chaos descends and the military arrives to restore order, until the people can be trusted to look after their own affairs again. However, there is a danger that this picture is out of date. Until very recently, most citizens of Western democracies would have imagined that the end was a long way off, and very few would have thought it might be happening before their eyes as Trump, Brexit and paranoid populism have become a reality. David Runciman, one of the UK's leading professors of politics, answers all this and more as he surveys the political landscape of the West, helping us to spot the new signs of a collapsing democracy and advising us on what could come next.
Country risk explains the things that can go wrong when business is conducted across borders. It's not just multinational companies, with factories worldwide and complex operations, that need to understand sudden changes in business conditions. These can affect any small firm that may be looking to expand sales abroad or work with a foreign supplier. The 2008-09 global financial crisis and the Arab Spring showed us how quickly, and dramatically, business conditions in any country can worsen and spread. But a thorough understanding and careful management of country risk will help a company survive a crisis, and even open up new opportunities.
This Guide to Country Risk explains:
- What risks foreign investors face, and how to measure and manage them in a systematic way.
- Why political and economic shocks are so hard to predict.
- Where economies are vulnerable and how existing risk models spot (or miss) signs of impending disaster.
- The typical bad habits of managers who ignore the warning signs - How and where the next crisis will emerge.
When Chris McDougall stumbled across the story of Churchill's 'dirty tricksters', a motley crew of English poets and academics who helped resist the Nazi invasion of Crete, he knew he was on the track of something special. To beat the odds, the tricksters-starving, aging, outnumbered-tapped into an ancient style of fitness: the lost art of heroism. They listened to their instincts, replaced calories with stored bodily fat and used their fascia, the network of tissue which criss-crosses the body, to catapult themselves to superhuman strength and endurance. Soon McDougall was in the middle of a modern fitness revolution taking place everywhere from Parisian parkour routes to state-of-the-art laboratories, and based on the know-how of Shanghai street-fighters and Wild West gunslingers. Just as Born to Run got runners off the treadmill and into nature, Natural Born Heroes will inspire casual athletes to dump the gym membership for cross-training, mud runs and free-running.
Argues that the physical violence we see is often generated by the systemic violence that sustains our political and economic systems. With the help of eminent philosophers and frequent references to popular culture, this title examines the causes of violent outbreaks like those seen in Israel and Palestine and in terrorist acts around the world.
Why does the West rule? This title answers this provocative question, drawing on 15,000 years of history and archaeology, and the methods of social science.
Presents facts and figures about the world we live in on subjects as diverse as geography, population and demographics, business, finance and the economy, transport, tourism and the environment, society, culture and crime. This title features rankings on more than 200 topics, data on more than 180 countries, and more.
Ian Stewart explores the astonishing properties of numbers from 1 to10 to zero and infinity, including one figure that, if you wrote it out, would span the universe. He looks at every kind of number you can think of -- real, imaginary, rational, irrational, positive and negative -- along with several you might have thought you couldn't think of. He explains the insights of the ancient mathematicians, shows how numbers have evolved through the ages, and reveals the way numerical theory enables everyday life. Under Professor Stewart's guidance you will discover the mathematics of codes, Sudoku, Rubik's cube, music, primes and pi. You may be surprised to find you live in eleven-dimensional space, that of the twenty-three people on a football pitch two are more likely than not to share the same birthday, and that forty-two is a very interesting number. Professor Stewart's Incredible Numbers will delight everyone who loves numbers -- including those who currently think they don't.
Financial crime seems horribly complicated but there are only so many ways you can con someone out of what's theirs. In fact, there are four. A veteran regulatory economist and market analyst, Dan Davies has years of experience picking the bones out of some of the most famous frauds of the modern age. Now he reveals the big picture that emerges from their labyrinths of deceit. Along the way you'll find out how to fake a gold mine with a wedding ring, a file and a shotgun. You'll see how close Charles Ponzi, the king of pyramid schemes, came to acquiring his own private navy. You'll learn how fraud has shaped the entire development of the modern world economy. And you'll discover whether you have what it takes to be a white-collar criminal mastermind, if that's what you want. (Which you don't. You really, really don't.)
Some questions you never think to ask. Others, you didn't know you didn't know. And some facts are so surprising they cry out for answers. What can a president actually do? Why do cities sink into the ground? Why is Australia seemingly invulnerable to recessions? Why do people in couples do more housework than singletons? The brilliant minds of the Economist collect these questions. Individually, they might seem bite-sized and inconsequential, but taken together they can reveal a whole new world.
Extensively revised to reflect the dramatic shifts and consolidation of the financial markets, the seventh edition of this highly regarded book provides a clear and incisive guide to a complex world that even those who work in it often find hard to understand. With chapters on the markets that deal with money, foreign exchange, equities, bonds, commodities, financial futures, options and other derivatives, it looks at why these markets exist, how they work and who trades in them, and it gives a run-down of the factors that affect prices and rates. Business history is littered with disasters that occurred because people involved their firms with financial instruments they didn't properly understand. If they had had this book they might have avoided their mistakes. For anyone wishing to understand financial markets, there is no better guide.
Lyndon Baines Johnson, Margaret Thatcher, Bill Clinton, Tony Blair, Barack Obama, Gordon Brown, Theresa May, and Donald Trump: each had different motivations, methods, and paths, but they all sought the highest office. And yet when they reached their goal, they often found that the power they had imagined was illusory. Their sweeping visions of reform faltered. They faced bureaucratic obstructions, but often the biggest obstruction was their own character. However, their personalities could help them as much as hurt them. Arguably the most successful of them, LBJ showed little indication that he supported what he is best known for - the Civil Rights Act - but his grit, resolve, and brute political skill saw him bend Congress to his will. David Runciman tackles the limitations of high office and how the personal histories of those who achieved the very pinnacles of power helped to define their successes and failures in office. These portraits show what characters are most effective in these offices. Could this be a blueprint for good and effective leadership in an age lacking good leaders?
@00000400@Happiness is one of life's greatest mysteries. But what even @00000373@is @00000155@happiness? Why does it mean so many different things to different people? And how can we actually @00000373@be @00000155@happier? @00000341@@00000341@Drawing on decades of experience in crime writing, self-help and intensely curious observation of other people, Sophie Hannah sets out to solve the mystery. She lines up her cast of suspects and expert witnesses from ancient philosophers to modern self-help gurus, scientists to ordinary people from all walks of life. Leaving no stone unturned, she scrutinises the clues, evidence, and even the red herrings that unexpectedly lead to happiness. And she uncovers answers - from the secrets of a fulfilling relationship to the joys of boredom, or of the bliss of a cancelled meeting. @00000341@@00000341@Weaving in much-loved poems and hilarious observations from Sophie's own life, this is the ultimate guide to happiness - and the clues that can lead us there.@00000163@
Weak or failed states - where no government is in control - are the source of many of the world's most serious problems, from poverty, AIDS and drugs to terrorism. What can be done to help?
From the bestselling author of Building a Second Brain comes a primer on the essential tools you need to organize your digital life.
Living a modern life requires juggling a lot of information. But we were never taught how to manage this material effectively so that we can find what we need when we need it.
In The PARA Method, Tiago Forte outlines a simple and intuitive system that can be implemented in just seconds but has the power to transform the trajectory of your work and life, without the tedious filing or time-consuming maintenance of other approaches. The PARA Method will bring order to your inbox, filing system, notes app and more - so that you can focus on what really matters, moving forward to achieve your goals.
