D'autres livres qui pourraient vous intéresser

• 

  Origins of Chinese Civilization...

  Hui Wang

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  "Origins of Chinese Civilization: A History of China" by Hui Wang takes you on a journey through China's ancient past, told in a way that feels like you're listening to an elder recounting myths around a campfire. The book starts with Fuxi, the first leader, whose inventions like the Eight Trigrams and fishing nets shaped early Chinese culture. The story moves through key figures like Nüwa, who patched the sky and shaped humanity from clay, and the Yan Emperor, who pioneered agriculture and medicine. Finally, the legendary Yellow Emperor, known as a creator of civilization, brings the narrative into a more organized and developed era. 
  The legends are filled with fascinating myths—like Fuxi's miraculous birth from a footprint, or Nüwa molding people from earth, and the rise of agriculture through Emperor Yan's curiosity about plants. The author doesn't simply recite the historical figures but adds warmth, humor, and a sense of connection, making it easy to see why these stories have endured for thousands of years. It's not just about dates and events; it's about people trying to live better, inventing things that changed their daily lives, and facing challenges with creativity and resilience. This book is perfect for those who want to explore Chinese history not through dry facts but with lively storytelling that brings ancient China to life.

  Voir livre

• 

  Abraham - The First Jew

  Anthony Julius

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  The story of Abraham, the first Jew, portrayed as two lives lived by one person, paralleling the contradictions in Judaism throughout its history 
   
   
    
  In this new biography of Abraham, Judaism's foundational figure, Anthony Julius offers an account of the origins of a fundamental struggle within Judaism between skepticism and faith, critique and affirmation, thinking for oneself and thinking under the direction of another. Julius describes Abraham's life as two separate lives, and as a version of the collective life of the Jewish people. 
   
   
    
  Abraham's first life is an early adulthood of questioning the polytheism of his home city of Ur Kasdim until its ruler, Nimrod, condemns him to death and he is rescued, he believes, by a miracle. In his second life, Abraham's focus is no longer on critique but rather on conversion and on his leadership over his growing household, until God's command that he sacrifice his son Isaac. This test, the Akedah (or "Binding"), ends with another miracle, as he believes, but as Julius argues, it is also a catastrophe for Abraham. The Akedah represents for him an unsurpassed horizon—and in Jewish life thereafter. This book focuses on Abraham as leader of the first Jewish project, Judaism, and the unresolvable, insurmountable crisis that the Akedah represents—both in his leadership and in Judaism itself.

  Voir livre

• 

  Mountain Guru - The Life of Doug...

  Catherine Moorehead

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  Winner of the Kekoo Naoroji Award
  Doug Scott was a legend among mountaineers. His expeditions, undertaken over a period of five decades, are unparalleled achievements. This book describes the extraordinary drama of them all, from the Himalaya to New Zealand, Patagonia, Yosemite and Alaska. It includes his famous 'epic' on The Ogre, one of the hardest peaks in the world to climb, his ascent of Kangchenjunga without supplementary oxygen and his ascent, with Dougal Haston, of Everest in 1975.
  Catherine Moorehead also uncovers the elusive man behind the obsessive mountaineer. From his rumbustious youth in Nottingham through two tempestuous marriages to a secure third marriage, she shows how Scott matured in thought and action as his formidable global reputation increased. In doing so she reveals him to be a clash of opposites, an infuriating monomaniac who took extraordinary risks yet who developed a deep interest in Buddhism and inspired widespread affection.
  Scott spent almost as long as his climbing career in founding and developing Community Action Nepal, providing schools and health posts in remote parts of Nepal, where he is still much revered. Doug Scott died in 2020.

  Voir livre

• 

  Into Enemy Arms - The Remarkable...

  Michael Hingston

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  The suspenseful true story of a love that defied Nazi oppression, and a harrowing journey to freedom. 
   
   
    
  In 1945, Ditha Bruncel was living with her parents in the small town of Lossen, in Upper Silesia. Close Jewish friends had vanished, swastikas hung from every building, and neighbors were disappearing in the middle of the night. At the same time more than fifteen hundred British and Commonwealth airmen were being marched out of Stalag Luft VII, a POW camp in the same region. Twenty-three of these prisoners managed to escape from the marching column—and by chance hobbled into Lossen. One among them, Warrant Officer Gordon Slowey, was the man Ditha was destined to meet and fall in love with. 
   
   
    
  Into Enemy Arms tells the extraordinary story of Ditha and the escaped POWs she helped save. Together, they embarked on a dangerous and daring flight out of Germany. As they faced exhaustion, hunger, extreme cold, and the constant risk of discovery, Ditha and Gordon's love for one another intensified, and so did their determination to survive and escape.

  Voir livre

• 

  Beyond the Rivers of Babylon -...

  Joseph Samuels

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  Rowing upon the Tigris River to enjoy a summer campfire on the tiny islands that emerged every summer, teenaged Joseph Samuels never could have imagined that these waters would soon become his only hope for freedom. At the age of 19, he was forced to leave his family behind as he smuggled out of Iraq in the secret hold of a Basra riverboat to escape the violent and repressive anti-Semitism that, over the next few years, would spell the end of the two-millennium-old Iraqi Jewish community."Beyond the Rivers of Babylon" follows Joe's remarkable journey, from his colorful childhood in the Old Jewish Quarter of Bagdad, to his life-altering service in the Israeli Navy, to starting a family and building a real estate empyrean Montreal and Los Angeles.Blessed with a remarkable vivid memory and a keen ability to look inward, Joe paints a sensory landscape of a home that is no more, and in the process imparts the lessons of a life lived to its fullest.Joe Samuels' memoir is a joyous recollection from a man who turned misfortune into tremendous success. One third of Bagdad consisted of Jewish citizenry... what became of them is captured in this one story of a man who refused to be beaten...- Glenn M. Benest, screenwriter and author of INK

  Voir livre

• 

  Moonlight Elk - One Woman's Hunt...

  Christie Green

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  Christie Green learned to hunt in order to complement the food she grew in her garden. As an act of practical agency this fulfilled her needs, yet a restlessness stirred within. She longed for a life defined by something deeper than cultural norms. Could she travel beyond the supposed domain of women and venture into the wild, where men were said to prevail? 
   
   
   
  Here, hunting in the wild, the moon cycles through her, rising and falling, whispering messages from the dark side. Rather than circle the hot insistence of a masculine sun, Green begins to attune to the more elusive, mysterious murmuration of the moon. Animals and dreams, lunar partners, choreograph Green through time and space. She longs to dream, toil, live, and love at the edges of the fertile ecotones where she can withdraw inward, retreat like an animal into hiding, and then come into full, radiant view on her own terms. Green sheds the burdens of her domestic self and witnesses the animals defying reason as they walk her into their world, ambling her along, straddling night and day, waking and sleeping. Through them, definitions of gender dissolve and boundaries blur. In the process, Green eclipses western society's definitions of her as a woman, mother, lover, and entrepreneur, courageously birthing her own independence through a profound connection to the animals and the places they call home.

  Voir livre