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  Conquering the Desert of Death -...

  Charles Blackmore

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  The ferocious Taklamakan desert, the harshest on earth, is known by the Chinese as the 'desert of death' or the 'place of no return' - you go in but you don't come out. It sustains no life and has taken the lives of many of those who have ventured in. Its unknown depths are said to be haunted by demons and spirits and legend has it that ancient cities filled with treasure lie lost and buried beneath its dunes. The only certainty is that no human being in history had ever crossed it from end to end. But, after five years of planning, Charles Blackmore together with a team of British, Chinese and Uyghurs and a caravan of thirty camels, set out to accomplish the seemingly impossible: they would cross the Taklamakan, west to east, directly through its unmapped, untrodden centre. "Conquering the Desert of Death" is at once a deeply personal journey and the story of an adventure that will go down in history as one of the great achievements of exploration. Hear the thrilling story narrated by an actual member of the expedition, Mark Kitto, writer and actor.

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  Nicholas Nickleby

  Charles Dickens

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  The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby is closely modelled on the 18h-century novels that Charles Dickens loved as a child, such as Robinson Crusoe, in which the fortunes of a hero shape the plot. The likeable young Nicholas, left penniless on the death of his father, sets off in search of better prospects. His meandering route to happiness includes work as a teacher at Dotheboys Hall, where the brutal Wackford Squeers ill-treats his impoverished pupils, and a spell as an actor with the absurdly melodramatic Crummles troupe. Nicholas's many adventures give Dickens the freedom to follow the eccentricities of a vivid gallery of characters, exploring themes of class, love, and self-awareness with exuberant comedy and biting satire

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  Visions and Revisions

  Dale Peck

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  Part memoir, part extended essay, Visions and Revisions is a revolutionary look  at the 1990s AIDS epidemic from "one of our most adventurous and singularly  talented writers working today" (San Francisco Chronicle).  Reminiscent of Joan Didion's "White Album" or Kurt Vonnegut's Palm Sunday,   Visions and Revisionsis a collage-style portrait of a tumultuous era that puts the reader  on the streets of NYC during the early 90s AIDS crisis, also touching on such diverse  subjects as the serial murders of gay men, Peck's first loves upon coming out, and the  transformation of LGBT people from marginal, idealistic fighters to their present place in  a world of widespread, if fraught, mainstream acceptance.  Visions and Revisionscapitalizes on a wave of increased interest in the HIV/AIDS epidemic,  with the recent premiere of the groundbreaking AIDS documentary How to Survive a Plague.  This is the first memoir by one of our most controversial contemporary writers, and it offers a  jarring, street-level portrait of AIDS activism in the 1990s.  Visions and Revisions will follow the Soho Press reissue of Dale Peck's debut novel, Martin and  John, which received stunning critical praise, as well as our release of a new anthology he is  editing.    Novelist and critic Dale Peck's latest work--part memoir, part extended essay--is a foray into what the author calls "the second  half of the first half AIDS epidemic," i.e., the period between 1987, when the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP) was  founded, and 1996, when the advent of combination therapy transformed AIDS from a virtual death sentence into a chronic  manageable illness.  Visions and Revisionshas been assembled from more than a dozen essays and articles that have been extensively rewritten  and recombined to form a sweeping, collage-style portrait of a tumultuous era. Moving seamlessly from the lyrical to the  analytical to the reportorial, Peck's story takes readers from the serial killings of gay men in New York, London and Milwaukee,  through Peck's first loves upon coming out of the closet, to the transformation of LGBT people from marginal, idealistic fighters to  their present place in a world of widespread, if fraught, mainstream acceptance.  The narrative pays particular attention the words and deeds of AIDS activists, offering up a street-level portrait of ACT UP  together with considerations of AIDS-centered fiction and criticism of the era, as well as intimate, sometimes elegiac portraits of  artists, activists, and HIV-positive people Peck knew. Peck's fiery rhetoric against a government that sat on its hands for the first  several years of the epidemic is tinged with the idealism of a young gay man discovering his political, artistic, and sexual identity.  The result is a book that is as rich in ideas as it is in feeling.  A visionary and indispensable work from one of America's most brilliant and controversial authors.

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  Stoicism - Eudaimonia: A Guide...

  Quinto Greco

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  What is EUDAIMONIA (εὐδαιμονία)?Eu = "good"daimōn = "demon/spirit"The more accurate translation is the blossoming of your good demon or human flourishing.But how to achieve that?How can we learn how to live? Is it about wisdom? Or ethics? What should our priorities be, and how can we carry out these efforts?Stoicism is a practical philosophy whose edicts seek to teach us how to live its principles every day. So how can we uncover the principles and practices that can help us live more wisely? This book intends to enable a beginner to learn about the history of the Stoic philosophy as well as the major historical figures whose writings have shaped Stoic thought. It also covers the major principles of Stoicism and ends with specific and practical advice on “learning how to live.” It’s a guidebook for anyone seeking to broaden their understanding of Stoicism as well as those looking to bring practical wisdom into their day to day life. You will be helped with the following:. Introduction. Origins of stoicsm. Eudaimonia. Cardinal virtues. Dichotomy of control. Acquiescence. Stoicsm and love. Prepare for the day. And much more!“As long as you live, keep learning how to live”Seneca, “Letters from a Stoic.”

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  The Cruise of the Snark

  Jack London

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  The Cruise of the Snark (1913) is a memoir of Jack and Charmian London's 1907-1909 voyage across the Pacific. His descriptions of "surf-riding", which he dubbed a "royal sport", helped introduce it to and popularize it with the mainland. London writes:Through the white crest of a breaker suddenly appears a dark figure, erect, a man-fish or a sea-god, on the very forward face of the crest where the top falls over and down, driving in toward shore, buried to his loins in smoking spray, caught up by the sea and flung landward, bodily, a quarter of a mile. It is a Kanaka on a surf-board. And I know that when I have finished these lines I shall be out in that riot of colour and pounding surf, trying to bit those breakers even as he, and failing as he never failed, but living life as the best of us may live it.Excerpted from Wikipedia.

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  Alphabetical Diaries

  Sheila Heti

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  "Berlant adds that extra pizazz, so you really get a window into the creative mind as it shifts quickly from moments of despair to lightbulbs of insight to incidents of sexual desire to the recollection of totally random literary facts."—Vulture on Alphabetical Diaries"Heti's candid revelations will stir listeners."—AudioFile on Alphabetical DiariesThis program is read by Emmy-nominated comedian, actress, and writer, Kate Berlant.A thrilling confessional from the award-winning, beloved author of Pure Colour.Sheila Heti kept a record of her thoughts over a ten-year period, then arranged the sentences from A to Z. Passionate and reflective, joyful and despairing, these are her alphabetical diaries.A Macmillan Audio production from Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

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