The history of mountaineering has long served as a metaphor for civilization triumphant. Once upon a time, the Alps were an inaccessible habitat of specters & dragons, until heroic men--pioneers of enlightenment--scaled their summits, classified their strata & flora, & banished the phantoms forever. A fascinating interdisciplinary study of the first ascents of the major Alpine peaks & Mount Everest, The Summits of Modern Man surveys the far-ranging significance of our encounters with the world`s most alluring & forbidding heights. Our obsession with ”who got to the top first” may have begun in 1786, the year Jacques Balmat & Michel-Gabriel Paccard climbed Mont Blanc & inaugurated an era in which Romantic notions of the sublime spurred climbers` aspirations. In the following decades, climbing lost its revolutionary cachet as it became associated instead with bourgeois outdoor leisure. Still, the mythic stories of mountaineers, threaded through with themes of imperialism, masculinity, & ascendant Western science & culture, seized the imagination of artists & historians well into the twentieth century, providing grist for stage shows, poetry, films, & landscape paintings. Today, we live on the threshold of a hot planet, where melting glaciers & rising sea levels create ambivalence about the conquest of nature. Long after Hillary & Tenzing`s ascent of Everest, though, the image of modern man supreme on the mountaintop retains its currency. Peter Hansen`s exploration of these persistent images indicates how difficult it is to imagine our relationship with nature in terms other than domination. ...

Rich Cohen enters the Stones epic as a young journalist on the road with the band & quickly falls under their sway
- privy to the
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From Rupi Kaur, the top ten Sunday Times bestselling author of milk & honey, comes her long-awaited second collection of poetry. Illustrated by Kaur, the sun & her flowers is a journey of wilting, falling, rooting, rising & blooming. It is a celebration of love in all its forms. ...

In this preschool collection we have created an anthology of classic stories & less-familiar favorites that younger children will love. With language tailored to be easily understood by two- & three-year-olds, this is a perfect choice for bedtime, storytime or any other time that calls for sharing. This multicultural anthology combines best-loved children's stories such as The Ugly Duckling & The Three Little Pigs with lesser-known favorites like The Timid Hare. Vivid illustrations & easy-to-follow text make this volume perfect for reading aloud to young children. ...

Armed only with a bike & great sense of humour, “ The Sun In My Eyes” sees Josie Dew return to Japan for a second dose of its eccentric & mysterious culture. Japan is a land of contradictions; where snow-topped mountains & picturesque gardens are but a stone’s throw away from concrete, cars & dense pollution; a country whose keyword is peace, yet spends millions each year on high-tech armament But wherever she goes, no matter how remote or industrious the area, Josie encounters the friendly, quirky & unbelievably generous Japanese people, from those who load her down with cabbages & cans of Pocari Sweat to one couple who left her the key to their shop
- & told her to sleep by the till!
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` Who can I trust in this nest of vipers?`1661 is a year of destiny for France & its young king, Louis XIV. Cardinal Mazarin, the Chief Minister who has governed throughout the King`s early years, lies dying. As a fierce power struggle develops to succeed him, a religious brotherhood, guardian of a centuries-old secret, also sees its chance to influence events. Gabriel de Pontbri&, an aspiring actor employed as secretary to Moliere, becomes unwittingly involved when documents stolen from Mazarin`s palace fall into his hands. The coded papers will alter Gabriel`s life for ever, & their explosive contents have the power to change the course of history for France & the rising Sun King himself. ...

1661 is a year of destiny for France & its young King, Louis XIV. Cardinal Mazarin, the prime minister who has reigned throughout the king`s early years, lies dying. As a fierce power struggle develops to succeed him, a religious brotherhood, guardian of a centuries old secret, also sees its chance to influence events. Gabriel de Pontbri&, a young actor, becomes unwittingly involved when documents stolen from Mazarin`s palace fall into his hands. The coded papers will alter Gabriel`s life for ever, & their explosive contents have the power to change the course of history for France & Louis XIV. Fact & fiction combine in a fast-moving story of intrigue, conspiracy & love set in seventeenth century France. ...

When Londoner JP Floru tags along with three friends running the marathon in Pyongyang, little could have prepared him for what he witnessed. Shown by two minders what the regime wants them to see during their nine-day trip, the group is astounded when witnessing people bowing to their leaders` statues; being told not to take photos of the leaders` feet; & hearing the hushed reverence with which people recite the history invented by the regime to keep itself in power. Often, the group did not understand what they were seeing: from the empty five-lane motorway to the missing fifth floor of their Yanggakdo Hotel on an island in the Pudong River; many answers only came through extensive research of the few sources that exist about this hermit country. Shocking & scary, The Sun Tyrant uncovers the oddities & tragedies at the heart of the world`s most secretive regime, & shows what happens when a population is reduced to near-slavery in the twenty-first century. ...

Reviewing previous theories about the site of Plato's city of Atlantis
- some fantastic, some rational
- this work offers a

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Frances had read of a man who painted with only the colour yellow. He lived in the north of Norway. In the beautiful, barren landscape of the Far North, under the ever-present midnight sun, Frances & Yasha are surprised to find refuge in each other. Their lives have been upended
- Frances has fled heartbreak & claustrophobic Manhattan for an isolated artist colony; Yasha, a Russian immigrant raised in a bakery in Brighton Beach, arrives from Brooklyn to fulfill his beloved father`s last wish: to be buried `at the top of the world`. They have come to learn how to be alone. But in Lofoten, an archipelago of six tiny islands in the Norwegian Sea, ninety-five miles north of the Arctic Circle, they form a bond that fortifies them against the turmoil of their distant homes, offering solace amidst great uncertainty. With nimble & sure-footed prose enriched with humour & warmth, Rebecca Dinerstein`s enchanting debut reminds us that no matter how far we travel to claim our own territory, it is love that gives us our place in the world.
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