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  Kasimir Stanislavovitch - From...

  Ivan Bunin

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  Ivan Alekseyevich Bunin was born on 22nd October 1870 in Voronezh province, in the South-West of the Russian Empire. 
  His early life was plagued by his Father’s gambling habits which caused his education to be erratic and the family to lose most of their wealth. 
  Bunin published his first poem in 1887 in St Petersburg and later in Oryol he worked for the local paper and became its editor, handily allowing him to publish his own poems and short stories.  There he met and married Varvara Pashchenko.  Ivan Bunin's debut book of poetry ‘Poems (1887–1891)’ was published in 1891. 
  This poetry and his translation of Longfellow garnered him his first Pushkin Prize.  Now he switched to writing prose and his novella ‘Antonov Apples’ is regarded as his first masterpiece.  Many more would follow. 
  The October Revolution of 1905 found Bunin in the Crimea.  Scenes of ‘class struggle’ he saw more as the oppressed people's craving for anarchy and destruction. 
  In November 1906 he began a passionate affair with Vera Muromtseva, within a few months they were touring through Egypt and Palestine.  ‘The Bird's Shadow’ collection was the result.   
  His second Pushkin Prize came in 1909 for Poems (1903–1906) and further translations.  He was now elected to the prestigious Russian Academy. 
  More widespread fame came in 1910 with ‘The Village’, a controversial and bleak portrayal of Russian country life.  Travel too beckoned them back to the Middle East, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) and for winters in Capri with their friend Maxim Gorky.  
  That friendship suddenly ended in April 1917 as the revolution began to ferment in war-ravaged Russia.  After the Bolsheviks took power and the upheavals continued, he decided to leave Russia, finally achieving that in early 1920.  
  It would take some time to heal the wounds and stress he had been under and for his writing to begin again.  Settled in France, Bunin published many of his previous works and collections of novellas.  He also made regular contributions to the Russian emigre press.  
  Although reluctant to become involved in politics, Bunin was now feted as both a writer and the figurehead of non-Bolshevik Russian values and traditions.  In 1933 he became the first Russian to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature ‘for following through and developing with chastity and artfulness the traditions of Russian classic prose.’  
  In 1938 Bunin began working on the celebrated cycle of nostalgic, and erotically themed stories known Dark Avenues (or Dark Alleys).  
  As World War II broke out he chose to remain in Grasse spending the war at his remote Villa Jeanette, high in the mountains.  
  Ivan Bunin was a staunch anti-Nazi, and often, under difficult conditions, sheltered fugitives after Vichy was occupied by the Germans.  He wrote but did not publish during these years until on August 23rd the Nazi’s fled Grasse without a fight.  The next day the Americans came.  
  In May 1945 he returned to Paris and, apart from convalescing at times in Juan-les-Pins, he stayed for the rest of his life. 
  After 1948, with his health deteriorating, Bunin concentrated upon writing his memoirs and a book on Chekhov.  His last years were overshadowed by bitterness and despair at the situation in Russia and the treatment of its peoples.  He was suffering now from asthma, bronchitis and chronic pneumonia. 
  Ivan Alekseyevich Bunin died in a Paris attic flat on 8th November 1953.  Heart failure, cardiac asthma and pulmonary sclerosis were given as the causes of death.  He was 83.

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  Useful Not True

  Derek Sivers

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  “Useful Not True” is about reframing. 
  Success in anything starts with your perspective which affects your strategy — your actions. 
  Your first thought (“this is a disaster”) feels true, but it’s not the only perspective. 
  Your first thought is an obstacle you need to get past by realizing no thoughts are necessarily true. 
  After your initial impulse, consider other perspectives, then choose the thought that’s more useful to you — the one that makes you take effective actions. 
  People share perspectives, not facts. They tell you how they see things. 
  Like someone across the world telling you the time.Maybe it’s true for them, but not for you, and not for most other people. 
  Brains lie to their owners. Nobody knows the real reasons why they do anything. 
  When someone says, “I believe…”, then whatever they say next is not a fact. No beliefs are necessarily true. 
  Beliefs are perspectives.Explanations are confabulated.Obligations are wishes.Rules are arbitrary.They’re useful, but not necessarily true. 
  Knowing this gives you empathy, as you understand people’s incentives behind their beliefs.

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  The Culinary Students'...

  Carolynne Wilson

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  For the dreamers, the flavour seekers, and the bold-hearted cooks. 
  This book is your invitation into the world of culinary creativity, where mastering the basics opens the door to beautiful, unforgettable dishes. At its core are the essentials: stocks and sauces, the building blocks of flavour. But this isn’t just a cookbook. 
  It’s a collection of stories. 
  Inside, you’ll meet people from all walks of life who left familiar paths to chase something different: a place at the table in a demanding culinary school in the South of France. Their journeys are filled with grit, humour, and a love for food that brought them together in a way only cooking can. 
  Alongside their stories, you’ll find the recipes they cherished, meals that sparked friendships and flavour alike. 
  Whether you’re just beginning or deep into your culinary journey, may this book encourage you to follow your passion, embrace technique, and discover the simple joy of creating something delicious. 
  Welcome to our shared adventure. Let’s cook. 
  Carolynnewilson.com

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  The Political Thought of Xi Jinping

  Olivia Cheung, Steve Tsang

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  Over the course of the last half dozen years, China's supreme leader Xi Jinping has made extraordinary changes which have profound implications not only for the Chinese people but nations throughout the world. Given how swiftly and fundamentally China's relations with the rest of the world are changing under Xi's rule, it is imperative that we know what Xi Jinping Thought is, how it evolved, and why it is so important. 
   
   
   
  In The Political Thought of Xi Jinping, Steve Tsang and Olivia Cheung provide an authoritative overview of what "Xi Jinping Thought" is and is not and what it means for both China and the world. Xi, now effectively leader for life, has worked to ensure that "Xi Jinping Thought" becomes cemented as the new state ideology. Clearly inspired by the doctrine of "Mao Zedong Thought," which shaped the parameters of acceptable thinking for a quarter century, Xi wants his doctrine to define what he calls the "China Dream of national rejuvenation" and serve the pathway to its fulfillment by 2050. Drawing from original research of Xi's speeches, writings, and policies, Tsang and Cheung conceptualize Xi's vision independently from interpretations provided by the Chinese Communist Party or other sources. They further examine and explain how Xi seeks to transform this vision into reality.

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  American Legends of the Sky

  Editors Charles River

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  The lives of Wilbur and Orville Wright are quintessential American stories. Growing up in America’s heartland, the boys lived very ordinary lives with 5 other siblings and worked in printing jobs and repair jobs that involved tinkering with tools and bicycles. But at the end of the 20th century, one of the brothers’ passions became an obsession, especially for Wilbur. In December 1903, the brothers had done enough scientific work with concepts like lift to help their aeronautical designs, and they had the technical know-how to work with engines. On December 17, the brothers took turns making history’s first successful powered flights.  
  In 1927, Charles Lindbergh became the first to make a nonstop Transatlantic solo flight, forever earning him fame and the moniker "Lucky Lindy". Two years later, Earhart was the first woman to cross the Atlantic in a plane, and her uncanny resemblance to Lindbergh earned her the nickname "Lady Lindy". Together they became America's most famous aviators, and their stories were inextricably interwoven by their lives, careers, and ill-fated destinies. 
  By the mid-1930s, Amelia Earhart had set a multitude of altitude and distance records, but she wanted to attempt a circumnavigation of the world. After an ill-fated first attempt, Earhart and Fred Noonan set off on another attempt, creating one of the 20th century’s most enduring mysteries. Earhart and Noonan were to land on Howland Island, 1700 miles southwest of Hawaii, but radio transmissions ceased between the plane and authorities on the ground the morning of July 2, 1937. Earhart and Noonan had disappeared, never to be seen again, despite one of the nation’s largest and costliest manhunts to date. Unfortunately, the speculation over exactly what happened to Earhart and the mystery of her disappearance have come to overshadow and obscure her many accomplishments.

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  Single Gay Christian - A...

  Gregory Coles, Wesley Hill

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  Let’s make a deal, you and me. Let’s make promises to each other. I promise to tell you my story. The whole story. I’ll tell you about a boy in love with Jesus who, at the fateful onset of puberty, realized his sexual attractions were persistently and exclusively for other guys. I’ll tell you how I lay on my bed in the middle of the night and whispered to myself the words I’ve whispered a thousand times since: “I’m gay.” I’ll show you the world through my eyes. 
  I’ll tell you what it’s like to belong nowhere. To know that much of my Christian family will forever consider me unnatural, dangerous, because of something that feels as involuntary as my eye color. And to know that much of the LGBTQ community that shares my experience as a sexual minority will disagree with the way I’ve chosen to interpret the call of Jesus, believing I’ve bought into a tragic, archaic ritual of self-hatred. 
  But I promise my story won’t all be sadness and loneliness and struggle. I’ll tell you good things too, hopeful things, funny things, like the time I accidentally came out to my best friend during his bachelor party. I’ll tell you what it felt like the first time someone looked me in the eyes and said, “You are not a mistake.” I’ll tell you that joy and sorrow are not opposites, that my life has never been more beautiful than when it was most brokenhearted. 
  If you’ll listen, I promise I’ll tell you everything, and you can decide for yourself what you want to believe about me.

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