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Скачать книгу (размер 4 002 Kb , формат fb2, страниц 786) Аннотация: A magisterial work of narrative history, hailed in Britain as the best one-volume account of the British Empire and an outstanding book (The Times Literary Supplement), After the American Revolution, the British Empire appeared to be doomed. But over the next 150 years it grew to become the greatest and most diverse empire the world has ever seen — ranging from Canada to Australia to China,…

Скачать книгу (размер 1 625 Kb , формат fb2, страниц 320) Аннотация: Maxim Gorky (1868-1936) enjoyed worldwide fame of a kind unmatched by that of any other writer in the first half of the twentieth century. Prodigiously gifted and prolific, riddled with contradictions, praised increasingly for political rather than literary reasons, he left a vast body of writing that contains acknowledged masterpieces alongside many currently neglected works that still await…

Скачать книгу (размер 4 073 Kb , формат fb2, страниц 800) Аннотация: Bestselling author Nicholson Baker, recognized as one of the most dexterous and talented writers in the US today, has created a compelling work of non-fiction bound to provoke discussion and controversy — a wide-ranging, astonishingly fresh perspective on the political and social landscape that gave rise to World War II. Human Smoke delivers a closely textured, deeply moving indictment of the…

Скачать книгу (размер 1 008 Kb , формат fb2, страниц 199) Аннотация: In a hugely enjoyable read with gloriously corrosive prose, MJ Harper slashes and burns through the whole of accepted academic thought about the history of the English Language. According to Harper: 1. English does not derive from Anglo-Saxon. 2. French, Italian, and Spanish did not descend from Latin. 3. Middle English is a wholly imaginary language created by well-meaning by deluded academics.…

Скачать книгу (размер 2 441 Kb , формат fb2, страниц 480) Аннотация: Vladimir Nabokov was hailed by Salman Rushdie as the most important writer ever to cross the boundary between one language and another. A Russian emigre who began writing in English after his forties, Nabokov was a trilingual author, equally competent in Russian, English, and French. A gifted and tireless translator, he bridged the gap between languages nimbly and joyously.Here, collected for the…

Скачать книгу (размер 1 707 Kb , формат fb2, страниц 336) Аннотация: Balram Halwai is the White Tiger — the smartest boy in his village. His family is too poor for him to afford for him to finish school and he has to work in a teashop, breaking coals and wiping tables. But Balram gets his break when a rich man hires him as a chauffeur, and takes him to live in Delhi. The city is a revelation. As he drives his master to shopping malls and call centres, Balram…

Скачать книгу (размер 1 330 Kb , формат fb2, страниц 262) Аннотация: An exhilarating exploration of how the world's languages are likely to transform and be transformed by their speakers Mark Abley, author of Spoken Here, takes the reader on a global journey like no other — from Singapore to Tokyo, from Oxford to Los Angeles, through the Internet and back in time. As much a travel book as a tour of words at play, The Prodigal Tongue goes beyond grammar and…

Скачать книгу (размер 1 325 Kb , формат fb2, страниц 261) Аннотация: Two leading thinkers engage in a landmark conversation about human emotions and the pursuit of psychological fulfillment. At their first meeting, a remarkable bond was sparked between His Holiness the Dalai Lama, one of the world's most revered spiritual leaders, and the psychologist Paul Ekman, whose groundbreaking work helped to define the science of emotions. Now these two luminaries share…

Скачать книгу (размер 3 186 Kb , формат fb2, страниц 626) Аннотация: In her most eagerly anticipated novel yet, Elizabeth George brings back Scotland Yard's Thomas Lynley to investigate a ruthless crime. After the senseless murder of his wife, Detective Superintendent Thomas Lynley retreated to Cornwall, where he has spent six solitary weeks hiking the bleak and rugged coastline. But no matter how far he walks, no matter how exhausting his days, the painful…

Скачать книгу (размер 2 931 Kb , формат fb2, страниц 576) Аннотация: Eminent poet, translator, and scholar Burton Raffel — whose translation of «Beowulf» has sold more than a million copies — presents a pitch-perfect new translation of the lively, absorbing, and outrageously funny «Canterbury Tales», in a new, unabridged version that ensures none of Chaucer's wit or wisdom is lost.

Скачать книгу (размер 1 070 Kb , формат fb2, страниц 211) Аннотация: Righting the Mother Tongue tells the cockamamie story of English spelling. When did ghost acquire its silent 'h'? Will cyberspace kill the one in rhubarb? And was it really rocket scientists who invented spell-check? Seeking to untangle the twisted story of English spelling, David Wolman takes us on a wordly adventure from English battlefields to Google headquarters. Along the way, he pickets…

Скачать книгу (размер 1 391 Kb , формат fb2, страниц 274) Аннотация: »I think my father's rage at the trenches took me over, when I was very young, and has never left me», writes Nobel Prize winner Doris Lessing in this combined novella and memoir exploring the lives of her parents, each irrevocably damaged by the Great War. In the fictional first half of Alfred and Emily, she imagines the happier lives her parents might have made for themselves had there been no…

Скачать книгу (размер 320 Kb , формат fb2, страниц 64) Аннотация: Feeling jealous over the attentions given his new baby sibling, a little fox runs away from home, in the first story in this treasury. In other stories, a bear can't get to sleep and keeps disturbing his friends; a hungry ginger cat goes looking for some milk; and a toddler asks his mother to tell him a story. This collection of four stories for prereaders is illustrated with Atsuko Morozumi's…

Скачать книгу (размер 1 646 Kb , формат fb2, страниц 324) Аннотация: This newest edition to the Best American Series — «A genuine salute to comics» (Houston Chronicle) — returns with a set of both established and up-and-coming contributors. Editor Lynda Barry and brand new series editors Jessica Abel and Matt Madden — acclaimed cartoonists in their own right — have sought out the best stories culled from graphic novels, pamphlet comics, newspapers, magazines,…

Скачать книгу (размер 1 467 Kb , формат fb2, страниц 289) Аннотация: »The fourth novel in the immensely satisfying Captain Alatriste series by Arturo Pérez-Reverte opens with a Spanish galleon sailing into a home port that is festooned with English corpses. The slain enemies, fruit of a failed Anglo-Dutch attack on Cádiz, 'hung from gallows erected on the shore, along the edge of the vineyards... bunches of grapes ripe for harvesting, except that these…

Скачать книгу (размер 65 Kb , формат fb2, страниц 14) Аннотация: Kirby the black lab hosts an annual soapbox derby for his animal friends in this pop-up book for readers up to 6. Animal puns abound, as well as hilarious themed vehicles — Monkey drives a banana-shaped car, of course — and each two-page spread is full of comical details.

Скачать книгу (размер 1 238 Kb , формат fb2, страниц 244) Аннотация: Two years after the best-selling Arthur & George, Julian Barnes gives us a memoir on mortality that touches on faith and science and family as well as a rich array of exemplary figures who over the centuries have confronted the same questions he now poses about the most basic fact of life: its inevitable extinction. If the fear of death is “the most rational thing in the world”, how does one…

Скачать книгу (размер 1 299 Kb , формат fb2, страниц 256) Аннотация: Why do we say “I am reading a catalog” instead of «I read a catalog?» Why do we say “do” at all? Is the way we speak a reflection of our cultural values? Delving into these provocative topics and more, Our Magnificent Bastard Language distills hundreds of years of fascinating lore into one lively history. Covering such turning points as the little-known Celtic and Welsh influences on English, the…

Скачать книгу (размер 2 549 Kb , формат fb2, страниц 501) Аннотация: If ever there was a book to make you switch off your television set, The Dangerous Book for Boys was it. From the same authors, these hardbound, foil-embossed pocket editions for boys (and girls) 8 to 80 are packed with fascinating facts and tantalizing trivia. With Things to Know you can impress your friends and family with your knowledge of the solar system, your ability to name the kings and…

Скачать книгу (размер 968 Kb , формат fb2, страниц 191) Аннотация: Created by Hal Foster in 1934 and gradually taken over by John Cullen Murphy in the 1970s, Prince Valiant remains an icon of graphic storytelling, noted for the dramatic action and superb detail of its artwork as well as its stories of love, friendship, and swashbuckling adventure set in the days of King Arthur. Written by Mark Schultz and drawn by Gary Gianni since 2004, the strip continues in…