Other books that might interest you

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  A Rough Ride to the Future

  James Lovelock

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  The great scientific visionary of our age presents a radical vision of humanity’s future as the thinking brain of our Earth-system. 
   
  A Rough Ride to the Future introduces two new Lovelock­ian ideas. The first is that three hundred years ago, when Thomas Newcomen invented the steam engine, he was un­knowingly beginning what James Lovelock calls “accelerated evolu­tion.” That is a process that is bringing about change on our planet roughly a million times faster than Darwinian evolution. The second idea is that as part of this process, humanity has the capacity to become the intelligent part of Gaia, the self-regulating earth system whose discovery Lovelock first an­nounced nearly fifty years ago.  A Rough Ride to theFuture is also an intellectual autobiography, in which Lovelock reflects on his life as a lone scientist and asks—eloquently—whether his career trajec­tory is possible in an age of increased bureaucratization.   
   
  We are now changing the atmosphere again, and Lovelock argues that there is little that can be done about this. But instead of feeling guilty, we should recognize what is happening, prepare for change, and ensure that we survive as a species so we can contribute to—perhaps even guide—the next evolution of Gaia. The road will be rough, but if we are smart enough, life will continue on earth in some form far into the future. 
   
  Praise for A Rought Ride to the Future 
   
  “Arresting and disturbing . . . Lovelock writes wonderfully well. With the authority of age, his voice is that of an elder statesman . . . The result is mellifluous and fluent.” —Nature 
   
    
   
  “Though the subject matter could scarcely be more discouraging, Lovelock’s fluent prose and vast range of knowledge make it a surprisingly easy read. . . . His writing has enormous warmth and vitality.” —Financial Times 
   
    
   
  “The most important book for me this year . . . Lovelock is the most prescient of scientists. . . . He has given us a handbook for human survival.” —John Gray, The Guardian 
   
  “Not simply another look at Mother Nature’s uncertain future, but a revealing glimpse at the life of an outspoken and accomplished man of ideas.” —Publishers Weekly

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  Lara The Runaway Cat: One cat’s...

  Dion Leonard, Sophie Pembroke

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  Lara the Runaway Cat tells the story of Gobi, the loveable pup who followed Dion Leonard across a gruelling 155-mile trek across the Gobi Desert, and her mischievous cat sister, Lara, who runs away from her family, seeking a courageous adventure and different life. 
  Lara doesn’t realise how good she has it in her home in Edinburgh with her owners, Dion and Lucja, and of course her sister, Gobi. If she’s being honest, she’s jealous of Gobi’s fame and the international attention she has received ever since Dion found her. Okay, Gobi may have survived an ultra-marathon across the Gobi Desert, but it’s not as if Lara doesn’t earn her fresh prawns! She dreams about the day when she can go outdoors and see the world, discover new friends and be free to make her own name. 
  But Lara’s wishful thinking gets the better of her as she takes a leap into the unknown and is forced to decide between her loyalties to her family and need to experience an adventure to rival Gobi’s. Join Lara in her eventful travels from Edinburgh to France, Beijing to Australia, where she is faced with challenges that will change her life forever. 
  Following on from the astounding real-life story of Dion Leonard, this fictionalised tale is a must-read for animal lovers everywhere. 
  In Lara the Runaway Cat, bestselling author Dion Leonard takes us on a humorous and heartwarming journey of a cat's adventure from Edinburgh to Australia. This top-rated biography is a testament to the explorers spirit in all of us, especially those who love animals. 
  For fans of Tom Michell (The Penguin Lessons), Susy Flory (Sanctuary), Michael Hingson (Thunder Dog), Dean Nicholson (Nala's World), and Françoise Malby-Anthony (An Elephant in My Kitchen).

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  GameDay - The Untold Story of...

  Tim Cooper

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  College Football is America's Game. The game has a rich history that is woven together with that of the nation which founded it. From the Civil War to the Steel Towns of the Midwest. From the Dust Bowls of The Great Depression to the battlefields of World War II. From The Civil Rights Movement to Campus Protests. From tragedy to 9/11. Whether you Roll Tide or you OH-IO. Whether you are a Michigan Man or a War Eagle. Whether you do the Gator Chomp or the Seminole Chop. This story is for you because it is our story. The story of College Football is The American Story.

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  Bareknuckle - Memoirs of the...

  Peter Walsh, Bartley Gorman

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  As bareknuckle fighting is poised to steal MMA’s spotlight, its greatest modern-day champion tells his story of rising to the top in the brutal sport.   Steeped in the tradition of his Irish Traveller ancestry, Bartley Gorman also embraced its dangerous subculture: bareknuckle fighting. Though it gave birth to boxing as we know it today, the sport has remained underground—and illegal in most developed countries. But that didn’t stop Gorman from rising through the prize-fighting ranks of Great Britain and Ireland and staying undefeated for twenty years.   Now, through Gorman’s thrilling memoir, readers get a front row view of the punches exchanged in back parking lots and fair grounds, the gritty characters populating the fight circles, and the hazards facing a sought after champion. “A rare glimpse into a secret world,” Bareknuckle celebrates one man’s mastery of fighting in its purest form and heralds the rebirth of one of the oldest combat sports in history (The Independent on Sunday).   “Every page shines. A tremendous book.” —Traveller Magazine   “Well-written and interesting.” —Boxing News

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  Broken - How Our Social Systems...

  Paul LeBlanc

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  Many of the systems built to serve people instead do more harm than good. 
   
   
   
  In Broken, Dr. Paul LeBlanc, president of Southern New Hampshire University, draws on his experience working in one such system—education—to reconnect us to the human facets of serving people. In doing so, he charts a course for rebuilding and reinhabiting better systems across education, healthcare, criminal justice, government, and more. 
   
   
   
  The United States spends enormous sums on helping people—$3.8 trillion on healthcare, $182 billion on prisons, and $604 billion on higher education—and yet these systems routinely fail us. 
   
   
   
  When we seek to improve how they function, our efforts focus on policy debates, technical solutions, funding, and data. But if these systems are to truly improve, we have to start with the human values that fuel decision making. 
   
   
    
  Broken explores the deeply human dimensions we must consider—aspiring, discovering, mattering—if we want to rebuild the policies, technologies, processes, and, most importantly, the heart we use to serve people.

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  Victoria's Daughters

  Jerrold M. Packard

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  The story of five women who shared one of the most extraordinary and privileged sisterhoods of all time.Vicky, Alice, Helena, and Beatrice were historically unique sisters, born to a sovereign who ruled over a quarter of the earth's people and who gave her name to an era: Queen Victoria. Two of these princesses would themselves produce children of immense consequence. All five would curiously come to share many of the social restrictions and familial machinations borne by nineteenth-century women of less-exulted class.Victoria and Albert's precocious firstborn child, Vicky, wed a Prussian prince in a political match her high-minded father hoped would bring about a more liberal Anglo-German order. That vision met with disaster when Vicky's son Wilhelm-- to be known as Kaiser Wilhelm-- turned against both England and his mother, keeping her out of the public eye for the rest of her life. Gentle, quiet Alice had a happier marriage, one that produced Alexandra, later to become Tsarina of Russia, and yet another Victoria, whose union with a Battenberg prince was to found the present Mountbatten clan. However, she suffered from melancholia and died at age thirty-five of what appears to have been a deliberate, grief-fueled exposure to the diphtheria germs that had carried away her youngest daughter. Middle child Helena struggled against obesity and drug addition but was to have lasting effect as Albert's literary executor. By contrast, her glittering and at times scandalous sister Louise, the most beautiful of the five siblings, escaped the claustrophobic stodginess of the European royal courts by marrying a handsome Scottish commoner, who became governor general of Canada, and eventually settled into artistic salon life as a respected sculptor. And as the baby of the royal brood of nine, rebelling only briefly to forge a short-lived marriage, Beatrice lived under the thumb of her mother as a kind of personal secretary until the queen's death.Principally researched at the houses and palaces of its five subjects in London, Scotland, Berlin, Darmstadt, and Ottawa-- and entertainingly written by an experienced biographer whose last book concerned Victoria's final days-- Victoria's Daughters closely examines a generation of royal women who were dominated by their mother, married off as much for political advantage as for love, and finally passed over entirely with the accession of their n0 brother Bertie to the throne. Packard provides valuable insights into their complex, oft-tragic lives as daughters of their time.

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