Hassan Blasim

Jonathan Wright

From hostage-video makers in Baghdad to human trafficking in the forests of Serbia, institutionalised paranoia in the Saddam years to the nightmares of an exile trying to embrace a new life in Amsterdam ... Blasim's stories present an uncompromising view of the West's relationship with Iraq, spanning over twenty years and taking in everything from the Iran-Iraq War through to the Occupation, as well as offering a haunting critique of the post-war refugee experience. Blending allegory with historical realism, and subverting readers' expectations in an unflinching comedy of the macabre, these stories manage to be both phantasmagoric and shockingly real, light in touch yet steeped in personal nightmare. For all their despair and darkness, though, what lingers more than the haunting images of war, or the insanity of those who would benefit from it, is the spirit of defiance, the indefatigable courage of those few characters keeping faith with what remains of human intelligence.

The Madman of Freedom Square

Dawson Barrett

Making a Scene in the American Heartland

Punks in Peoria

Let's All Go to the Science Fiction Disco

Hammour Ziada

At the close of the nineteenth century, freed slave Bakhit is let out of prison with the overthrow of the Mahdist state in Sudan. On the brink of death, the memory of his beloved Theodora is all that has sustained him through seven years of grim incarceration-that and his vow to avenge her killing. Set against a backdrop of war, religious fervor, and the monumental social and political upheavals of the time, The Longing of the Dervish is a love story in the most unlikely of circumstances. Lyrical and evocative, Hammour Ziada's masterfully crafted novel is about sorrow, hope, and the cruelty of fate.

A Novel

The Longing of the Dervish

A lively examination of the heretics who helped Christianity become the world’s most powerful religion. From Arius, a fourth-century Libyan cleric who doubted the very divinity of Christ, to more successful heretics like Martin Luther and John Calvin, this book charts the history of dissent in the Christian Church. As the author traces the Church’s attempts at enforcing orthodoxy, from the days of Constantine to the modern Catholic Church’s lingering conflicts, he argues that heresy—by forcing the Church to continually refine and impose its beliefs—actually helped Christianity to blossom into one of the world’s most formidable religions. Today, all believers owe it to themselves to grapple with the questions raised by heresy. Can you be a Christian without denouncing heretics? Is it possible that new ideas challenging Church doctrine are destined to become as popular as Luther’s once-outrageous suggestions of clerical marriage and a priesthood of all believers? A delightfully readable and deeply learned new history, Heretics overturns our assumptions about the role of heresy in a faith that still shapes the world. “Wright emphasizes the ‘extraordinarily creative role’ that heresy has played in the evolution of Christianity by helping to ‘define, enliven, and complicate’ it in dialectical fashion. Among the world’s great religions, Christianity has been uniquely rich in dissent, Wright argues—especially in its early days, when there was so little agreement among its adherents that one critic compared them to a marsh full of frogs croaking in discord.” —The New Yorker

The Creation of Christianity from the Gnostics to the Modern Church

Heretics

Jeffrey D. Burson

This volume analyses the causes and consequences of the Jesuit Suppression, one of the most dramatic events in eighteenth-century history.

Causes, Events, and Consequences

The Jesuit Suppression in Global Context

Linda Larsen

Everything you need to start eating clean Whether you've lived on white carbs and trans fats all your life or you're already health conscious but want to clean up your diet even further, Eating Clean For Dummies, 2nd Edition explains in plain English exactly what it means to keep a clean-eating diet. Brought to you by a respected MD and licensed nutritionist, it sets the record straight on this lifestyle choice and includes recipes, the latest superfoods, tips and strategies for navigating the grocery store, advice on dining out, and practical guidance on becoming a clean eater for life. Clean eating is not another diet fad; it's used as a way of life to improve overall health, prevent disease, increase energy, and stabilize moods. Eating Clean For Dummies shows you how to stick to foods that are free of added sugars, hydrogenated fats, trans fats, and anything else that is unnatural or unnecessary. Plus, you'll find recipes to make scrumptious clean meals and treats, like whole grain scones, baked oatmeal, roasted cauliflower, caramelized onion apple pecan stuffing, butternut mac and cheese, and more. Get the scoop on how clean eating helps you live longer, prevent disease, and lose weight Change your eating habits without sacrificing taste or breaking your budget Make more than 40 delicious clean-eating recipes Deal with food allergies and sensitivities You are what you eat! And Eating Clean For Dummies helps get you on the road to a healthier you.

Eating Clean For Dummies

Willa Okati

Kate Hill

Marie Treanor

Marteeka Karland

Lia Connor

Isabella Jordan

Ashlynn Monroe

Ana Raine

Halloween nightmares & flying broomsticks... It's All Hallows Eve and you can't stop the party for long! Cat Out of Hell by Isabella Jordan -- Joey makes Katrina feel things she's never felt before. But will either of them escape this Halloween nightmare alive? Headless Horseman by Marteeka Karland -- One too many Flying Broomsticks and a phobia about Halloween aren't the only things chasing Isabelle Crane into the darkness... Voodoo Queen by Lia Connor -- When Paul comes to check Marie out will he wind up in her bed? It's Halloween in New Orleans, and you can't stop the party for long! Raven by Willa Okati -- On All Hallows' Eve Leonard comes to Andrew for their yearly tryst. Trouble is, one of them's a ghost, and can't stay longer than midnight... Good Weds Evil by Kate Hill -- Trapped between heaven and hell, Evangeline and Urbane have only each other. Forever. Witch of Alloway by Marie Treanor -- When notorious rock star Tam returns to his home village for a special Hallowe'en gig, it's more than the dead Annie raises! All Dressed Up by Ashlynn Monroe -- Will Isaac be willing to share his wife with two demons? Kuro by Ana Raine -- When Preston saves a black cat everything he knows about life and demons is going to be questioned. Like The Stars by Jonathan Wright -- A vampire will seduce you with detached casualness, but a Lycan will fight to the death to keep you.

Jack-O-Lanterns

Gustav Stresemann was the exceptional political figure of his time. His early death in 1929 has long been viewed as the beginning of the end for the Weimar Republic and the opening through which Hitler was able to come to power. His career was marked by many contradictions but also a pervading loyalty to the values of liberalism and nationalism. This enabled him in time both to adjust to defeat and revolution and to recognize in the Republic the only basis on which Germans could unite, and in European cooperation the only way to avoid a new war. His attempt to build a stable Germany as an equal power in a stable Europe throws an important light on German history in a critical time. Hitler was the beneficiary of his failure but, so long as he was alive, Stresemann offered Germans a clear alternative to the Nazis. Jonathan Wright's fascinating new study is the first modern biography of Stresemann to appear in English or German.

Weimar's Greatest Statesman

Gustav Stresemann

Sinan Antoon

Book of Collateral Damage

University of Manchester. School of Education

The Essential Ingredients

Building Senior Leadership Teams for Sustained Secondary School Improvement

Punk rock culture in a preeminently average town Synonymous with American mediocrity, Peoria was fertile ground for the boredom- and anger-fueled fury of punk rock. Jonathan Wright and Dawson Barrett explore the do-it-yourself scene built by Peoria punks, performers, and scenesters in the 1980s and 1990s. From fanzines to indie record shops to renting the VFW hall for an all-ages show, Peoria's punk culture reflected the movement elsewhere, but the city's conservatism and industrial decline offered a richer-than-usual target environment for rebellion. Eyewitness accounts take readers into hangouts and long-lost venues, while interviews with the people who were there trace the ever-changing scene and varied fortunes of local legends like Caustic Defiance, Dollface, and Planes Mistaken for Stars. What emerges is a sympathetic portrait of a youth culture in search of entertainment but just as hungry for community—the shared sense of otherness that, even for one night only, could unite outsiders and discontents under the banner of music. A raucous look at a small-city underground, Punks in Peoria takes readers off the beaten track to reveal the punk rock life as lived in Anytown, U.S.A.

From the author of Heretics: “An informative and enjoyable glimpse at the travails and achievements of emissaries over thousands of years” (Booklist). We think of ambassadors as simply diplomats—but once they were adventurers who dared an uncertain fate in unknown lands, bringing gifts of greyhounds and elephants to powerful and unpredictable leaders. In vivid detail, The Ambassadors traces the remarkable journeys of these emissaries, taking us from the linguistically challenged Greek Megasthenes to the first Japanese embassies to China and Korea; from Mohammed’s ambassadors to Egypt to the envoys of Byzantium, who had the unenviable task of convincing Attila the Hun to stop attacking them. We also witness the dialogue between Europe and Moorish Spain, and meet the ill-fated envoys sent in search of the mythical king Prester John. What Europe still thinks of Asia and what Asia still thinks of Africa were in no small part kindled in these long-ago first encounters. From the cuneiform civilizations of the ancient Near East to the clashing empires of the early modern age, Wright brings alive the men who introduced the great cultures of the world to each other. “Illuminating the practice of diplomatic immunity, the gradual formalization of the institution of global diplomacy and the role of maverick diplomats, Wright carefully balances general developments in the scope of ambassadorial duties with colorful and exemplary tales of particular instances.” —Publishers Weekly

From Ancient Greece to Renaissance Europe, the Men Who Introduced the World to Itself

Ambassadors

The fast and easy way to eat clean Clean foods are natural; free of added sugars, hydrogenated fats, trans-fats, and anything else that is unnatural and unnecessary. Used as a way of life, clean eating can improve overall health, prevent disease, increase energy, and stabilize moods. Whether you've lived on white bread and trans fats all your life and are looking to clean-up your diet, or are already health conscious, Eating Clean For Dummies embraces this lifestyle and provides you with an easy-to-follow guide to a clean-eating diet, recipes, and budgeting. The foundation of the clean eater's diet More than 40 clean-eating recipes Tips on how to change your eating habits without sacrificing taste or breaking your budget Tips to bring the whole family (even kids) on the path to a clean lifestyle If you're part of the growing population of consumers coming to the realization of the harmful impacts that highly processed and unnatural foods have on your body, or are taking preventive measures to avoid metabolic syndromes and diabetes, this is your hands-on, friendly guide to clean-eating diet, recipes, and budgeting.

Eric Nelson

This volume explores the conceptualization and construction of sacred space in a wide variety of faith traditions: Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, and the religions of Japan. It deploys the notion of "layered landscapes" in order to trace the accretions of praxis and belief, the tensions between old and new devotional patterns, and the imposition of new religious ideas and behaviors on pre-existing religious landscapes in a series of carefully chosen locales: Cuzco, Edo, Geneva, Granada, Herat, Istanbul, Jerusalem, Kanchipuram, Paris, Philadelphia, Prague, and Rome. Some chapters hone in on the process of imposing novel religious beliefs, while others focus on how vestiges of displaced faiths endured. The intersection of sacred landscapes with political power, the world of ritual, and the expression of broader cultural and social identity are also examined. Crucially, the volume reveals that the creation of sacred space frequently involved more than religious buildings and was a work of historical imagination and textual expression. While a book of contrasts as much as comparisons, the volume demonstrates that vital questions about the location of the sacred and its reification in the landscape were posed by religious believers across the early-modern world.

Early Modern Religious Space Across Faiths and Cultures

Layered Landscapes

Jonathan Wright explores the events, discusses rival interpretations and places the policies of Hitler in the context of Germany as a whole. Wright explains that support rose and fell, but, nevertheless, by December 1941 Hitler had succeeded in carrying Germany into a world war for racial empire.

Germany and the Origins of the Second World War

Steven Casey

Mental Maps in the Era of Détente and the End of the Cold War recreates the way in which the revolutionary changes of the last phase of the Cold War were perceived by fifteen of its leading figures in the West, East and developing world.

Jonathan Wright

About

Books

Join the club