|
|
|
|
| |
Profile Books
|
|
Afgantsy: The Russians in Afghanistan, 1979-89
Автор: Braithwaite Rodric Жанр: Profile Books Издательство: Profile Books Год: 2012 Страниц: 432 Дата загрузки: 22 мая 20152013-12-10
|
|
In a timely and eye-opening book Rodric Braithwaite examines the Russian experience in that most recent war in Afghanistan (after Alexander's conquests and the many British imperial wars and skirmishes). Largely basing his account on Russian sources and interviews he shows the war through the eyes of the Russians themselves — politicians, officers, soldiers, advisers, journalists, women. As former ambassador to Moscow, Rodric Braithwaite brings unique insights to the Soviet war in Afghanistan. The story has been distorted not only by Cold War propaganda but also by the myths of the nineteenth century Great Game. It moves from the high politics of the Kremlin to the lonely Russian conscripts in isolated mountain outposts. The parallels with Afghanistan today speak for themselves. A superb achievement of narrative history, sensitive writing and exciting fresh research: so wrote Simon Sebag Montefiore about Rodric Braithwaite's bestseller Moscow 1941. But those words, and many others of praise that were given it, could equally apply to his new book.
|
| |
|
Smut: Two Unseemly Stories
Автор: Bennett Alan Жанр: Profile Books Издательство: Profile Books Год: 2012 Страниц: 192 Дата загрузки: 16 мая 20152015-02-16
|
|
This title features unexpected tales from the master of short fiction. The Shielding of Mrs Forbes. Graham Forbes is a disappointment to his mother, who thinks that if he must have a wife, he should have done better. Though her own husband isn't all that satisfactory either. Still, this is Alan Bennett, so what is happening in the bedroom (and in lots of other places too) is altogether more startling, perhaps shocking, and ultimately more true to people's predilections. The Greening of Mrs Donaldson. Mrs. Donaldson is a conventional middle-class woman beached on the shores of widowhood after a marriage that had been much like many others: happy to begin with, then satisfactory and finally dull. But when she decides to take in two lodgers, her mundane life becomes much more stimulating...
|
| |
|
Cleopatra: Last Queen of Egypt
Автор: Tyldesley Joyce Жанр: Profile Books Издательство: Profile Books Год: 2012 Страниц: 320 Дата загрузки: 20 декабря 20142013-06-15
|
|
She was the last ruler of the Macedonian dynasty of Ptolemies who had ruled Egypt for three centuries. Highly educated (she was the only one of the Ptolemies to read and speak ancient Egyptian as well as the court Greek) and very clever (her famous liaisons with Julius Caesar and Mark Antony were as much to do with politics as the heart), she steered her kingdom through impossibly taxing internal problems and railed against greedy Roman imperialism. Stripping away preconceptions as old as her Roman enemies, Joyce Tyldesley uses all her skills as an Egyptologist to give us this magnificent biography.
|
| |
|
Half Blood Blues
Автор: Edugyan Esi Жанр: Profile Books Издательство: Profile Books Год: 2012 Страниц: 256 Дата загрузки: 28 марта 20152015-09-10
|
|
From Weimar Berlin to the fall of Paris, and on to the present day, danger, jealousy and inspiration combine to tempt a man to a secret betrayal. Now a Radio 4 Book at Bedtime scheduled for 27th June — 8th July. Chip told us not to go out. Said, don't you boys tempt the devil. But it been one brawl of a night, I tell you. The aftermath of the fall of Paris, 1940. Hieronymous Falk, a rising star on the cabaret scene, was arrested in a cafe and never heard from again. He was twenty years old. He was a German citizen. And he was black. Fifty years later, Sid, Hiero's bandmate and the only witness that day, is going back to Berlin. Persuaded by his old friend Chip, Sid discovers there's more to the journey than he thought when Chip shares a mysterious letter, bringing to the surface secrets buried since Hiero's fate was settled. In Half Blood Blues, Esi Edugyan weaves the horror of betrayal, the burden of loyalty and the possibility that, if you don't tell your story, someone else might tell it for you. And they just might tell it wrong...
|
| |
|
We Need to Talk About Kevin
Автор: Shriver Lionel Жанр: Profile Books Издательство: Profile Books Год: 2011 Страниц: 477 Дата загрузки: 28 марта 20142015-03-08
|
|
Eva never really wanted to be a mother — and certainly not the mother of a boy who ends up murdering seven of his fellow high school students, a cafeteria worker, and a much-adored teacher who tried to befriend him, all two days before his sixteenth birthday. Now, two years later, it is time for her to come to terms with marriage, career, family, parenthood, and Kevin’s horrific rampage, in a series of startlingly direct correspondences with her estranged husband, Franklin. Uneasy with the sacrifices and social demotion of motherhood from the start, Eva fears that her alarming dislike for her own son may be responsible for driving him so nihilistically off the rails.
|
| |
|
A Short History of England
Автор: Jenkins Simon Жанр: Profile Books Издательство: Profile Books Год: 2013 Страниц: 224 Дата загрузки: 12 сентября 20182015-10-30
|
|
This is the definitive concise account of our remarkable past. Which battle was fought 'For England, Harry and St George'? Who demanded to be painted 'warts and all'? What — and when — was the Battle of the Bulge? In A Short History of England, bestselling author Simon Jenkins answers all these questions — and many more — as he tells the tumultuous story of a fascinating nation. From the invaders of the dark ages to today's coalition, via the Tudors, the Stuarts and two world wars, Jenkins weaves together a gripping narrative with all the most important and interesting dates in his own inimitable style. Until now there has been no short history of England covering all significant event themes and individuals: this bestselling book, published in association with the National Trust, will be the standard work for years to come.
|
| |
|
The Uncommon Reader
Автор: Bennett Alan Жанр: Profile Books Издательство: Profile Books Год: 2008 Страниц: 128 Дата загрузки: 21 августа 20102010-07-21
|
|
The Uncommon Reader is none other than HM the Queen who drifts accidentally into reading when her corgis stray into a mobile library parked at Buckingham Palace. She reads widely (JR Ackerley, Jean Genet, Ivy Compton Burnett and the classics) and intelligently. Her reading naturally changes her world view and her relationship with people like the oleaginous prime minister and his repellent advisers. She comes to question the prescribed order of the world and loses patience with much that she has to do. In short, her reading is subversive. The consequence is, of course, surprising, mildly shocking and very funny.
|
| |
|
The Checklist Manifesto
Автор: Gawande Atul Жанр: Profile Books Издательство: Profile Books Год: 2011 Страниц: 224 Дата загрузки: 11 октрября 20142012-12-30
|
|
One of the top ten greatest doctors in the world looks at the lowly checklist, and how this simple idea — which is free to reproduce — will revolutionise the way we approach problems, and help save lives. Today we find ourselves in possession of stupendous know-how, which we willingly place in the hands of the most highly skilled people.
|
| |
|
Diaghilev: A Life
Автор: Scheijen Sjeng Жанр: Profile Books Издательство: Profile Books Год: 2011 Страниц: 560 Дата загрузки: 9 февраля 20132012-06-25
|
|
A biography of the impresario of the arts and creator of The Ballets Russes.
|
| |
|
You Talkin' to Me?: Rhetoric from Aristotle to Obama
Автор: Leith Sam Жанр: Profile Books Издательство: Profile Books Год: 2013 Страниц: 296 Дата загрузки: 24 августа 20152016-02-09
|
|
This is a witty, elegant enquiry into the art of persuasion. Rhetoric is what gives words power. It's nothing to be afraid of. It isn't the exclusive preserve of politicians: it's everywhere, from your argument with the insurance company to your plea to the waitress for a table near the window. It convicts criminals (and then frees them on appeal). It causes governments to rise and fall, best men to be shunned by brides, and people to march with steady purpose toward machine guns. In this highly entertaining (and persuasive) book, Sam Leith examines how people have taught, practiced and thought about rhetoric from its Attic origins to its twenty first century apotheosis. Along the way, he tells the stories of its heroes and villain from Cicero and Erasmus, to Hitler, Obama — and Gyles Brandreth.
|
| |
|
Violence
Автор: Slavoj Zizek Жанр: Profile Books Издательство: Profile Books Год: 2011 Страниц: 224 Дата загрузки: 11 октрября 20142012-12-30
|
|
Argues that the physical violence we see is often generated by the systemic violence that sustains our political and economic systems. With the help of eminent philosophers and frequent references to popular culture, this title examines the causes of violent outbreaks like those seen in Israel and Palestine and in terrorist acts around the world.
|
| |
|
Moscow 1941
Автор: Braithwaite Rodric Жанр: Profile Books Издательство: Profile Books Год: 2011 Страниц: 464 Дата загрузки: 27 октрября 20142012-12-16
|
|
Rodric Braithwaite's magnificent narrative of 1941 and the Battle of Moscow, and the Russian men and women who fought it, was one of the major history titles of 2006 in both universal acclaim and sales. Based on huge research and scores of interviews, this book offers an unforgettable and richly illustrated narrative of the military action that took place in Moscow during 1941; telling portraits of Stalin and his generals, some apparatchiks, some great commanders. It also traces the stories of individuals, soldiers, politicians and intellectuals, writers and artists and dancers, workers, schoolchildren and peasants.
|
| |
|
Cezanne
Автор: Danchev Alex Жанр: Profile Books Издательство: Profile Books Год: 2013 Страниц: 608 Дата загрузки: 05 июня 20152016-02-29
|
|
This is a remarkable new biography of a cultural icon. Today we view Cezanne as a monumental figure, but during his lifetime (1839-1906), many did not understand him or his work. With brilliant insight, drawing or a vast range of primary sources, Alex Danchev tells the story of an artist who was never accepted into the official Salon: he was considered a revolutionary at best an a barbarian at worst, whose paintings were unfinished, distorted and strange. His work sold to no one outside his immediate circle until his late thirties, and he maintained that to paint from nature is not to copy an object; it is to represent its sensations — a belief way ahead of his time, with stunning implications that became the obsession of many other artists and writers, from Matisse and Braque to Rilke and Gertrude Stein. Beginning with the restless teenager from Aix who was best friends with Emile Zo at school, Danchev carries us through the trials of a painter tormented by self-doub[illegible] who always remained an outsider, both of society and the bustle of the art world. Cezanne: A Life delivers not only the fascinating days and years of the visionary who would astonish Paris with an apple, with interludes analysing his self-portrait — but also a complete assessment of Cezanne's ongoing influence through artistic imaginations in our own time. He is, as this life shows, a cultural icon comparable Marx or Freud.
|
| |
|
The Story of English in 100 Words
Автор: Crystal David Жанр: Profile Books Издательство: Profile Books Год: 2012 Страниц: 320 Дата загрузки: 20 декабря 20142013-06-15
|
|
Featuring Latinate and Celtic words, weasel words and nonce-words, ancient word (loaf) to advanced (twittersphere) and spanning the indispensable words that shape our tongue (and, what) to the more fanciful (fopdoodle), the author takes us along the winding byways of language via the rude, the obscure and the downright surprising.
|
| |
|
Megachange: The World in 2050
Жанр: Profile Books Издательство: Profile Books Год: 2012 Страниц: 320 Дата загрузки: 20 декабря 20142013-06-15
|
|
Building on the hugely successful annual Economist The World in... publications, this essential guide to the twenty-first century captures the sweeping, fundamental trends that are changing the world faster than at any time in human history. In 2050 there will be 9.3 billion people alive — compared with 7 billion today — and the number will still be rising. The population aged over sixty-five will have more than doubled, to more than 16 per cent; China's GDP will be 80 per cent more than America's; and the number of cars on India's roads will have increased by 3,880 per cent. And, in 2050 it should be clear whether we are alone in the universe. What other megachanges can we expect — and what will their impact be? This comprehensive and compelling book will cover the most significant trends that are shaping the coming decades, with each of its twenty chapters elegantly and authoritatively outlined by Economist contributors, and rich in supporting facts and figures. It will chart the rise and fall of fertility rates across continents; how energy resources will change in light of new technology, and how different nations will deal with major developments in science and warfare. Megachange is essential reading for anyone who wants to know what the next four decades hold in store.
|
| |
|
The Decision Book
Автор: Krogerus Жанр: Profile Books Издательство: Profile Books Год: 2013 Страниц: 173 Дата загрузки: 27 апреля 20172014-06-21
|
|
Most of us face the same questions every day: What do I want? And how can I get it? How can I live more happily and work more efficiently? A worldwide bestseller, The Decision Book distils into a single volume the fifty best decision-making models used on MBA courses and elsewhere that will help you tackle these important questions — from the well known (the Eisenhower matrix for time management) to the less familiar but equally useful (the Swiss Cheese model). It will even show you how to remember everything you will have learned by the end of it. Stylish and compact, this little black book is a powerful asset. Whether you need to plot a presentation, assess someone's business idea or get to know yourself better, this unique guide will help you simplify any problem and take steps towards the right decision.
|
| |
|
How Asia Works
Автор: Studwell J. Жанр: Profile Books Издательство: Profile Books Год: 2013 Страниц: 322 Дата загрузки: 22 апреля 20172015-07-24
|
|
Until the catastrophic economic crisis of the late 1990s, East Asia was perceived as a monolithic success story. But heady economic growth rates masked the most divided continent in the world — one half the most extraordinary developmental success story ever seen, the other half a paper tiger. Joe Studwell explores how policies ridiculed by economists created titans in Japan, Korea and Taiwan, and are now behind the rise of China, while the best advice the West could offer sold its allies in south-east Asia down the economic river. The first book to offer an Asia-wide deconstruction of success and failure in economic development, Studwell's latest work is provocative and iconoclastic — and sobering reading for most of the world's developing countries. How Asia Works is a must-read book that packs powerful insights about the world's most misunderstood continent.
|
| |
|
Mood Indigo: Movie Tie-In
Автор: Vian B. Жанр: Profile Books Издательство: Profile Books Год: 2013 Страниц: 211 Дата загрузки: 21 июня 20152018-08-11
|
|
The world of Mood Indigo is a stained-glass cartoon kind of a place, where the piano dispenses cocktails, the kitchen mice dance to the sound of sunbeams, and the air is three parts jazz. Colin is a wealthy young aristocrat, a slim, innocent creature who loves easily. The instant he sees Chloe, bass drums thump inside his shirt, and soon the two are married. Typically generous, Colin gives a quarter of his fortune to his best friend Chick so he can marry Chloe's friend Alyssum.But a lily grows in Chloe's lung, and Colin must spend his remaining fortune on the only available treatment: surrounding her daily with fresh flowers. Chick squanders his share of Colin's money on rare editions of Jean Pulse Heartre, and Alyssum decides her only recourse is to murder the philosopher whose books are ruining her husband. Chick and Colin's money woes force them to sacrifice their carefree lives to soul-crushing work, and even the suicidal mice wear themselves out trying to restore the lustre to the kitchen tiles.
|
| |
|
Spell It Out: The Singular Story of English Spelling
Автор: Crystal D. Жанр: Profile Books Издательство: Profile Books Год: 2013 Страниц: 224 Дата загрузки: 12 сентября 20182015-10-30
|
|
Why is there an 'h' in ghost? William Caxton, inventor of the printing press and his Flemish employees are to blame: without a dictionary or style guide to hand in fifteenth century Bruges, the typesetters simply spelled it the way it sounded to their foreign ears, and it stuck. Seventy-five per cent of English spelling is regular but twenty-five per cent is complicated, and in Spell It Out our foremost linguistics expert David Crystal extends a helping hand to the confused and curious alike. He unearths the stories behind the rogue words that confound us, and explains why these peculiarities entered the mainstream, in an epic journey taking in sixth century monks, French and Latin upstarts, the Industrial Revolution and the internet. By learning the history and the principles, Crystal shows how the spellings that break all the rules become easier to get right.
|
| |
|
Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity and Poverty
Автор: Acemoglu Daron Жанр: Profile Books Издательство: Profile Books Год: 2013 Страниц: 560 Дата загрузки: 10 октрября 20162016-04-25
|
|
This is a provocative bestseller that explains why the world is divided into nations with wildly differing levels of prosperity. Why are some nations more prosperous than others? Why Nations Fail sets out to answer this question, with a compelling and elegantly argued new theory: that it is not down to climate, geography or culture, but because of institutions. Drawing on an extraordinary range of contemporary and historical examples, from ancient Ron through the Tudors to modern-day China, leading academics Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson show that to invest and prosper, people need to know that if the work hard, they can make money and actually keep it — and this means sound institutions that allow virtuous circles of innovation, expansion and peace. Based on fifteen years of research, and answering the competing arguments of authors ranging from Max Weber to Jeffrey Sachs and Jared Diamond, Acemoglu and Robinson step boldly into the territory of Francis Fukuyama and Ian Morris. They blend economics, politics, history and current affairs to provide a new, powerful and persuasive way of understanding wealth and poverty.
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
