D'autres livres qui pourraient vous intéresser

• 

  Dark Ages

  Henry David Thoreau

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  In this luminous essay, Thoreau calls us to reconsider how we view the past: not as a rigid ledger of facts, but as a shifting landscape of light and shadow. He asks us to read history “as little critically as we consider the landscape, and be more interested by the atmospheric tints … than by its groundwork and composition.” 
  From the twilight of ages to the dawn of our own perception, this work invites you to sit on the mound of time, gaze through the mist of memory, and recognise that the true monument is not the stone carved in antiquity, but the living moment we inhabit now. Listen as Fiona Spreadborough gives voice to this meditation on existence, memory and the eternal laws of light. 
  Ideal for listeners drawn to thoughtful reflection, transcendental inquiry, and the subtle beauty of ideas.

  Voir livre

• 

  The Boer Invasion of The Zulu...

  John Laband

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  The battle of Blood River, or Ncome, on 16 December 1838 has long been regarded as a critical moment in the history of South Africa. It is the culminating victory by the land-hungry Boers who had migrated out of the British-ruled Cape and invaded the Zulu kingdom in 1837.
  Many Afrikaners long acclaimed their triumph as the God-given justification for their subsequent dominion over Africans. By contrast, Africans celebrate the war with pride for its significance in their valiant struggle against colonial aggression.
  In this account, John Laband deals as even-handedly as possible with the warring sides in the conflict. In contrasting their military systems, he explains both victory and defeat in the many battles that marked the war. Crucially, he also presents the less familiar Zulu perspective explaining the political motivation, strategic military objectives and fissures in the royal house.
  This is the first book in English that engages with the war between the Boers and the Zulu in its entire context or takes the Zulu evidence into proper account.

  Voir livre

• 

  D H Lawrence - Six of the Best -...

  D H Lawrence

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  Six has always been a number we group things around – Six of the best, six of one half a dozen of another, six feet under, six pack, six degrees of separation and a sixth sense are but a few of the ways we use this number. 
   
  Such is its popularity that we thought it is also a very good way of challenging and investigating an author’s work to give width, brevity, humour and depth across six of their very best. 
   
  In this series we gather together authors whose short stories both rivet the attention and inspire the imagination to visit their gems in a series of six, to roam across an author’s legacy in a few short hours and gain a greater understanding of their writing and, of course, to be lavishly entertained by their ideas, their narrative and their way with words. 
   
  These stories can be surprising and sometimes at a tangent to what we expected, but each is fully formed and a marvellous adventure into the world and words of a literary master. 
   
   1 - Six of the Best - D H Lawrence - An Introduction 
  2 - D H Lawrence - An Introduction 
  3 - The Rocking Horse Winner by D H Lawrence 
  4 - The Horse Dealer's Daughter by D H Lawrence 
  5 - Odour of Chrysanthemums by D H Lawrence 
  6 - The Old Adam by D H Lawrence 
  7 - A Fragment of Stained Glass by D H Lawrence 
  8 - A Modern Lover - Part 1 by D H Lawrence 
  9 - A Modern Lover - Part 2 by D H Lawrence

  Voir livre

• 

  This Is Qatar: Anecdotes from an...

  M. Star

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  Ever wonder what it’s like to live in Qatar? Well M hadn’t. He couldn’t have even found it on a map... then found himself there.
   
  When M arrived in Qatar from London on his newly-minted expat assignment, he didn’t expect to be confronted with life’s most existential choices...so immediately.
   
  And he dragged his girlfriend-cum-wife too.
   
  “But I wanted to go to Singapore,” she said.
   
  “We got at least half-way there!”
   
  From job offer, to eloping in Las Vegas (because living together out of wedlock is haram), to having a kid - and back again, “TIQ” is a humorous, if not slightly exaggerated, acerbic account of an amateur expat’s trials and tribulations waaaay out of his depth in a country, frankly, he had never heard of.
   
  If you’re about to move to Qatar, or if you ever thought you wanted to visit (you KNOW you want to), TIQ will help you frame (and perhaps even answer) some non-trivial questions such as:
   
  - What would you choose with your marginal dollar - beer, or bacon?
   
  - Is it OK to eat your lunch on the toilet?
   
  - Who’s that scary voice on the radio every morning? and
   
  - Are traffic signs really just...guidelines?
   
  If you weren’t planning on moving to Qatar, or even visiting - the shock, laughs and jaw-droppingly ridiculous happenstances might just even move the needle (albeit slightly).
   
  Way back when M  got his Hebrew tattoo, his mom, like any good Jewish-American, said, “Well, now you’ll never be able to go to the Middle East.”
   
  M just scoffed and said, “Middle East? Me? Never.”
   
  Who’s laughing now?
   
  (And by the way: the answer is definitely never bacon.) 

  Voir livre

• 

  The Fathers of the Soviet Union

  Editors Charles River

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  Among the leaders of the 20th century, arguably none shaped the course of history as much as Vladimir Lenin (1870-1942), the Communist revolutionary and political theorist who led the Bolshevik Revolution that established the Soviet Union. In addition to shaping the Marxist-Leninist political thought that steered Soviet ideology, he was the first Soviet premier until his death and set the Soviet Union on its way to becoming one of the world’s two superpowers for most of the century, in addition to being the West’s Cold War adversary. 
  As it turned out, the creation of the Soviet Union came near the end of Lenin’s life, as he worked so hard that he had burned himself out by his 50s, dying in 1924 after a series of strokes had completely debilitated him. In the initial aftermath of Lenin’s death, Trotsky had been his ally’s heir apparent, and for those inclined to believe the Soviet experiment had started promisingly but gone astray, Trotsky became the embodiment of the betrayed promise of the early Bolshevik revolution. There were certain ironies in this widespread sympathetic interpretation of Trotsky’s legacy, because Trotsky had overseen and spearheaded campaigns of persecution against Russians suspected of “counterrevolutionary” leanings, and he had written a long tract defending these “terroristic” measures as necessary safeguards of the revolution. 
  Near the end of his life, Lenin expressly stated that the regime's power should not be put in the hands of the current General Secretary of the Communist Party, Joseph Stalin. Of course, Stalin managed to do just that, modernizing the Soviet Union at a breakneck pace on the backs of millions of poor laborers and prisoners. If Adolf Hitler had not inflicted the devastation of World War II upon Europe, it’s quite likely that the West would consider Stalin (1878-1953) the 20th century’s greatest tyrant.

  Voir livre

• 

  The Allure of Elsewhere - A...

  Karen Babine

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  One woman's cross-country journey to explore the hold family history has on our lives, and the power of new stories to shape what lies ahead. 
   
  In her mid-thirties and happily single, Karen Babine hitches up her tiny Scamp camper and sets out with her two unenthusiastic cats on a journey from her home in Minnesota to Nova Scotia to explore the place where her French-Acadian ancestors settled in North America some four centuries ago. 
   
  As the miles roll by, she wonders: "Why do we carry this need to belong to an established history? What happens when that can't—or shouldn't—happen?" The road reveals more questions than answers about her history, identity, and belonging, about the responsibilities of stories and silence, about her life choices, and what it means to be driven by both a strong sense of kinship to a close-knit family on one hand and a deep desire for independence on the other. 
   
  Capturing the joy, freedom, and powerful pull of the open road, The Allure of Elsewhere is about the stories we're told, the stories we tell, and the way those stories make us who we are. Intimate, curious, and candid, written with wry wit and warmth, this is a courageous and inspiring memoir.

  Voir livre