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Get the Picture: A Mind-Bending Journey Among the Inspired Artists and Obsessive Art Fiends Who Taught Me How to See
"Get the Picture is one of the funniest books I've read . . . Brilliant." --The Washington Post "A gripping and often hilarious investigation into the art world. . . . Bosker goes full Tom Wolfe." --TIME "Funny, whip-smart, and gorgeously written, Get the Picture will forever transform the way you see. . . . I loved every word." --Suleika Jaouad, New York Times bestselling author of Between Two Kingdoms The New York Times bestselling author of Cork Dork takes readers on another fascinating, hilarious, and revelatory journey--this time burrowing deep inside the secretive world of art and artists An award-winning journalist obsessed with obsession, Bianca Bosker's existence was upended when she wandered into the art world--and couldn't look away. Intrigued by artists who hyperventilate around their favorite colors and art fiends who max out credit cards to show hunks of metal they think can change the world, Bosker grew fixated on understanding why art matters and how she--or any of us--could engage with it more deeply. In Get the Picture, Bosker throws herself into the nerve center of art and the people who live for it: gallerists, collectors, curators, and, of course, artists themselves--the kind who work multiple jobs to afford their studios while scrabbling to get eyes on their art. As she stretches canvases until her fingers blister, talks her way into A-list parties full of billionaire collectors, has her face sat on by a nearly-naked performance artist, and forces herself to stare at a single sculpture for hours on end while working as a museum security guard, she discovers not only the inner workings of the art-canonization machine but also a more expansive way of living. Probing everything from cave paintings to Instagram, and from the science of sight to the importance of beauty as it examines art's role in our culture, our economy, and our hearts, Get the Picture is a rollicking adventure that will change the way you see forever. -
How to Build a Boat
Longlisted for the 2023 Booker Prize - Shortlisted for the 2023 An Post Irish Book Awards Novel of the Year - One of the Globe and Mail's "Sixty-Two Books to Read This Fall" - One of the Globe 100's Best Books of 2023 - A New Yorker Best Book of 2023
Jamie O'Neill loves the colour red. He also loves tall trees, patterns, rain that comes with wind, the curvature of certain objects, books with dust jackets, rivers, cats, and Edgar Allan Poe. At age thirteen, there are two things he wants most in life: to build a Perpetual Motion Machine, and to connect with his mother, Noelle, who died when he was born. In his mind, these things are intimately linked, and at his new school, despite the daily barrage of bullies and cathedral bells, he meets two teachers who might be able to help him, though each struggles against inertias of their own.
How to Build a Boat is the story of how one boy's irrepressible dream finds expression through a community propelled by love out of grief. Lyrical and compassionate, it's a novel about the courage of conviction and the power of the imagination to transform-and how sometimes the best way to break free of old walls is to build something beautiful within them.
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Twenty Years Later
"Excellent...Donlea tells a propulsive tale." - The New York Times The New York Times Best Thrillers This Season E! News Recommended Books Overdrive Biggest Books of the Month Fans of Verity by Colleen Hoover won't want to miss this thrilling new suspense novel from the #1 internationally bestselling author of The Girl Who Was Taken! Hiding her own dark past in plain sight, a TV reporter is determined to uncover the truth behind a gruesome murder decades after the investigation was abandoned. But TWENTY YEARS LATER, to understand the present, you need to listen to the past... Avery Mason, host of American Events, knows the subjects that grab a TV audience's attention. Her latest story--a murder mystery laced with kinky sex, tragedy, and betrayal--is guaranteed to be ratings gold. New DNA technology has allowed the New York medical examiner's office to make its first successful identification of a 9/11 victim in years. The twist: the victim, Victoria Ford, had been accused of the gruesome murder of her married lover. In a chilling last phone call to her sister, Victoria begged her to prove her innocence. Emma Kind has waited twenty years to put her sister to rest, but closure won't be complete until she can clear Victoria's name. Alone she's had no luck, but she's convinced that Avery's connections and fame will help. Avery, hoping to negotiate a more lucrative network contract, goes into investigative overdrive. Victoria had been having an affair with a successful novelist, found hanging from the balcony of his Catskills mansion. The rope, the bedroom, and the entire crime scene was covered in Victoria's DNA. But the twisted puzzle of Victoria's private life is just the beginning. And what Avery doesn't realize is that there are other players in the game who are interested in Avery's own secret past--one she has kept hidden from both the network executives and her television audience. A secret she thought was dead and buried . . . Accused of a brutal murder, Victoria Ford made a final chilling call from the North Tower on the morning of 9/11. Twenty years ago, no one listened. Today, you will. "Breathtaking pacing and clever plot twists." --Publishers Weekly "An entertaining thriller...surprises lurking around every corner." --Kirkus Reviews "A superb storyteller." --Robert Dugoni, New York Times bestselling author -
Foreign Bodies: Pandemics, Vaccines, and the Health of Nations
A vibrant cultural history investigating pandemics and vaccines, by bestselling author and historian Simon Schama
Cities and countries engulfed by panic and death, desperate for vaccines but fearful of what inoculation may bring. This is what the world has just gone through with Covid-19. But as Simon Schama shows in his epic history of vulnerable humanity caught between the terror of contagion and the ingenuity of science, it has happened before.
Characteristically, Schama's message is delivered through gripping, page-turning stories set in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries: smallpox strikes London; cholera hits Paris; plague comes to India. Threading through the scenes of terror, suffering and hope - in hospitals and prisons, palaces, and slums - are an unforgettable cast of characters: a philosopher-playwright burning up with smallpox in a country chateau; a vaccinating doctor paying house calls in Halifax; a woman doctor in south India driving her inoculator-carriage through the stricken streets as dead monkeys drop from the trees. But we are also in the labs when great, life-saving breakthroughs happen, in Paris, Hong Kong, and Mumbai.
At the heart of it all is an unsung hero: Waldemar Haffkine, a gun-toting Jewish student in Odesa turned microbiologist at the Pasteur Institute, hailed in England as "the saviour of mankind" for vaccinating millions against cholera and bubonic plague in British India while being cold-shouldered by the medical establishment of the Raj. Creator of the world's first mass production line of vaccines in Mumbai, he is tragically brought down in an act of shocking injustice.
Foreign Bodies crosses borders between east and west, Asia and Europe, the worlds of rich and poor, politics and science. Its thrilling story carries with it the credo of its author on the interconnectedness of humanity and nature; of the powerful and the people. Ultimately, Schama says, as we face the challenges of our times together, "there are no foreigners, only familiars."
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Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint, Vol. 1
AT THAT MOMENT, MY LIFE TOOK ON A DIFFERENT GENRE. As a struggling office worker, Dokja Kim's sole joy in life is an online novel so obscure that he's its only reader. Then one day the story comes to an end...and so does the world. People all around the globe suddenly find themselves being massacred by horrific monsters or pitted against each other in sadistic scenarios straight out of the novel. However, only Dokja is aware that this is merely the first chapter of what is to come. Knowing that devastating plot twists are on the horizon, he can no longer afford to sit back as a reader--it's time for Dokja to step up and write his own destiny! -
The Silk Roads: A New History of the World
INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER - Far more than a history of the Silk Roads, this book is truly a revelatory new history of the world, promising to destabilize notions of where we come from and where we are headed next. "A rare book that makes you question your assumptions about the world." --The Wall Street Journal From the Middle East and its political instability to China and its economic rise, the vast region stretching eastward from the Balkans across the steppe and South Asia has been thrust into the global spotlight in recent years. Frankopan teaches us that to understand what is at stake for the cities and nations built on these intricate trade routes, we must first understand their astounding pasts. Frankopan realigns our understanding of the world, pointing us eastward. It was on the Silk Roads that East and West first encountered each other through trade and conquest, leading to the spread of ideas, cultures and religions. From the rise and fall of empires to the spread of Buddhism and the advent of Christianity and Islam, right up to the great wars of the twentieth century--this book shows how the fate of the West has always been inextricably linked to the East. Also available: The New Silk Roads, a timely exploration of the dramatic and profound changes our world is undergoing right now--as seen from the perspective of the rising powers of the East. -
The Secret Lives of Booksellers and Librarians: Their Stories Are Better Than the Bestsellers
Booksellers and librarians are superheroes, saving lives every single day. Here are their amazing, inspiring true stories as told to the greatest storyteller of our time, James Patterson. To be a bookseller or librarian... You have to play detective. Be a treasure hunter. A matchmaker. An advocate. A visionary. A person who creates "book joy" by pulling a book from a shelf, handing it to someone and saying, "You've got to read this. You're going to love it." Step inside The Secret Lives of Booksellers and Librarians and enter a world where you can feed your curiosities, discover new voices, find whatever you want or require. This place has the magic of rainbows and unicorns, but it's also a business. The book business. Meet the smart and talented people who live between the pages--and who can't wait to help you find your next favorite book. -
Sold outTalking at Night
"A beautifully observed, tender love story with characters you really care about...a bit like Normal People. I devoured it."―Jojo Moyes, New York Times bestselling author of Someone Else's Shoes "I absolutely adored Talking at Night... A gorgeous story of first love, loss, and the people who stick to your ribs, it should be on everyone's must-read list. Beautiful, poignant, and heart-wrenching in the best way possible." ―Carley Fortune, New York Times bestselling author of Every Summer After A poignant and emotional will they/won't they story that cleverly captures both the thrill and trepidation of first love This is the story of Will and Rosie. The two are opposites in every way and yet they fall for each other as teenagers; nineties music, sideways glances, sunsets and bonfires and talking late into the night. It's palpable, inevitable: they're on the precipice of starting something wonderful. Until one day, tragedy strikes, and any possibility of being together seems to shatter. But time and again, Rosie and Will find their way back to each other. Though the years pass, they cannot quite let go of what might have been. Talking at Night tells a story of sudden connections, missed opportunities, the many loves we have over a lifetime--and the one that keeps us coming back, again and again, for more.Sold out -
Dandadan, Vol. 3
A nerd must fight powerful spirits and aliens all vying for the secret power of his "family jewel," so who better to fight alongside him than his high school crush and a spirit granny?! Momo Ayase and Okarun are on opposite sides of the paranormal spectrum regarding what they'll believe in and what they won't. Their quest to prove each other wrong leads them down a path of secret crushes and paranormal battles they'll have to participate in to believe! Okarun, a high school boy obsessed with supernatural phenomena, has lost his precious family jewels in a battle with Turbo Granny! His classmate Aira ends up finding one, and it awakens spiritual powers within her. Around this same time, a strange woman in a red dress appears at the school and attacks Aira, Okarun, and Momo! Who is she, and what's with her obsession with Aira? -
The Many Lives of Mama Love: A Memoir of Lying, Stealing, Writing, and Healing
New York Times bestselling author Lara Love Hardin recounts her slide from soccer mom to opioid addict to jailhouse shot-caller and her unlikely comeback as a highly successful ghostwriter in this harrowing, hilarious, no-holds-barred memoir. No one expects the police to knock on the million-dollar, two-story home of the perfect cul-de-sac housewife. But soccer mom Lara Love Hardin has been hiding a shady secret: she is funding her heroin addiction by stealing her neighbors' credit cards. Lara is convicted of thirty-two felonies and becomes inmate S32179. She learns that jail is a class system with a power structure that is somewhere between an adolescent sleepover party and Lord of the Flies. Furniture is made from tampon boxes and Snickers bars are currency. But Lara quickly finds the rules and brings love and healing to her fellow inmates as she climbs the social ladder to become the "shot caller," showing that jailhouse politics aren't that different from the PTA meetings she used to attend. When she's released, she reinvents herself as a ghostwriter. Now, she's legally co-opting other people's identities and getting to meet Oprah, meditate with The Dalai Lama, and have dinner with Archbishop Desmond Tutu. But the shadow of her past follows her. Shame is a poison worse than heroin--there is no way to detox. Lara must learn how to forgive herself and others, navigate life as a felon on probation, prove to herself that she is more good than bad, and much more. The Many Lives of Mama Love is a heartbreaking and tender journey from shame to redemption, despite a system that makes it almost impossible for us to move beyond the worst thing we have ever done. -
Slam Dunk, Vol. 1
The best-selling series from Eisner-nominated Takehiko Inoue, one of Japan's greatest manga creators. Winning isn't everything in the game of basketball, but who wants to come in second? It takes dedication and discipline to be the best, and the Shohoku High hoops team wants to be just that. They have one last year to make their captain's dream of reaching the finals come true--will they do it? Takehiko Inoue's legendary beloved basketball manga is finally here and the tale of a lifetime is in your hands. Hanamichi Sakuragi's got no game with girls--none at all! It doesn't help that he's known for throwing down at a moment's notice and always coming out on top. A hopeless bruiser, he's been rejected by 50 girls in a row! All that changes when he meets the girl of his dreams, Haruko, and she's actually not afraid of him! When she introduces him to the game of basketball, his life is changed forever... -
Why the Bible Began: An Alternative History of Scripture and Its Origins
Why did no other ancient society produce something like the Bible? That a tiny, out of the way community could have created a literary corpus so determinative for peoples across the globe seems improbable. For Jacob Wright, the Bible is not only a testimony of survival, but also an unparalleled achievement in human history. Forged after Babylon's devastation of Jerusalem, it makes not victory but total humiliation the foundation of a new idea of belonging. Lamenting the destruction of their homeland, scribes who composed the Bible imagined a promise-filled past while reflecting deeply on abject failure. More than just religious scripture, the Bible began as a trailblazing blueprint for a new form of political community. Its response to catastrophe offers a powerful message of hope and restoration that is unique in the Ancient Near Eastern and Greco-Roman worlds. Wright's Bible is thus a social, political, and even economic roadmap - one that enabled a small and obscure community located on the periphery of leading civilizations and empires not just to come back from the brink, but ultimately to shape the world's destiny. The Bible speaks ultimately of being a united yet diverse people, and its pages present a manual of pragmatic survival strategies for communities confronting societal collapse. -
100 Places to See After You Die: A Travel Guide to the Afterlife
From New York Times bestselling author and legendary Jeopardy! host and champion Ken Jennings comes a hilarious travel guide to the afterlife, exploring to die for destinations from literature, mythology, and pop culture. Ever wonder which circles of Dante's Inferno have the nicest accommodations? Where's the best place to grab a bite to eat in the ancient Egyptian underworld? How does one dress like a local in the heavenly palace of Hinduism's Lord Vishnu, or avoid the flesh-eating river serpents in the Klingon afterlife? What hidden treasures can be found off the beaten path in Hades, Valhalla, or TV's The Good Place? Find answers to all those questions and more about the world(s) to come in this eternally entertaining book from Ken Jennings. Written in the style of iconic bestselling travel guides, Jennings wryly outlines journeys through the afterlife, as dreamed up over 5,000 years of human history by our greatest prophets, poets, mystics, artists, and TV showrunners. This comprehensive index of 100 different afterlife destinations was meticulously researched from sources ranging from the Epic of Gilgamesh to modern-day pop songs, video games, and Simpsons episodes. Get ready for whatever post-mortal destiny awaits you, whether it's an astral plane, a Hieronymus Bosch hellscape, or the baseball diamond from Field of Dreams. Fascinating, funny, and irreverent, this "gung-ho travel guide to Heaven, Hell, and beyond" (The New Yorker) will help you create your very own bucket list--for after you've kicked the bucket. -
A Thousand Ships
NATIONAL BESTSELLER
An NPR Best Book of the Year
"Gorgeous.... With her trademark passion, wit, and fierce feminism, Natalie Haynes gives much-needed voice to the silenced women of the Trojan War."--Madeline Miller, author of Circe
Shortlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction, a gorgeous retelling of the Trojan War from the perspectives of the many women involved in its causes and consequences--for fans of Madeline Miller.
This is the women's war, just as much as it is the men's. They have waited long enough for their turn . . .
This was never the story of one woman, or two. It was the story of them all . . .
In the middle of the night, a woman wakes to find her beloved city engulfed in flames. Ten seemingly endless years of conflict between the Greeks and the Trojans are over. Troy has fallen.
From the Trojan women whose fates now lie in the hands of the Greeks, to the Amazon princess who fought Achilles on their behalf, to Penelope awaiting the return of Odysseus, to the three goddesses whose feud started it all, these are the stories of the women whose lives, loves, and rivalries were forever altered by this long and tragic war.
A woman's epic, powerfully imbued with new life, A Thousand Ships puts the women, girls and goddesses at the center of the Western world's great tale ever told.
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Alas de Sangre (Empíreo 1) / Fourth Wing (Empyrean 1)
Bestseller del New York Times
Un dragón sin su jinete es una tragedia. Un jinete sin su dragón está muerto.
--Artículo uno, sección uno del Código de jinetes de dragonesViolet Sorrengail creía que a sus veinte años se uniría al Cuadrante de los Escribas para vivir una vida tranquila, estudiando sus amados libros y las historias antiguas que tanto le fascinan. Sin embargo, por órdenes de su madre, la temida comandante general, Violet debe unirse a los miles de candidatos que luchan por formar parte de la élite de Navarre: los jinetes de dragones.
Cuando eres más pequeña y frágil que los demás tu vida corre peligro, porque los dragones no se vinculan con humanos débiles; de hecho, los incineran. Sumado a esto, con más jinetes que dragones disponibles, buena parte de los candidatos mataría a Violet con tal de mejorar sus probabilidades de éxito; otros, como el despiadado Xaden Riorson, el líder de ala más poderoso del Cuadrante, la asesinarían simplemente por ser la hija de la comandante general. Para sobrevivir, necesitará aprovechar al máximo todo su ingenio.
Día tras día, la guerra que se libra al exterior del Colegio se torna más letal, las defensas del reino se debilitan y los muertos aumentan. Por si fuera poco, Violet sospecha que los líderes de Navarre esconden un terrible secreto.
Amistad, rivalidad y pasión... en el Colegio de Guerra de Basgiath todos tienen una agenda oculta y saben que una vez adentro solo hay dos posibilidades: graduarse o morir.
ENGLISH DESCRIPTION
Once you enter Basgiath War College, there are only two ways out: graduate or die. Twenty-year-old Violet was supposed to live a quiet life among books and history. Now, the commanding general of her kingdom―also known as her mother--has ordered Violet to join the hundreds of candidates striving to become the elite of Navarre: dragon riders. Basgiath War College is tough. And when you're smaller than everyone else and your body is brittle, death is only a heartbeat away...because dragons don't bond to "fragile" humans. They incinerate them. Not to mention most cadets would kill Violet to better their own chances of success. Outside of the school, the war against the kingdom grows more deadly, the protective wards are failing, and the death toll continues to rise. Even worse, Violet begins to suspect leadership is hiding a terrible secret. To find out what is really happening, she'll need every edge her wits can give her. -
How Infrastructure Works: Inside the Systems That Shape Our World
NAMED A BEST BOOK OF 2023 BY PUBLISHERS WEEKLY "Revelatory, superbly written, and pulsing with wisdom and humanity, How Infrastructure Works is a masterpiece." --Ed Yong, author of An Immense World A new way of seeing the essential systems hidden inside our walls, under our streets, and all around us Infrastructure is a marvel, meeting our basic needs and enabling lives of astounding ease and productivity that would have been unimaginable just a century ago. It is the physical manifestation of our social contract--of our ability to work collectively for the public good--and it consists of the most complex and vast technological systems ever created by humans. A soaring bridge is an obvious infrastructural feat, but so are the mostly hidden reservoirs, transformers, sewers, cables, and pipes that deliver water, energy, and information to wherever we need it. When these systems work well, they hide in plain sight. Engineer and materials scientist Deb Chachra takes readers on a fascinating tour of these essential utilities, revealing how they work, what it takes to keep them running, just how much we rely on them--but also whom they work well for, and who pays the costs. Across the U.S. and elsewhere, these systems are suffering from systemic neglect and the effects of climate change, becoming unavoidably visible when they break down. Communities that are already marginalized often bear the brunt of these failures. But Chachra maps out a path for transforming and rebuilding our shared infrastructure to be not just functional but also equitable, resilient, and sustainable. The cost of not being able to rely on these systems is unthinkably high. We need to learn how to see them--and fix them, together--before it's too late.