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  The Awful Fate of Melpomenus...

  Stephen leacock

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  Stephen P H Butler Leacock FRSC was born on 30th December 1869 in Swanmore, near Southampton, England.  He was the third of eleven children. 
  The family emigrated to Canada in 1876, settling on a 100-acre farm in Sutton, Ontario.  There Leacock was home-schooled until, funded by his grandfather, he was enrolled into the elite private school Upper Canada College in Toronto.  Academically he was very strong.  In 1887, at age 17, he became head boy and then proceeded on to the University of Toronto to study languages and literature.  Despite completing two years of study in only one, he was obliged to leave the university because his father, an alcoholic, had abandoned the family and finances could not be stretched to continue his attendance.  Leacock now enrolled in a three-month course at Strathroy Collegiate Institute to become a qualified high school teacher with a regular income. 
  He worked at Upper Canada College from 1889 through 1899 and later resumed his studies part-time at the University of Toronto, graduating with a B A in 1891.  It was during this period that he was first published in The Varsity, a campus newspaper.  But his passion was now economics and political theory.  In 1899 he enrolled for postgraduate studies at the University of Chicago and earned his PhD in 1903. 
  Leacock had married Beatrix Hamilton in 1900 and 15 years later the couple had their only child, Stephen.  In time father and son developed a love-hate relationship, partially caused by his son’s diminutive stature of only four feet.  
  Accepting a post at McGill University Leacock would remain there until he retired in 1936.  In 1906, he wrote ‘Elements of Political Science’, quickly adopted as a standard textbook for the next two decades and his most profitable book.  He also began public speaking and lecturing, and took a year's leave of absence in 1907 to speak throughout Canada on the subject of national unity.  
  Leacock had submitted humourous articles to the Toronto magazine Grip in 1894, and was soon published in other Canadian and US magazines.  In 1910, he printed privately a collection of these as ‘Literary Lapses’.  Acquired by the British publisher, John Lane, it was released in London and New York.   He was now a commercially successful writer.  There soon followed ‘Nonsense Novels’ (1911) and the sentimental favourite, ‘Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town’ (1912).  His ‘Arcadian Adventures with the Idle Rich’ (1914) is a darker collection that satirizes city life.  Collections of sketches continued to be published almost annually, filled with a mixture of light-hearted whimsy, parody, nonsense, and satire. 
  In later life, he wrote on the art of humour writing and published biographies on Twain and Dickens.  Together with continued speaking tours he also added to his non-fiction with many well-regarded and award-winning volumes on Canada. 
  Politically Leacock was a social conservative and a partisan Conservative.  He opposed women’s right to vote and had a varied record on non-English immigration.  He was a champion of Empire but an advocate of social welfare legislation and wealth redistribution, but he often caused friction with his racist views towards blacks and Indigenous peoples. 
  Leacock has for some time been forgotten as an economist, but it’s often quoted that in 1911 more people had heard of him than had heard of Canada.  For the decade after 1915 Leacock was the most popular humorist in the English-speaking world. 
  Stephen Leacock died on 28th March 1944 of throat cancer in Toronto, Canada.  He was 74.  He was buried in the St George the Martyr Churchyard, Sutton, Ontario.

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  Scam Goddess - Lessons from a...

  Laci Mosley

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  A delightfully subversive essay collection from Laci Mosley, host of the award-winning “Scam Goddess” podcast, about the frauds, cons, and schemes that make up our world—and how the scammer mindset has affected her own upbringing, career, friendships, love life, and more. ​ From an early age, comedian and actress Laci Mosley knew her path would be riddled with scams, cons, robberies, and frauds. Little ones. Ones that didn’t hurt people or get her in trouble. But ones that would get her where she needed to be. “You see,” she writes, “everyone’s a scammer and everything’s a scam. Some people are better at it than others, but we all do it. The system wasn’t built for people like me. Scamming saved me and has taught me how to navigate a messy and unfair world while looking out for myself, too.” In Scam Goddess, Laci recounts how her scammer instincts have guided her throughout her life—from a religious childhood in rural Texas, to a stint as a city bartender at what might have been a drug front, to swindling her way past the gatekeepers of Hollywood—recounting the greatest true-crime scam stories that inspired her along the way. Whether it’s by the beauty industry, capitalism, or the people we date, we’re all getting scammed. In this book, Laci identifies the secrets to flipping the script and coming out ahead.

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  Speaking My Language Te Kōrero i...

  Mike McRoberts

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  Well-known journalist and presenter Mike McRoberts opens up about his experiences of reconnection to te ao Māori and learning te reo, and encourages others to do the same. 
  2026 Book Industry Awards NZ Audiobook of the Year Finalist 
    
  'Mike has bravely given voice to the inner conflicts and deep-seated longing many of us feel as we seek the power of reclaiming our language. Where we may have seen him as polished and unflappable, this intimate, vulnerable journey shows another side and will leave you inspired.' - Stacey Morrison 
  'Ko te kai a te rangatira, he kōrero - discourse is the domain of chiefs; here Mike reveals the destiny that awaited him, because he sought the sustenance our language brings. He kōrero rangatira!' - Scotty Morrison 
  For much of his life, Mike McRoberts felt burdened by not knowing his own language - te reo Māori. Growing up at a time when te reo was scarcely spoken in daily conversations, and within a mixed-race family with little connection to Māoritanga, his experience mirrored that of many other New Zealanders of his generation.  
  In later years, as a journalist and presenter of Newshub's six o'clock news, his confident television persona masked the anxiety he felt greeting viewers with the simple phrase, 'Kia ora, good evening'. Not being comfortable speaking his language was a source of shame - a shame that ironically kept him from starting his te reo journey sooner. 
  In Speaking My Language / Te Kōrero i Tōku Reo Mike shares his story of that journey to speak te reo Māori and reclaim his identity. His book is an invitation for all New Zealanders to take the first step to understand why speaking our Māori language and treasuring our culture matters.

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  Raging Heart - The Intimate...

  Sheila Weller

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  A tumultuous story of love, obsession, provocation, and violence that featured in " Trial of the Century." Here is the intimate untold story of O. J. and Nicole Brown Simpson's tragic, turbulent marriage. Author Sheila Weller was granted unprecedented cooperation by Nicole's family and exclusive access to friends who revealed private information about the couple. Raging Heart is filled with gripping revelations and shocking scenes from the lives of the dangerously romantic couple— Nicole, the beautiful, devoted wife and mother, and O.J., the charismatic football legend whose dark side was ignored by his worshipping buddies.

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  Saint Brigid of Kildare: The...

  Charles River Editors

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  “It is a virtue and a prize to listen patiently to and put up with insults for the sake of God.” – Saint Brigid of Kildare 
  The drumbeat of horses’ hooves and clatter of chariot wheels echo through the rolling green hills of what will be known much later as the Emerald Isle. The driver is a lone woman whose long hair and homespun cloak whip through the wind behind her. Headstrong, confident, and intelligent, she blazes a trail that will change her nation forevermore, yet not in her own name or for her own sake, but for that of the God who sent her. This is a woman who will love the poor, feed the hungry, house the homeless, teach the ignorant, and defy the odds doing it all. This is Brigid of Kildare. 
  Saint Brigid of Kildare survives as a model of the religious life, a woman who cared for the earth and its people, who strove for justice, equality, and peace. She is also a model of the disciple’s life, one who took Christ’s Great Commission to heart, traversing her nation to welcome other men and women into the fold and encourage the spread of Christianity wherever she went, through the gospel message of love for one’s neighbor and God’s saving grace. Because her legends trace back to pre-Christian times, Brigid is one of the most powerful religious figures in all of Irish history, as her story intertwines many layers of separate traditions, both pagan and Christian. 
  That said, even as her story remains mixed with folk tales and pagan customs, along with St. Patrick, Brigid is credited with the evangelization of the entire Irish nation, turning the pagan island into a bastion of Catholic Christianity. 

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  Lawrence of Arabia - My Journey...

  Ranulph Fiennes

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  A vivid and illuminating biography of the famed T. E. Lawrence, written by "the world's greatest living explorer," Ranulph Fiennes. 
   
   
   
  As a young British intelligence officer in Cairo, archaeologist and adventurer Thomas Edward Lawrence became involved in the 1916 Arab Revolt, fighting alongside rebel forces against the Ottomans. He made a legendary 300-mile journey through blistering heat; he wore Arab dress; and he strongly identified with the people in his adopted lands. 
   
   
   
  By 1918, he had a £20,000 price on his head. 
   
   
   
  Despite readers' long fascination in his story, Lawrence—one of history's most enigmatic adventurers—has long remained unknowable, But with in-depth knowledge of what it takes to venture into the unknown, this authoritative biography from famed explorer Ranulph Fiennes at last brings enthralling insight and clarity to this remarkable life.

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