Geoff Dyer's books have been widely praised for their originality, variety and range - qualities displayed even more boldly in his journalism. Avoiding any specialism, writing on whatever interested him at a given time, he has achieved enviable freedom as an essayist, journalist and critic. ANGLO-ENGLISH ATTITUDES brings together his best freelance work of the last fifteen years. There are sustained meditations on photographers (from canonical figures like Cartier-Bresson and Robert Capa to the barely known master William Gedney), on painters (Bonnard, Gauguin), musicians (Coltrane, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan) and close critical engagements with writers (Camus, Graham Greene, Cormac McCarthy, Michael Ondaatje and Martin Amis). Also here are idiosyncratic reflections on boxing, on collecting, on Airfix models and Action Man, and often hilarious accounts of his 'misadventures': flying in a Mig-29 in Moscow, on the razz with Def Leppard in Seoul, on safari in Africa, and in trouble learning to freefall parachute. And much, much more...

Anglo-English Attitudes

DYER, Geoff

Literature & Fiction

Orbit & Abacus

Bringing order and relevance to the cascade of recent brain findings, Dr John Ratey explains the brain's most important systems, the role they play in determining how we interact with the world and ways in which we can influence their operations for the better. Throughout, he illustrates his points with vivid and often surprising examples drawn from his own practice, research and everyday life. Ratey answers such compelling questions as: What does it mean to be linguistically ambidextrous? How does a mother's cradling of her child on her left shoulder relate to the development of language skills? Why does listening to music while doing homework improve accuracy? Why do people like spicy foods? He also analyses the ways in which things can go wrong, detailing causes and treatments for diseases such as autism, Parkinson's and Alzheimer's, as well as numerous neurological disorders. As Dr. Ratey demonstrates throughout the book, the brain is astonishingly flexible, able to be retrained and reprogrammed. Like a muscle, it responds to use, adapting to new demands and conditions, allowing, as the title of the book suggests, the guidance of the user.

A User's Guide to the Brain

Health, Fitness & Dieting

John Ratey

Psychology & Counseling

Anyone that has read NAKED and BARREL FEVER, or heard David Sedaris speaking live or on the radio will tell you that a new collection from him is cause for jubilation. His recent move to Paris from New York inspired these hilarious new pieces, including 'Me Talk Pretty One Day', about his attempts to learn French from a sadistic teacher who declares that 'every day spent with you is like having a caesarean section'. His family is another inspiration. 'You Can't Kill the Rooster' is a portrait of his brother, who talks incessant hip-hop slang to his bewildered father. And no one hones a finer fury in response to such modern annoyances as restaurant meals presented in ludicrous towers of food and cashiers with six-inch fingernails.

Me Talk Pretty One Day

Humor & Entertainment

DAVID SEDARIS

Humor

The second book in the Angelique De Xavier series, from author Christopher Brookmyre.
Their eyes met across a crowded room. She was just a poor servant girl and he was the son of a rich industrialist. Er, no, this is a Christopher Brookmyre novel, although the eyes meeting across a crowded room part is true. Where it differs from the fairy tales is that the room in question was crowded with hostages and armed bank-robbers, and his eyes were the only part of him she could see behind the mask. He is an art-thief par excellence and she is a connoisseur of crooks. Her job is to hunt him to extinction; his is to avoid being caught and he also has a secret agenda more valuable than anything he might steal. There are risks he can take without jeopardising his plans. He can afford to play cat-and-mouse with the female cop who's on his tail; it might even arguably be necessary. What he can't afford is to let her get too close: he could could end up in jail or, even more scary, he could end up in love ...

The Sacred Art of Stealing

Mystery, Thriller & Suspense

Christopher Brookmyre

Mystery

David Sedaris plays in the snow with his sisters. He goes on vacation with his family. He gets a job selling drinks. He attends his brother's wedding. He mops his sister's floor. He gives directions to a lost traveller. He eats a hamburger. He has his blood sugar tested. It all sounds so normal, doesn't it? In his new book David Sedaris lifts the corner of ordinary life, revealing the absurdity teeming below its surface. His world is alive with obscure desires and hidden motives - a world where forgiveness is automatic and an argument can be the highest form of love. Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim finds one of the wittiest and most original writers at work today at the peak of his form.

Dress Your Family In Corduroy And Denim

Sedaris, David

Mary Reilly

Valerie Martin

Genre Fiction

Freda and Brenda spend their days working in an Italian-run wine-bottling factory and their nights in a dismal bedsitter. Little wonder, then, that the works outing offers such promise.

Bottle Factory Outing

BERYL BAINBRIDGE

Humor & Satire

The Spirit Eater (The Legend of Eli Monpress)

Science Fiction & Fantasy

Rachel Aaron

Fantasy

The Hard Rapture took Earth's best minds away. Now the rest are about to find out where they went ...Centuries ago, space settlers and soldiers fled to the stars from the sentient AI war machines that engulfed Earth. They colonised Eurydice, a planet whose rocks contain traces of its own war machines - some of which still guard a vast, enigmatic artifact on a remote tundra. When an expedition raids this strange artifact, the Eurydiceans discover that they weren't the last survivors of humanity after all. Their leisured lifestyle is about to be disrupted by new arrivals for whom Eurydice is a prize worth fighting over. And the long-dormant war machines are awakening ...Newton's Wake is a stunning stand-alone space opera, charting the struggle for human survival in a universe dominated by post-human intelligence.

Newton's Wake

KEN MACLEOD

Science Fiction

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