Meet Detective Charlotte Justice, a black woman in the very white, very male, and sometimes very racist Los Angeles Police Department. The time is 48 hours into the epochal L.A. riots and she and her fellow officers are exhausted. She saves the curfew-breaking black doctor Lance Mitchell from a potentially lethal beating from some white officers-only to discover nearby the body of one-time radical Cinque Lewis, a thug who years before had murdered her husband and young daughter. Was it a random shooting or was Mitchell responsible? And what had brought Lewis back to a city he'd long since fled?Charlotte's quest for the truth behind Cinque's death will set her at odds with the LAPD hierarchy, plunge her into the intricacies of everything from L.A.'s gang-banging politics to its black blue-bloods, and lead her into deep emotional waters with Mitchell's partner (and her old flame), Dr. Aubrey Scott.In Charlotte Justice, Paula L. Woods has created a tough, tart, but also vulnerable heroine sure to draw comparisons to such classic figures as Easy Rawlins and Kinsey Milhone, but a true original as well.Winner of the Macavity Award for Best First Mystery Novel from Mystery Readers International.
Allen Wheelis starts from the premise that human beings do not know themselves because deception-including self-deception-is not only a strategy for survival, it is the basis of the social contract whereby man trades his individual freedom for the security of a tribe or state. Are we really motivated by ideals such as freedom, equality, and justice? In fact these are only distractions useful to the state, which demands conscience of us but is itself above all moral constraints, seeking only power. Were we to understand or dwell on our individual mortality, we would not be willing to make the necessary sacrifices or participate in the bloody business of the group.This unsparing map of the human condition is presented in hypnotic prose and illustrated by vivid fictional narratives. Unsparing as it is, the book finds its way to an episode of transcendent love, for this too is part of the way we are.
Why write out of our lives? What can it do for us? How can sharing our stories connect us with others? Acclaimed novelist and essayist Lynn Lauber chronicles her journey as a writer and longtime teacher at creative writing programs around the country. She explores how writing-both fiction and creative nonfiction-has served as a means of personal navigation, a healing and avenging force, and a way of calling up not only a lost daughter but also a lost self. Her story serves as encouragement for others to produce their own personal narratives.Each chapter includes inventive writing exercises and prompts, practical devices for moving past writer's blocks and self-censorship, and advice from Lauber's students as well as renowned authors. Listen to Me expands on the wisdom of Natalie Goldberg's Writing Down the Bones and Anne Lamott's Bird by Bird, offering energizing tips, techniques, and anecdotes in combination with honest and personal experience-sharing.
"Study nature, love nature, stay close to nature. It will never fail you." When Frank Lloyd Wright said this, he probably wasn't envisioning self-cleaning surfaces, the photonic crystal, or Velcro. But nature has indeed yielded such inventions for those scientists and engineers who heeded the architect's words.The cutting-edge science of bio-inspiration gives way to architectural and product designs that mimic intricate mechanisms found in nature. In Peter Forbes's engaging book we discover that the spiny fruits of the cocklebur inspired the hook-and-loop fastener known as Velcro; unfolding leaves, insect wings, and space solar panels share similar origami folding patterns; the self-cleaning leaves of the sacred lotus plant have spawned a new industry of self-cleaning surfaces; and cantilever bridges have much in common with bison spines.As we continue to study nature, bio-inspiration will transform our lives and force us to look at the world in a new way.
Paul Moore's vocation as an Episcopal priest took him- with his wife, Jenny, and their family of nine children-from robber-baron wealth to work among the urban poor, leadership in the civil rights and peace movements, and two decades as the bishop of New York. The Bishop's Daughter is his daughter's story of that complex, visionary man: a chronicle of her turbulent relationship with a father who struggled privately with his sexuality while she openly explored hers and a searching account of the consequences of sexual secrets.
It would seem the stuff of a fevered thriller if it were not all true: Street gang members from San Diego recruited by a drug cartel are embroiled in the murder of a Roman Catholic cardinal at the Guadalajara airport. Border guards struggle to resist the relentless temptation, despair, and lawlessness at the international line, while Mexican federal police ride shotgun for drug lords in Chevy Suburbans stolen in San Diego. A tunnel is dug under the U.S.-Mexico border to a cannery where cocaine is to be hidden in cans of jalapeño peppers. An alliance of Asian and Mexican racketeers smuggle hundreds of Chinese immigrants. A factory worker assassinates the probable next president of Mexico during a campaign rally, and the bosses of his own party are suspected of being the masterminds. And in a surreal penal village, inmates live with their wives and children, entrepreneurs run businesses, and gangsters live in luxury.This is the U.S.-Mexico border in the 1990s, in the age of NAFTA-a microcosm of porous borders everywhere between the worlds of wealth and poverty, legal and illegal business, power and corruption, democracy and authoritarianism, hope and despair. Sebastian Rotella's masterful portrait of the border is one you will not easily forget.
In the historical evolution of the American people there have been four major crises, each of which we either surmounted out of our own spiritual and physical resources or were rescued from by virtue of outside events: the birth of a viable government in 1789, slavery and the trauma of ending it, the moral obligation of membership in the League of Nations, and the Great Depression of 1929. And now there is a fifth, the challenge to deal with the consequences of our failure in Vietnam in the world at large, in Asia, in Vietnam, and most importantly here at home. Victory and how to achieve it has proved to be a fascinating subject for study by a wide variety of scholars, politicians, and soldiers. The psychology of failure or, if you will, the consequences of failure to those who believed in the certainty of their victory has received relatively little attention.
In February 1995, the unthinkable happened: one of the oldest and most respected merchant banks in London went bankrupt. The story that "rogue" Barings trader Nick Leeson lost hundreds of millions of pounds speculating in the Far East was front-page news throughout the world. Accused of fraud on a massive scale, Leeson first strenuously opposed being tried in Singapore, then eventually was taken there from his prison in Frankfurt. In December 1995 he pleaded guilty - and the trial began and ended within two days. As a result, the prosecution case against Leeson was not heard. What really happened to cause the downfall of "the Queen's bank," and who was actually responsible?In The Collapse of Barings, Stephen Fay investigates the facts behind the headlines and discovers a closed network of privilege, greed, and incompetence. In the rapidly changing system of global finance, the directors of Barings came to rely on people they hardly knew - like Nick Leeson - to make their fortunes in markets they did not fully understand, like SIMEX in Singapore. The plasterer's son from Watford was still in his mid-twenties when he rose to become the golden boy of Barings, claiming to have made profits of ten million dollars in one week. His London bosses watched passively as a culture of speculation grew until it eventually destroyed them, and changed the face of London's financial heartland.
Now anyone can understand what the mathematical geniuses are thinking . . . .* How topologists figured out the way to turn a smokestack into a bowling ball -- and why.* How game theorists discovered that to elect the candidate of your choice you must sometimes vote for his opponent.* How computer theorists intend to create a robot that will think for itself -- and do all the housework.* How cryptographers have been laboring since 1822 to decipher a map that will lead to a buried treasure worth millions of dollars.Archimedes' Revenge takes the reader on a guided tour of the world of contemporary mathematics and makes its infinite marvels comprehensible, relevant, and fun."A breezy and lighthearted account of a number of topics in and around the periphery of mathematics . . . Mr. Hoffman approaches mathematics as a storyteller, and a good one." -- The New York Times Book Review "From the Paperback edition.
Of the three basic elements that formed the culture of Byzantium-Roman political concepts, Greek culture, and Christian faith-two were closely related to Rome. This affinity made Byzantium's artistic impact upon Italy a special one, despite the great political differences between the two parts of the former Roman empire. In this illustrated handbook, Daniel Crena de Iongh guides the reader to the surviving treasures of Italy's Byzantine heritage-the mosaics, paintings, and sculpture, in churches, palaces, catacombs, grottoes, and museums, from Milan and Venice in the north, to Calabria and Sicily in the south.
This is the story of Susan and Eric Hiscocks last voyage in the steel ketch Wanderer IV from their home in New Zealand to the west coast of Canada. On their return, they decided to replace the Wanderer IV with a smaller wooden sloop-rigged yacht. The maiden voyage of Wanderer V is not a tale of idyllic sailing.
In the first chapters, Mr. Altick examines the Victorian delight in murder as a social phenomenon. The remainder of the book is constructed around classic murder cases that afford a vivid perspective on the way people lived--and died--in the Age of Victoria.From the beginning of the age, homicide was a national entertainment. Penny broadsheets hawked in the streets highlighted the most gruesome features of crimes; newspapers recounted the most minute details, from the discovery of the body to the execution of the criminal. Real-life murders were quickly adapted for the gaslight melodrama and the bestselling novels of the "Newgate" and "sensation" schools. Murder scenes and celebrities were the most popular exhibits at Madame Tussaud's waxworks and in the touring peepshows and marionette entertainments.Murder, in fact, was a crimson thread running through the whole fabric of Victorian life. By tracing this thread in "not too solemn a spirit," Mr. Altick has written a book that will delight and inform all who are interested in social history, as well as that great number who relish true murder stories.
The story of painting, sculpture, architecture, and music as well as all the so-called minor arts from the days of the cavemen until the present time.
The most remarkable thing about the collapse of the savings and loan industry is that so many of the major participants--the regulators, politicians, and S&L operators themselves--chose to do nothing as they watched problems mount and taxpayer liabilities grow. That choice was dictated by a variety of motives: greed, political self-interest, and even (sometimes) misguided good intentions. Whatever the motives, this collective interest in hiding the debacle made it certain that the industry's final fall would come with an enormous bang, one that would force administrations that professed a free market philosophy essentially to nationalize a majority of the nation's thrifts. As a result, the industry in many respects became one of the best examples of socialism in the U.S. economy.
With the feminist challenge to family therapy, power is being recognized as a central organizing principle in families. Here theorists and clinicans address the many thorny questions around women and power, highlighting the different cultural messages for women and men concerning not only access to power but also the desirability of having power, pursuit of power and ways of exercising power. The way in which women are (typically) disadvantaged with regard to power are explored.
At the present time Vivaldi's music is enjoying a renewed life. His music is played in the concert halls and on the radio, and has been extensively recorded. Public interest in the composer is tremendous; yet until recently there has not been any book in English to which the reader could turn for information on his life and work.Marc Pincherle's book fills this need perfectly. His aim is to present the life and music of Vivaldi to those generally musical readers who do not claim specialized knowledge. He has made wide use of contemporary writings which are delightfully evocative of the Venice in which Vivaldi lived and worked. He follows the events of the composer's life and then proceeds to a detailed consideration of his music, discussing Vivaldi the violinist, the symphonist, the composer of concertos, of opera and of sacred music. Finally he describes the incalculable influence that Vivaldi exercised on Italian, French, English, and German composers, and most especially on the music of Bach.
In Search of Enemies is much more than the story of the only war to be found when the CIA sought to recoup its prestige after the Vietnam debacle. Though no American troops were committed to Angola, only "advisors," many millions were spent, many thousands died, and many lies were told to the American people, in waging a war without purpose to American vital interests and without hope of victory.
Though the Black Law did not succeed in forcing Crandall to close the school, vigilante violence finally did, in 1834. In the wake of the hostilities, which has tragic consequences for her family, Crandall "took to the prairie," where she spent the remainder of her remarkable life as a pioneer educator, feminist, and free-thinking spiritualist.This richly documented biography draws on the Crandall family papers and includes Prudence's correspondence with such abolitionist luminaries as William Lloyd Garrison and Arthur Tappan. Susan Strane brings the abolitionists' struggle to dramatic life in the story of one woman's incredible courage.
Brazil Red tells the story of two orphaned children, Just and Colombe, who are dragged off on the French colonizing expeditionthey are meant to learn the native languages and act as interpreters. Everything in this novel is outsized: the setting, a jungle still populated by cannibals; the characters, including Villegagnon, the expedition's eccentric leader, who might be a model for Cyrano or d'Artagnan; and the events, a dress rehearsal for the Wars of Religion ten years in the future. Packed with portraits, landscapes, and action, Brazil Red is a novel about coming of age and discovering love. On a deeper level, the story follows the destinies and decisions of Just and Colombe, presenting two conflicting views of man and nature. On one hand, a conquering European civilization, offering liberation but delivering death. On the other, the Indian world, with its sensuality, its harmony, its sense of the sacred, its continual call to happiness.
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