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Wartime Letters: London and Moscow 1941-1945
The extraordinary story of Kathleen Harriman, daughter of the US ambassador to the USSR, told through her wartime letters Kathleen Harriman was the daughter of American businessman W. Averell Harriman. A journalist by background, she accompanied her father on his wartime postings to London and Moscow, where he served as FDR's envoy and later as US ambassador to the Soviet Union. She dined with Winston Churchill at Chequers, played bridge with General Eisenhower, and, in Moscow, banqueted with Stalin. She learnt Russian and soon became one of the best-known American women in the USSR. In her work as a journalist, Kathy visited war-torn cities and sites of covered-up atrocities. In more than two hundred letters, Harriman wrote all about these trips, people, and experiences. Deeply personal as well as highly political, her correspondence provides a fresh insight into the machinations of Second World War politics and diplomacy. In this fascinating account, Geoffrey Roberts brings together Harriman's letters to tell the full story of her wartime life for the first time. -
Iran and the Revolution: A History
A major new history of revolutionary Iran, from the 1940s to the present
Iran's revolution in 1979 shook the world. The Pahlavi dynasty came crashing down, and the Islamic Republic rose in its place. But what led to this seismic event? How did the revolutionary movement gain such strength? And what has its legacy been for modern Iran?
In this comprehensive history, Homa Katouzian explores Iran from the 1940s to the present, showing how the revolution came into being. From the chaos of oil nationalisation to the overthrow of Mosaddeq in 1953, through the revolutionary moment itself, to the resistance movements of contemporary Iran, the revolution has had long and lasting effects. We see the profound influence of US presidents and the ramifications of Saddam Hussein's invasion in 1980. Crucially, Katouzian shows how the revolution constituted an uprising of the whole of Iranian society and was not a purely Islamic movement.
This is an engaging account of an epochal event--one which continues to shape Iran to this day.
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How England Began: From Roman Britain to the Anglo-Saxons
An engaging, wide-ranging exploration of the end of Roman Britain and the beginnings of England In 410 CE, Roman rule of Britain collapsed, bringing a centuries-long occupation to an end. A century later, Britain was dividing into two areas with contrasting cultures, an expansive "Anglo-Saxon" south and east, and a shrinking Celtic west and north. How did this transition happen? And why did the customs of the Germanic incomers prevail in England, unlike elsewhere in Europe? In this deeply researched account, Nicholas J. Higham addresses these difficult questions head on. Higham draws on archaeological evidence and contemporary literature, including the writings of Gildas, to reconsider the accepted narrative. We see anew the importance of culture, warfare, and language--as the arrival, spread, and dominance of incomers irrevocably changed the country. This period marked the beginnings of Englishness, and of such insular identities as Welsh and Cornish. Offering surprising new insights, Higham provides a penetrating account of how, as Roman Britain ended, Anglo-Saxon England emerged. -
Spy Amongst Us: Daniel Defoe's Secret Service and the Plot to End Scottish Independence
The true story of Daniel Defoe and the dirty tricks which helped bring Scotland into union with England In 1706, Edinburgh was on the brink of a popular uprising. Men and women took to the streets to protest the planned union with England, fearing the end of Scottish sovereignty. But unbeknownst to the mob, a spy was in their midst--the English writer Daniel Defoe, now bankrupt and thrice pilloried, had turned a government agent. Marc Mierowsky tells the dramatic story of Defoe and his fellow spies as they sabotaged the Scottish independence movement from the inside. Together they disseminated propaganda and built a network of operatives from London to the upper Highlands, providing the English government with up-to-the-minute intelligence and monitoring its adversaries' every move. Through the lives of Defoe and his ring, their handlers, and opponents, Mierowsky guides us through this shadowy underworld of espionage and propaganda--revealing a disturbing and distinctly modern political campaign. -
When the Storm Came
Discover how a little bit of kindness can bring an entire community together in a crisis.
The frog family love their home on the riverbank, but they know to always stay away from the old tree stump--because a Big Scary Thing lives in there. When a huge storm comes and his friends and family are swept away, Little Frog is blown right into the terrifying stump . . . but what he finds inside changes his life forever. This is a story of kindness, community, and coming together in a time of crisis from award-winning author and illustrator Chris Naylor-Ballesteros.
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Ranger's Oath (Fall of Radiance, Book 1)
Experience the beginning of a thrilling epic fantasy series in RANGER'S OATH, where friendship fights failure - and the monsters thought to be only legends. The barrier between worlds is broken. Only he knows the truth... Magic has protected Tarsynium for a thousand years, shielding its people from being ravaged by bloodthirsty demons. When a young ranger's apprentice named Owyn Lund discovers that the Arc of Radiance has been breached, he tries to warn anybody who will listen. But legends aren't supposed to be real. When a village is mysteriously destroyed, rangers, mages, and rebels all point the finger, blaming each other for the demons' brutality. However, Zara Dennel, a mage's ward, has heard Owyn's tale--and she's inclined to believe him. Together, they must prove that friendship is greater than intolerance, unity is more important than division, and that even the most powerful magic can sometimes not be enough. Failure means the end of all things. A second--and lasting--Doom. Experience the beginning of a thrilling Epic Fantasy series suitable for all ages. Perfect for fans of: The Stormlight Archive (Brandon Sanderson), The Mistborn Trilogy (Brandon Sanderson), The Cosmere Universe (Brandon Sanderson), The Riyria Chronicles (Michael J Sullivan), The Shadow and Bone Trilogy (Leigh Bardugo), The Dragon Prince series (Melanie Rawn), An Ember in the Ashes series (Sabaa Tahir), A Court of Thorns and Roses series (Sarah J. Maas), The Wheel of Time series (Robert Jordan), the Ranger's Apprentice series (John Flanagan), and Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves. -
Confessions of Samuel Pepys: Private Revelations from Britain's Most Famed Diarist
A remarkable collection of the most personal aspects of Samuel Pepys' diaries, in celebration of the two hundredth anniversary of their publication. The Diary of Samuel Pepys is the most celebrated personal journal in the English language. Pepys's candid revelations as he forged his career as a civilian naval official in Restoration London have fascinated readers ever since the first selection was published in 1825. This book focuses on Pepys's controversial private life and is geared for a contemporary readership by charting his varied and complex relationships with women. These included his wife, Elizabeth--whom he both loved and treated abominably--their domestic servants, the mistresses whom he secretly visited in Westminster and Deptford, the great ladies of the court whom he ogled, and the actresses and other female friends whose company he delighted in and combined with casual flirting. All these he recounted in shorthand, often disguising the more salacious occasions in his own cryptic Franco-Latino polyglot or with a primitive system of extraneous consonants. Most of these controversial entries were excised from nineteenth century editions, but all are featured here in completely new transcriptions--with Pepys's secret code translated--following fresh forensic examination from the original shorthand diary. The Confessions of Samuel Pepys also reveals how all previous transcribers of the diary, as well as many of his biographers, have deliberately avoided this controversial element of Pepys's reputation. -
Gwen John: Strange Beauties
The first comprehensive survey in 40 years brings new scholarly attention and a feminist perspective to the Welsh painter with a singular vision of female interior life
Gwen John (1876-1939), best known for her portraits of women depicted in close tonal registers, was overshadowed during her life by her relationships with men, including her brother, the painter Augustus John, and lover, the French sculptor Auguste Rodin. In recent years, leading art historians and curators have shed new light on John's significant contributions to British art, her connection to European modernism, and her serial process. Gwen John: Strange Beauties builds on this groundwork, bringing together the artist's distinctive oil paintings with rarely seen works on paper to illuminate the underexamined scope of her ambition, revealing lesser-known aspects of her practice--a vibrant use of color, plein air sketching and an interplay between figuration and abstraction. Published by the Yale Center for British Art in association with Amgueddfa Cymru-National Museum Wales/Distributed by Yale University Press Exhibition Schedule: Amgueddfa Cymru-National Museum Wales, Cardiff
(February 7-June 28, 2026) National Galleries Scotland, Edinburgh
(August 1, 2026-January 4, 2027) Yale Center for British Art
(February 18-June 20, 2027) National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, DC
(July 30-November 28, 2027) -
Joie Journal: A Guided Journal for a More Joyful Life
Find your joie or joy with this guided journal that brings a Parisian perspective to your everyday life and allows you to tap into the things that bring you gratitude and happiness, from the author of Joie. While the French may have a reputation for grumpiness, they let nothing get in the way of their joie. They also know joy is not a feeling but something you cultivate. In fact, Parisian author Ajiri Aki reminds us that joy can be found anywhere--you only need to seek it out. Much like a gratitude or mindfulness practice, pursuing joy can put you in a calmer, happier state of mind, by helping you focus on the little things that make you happy in the moment. Choose one of the twenty-five challenges, make a plan to follow through, and then use the prompts to reflect on the joy that activity brought you. Whether it's buying yourself flowers, hosting a small gathering, or taking a trip down memory lane, this journal offers small, actionable ways to bring more joy into your life. Once filled, it becomes a reminder of your own joie de vivre that you can look back on whenever you need a boost. -
No, No, No
From Noemi Vola, creator of The Unfortunate Life of Worms, comes a powerful story about the limits of no and the possibilities of yes. Right in the middle of whatever Spider is doing--brushing his teeth, reading a book, or watching a storm--he thinks of Frog. The strange thing is, Frog isn't even nice. On the contrary, she's quite rude. She never suggests going for a walk, never cares if anyone is hot or cold, and, most of all, she always says NO. And she there are all kinds of NOs: the big NO,
the small NO,
the baffling NO,
the mysterious NO,
and sometimes even the repeated NO, NO, NO. Spider keeps all these NOs tangled in his web, but when a storm sweeps everything away, it brings a new friend who helps him discover the value of YES. -
Unsettling Territory: The Resurgence of the Oneida Nation in the Face of Settler Backlash
A history of the Oneida Nation of Wisconsin, from Revolutionary War allies to modern resurgence
How did the Oneida Nation of northeastern Wisconsin--stripped of nearly all its reservation lands by the early twentieth century--rise to become a powerful political and economic force in Native America and the present-day Midwest? Doug Kiel traces the journey of resurgence, adaptation, and nation rebuilding of the Oneida people, who navigated federal policies and socioeconomic shifts to chart their own future, transforming adversity into opportunity.
Kiel shows how Oneidas harnessed New Deal programs to advance their goals of self-determination; how urban migration, often seen as a marker of Indigenous displacement, became a tool of community empowerment; and how the Nation has reclaimed land and authority despite predictable backlash from neighboring towns. Drawing on extensive archival records, family photographs, and oral histories--including stories from his grandmother--Kiel highlights the everyday acts that have sustained the Oneida Nation across generations and offers vital insights into the broader fight for Indigenous nationhood in twenty-first-century America.
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Half-Jew--Full Life: The Unlikely Journey of a Voluntary Jew from Nazi Persecution to the American Dream
From Berlin to the Bronx, from Holocaust survivor to American success story, this riveting, fast-paced biography traces the extraordinary life of Gary "Pips" Phillips who defied the odds at every turn. With an Aryan mother and Jewish father, Pips could have escaped much of the Holocaust's horrors. Instead, he made a fateful decision at age 13 to become a bar mitzvah just as the Nuremberg Laws were enacted, effectively choosing to be labeled a Jew under Nazi rule. Pips's wartime experience is marked by daring escapes, improbable rescues, and survival while hiding deep within Nazi Berlin. Captured four times, he escaped thrice, choosing to remain in Nazi custody the fourth time as there was nowhere to run in bombed-out Berlin. At his place of confinement, he met his future wife, Olga Horvath, who had been imprisoned after surviving Auschwitz and the Death March to Bergen Belsen. After their marriage in chaotic post-war Berlin, they emigrated to the USA to start a new life. Arriving in New York with nothing, Pips rose from waiter to co-owner of the world's largest photo agency--despite never owning a camera. Unlike Pips, Olga was unable to escape the shadow of her Holocaust experiences, and in a horrifying twist, she threw herself off the roof of their gleaming luxury high-rise after more than 50 years of marriage, leaving Pips grief-stricken, but also able to reinvent himself one more time. This cinematic life brims with chance, love, loss, resilience, and reinvention, culminating in a poignant exploration of Jewish identity, memory, and legacy. Pips's story is a tribute to the power of choice, endurance, and the human will to belong. -
Where the Earth Meets the Sky: A Story of Penguins, People, and Place in Antarctica
Set in the coldest, most inaccessible landscape on the planet, this is the story of a female scientist navigating Antarctica's extreme wilderness, revealing how nature can heal the human soul. Where the Earth Meets the Sky is a chronicle of Louise's time working in the most isolated place in the world. With just one other human being and two thousand penguins for company, this remote Antarctic laboratory allowed her not only to advance the study of seabirds, but also to discover important truths about grief, loss, and the capacity of the natural world to help us heal. Antarctica is a land of extremes. The coldest, windiest, and most inaccessible part of our planet, science and exploration there have long captured the public imagination. But while its hurricane force winds, tooth-breaking cold, and resident penguins have long been iconic, the perspective of a practicing female scientist is all but absent from modern day Antarctic accounts. Where the Earth Meets the Sky fills that gap. At their base in a remote two-person research camp, Louise and her campmate David Ainley--one of the greatest Antarctic scientists on the planet--live in a world defined by hostile weather, breathtaking beauty, a continuous parade of avian visitors, and an occasional human visitor from a nearby research station. There she explores the lingering grief that has followed the untimely death of her sister, and presents penguins as a window into how climate change and other environmental impacts are altering what has been one of the most untouched corners of the globe. While penguins and the awe-inspiring landscapes they inhabit provide the thread that runs through this story, a central theme is how the world's most unforgiving environment has shaped the psyches of Antarctica's human visitors, past and present. The story unfolds at the isolated scientific bases of Ross Island, where Sir Ernest Shackleton and Robert Falcon Scott launched their attempts at the South Pole. Dramatic stories of these and other early explorers are woven into the narrative, along with a cast of compelling modern-day characters who choose to spend long periods in extreme isolation. As the globe lurches from one crisis to the next, Antarctica can be seen as a metaphorical place of sanctuary. Experiencing the Antarctic wildernesses has the potential to heal the human psyche and, perhaps, to give us the optimism to reimagine our relationship with the natural world. -
Rick and Morty vs. the Universe
MOVE OVER, BIG BANG! GET WRECKED, BIG CRUNCH! GALAXIES COME AND GALAXIES GO, BUT OUR PLANE OF EXISTENCE HAS NEVER FACED ANYTHING AS CONSEQUENTIAL AS . . . THE FIRST-EVER RICK AND MORTY COMICS EVENT! From the deviant psyches of comics mastermind and multiple Emmy Award-nominee Daniel Kibblesmith (Loki) and artistic annihilator Jarrett Williams (Speed Force), this summer's seven-part countdown to the end of everything that was, is, and will be begins with . . . a bachelor party that gets a little out of hand? Rick's old buddy Dimension C-137 (where Rick and Morty Cronenberg'd Earth) has reached his UNIVERSAL HALF-LIFE and is getting MARRIED--to the female-presenting embodiment of the Parmesan Dimension! He's found true love and wants his old pal Rick to plan his bachelor party! WHAT COULD GO WRONG? Answer: Pretty much everything . . . and it is all Rick's fault! Now Rick and Morty are on the run from EVERY SINGLE UNIVERSE THEY'VE EVER MESSED WITH--meaning, no matter what dimension they escape to, the universe will literally be against them. And, to survive, Rick will be forced to something he hoped he would never have to do--a last resort of EPIC PROPORTIONS! DON'T CALL IT A CRISIS! The FIRST RICK AND MORTY COMICS EVENT in one EPIC volume, featuring Rick and Morty vs. the Universe #1-4 alongside three event tie-in one-shot issues featuring Summer, Jerry, Beth, Space-Beth, and Morty! Wubba Lubba Dub DUB!! -
Cave Grave: Wild West Tales
Writer/artist Shawn Kuruneru (The Goddamn Tragedy) explores stories of double-crossing desperation--and hopeless humanity--set against a backdrop of the lawless West in this duology of wild tales. In Cave Grave, the art of double-crossing is taken to a new extreme as three struggling thieves attempt to pull off the heist of a lifetime--only to realize they've stolen more than they bargained for. In Poor Moon, a cowboy searching for purpose turns to bounty hunting. Catch, return, reward--it's simple, until he picks up a bounty that'll change his life forever. Until the hunter becomes the hunted . . . -
All Our Families Are Awesome
Not all our families are the same, but all our families are awesome! This frank and funny celebration of diverse family structures is told naturally through a playground conversation.
A group of children want to play Families, but they can't decide how: all their families are different. Excitedly, the children share what their families look like: playing with noisy siblings, or having toys to themselves; families with two busy working moms or those with a dad and no mom; children who live with their grandparents or stepsiblings, and more.
The children are full of questions for each other - Do you miss your mom? How many houses do you have? Why don't you look like your parents? - and accepting of the answers. Because they understand there are so many different ways to be family!