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Volk
by Piers AnthonyPiers Anthony is the acclaimed author of more than 100 novels and short story collections. His books include the Xanth series, the Mode series, Chthon, and Total Recall. Volk is Piers Anthony&’s serious novel of World War II and forbidden love, featuring a romance between a Nazi SS officer and his American friend&’s fiancée, a pacifist Quaker lady. Politically incorrect, it covers some hard truths. Not all Nazis were evil, and the allies also kept death camps. The author was in Europe as a child, deported in 1940, and raised as a Quaker, so has some basis to address the subjects.
Twenty Blue Devils (The Gideon Oliver Mysteries #9)
by Aaron ElkinsThe &“shrewd, witty and self-deprecating forensic anthropologist&” travels to Tahiti to sniff out crime at a coffee plantation (Publishers Weekly). The dead man is the manager of Tahiti&’s Paradise Coffee Plantation, producer of the most expensive coffee bean in the world, the winey, luscious Blue Devil. Nothing tangible points to foul play behind his fall from a cliff, but FBI agent John Lau, a relative of the coffee‑growing family, has his suspicions. What he needs is evidence, and who better to provide it than his friend, anthropologist Gideon Oliver, the Skeleton Detective? Gideon is willing to help, but surprisingly—and suspiciously—both the police and the other family members refuse to okay an exhumation order. As a result, Gideon, to his surprise and against his better judgment, finds himself sneaking into a graveyard under cover of night with John, a flashlight, and a shovel—not exactly up to the professional standards of the world&’s most famous forensic anthropologist, but necessary under the circumstances. Gideon prefers his bones ancient, dry, and dusty, but the body he must examine had lain in the tropical sun for a week before it was found and then buried native‑style—shallow, with no casket—so it is not exactly his . . . well, cup of tea. But it is not the state of the remains that bothers him the most, it is the deeper human ugliness that his examination uncovers: subtle clues that do indeed point to foul play, to mistaken identity, and to a murderous conspiracy that may have percolated through the family for decades—and brewed a taste for murder. Twenty Blue Devils is the 9th book in the Gideon Oliver Mysteries, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.
Sounding
by Hank SearlsA New York Times–bestselling author&’s intricately conceived, &“remarkably eloquent&” response to Moby-Dick: a story of harmony between man and whale (The Washington Post). This unique adventure tale follows two characters: one a sonar officer aboard a sinking Russian nuclear submarine; the other a massive, aging sperm whale swimming nearby. As the young man spends what may be his last days with the ship&’s lovely surgeon, he listens to the plaintive calls of the whales sounding—calls of compassion, fear, and anger at humankind&’s attacks on his species. Little does he realize these fellow creatures may also provide his only hope of survival. Giving voice to these magnificent mammals, Hank Searls—who in addition to his work as a writer has also been a yachtsman, underwater photographer, and Navy flyer—taps into our ancient connection to the natural world in a fascinating, suspenseful, and provocative drama.
The Wealth & Poverty of Regions: Why Cities Matter
by Mario PolèseAs the world becomes more interconnected through travel and electronic communication, many believe that physical places will become less important. But as Mario Polèse argues in The Wealth and Poverty of Regions, geography will matter more than ever before in a world where distance is allegedly dead.This provocative book surveys the globe, from London and Cape Town to New York and Beijing, contending that regions rise—or fall—due to their location, not only within nations but also on the world map. Polèse reveals how concentrations of industries and populations in specific locales often result in minor advantages that accumulate over time, resulting in reduced prices, improved transportation networks, increased diversity, and not least of all, “buzz”—the excitement and vitality that attracts ambitious people. The Wealth and Poverty of Regions maps out how a heady mix of size, infrastructure, proximity, and cost will determine which urban centers become the thriving metropolises of the future, and which become the deserted cities of the past. Engagingly written, the book provides insight to the past, present, and future of regions.
With the World at Heart: Studies in the Secular Today
by Thomas A. CarlsonWhat is the role of love in opening and sustaining the temporal worlds we inhabit? One of the leading scholars in philosophy and the history of religious thought, Thomas A. Carlson here traces this question through Christian theology, twentieth-century phenomenological and deconstructive philosophy, and nineteenth-century individualism. Revising Augustine’s insight that when we love a place, we dwell there in the heart, Carlson also pointedly resists lines of thought that seek to transcend loss and its grief by loving all things within the realm of the eternal. Through masterful readings of Heidegger, Derrida, Marion, Nancy, Emerson, and Nietzsche, Carlson shows that the fragility and sorrow of mortal existence in its transience do not, in fact, contradict love, but instead empower love to create a world.
A Semi-Private Doom (The Allerton Avenue Precinct Novels #5)
by Richard FliegelA New York detective is recovering from a bomb blast and uncovering a semiprivate doom. Just ask Detective Shelly Lowenkopf, who passed on to the other side—at least for a moment or two. It all began with a mob boss who was taking tennis lessons. His new stepson wanted in on the rackets, while his real son was on the lam—until an explosion took him and Lowenkopf out of the picture. The question is: How far out of the picture? While Lowenkopf began his recuperation at St. Jude South Coast Hospital, the criminals got busy. A drug business, some missing sperm, a very-much-alive Mafia son, and James Dean&’s hair comb all found their way to Lowenkopf&’s bedside, one way or another. And with all that, who could blame him for temporarily copping out? The Semi-Private Doom is the 5th book in the Allerton Avenue Precinct Novels, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.
Demon Rider (The Years of Longdirk #2)
by Dave DuncanIn medieval Scotland, an outlaw seeks his freedom—from both the merciless khan who conquered Europe, and the demon spirit that possesses him. All of Europe is ruled by the Khan, whose Golden Horde swept its conquering way across Europe in 1244. The Scottish outlaw Toby Strangerson, known as Longdirk, is ruled by an even harsher master. He is possessed by a &“hob,&” a demon spirit murderous as a child, although inherently neither good nor evil. Toby wants his freedom—and the spirit of the tyrant‑demon Nevil, ensorcelled in amethyst, can be traded for the exorcism of the hob. In order to make the exchange, though, Toby and his friend and ally Hamish must face the hexer Oreste on his own ground, in the dank and fetid dungeons of Barcelona, where souls are racked and tortured and destroyed on the relentless wheel of the Inquisition. This book was originally published under the pseudonym Ken Hood.
Murder on Ice (The Reid Bennett Mysteries #2)
by Ted WoodPolice chief Reid Bennett—&“the most savvy cop currently in the genre&”—and his dog track cold-hearted kidnappers in a Canadian crime thriller (Library Journal). Reid Bennett, the newest addition to the Murphy&’s Harbour, Ontario, police department, has embarked on his second case. During the Ice Festival, there is a sudden blackout and the Queen of the Ice Festival disappears; in fact she has been kidnapped! Members of a feminist anti‑pageant group are suspected, but Reid suspects something fishy. He must expose the organizer of the kidnapping—and try not to get himself killed.
We All Feel: Understanding Animal Grief & Love (Chicago Shorts)
by Barbara J. KingFrom the time of our earliest childhood encounters with animals, we casually ascribe familiar emotions to them, though scientists have long cautioned against such anthropomorphizing. Recently, however, things have begun to shift in the other direction, and anthropologist Barbara J. King is at the forefront of that movement, arguing strenuously that we can—and should—attend to animal emotions. In the stories she tells here, King relays how some farm animals—horses, goats, chickens, and ducks—bond with others and engage in mourning when their friends die. Here, too, dolphins and whales exhibit striking signs of suffering over the loss of babies and companions: a mother dolphin will not give up her dead baby, and whales risk stranding themselves in small groups rather than abandon kin. As part of a larger web of life, death, love, and loss, King calls our attention to emotions—both our own and those of our companion species.
Waves of Glory
by Peter AlbanoWaves of Glory follows four British men of privilege watching the decimation of their generation in the trenches of the World War I battlefields. As the soldiers try to cope with the blood, violence, and death all around them, their world falls apart and nothing seems real except the overwhelming urgency of survival. The home front is no less compelling, as Albano illustrates the pain and uncertainty of waiting for the daily casualty lists that might include a brother, father, lover, or husband. The emotional energy of the men, the women they love, and their comrades in arms brings home the lessons that were arduously learned yet quickly forgotten in the &“war to end all wars.&”
On the Seas of Destiny (Tale of the Nedao #3)
by Ru EmersonThe cat-kind familiar of the warrior queen Ylia spins a tale of sacrifice and war in the third and final Tale of Nedao. In this, the third tale of the Nedao people, Nisana the AEldra of the cat-kind narrates her experience among the beleaguered humans. She wishes that there were others left to speak of such a story, yet she is the only witness able to tell of it. Sharing both the agonies and the victories of her companion, the warrior queen Ylia, Nisana is determined to see things through to their conclusion. As Ylia faces insurmountable odds while trying to survive, it is up to Nisana to nurture the magical powers within the young queen and teach her how to lead her people. Nisana the AEldra does not leave her side, even when the terrifying army of seemings marches on her people, even when the very air hangs heavy with the blood of the Nedao.
Why Elephants Have Big Ears: And Other Riddles from the Natural World
by Chris LaversWhy Elephants Have Big Ears is the result of one man's lifelong quest to understand why the creatures of the earth appear and act as they do. In a wry manner and personal tone, Chris Lavers explores and solves some of nature's most challenging evolutionary mysteries, such as why birds are small and plentiful, why rivers and lakes are dominated by the few remaining large reptiles, why most of the large land-dwellers are mammals, and many more.
Closed Circuits: Screening Narrative Surveillance
by Garrett StewartThe recent uproar over NSA dataveillance can obscure the fact that surveillance has been part of our lives for decades. And cinema has long been aware of its power—and potential for abuse. In Closed Circuits, Garrett Stewart analyzes a broad spectrum of films, from M and Rear Window through The Conversation to Déjà Vu, Source Code, and The Bourne Legacy, in which cinema has articulated—and performed—the drama of inspection’s unreturned look. While mainstays of the thriller, both the act and the technology of surveillance, Stewart argues, speak to something more foundational in the very work of cinema. The shared axis of montage and espionage—with editing designed to draw us in and make us forget the omnipresence of the narrative camera—extends to larger questions about the politics of an oversight regime that is increasingly remote and robotic. To such a global technopticon, one telltale response is a proliferating mode of digitally enhanced “surveillancinema.”
The Alien Years
by Robert SilverbergWhen aliens invade, a generations-long struggle begins against an impenetrable enemy in this sci-fi epic from the Hugo and Nebula Award–winning author. The Entities have arrived on Earth, fifteen feet tall with impenetrable defenses and inscrutable motives. As conquerors, they have no demands, no explanations, simply harsh consequences should they be challenged. Releasing a plague and plunging the world into a new Dark Age, the Entities seem unbeatable. But, one family at least—the Carmichael clan led by Colonel Anson Carmichael—will never give up the resistance. THE ALIEN YEARS is an epic story told over multiple generations by master of thoughtful science fiction Robert Silverberg. Can ideas of freedom survive in the face of an overwhelmingly powerful enemy? &“A remarkable study of human endurance and patience that belongs in most SF collections.&” —The Library Journal &“Sobering and frightening…. Silverberg&’s rich characters, his dead-on-target vision of modern society, his mastery at building tension—all are in evidence in this notable outing from one of the very best.&” —Publishers Weekly
The Next Convergence: The Future of Economic Growth in a Multispeed World
by Michael SpenceA Washington Post Notable Nonfiction Book for 2011 With the British Industrial Revolution, part of the world's population started to experience extraordinary economic growth—leading to enormous gaps in wealth and living standards between the industrialized West and the rest of the world. This pattern of divergence reversed after World War II, and now we are midway through a century of high and accelerating growth in the developing world and a new convergence with the advanced countries—a trend that is set to reshape the world.Michael Spence, winner of the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences, explains what happened to cause this dramatic shift in the prospects of the five billion people who live in developing countries. The growth rates are extraordinary, and continuing them presents unprecedented challenges in governance, international coordination, and ecological sustainability. The implications for those living in the advanced countries are great but little understood. Spence clearly and boldly describes what's at stake for all of us as he looks ahead to how the global economy will develop over the next fifty years. The Next Convergence is certain to spark a heated debate how best to move forward in the post-crisis period and reset the balance between national and international economic interests, and short-term fixes and long-term sustainability.
Tigers of a Different Stripe: Performing Gender in Dominican Music (Chicago Studies In Ethnomusicology Ser.)
by Sydney HutchinsonTigers of a Different Stripe takes readers inside the unique world of merengue típico, a traditional music of the Dominican Republic. While in most genres of Caribbean music women usually participate as dancers or vocalists, in merengue típico they are more often instrumentalists and even bandleaders—something nearly unheard of in the macho Caribbean music scene. Examining this cultural phenomenon, Sydney Hutchinson offers an unexpected and fascinating account of gender in Dominican art and life. Drawing on over a decade of fieldwork in the Dominican Republic and New York among musicians, fans, and patrons of merengue típico—not to mention her own experiences as a female instrumentalist—Hutchinson details a complex nexus of class, race, and artistic tradition that unsettles the typical binary between the masculine and feminine. She sketches the portrait of the classic male figure of the tíguere, a dandified but sexually aggressive and street-smart “tiger,” and she shows how female musicians have developed a feminine counterpart: the tíguera, an assertive, sensual, and respected female figure who looks like a woman but often plays and even sings like a man. Through these musical figures and studies of both straight and queer performers, she unveils rich ambiguities in gender construction in the Dominican Republic and the long history of a unique form of Caribbean feminism.
More than Lore: Reminiscences of Marion Talbot
by Marion TalbotThe founding articles of the University of Chicago contained what was for the era a shocking declaration: “To provide, impart, and furnish opportunities for all departments of higher education to persons of both sexes on equal terms.” In a time when many still scoffed at educating women, the university was firmly co-ed from the very start. One of its first hires was Marion Talbot. Ready for the adventure of a lifetime, she set her sights on Chicago at a time when the city was still considered all but the Wild West. Talbot eventually became the University of Chicago’s first Dean of Women, influencing a generation of female students. Originally published in 1936, More than Lore is a unique firsthand account of the early days of the university, capturing the excitement and travails of life on an academic frontier. Talbot shares gossip from the faculty lounge, relays student antics in the dorms, and tells stories from the living rooms of Hyde Park. It’s also a fascinating look at life as an early twentieth-century college woman, with scandals over improper party invitations and underground sororities, petitions calling for more female professors, and campaigns to have students be known as “university women” instead of “college girls.” With Talbot as our guide, we reenter a lost world where simply to be a woman was to be a pioneer and where the foundations of the modern undergrad experience were being established.
Hard Target: The Hunted, Hard Target, And The Lost Codex (OPSIG Team Black #2)
by Alan JacobsonAfter an assassination attempt on the president-elect, the OPSIG team is on the hunt in this &“terrific thriller&” from the USA Today–bestselling author (Lee Child).Hard Target by Alan Jacobson is a ticking time bomb that will keep you clinging to the edge of your seat . . . and turning the pages. An explosion pulverizes the president-elect&’s helicopter on election night. It soon becomes clear that the group behind the assassination attempt possesses far greater reach than the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force has yet encountered—and a plot so deeply interwoven in the country&’s fabric that it threatens to upend America&’s political system.
A Thousand Deaths: Stories
by George Alec EffingerScience fiction stories that offer &“a poignant glimpse into the author&’s psyche . . . this bittersweet collection [is] one to be cherished&” (Publishers Weekly). When we first meet Courane, he must face down TECT, the self-aware computer that has come to control Earth and its colonial planets. Exiled to Planet D, Courane races to cure the debilitating disease that attacks each of the planet&’s residents, even as his own memory begins to fade. Unfortunately, his only source of information about the illness is TECT itself, and the computer&’s agenda doesn&’t seem to line up with Courane&’s. In the seven other stories contained in A Thousand Deaths, Courane begins to blur reality and fiction as Effinger expertly plays with narrative conventions. However, these are not simply the whims of a science fiction writer; they are the frameworks the Nebula and Hugo Award–nominated author uses to answer questions about existence no one else even thought to ask. While George Alec Effinger&’s Budayeen novel When Gravity Fails is perhaps his most famous work, his lesser-known novel The Wolves of Memory remained his favorite. In it, he introduced readers to Sandor Courane, an everyman and Effinger stand-in who struggles as he swims against the currents of fate. In life and in his multiple deaths, Sandor Courane serves as the unifying force in this collection of Effinger&’s stories, starting with The Wolves of Memory and getting ever more clever and off the wall from there.
The One-Star Jew: Stories
by David EvanierSignature David Evanier—a story collection so wickedly funny and painfully honest you won&’t know whether to laugh, cry, or curl up in a ball and moan with delightNew York writer Bruce Orav is crumbling. Every time his father speaks—&“I thought there was a chance you&’d have a bestseller sometime. I guess that&’s dead, huh?&”—Bruce loses another piece of himself. The same thing happens at the Jewish philanthropic organization where he earns a steady, if not exactly generous, paycheck and is regularly subjected to the musings of Luther, his cynical coworker: &“My experience has always been that kids are cannibals and killers.&” Not even the weekly volunteer visits he and his wife, Susan, make to an elderly Jewish woman&’s home give Bruce the chance to stitch himself back together again—every trip is marred by another wildly inappropriate and combative scene between the quarrelsome eighty-four-year-old and her African American caretakers.With nowhere safe to turn, what is Bruce to do? His therapist wants him to join a dating club, but there is only one real answer: Keep living, because the future—fingers crossed—is almost guaranteed to be better than the past. And, just as important, keep laughing. Thankfully, David Evanier is here to make the laughter part as easy as reading The One-Star Jew.
Disturbing Practices: History, Sexuality, and Women's Experience of Modern War
by Laura DoanFor decades, the history of sexuality has been a multidisciplinary project serving competing agendas. Lesbian, gay, and queer scholars have produced powerful narratives by tracing the homosexual or queer subject as continuous or discontinuous. Yet organizing historical work around categories of identity as normal or abnormal often obscures how sexual matters were known or talked about in the past. Set against the backdrop of women’s work experiences, friendships, and communities during World War I, Disturbing Practices draws on a substantial body of new archival material to expose the roadblocks still present in current practices and imagine new alternatives.In this landmark book, Laura Doan clarifies the ethical value and political purpose of identity history—and indeed its very capacity to give rise to innovative practices borne of sustained exchange between queer studies and critical history. Disturbing Practices insists on taking seriously the imperative to step outside the logic of identity to address questions as yet unasked about the modern sexual past.
Big Wheat: A Tale of Bindlestiffs and Blood
by Richard A. ThompsonThe summer of 1919 is over, and on the high prairie, a small army of men, women, and machines moves across the land, bringing in the wheat harvest. Custom threshers, steam engineers, bindlestiffs, cooks, camp followers, and hobos join the tide. Big Wheat is king as people gleefully embrace the gospels of progress and greed.But with Big Wheat comes a serial killer who calls himself the Windmill Man. He believes he has a holy calling to water the newly plucked earth with blood. The mobile harvest provides an endless supply of ready victims. He has been killing for years now and intends to kill for many more.A young man named Charlie Krueger also follows the harvest. Jilted by his childhood sweetheart and estranged from his drunkard father, he hopes to find a new life as a steam engineer. But in a newly harvested field in the nearly black Dakota night, he has come upon a strange man digging a grave. And in that moment, Charlie becomes the only person who has seen the face of a killer....
Value in Art: Manet and the Slave Trade
by Henry M. SayreArt historian Henry M. Sayre traces the origins of the term “value” in art criticism, revealing the politics that define Manet’s art. How did art critics come to speak of light and dark as, respectively, “high in value” and “low in value”? Henry M. Sayre traces the origin of this usage to one of art history’s most famous and racially charged paintings, Édouard Manet’s Olympia. Art critics once described light and dark in painting in terms of musical metaphor—higher and lower tones, notes, and scales. Sayre shows that it was Émile Zola who introduced the new “law of values” in an 1867 essay on Manet. Unpacking the intricate contexts of Zola’s essay and of several related paintings by Manet, Sayre argues that Zola’s usage of value was intentionally double coded—an economic metaphor for the political economy of slavery. In Manet’s painting, Olympia and her maid represent objects of exchange, a commentary on the French Empire’s complicity in the ongoing slave trade in the Americas. Expertly researched and argued, this bold study reveals the extraordinary weight of history and politics that Manet’s painting bears. Locating the presence of slavery at modernism’s roots, Value in Art is a surprising and necessary intervention in our understanding of art history.
Global Governance and the UN: An Unfinished Journey (United Nations Intellectual History Project Series)
by Thomas G. Weiss Ramesh ThakurIn the 21st century, the world is faced with threats of global scale that cannot be confronted without collective action. Although global government as such does not exist, formal and informal institutions, practices, and initiatives—together forming "global governance"—bring a greater measure of predictability, stability, and order to trans-border issues than might be expected. Yet, there are significant gaps between many current global problems and available solutions. Thomas G. Weiss and Ramesh Thakur analyze the UN's role in addressing such knowledge, normative, policy, institutional, and compliance lapses. The UN's relationship to these five global governance gaps is explored through case studies of some of the most burning problems of our age, including terrorism, nuclear proliferation, humanitarian crises, development aid, climate change, human rights, and HIV/AIDS.
Body Language: The Essential Secrets Of Non-verbal Communication
by Julius FastA revised and updated edition of the New York Times–bestselling classic on understanding body language from the author of Subtext.Body Language helps you to understand the unconscious body movements and postures that provide intimate keys to what a person is really thinking and the secrets of their true inner selves. You will learn how to read the angle of shoulders, the tilt of a head, or the tap of a foot, in order to discern whether an individual is angry, frightened, or cheerful. You will be able to use Body Language to discover the most—and least—important person in any group by the way others position themselves. The body is not able to lie, for it sends subtle signals to those who know how to read them. Body Language will even show you how to do it without others knowing you are observing them. Body Language was a huge best seller when first published and has remained in print ever since. It has been thoroughly updated and revised especially for this ebook edition.