Outros livros que poderiam interessá-lo

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  A Grand Complication - The Race...

  Stacy Perman

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  Two wealthy and powerful men engage in a decades-long contest to create and possess the most remarkable watch in history.James Ward Packard of Warren, Ohio, was an entrepreneur and a talented engineer of infinite curiosity, a self-made man who earned millions from his inventions, including the design and manufacture of America’s first luxury car—the elegant and storied Packard. Henry Graves, Jr., was the very essence of blue-blooded refinement in the early 1900s: son of a Wall Street financier, a central figure in New York high society, and a connoisseur of beautiful things—especially fine watches. Then, as now, expensive watches were the ultimate sign of luxury and wealth, but in the early twentieth century the limitless ambition, wealth, and creativity of these two men pushed the boundaries of mathematics, astronomy, craftsmanship, technology, and physics to create ever more ingenious timepieces. In any watch, features beyond the display of hours, minutes, and seconds are known as “complications.” Packard and Graves spurred acclaimed Swiss watchmaker Patek Philippe to create the Mona Lisa of timepieces—a fabled watch that incorporated twenty-four complications and took nearly eight years to design and build. For the period, it was the most complicated watch ever created. For years it disappeared, but then it surfaced at a Sotheby’s auction in 1999, touching off a heated bidding war, shattering all known records when it fetched $11 million from an anonymous bidder.New York Times bestselling author Stacy Perman takes us from the clubby world of New York high society into the ateliers of the greatest Swiss watchmakers, and into the high-octane, often secretive subculture of modern-day watch collecting. With meticulous research, vivid historical details, and a wealth of dynamic personalities, A Grand Complication is the fascinating story of the thrilling duel between two of the most intriguing men of the early twentieth century. Above all, it is a sweeping chronicle of innovation, the desire for beauty, and the lengths people will go to possess it.

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  Napoleon in 100 Objects

  Gareth Glover

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  “Takes a look at the life of Napoleon Bonaparte through using 100 objects . . . an entertaining method of presenting a biography.” —Battles and Book Reviews 
   
  For almost two decades, Napoleon Bonaparte was the most feared, and revered, man in Europe. At the height of his power, the land under his control stretched from the Baltic to the Mediterranean, and encompassed most of Western Europe. 
   
  The story of how a young Corsican, who spoke French with a strange accent, became Emperor of the French at the age of just thirty-three is a remarkable one. The many fascinating objects brought together in this book detail not only Napoleon’s meteoric rise to power, but also his art of war and that magnificent fighting force, the Imperial Guard, which grew from a small personal bodyguard to the size of a small army. Some of his great battles, such as Marengo, Austerlitz, Jena and Wagram, are also explored, as is his exile and ultimate defeat at Waterloo.  
   
  In this engaging and hugely informative book, the author takes us on a journey across Napoleonic Europe to discover the places, people and objects that tell the story of one man’s life. It is a story of one of the most turbulent eras in history, one that, to this day, still bears Bonaparte’s name. But his legacy lives on in the French legal and social systems and he remains as enigmatic a figure today as he did 200 years ago. 
   
  “An amazing collection of objects that aid our understanding of the man who wanted to rule the world.” —Books Monthly

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  Headstrong - Surviving a...

  Donna Valentino

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  In this inspiring memoir of brain injury and recovery, the author recounts how family, faith, and steadfast determination saved her life. 
   
  Donna Valentino and her boyfriend Paul were at a resort in Texas when an ATV ride ended in tragedy. Donna crashed into an unmarked, nearly invisible chain. Suddenly their romantic weekend getaway became a nightmare of terrifying injuries—including a severe brain injury. 
   
  After months of rehabilitation and a courageous battle to regain her life, Donna wrote Headstrong, recounting her remarkable journey of recovery and adaptation. In Headstrong, Donna shares the practical and positive outlook that helped her and her family not only survive, but also grow stronger through the struggle.

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  Simply Riemann

  Jeremy Gray

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  Born to a poor Lutheran pastor in what is today the Federal Republic of Germany, Bernhard Riemann (1826-1866) was a child math prodigy who began studying for a degree in theology before formally committing to mathematics in 1846, at the age of 20. Though he would live for only another 20 years (he died of pleurisy during a trip to Italy), his seminal work in a number of key areas—several of which now bear his name—had a decisive impact on the shape of mathematics in the succeeding century and a half.  
  In Simply Riemann, author Jeremy Gray provides a comprehensive and intellectually stimulating introduction to Riemann’s life and paradigm-defining work. Beginning with his early influences—in particular, his relationship with his renowned predecessor Carl Friedrich Gauss—Gray goes on to explore Riemann’s specific contributions to geometry, functions of a complex variable, prime numbers, and functions of a real variable, which opened the way to discovering the limits of the calculus. He shows how without Riemannian geometry, cosmology after Einstein would be unthinkable, and he illuminates the famous Riemann hypothesis, which many regard as the most important unsolved problem in mathematics today.  
  With admirable concision and clarity, Simply Riemann opens the door on one of the most profound and original thinkers of the 19th century—a man who pioneered the concept of a multidimensional reality and who always saw his work as another way to serve God.

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  Behind the Scenes

  Elizabeth Keckley

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  This is the autobiography of Elizabeth Keckley, a former slave who bought her freedom with the money she earned as a seamstress. She eventually worked for Mary Lincoln. It is a fascinating book, filled with many recollections of her own life and her interactions with the Lincolns and other members of the government elite. (summary by Guero)

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  Man & Horse: The Long Ride...

  John Egenes

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  It's one thing to dream. It's another thing to follow that dream. In 1974 John Egenes saddled his young horse, Gizmo, and set off on an adventure that took them across the United States, from ocean to ocean. Ride along with them as they make their incredible journey, as they witness an America that no longer exists. 
  “An achingly beautiful memoir. The experiences of a young man viewed with the wisdom and perspective of an old one. We love what passes. The Epilogue is one of the most moving I have read. ~ GoodReads review

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