万本电子书0元读

万本电子书0元读

Care for Your Hamster (RSPCA Pet Guide)
Care for Your Hamster (RSPCA Pet Guide)
RSPCA
¥32.18
Published in association with the RSPCA, the UK’s leading animal welfare charity, this practical family guide is full of expert advice on how to choose a hamster and how best to look after it. If you already own or are planning to buy a hamster this easy-to-use introductory guide is a must. Clearly illustrated with colour photographs throughout, it covers all aspects of daily care including housing, feeding, handling, hygiene, exercise and first aid. Published in association with the experts at the RSPCA, this book will help you ensure that you are giving your hamster the best possible care.
Nowhere to Go
Nowhere to Go
Casey Watson
¥58.86
Bestselling author and foster carer Casey Watson shares the shocking true story of Tyler, an abused eleven-year-old who, after stabbing his step-mother, had nowhere else to go. Knowing a little of Tyler’s past – his biological mother, a heroin addict, died of an overdose when he was three – Casey feels bound to do her best for him. It isn’t easy; Tyler continuously lashes out, even trying to attack Casey herself. Investigation into his earlier childhood reveals why: forced to watch his mother die he was found emaciated and traumatised two days later, then delivered to a father who didn’t want him and a step-mother who beat him. With the horrific events of his past now vividly affecting the course of his present, Casey and her husband Mike are determined to veer him away from the violence and drugs they fear he will come to depend on. Heartbreaking and profoundly moving, Nowhere to Go tells the story of a child forsaken by his family but fought for by his foster carers.
Belly Dancing and Beating the Odds
Belly Dancing and Beating the Odds
Yvette Cowles
¥11.77
When 32-year-old Yvette Cowles contracted breast cancer she was determined it would not get in the way of her belly dancing dreams. Spirited and light-hearted, “Belly Dancing and Beating the Odds” is the true story of one woman’s quest to be the best breastless belly dancer in the business… Whilst most people see little to smile about when they hear the word “cancer”, for Yvette it was just another opportunity to find the silver lining. From realising the positives in a breast-free existence (think Audrey Hepburn physique and the uses of aero-dynamism when sales shopping), transforming her hospital cubicle into a sequinned boudoir and entertaining the nurses with her inflatable male companion, Yvette is determined not to let it get her down. Told with warmth and lively good humour, Yvette’s short story will move and inspire you – and might even persuade you to dig out your dancing shoes.
The Real Lady Detective Agency:A True Story
The Real Lady Detective Agency:A True Story
Rebecca Jane
¥63.18
The true story of the Lady Detective Agency, one of the UK’s most successful female private detective services. The Agency exists for one purpose: to expose the truth. Cheating husbands, bad boyfriends and guilty consciences beware… For the first time, the Agency is opening its doors and revealing its secrets. Why won’t he ever let you use his phone? Why is he always going on about that girl from work? Is he cheating on you? There’s one way to find out – ask him. Then (when he lies) call Rebecca Jane, founder and owner of the Lady Detective Agency. The Agency exists to find the truth. Whether that means trailing a transsexual prostitute through the streets of London, following suspected cheats on stag parties, tracking down someone’s beloved three-legged cat or uncovering famous people’s affairs, Rebecca and her elite team will help. Whatever it takes. Their extraordinary dedication stems from first-hand experience of deception. Here Rebecca not only reveals her clients’ fascinating stories, but her own rollercoaster journey too – from early success to crushing failure, scandal, abuse and affairs, and ultimately to finding true love. At times heartbreaking, hilarious and eye-opening, this vibrantly-written compilation of stories introduces us to a sparkling and witty new voice in Rebecca and her crack team of female detectives who are always ready to solve any case, no matter how big or small.
The Medieval Anarchy:History in an Hour
The Medieval Anarchy:History in an Hour
Kaye Jones
¥18.05
Love history? Know your stuff with History in an Hour. Nicknamed ‘The Anarchy' for its unprecedented levels of chaos and disorder, the succession crisis that followed the death of King Henry I in 1135 resulted in England's first civil war. ‘The Medieval Anarchy: History in an Hour’ neatly covers all the major facts and events giving you a clear and straightforward overview of the plots and violence that ensued during the the nineteen-year conflict. ‘The Medieval Anarchy: History in an Hour’ is engagingly written and accessible for all history lovers. This, in an hour, is the story of ‘The Medieval Anarchy’ through the personalities, context, events and aftermath of England's first, and often forgotten, civil war. Love your history? Find out about the world with History in an Hour…
Last Words
Last Words
William Burroughs,James Grauerholz
¥81.03
‘Where are the snows of yesteryear. And the speedballs I useta know? Well, I guess it’s time for my Ovaltine and a long good night.’ In 1996 William Burroughs began writing a final journal. He died the following summer after a life of notoriety: godfather of the Beat writers, author of thirteen controversial novels, druggy, dangerous and bleak. Spanning the realms of personal memoir, cultural criticism and fiction, Burroughs’ diaries include anecdotes and memories, entries on his beloved cats and the joys of housekeeping, and musings on drug-taking, humanity and government cover-ups. ‘Last Words’ contains some of the most brutally personal prose in the William Burroughs canon, and the deaths of his friends, Allen Ginsberg and Timothy Leary, provide a window onto his own preparations for death – a quest for absolution marked by a profound sense of guilt and loss.
Confessions of a Police Constable (The Confessions Series)
Confessions of a Police Constable (The Confessions Series)
Matt Delito
¥61.51
Thieving ninjas, racist fast-food patrons, road traffic accidents, mischievous shoplifters, sudden deaths, car chases, and domestic violence – it’s all in a day’s work for London-based PC Matt Delito. Working at the front-line on the streets of London can be thrilling, frightening, rewarding, infuriating, and sometimes plain hilarious. In this eye-opening account of on-the-beat policing, Delito narrates some of his most interesting cases – from working undercover in a city club to being ambushed in the London riots – as well as taking us through the gadgets, procedures, and lingo that go with life at the other end of a 999 call. From the team that brought you the bestselling CONFESSIONS OF A GP and CONFESSIONS OF A MALE NURSE comes CONFESSIONS OF A POLICE CONSTABLE: a book that will shine a light on the gripping, touching and shocking realities of life as a city police constable. What did you do at work today?
Sacred Relics
Sacred Relics
Barnett, Teresa
¥329.62
A piece of Plymouth Rock. A lock of George Washington's hair. Wood from the cabin where Abraham Lincoln was born. Various bits and pieces of the past-often called "e;association items"e;-may appear to be eccentric odds and ends, but they are valued because of their connections to prominent people and events in American history. Kept in museum collections large and small across the United States, such objects are the touchstones of our popular engagement with history.In Sacred Relics, Teresa Barnett explores the history of private collections of items like these, illuminating how Americans view the past. She traces the relic-collecting tradition back to eighteenth-century England, then on to articles belonging to the founding fathers and through the mass collecting of artifacts that followed the Civil War. Ultimately, Barnett shows how we can trace our own historical collecting from the nineteenth century's assemblages of the material possessions of great men and women.
Modernity Bluff
Modernity Bluff
Newell, Sasha
¥265.87
In Cte d'Ivoire, appearing modern is so important for success that many young men deplete their already meager resources to project an illusion of wealth in a fantastic display of Western imitation, spending far more than they can afford on brand name clothing, accessories, technology, and a robust nightlife. Such imitation, however, is not primarily meant to deceive-rather, as Sasha Newell argues in?The Modernity Bluff, it is an explicit performance so valued in Cte d'Ivoire it has become a matter of national pride.Called bluffeurs, these young urban men operate in a system of cultural economy where reputation is essential for financial success. That reputation is measured by familiarity with and access to the fashionable and expensive, which leads to a paradoxical state of affairs in which the wasting of wealth is essential to its accumulation. Using the consumption of Western goods to express their cultural mastery over Western taste, Newell argues, bluffeurs engage a global hierarchy that is profoundly modern, one that values performance over authenticityhighlighting the counterfeit nature of modernity itself.
Uncivil Rights
Uncivil Rights
Perrillo, Jonna
¥265.87
Almost fifty years after?Brown v. Board of Education, a wealth of research shows that minority students continue to receive an unequal education. At the heart of this inequality is a complex and often conflicted relationship between teachers and civil rights activists, examined fully for the first time in Jonna Perrillo's?Uncivil Rights, which traces the tensions between the two groups in New York City from the Great Depression to the present.While movements for teachers' rights and civil rights were not always in conflict, Perrillo uncovers the ways?they have become so, brought about both by teachers who have come to see civil rights efforts as detracting from or competing with their own goals and by civil rights activists whose aims have de-professionalized the role of the educator. Focusing in particular on unionized teachers, Perrillo finds a new vantage point from which to examine the relationship between school and community, showing how in this struggle, educators, activists, and especially our students have lost out.?
Combating Jihadism
Combating Jihadism
Mendelsohn, Barak
¥247.21
Although terrorism is an age-old phenomenon, jihadi ideology is distinctive in its ambition to abandon the principle of state sovereignty, overthrow the modern state system, and replace it with an extremely radical interpretation of an Islamic world order. These characteristics reflect a radical break from traditional objectives promoted by terrorist groups. In Combating Jihadism Barak Mendelsohn argues that the distinctiveness of the al-Qaeda threat led the international community to change its approach to counterterrorism. Contrary to common yet erroneous conceptions, the United States, in its role as a hegemon, was critical for the formulation of a multilateral response.While most analyses of hegemony have focused on power, Mendelsohn firmly grounds the phenomenon in a web of shared norms and rules relating to the hegemon's freedom of action. Consequently, he explains why US leadership in counterterrorism efforts was in some spheres successful, when in others it failed or did not even seek to establish multilateral collaborative frameworks. Tracing the ways in which international cooperation has stopped terrorist efforts, Combating Jihadism provides a nuanced, innovative, and timely reinterpretation of the war on terrorism and the role of the United States in leading the fight against al-Qaeda and its affiliates.
Death of Socrates
Death of Socrates
Mongin, Jean Paul
¥123.61
At its most basic, philosophy is about learning how to think about the world around us. It should come as no surprise, then, that children make excellent philosophers! Naturally inquisitive, pint-size scholars need little prompting before being willing to consider life's "e;big questions,"e; however strange or impractical. Plato & Co. introduces children-and curious grown-ups-to the lives and work of famous philosophers, from Descartes to Socrates, Einstein, Marx, and Wittgenstein. Each book in the series features an engaging-and often funny-story that presents basic tenets of philosophical thought alongside vibrant color illustrations."e;Tell us, Delphic Oracle, who is the wisest man in all of Greece?"e; So begins The Death of Socrates. No mortal man is wiser than Socrates, who, on his daily walks through Athens, talks to all the people he meets. When the person he talks to takes himself to be very wise, Socrates asks so many questions that the person ends up admitting he knows nothing. When he runs into people who know little, Socrates sets them on the way to wisdom. But not everyone shares Socrates's love for the truth. When the people of Athens become angry with him for his ceaseless questioning, how will he find the courage to continue to speak the truth Plato & Co.'s clear approach and charming illustrations make this series the perfect addition to any little library.
This New Yet Unapproachable America
This New Yet Unapproachable America
Cavell, Stanley
¥141.26
Stanley Cavell is a titan of the academic world; his work in aesthetics and philosophy has shaped both fields in the United States over the past forty years. In this brief yet enlightening collection of lectures, Cavell investigates the work of two of his most tried-and-true subjects: Emerson and Wittgenstein. Beginning with an introductory essay that places his own work in a philosophical and historical context, Cavell guides his reader through his thought process when composing and editing his lectures while making larger claims about the influence of institutions on philosophers, and the idea of progress within the discipline of philosophy. In "e;Declining Decline,"e; Cavell explains how language modifies human existence, looking specifically at the culture of Wittgenstein's writings. He draws on Emerson, Thoreau, and many others to make his case that Wittgenstein can indeed be viewed as a "e;philosopher of culture."e; In his final lecture, "e;Finding as Founding,"e; Cavell writes in response to Emerson's "e;Experience,"e; and explores the tension between the philosopher and language-that he or she must embrace language as his or her?"e;form of life,"e; while at the same time surpassing its restrictions. He compares finding new ideas to discovering a previously unknown land in an essay that unabashedly celebrates the power and joy of philosophical thought.?
Simone
Simone
Lalo, Eduardo
¥141.26
Eduardo Lalo is one of the most vital and unique voices of Latin American literature, but his work is relatively little known in the English-speaking world. That changes now: this masterful translation of his most celebrated novel, Simone-which won the 2013 Romulo Gallegos International Novel Prize-will introduce an English-language audience to this extraordinary literary talent.A tale of alienation, love, suspense, imagination, and literature set on the streets of San Juan, Puerto Rico, Simone tells the story of a self-educated Chinese immigrant student courting (and stalking) a disillusioned, unnamed writer who is struggling to make a name for himself in a place that is not exactly a hotbed of literary fame. By turns solipsistic and political, romantic and dark, Simone begins with the writer's frustrated, satiric observations on his native city and the banal life of the university where he teaches-forces utterly at odds with the sensuality of his writing. But, as mysterious messages and literary clues begin to appear-scrawled on sidewalks and walls, inside volumes set out in bookstores, left on his answering machine and under his windshield wiper-Simone progresses into a cat-and-mouse game between the writer and his mystery stalker. When the eponymous Simone's identity is at last revealed, the writer finds in the life of this Chinese immigrant a plight not unlike his own. Traumatized and lonely, the pair moves towards bittersweet collaborations in passion, grief, and art.
Invisible
Invisible
Ball, Philip
¥211.90
If offered the chance-by cloak, spell, or superpower-to be invisible, who wouldn't want to give it a tryWe are drawn to the idea of stealthy voyeurism and the ability to conceal our own acts, but as desirable as it may seem, invisibility is also dangerous. It is not just an optical phenomenon, but a condition full of ethical questions. As esteemed science writer Philip Ball reveals in this book, the story of invisibility is not so much a matter of how it might be achieved but of why we want it and what we would do with it.In this lively look at a timeless idea, Ball provides the first comprehensive history of our fascination with the unseen. This sweeping narrative moves from medieval spell books to the latest nanotechnology, from fairy tales to telecommunications, from camouflage to ghosts to the dawn of nuclear physics and the discovery of dark energy. ?Along the way, Invisible tells little-known stories about medieval priests who blamed their misdeeds on spirits; the Cock Lane ghost, which intrigued both Samuel Johnson and Charles Dickens; the attempts by Victorian scientist William Crookes to detect forces using tiny windmills; novelist Edward Bulwer-Lytton's belief that he was unseen when in his dressing gown; and military efforts to enlist magicians to hide tanks and ships during WWII. ?Bringing in such voices as Plato and Shakespeare, Ball provides not only a scientific history but a cultural one-showing how our simultaneous desire for and suspicion of the invisible has fueled invention and the imagination for centuries.In this unusual and clever book, Ball shows that our fantasies about being unseen-and seeing the unseen-reveal surprising truths about who we are.
O, How the Wheel Becomes It!
O, How the Wheel Becomes It!
Powell, Anthony
¥123.61
The first novel Anthony Powell published following the completion of his epic A Dance to the Music of Time, O, How the Wheel Becomes It! fulfills perhaps every author's fantasy as it skewers a conceited, lazy, and dishonest critic. A writer who avoids serving in World War II and veers in and out of marriage, G. F. H. Shadbold ultimately falls victim to the title's spinning-and righteous-emblem of chance. Sophisticated and a bit cruel, Wheel's tale of posthumous vengeance is, nonetheless, irresistible.Written at the peak of the late British master's extraordinary literary career, this novel offers profound insight into the mind of a great artist whose unequaled style, ear for dialogue, and eye for irony will delight devotees and new readers alike.
Walking
Walking
Bernhard, Thomas
¥123.61
Thomas Bernhard is "e;one of the masters of contemporary European fiction"e; (George Steiner); "e;one of the century's most gifted writers"e; (Newsday); "e;a virtuoso of rancor and rage"e; (Bookforum). And although he is favorably compared with Franz Kafka, Samuel Beckett, and Robert Musil, it is only in recent years that he has gained a devoted cult following in America.A powerful, compact novella, Walking provides a perfect introduction to the absurd, dark, and uncommonly comic world of Bernhard, showing a preoccupation with themes-illness and madness, isolation, tragic friendships-that would obsess Bernhard throughout his career. Walking records the conversations of the unnamed narrator and his friend Oehler while they walk, discussing anything that comes to mind but always circling back to their mutual friend Karrer, who has gone irrevocably mad. Perhaps the most overtly philosophical work in Bernhard's highly philosophical oeuvre, Walking provides a penetrating meditation on the impossibility of truly thinking.
Flawed System/Flawed Self
Flawed System/Flawed Self
Sharone, Ofer
¥229.55
Today 4.7 million Americans have been unemployed for more than six months. In France more than ten percent of the working population is without work. In Israel it's above seven percent. And in Greece and Spain, that number approaches thirty percent. Across the developed world, the experience of unemployment has become frighteningly common-and so are the seemingly endless tactics that job seekers employ in their quest for new work.Flawed System/Flawed Self?delves beneath these staggering numbers to explore the world of job searching and unemployment across class and nation. Through in-depth interviews and observations at job-search support organizations, Ofer Sharone reveals how different labor-market institutions give rise to job-search games like Israel's rsum-based "e;spec games"e;-which are focused on presenting one's skills to fit the job-and the "e;chemistry games"e; more common in the United States in which job seekers concentrate on presenting the person behind the rsum. By closely examining the specific day-to-day activities and strategies of searching for a job, Sharone develops a theory of the mechanisms that connect objective social structures and subjective experiences in this challenging environment and shows how these different structures can lead to very different experiences of unemployment.
Mixed Emotions
Mixed Emotions
Ross, Andrew A. G.
¥229.55
In recent years, it's become increasingly clear that emotion plays a central role in global politics. For example, people readily care about acts of terrorism and humanitarian crises because they appeal to our compassion for human suffering. These struggles also command attention where social interactions have the power to produce or intensify the emotional responses of those who participate in them.?From passionate protests to poignant speeches, Andrew A. G. Ross analyzes high-emotion events with an eye to how they shape public sentiment and finds that there is no single answer. The politically powerful play to the public's emotions to advance their political aims, and such appeals to emotion also often serve to sustain existing values and ?institutions. But the affective dimension can produce profound change, particularly when a struggle in the present can be shown to line up with emotionally resonant events from the past. Extending his findings to well-studied conflicts, including the War on Terror and the violence in Rwanda and the Balkans, Ross identifies important sites of emotional impact missed by earlier research focused on identities and interests.
Saharan Jews and the Fate of French Algeria
Saharan Jews and the Fate of French Algeria
Abrevaya Stein, Sarah
¥229.55
The history of Algerian Jews has thus far been viewed from the perspective of communities on the northern coast, who became, to some extent, beneficiaries of colonialism. ?But to the south, in the Sahara, Jews faced a harsher colonial treatment. In Saharan Jews and the Fate of French Algeria, Sarah Abrevaya Stein asks why the Jews of Algeria's south were marginalized by French authorities, how they negotiated the sometimes brutal results, and what the reverberations have been in the postcolonial era.?Drawing on materials from thirty archives across six countries, Stein tells the story of colonial imposition on a desert community that had lived and traveled in the Sahara for centuries. She paints an intriguing historical picture-of an ancient community, trans-Saharan commerce, desert labor camps during World War II, anthropologist spies, battles over oil, and the struggle for Algerian sovereignty. Writing colonialism and decolonization into Jewish history and Jews into the French Saharan one, Saharan Jews and the Fate of French Algeria is a fascinating exploration not of Jewish exceptionalism but of colonial power and its religious and cultural differentiations, which have indelibly shaped the modern world.?
Good Project
Good Project
Krause, Monika
¥229.55
NGOs set out to save lives, relieve suffering, and service basic human needs. They are committed to serving people across national borders and without regard to race, ethnicity, gender, or religion, and they offer crucial help during earthquakes, tsunamis, wars, and pandemics. But with so many ailing areas in need of assistance, how do these organizations decide where to go-and who gets the aid?In?The Good Project, Monika Krause dives into the intricacies of the decision-making process at NGOs and uncovers a basic truth: It may be the case that relief agencies try to help people but, in practical terms, the main focus of their work is to produce projects. Agencies sell projects to key institutional donors, and in the process the project and its beneficiaries become commodities. In an effort to guarantee a successful project, organizations are incentivized to help those who are easy to help, while those who are hardest to help often receive no assistance at all. The poorest of the world are made to compete against each other to become projects-and in exchange they offer legitimacy to aid agencies and donor governments. Sure to be controversial,?The Good Project?offers a provocative new perspective on how NGOs succeed and fail on a local and global level.