Other books that might interest you

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  Sumerians - Their History...

  Kelly Mass

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  The Sumerians were the people from Sumer, the first recognized society in the historic area of southern Mesopotamia (now southern Iraq), developed throughout the 6th and 5th centuries BC throughout the Chalcolithic and early Bronze Ages. In addition to age-old Egypt, the Caral-Supe culture, the Indus Valley civilization, the Minoan civilization, and age-old China, it is also one of the world's early civilizations. Sumerian farmers who lived along the Tigris and Euphrates valleys grew a great deal of grain and other items, which allowed them to establish metropolitan towns. Before 3000 BC, there was proto-writing. The earliest files date from between 3500 and 3000 BC and are from the cities of Uruk and Jemdet Nasr. 
  Most historical analysts believe that Sumer was first completely occupied between c. 5500 and 4000 BC by a West Asian population who spoke the Sumerian language, a non-Semitic and non-Indo-European agglutinative language isolate (as evidenced by the names of cities, rivers, standard professions, and so on). It wasn't an inflected language, in contrast to its Semitic cousins. 
  Go ahead and get stared, and get to know more about the Sumerians, what they did, who they were, and why so many people know so little about them.

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  Pumpkinflowers - A Soldier's...

  Matti Friedman

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  “A book about young men transformed by war, written by a veteran whose dazzling literary gifts gripped my attention from the first page to the last.” —The Wall Street Journal “Friedman’s sober and striking new memoir . . . [is] on a par with Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried -- its Israeli analog.” —The New York Times Book Review It was just one small hilltop in a small, unnamed war in the late 1990s, but it would send out ripples that are still felt worldwide today. The hill, in Lebanon, was called the Pumpkin; flowers was the military code word for “casualties.” Award-winning writer Matti Friedman re-creates the harrowing experience of a band of young Israeli soldiers charged with holding this remote outpost, a task that would change them forever, wound the country in ways large and small, and foreshadow the unwinnable conflicts the United States would soon confront in Afghanistan, Iraq, and elsewhere.Pumpkinflowers is a reckoning by one of those young soldiers now grown into a remarkable writer. Part memoir, part reportage, part history, Friedman’s powerful narrative captures the birth of today’s chaotic Middle East and the rise of a twenty-first-century type of war in which there is never a clear victor and media images can be as important as the battle itself. Raw and beautifully rendered, Pumpkinflowers will take its place among classic war narratives by George Orwell, Philip Caputo, and Tim O’Brien. It is an unflinching look at the way we conduct war today.

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  Seeking Attention - 30 Ways of...

  Dominic Pettman

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  Seeking Attention explores the essential but elusive nature of attention through a fresh lens. Drawing inspiration from Simone Weil's assertion that "attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity," this book brings attention into focus through a novel collection of short "portraits" that each examine how archetypal figures—like the detective, the fan, the therapist, the parent, and the lover—engage with attention in unique ways. 
   
   
   
  ● Accessible and Thought-Provoking: Written in an approachable style, this book offers an introduction to the growing field of attention studies, sparking new reflections on how we pay attention. 
   
   
   
  ● Diverse Archetypes: Each figure represents a different approach to attention—highlighting its blind spots, failures, and occasional triumphs—prompting listeners to reflect on their own habits. 
   
   
   
  ● A Phenomenology of Attention: Through these portraits, listeners are invited to rethink their understanding of attention, noticing how it shapes the world around them. 
   
   
   
  ● Addressing the "Industrial-Distraction Complex": Offering alternative models for true presence, Seeking Attention encourages multi-sensory awareness as a powerful counter to our age of distraction.

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  The Frontier Below

  Jeff Maynard

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  Triumphs and disasters in the deep sea 
  This is a journey through time and water, to the bottom of the ocean and the future of our planet. 
  We do not see the ocean when we look at the water that blankets more than two thirds of our planet. We only see the entrance to it. Beyond that entrance is a world hostile to humans, yet critical to our survival. The first divers to enter that world held their breath and splashed beneath the surface, often clutching rocks to pull them down. Over centuries, they invented wooden diving bells, clumsy diving suits, and unwieldy contraptions in attempts to go deeper and stay longer. But each advance was fraught with danger, as the intruders had to survive the crushing weight of water, or the deadly physiological effects of breathing compressed air. The vertical odyssey continued when explorers squeezed into heavy steel balls dangling on cables, or slung beneath floats filled with flammable gasoline. Plunging into the narrow trenches between the tectonic plates of the Earth’s crust, they eventually reached the bottom of the ocean in the same decade that men first walked on the moon. 
  Today, as nations scramble to exploit the resources of the ocean floor, The Frontier Below recalls a story of human endeavour that took 2,000 years to travel seven miles, then investigates how we will explore the ocean in the future. 
  Meticulously researched and drawing extensively on unpublished sources and personal interviews, The Frontier Below is the untold story of the pioneers who had the right stuff, but were forgotten because they went in the wrong direction. 
  The Frontier Below by Jeff Maynard is a captivating journey through the history of maritime expeditions, the science of physiology, and the economics of resource extraction. It is a testament to human endeavour and the indomitable spirit of exploration, offering a glimpse into the future of our oceans. 
  For fans of Julian Sancton (Madhouse at the End of the Earth), Buddy Levy (Empire of Ice and Stone), Rachel Lance (In the Waves), James Bradley (Ghost Species), and Helen Czerski (Blue Machine). 
  HarperCollins 2023

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  The Philanthropist Handbook -...

  Clay M. Grayson

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  The Philanthropist Handbook: Finding Meaning in the Endowment of Humanity by Clay M. Grayson is a guide for those who wish to leave a lasting legacy through planned giving. Over the next twenty years, the Baby Boomer generation is expected to donate $12 trillion to nonprofits. With 80 percent of this giving expected to be made through their estate planning, this transfer of wealth to nonprofit organizations will transform American society in amazingly positive ways. Clay, a distinguished attorney in nonprofit law, shares his experience representing some of the largest and oldest nonprofit organizations in the United States to guide readers through the transformative power of charitable giving.The book is divided into four parts, covering the historical role of philanthropy, the disciplines necessary for effective charitable giving, the evaluation of nonprofit organizations, and the creation of a personal philanthropic plan. Readers will find practical tools, detailed case studies, and actionable advice to maximize the impact of their giving.By following the guidance in this handbook, you can learn to build trust-based relationships with nonprofits, understand the legal and financial aspects of charitable giving, and find your place in the continuum of human experience as a philanthropist in your own right. Ideal for donors, nonprofit professionals, and volunteers, The Philanthropist Handbook is an essential resource for anyone looking to make an enduring impact in this world. Embrace the power of charitable giving and transform your philanthropic vision into reality.

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  Sovok - The Memoirs of a Liar?

  Kevin McKinney

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  Witness first-hand the transition from Soviet Union to liberated Russia and its return to a regime of tyranny and injustice from the perspective of a foreigner who lived through it. McKinney describes his interactions for over twenty years with dissidents, billionaires, artists, cosmonauts, mob bosses, presidents, prosecutors, and prime ministers, while constantly breaking laws and bending rules, as mostly every character in the book also does. He introduces some of the most dangerous, loyal, and hospitable people, and often they're one in the same person. 
  Described by one literary critic as "Jack Kerouac, narrating the adventures of Thomas Pynchon's character, Tyrone Slothrop, only in Russia," Sovok takes you on a front-row view of the transition from Soviet Union to liberated Russia and then how it went back to today's tyranny. 
  If a movie plot, it would be a blend of Grand Hotel Budapest, Wolf of Wall Street, Bonfire of the Vanities, Snatch, Eastern Promises, and Everything is Illuminated. By declaring himself a liar, the author prods the reader to question everyone and everything. Through personal stories, one of Sovok's central themes is that a network of loyal and moral friends can circumvent the strictest government regulations and defeat criminal syndicates. Sovok falls into one or a dozen categories of book. The one category it is not is ordinary. 
  "Everything is so realistic that is seems invented," - Italy 
  "The impression is incredible. I feel like I'm in reading science fiction, yet I am one of the characters. Events are described not as I knew them, but completely differently. It's as if the author saw them from a different angle, and that the author's angle is truer than the distorted view I saw them from. This is the best thing I've read in many years." - Ukraine 
  "I am totally, completely, absolutely and entirely fascinated. The things you write about are so well familiar to me. I love it." - Russia

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