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  The Day the Markets Roared - How...

  Henry Kaufman, David B. Sicilia

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  Legendary economist Dr. Henry Kaufman shares a classic Wall Street story that has never been fully told: a firsthand account of the day in August 1982 that would define US economics for decadesDr. Henry Kaufman is the most famous economist Wall Street has ever seen, renowned well beyond the financial industry. He was the subject of New Yorker cartoons, had cameos in drama productions and two seminal literary works of the 1980s, was subject to death threats, and enjoyed the nickname "Dr. Doom." His pinnacle of influence arrived on August 17, 1982.That single day turned out to be the beginning of the world that we now live in. At the time, after painful years of high interest rates and the inflation of the late 1960s and 1970s, consumers were paying 17 percent and higher to borrow money. But by the end of one summer day almost 40 years ago, the stock market had undergone its second-biggest rally since WWII, while bond prices soared and interest rates plunged. Dr. Kaufman himself had written a memo that sparked this tremendous boom-and it set the global markets on fire, marking the start of almost four decades of US economic growth.The Day the Markets Roared answers the questions: • Why did Dr. Kaufman break with his longstanding bearish views to make a momentous prediction that spurred blaring headlines everywhere from Brazil to Beijing? • How could a private individual exercise such profound influence over global financial markets? • How did we get to today's rock-bottom and even negative rates? And what is their continuing impact on the economy, our financial markets and our livelihoods?The Day the Markets Roared is a firsthand, minute-by-minute account of one remarkable day in financial and economic history, with a rich cast of characters, from Salomon's John Gutfreund to interest rate guru Sydney Homer, to Dr. Kaufman's longtime friend, Fed Chairman Paul Volcker. Dr. Kaufman reflects on the lessons of the historic August 1982 episode, harkening back to a more optimistic moment in American history, and offering inspiration for better times ahead.  

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  A Fragile Life - Accepting Our...

  Todd May

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  It is perhaps our noblest cause, and certainly one of our oldest: to end suffering. Think of the Buddha, Chuang Tzu, or Marcus Aurelius: stoically composed figures impervious to the torments of the wider world, living their lives in complete serenity—and teaching us how to do the same. After all, isn’t a life free from suffering the ideal? Absolutely not, argues Todd May in this provocative but compassionate book. In a moving examination of life and the trials that beset it, he shows that our fragility is actually one of the most important aspects of our humanity. 
   
  May starts with a simple but hard truth: suffering is inevitable. At the most basic level, we suffer physically—a sprained ankle or a bad back. But we also suffer insults and indifference. We suffer from overburdened schedules and unforeseen circumstances, from moral dilemmas and emotional heartaches. Even just thinking about our own mortality—the fact that we only live one life—can lead us to tremendous suffering. No wonder philosophies such as Buddhism, Taosim, Stoicism, and even Epicureanism—all of which counsel us to rise above these plights—have had appeal over the centuries. May highlights the tremendous value of these philosophies and the ways they can guide us toward better lives, but he also exposes a major drawback to their tenets: such invulnerability is too emotionally disengaged from the world, leading us to place too great a distance between ourselves and our experience. Rather than seeking absolute immunity, he argues most of us just want to hurt less and learn how to embrace and accept what suffering we do endure in a meaningful way. 
   
  Offering a guide on how to positively engage suffering, May ultimately lays out a new way of thinking about how we exist in the world, one that reassures us that our suffering, rather than a failure of physical or psychological resilience, is a powerful and essential part of life itself.

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  Death by Talons - Did An Owl...

  Tiddy Smith

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  A re-examination of the infamous 2001 North Carolina “Staircase murder” through the outrageous theory that an owl was the killer—and not Michael Peterson. 
   
  On December 9, 2001, Kathleen Peterson was found dead at the bottom of a staircase in her Durham, North Carolina, home. Her scalp was laced with deep incisions, and her blood was strewn from outside to inside the house. 
   
  The sinister truth of that night turned her murder into North Carolina’s most enigmatic criminal case, capturing media attention across the globe. 
   
  Police zeroed in on Kathleen’s husband, Michael Peterson, and charged him with murder. But was it the truth? 
   
  A neighbor, Larry Pollard, came up with an alternative “killer.” He claimed an owl attacked Kathleen outside her house. He said it sliced her scalp with its fierce talons and caused her to run inside, collapsing at the stairwell, and bleeding to death. 
   
  When the media heard about his theory, Larry was mocked. And Michael was convicted. Now, twenty years later, author Tiddy Smith explores Pollard’s theory and questions whether law enforcement ignored, or even hid, evidence to convict Michael Peterson. And was an owl, in fact, the real killer? In Death by Talons, Tiddy Smith gives insight into the “Staircase” and the conspiracy behind the Michael Peterson trial.

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  The Legends of King Arthur -...

  Odessa Nightshade

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  The legend of King Arthur is one of the most enduring and captivating myths in Western history. For centuries, stories of the noble king, his valiant knights, and the magical forces surrounding them have fascinated people across generations. Arthurian legends have been retold through medieval manuscripts, romantic poetry, and modern films, each version reshaping the myth to fit its time. But who was King Arthur? Was he a real historical figure, or merely a creation of folklore? The answer remains elusive, yet the legend continues to hold a profound place in literature and culture.  
    
  The origins of the Arthurian legend are shrouded in mystery. Early references to Arthur can be traced back to medieval Welsh poetry and the historical writings of figures like Geoffrey of Monmouth, who played a crucial role in shaping Arthur’s story. Some believe Arthur was inspired by a real warrior who fought against invading Saxons in the early Middle Ages. Others argue that Arthur was never a historical figure at all but rather a symbol of ideal kingship, created to embody the virtues of courage, wisdom, and justice. Regardless of his origins, the myth of Arthur evolved over time, blending history with fantasy.  
    
  One of the defining elements of the Arthurian legend is the concept of chivalry. The stories of Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table emphasize honor, loyalty, and the pursuit of noble causes. These ideals were deeply rooted in the medieval code of conduct, influencing literature and knightly behavior for centuries. The knights’ quests, whether for justice or for the Holy Grail, reflect themes of personal growth, sacrifice, and moral integrity. The concept of Camelot, a utopian kingdom where justice prevails and the weak are protected, continues to inspire stories of heroism and idealism. 

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  Novelty - A History of the New

  Michael North

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  If art and science have one thing in common, it’s a hunger for the new—new ideas and innovations, new ways of seeing and depicting the world. But that desire for novelty carries with it a fundamental philosophical problem: If everything has to come from something, how can anything truly new emerge? Is novelty even possible? In Novelty, Michael North takes us on a dazzling tour of more than two millennia of thinking about the problem of the new, from the puzzles of the pre-Socratics all the way up to the art world of the 1960s and ’70s. The terms of the debate, North shows, were established before Plato, and have changed very little since: novelty, philosophers argued, could only arise from either recurrence or recombination. The former, found in nature’s cycles of renewal, and the latter, seen most clearly in the workings of language, between them have accounted for nearly all the ways in which novelty has been conceived in Western history, taking in reformation, renaissance, invention, revolution, and even evolution. As he pursues this idea through centuries and across disciplines, North exhibits astonishing range, drawing on figures as diverse as Charles Darwin and Robert Smithson, Thomas Kuhn and Ezra Pound, Norbert Wiener and Andy Warhol, all of whom offer different ways of grappling with the idea of originality. Novelty, North demonstrates, remains a central problem of contemporary science and literature—an ever-receding target that, in its complexity and evasiveness, continues to inspire and propel the modern. A heady, ambitious intellectual feast, Novelty is rich with insight, a masterpiece of perceptive synthesis.

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  Black Power and the American...

  C.T. Vivian

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  In 1970, C. T. Vivian, a close colleague of Martin Luther King, Jr. and a member of his executive staff, sat down to take stock of the civil rights movement and the progress it had made. His assessment was that it failed, and that the blame lay in the existence of myths about America. 
   
   
   
  As prophetic today as it was fifty years ago, Vivian's voice rings out as a critique and a call to action for a society in deep need of justice and peace. 
   
   
   
  The civil rights struggle that began when Rosa Parks, a seamstress in Montgomery, Alabama, decided to sit in the front of a bus has deeply altered American society and the American conscience. Yet from several perspectives, that movement has resulted in failure. The Black struggle for independence is more of an uphill climb than ever. Why? C. T. Vivian asserts that the civil rights movement failed because it was built on certain myths about America: 
   
   
   
  ● the myth that Americans will do what is right as soon as they know what is right. 
   
   
   
  ● the myth that legislation leads to justice. 
   
   
   
  ● the myth that America is an open society where any minority group can advance. 
   
   
   
  ● the myth that an ethic of love forms the core of the American conscience.

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