When Vladimir Putin an unimportant low-level KGB operative was rushed to power by a group of Oligarchs in 1999 he was a man without a history Within a few brief years Putin had dismantled Russia's media wrested control & wealth from the country's burgeoning business class & decimated the fragile mechanisms of democracy Virtually every obstacle to his unbridled control was removed & every opposing voice silenced with political rivals & critics driven into exile or to the grave Drawing on information & sources no other writer has tapped Masha Gessen's fearless account charts Putin's rise from the boy who had scrapped his way through post-war Leningrad schoolyards to the 'faceless' man who manoeuvred his way into absolute
- & absolutely corrupt
- power

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Please note this is a region 2 DVD & will require a region 2 (Europe) or region Free DVD Player in order to play Mel Gibson directed & starred in this rites of passage movie Gibson plays the disfigured teacher Mc Leod who befriends a young & lonely boy Chuck Nastadt & secretly provides him with tuition so that he can pass the entry exams of the military academy once attended by the boy&s late father The friendship causes gossip amongst the tightly knit community leading to accusations of abuse against the innocent Mc Leod ...

From bestselling author Joyce Carol Oates a taut & fascinating novel that examines the mysteries of human memory & personality In 1965 a young research scientist named Margot Sharpe meets Elihu Hoopes the subject of her study a handsome amnesiac who cannot remember anything beyond the last seventy seconds Over the course of thirty years the two embark on mirroring journeys of self-discovery Margot enthralled by her charming mysterious & deeply lonely patient as well as her officious supervisor attempts to unlock Eli's shuttered memories of a childhood trauma without losing her own sense of identity in the process & Eli haunted by memories of an unknown girl's body underneath the surface of a lake pushes to finally know himself once again despite potentially devastating consequences As Margot & Eli meet over & over again Joyce Carol Oates' tightly written nearly clinical prose propels the lives of these two characters forwards both suspended in a dream-like shadowy present & seemingly balanced on the thinnest sharpest of lines between past & future Made vivid by Oates' eye for detail & searing insight into the human psyche The Man Without a Shadow is an eerie ambitious & structurally complex novel as poignant as it is thrilling ...

With an introduction by Jonathan Lethem It is 1913 & Viennese high society is determined to find an appropriate way of celebrating the seventieth jubilee of the accession of Emperor Franz Josef But as the aristocracy tries to salvage something illustrious out of the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire the ordinary Viennese world is beginning to show signs of more serious rebellion Caught in the middle of this social labyrinth is Ulrich youngish rich an ex-soldier seducer & scientist Unable to deceive himself that the jumble of attributes & values that his world has bestowed on him amounts to anything so innate as a 'character' he is effectively a man 'without qualities' a brilliant detached observer of the spinning racing society around him Part satire part visionary epic part intellectual tour de force The Man Without Qualities by Robert Musil is a work of immeasurable importance ...

We often invoke the "magic" of mass media to describe seductive advertising or charismatic politicians In The Mana of Mass Society William Mazzarella asks what happens to social theory if we take that idea seriously How would it change our understanding of publicity propaganda love & power? Mazzarella reconsiders the concept of "mana" which served in early anthropology as a troubled bridge between "primitive" ritual & the fascination of mass media Thinking about mana Mazzarella shows means rethinking some of our most fundamental questions What powers authority? What in us responds to it? Is the mana that animates an Aboriginal ritual the same as the mana that infuses a rioting crowd a television audience or an internet public? At the intersection of anthropology & critical theory The Mana of Mass Society brings recent conversations around affect sovereignty & emergence into creative contact with classic debates on religion charisma ideology & aesthetics ...

From the post room to the board room everyone thinks they can be the manager But how do you manage outrageous talent? What do you do to inspire loyalty from your players? How do you turn around a team in crisis? What's the best way to build long-term success? How can you lead calmly under pressure? The issues are the same whether you're managing a Premier League football team or a FTSE 100 company Here for the first time some 30 of the biggest names in football management reveal just what it takes With their every act remark & success or failure under constant scrutiny from the media & the fans these managers need to be the most adroit of leaders In The Manager they explain their methods offer lessons they've learned along the way & describe the decisions they make & the leadership they provide Each chapter tackles a key leadership issue for managers in any walk of life & in their own words shows how the experts deal with the challenges they face in an abnormally high-pressure environment Offering valuable lessons for business leaders & fascinating behind-the-scenes insights for football fans The Manager is an honest accessible & unprecedented look at the day-to-day work of these high-profile characters & the world of top-level football management Featuring Roy Hodgson Carlo Ancelotti Arsene Wenger Sam Allardyce Roberto Mancini Jose Mourinho Brendan Rodgers Harry Redknapp Sir Alex Ferguson Walter Smith Mick Mc Carthy Gerard Houllier Tony Pulis Martin O' Neill Neil Warnock Howard Wilkinson Kevin Keegan Dario Gradi Andre Villas-Boas David Moyes Alex Mc Leish Hope Powell Martin Jol Glenn Hoddle Chris Hughton David Platt Paul Ince & George Graham ...

Featuring recipes from TV chefs Aiden Byrne Simon Rogan & Masterchef winner Simon Wood The Manchester Cook Book celebrates the culinary diversity in the capital of the north with more than 45 recipes from some of the city's finest food establishments local restaurants cafes delis pubs & producers 224 pages Eddison Kate ...

Perfect for fans of HOMELAND this is the classic novel of espionage & intrigue Sgt Raymond Shaw is a hero of the first order He's an ex-prisoner of war who saved the life of his entire outfit a winner of the Congressional Medal of Honor the stepson of an influential senatorand the perfect assassin Brainwashed during his time as a POW he is a 'sleeper' a living weapon to be triggered by a secret signal He will act without question no matter what order he is made to carry out To stop Shaw his former commanding officer must uncover the truth behind a twisted conspiracy of torture betrayal & power that will lead to the highest levels of the government ...

Please note this is a region B Blu-ray & will require a region B or region free Blu-ray player in order to play WHY DON T YOU PASS THE TIME BY PLAYING A LITTLE SOLITAIRE? After saving the lives of his platoon during the Korean War Sergeant Raymond Shaw (Laurence Harvey) is hailed as a bona fide American hero This couldn t have come at a better time for his mother (Angela Lansbury) who is hell-bent on boosting the career of his stepfather a senator straight from the Mc Carthyite wing of the US political spectrum with designs on the Presidency So far so familiar but why does Shaw s former captain (Frank Sinatra) have recurring nightmares that suggest that his distinguished comrade-in-arms might not be all that he seems? Based on the memorably paranoid bestseller by Richard Condon (Prizzi s Honor) this is one of the greatest of all Cold War suspense thrillers not least for its alarmingly original take on the notion of the enemy within Angela Lansbury won multiple awards & an Oscar nomination for her performance as one of the most monstrous mothers in screen history but perhaps the most unnerving thing about the film is the way that its political satire remains so perfectly on target more than half a century later SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) & Standard Definition DVD presentation of the main feature transferred from original elements by MGM Uncompressed 10 mono PCM soundtrack Optional English SDH subtitles Audio commentary by director John Frankenheimer The Directors John Frankenheimer an hour-long portrait from 2003 including interviews with Frankenheimer Kirk Douglas Samuel L Jackson Roy Scheider Rod Steiger & many others Interview with John Frankenheimer Frank Sinatra & screenwriter George Axelrod from the film s 1988 revival Queen of Diamonds an interview with Angela Lansbury A Little Solitaire an appreciation of the film by director William Friedkin (The Exorcist) Theatrical trailer Reversible sleeve featuring original & newly commissioned artwork by Jay Shaw Collector s booklet containing new writing by Peter Knight (Conspiracy Culture) & Neil Sanders (Your Thoughts Are Not Your Own) illustrated with original production stills ...

This beautiful colouring book
- designed especially for grown-ups
- is the perfect way to kill time or distract you from tiresome

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