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  A Compendium of Contrarians -...

  Robert Orr-Ewing

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  What do Winston Churchill, Rosa Parks, Emile Zola, Billy Beane and Christopher Hitchens have in common? They are all Contrarians. This book is about the people who do not quietly slip into the shadows, who revel in playing devil's advocate, who zig when everyone else zags and who dare ask the question: 'Yes, but just supposing that everyone else is wrong?'
  They are not always successful all of the time. In fact some are spectacularly unsuccessful on occasions. They may not be popular or easy to live with, but are always interesting and usually inspiring. Some make a point of arguing the opposite point of view on every occasion; some are mainstream on everything, but resolute in opposing the mainstream on one particular issue. For some, the issue which they contest so vigorously becomes mainstream through their exertions.
  In Compendium of Contrarians, Robert Orr-Ewing shows how he has been inspired by these amusing, challenging, interesting and unusual characters.

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  The Funny Stuff - The Official P...

  P. J. O'Rourke

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  A compendium of quotes and riffs by P.J. O'Rourke on subjects ranging from government to fishing to apps, to be published on what would have been his seventy-fifth birthday. 
   
   
   
  When The Penguin Dictionary of Modern Humorous Quotations was published in 1994, P. J. O'Rourke had more entries than any living writer. And he kept writing funny stuff for another twenty-eight years. Now, for the first time, the best material is collected in  one volume. Edited by Terry McDonell, The Funny Stuff is arranged in six sections, organized by subject in alphabetical order from Agriculture to Xenophobia. From his earliest days at the National Lampoon in the 1970s, through his classic reporting for Rolling Stone in the '80s and '90s to his post-Trump, pandemic, new media observations of recent years, P. J. produced incisive, amusing copy. Not only did P. J. write memorable one-liners, he also meticulously constructed riffs that are still being quoted years later. His prose has the electric verbal energy of Tom Wolfe or Hunter Thompson, but P. J. is more flat out funny. And through it all comes his clear-eyed take on politics, economics, human nature—and fun. The Funny Stuff is a book for P. J. fans to devour but also a book that will bring new audiences and stand as testament to one of the truly original American writers of the last fifty years.

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  A Croft in the Hills

  Katharine Stewart, Neil Gunn

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  A Croft in the Hills captures, in simple, moving descriptions, what it was really like trying to make a living out of a hill croft near Loch Ness fifty years ago. A couple and their young daughter, fresh from city life, immerse themselves in the practicalities of looking after sheep, cattle and hens, mending fences, baking bread, and surviving the worst that Scottish winters can throw at them. 
   
   
   
  Their neighbors are few, but among them they find the generosity and community spirit that has survived in the Highlands for generations. Working as a tight family unit, they learn to cope, and in time grow to love their little croft. As Neil Gunn writes in his Foreword, their lives gain extra dimensions that 'give the book its unusual quality, its brightness, and its wisdom'.

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  A Complicated Passion - The Life...

  Carrie Rickey

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  Over the course of her sixty-five-year career, the longest of any female filmmaker, Agnès Varda (1928–2019) wrote and directed some of the most acclaimed films of her era, from her tour de force Cléo from 5 to 7 (1962), a classic of modernist cinema, to the beloved documentary The Gleaners and I (2000) four decades later. She helped to define the French New Wave, inspired an entire generation of filmmakers, and was recognized with major awards at the Cannes, Berlin, and Venice Film Festivals, as well as an honorary Oscar at the Academy Awards. 
   
   
   
  In this lively biography, Carrie Rickey explores the "complicated passions" that informed Varda's charmed life and indelible work. Rickey traces Varda's three remarkable careers—as still photographer, as filmmaker, and as installation artist. She explains how Varda was a pioneer in blurring the lines between documentary and fiction, using the latest digital technology and carving a path for women in the movie industry. She demonstrates how Varda was years ahead of her time in addressing sexism, abortion, labor exploitation, immigrant rights, and race relations with candor and incisiveness. And she delves into Varda's incredibly rich social life with figures such as Harrison Ford, Jean-Luc Godard, Jim Morrison, Susan Sontag, and Andy Warhol, and her nearly forty-year marriage to the celebrated director Jacques Demy.

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  My Journeys in Economic Theory

  Edmund Phelps

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  Edmund Phelps is among the most important economists of his generation. He developed a new understanding of unemployment and inflation and went on to rethink the roots of innovation. 
   
   
   
  In this book, Phelps tells the story of his role in reshaping economic theory, offering a powerful personal account of a creative and rewarding career. My Journeys in Economic Theory charts two major phases of Phelps's work, illuminating the breadth of his contributions to the field. First, introducing the expectations of wage setters and cofounding the "equilibrium" rate of unemployment, he built the microeconomic foundations for the employment theory pioneered by Keynes and Hicks. More recently, he conceived a theory of "mass flourishing" in which individuals' creativity and society's dynamism fuel grassroots innovation and generate job satisfaction in the process. 
   
   
   
  Phelps recounts his vivid experiences in the world of economics as well as his relationships with luminaries such as John Rawls, Thomas Nagel, Paul Samuelson, and Paul Volcker. At its core, this book shares the joy of intellectual achievement: the excitement of coming up with a new idea that radically departs from prevailing views and the satisfaction of exercising one's own ingenuity instead of applying or developing others' models.

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  Cultural Repercussions -...

  Bradley J. Birzer

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  A revised & expanded examination of the words and ideas of the man of letters and drummer extraordinaire of the rock band Rush. In January 2020, the world lost not only one of the greatest drummers, but also one of the most insightful lyricists. And a brilliant writer.  Though Neil Peart was universally lauded as drummer for legendary rock band Rush, few studies have been devoted to his writings. Yet, Peart was very much a man of his words. He wrote lyrics, travelogues, essays, cultural criticism, short stories, and fantasy novels. The themes in his writings are timeless: personal journeys, exploration, excellence, growth, philosophy, art, satisfaction and happiness, religion, politics, individualism, natural history, life, love, loss, redemption, and beauty.  Peart wanted every person to persevere through individual trials, find unique gifts and abilities and, ultimately, true happiness. He did not just profess such things; he lived them. Never satisfied with second best or any form of defeat, Peart challenged himself to live up to his own philosophy. And he always succeeded with grace, which earned him even more fervent admirers. Since his death in 2020, Neil Peart has continued to inspire thousands through his music, his words, and his example.  This book—revised and expanded to incorporate Peart’s final years—carefully examines the influence that his life, his witness, and his words have had on others. Neil Peart lived life to the fullest, and he made us each better for it. “Includes some of the strongest analysis of Peart’s lyrics that you’ll find, and does a rigorous job of nailing down the tenets of Peart’s ever-evolving philosophy.” —PROG Magazine

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