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  Feeding the Nine Billion -...

  P Agrawal

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  This audiobook is narrated by an AI Voice.   
  Feeding the Nine Billion: Strategies for Global Food Security is a clear, practical, and hopeful roadmap for ensuring that every person can access nutritious food in a warming, crowded, and rapidly changing world. Written in simple, bookish language and grounded in real-world experience, it moves from the scale of a single farm to global markets and institutions, showing how the pieces fit together to create resilient, fair, and nourishing food systems. It opens with the central challenge—feeding a projected nine billion people—by unpacking what food security truly means: not only producing enough calories, but guaranteeing equitable access and balanced diets that support health, dignity, and opportunity. 
  The book surveys the current landscape of hunger and malnutrition, explaining why people go hungry even when the world grows enough food. It explores how conflict, climate shocks, poverty, weak infrastructure, and inequality disrupt access to meals, and it highlights the quiet crisis of hidden hunger—micronutrient deficiencies that limit learning, productivity, and well-being. With this foundation, the narrative turns to solutions that work on the ground: sustainable agriculture practices that build living soils, conserve water, reduce waste, and weave biodiversity into the heart of farming; and innovations in crop science, breeding, and biotechnology that add resilience to heat, drought, pests, and disease while improving taste, nutrition, and storage life.

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  Solastalgia - An Anthology of...

  Paul Bogard

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  "One of the penalties of an ecological education," wrote Aldo Leopold, "is that one lives alone in a world of wounds." As climate change and other environmental degradations become more evident, experts predict that an increasing number of people will suffer emotional and psychological distress as a result. Many are feeling these effects already. In the pages of Solastalgia, they will find a source of companionship, inspiration, and advice. 
   
   
   
  The concept of solastalgia comes from the Australian philosopher Glenn Albrecht, who describes it as "the homesickness we feel while still at home." It’s the pain and longing we feel as we realize the world immediately around us is changing, with our love for that world serving as a catalyst for action on its behalf. 
   
   
   
  This powerful anthology brings together thirty-four writers—educators, journalists, poets, and scientists—to share their emotions in the face of environmental crisis. They share their solastalgia, their beloved places, their vulnerability, their stories, their vision of what we can create.

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  The History of England Volume 4...

  David Hume

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  In Volume 4, Hume closes his account of ‘England Under the House of Tudor’ begun in Volume 3, and devotes it entirely to the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. It was not really expected that she would survive to accede to the monarchy; and it was certainly unexpected that she would rule for so long (1558-1603) while steadfastly declining to take a husband. All in all, her reign was a remarkable achievement. 
  Elizabeth had so much to contend with over the years. From the start, she had to oversee the reinstatement of the Protestant religion after the tumultuous reign of her sister, Mary. Then came the testing matter of Mary, Queen of Scots which dragged on for decades.  
  There were also numerous Catholic conspiracies (many threats to her personally), requiring close attention by her protective spymaster ministers William Cecil and Francis Walsingham.  
  Then there were the complex relationships with other leading European powers, France and Spain, culminating in the spectacular climax in 1588 when Sir Francis Drake (and the weather) routed the Spanish Armada. 
  Hume does not approach Elizabeth and her reign with the ‘unbounded panegyrics’ so often adopted by historians before him. He criticises them for ‘having been so extremely ignorant of the transactions of this reign as to extol her for a quality which, of all others, she was the least possessed of – a tender regard for the constitution, and a concern for the liberties and privileges of her people.’ This, Hume insists, was not quite Elizabeth. 
  Despite acknowledging her popularity, Hume is at pains in his History to present a more rounded portrait. ‘The prerogatives of this princess were scarcely ever disputed, and she therefore employed them without scruple: Her imperious temper, a circumstance in which she went far beyond her successors, rendered her exertions of power violent and frequent, and discovered the full extent of her authority.  
  However, he continues, ‘the great popularity, which she enjoyed proves that she did not infringe any established liberties of the people’. 
  In Volume 4, Hume shows himself to be a historian of character and clarity, but also demonstrates his scholarly integrity. In the controversial issue of the guilt or innocence of Mary, for example, he went back to original documents to support his opinion. This is why his History of England remains an informative and stimulating account in the 21st century.

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  The Notorious Edward Low -...

  Len Travers

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  Following the War of the Spanish Succession (1702–1713) a decade-long wave of sea-robbery plagued the Atlantic rim—often glamorized as the "Golden Age of Piracy". Boston-based laborer, Edward Low, left his mark on pirate history as the most vicious and sadistic raider of them all. Low's reputation, and those of other pirates, was crafted through newspapers and literature. Romanticized as anti-heroes and egalitarians in a monarchical world who had liberated themselves from the constraints of law and society ashore, these marauders came to enjoy an immortality bestowed upon them by generations of historians, novelists, and movie makers. That persistent gloss masks a more sordid reality. 
   
   
   
  Travers demonstrates that, feared as they certainly were, pirates were largely ordinary seamen trapped in desperate circumstances who, in the end, had little to show for their efforts. Contrary to popular portrayals, for pirates it was a time of radically diminishing returns, scant treasure, and increasingly successful suppression by state authorities. The Notorious Edward Low puts individual actors, from colonial governors to captains to common seamen, at center stage, and reveals how British authorities used new anti-piracy laws to reclaim authority over their fractious North American colonies—a compelling story with its own brand of true-life swashbuckling on the high seas.

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  The Perfect Sword - Forging the...

  Edoardo Albert, Paul Gething

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  The story of the Bamburgh Sword – one of the finest swords ever forged.
  In 2000, archaeologist Paul Gething rediscovered a sword. An unprepossessing length of rusty metal, it had been left in a suitcase for thirty years. But Paul had a suspicion that the sword had more to tell than appeared, so he sent it for specialist tests. When the results came back, he realised that what he had in his possession was possibly the finest, and certainly the most complex, sword ever made, which had been forged in seventh-century Northumberland by an anonymous swordsmith.
  This is the story of the Bamburgh Sword – of how and why it was made, who made it and what it meant to the warriors and kings who wielded it over three centuries. It is also the remarkable story of the archaeologists and swordsmiths who found, studied and attempted to recreate the weapon using only the materials and technologies available to the original smith. 

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  The European Union - Unity and...

  Nova Ashford

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  The formation of the European Union (EU) is the result of decades of political, economic, and social evolution, shaped by the aftermath of two World Wars and the desire for long-lasting peace and prosperity in Europe. The idea of a united Europe emerged from the devastation of the Second World War, with leaders recognizing that unity among European nations could prevent future conflicts and create a foundation for collective economic growth. 
  The origins of European integration can be traced back to the 1950s, following the end of World War II. The primary motivation was the need to secure peace and ensure stability in a continent scarred by war. The first major step in the process was the creation of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) in 1951. The ECSC, established by the six founding members—Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and West Germany—was a pioneering effort in economic cooperation. By pooling coal and steel production, the ECSC aimed to make war between these countries materially impossible, as it would require the cooperation of nations whose economies were intertwined. 
  The next pivotal moment came in 1957, with the signing of the Treaty of Rome, which established the European Economic Community (EEC). The Treaty of Rome sought to deepen economic cooperation and foster a common market, removing trade barriers, creating a customs union, and enabling the free movement of goods, services, capital, and people. This was a significant step towards realizing the vision of a unified Europe.

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