Other books that might interest you

• 

  How To Be Wrong - A crash course...

  Rowan Simpson

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  Sometimes the only way to be right is to get comfortable with being wrong. 
  Most startup advice is dangerously misguided. The mythology of the lone genius founder, the obsession with capital raising and the theatre of startup ecosystems lead countless ventures astray. 
  Drawing on two decades at the heart of New Zealand's most successful technology companies – Trade Me, Xero, Vend and Timely – Rowan Simpson unravels the messy reality behind familiar glossy success stories. With raw honesty and sharp analysis, he challenges conventional wisdom by sharing compelling firsthand lessons about focused execution, team building and genuine ecosystem growth. 
  This myth-busting guide is essential listening for founders, investors and policymakers alike. Simpson demonstrates that embracing uncertainty, recognising patterns and learning quickly from mistakes are not just steps on the path to success – they are the path itself. 
  --- 
  "Every upcoming entrepreneur needs to listen to this immediately." – Derek Sivers, author and founder of CD Baby 
  "There’s wisdom in these stories that could only come from someone who has seen startups from every angle – founder, employee, investor and advisor." – Ana Wight, former CEO of Vend 
  "A remarkably honest and enjoyable tale of how to take risks – and why it’s worth the effort." – Sir Bill English, former Prime Minister of New Zealand 
  "Rowan is one of the smartest thinkers I have met on the unique potential Kiwi founders have to create globally significant businesses." – Tim Brown, co-founder of Allbirds 
  "Exactly the sort of typical boring business-y drivel we’ve come to expect from you over the years, Dad." – Alice Simpson

  Show book

• 

  Alexander Pushkin - A Short...

  Alexander Puschkin

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin was born on 26th May 1799 in Moscow into a family of Russian nobility. 
   
  Raised by nursemaids and French tutors in French he learnt Russian only via the household staff. 
   
  He graduated from the prestigious Imperial Lyceum, near St Petersburg and plunged into the vibrant and raucous intellectual youth culture of what was then the capital of the Russian Empire.  
   
  In 1820, he published his first long poem, ‘Ruslan and Ludmila’, with much controversy about both subject and style.  Pushkin was heavily influenced by the French Enlightenment and gravitated, with other literary radicals, towards social reform angering the Government. 
   
  His early literary work and reputation was poetic and written as he travelled around the Empire or engaged himself in various rebellions against the Ottoman Empire.  A clash with his own government after his poem, ‘Ode to Liberty’, was found among the belongings of the Decembrist Uprising rebels meant two years of internal exile at his mother's rural estate.  His friends and family continually petitioned for his release, sending letters and meeting with Tsar Alexander I and then Tsar Nicholas I.   
   
  In 1825, whilst at his Mother’s estate, Pushkin wrote his most famous play, the drama ‘Boris Godunov’.  
   
  Upon meeting with Tsar Nicholas I, Pushkin obtained his release and began work as the Tsar's Titular Counsel of the National Archives.  However, because of the earlier problems the tsar retained control of everything Pushkin published, and he was banned from travelling at will. 
   
  Around 1828, Pushkin met the 16-year-old Natalia Goncharova, one of the most talked-about beauties of Moscow.  After much hesitation, Natalia accepted his marriage proposal after she received assurances that the government had no intentions to persecute the libertarian poet.  When the Tsar gave Pushkin the lowest court title, Gentleman of the Chamber, he became enraged, feeling that the Tsar intended to humiliate him. 
   
  In the year 1831, during Pushkin's growing literary influence, he met Nikolai Gogol.  Recognising his gifts Pushkin supported him and published his short stories in his own magazine ‘The Contemporary’. 
   
  By the autumn of 1836, Pushkin was falling into greater and greater debt and facing scandalous rumours that his wife was having an affair.  
   
  In January 1837, Pushkin sent a ‘highly insulting letter’ to his wife’s pursuer, Georges-Charles de Heeckeren d'Anthès.  The only answer could be a challenge to a duel. 
   
  It took place on 27th January.  D'Anthès fired first, critically wounding Pushkin; the bullet entered at his hip and penetrated his abdomen.  Two days later Alexander Pushkin died of peritonitis.  He was 37. 
   
  1 - Alexander Pushkin - A Short Story Collection - An Introduction 
  2 - The Queen of Spades by Alexander Pushkin 
  3 - The Blizzard by Alexander Pushkin 
  4 - The Stationmaster by Alexander Pushkin 
  5 - The Shot by Alexander Pushkin 
  6 - The Coffin Maker by Alexander Pushkin 
   -  
   -  
   -  
  1 - Cornwall - A Short Story Collection - An Introduction 
  2 - Malachi's Cove by Anthony Trollope 
  3 - Ligeia by Edgar Allan Poe 
  4 - The Screaming Skull by F Marion Crawford 
  5 - The Haunted Church by Frederick Cowles 
  6 - The Limping Ghost by Frederick Cowles 
  7 - In the Mist by Mary E Penn 
  8 - The Botathen Ghost from Footprints of Former Men in Far Cornwall by the Reverend R S Hawker 
  9 - Room For One by Frederick Cowles 
  10 - Colonel Benyon's Entanglement by Mary Elizabeth Braddon 
  11 - Christmas Eve at a Cornish Manor House by Clara Venn

  Show book

• 

  The Greta Garbo Home for Wayward...

  Steven Gaines

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  A sequel to the author's critically acclaimed Delphinium title, One of These Things First, The Greta Garbo Home for Wayward Boys and Girls is a poison-pen, love letter to the end of an era-Manhattan during the decadent, late 1970s. 
   
    
   
  Picking up where he left off at the end of his widely praised debut memoir, One of These Things First, Gaines recounts his hilarious, sometimes poignant attempt to forge a writing career and a successful love life in the gay world of the 1970s. He has limited success until he falls in love with an older woman dying of cancer. Meanwhile, he serendipitously begins a career as a writer when he meets a former child evangelist, and with naïve chutzpah, manages a to land a book deal that leads to a whirlwind career as a biographer, rock and roll columnist, and roman à clef novelist who writes a book with a Studio 54 bartender that brings the world down around them. From inside the entertainment business in New York and Los Angeles to inside the publishing world, Gaines narrates a life of escapades and adventures and searching for love in all the wrong places. After hitting rock bottom, he writes a book about the Beatles that ends up on the New York Times bestseller list, leading to popular esteem and a feeling of momentary redemption.

  Show book

• 

  99 Bottles - A Black Sheep's...

  André Hueston Mack

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  99 Bottles is a highly opinionated, vibrantly illustrated wine guide from one of the country’s most celebrated—and unorthodox—sommeliers and winemakers. 
   
  In this entertaining, informative, and thoroughly unconventional wine guide, award-winning sommelier, winemaker, and wine educator André Hueston Mack presents readers with the 99 bottles that have most impacted his life. Instead of just pairing wines with foods, Mack pairs practical information with personal stories, offering up recommendations alongside reflections on being one of the only African Americans to ever work at the top level of the American wine industry. 
   
  The 99 bottles range from highly accessible commercial wines to the most rarefied Bordeaux on the wine list at The French Laundry, and each bottle offers readers something to learn about wine. This window into Mack’s life combines a maverick’s perspective on the wine industry with an insider’s advice on navigating wine lists, purchasing wine, and drinking more diverse and interesting selections at home. 99 Bottles is a one-of-a-kind exploration of wine culture today from a true trailblazer.

  Show book

• 

  Depraved - A True Story of...

  John Glatt

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  John Edward Robinson was a fifty-six-year-old grandfather from rural Kansas. An entrepreneur and Eagle Scout, he was even honored as "Man of the Year" at a Kansas City charity. To some of the women he met on the Internet, he was known as Slavemaster—a sexual deviate with a taste for sadomasochistic rituals of extreme domination and torture . . . even killing. 
   
   
   
  Masquerading as a philanthropist, he promised women money and adventure. For fifteen years, he trawled the Web, snaring unsuspecting women. They were never seen again. But in the summer of 2000, the decomposed remains of two women were discovered in barrels on Robinson's farm, and three other bodies were found in storage units. Yet the depths of Robinson's bloodlust didn't end there. For authorities, the unspeakable criminal trail of Slavemaster was just beginning . . . 
   
   
   
  Depraved is a true story of sadistic murder in the Heartland, told by true crime master John Glatt.

  Show book

• 

  The Ballet of Swallows

  Mozhgan Mahmoodian

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  Against the backdrop of 1979 post-revolution Iran, seven-year-old Mozhgan Mahmoodian struggles to understand the right and wrong in her world. At home, the kitchen wall is the only thing separating her father's two lives - one with her maman, and the other with his second wife. In her dogmatic school, disillusionment threatens to take away Mozhgan's claim to her one superpower: her brain. 
  Determined to create her own path, she decides the best way forward is by doing the opposite of what the adults around her do. But can a young girl reinvent her life with nothing but her own will and judgment? 
  The Ballet of Swallows is a coming of age memoir about how we define our own story and defy the one that's given to us. Navigating grief, depression, and familial trauma, Mozhgan Mahmoodian invites us into the intimate and harrowing world of her childhood.

  Show book