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The World According to Humphrey (Humphrey the Hamster #1)
by Betty G. Birney'The time had arrived to put my plan into action. I was in grave danger and I had no choice. I only had one weapon: a rubber band. It had taken me a long time to get it hooked around the edge of my food dish. Now I carefully pulled it back as far as I could, aiming directly at those big doggy nostrils.'You can learn a lot about life by observing another species. That's what Humphrey was told when he was bought as a classroom pet for Room 26. And it's definitely true! In addition to his classroom escapades, each weekend he gets to sleep over with a different student like Stop-Giggling-Gail and Repeat-That-Please-Richie. Humphrey learns to read, write, shoot rubber bands and much more. With adventures galore, Humphrey's life would be absolutely perfect if only the teacher, Mrs Brisbane, wasn't out to get him . . .
Trouble According to Humphrey (Humphrey the Hamster #3)
by Betty G. BirneyJoin Humphrey the hamster for his third adventure - and this one is going to be packed with trouble! When all sorts of problems crop up in the classroom, from Pay-Attention-Art's marks going down, to Golden-Miranda finding herself in big trouble, Humphrey must step in to lend a helping paw. Using his charm, resourcefulness and wisdom, he's certain to have a plan. This third instalment follows the brilliantly successful The World According to Humphrey and Friendship According to Humphrey.
The Canon: The Beautiful Basics of Science
by Natalie Angier'Every sentence sparkles with wit and charm . . . An intoxicating cocktail of fine science writing.' Richard Dawkins, author of The God DelusionAn inspiring and imaginative tour through the basics of science, from astronomy to biology and beyond. New York Times science writer Natalie Angier argues that this neglected canon should be essential knowledge - like Shakespeare, Beethoven or Picasso - for any cultured person, and The Canon makes these scientific fundamentals both exciting and easy to understand.'Delightful and witty ... Angier proves that our lives are enriched when we start understanding what science is all about.' Michael Taube, Financial Times'The kind of science book you wish someone had placed in front of you at school.' Tim Adams, Observer'Think you don't need this elegant primer on the basics of science? Go on, then - explain what electricity is, or DNA . . . See, told you so.' Tatler 'The best introduction to essential science I've read for many a year' John Cornwell, Sunday Times'Angier conveys the real substance of field after field, without distortion or dumbing down . . . I hope it is widely read.' Steven Pinker, New York Times
A Singer's Notebook
by Dr Ian BostridgeIan Bostridge is one of the outstanding singers of our time, celebrated for the quality of his voice but also for the exceptional intelligence he brings to bear on the interpretation of the repertoire of the past and present alike. Yet his early career was that of a professional historian, and A Singer's Notebook takes a look at the multifaceted world of classical music through the eyes of someone whose career as a singer has followed a unique trajectory. Consisting of short essays and reviews written since 1997, some in diary form, it ranges widely over issues serious (music and transcendence) and not so serious (the singer's battles with phlegm), while inevitably discussing many of the composers with whom Bostridge has become identified, such as Benjamin Britten, Henze, Janacek, Weill, Wolf, and Schubert, composer of the Winterreise with which Bostridge has become so associated.Ultimately it returns to the theme of his earlier work on seventeenth century witchcraft - what place can there be for the ineffable in a world defined by an iron cage of rationality?Including a foreword by the eminent sociologist, Richard Sennett, A Singer's Notebook is an intriguing glimpse into the mind and motivation of one of Britain's best loved musicians.
School According to Humphrey (Humphrey the Hamster #7)
by Betty G. BirneyJoin much-loved Humphrey the hamster for a new adventure! After a fur-raising holiday at Camp Happy Hollow, Humphrey returns to Room 26, eager to see his old friends. He is shocked to find the classroom full of strangers, like Rolling Rosie, Hurry-Up-Harry and Forgetful Phoebe. Where have all his old classmates gone? But the charming Humphrey soon learns that these new students could really use a helping paw from their classroom pet. In the end, even a small hamster can never have too many friends!
Ulysses and Us: The Art of Everyday Living
by Declan KiberdIn Ulysses and Us, Declan Kiberd argues that James Joyce's Ulysses offers a humane vision of a more tolerant and decent life under the dreadful pressures of the modern world. As much a guide to contemporary life as it is virtuoso work of literary criticism, Ulysses and Us offers revolutionary insights to the scholar and the first-time reader alike.Leopold Bloom, the half-Jewish Irishman who is the hero of James Joyce's Ulysses, teaches the young Stephen Dedalus (modelled on Joyce himself) how he can grow and mature as an artist and an adult human being. Bloom has learned to live with contradictions, with anxiety and sexual jealousy, and with the rudeness and racism of the people he encounters in the city streets, and in his apparently banal way sees deeper than any of them. He embodies an intensely ordinary kind of wisdom, Kiberd argues, and in this way offers us a model for living well, in the tradition of the literature upon which Joyce drew in writing Ulysses, such as Homer, Dante and the Bible. 'Declan Kiberd's brilliantly informed and highly entertaining advocacy liberates Joyce's greatest book from the dungeon of unreadable masterpieces.' Joseph O'Connor
Werner Herzog – A Guide for the Perplexed: Conversations with Paul Cronin
by Paul CroninThis edition of Herzog on Herzog presents a completely new set of interviews in which Werner Herzog discusses his career from its very beginnings to his most recent productions.Herzog was once hailed by Francois Truffaut as the most important director alive. Famous for his frequentcollaborations with mercurial actor Klaus Kinski - including the epics, Aguirre, the Wrath of God and Fitzcarraldo, and the terrifying Nosferatu - and more recently with documentaries such as Grizzly Man, Cave of Forgotten Dreams and Into the Abyss, Herzog has built a body of work that is one of the most vital in post-war German cinema.
Hallelujah Junction: Composing an American Life
by John Adams'Sometimes I liken the creative act to that of being a good gardener. The musical material itself, the harmonies, rhythms, the timbres and tempi, are seeds you have planted. Composing, bringing forth the final formal arrangement of these elements, is often a business of watching them grow, knowing when to nourish and water them and when to prune and weed.'A book unlike anything ever written by a composer, part memoir and part description of the creative process, Hallelujah Junction is an absorbing journey through the musical landscape of John Adams, one of today's most admired and frequently performed composers. A musician of enormous range and technical command, Adams has built a huge audience worldwide through the immediacy and sincerity of his music, such as his Pulitzer prize-winning memorial for the September 11 attack On The Transmigration of Souls. Hallelujah Junction isn't so much an autobiography as a fascinating journey through the musical landscape of his life and times, centred around the three highly controversial operas based on social and political issues he has written in the past twenty-five years - Nixon in China, The Death of Klinghoffer and, most recently, Dr Atomic.
A Grief Observed (Faber Paperbacks Ser.)
by C.S. LewisA Grief Observed comprises the reflections of the great scholar and Christian on the death of his wife after only a few short years of marriage. Painfully honest in its dissection of his thoughts and feelings, this is a book that details his paralysing grief, bewilderment and sense of loss in simple and moving prose. Invaluable as an insight into the grieving process just as much as it is as an exploration of religious doubt, A Grief Observed will continue to offer its consoling insights to a huge range of readers, as it has for over fifty years. 'A classic of the genre, a literary answer to the pain of loss.' Robert McCrum
William Morris: A Life For Our Time
by Fiona MacCarthyWinner of the Wolfson History Prize, and described by A.S.Byatt as 'one of the finest biographies ever published', this is Fiona MacCarthy's magisterial biography of William Morris, legendary designer and father of the Victorian Arts and Crafts movement. 'Thrilling, absorbing and majestic.' Independent'Wonderfully ambitious ... The definitive Morris biography.' Sunday Times 'Delicious and intelligent, full of shining detail and mysteries respected.' Daily Telegraph'Oh, the careful detail of this marvellous book! . . . A model of scholarly biography'. New StatesmanSince his death in 1896, William Morris has been celebrated as a giant of the Victorian era. But his genius was so multifaceted and so profound that its full extent has rarely been grasped. Many people may find it hard to believe that the greatest English designer of his time - possibly of all time - could also be internationally renowned as a founder of the socialist movement, and ranked as a poet with Tennyson and Browning.In her definitive biography - insightful, comprehensive, addictively readable - the award-winning Fiona MacCarthy gives us a richly detailed portrait of Morris's complex character for the first time, shedding light on his immense creative powers as artist and designer of furniture, fabrics, wallpaper, stained glass, tapestry, and books; his role as a poet, novelist and translator; on his psychology and his emotional life; his frenetic activities as polemicist and reformer; and his remarkable circle of friends, literary, artistic and political, including Dante Gabriel Rossetti and Edward Burne-Jones. It is a masterpiece of biographical art.
My Name Is Red (Everyman's Library Contemporary Classics Ser.)
by Orhan PamukThe Sultan secretly commissions a great book: a celebration of his life and the Ottoman Empire, to be illuminated by the best artists of the day - in the European manner. In Istanbul at a time of violent fundamentalism, however, this is a dangerous proposition. Even the illustrious circle of artists are not allowed to know for whom they are working. But when one of the miniaturists is murdered, their Master has to seek outside help. Did the dead painter fall victim to professional rivalry, romantic jealousy or religious terror? With the Sultan demanding an answer within three days, perhaps the clue lies somewhere in the half-finished pictures . . . From Turkey's winner of the Nobel Prize and author of Istanbul and The Museum of Innocence, this novel is a thrilling murder mystery set amid the splendour of Istanbul and the Ottoman Empire. Part fantasy and part philosophical puzzle, My Name is Red is also a stunning meditation on love, artistic devotion and the tensions between East and West.
The Faber Pocket Guide to Handel
by Edward BlakemanThe Faber Pocket Guide to Handel offers a detailed but accessible exploration of George Frederick Handel, his composition, and his legacy. A larger-than-life figure in his time, Handel's reputation has been less than steady since his death in 1759. Was he (in the words of Berlioz) just 'a great barrel of pork and beer', or (as Handel himself claimed) truly 'the master of us all'? Now, more than 250 years after his death, there is more interest in Handel than ever before, with his operas (such as Rinaldo and Agrippina) experiencing fantastic renewed popularity. This lively new Pocket Guide goes in search of the composer who wrote the Messiah, Water Music - and much more.Handy for browsing and reference, key features include:- Handel's life: year by year- Handel's operas: a complete guide- Essential Handel- Picturing Handel- Handel on CD and DVD- Handel OnlineEdward Blakeman assesses how Handel's works - incredibly influential in their context of baroque music - have stood the test of time and why they can still speak thrillingly to us today. With recommendations throughout for listening, further reading, and web surfing, this is the ideal guide for music lovers who want to discover the great composer for themselves.
Shadowmancer: What Can Stand Against An Ancient Evil...
by G.P. TaylorShadowmancer takes you into a world of superstition, magic and witchcraft, where the ultimate sacrifice might even be life itself.Obadiah Demurral is a sorcerer who is seeking to control the highest power in the Universe. He will stop at nothing. The only people in his way are Raphah, Kate, Thomas and the mysterious Jacob Crane.Packed full of history, folklore and smuggling, Shadowmancer is a tale of an epic battle that will grip both young and old. The thrills, suspense and danger are guaranteed to grab the attention and stretch imaginations to the limit.
Schubert's Winter Journey: Anatomy of an Obsession
by Dr Ian BostridgeFranz Schubert's Winterreise is at the same time one of the most powerful and one of the most enigmatic masterpieces in Western culture. In his new book, Schubert's Winter Journey: Anatomy of an Obsession, Ian Bostridge - one of the work's finest interpreters - focusses on the context, resonance and personal significance of a work which is possibly the greatest landmark in the history of Lieder. Drawing equally on his vast experience of performing this work (he has performed it more than a hundred times), on his musical knowledge and on his training as a scholar, Bostridge unpicks the enigmas and subtle meaning of each of the twenty-four songs to explore for us the world Schubert inhabited, bringing the work and its world alive for connoisseurs and new listeners alike. Originally intended to be sung to an intimate gathering, performances of Winterreise now pack the greatest concert halls around the world. Though not strictly a biography of Schubert, Schubert's Winter Journey succeeds in offering an unparalleled insight into the mind and work of the great composer. 'Usually great singers cannot explain what they do. Ian Bostridge can. Whether or not you know Schubert's 'Winter Journey', the book is gripping because it explains, in probing, simple words, how a doomed love is transformed into art.' Richard Sennett
The Boy Who Played with Fusion: Extreme Science, Extreme Parenting and How to Make a Star
by Tom ClynesBy the age of 11, Taylor Wilson had mastered the science of rocket propulsion. At 13, his grandmother's cancer diagnosis drove him to investigate medical uses for radioactive isotopes. And at 14, Wilson became the youngest person in history to achieve nuclear fusion. How could someone so young achieve so much, and what can Wilson's story teach parents and teachers about how to support high-achieving children?In The Boy Who Played with Fusion, science journalist Tom Clynes follows Taylor Wilson's extraordinary journey - from his Arkansas home where his parents encouraged his intellectual passions, to the present, when now-17-year-old Wilson is winning international science competitions with devices designed to prevent terrorists from shipping radioactive material into the US.Brilliant, funny and inspiring, The Boy Who Played with Fusion will delight anyone who believes in the ability of gifted children to change the world.
Justin's Rhyme Time
by Justin FletcherJustin Fletcher collects his all-time favourite bedtime rhymes for his fans. With classic black and white illustrations, these are nursery rhymes to read aloud and enjoy together. Published in a child-friendly stocking-filler format alongside the hilarious joke book, Justin's Chuckle Time, this is a great gift for all children ages 3-5.
Digital Film-making Revised Edition
by Mike FiggisIn this indispensable guide to digital film-making, leading film-maker Mike Figgis offers the reader a step-by-step tutorial in how to use digital technology so as to get the best from it.Mike Figgis, with experience from films such as Miss Julie and Leaving Las Vegas - for which he received two Oscar nominations - is an authoritative and insightful guide through the details of film-making. He outlines the equipment and its uses, and provides an authoritative guide to the shooting process - from working with actors to lighting, framing, and camera movement. He further dispenses wisdom on the editing process and the use of sound and music, all the while establishing a sound aesthetic basis for the digital format.This handbook is essential whether your goal is to make no-budget movies, or simply to put your video camera to more use than just holidays and weddings.
Archie Greene and the Magician's Secret (Archie Greene #1)
by D. D. EverestArchie Green receives a mysterious present on his birthday. Deep within an ancient wooden box he finds an old book, written in a language he doesn't recognise. With the book comes a Special Instruction - Archie must travel to Oxford to return the book to the Museum of Magical Miscellany.Soon Archie will meet family that he never knew he had, and discover the world of the Flame Keepers - a community devoted to finding and preserving magical books. But the magical book under Archie's protection is dangerous, and dark spirits hunt it out. With the help of his cousins, Archie must do everything he can to uncover the book's hidden powers and save the Flame Keepers from evil.Welcome to a wonderful, magical world where bookshelves are enchanted, librarians are sorcerers and spells come to life.
The Faber Pocket Guide to Opera: New Edition
by Rupert ChristiansenThis new edition of leading opera critic Rupert Christiansen's perennially popular Pocket Guide has between extensively revised, and incorporates many more operas from all periods, including recent works by Philip Glass, Mark Anthony Turnage, Thomas Adès and George Benjamin. Whether you are a first-timer at La Boheme or a seasoned Wagnerian, every opera-goer can benefit from a little background information, and this book aims to provide just that. Accessible and easy-to-use, it contains entries for over a hundred works, both familiar and unfamiliar.
Kitchen Disco (Kitchen Disco)
by Clare FogesAt night when you are sleeping There's a party in your house, It's a pumping, jumping, funky bash When all the lights go out . . .When the sun goes down, the Kitchen Disco starts up - and all the fruit in the fruit bowl come out to play. There are lemons who break-dance, tangerines who twirl and some very over-excited apples. But one night a nasty mango turns up to spoil the fun... Kitchen Disco is a humorous, rhyming picture book for young children.
The Odd Squad: Zero Tolerance
by Michael FryThe Odd Squad are back! After taming the school's biggest bully, Nick, Molly and Karl expect to bask in Safety Patrol glory. But without a bully to set straight, all they're left with is helping sixth graders cross the hall and reminding everyone that Jell-o meat stains.Enter new kid Simone, who shakes up the team. Soon Nick is facing trouble. Big trouble. Explusion-level trouble. Which would mean repeating seventh grade... He needs help, and fast, because if there's one thing worse than being the shortest seventh grader in the history of the world, it's having to go through it twice.
How to Speak Money: What The Money People Say--and What It Really Means
by John LanchesterMoney is our global language. Yet so few of us can speak it. The language of the economic elite can be complex, jargon-filled and completely baffling. Above all, the language of money is the language of power - power in the hands of the same economic elite.Now John Lanchester, bestselling author of Capital and Whoops! sets out to decode the world of finance for all of us, explaining everything from high-frequency trading and the World Bank to the difference between bullshit and nonsense.As funny as it is devastating, How To Speak Money is a primer and a polemic. It's a reference book you'll find yourself reading in one sitting. And it gives you everything you need to demystify the world of high finance - the world that dominates how we all live now.
The Building Boy
by Ross MontgomeryAll at once, it was as if the stars leapt closer.Grandma grabbed the boy, raising him high above the rooftiles on her head.She was alive!The boy's grandma was a famous architect. Her garden is still full of old building materials. Unwilling to accept she has gone, the boy builds a giant structure from the bricks and girders he finds. And then ... Grandma comes to life! The boy is whisked away on an epic adventure across fields, through oceans and atop roofs. But where is Grandma taking him?Beautiful, thrilling and extremely moving: the extraordinary debut picture book from much-loved author, Ross Montgomery.
Rebel, Bully, Geek, Pariah
by Erin LangeThe truth is that jail is a place where you can still hold on to hope - hope you'll be bailed out, hope you'll be found innocent, hope you'll get a second chance.Four teenagers, never destined to be friends - one rebel, one bully, one geek and one pariah, find themselves on the run from corrupt police officers in a stolen police car. How can you prove your innocence when the people who are supposed to protect you are the ones out to get you? A beautiful, thrilling story of rebellion, and of friendship triumphing against all odds.
Electric Dreams: The Collected Works of Jim'll Paint It
by Jim'll Paint ItYou name it. I'll paint it. On Paint.Jim'll Paint It is an enigma. As he says on his wildly successful Tumblr and Facebook pages: Got something in your brain that you'd really like to see with your eyes? Just ask and if I like the sound of it I'll paint it for you using incredibly high tech and sophisticated MS Paint software.Generating hundreds of thousands of requests, Jim has painted everything from Brian Blessed punching a polar bear to Mary and Joseph being turned away from a Premier Inn by Lenny Henry. Here for the first time are the selected works of one of the finest and most popular artists of our day.