The Headmaster's Wager

Author: Vincent Lam
Publisher: Doubleday Canada
ISBN: 0307367916
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 416

Book Description
From Giller Prize winner, internationally acclaimed, and bestselling author Vincent Lam comes a superbly crafted, highly suspenseful, and deeply affecting novel set against the turmoil of the Vietnam War. Percival Chen is the headmaster of the most respected English school in Saigon. He is also a bon vivant, a compulsive gambler and an incorrigible womanizer. He is well accustomed to bribing a forever-changing list of government officials in order to maintain the elite status of the Chen Academy. He is fiercely proud of his Chinese heritage, and quick to spot the business opportunities rife in a divided country. He devotedly ignores all news of the fighting that swirls around him, choosing instead to read the faces of his opponents at high-stakes mahjong tables. But when his only son gets in trouble with the Vietnamese authorities, Percival faces the limits of his connections and wealth and is forced to send him away. In the loneliness that follows, Percival finds solace in Jacqueline, a beautiful woman of mixed French and Vietnamese heritage, and Laing Jai, a son born to them on the eve of the Tet offensive. Percival's new-found happiness is precarious, and as the complexities of war encroach further and further into his world, he must confront the tragedy of all he has refused to see. Blessed with intriguingly flawed characters moving through a richly drawn historical and physical landscape, The Headmaster's Wager is a riveting story of love, betrayal and sacrifice.

Transformers: The Manga, Vol. 1

Author: Ban Magami,Masumi Kaneda
Publisher: VIZ Media LLC
ISBN: 197471912X
Category : Comics & Graphic Novels
Languages : en
Pages : 289

Book Description
In this collector's volume, the Autobots and their young friend Kenji must stand tall against the Decepticons in an interplanetary conflict! These classic stories are from the dawn of the Transformers, and this volume contains thrilling tales such as "The Great Transformer War" and "Fight! Super Robot Life-Form Transformers!"—plus an extensive art gallery! -- VIZ Media

Consuming Life

Author: Zygmunt Bauman
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 0745655823
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 144

Book Description
With the advent of liquid modernity, the society of producers is transformed into a society of consumers. In this new consumer society, individuals become simultaneously the promoters of commodities and the commodities they promote. They are, at one and the same time, the merchandise and the marketer, the goods and the travelling salespeople. They all inhabit the same social space that is customarily described by the term the market. The test they need to pass in order to acquire the social prizes they covet requires them to recast themselves as products capable of drawing attention to themselves. This subtle and pervasive transformation of consumers into commodities is the most important feature of the society of consumers. It is the hidden truth, the deepest and most closely guarded secret, of the consumer society in which we now live. In this new book Zygmunt Bauman examines the impact of consumerist attitudes and patterns of conduct on various apparently unconnected aspects of social life politics and democracy, social divisions and stratification, communities and partnerships, identity building, the production and use of knowledge, and value preferences. The invasion and colonization of the web of human relations by the worldviews and behavioural patterns inspired and shaped by commodity markets, and the sources of resentment, dissent and occasional resistance to the occupying forces, are the central themes of this brilliant new book by one of the worlds most original and insightful social thinkers.

The Importance of Being Seven

Author: Alexander McCall Smith
Publisher: Vintage Canada
ISBN: 030739963X
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 381

Book Description
44 SCOTLAND STREET - Book 6 The residents and neighbors of 44 Scotland Street and the city of Edinburgh come to vivid life in these gently satirical, wonderfully perceptive serial novels, featuring six-year-old Bertie, a remarkably precocious boy—just ask his mother. The great city of Edinburgh is renowned for its impeccable restraint, so how, then, did the extended family of 44 Scotland Street come to be trembling on the brink of reckless self-indulgence? After seven years and five books, Bertie is—finally!—about to turn seven. But one afternoon he mislays his meddling mother Irene, and learns a valuable lesson: wish-fulfillment can be a dangerous business. Angus and Domenica contemplate whether to give in to romance on holiday in Italy, and even usually down-to-earth Big Lou is overheard discussing cosmetic surgery. Funny, warm, and heartfelt as ever, The Importance of Being Seven offers fresh and wise insights into philosophy and fraternity among Edinburgh's most lovable residents.

Before the Dawn: An AFK Book (RWBY, Book 2)

Author: E. C. Myers
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.
ISBN: 1338633678
Category : Young Adult Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 293

Book Description
In the future-fantasy world of RWBY, Rooster Teeth's hit animated webseries, teens train to become warriors. Join the fight in this epic official, original novel from E.C. Myers and RWBY's head writers! A storm is coming...After their strange mission in the desert, Coco, Fox, Velvet, and Yatsuhashi are back at Shade Academy, doing some "extracurricular" work to track down The Crown, a mysterious force that's snatching up people with powerful semblances. The job should be easier with Team SSSN by their side, but The Crown continues to evade them. Out of options and worried that a bigger plot is in motion, CFVY and SSSN notify Theodore, the Headmaster of Shade Academy, but Theodore has problems of his own.Troubled by the disasters at Beacon and Haven Academies and struggling to support the flood of refugee students, Theodore declares a new initiation-including the formation of new teams to better unite the student body. Amid mounting tension at the school, CFVY and SSSN must contend with unfamiliar teammates and uneasy rivalries, all while The Crown plots their next move. Don't miss this exclusive, original story straight from award-winning author E.C. Myers and RWBY's head writers, Kerry Shawcross and Miles Luna!

Beyond a Boundary

Author: Cyril Lionel Robert James
Publisher: Duke University Press
ISBN: 9780822313830
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 300

Book Description
In C. L. R. James's classic Beyond a Boundary, the sport is cricket and the scene is the colonial West Indies. Always eloquent and provocative, James--the "black Plato," (as coined by the London Times)--shows us how, in the rituals of performance and conflict on the field, we are watching not just prowess but politics and psychology at play. Part memoir of a boyhood in a black colony (by one of the founding fathers of African nationalism), part passionate celebration of an unusual and unexpected game, Beyond a Boundary raises, in a warm and witty voice, serious questions about race, class, politics, and the facts of colonial oppression. Originally published in England in 1963 and in the United States twenty years later (Pantheon, 1983), this second American edition brings back into print this prophetic statement on race and sport in society.

The Life of Sir John Falstaff

Author: Robert Barnabas Brough
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Etching, British
Languages : en
Pages : 306

Book Description
"The plan of this work [is] ... to illustrate the life of Sir John Falstaff exclusively from the most striking passages in his career, as invented by Shakespeare"--Preface

Ernst Bloch’s Speculative Materialism

Author: Cat Moir
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004272879
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 193

Book Description
In Ernst Bloch’s Speculative Materialism: Ontology, Epistemology, Politics, Cat Moir offers a new interpretation of the philosophy of Ernst Bloch. The reception of Bloch’s work has seen him variously painted as a naïve realist, a romantic nature philosopher, a totalitarian thinker, and an irrationalist whose obscure literary style stands in for a lack of systematic rigour. Moir challenges these conceptions of Bloch by reconstructing the ontological, epistemological, and political dimensions of his speculative materialism. Through a close, historically contextualised reading of Bloch’s major work of ontology, Das Materialismusproblem, seine Geschichte und Substanz (The Materialism Problem, its History and Substance), Moir presents Bloch as one of the twentieth century’s most significant critical thinkers.

Floreat Etona Anecdotes and Memories of Eton College

Author: Ralph Nevill
Publisher: Alpha Edition
ISBN: 9789356017771
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 202

Book Description
This book has been considered important throughout the human history, and so that this work is never forgotten we have made efforts in its preservation by republishing this book in a modern format for present and future generations. This whole book has been reformatted, retyped and designed. These books are not made of scanned copies and hence the text is clear and readable.

The Flu Pandemic and You

Author: Vincent Lam
Publisher: Doubleday Canada
ISBN: 0307373193
Category : Health & Fitness
Languages : en
Pages : 354

Book Description
An essential survival guide—both to pandemic influenza, and to the hype surrounding it. Written by an emergency physician and a public health physician, The Flu Pandemic and You is a timely and forthright guide on how to prepare for an influenza pandemic, and how to understand the broader context in which this health threat exists. With cool heads and professional expertise, Drs. Lam and Lee carefully explain how readers can assess their level of risk, and set out practical advice on how to contend with a pandemic, addressing such issues as: • How the flu virus works and what level of threat Canadians really face • How to help protect yourself and your family from contracting influenza • How to identify symptoms • What you need to know about antiviral drugs • What to do in a worst-case scenario The Flu Pandemic and You develops a lucid framework to help people understand the current anxiety about influenza in the context of the risks we all face in our daily lives. This crucially important book, full of reasoned, knowledgeable advice, is an indispensable resource for fearful times.