Showing results by author "Oliver" in All Categories

Few would question that Albert Camus (1913-1960), novelist, playwright, philosopher and journalist, is a major cultural icon. His widely quoted works have led to countless movie adaptions, graphic novels, pop songs, and even t-shirts. In this Very Short Introduction, Oliver Gloag chronicles the inspiring story of Camus' life. From a poor fatherless settler in French-Algeria to the winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, Gloag offers a comprehensive view of Camus' major works and interventions. 

Oliver Sacks is well known as an explorer of the human mind - a neurologist with a gift for complex, insightful portrayals of people and their conditions. However, he is also a card-carrying member of the American Fern Society, and since childhood has been fascinated by these primitive plants and their ability to survive and adapt in many climates. Oaxaca Journal is Sacks' spellbinding account of his trip with a group of fellow fern enthusiasts to the beautiful, history-steeped province of Oaxaca, Mexico.

Evan Parker, half wolf shifter, half magic user, hasn’t come into his powers yet, although his aunt who he lives with assures him it’s only a matter of time. Evan hasn’t got a clue what difference having powers will make. He can barely talk, he has Post-it notes and lists around his apartment to help him function, and his wolf form is as mute as he is. Combine that with the necklace of scars that cover his neck, and Evan knows he has nothing to offer any guy, let alone a mate...or does he?

Oliver Burkeman explores the virtues of negativity and shows how it can be a surprisingly powerful route to joy, success and...

No one is shocked by the six-eyed alien strolling around the Universal back lot. The tourists just think he's part of the show. It doesn't take long for Buddy to land a role on a popular TV show, playing (of course) an alien. He becomes an overnight heartthrob and is suddenly faced with legions of adoring fans, rides in glamorous limos, and appearances at "all-the-shrimp-you-can-eat" red carpet parties. But can Buddy maintain his secret identity while in the spotlight? 

Lukas wants only two things: to rebuild his castle home in time to make it through the coming winter and to reconnect with the sister who was stolen from him in a plot against his family. But then an astrologer appears with foreboding news: his old adversary, Inquisitor Waldemar von Schönborn, has stolen three royal artifacts, which are required to coronate a new German emperor. With these valuable objects - the sword, the crown, and the scepter - he could blackmail the empire. The treasures are currently hidden in three different places in the old imperial city of Prague.

Thomas, paid enforcer in the Cloverleah Pack, was carrying a lot of guilt. He still believed he was to blame for letting Wesley get targeted by the dark elves, almost causing a rift in Cathair and Marius's mating. The alpha Kane told him it wasn't his fault, and Cathair and Marius came through the experience battered but not broken, but Thomas still felt as though he had to prove his worth to himself and the pack. He spends many hours patrolling long after the rest of the pack had gone to bed, determined to do something worthwhile.

In the heart of London, where privilege and ambition collide, Gregory and Oscar's tumultuous past threatens to resurface in unexpected ways. Once childhood friends, their relationship took a dark turn when Oscar became Gregory's high school bully. Now successful in their own right, their paths continue to intertwine due to the dysfunctional bond between their mothers. While Oscar seeks to atone for his past, Gregory remains trapped in a cycle of hurt and betrayal.

For more than twenty years, University of Chicago professor J. Eric Oliver has taught a legendary course—The Intelligible Self—that students routinely describe as life-changing. Now, in How to Know Your Self, he brings the best of that classroom experience to listeners everywhere, guiding us through the most profound and meaningful journey of all: understanding who we really are. With warmth, wit, and an eye for the unexpected, Oliver draws on insights from neuroscience, psychology, physics, and ancient philosophy to explore the mystery of the self.

This is one of the true classics in world legal literature. Written by a master of law and language, it is a primary source book for anyone interested either in legal theory or political science. For the layman, it serves to clarify the very essence of the common law, the cornerstone of our present legal system.

Aided by the latest archival findings and recently declassified documents and building on the research of the world’s best scholars, Stone and Kuznick construct an often shocking but meticulously documented "people’s history" of the American empire that challenges the notion of American exceptionalism. Stone and Kuznick will introduce listeners to a pantheon of heroes and villains as they show not only how far the United States has drifted from its democratic traditions but the powerful forces that have struggled to get us back on track.

It’s the fifteenth century and only heretics are curious about the universe. Germany, 1494. Born under a rare alignment of the stars, Johann Georg Gerlach, "the lucky one" to his mother - is fated for greatness. But Johann’s studies and wonder at the sky have made him suspect. Especially in wake of the child disappearances that have left the God-fearing locals trembling and his one true love trapped in terrified catatonia. Her only words: "I have seen the devil..."

Dr. Oliver Sacks's books Awakenings, An Anthropologist on Mars and the best-selling The Man Who Mistook His Wife For a Hat have been acclaimed for their compassion in the treatment of patients affected with profound disorders. In A Leg to Stand On, it is Sacks himself who is the patient: an encounter with a bull on a desolate mountain in Norway has left him with a severely damaged leg. But what should be a routine recuperation is actually the beginning of a strange medical journey.

Supplemented with referential information and culled from more than a dozen interviews with Putin over a two-year period - spanning Stone's first trip to Moscow to meet with NSA whistle-blower Edward Snowden to his most recent visit after the election of President Donald Trump - The Putin Interviews is based on what journalists, news organizations, and other world leaders have long coveted: extended, unprecedented access to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

1918 Italy. When a deadly blizzard traps Fiona Figg and Kitty Lane in the Dolomite Mountains, it’s all downhill from here. Their hotel is snowed-in, and no one can get in or out. Then a man is found dead in his locked hotel room – and the killer is still on the premises. But with no murder weapon and too many suspects, their investigation is treading on thin ice.

The last thing Angus Kilmer was looking for was a steady relationship. But he couldn't ignore his instant attraction to Chastain "Chase" Brooks. There was only one problem—Chase, the hard-edged, no-nonsense and undeniably hot owner of a rock and roll bar loathed him. Angus never looked away from a challenge but would Chase prove to be just too out of reach, even for him?

British spy Elliot Kane is forced out of semi-retirement to investigate a colleague’s suspicious death on Ascension Island, a remote and rocky outpost of the British military in the middle of the Atlantic. Despite foiling a plot to incite a new world war, Elliot Kane has been on probation with...

The settings and characters in Reggie Oliver's fifth collection of 'strange' stories are as varied and unusual as ever, though, as in previous volumes, the theatre forms the milieu of a number of his tales. But the theatres are not just English ones, in the provinces and the West End: one is on the Black Sea; another in post-colonial Kenya. Themes are equally varied, but underlying all is a deep sense of the spiritual under-currents just below the surface of everyday existence, and the precariousness of 'normality'.

1666: The monastery at Andrechs has long been a pilgrimage destination, but when the hangman's daughter, Magdalena; her doctor husband, Simon; and their two small children arrive there, they learn that the monks have far larger concerns than saying Mass and receiving alms. It seems that once again the hangman's family has fallen into a mysterious and dangerous adventure. Two monks at the monastery experiment with cutting-edge technology, including a method of deflecting the lightning that has previously set the monastery ablaze.

The only goal Prince Syrius Fortune of Rosenhip had during his twin sister's "meet the suitors" ball was to stay quiet and out of the way. His sister's event had been in the planning for five years, and he and his loving father had already agreed trying to seek a wedding contract for himself was not a good idea. Prince Syrius had quirks, and it wasn't as though he needed to open himself up to ridicule from someone else, especially a spouse he would have to get to know.