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Psychonauts: Drugs and the Making of the Modern Mind
by Mike JayA provocative and original history of the scientists and writers, artists and philosophers who took drugs to explore the hidden regions of the mind A New Yorker Best of the Week Pick “Jay is a leading expert on the history of Western drug use, and Psychonauts is the latest in a series of excellent studies in which he has investigated the roots of a kind of psychoactive exploration that we tend to associate with the nineteen-fifties and sixties.”—Clare Bucknell, New Yorker “Captivating. . . . A welcome reconsideration of the role drugs play in life, medicine, and science.”—Publishers Weekly Until the twentieth century, scientists investigating the effects of drugs on the mind did so by experimenting on themselves. Vivid descriptions of drug experiences sparked insights across the mind sciences, pharmacology, medicine, and philosophy. Accounts in journals and literary fiction inspired a fascinated public to make their own experiments—in scientific demonstrations, on exotic travels, at literary salons, and in occult rituals. But after 1900 drugs were increasingly viewed as a social problem, and the long tradition of self-experimentation began to disappear. From Sigmund Freud’s experiments with cocaine to William James’s epiphany on nitrous oxide, Mike Jay brilliantly recovers a lost intellectual tradition of drug-taking that fed the birth of psychology, the discovery of the unconscious, and the emergence of modernism. Today, as we embrace novel cognitive enhancers and psychedelics, the experiments of the original psychonauts reveal the deep influence of mind-altering drugs on Western science, philosophy, and culture.
Hope In The Dark: The Untold History of People Power (Canons Ser. #51)
by Rebecca SolnitPolitically we are at a time when despair seems like the default setting, and people, particularly on the left, are habituated to looking for the worst-case scenarios, the gloomy prophesy, the reasons to be cheerless. What we struggle to imagine - or fail to try to imagine - is the route out of this deadlocked position. But there are many, and our best vision of the future can come from the collaborative, creative, improvisational ways of achieving progress that have already been tried and have sometimes succeeded. This book encourages us to look away from the brightly lit stage and the tragedy being acted on it, and to see into the shadows, to an alternate understanding of how power plays out. It is an incitement to activism, a manifesto for realising how we can achieve change - it is filled with hope.
Letters of Note: Cats; Music; Love; War (Letters Of Note Ser. #2)
by Shaun UsherIn Letters of Note: Music, Shaun Usher brings together a riveting collection of letters by and about some of the musicians and music that enrich our lives. It is a wonderfully wide-ranging and illuminating book that will delight music lovers of all stripes. Includes letters by: Ludgwig van Beethoven, Nick Cave, Helen Keller, Keith Richards, Yo-Yo Ma, Tom Waits, Erik Satie, Angélique Kidjo, Leonard Cohen John Coltrane, Kim Gordon & many more
Grow Up: A Novel
by Ben BrooksWho says youth is wasted on the young? Jasper wants to get on in the world, but he's got a lot on his plate: A-levels, his mother pushing him to overachieve, weekly visits to his psychologist, come-downs, YouTube suicides and pregnant one-night-stands. Then there's his stepdad – the murderer. Hilarious and heartbreaking by turns, Grow Up is the ultimate twenty-first-century coming-of-age novel. It paints a vivid portrait of the pills and thrills and bellyaches of growing up today. Funny, smart and twisted, it is the story of one young man transformed.
Neither Wolf Nor Dog: On Forgotten Roads with an Indian Elder (Canons #62)
by Kent NerburnWith an introduction by Robert Plant Against an unflinching backdrop of 90s reservation life in the western Dakotas, Neither Wolf Nor Dog tells the story of two men, one white and one Native American Indian, connected by their own understandings of life yet struggling to find a common voice. As they journey together through small Native American Indian towns and down forgotten roads where the whisperings of the wind speak of ancestral voices, these two men will travel beyond myth and stereotype, revealing an America few people ever get to see.
Godsend: A Novel
by John WrayIn California her name was Aden Grace Sawyer. In Pakistan she must choose a different name - Suleyman - and take on a new identity as a young man. She has travelled a long way to begin her new life, and she'll travel further to protect her secret. But once she is on the ground, Aden finds herself in more danger than she could have dreamed. Faced with violence and loss, she must make intense and unimaginable choices that will test not only her faith, but her understanding of who she is. Compelling, unnerving and timely, Godsend is a subtle masterpiece of empathy: a study of what it means for a person to give themselves to their faith, and how far they will go from home to find a place to belong.
The Death of Bunny Munro: A Novel (Canons Ser. #31)
by Nick CaveThe Death of Bunny Munro recounts the last journey of a salesman in search of a soul. Following the suicide of his wife, Bunny, a door-to-door salesman and lothario, takes his son on a trip along the south coast of England. He is about to discover that his days are numbered. With a daring hellride of a plot The Death of Bunny Munro is also a modern morality tale of sorts, a stylish, furious, funny, truthful and tender account of one man’s descent and judgement. The novel is full of the linguistic verve that has made Cave one of the world's most respected lyricists. It is his first novel since the publication of his critically acclaimed debut And the Ass Saw the Angel twenty years ago.
Spontaneous
by Aaron Starmer'Truly the smartest and funniest book about spontaneous combustion you will ever read' JOHN GREEN, #1 bestselling author of THE FAULT IN OUR STARS A TIME magazine Top 10 YA Book of 2016! Mara's senior year is proving to be a lot less exciting than she'd hoped, until the day - KABAM! - Katelyn Ogden explodes during third period. Katelyn is the first, but she won't be the last senior to explode without warning or explanation. The body count grows and the search is on for a reason, while the students continue to pop like balloons. But if bombs or terrorists or a government conspiracy aren't to blame, what is? With the help of her oldest friend, her new boyfriend, a power ballad and a homemade disco ball, will Mara make it to graduation in one piece? It's going to be one hell of a year, where the only test is how to stay alive and where falling in love might be the worst thing you can do . . .
Impeach: The Case Against Donald Trump
by Neal Katyal Sam KoppelmanThe New York Times bestseller What is impeachment? How does it work? And why is it so urgent to impeach Donald Trump? No one is above the law. This belief is fundamental to how the American system of government is meant to function – as fundamental as life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness – held sacred by Democrats and Republicans alike. But as celebrated Supreme Court lawyer and former Acting Solicitor General Neal Katyal argues in Impeach, if President Trump is not held accountable for repeatedly asking foreign powers to interfere in the 2020 presidential election, this could very well mark the end of US democracy. Impeachment should always be a last resort, explains Katyal, but the founders, core principles, and the Constitution leave no choice but to impeach President Trump – before it’s too late. This clear and direct book explains what impeachment is, why it’s in the U.S. constitution and why Donald Trump has left Congress and the American people with no choice but to remove him from office.
Dear Mrs Bird: Cosy up with this heartwarming and heartbreaking novel set in wartime London (The Wartime Chronicles #1)
by AJ PearceRichard & Judy Book Club Pick --- Sunday Times BestsellerSet during London's blitz and filled with warmth, wit and heartbreak, Dear Mrs Bird is a wartime story about the power of friendship, the kindness of strangers and the courage of ordinary people.London, 1941. Amid the falling bombs Emmeline Lake dreams of becoming a fearless Lady War Correspondent. Unfortunately, Emmy instead finds herself employed as a typist for the terrifying Henrietta Bird, the renowned agony aunt at Woman’s Friend magazine. Mrs Bird refuses to read, let alone answer, letters containing any form of Unpleasantness, and definitely not letters from the women the war has left lovelorn, grief-stricken or conflicted.But the thought of these desperate women waiting for an answer becomes impossible for Emmy to ignore. She decides she simply must help and secretly starts to write back – after all, what harm could that possibly do?'The most uplifting, lovely book about courage, friendship, love' – Marian Keyes'Utterly charming and helplessly funny' – Jenny Colgan'A proper comfort read' – India Knight
Beyond the Wall: East Germany, 1949-1990
by Katja HoyerAN INSTANT SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLERCHOSEN AS A BOOK OF THE YEAR BY THE TIMES * SUNDAY TIMES * TELEGRAPH * SPECTATOR * PROSPECT'Utterly brilliant . . . Authoritative, lively and profoundly human, it is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand post-World War II Europe' Julia Boyd'One of the best young historians writing in English today. . . Well-researched, well-written and profoundly insightful, Beyond the Wall explodes many of the lazy Western cliches about East Germany' Andrew RobertsIn 1990, a country disappeared. When the iron curtain fell, East Germany simply ceased to be. For over forty years, from the ruin of the Second World War to the cusp of a new millennium, the GDR presented a radically different German identity to anything that had come before, and anything that exists today. Socialist solidarity, secret police, central planning, barbed wire: this was a Germany forged on the fault lines of ideology and geopolitics.In Beyond the Wall, acclaimed historian Katja Hoyer offers a kaleidoscopic new vision of this vanished country. Beginning with the bitter experience of German Marxists exiled by Hitler, she traces the arc of the state they would go on to create, first under the watchful eye of Stalin, and then in an increasingly distinctive German fashion. From the building of the Berlin Wall in 1961, to the relative prosperity of the 1970s, and on to the creaking foundations of socialism in the mid-1980s, Hoyer argues that amid oppression and frequent hardship, East Germany was yet home to a rich political, social and cultural landscape, a place far more dynamic than the Cold War caricature often painted in the West.Powerfully told, and drawing on a vast array of never-before-seen interviews, letters and records, this is the definitive history of the other Germany, the one beyond the Wall.LONGLISTED FOR THE BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE BEST BOOKS OF SUMMER 2023: THE TIMES * SUNDAY TIMES * FINANCIAL TIMES * INDEPENDENT * TELEGRAPH * NEW STATESMAN
The Best Way to Bury Your Husband: Four new friends. Four dead bodies. One big problem . . .
by Alexia Casale'I loved loved loved this book!' CHRISTINA RICCI ‘Poignant and funny, dark and searing’ ANDREA MARA'A darkly comedic story . . . I loved it' JESSE SUTANTO 'Perfect for those who like feminism with their dead bodies' JULIE COHEN'Tense, funny, moving and strangely cosy' HOLLY BOURNE---Four new friends. Four dead bodies. One big problem . . .Sally never meant to cave her husband's head in with a skillet. Or at least she didn't until suddenly, she did.But Sally isn't the only woman in town being pushed to breaking point. When coincidence brings four strangers together, a surprising solidarity is formed.So can they find the best way to bury their husbands - and get away with it?Darkly funny and with a big beating heart, The Best Way to Bury Your Husband is an irresistible page-turner about the power of female friendship.
The Making of Us: A gripping family drama from the bestselling author
by Lisa JewellThe gripping novel from the Sunday Times bestselling author of Then She Was Gone and The Family Upstairs._____________Lydia, Robyn and Dean don't know each other - yet.They live very different lives but each of them, independently, has always felt that something is missing.What they don't know is that a letter is about to arrive that will turn their lives upside down.It is a letter containing a secret - one that will bind them together, and show them what love and family and friendship really mean..._____________Reader's can't get enough of The Making Of Us . . .***** 'Really gripping. Couldn't put it down.'***** 'Truly a great read for just about everyone.'***** 'Lisa Jewell is becoming one of my favourites. This is the third book of hers that I absolutely loved.'***** 'I loved the characters and the way the author unravel their stories.'***** 'I loved this book from the beginning.'
The Battle of the Beams: The secret science of radar that turned the tide of the Second World War
by Tom Whipple'Deeply researched and engagingly written' The Times'Has the pace and style of a well-crafted thriller' Mail on Sunday'Chock full of memorable characters and written with all the drama and pace of a Robert Harris thriller' Rowland White, author of Harrier 809The radio war of 1939-45 is one of the great scientific battles in history.This is the story of that war.Relying on first-hand accounts as well as papers recently released by the Admiralty, The Battle of the Beams fills a huge missing piece in the canon of WW2 literature.It combines history, science, derring do and dogged determination and will appeal as much to fans of WW2 history as to those fascinated by the science behind the beams that changed our lives.The British believed that, through ingenuity and scientific prowess, they alone have a war-winning weapon: radar. They are wrong. The Germans have it too.They believe that their unique maritime history means their pilots have no need of navigational aids. Flying above the clouds they, like the seafarers of old, had the stars to guide them, and that is all that is required. They are wrong. Most of the bombs the RAF will drop in the first years of the war land miles from their target.They also believe that the Germans, without the same naval tradition, will never be able to find targets at night. They are, again, wrong. In 1939 the Germans don't just have radar to spot planes entering their airspace, they have radio beams to guide their own planes into enemy airspace.Luckily there was one young engineer, Reginald Jones, helping the British government with their own scientific developments. In June 1940, when Jones quietly explained the beams the Germans had devised to a room full of disbelieving sceptics, Churchill later described the moment as like sitting in the parlour while Sherlock Holmes finally reveals the killer. Churchill immediately supported Jones's efforts to develop radar technology that went on to help the Allies win the war.
The Naked Neanderthal
by Ludovic SlimakIn this acclaimed bestseller, an explorer and Neanderthal hunter takes us on a riveting journey of discovery'With the style of a poet and imagination of a philosopher, Ludovic Slimak probes the minds of Neanderthals. . . This fun and provocative book is a reminder that we still have a lot to learn about biological intelligence' Steve BrusatteWhat if we have completely misunderstood who the Neanderthals truly were?For over a century we saw them as inferior to Homo Sapiens. Today, Neanderthals are seen as fully human, different from us only because of their distant cultural traditions. But does the truth lie somewhere else entirely?Neanderthal hunter and paleoanthropologist Ludovic Slimak understands these enigmatic creatures like no one else after studying them for three decades. Taking us on a fascinating archaeological investigation from the Arctic Circle to the deep Mediterranean forests, he traces their steps, deciphering their stories through every single detail they left behind.In this stunning, bold book, he argues that Neanderthals should be understood on their own terms. They had their own history, their own rituals, their own customs. Their own intelligence. A remarkable intelligence, for sure, but an intelligence that may have been very different from ours - although it can still teach us much about ourselves.A thought-provoking detective story, written with wit and verve, The Naked Neanderthal shifts our understanding of deep history - and in the process reveals just how much we have yet to learn.
Revolutionary Spring: Fighting for a New World 1848-1849
by Christopher Clark'One of the best history books you will read this decade' History Today'Fascinating, suspenseful, revelatory, alive' The TimesThere can be few more exciting or frightening moments in European history than the spring of 1848. As if by magic, in city after city, from Palermo to Paris to Venice, huge crowds gathered, sometimes peaceful and sometimes violent, and the political order that had held sway since the defeat of Napoleon simply collapsed.Christopher Clark's spectacular new book recreates with verve, wit and insight this extraordinary period. Some rulers gave up at once, others fought bitterly, but everywhere new politicians, beliefs and expectations surged forward. The role of women in society, the end of slavery, the right to work, national independence and the emancipation of the Jews all became live issues.Clark conjures up both this ferment of new ideas and then the increasingly ruthless and effective series of counter-attacks launched by regimes who still turned out to have many cards to play. But even in defeat, exiles spread the ideas of 1848 around the world and - for better and sometimes much worse - a new and very different Europe emerged from the wreckage.
Ibn Fadlan and the Land of Darkness: Arab Travellers in the Far North
by Ibn FadlanIn 922 AD, an Arab envoy from Baghdad named Ibn Fadlan encountered a party of Viking traders on the upper reaches of the Volga River. In his subsequent report on his mission he gave a meticulous and astonishingly objective description of Viking customs, dress, table manners, religion and sexual practices, as well as the only eyewitness account ever written of a Viking ship cremation.Between the ninth and fourteenth centuries, Arab travellers such as Ibn Fadlan journeyed widely and frequently into the far north, crossing territories that now include Russia, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. Their fascinating accounts describe how the numerous tribes and peoples they encountered traded furs, paid tribute and waged wars. This accessible new translation offers an illuminating insight into the world of the Arab geographers, and the medieval lands of the far north.
Catch-22: As recommended on BBC2’s Between the Covers (Le\livre De Poche Ser.)
by Joseph Heller**AS SEEN ON BBC TWO's BETWEEN THE COVERS**Discover Joseph Heller's hilarious and tragic satire on military madness, and the tale of one man's efforts to survive it.It's the closing months of World War II and Yossarian has never been closer to death. Stationed in an American bomber squadron off the coast of Italy, each flight mission introduces him to thousands of people determined to kill him.But the enemy above is not Yossarian's problem - it is his own army intent on keeping him airborne, and the maddening 'Catch-22' that allows for no possibility of escape.'The greatest satirical work in the English language' Observer
Pretty Monsters
by Kelly LinkWeird, wicked, spooky and delicious, PRETTY MONSTERS is a book of tall tales to keep you up all night. Blending fairytale, fantasy, horror, myth and mischief in a delicious cocktail, Kelly Link creates a world like no other, where ghosts of girlfriends past rub up against Scrabble-loving grandmothers with terrifying magic handbags, wizards sit alongside morbid babysitters, and we encounter a people-eating monster who claims to have a sense of humour. Combining the imaginative brilliance of Borges with the madcap escapades of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and more than a pinch of macabre humour, this is writing to come back from the dead for.
Amateur: A Reckoning With Gender, Identity and Masculinity
by Thomas Page McBeeShortlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction In this groundbreaking new book, Thomas Page McBee, a trans man, trains to fight in a charity match at Madison Square Garden while struggling to untangle the vexed relationship between masculinity and violence. Through his experience of boxing – learning to get hit, and to hit back; wrestling with the camaraderie of the gym; confronting the betrayals and strength of his own body – McBee examines the weight of male violence, the pervasiveness of gender stereotypes and the limitations of conventional masculinity. A wide-ranging exploration of gender in our society, Amateur is ultimately a story of hope, as McBee traces a way forward: a new masculinity, inside the ring and out of it. A graceful and uncompromising exploration of living, fighting and healing, in Amateur we gain insight into the stereotypes and shifting realities of masculinity today through the eyes of a new man.
None of the Above: Reflections on Life Beyond the Binary
by Travis AlabanzaWINNER OF THE SOMERSET MAUGHAM AWARD 2023 WINNER OF THE JHALAK PRIZE 2023 SHORTLISTED FOR THE POLARI FIRST BOOK PRIZE 2023 A WATERSTONES BEST BOOK OF 2022: POLITICS ‘A breath of fresh air . . . There's no memoir like it’ Independent ‘Travis Alabanza writes with such generosity and ease even the most provocative suggestions start to seem obvious . . . Profound and funny’ SHON FAYE ‘Will challenge, empower and move your soul’ Glamour ‘Lucid and glorious’ YRSA DALEY-WARD ‘A gloriously specific, funny and smart body of work’ CANDICE CARTY-WILLIAMS __________ ‘When you are someone that falls outside of categories in so many ways, a lot of things are said to you. And I have had a lot of things said to me.’ In None of the Above, Travis Alabanza examines seven phrases people have directed at them about their gender identity. These phrases have stayed with them over the years. Some are deceptively innocuous, some deliberately loaded or offensive, some celebratory; sentences that have impacted them for better and for worse; sentences that speak to the broader issues raised by a world that insists that gender must be a binary. Through these seven phrases, which include some of their most transformative experiences as a Black, mixed race, non binary person, Travis Alabanza turns a mirror back on society, giving us reason to question the very framework in which we live and the ways we treat each other.
40
by Various‘Forty is a fine age, a young, strong powerful, prime-of-life age, a frisky age, a coming-to-maturity age when all things are possible. But beware, it is also an apocalyptic number, a number full of climactic warnings' - Margaret Drabble. 40 is a truly meaningful and fascinating number. For example, the number forty is used in Jewish, Christian, Islamic, and other Middle Eastern traditions to represent a large, approximate number: ‘umpteen’; forty is the number of weeks for an average term of pregnancy; forty is the customary number of hours in a working week; rain fell for ‘forty days and forty nights’ during the Flood; forty is the only number with its letters in alphabetical order; Jesus fasted for forty days and nights . . . Inspired by 40, this collection contains thrilling contributions from some of the most high-profile writers, artists and illustrators of our time and is beautifully illustrated by Tom Gauld. And to celebrate Canongate’s 40th anniversary you can have this fantastic little eBook for free! It’s on us! Enjoy... Featuring Steven Hall, Richard Holloway, Olivia Laing, David Shrigley, Patience Agbabi, Karl Pilkington, Charles M. Schulz, Matt Haig, Margaret Drabble, Dave Brown, Ruth Ozeki, Lemn Sissay, Rebecca Miller, Geoff Dyer, Tao Lin, Patrick Ness, Margaret Atwood, Yann Martel, Ben Brooks, Carol Birch, Simon Garfield, Michel Faber, Oliver Burkeman, Angus Hyland and Marion Deuchars, Tahmima Anam, Claudia Hammond, Ella Berthoud and Susan Elderkin, Simon Tofield, Philip Pullman, Lily Vanilli, Alasdair Gray, David Eagleman, Stephanie Wolfe Murray and Jamie Byng.
The Wisdom of Solomon (The Pocket Canons #18)
by Piers Paul ReadTraditionally believed to be written by King Solomon himself, though later attributed to his friends and followers, the author of the Greek text is well versed in the popular philosophical, religious, and ethical writings adopted by Hellenistic Alexandria. In his introduction, Piers Paul Read contemplates this story that impressed him greatly as a child, one in which wisdom pleases God so greatly he gives Solomon everything else besides
The Second Cut
by Louise WelshTHE TIMES CRIME BOOK OF THE YEAR SHORTLISTED FOR THE McILVANNEY PRIZE 'Superb' The Times Crime Book of the Month 'A hardboiled gem' Guardian 'I doubt I'll read a better book this year' Val McDermid Auctioneer Rilke has been trying to stay out of trouble, keeping his life more or less respectable. Business has been slow at Bowery Auctions, so when an old friend, Jojo, gives Rilke a tip-off for a house clearance, life seems to be looking up. The next day Jojo washes up dead. Jojo liked Grindr hook-ups and recreational drugs – is that the reason the police won’t investigate? And if Rilke doesn’t find out what happened to Jojo, who will?
High Exposure: An Enduring Passion for Everest and Other Unforgiving Places
by David BreashearsFor generations of adventurers, from Mallory to Hilary, Norgay to Krakauer, Mount Everest and the world's greatest peaks have provided the ultimate testing ground. But as the public's fascination with mountaineering reaches an all time high, the question remains - why climb? In High Exposure, legendary rock climber, mountaineer and film-maker David Breashears answers with a captivating and intimate look at his life, during which he has scaled many of the world's highest peaks, including two successful ascents of Everest.