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Valse Triste
by Marcello FoisWhen Michelangelo, a young autistic child, goes missing, Commissario Sergio Striggio is put in charge of the investigation. Searches turn up nothing, but there is an interesting connection with the mother's past: when she was a child, her twin brother also went missing, never to be found. However, Striggio is finding it difficult to concentrate on the case. He is waiting for his father, Pietro, to come and stay. The idea of the visit is torturing him. He fears having to reveal that he is gay - most of all he fears that his partner, Leo, will reveal his sexuality to his father. Pietro, however, has other matters on his mind: he has news of a devastating diagnosis to share with his son.And when his life with Leo unexpectedly collides with his investigation into Michelangelo's disappearance, it seems that in the complicated web of the small town of Bolzano, the truth behind the mystery cannot hide for long.Valse Triste is one of those rare novels in which the quality of the writing is matched by the pace of the narrative. Fois' language is precise and poetic, and the reader is kept guessing by twist after twist.
The Valleys of the Assassins: A John Murray Journey (Overcoming Books)
by Freya StarkINTRODUCED BY MONISHA RAJESH, award-winning author of Around the World in 80 Trains'If I were asked to enumerate the pleasures of travel, this would be one of the greatest among them - that so often and so unexpectedly you meet the best in human nature.' Growing up in near-poverty and denied a formal education, Freya Stark had nurtured a fascination for the Middle East since reading Arabian Nights as a child. But it wasn't until she was in her thirties that she was able to leave Europe. Boarding a cargo ship to Beirut in 1927, she went on to became one of her generation's most intrepid explorers - her adventures would take her to remote areas in Turkey, the Middle East and Asia. The Valleys of the Assassins chronicles Stark's treks into the wilderness of western Iran on the hunt for treasure and in an attempt to locate the long-fabled Assassins in Alumut, an ancient Persian sect. Entering Luristan on a mule, draped in native clothing, Freya bluffs her way past border guards and sets off into uncharted territory; places where few Europeans, and no European women, had ventured. Stark was a woman of indefatigable energy, who often travelled with only a single guide and on a shoestring budget, and who was undeterred by discomfort and danger. Hailed as a classic upon its first publication in 1934, The Valleys of the Assassins is an absorbing account of people and place. Full of wit and rich in detail - and also in humanity - her writing brings to vivid life the stories of the ancient kingdoms of the Middle East.
A Vagabond for Beauty: A John Murray Journey (Overcoming Books)
by W L RushoINTRODUCED BY PAUL KINGSNORTH, Booker-shortlisted author of The Wake'I thought that there were two rules in life - never count the cost, and never do anything unless you can do it wholeheartedly. Now is the time to live.' Artist and wanderer Everett Ruess left home at the age of sixteen to immerse himself in the harsh desert landscapes of the American Southwest. With only his donkeys for company, driven by an insatiable longing for beauty and experience, he ventured ever further from civilisation and into the wilderness of Navajo country. In 1934, at the age of twenty, he vanished without trace in Utah, a disappearance that remains unsolved to this day. Through letters, diary excerpts and poems - charting not only his rugged adventures and his exquisite nature writing but his progression as a writer, and into adulthood - and with commentary by W. L. Rusho, A Vagabond for Beauty tells his remarkable story.
Utopian Dreams
by Tobias JonesUtopian Dreams offers one writer's attempt to retreat from the 'real world' - which is making him emptier and angrier by the day - and seek out the alternatives to modern manners and morality. Instead of cynicism, loneliness and depression, is it possible to be idealistic, to find belonging and companionship with others who share your sadness, or even, perhaps, your happiness? With his wife and baby in tow, Jones spends a year with spritualists, time-travellers, reformed drug addicts and Quakers, producing a fascinating exploration of the meaning of community.
User Innovators in the Silver Market: An Empirical Study among Camping Tourists (Forschungs-/Entwicklungs-/Innovations-Management)
by Konstantin WellnerIn this study among camping tourists of all age groups between 19 and 86 years of age, Konstantin Wellner compares key characteristics regarding innovative behavior of different age groups. The focus of the analysis is on the so-called “Silver Market” segment (consumers of at least 55 years) which gains importance to the demographic shift. Generally, older users are still actively innovating, especially if it relates to age-specific improvements (e.g., comfort and compatibility to other equipment). Analysis by a Structural Equation Model showed that the most important determinant of innovative behavior for older users is technical expertise and that being relatively ahead of trends increases their dissatisfaction with existing products. Additional evidence was found that user with high use experience suffer from functional fixedness.
US Space Shuttle (tactile)
by Adrian FarnsworthOn this page there are three images of the now-retired US space shuttle used to carry people and supplies. Image 1 is of the shuttle seen from the top, facing left at the top left of the page. Image 2 is of the shuttle seen from the side, facing left at the bottom left of the page. Image 3 is of the shuttle seen from the front at the bottom right of the page.
Urban Worrier: Adventures in the Lost Art of Letting Go
by Nick ThorpeHunched exhausted at his computer one ordinary Monday morning, world-class workaholic Nick Thorpe has reached the end of his tether. Fearing for his health and family life, he knows something has to change. But where to start when trying too hard is part of the problem? Nick makes a bold resolution: he will spend a year learning to let go. Beginning with a plunge off a Cornish cliff, he soon graduates to wing-walking on a bi-plane, city-centre clowning and a revealing weekend at a naturist convention. But the more he tries to relax, the bigger the questions: can you be happy if you're not in control? Is true contentment all in the mind? And what does his small, brown dog know that Nick doesn't?From a school where pupils make the rules, to meditation and rafting in Sweden; from the chaos of a Durban street shelter to a silent monastery in New Mexico, URBAN WORRIER charts a humorous and often moving quest for the ultimate modern grail: how to find balance and fulfilment in today's high-speed world.
Urban Waterways: A Window On To The Waterways Of England's Towns And Cities
by Derek PrattBefore roads and rail, the industrial hubs of Great Britain were linked to the ports by a network of manmade waterways. These canals fell into disuse in the early part of the twentieth century, but in the last fifty years they have undergone a complete revival. These newly transformed waterways have become attractive destinations, and for newcomers to a city, walking its waterways will unlock famous highlights as well as hidden delights. And that is just what this book does too.With the lavish colour photography for which he is renowned, Britain's 'biographer photographer' Derek Pratt explores all the major cities and towns linked by waterways, bringing to life the canals and their environs with images that are stunning, stylish and beautiful. Through interesting, informative and typically quirky text, Derek also reveals a whole treasure trove of fascinating things most people don't know about these industrial landscapes, whilst also explaining the commercial history of the waterways, their subsequent decline and recent revitalisation.Towns and cities covered include: London, Oxford, Bristol, Liverpool, Manchester, Sheffield, Stoke on Trent and the Potteries, Leeds, Gloucester, Reading, Birmingham and the Black Country, Rugby, Worcester, Coventry, Leicester, Nottingham and Bath.
Urban Tourism in the Global South: South African Perspectives (GeoJournal Library)
by Christian M. Rogerson Jayne M. RogersonThis book examines and addresses the particular character of urban tourism occurring in the global South. It presents research essays on tourism in urban areas of South Africa, a country which is associated with big 5 nature tourism but where urban areas are also major tourism destinations. The book contextualizes urban tourism in South Africa as part of ‘the other half of urban tourism’, an overlooked but energetic scholarship which is emerging on urban places in the global South. The volume moves to present a collection of original material variously on national perspectives on urban tourism following by a cluster of city level perspectives. The last three contributions turn to the role of tourism in small towns, the bottom rung in the urban settlement system. Issues of concern include gastronomic tourism, VFR travel, airportscapes, climate change, AirBnb and creative tourism. Finally, as COVID-19 is potentially a defining historical moment for urban tourism, the volume incorporates historical research perspectives in order to address the overwhelming ‘present-mindedness’ of mainstream urban tourism writings. The book highlights the challenges and opportunities for tourism development in the environment of the urban global South and is relevant to scholars of both tourism and urban studies as well as researchers in development studies.
Urban Tourism in the Developing World: The South African Experience
by Gustav VisserOver the past decade, the field of urban tourism has consolidated with the appearance of several books that concentrate upon the Western European and North American experience. Recently, the scope and range of urban research has widened considerably, including the welcome appearance of studies that examine the tourism phenomenon in cities outside the Euro-American heartland.Despite this growing international body of debate and scholarship on tourism and cities, particularly in the developed North, literature that relates to the developing world as a whole, and to Africa in particular, remains sparse. The task of Urban Tourism in the Developing World: The South African Experience is to augment the current international scholarship concerning urban tourism in the developing world. More especially, the contributors draw attention to a range of case studies from South Africa that provide some starting points to address the uneven scholarly coverage of urban tourism the African context has received to date. In addition, the research material presented here seeks to contribute toward raising the South African, and indeed the African profile, within growing international scholarship concerning issues of urban tourism and development.This collection aims to expand an emerging South African and African tourism research "voice" concerning the tourism and development nexus, as well as to stem critiques that this body of research appears to have developed in a theoretical vacuum, divorced from broader international tourism research discourses. This collection of essays not only further develops an independent South African tourism perspective, but also presents research that is closely tied to international urban tourism research debates. In addition, this analysis of urban tourism in the South African context enriches the rather Western-oriented theories of urban tourism discourse through its emphasis on how urban tourism is evolving in urban Africa.
Urban Tourism in the Developing World: The South African Experience
by Gustav VisserOver the past decade, the field of urban tourism has consolidated with the appearance of several books that concentrate upon the Western European and North American experience. Recently, the scope and range of urban research has widened considerably, including the welcome appearance of studies that examine the tourism phenomenon in cities outside the Euro-American heartland.Despite this growing international body of debate and scholarship on tourism and cities, particularly in the developed North, literature that relates to the developing world as a whole, and to Africa in particular, remains sparse. The task of Urban Tourism in the Developing World: The South African Experience is to augment the current international scholarship concerning urban tourism in the developing world. More especially, the contributors draw attention to a range of case studies from South Africa that provide some starting points to address the uneven scholarly coverage of urban tourism the African context has received to date. In addition, the research material presented here seeks to contribute toward raising the South African, and indeed the African profile, within growing international scholarship concerning issues of urban tourism and development.This collection aims to expand an emerging South African and African tourism research "voice" concerning the tourism and development nexus, as well as to stem critiques that this body of research appears to have developed in a theoretical vacuum, divorced from broader international tourism research discourses. This collection of essays not only further develops an independent South African tourism perspective, but also presents research that is closely tied to international urban tourism research debates. In addition, this analysis of urban tourism in the South African context enriches the rather Western-oriented theories of urban tourism discourse through its emphasis on how urban tourism is evolving in urban Africa.
Urban Restructuring, Power and Capitalism in the Tourist City: Contested Terrains of Marrakesh (Routledge Studies in Urbanism and the City)
by Khalid MadhiThe book focuses on the processes of urban restructuring, power relations and the political economy of touristic authenticity. Through an in-depth analysis of Marrakesh, Morroco, the book proposes a comprehensive analytic framework. It highlights the issues of (post)coloniality, ideology, heritage-commodification, subjectivity and counter-conduct in the shadow of global capitalism. It explores how power relations and political ecomomy have shaped the city of Marrakesh over the past few decades, formulating new subjectivities. It reveals how urban policy’s sole purpose is to boost tourism in the city, bringing into question the long-term resilience and success of tourism as an economic activity and a policy choice. This book considers how the well-being of city residents is submitted to such policies, conforming to certain forms of appropriation – of land, culture and memory. The example of Morocco helps us understand a phenomenon affecting many other cities internationally. This book will be valuable to academics and practitioners across disciplines, including geography, political science, urban planning and architecture.
Urban Restructuring, Power and Capitalism in the Tourist City: Contested Terrains of Marrakesh (Routledge Studies in Urbanism and the City)
by Khalid MadhiThe book focuses on the processes of urban restructuring, power relations and the political economy of touristic authenticity. Through an in-depth analysis of Marrakesh, Morroco, the book proposes a comprehensive analytic framework. It highlights the issues of (post)coloniality, ideology, heritage-commodification, subjectivity and counter-conduct in the shadow of global capitalism. It explores how power relations and political ecomomy have shaped the city of Marrakesh over the past few decades, formulating new subjectivities. It reveals how urban policy’s sole purpose is to boost tourism in the city, bringing into question the long-term resilience and success of tourism as an economic activity and a policy choice. This book considers how the well-being of city residents is submitted to such policies, conforming to certain forms of appropriation – of land, culture and memory. The example of Morocco helps us understand a phenomenon affecting many other cities internationally. This book will be valuable to academics and practitioners across disciplines, including geography, political science, urban planning and architecture.
Urban Ornithology: 150 Years of Birds in New York City
by P. A. Buckley Walter Sedwitz William J. Norse John KieranUrban Ornithology is the first quantitative historical analysis of any New York City natural area’s birdlife and spans the century and a half from 1872 to 2016. Only Manhattan’s Central and Brooklyn’s Prospect Parks have preliminary species lists, not revised since 1967, and the last book examining the birdlife of the entire New York City area is now more than fifty years old.This book updates the avifaunas of those two parks, the Bronx, and other New York City boroughs. It treats the 301 bird species known to have occurred within its study area—Van Cortlandt Park and the adjacent Northwest Bronx—plus 70 potential additions. Its 123 breeding species are tracked from 1872 and supplemented by quantitative breeding bird censuses from 1937 to 2015. Gains and losses of breeding species are discussed in light of an expanding New York City inexorably extinguishing unique habitats.
Urban Events, Place Branding and Promotion: Place Event Marketing (Routledge Contemporary Perspectives on Urban Growth, Innovation and Change)
by Waldemar CudnyUrban Events, Place Branding and Promotion explores the phenomenon of place event marketing, examining the ways in which events are used to brand and disseminate information about a place. It provides a novel contribution to the literature, capturing the growing interest in place promotion, and offers in-depth insights on the role of events. With a focus on urban locations, this book defines the scope and concept of place event marketing. It demonstrates that different kinds of events, for leisure and business, can be used to successfully develop, promote and brand different types of places. Individual chapters written by a variety of leading academics explore how various public and non-governmental institutions that deal with promotion and marketing communications of places can implement event marketing activities and how such institutions organize, co-organize and sponsor different events. The effects of event marketing activities on urban place promotion and branding are thoroughly explored through a variety of international empirical case studies. This will be of great interest to upper-level students and researchers in events marketing and management, tourism and the broader field of urban geography. The concluding chapter also proposes future research directions.
Urban Events, Place Branding and Promotion: Place Event Marketing (Routledge Contemporary Perspectives on Urban Growth, Innovation and Change)
by Waldemar CudnyUrban Events, Place Branding and Promotion explores the phenomenon of place event marketing, examining the ways in which events are used to brand and disseminate information about a place. It provides a novel contribution to the literature, capturing the growing interest in place promotion, and offers in-depth insights on the role of events. With a focus on urban locations, this book defines the scope and concept of place event marketing. It demonstrates that different kinds of events, for leisure and business, can be used to successfully develop, promote and brand different types of places. Individual chapters written by a variety of leading academics explore how various public and non-governmental institutions that deal with promotion and marketing communications of places can implement event marketing activities and how such institutions organize, co-organize and sponsor different events. The effects of event marketing activities on urban place promotion and branding are thoroughly explored through a variety of international empirical case studies. This will be of great interest to upper-level students and researchers in events marketing and management, tourism and the broader field of urban geography. The concluding chapter also proposes future research directions.
The Upgrade: A Cautionary Tale Of A Life Without Reservations
by Paul CarrThe bizarre but true story of what happens when you stop worrying about where you live and start concentrating on how you live.
Up With the Larks: Starting Again in Cornwall
by Tessa HainsworthHaving given up a high-powered job and the lifestyle to match, Tessa Hainsworth had no idea how hard she would struggle when, full of optimism, she fulfilled her dream of moving to rural Cornwall with her young family one September. Within months, she is almost ready to return to London, tail between her legs: her husband is still out of work, her children are struggling in a cold, damp, tumbledown house and the family is running out of money - fast. But a chance encounter in the local post office leads her to accept the unlikeliest of job offers.Up with the Larks charts Tessa's turbulent first year with the Royal Mail, and her transformation from outsider to 'Posh Postie', adopted Cornishwoman and much-loved member of her new community.She starts in the bitter darkness of midwinter, faced with the perils of the Christmas rush, a van with a mind of its own and a host of unfamiliar routes, local characters - and their animals, large and small. But, day by day and month by month, she meets and learns to love a wonderfully colourful cast of characters until her second Christmas in Cornwall is entirely different from the first, as the community goes out of its way to thank her with small gifts and other tokens of their affection.At last she feels Cornwall is home.
Up in the Old Hotel
by Joseph Mitchell'The master of a journalistic style long vanished - urbane, lucid, courteous... A masterpiece of observation and storytelling' Ian McEwanMitchell is the laureate of old New York. The hidden corners of the city and the people who lived there are his subject. He captured the waterfront rooming-houses , nickel-a-drink saloons, all-night restaurants, the 'visionaries, obsessives, imposters, fanatics, lost souls, the end-is-near street preachers, old Gypsy Kings and old Gypsy Queens, and out-and-out freak-show freaks.' Mitchell's trademark curiosity, respect and graveyard humour fuel these magical essays. Written between 1943 and 1965, Up in the Old Hotel is the complete collection of Joseph Mitchell 's New Yorker journalism and includes McSorley's Wonderful Saloon, Old Mr Flood, The Bottom of the Harbour and Joe Gould's Secret. 'Joseph Mitchell is buried treasure' Salman Rushdie
Up and Over: A Trek Through Rugby League Land
by Dave HadfieldAlong the way he met the people whose enthusiasm for the game has made it so durable - current and former internationals as well as others involved at all levels - as well as a few miserable old gits for balance. In this intimate account, Hadfield observes the way rugby league fits into the history and sociology of towns like Wigan and Castleford, with which it is synonymous. His record of the journey is in the great tradition of writers from Wordsworth to Laurie Lee, who found in long walks the perfect medium to explore and reflect upon their surroundings. Up and Over is the definitive book about the game and the local passions it engenders, as Hadfield seeks out the poignant and the humorous on a personal journey of discovery. For those who follow rugby league, it will give a unique perspective on the parts of the world they know intimately; for others it will be an introduction to a different world, seen via one of the elements that gives it its identity.
Up: My Life Journey To The Top Of Everest
by Ben Fogle Marina FogleMy eyes lifted to the horizon and the unmistakable snowy outline of Everest. Everest, the mountain of my childhood dreams. A mountain that has haunted me my whole life. A mountain I have seen hundreds of times in photographs and films but never in real life.
Untraceable
by Sergei Lebedev'A superb literary thriller' The Times, Book of the Week 'A thriller dipped in poison... Lebedev shares some of le Carré's fascination with secret worlds and the nature of evil' New York TimesAn extraordinary and angry Russian novel about poisons of all kinds: physical, moral and political.Professor Kalitin is a ruthless, narcissistic chemist who has developed an untraceable, extremely lethal poison called Neophyte while working in a secret city on an island in the Russian far east. When the Soviet Union collapses, he defects and is given a new identity in Germany.After an unrelated Russian is murdered with Kalitin's poison, his cover is blown and he's drawn into the German investigation of the death. Two special forces killers with a lot of Chechen blood on their hands are sent to silence him – using his own undetectable poison. Their journey to their target is full of blunders, mishaps, holdups and accidents.Praise for Sergei Lebedev:'One of Russia's most interesting young novelists takes on Putin, poison and power in this unique novel; Lebedev provides a fascinating window on modern Russia' Anne Applebaum'Turn off your television sets and get reading. Sergei Lebedev writes not of the past, but of today' Svetlana Alexievich'Lebedev's books dealt with history – it lay like a shadow over everything he wrote – and the fact that its presence was so powerful suggested that the conflicts and tensions inherent in it were still unresolved, still had a bearing on Russian society in obscure yet palpable ways' Karl Ove Knausgaard
Untie the Lines: Setting Sail and Breaking Free
by Emma BamfordIn Casting Off we met Emma Bamford. Stressed out and fed up with London life, working 80-hour weeks and with no hint of a love life, Emma suddenly decided to quit her job, pack up her life and go and live with a man she's never met, and his cat, on a yacht in Borneo. In Casting Off we followed Emma on her amazing adventures as she sailed the globe in search of something more. We laughed, we cried and we 'aaahhhh'ed. Untie the Lines picks up where Casting Off left off. There's love in the air in the form of Guy, the handsome sailor Emma met in Casting Off. Will they sail off happily into the sunset together? And there's an abundance of sailing adventure to be had in the USA and Caribbean too. But there are also difficult times, as we follow Emma's journey through more heartache and anguish, as she is forced to return to London, to her old, crippling life. Things spiral out of control until one day Emma, exhausted and suffering from anxiety attacks, just can't take a step further along the same path any more and she is forced to seek help and admit that it's time to change things once and for all. Untie the Lines is another thrilling, funny and absorbing installment of Emma's life. It's also deeply moving and will ring true with anyone affected by the stresses and fast pace of modern life and the battle between head and heart.
Untie the Lines: Setting Sail and Breaking Free
by Ms Emma BamfordIn Casting Off we met Emma Bamford. Stressed out and fed up with London life, working 80-hour weeks and with no hint of a love life, Emma suddenly decided to quit her job, pack up her life and go and live with a man she's never met, and his cat, on a yacht in Borneo. In Casting Off we followed Emma on her amazing adventures as she sailed the globe in search of something more. We laughed, we cried and we 'aaahhhh'ed. Untie the Lines picks up where Casting Off left off. There's love in the air in the form of Guy, the handsome sailor Emma met in Casting Off. Will they sail off happily into the sunset together? And there's an abundance of sailing adventure to be had in the USA and Caribbean too. But there are also difficult times, as we follow Emma's journey through more heartache and anguish, as she is forced to return to London, to her old, crippling life. Things spiral out of control until one day Emma, exhausted and suffering from anxiety attacks, just can't take a step further along the same path any more and she is forced to seek help and admit that it's time to change things once and for all. Untie the Lines is another thrilling, funny and absorbing installment of Emma's life. It's also deeply moving and will ring true with anyone affected by the stresses and fast pace of modern life and the battle between head and heart.
The Untameable
by Guillermo ArriagaGoodfellas meets White Fang. By the BAFTA-winning screenwriter of Amores Perros."An epic tale" Sunday Times Crime Club"A fast-moving, intriguing and virile novel" Irish Examiner"Of all the wolves you will see in your life, one alone will be your master."Yukon, Canada's far north. A young man tracks a wolf through the wilderness. The one his grandfather warned him about. In Mexico City, Juan Guillermo has pledged vengeance. For his murdered brother, Carlos. For his parents, sentenced to death by their grief. But in 1960s Mexico justice is sold to the highest bidder, and the Catholic fanatics who killed Carlos are allied to Zunita, a corrupt and influential police commander. If he is to quench his thirst for revenge Juan Guillermo will have to answer his inner call of the wild and discover what links his destiny to a hunter on the other side of America.A gripping coming of age thriller of vengeance and destiny set between Mexico City's murderous 1960s underworld and the bleak tundras of Canada's most remote province.Translated from the Spanish by Frank Wynne and Jessie Mendez Sayer