Exploring Top Books of Shelfari

Diana Mosley: Mitford Beauty, British Fascist, Hitler's Angel

Diana Mosley: Mitford Beauty, British Fascist, Hitler's Angel

by Anne De Courcy

Diana Mosley was a society beauty who fell from grace when she left her husband, brewery heir Bryan Guinness, for Sir Oswald Mosley, an admirer of Mussolini and a notorious womanizer. This horrified her family and scandalized society. In 1933, Diana met the new German leader, Adolf Hitler. They became close friends and he attended her wedding as the guest of honor. During the war, the Mosleys' association with... (more)

The Crisis of Islam

Holy War and Unholy Terror

by Bernard Lewis

In his first book since What Went Wrong? Bernard Lewis examines the historical roots of the resentments that dominate the Islamic world today and that are increasingly being expressed in acts of terrorism. He looks at the theological origins of political Islam and takes us through the rise of militant Islam in Iran, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia, examining the impact of radical Wahhabi proselytizing, and Saudi oil... (more)

Living to Tell the Tale

by Gabriel García Márquez

No writer alive today exerts the magical appeal of Gabriel García Márquez. Now, in the long-awaited first volume of his autobiography, he tells the story of his life from his birth in 1927 to the moment in the 1950s when he proposed to his wife. The result is as spectacular as his finest fiction. Here is García Márquez’s shimmering evocation of his childhood home of Aracataca, the basis of the fictional... (more)

Always Unreliable

by Clive James

All three volume of Clive James's sharp and funny autiobiography where first we meet the young Clive James - dressed in shorts and growing up in post-war Sydney. With "Falling Towards England", we find Clive living in a Swiss Cottage B&B, where he practises the Twist, anticipates poetical masterpieces he's yet to compose, and worries about his wardrobe. Finally "May Week was in June" sees Clive at Cambridge... (more)

Race: How Blacks and Whites Think and Feel About the American Obsession

Race: How Blacks and Whites Think and Feel About the American Obsession

by Studs Terkel

"The kind of book that happens along once in a long while."— The New York Times First published in 1992 at the height of the furor over the Rodney King incident, Studs Terkel's Race was an immediate bestseller. In a rare and revealing look how at how people in America truly feel about race, Terkel brings out the full complexity of the thoughts and emotions of both blacks and whites, uncovering a... (more)

Mao Zedong (A Penguin Life)

by Jonathan D. Spence

An intimate history of one of the most formidable and elusive rulers in modern history From humble origins in the provinces, Mao Zedong rose to absolute power, unifying with an iron fist a vast country torn apart by years of weak leadership, colonialism, and war. This sharply drawn and insightful account brings to life this modern-day emperor and the tumultuous era that he did so much to shape.

Sex Lives of Cannibals

by J. Maarten Troost

Let me say at the top that I didn't have a particularly good reason for moving to Tarawa, a small island in the Republic of Kiribati. There was nothing Quaker-ish, Thoreau-ish or even Gaughin-ish about my taking a little leave from western civilisation which I though was fine mostly, particularly as manifested ion certain parts of Italy...To picture Kiribati, imagine that the continental US were to conveniently... (more)

The Times of Their Lives: Life, Love, and Death in Plymouth Colony

The Times of Their Lives: Life, Love, and Death in Plymouth Colony

by James Deetz

James Deetz, who until his death was a leading expert on the archaeology of Plymouth Colony, and his wife, cultural historian Patricia Scott Deetz, give a realistic and fascinating picture of life in colonial America as they recount, in colorful detail, the true story of Plymouth Colony. The Pilgrims were not the somber, dark-clad historical figures children learn about in school. Nor were they nearly as pious as... (more)

Sahara

by Michael Palin

Michael Palin's epic voyages have seen him circumnavigate the globe, travel from the North to the South Pole and circle the countries of the Pacific Ocean. This was perhaps the greatest challenge yet: to cross the vast and merciless Sahara desert. Shrugging aside the perils of camel stew and being run over by the Paris-Dakar rally, he travels through some of the most spectacular landscapes on earth. For the... (more)

Curious Minds: How a Child Becomes a Scientist (Vintage)

Curious Minds: How a Child Becomes a Scientist (Vintage)

by John Brockman

What makes a child decide to become a scientist? •For Robert Sapolsky–Stanford professor of biology–it was an argument with a rabbi over a passage in the Bible. •Physicist Lee Smolin traces his inspiration to a volume of Einstein’s work, picked up as a diversion from heartbreak. •Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, a psychologist and the author of Flow , found his calling through Descartes. Murray Gell-Mann, Nicholas... (more)

Ten Thousand Miles Without a Cloud

by Sun Shuyun

Xuanzang should be known as one of the world's great heroes. His travels are legendary. He brought true Buddhism to China. His own book provides a unique record of the history and culture of his time. Yet he is unknown to most of us and even to most Chinese. Sun Shuyun, herself brought up in China, was determined to follow in his footsteps, discover more about Xuanzang and restore his fame. So she retraced his... (more)

The Stone of Heaven: Unearthing the Secret History of Imperial Green Jade

The Stone of Heaven: Unearthing the Secret History of Imperial Green Jade

by Adrian Levy, Cathy Scott-Clark

Diamonds, sapphires and rubies are commonly thought to be the world's most valuable gemstones but there is another that is even more precious. It is Imperial Green Jade, or jadeite. Since its discovery nearly 2,000 years ago, Imperial Green Jade has been worshipped, ingested and traded. Those who returned from Burma in the fifteenth century came with stories of a kingdom built entirely from the green stone - a... (more)

The Closed Circle: An Interpretation of the Arabs

The Closed Circle: An Interpretation of the Arabs

by David Pryce-Jones

This important book explains how Arabs are closed in a circle defined by tribal, religious, and cultural traditions. David Pryce-Jones examines the tribal forces which, he believes, drive the Arabs in their dealings with each other and with the West. In the postwar world, he argues, the Arabs reverted to age-old tribal and kinship structures, a closed circle from which they have been unable to escape, and in which... (more)

J.R.R. Tolkien : Le créateur du Seigneur des Anneaux

J.R.R. Tolkien : Le créateur du Seigneur des Anneaux

by Michael Coren

Michael Coren offers a thought-provoking and entertaining story of the fascinating life of J.R.R. Tolkien. Readers will learn about the author¹s childhood in South Africa, his youth and adulthood in Great Britain, his experience in World War 1, and his professorship at Oxford University, where Tolkien had thought he had reached the pinnacle of his career. Little did he know that was just the beginning, for it was... (more)

Christ: A Crisis in the Life of God

by Jack Miles

Five years after his everywhere–acclaimed, brilliantly successful, Pulitzer Prize–winning book about God as portrayed in the Old Testament— God: A Biography —Jack Miles gives us his striking consideration of Christ. He presents Christ as a hero of literature based only in part on the historical Jesus, asking us to take the idea of Christ as God Incarnate not as a dogma of religion but as the premise of a work of... (more)

Literary Occassions EssaysV S Naipaul

Literary Occassions Essays

by V S Naipaul

East Asia: From Chinese Predominance to the Rise of the Pacific Rim

East Asia: From Chinese Predominance to the Rise of the Pacific Rim

by Arthur Cotterell

In recent decades, there has been a dramatic transformation around the Pacific Rim. Japan has become an economic superpower, and Korea and the People's Republic of China are close behind, flooding the world market with computers, automobiles, and electronic components. It is even predicted that by the next century East Asia will be the workshop of the world. No longer "the Far East"--that exotic, mysterious land... (more)

Blood and Fire: The Story of William and Catherine Booth and the Salvation Army

Blood and Fire: The Story of William and Catherine Booth and the Salvation Army

by Roy Hattersley

The Examined Life: Readings from Western Philosophers from Plato to Kant

The Examined Life: Readings from Western Philosophers from Plato to Kant

What did Plato contribute to the philosophy of art? What do Pascal's Pensees really say? Everyone knows the names of these philosophers, but few really understand the ideas at the core of western philosophy. In this treasury of western thought, the primary sources speak for themselves. Over 35 excerpts from important philosophers -- including Aristotle and Hume, as well as contemporary thinkers -- offer a solid... (more)

Singapore, Struggle for SuccessJohn Drysdale

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