Showing results by narrator "Justin Avoth" in All Categories

1919. On the desolate battlefields of Northern France, the guns of the Great War are silent. Special battalions now face the dangerous task of gathering up the dead for mass burial. Captain Mackenzie, a survivor of the war, cannot yet bring himself to go home. First he must see that his fallen comrades are recovered and laid to rest.

TREES IN WINTER is about the healing properties of nature and of walking, especially during the coldest season, when the inclination is for so many of us to stay indoors. It is also about the joy of learning a craft and practising it. Richard also shares the deeply moving, personal journey that led to him becoming an artist, as he reflects on how he connects with the world around him, and finds creativity through his walks in nature.

The study of ancient Greek history has been central to the western conception of history since the Renaissance. The Muse of History traces the shifting patterns of this preoccupation in the last three centuries, in which each generation has reinterpreted the Greeks in the light of their contemporary world, through times of revolution, conflicting ideologies and warfare. It aims to offer a new history of Greek historiography from the Enlightenment to the present, and to acknowledge the continuing spiritual importance of the ancient Greeks for European culture.

Drawing on decades of research into decision-making under uncertainty, Gerd Gigerenzer makes a compelling case for the enduring importance of human discernment in an automated world that we are told can - and will - replace our efforts. Filled with practical examples and cutting-edge research, How to Stay Smart in a Smart World examines the growing role of AI at all levels of daily life with refreshing clarity. This book is a life raft in a sea of information and an urgent invitation to actively shape the digital world in which we want to live.

In the next ten years there will be an unprecedented wealth transfer from the so-called ‘baby boomer’ generation to the young. Never before will so much money – in housing, land, stocks and cash – be shifted so suddenly from one generation to the next, and never before does the next generation feel so differently about the future of the planet and of capitalism. Ken Costa works with this new generation and shows how environmental concerns and anxiety about equality and diversity are more than mere slogans; instead they are driving the future of the markets.

The Fable of the Bees—a satirical poem, prose discussion, three essays and six dialogues completed in 1729—exposes human vices but defends them as a necessity within a wealthy society. Mandeville’s bees thrive until they start living by honesty and virtue… then they are impoverished. Mandeville did not play by the rules: he satirized the sins of society but also ridiculed the widespread hypocrisy of deploring these sins whilst reaping their benefits. He and his work were attacked for the rest of the century.

‘The sweetness of her glance—or rather, my evil star already in its ascendant and drawing me to my ruin—did not allow me to hesitate for a moment...’ So begins the story of Manon Lescaut, a tale of passion and betrayal, of delinquency and misalliance, which moves from early 18th-century Paris—with its theatres, assemblies, and gaming-houses—via prison and deportation to a tragic denouement in the treeless wastes of Louisiana. It is one of the great love stories, and also one of the most enigmatic.

Unexpectedly thrust into the role of the Ferryman, young Milo is tasked with taking the lingering Dead across the dark sea to the Island of the Broken Tower, where they can finally move on. On his first perilious journey, his ghostly passengers include his own father and the teenage daughter of the Lord of Merlank, who is unprepared to give her up and follows in pursuit in a bigger boat, filled with armed men and two dark magicians at his command. Milo must face untold traps, dangers and fears as he carries his ghostly passengers across secret seas.

Six lives, connected through blood and history, each rooted in the dirt of their inheritance, look to the future, and what it might hold. In 1855, Edward Feebes travels to the guano islands of South America, to investigate an irregularity in the accounts of the House of Feebes & Co. In 1912, post-mortem photographer and reluctant blackmailer Annie Connolly plots her escape from Ireland to America on board the Titanic.

When disgraced former police officer Harriet Kealty discovers a plea for help in the margins of a second-hand book, she sets out to unravel a mystery that quickly leads her to confront some uncomfortable ties to her own life, including her ex-lover Ben. Following the deaths of his close friends, Ben became an adoptive father to their orphaned son Elliot. But Harriet suspects that Ben knows more about these deaths than he’s willing to say....

The Short Story of the Universe is a new introduction to the subject of the universe. Covering 130 key components that make it up - from dwarf galaxies and spiral arms to red giants and the planets of the solar system - and linking these to the universe's structure and the theories that help us understand it, this book simplifies this riveting yet mind-boggling subject, telling the story of how it came into being and how it will eventually be no more.

Drawing from two political and several literary homelands, this collection presents a remarkable series of trenchant essays, demonstrating the full range and force of Salman Rushdie's remarkable imaginative and observational powers. With candour, eloquence and indignation he carefully examines an expanse of topics; including the politics of India and Pakistan, censorship, the Labour Party, Palestinian identity, contemporary film and late-20th century race, religion and politics.

Nicolas Nabokov, a Russian-born composer and cultural diplomat, befriended many of the 20th century’s greatest musicians and artists. With delightful anecdotes and personal reflections, his memoir is a truly unique historical document that enriches our understanding of the Cold War’s impact on culture.