A fascinating tour of the most important sites of ancient Egypt, this book is made all the more compelling by the inclusion of the author's personal archaeological adventures. Armchair archaeologists will learn little-know facts about the lives of both everyday people of ancient Egypt & royalty, as well as live vicariously through the anecdotes of one of Egypt's eminent Egyptologists. In this lavishly illustrated volume, one of today's foremost Egyptologists guides readers through the architectural landscape of pharaonic Egypt, from the houses & palaces of the living to the temples of the gods to the tombs of the dead. Hundreds of photographs & a compelling text reveal the mysteries of ancient Egypt as unearthed through major excavations. Egyptologists have learned how the ancient Egyptians lived & how they prepared for death, & have gained great insight that places unearthed treasures into their proper context. They have also been able to reconstruct how the Egyptians saw the universe & how they perceived their own place within the universe. Realm of the Pharaohs takes readers on a tour of the most important sites from the Pyramids at Giza to the Valley of the Kings, & recounts the history of the most famous kings & queens, as well as the everyday lives of the people. This work takes you on an insider's tour of pharaonic Egypt by one of today's foremost Egyptologists. ...

Written by Naoki Higashida when he was only thirteen, this remarkable book provides a rare insight into the often baffling behaviour of autistic children. Using a question & answer format, Naoki explains things like why he talks loudly or repeats the same questions, what causes him to have panic attacks, & why he likes to jump. He also shows the way he thinks & feels about his world
- other people, nature, time & beauty, & himself. Abundantly proving that people with autism do possess imagination, humour & empathy, he also makes clear how badly they need our compassion, patience & understanding. David Mitchell & his wife have translated Naoki`s book so that it might help others dealing with autism & generally illuminate a little-understood condition. It gives us an exceptional chance to enter the mind of another & see the world from a strange & fascinating perspective. The book also features eleven original illustrations, inspired by Naoki`s words, by the artistic duo Kai & Sunny.
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An epic, multigenerational story of courage & sacrifice set in a tropical dictatorship, The Rebel of Rangoon captures a gripping moment of possibility in Burma (Myanmar) Once the shining promise of Southeast Asia, Burma in May 2009 ranks among the world`s most repressive & impoverished nations. Its ruling military junta seems to be at the height of its powers. But despite decades of constant brutality--and with their leader, the Nobel Peace Prize--laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, languishing under house arrest--a shadowy fellowship of oddballs & misfits, young dreamers & wizened elders, bonded by the urge to say no to the system, refuses to relent. In the byways of Rangoon & through the pathways of Internet cafes, Nway, a maverick daredevil; Nigel, his ally & sometime rival; & Grandpa, the movement`s senior strategist who has just emerged from nineteen years in prison, prepare to fight a battle fifty years in the making. When Burma was still sealed to foreign journalists, Delphine Schrank spent four years underground reporting among dissidents as they struggled to free their country. From prison cells & safe houses, The Rebel of Rangoon follows the inner life of Nway & his comrades to describe that journey, revealing in the process how a movement of dissidents came into being, how it almost died, & how it pushed its government to crack apart & begin an irreversible process of political reform. The result is a profoundly human exploration of daring & defiance & the power & meaning of freedom. ...

When Assani, a young cowherd, left his remote village in the Congo to pursue studies in the city, he learned that he was ethnically Tutsi. Though uninterested in politics or military life, he was soon forced to take sides in the bloody conflict rocking his country in the wake of the genocide in neighbouring Rwanda. Strong, clever, & trusting of no one, he became a fearsome rebel leader. With his expanding cadre of child soldiers he traversed the war-ravaged country, repeatedly dodging death at the hands of competing rebel factions in the bush, angry mobs in the capital city of Kinshasa, & even the rebel-turned-dictator Laurent Kabila himself. The Rebels` Hour thrusts us into Assani`s world, forcing us to navigate the chaos of a lawless country alongside him, compelled by his instinct to survive even in a place where human life has been stripped of value. Though pathologically evasive, Assani
- in Lieve Joris` brilliant portrait
- stands out as a man who is both monstrous & sympathetic, perpetrator & victim.

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The 12th Earl of Shaftesbury, 39-year-old Nicholas Ashley-Cooper, invites the reader into the house that his family has called home since the fifteenth century. In recent years, his award-winning restoration has brought the house back to life, transforming exquisite spaces that honour the past while being suited to twenty-first-century living. English country-house splendour, through the hands of some of the world s top artisans & craftspeople, returns to the house in the form of re-created wallpapers, customized paints, revived furniture from the Georgian & Victorian periods, reworked antique Brussels tapestries, restored plasterwork & textiles, & a complete overhaul of the landscape, with its sunken garden, woodlands, avenue of beeches, lake, & shell-encrusted grotto. With stories of noteworthy architecture, beautiful interiors, & centuries of a single family s involvement in British & world history, this book will appeal to devotees of country living, the aristocratic life, historic houses, & English interior design. ...

Timothy Snyder traces the emergence of four rival modern nationalist ideologies from common medieval notions of citizenship. He presents the ideological innovations & ethnic cleansings that abetted the spread of modern nationalism but also examines recent statesmanship that has allowed national interests to be channeled toward peace.A work of profound scholarship & considerable importance.--Timothy Garton Ash, St. Antony`s College, University of Oxford Timothy Snyder`s style is a welcome reminder that history writing can be--indeed, ought to be--a literary pursuit.--Charles King, Times Literary Supplement A brilliant & fascinating analysis of the subtleties, complexities, & paradoxes of the evolution of nations in Eastern Europe. It has major implications for all of us who want to understand the processes of state collapse & nation-building in the world.--Samuel P. Huntington, Harvard Academy for International & Area Studies Snyder`s ultimate query in this fresh & stimulating look at the path to nationhood is how the bitter experiences along the way, including the bitterest--ethnic cleansing--are to be overcome.--Robert Legvold, Foreign Affairs ...

Charting the rise & fall of an ambitious young social climber in a cruel, monarchical society, Stendhal`s ” The Red & the Black” is translated with an introduction & notes by Roger Gard in ” Penguin Classics”. Handsome, ambitious Julien Sorel is determined to rise above his humble provincial origins. Soon realizing that success can only be achieved by adopting the subtle code of hypocrisy by which society operates, he begins to achieve advancement through deceit & self-interest. His triumphant career takes him into the heart of glamorous Parisian society, along the way conquering the gentle, married Madame de Renal, & the haughty Mathilde. But then Julien commits an unexpected, devastating crime
- & brings about his own downfall. ” The Red & the Black” is a lively, satirical portrayal of French society after Waterloo, riddled with corruption, greed & ennui, & Julien
- the cold exploiter whose Machiavellian campaign is undercut by his own emotions
- is one of the most intriguing characters in European literature. Roger Gard`s fine translation remains faithful to the natural, conversational tone of the original, while his introduction elucidates the complexities of Julien`s character. This edition also contains a chronology, further reading & an appendix on Stendhal`s use of epigraphs. Stendhal (1783-1842) was the pseudonym of Henri Marie Beyle, born & raised in Grenoble. Offered a post in the Ministry of War, from 1800 onwards he followed Napoleon`s campaigns throughout Europe before retiring to Italy. Here, as ` Stendhal`, he began writing on art, music & travel. Though not well-received during his lifetime, his work, including ” The Red & the Black” (1830) & ” The Charterhouse of Parma” (1839), now places him among the pioneers of nineteenth-century literary realism. If you enjoyed ” The Red & the Black”, you may like Guy de Maupassant`s ” Bel-Ami”, also available in ” Penguin Classics”.


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Nearly thirty years after the end of the Cold War, its legacy & the accompanying Russian-American tension continues to loom large. Russia`s access to detailed information on the United States & its allies may not seem so shocking in this day of data clouds & leaks, but long before we had satellite imagery of any neighborhood at a finger`s reach, the amount the Soviet government knew about your family`s city, street, & even your home would astonish you. Revealing how this was possible, The Red Atlas is the never-before-told story of the most comprehensive mapping endeavor in history & the surprising maps that resulted. From 1950 to 1990, the Soviet Army conducted a global topographic mapping program, creating large-scale maps for much of the world that included a diversity of detail that would have supported a full range of military planning. For big cities like New York, DC, & London to towns like Pontiac, MI & Galveston, TX, the Soviets gathered enough information to create street-level maps. What they chose to include on these maps can seem obvious like locations of factories & ports, or more surprising, such as building heights, road widths, & bridge capacities. Some of the detail suggests early satellite technology, while other specifics, like detailed depictions of depths & channels around rivers & harbors, could only have been gained by actual Soviet feet on the ground. The Red Atlas

Includes:: over 350 extracts from these incredible Cold War maps, exploring their provenance & cartographic techniques as well as what they can tell us about their makers & the Soviet initiatives that were going on all around us. A fantastic historical document of an era that sometimes seems less distant, The Red Atlas offers an uncanny view of the world through the eyes of Soviet strategists & spies.

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” The Red Badge of Courage”, written in 1895 by Stephen Crane (1871-1900), is considered by many literary critics to be one of the greatest of all American novels. This is a book about the Civil War, & one Union soldier`s struggle with his inner demons as he prepares for, & fights his first battle. ...

` Destined to be a classic.. .a sharply funny, clear-eyed examination, in the vein of Mary Mc Carthy`s The Group, of the power & burden of privilege, the reality of being a modern woman & the lasting bonds of female friendship.`
- Vanity Fair Can a weekend change your life? Clover, Addison, Mia & Jane were college roommates until their graduation in 1989. Now, twenty years later, their lives are in free fall. Clover, once a securities broker with Lehman Brothers, living the Manhattan dream, is out of a job, newly married & fretting about her chances of having a baby. Addison`s marriage to a novelist with writers` block is as stale as her artistic `career`. Mia`s acting ambitions never got off the ground, & she now stays home with her four children, renovating & acquiring faster than her Hollywood director husband can pay the bills. Jane, once the Paris bureau chief for a newspaper, now the victim of budget cuts, has been blindsided by different sorts of loss. The four friends have kept up with one another via the red book, a class report published every five years, in which alumni write brief updates about their lives. But there`s the story we tell the world, & then there`s the real story, as the classmates arriving at their twentieth reunion with their families, their histories, their dashed dreams & secret longings, will discover over the course of an epoch-ending, score-settling, unforgettable weekend.
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