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  Émile Zola - A Very Short...

  Brian Nelson

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  Émile Zola was the leader of the literary movement known as "naturalism" and is one of the great figures of the novel. In his monumental Les Rougon-Macquart (1871-93), he explored the social and cultural landscape of the late nineteenth century in ways that scandalized bourgeois society. Zola opened the novel up to a new realm of subjects, including the realities of working-class life, class relations, and questions of gender and sexuality, and his writing embodied a new freedom of expression, with his bold, outspoken voice often inviting controversy.In this Very Short Introduction, Brian Nelson examines Zola's major themes and narrative art. He illuminates the social and political contexts of Zola's work, and provides readings of five individual novels (The Belly of Paris, L'Assommoir, The Ladies' Paradise, Germinal, and Earth). Zola's naturalist theories, which attempted to align literature with science, helped to generate the stereotypical notion that his fiction was somehow nonfictional. Nelson, however, reveals how the most distinctive elements of Zola's writing go far beyond his theoretical naturalism, giving his novels their unique force. Throughout, he sets Zola's work in context, considering his relations with contemporary painters, his role in the Dreyfus Affair, and his eventual murder.

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  Gin and Phonics: My journey...

  Clara Batten

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  ‘I was asked the other day what I thought the hardest part of parenting was. I’d have to say that it’s definitely the kids.’ 
  TikTok sensation Clara Batten has dedicated the last few years to seeking the answer to one of life’s most crucial questions: 
  Is it possible to raise and nurture two small humans without losing your bloody mind? 
  The good news is, now she’s found (some of) the answers and is sharing her secrets with the rest of us! In this riotous book, Clara reveals:when it’s acceptable to buy your kids lunch from a kebab shop.why a jar of pickled herrings from Waitrose is the ultimate guilty pleasure, nay necessity, for a sleep-deprived parent.how to finally pursue your acting ambitions in your forties (despite a toddler sh*tting on the stairs during a self-tape audition). 
  Most importantly, Clara shows us that no matter how much we adore our little treasures, life isn’t just about their A, B and bloody Cs. 
  In her latest work, GIN AND PHONICS, Clara Batten humorously delves into the intricacies of long-term family relationships. This new autobiography, with its candid take on marriage and parenting, is a top pick for readers. 
  For fans of Dawn French (The Twat Files), Josh Widdicombe (Watching Neighbours Twice a Day...), Stacey Duguid (In Pursuit of Happiness), and Hayley Morris (Me vs Brain). 
  HarperCollins 2023

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  The Fifth Vital

  Mike Majlak, Riley J. Ford

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  Mike Majlak was a seventeen-year-old from a loving, middle-class family in Milford, Connecticut, when he got caught up in the opioid epidemic that swept the nation. For close to a decade thereafter, his life was a wasteland of darkness and despair. While his peers were graduating from college, buying homes, getting married, having kids, and leading normal lives, Mike was snorting OxyContin, climbing out of cars at gunpoint, and burying his childhood friends. Unable to escape the noose of addiction, he eventually lost the trust and support of everyone who had ever loved him. Alone, with nothing but drugs to keep him company, darkness closed in, and the light inside him—the last flicker of hope—began to dim. His dreams, potential, and future were all being devoured by a relentless addiction too powerful to fight. Despair filled him as he realized he wasn’t going to survive. 
  Somehow, he did… 
  HE NOT ONLY SURVIVED, 
  HE THRIVED. 
   Now he’s a social media personality with millions of followers, and an entrepreneur, marketer, podcaster, YouTuber, and author who hopes to use his voice to shine a light for those whose own lights have grown dim. 
  This is his story.

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  Samuel Adams - A Life

  Ira Stoll

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  In this stirring biography, Samuel Adams joins the first tier of founding fathers, a rank he has long deserved. With eloquence equal to that of Thomas Jefferson and Tom Paine, and with a passionate love of God, Adams helped ignite the flame of liberty and made sure it glowed even during the Revolution's darkest hours. He was, as Jefferson later observed, "truly the man of the Revolution."  In a role that many Americans have not fully appreciated until now, Adams played a pivotal role in the events leading up to the bloody confrontation with the British. Believing that God had willed a free American nation, he was among the first patriot leaders to call for independence from England. He was ever the man of action: He saw the opportunity to stir things up after the Boston Massacre and helped plan and instigate the Boston Tea Party, though he did not actually participate in it. A fiery newspaper editor, he railed ceaselessly against "taxation without representation."  In a relentless blizzard of articles and speeches, Adams, a man of New England, argued the urgency of revolution. When the top British general in America, Thomas Gage, offered a general amnesty in June 1775 to all revolutionaries who would lay down their arms, he excepted only two men, John Hancock and Samuel Adams: These two were destined for the gallows. It was this pair, author Ira Stoll argues, whom the British were pursuing in their fateful march on Lexington and Concord.  In the tradition of David McCullough's John Adams, Joseph Ellis's The Founding Brothers, and Walter Isaacson's Benjamin Franklin, Ira Stoll's Samuel Adams vividly re-creates a world of ideas and action, reminding us that none of these men of courage knew what we know today: that they would prevail and make history anew.  The idea that especially inspired Adams was religious in nature: He believed that God had intervened on behalf of the United States and would do so as long asits citizens maintained civic virtue. "We shall never be abandoned by Heaven while we act worthy of its aid and protection," Adams insisted. A central thesis of this biography is that religion in large part motivated the founding of America.  A gifted young historian and newspaperman, Ira Stoll has written a gripping story about the man who was the revolution's moral conscience. Sure to be discussed widely, this book reminds us who Samuel Adams was, why he has been slighted by history, and why he must be remembered.

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  The Currency of Love - A...

  Jill Dodd

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  In the 1980s, Jill Dodd determined that her ticket out of an abusive home was to make it as a top model in Paris. Armed with only her desire for freedom and independence, she embarks on an epic journey that takes her to uncharted territory—the Parisian fashion industry with all its beautiful glamour and its ugly underbelly of sex, drugs, and excess. From there, Jill begins an eye-opening adventure that includes trips to Monte Carlo, sexual exploitation, and falling in love with one of the richest men in the world, agreeing to become one of his wives—until she finds the courage to walk away from it all and rebuild her dreams.The Currency of Love is a raw, honest, and inspiring portrait of a young woman's struggles and triumphs from fashion model to Saudi billionaire's pleasure wife to founder and creator of global fashion line ROXY. This modern memoir with a feminist fairy tale twist reveals how one woman chose to live her life without forfeiting her independence, ambition, creative expression, and free spirit, all while learning one invaluable lesson: nothing is worth the sacrifice of her integrity, inner peace, and spirit.

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  Fathers Brothers and Sons -...

  Frank Bell, Joel McIver

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  Born into a family of five, Frank Bello grew up in difficult circumstances. His father abandoned his wife and children. Left with no male role model, Frank found inspiration in heavy metal bass players, following their example and forging a career with Anthrax from his early teens—first as a roadie, and then as the group's bass player.International stardom came Frank's way by the mid-to-late 1980s, when he was still in his early twenties, but tragedy struck in 1996 when his brother Anthony was murdered in New York. Although the case went to trial, the suspected killer was released without charge after a witness, intimidated by violent elements, withdrew his testimony.Two decades later, Frank is a father himself to a young son. Like many men who grew up without the guidance of a dad, he asks himself important questions about the meaning of fatherhood and how to do the job well. This is the wisdom which Fathers, Brothers, and Sons offers listeners.Frank doesn't preach or seek sympathy in his book. Instead, he simply passes on the wisdom gained from a lifetime of turbulence, paying tribute to his loved ones in a way that will resonate with us all.

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