Kirjahaku

An amazing, enlightening, and endlessly entertaining look at how weather has shaped our world.Throughout history, great leaders have fallen, the outcomes of mighty battles have been determined, and the tides of earth-shattering events have been turned by a powerful, inscrutable force of nature: the weather. In Blame It on the Rain, author Laura Lee explores the amazing and sometimes bizarre ways in which weather has influenced our history and helped to bring about sweeping cultural change. She also delights us with a plethora of fascinating weather-related facts (Did you know that more Britons die of sunburn every year than Australians?), while offering readers a hilarious overview of humankind's many absurd attempts to control the elements.If a weather-produced blight hadn't severely damaged French vineyards, there might never have been a California wine industry. . . .What weather phenomenon was responsible for the sound of the Stradivarius?If there had been a late autumn in Russia, Hitler could have won World War II. . . .Did weather play a part in Truman's victory over Dewey?Eye-opening, edifying, and totally unexpected, Blame It on the Rain is a fascinating appreciation of the destiny-altering vagaries of mother nature&#8212and it's even more fun than watching the Weather Channel

Young dancers have fallen in love with this charming, illustrated exploration of the world's great ballets. Featuring twenty-five famous and beloved pieces such as Swan Lake, The Nutcracker, Peter and the Wolf and Fancy Free, these stories bring iconic performances to life and inspire readers to listen and dance along to the music that has made them enduring classics.Woven into these tales is a captivating history of ballet, filled with information and profiles of the world's greatest dancers, choreographers, and composers. Young readers will also enjoy fun facts and dancing how-tos all while listening to excerpts of classical music. Also included is a removable, fold-out poster depicting the five positions of ballet.

‘In all his life [Oscar] has never written me a letter that was unkind or at least unloving and to see anything terrible in his handwriting written directly to me would almost kill me.’ This was written by Lord Alfred Douglas in 1897, before the contents of Oscar Wilde’s long letter written in prison and addressed to Douglas, De Profundis, were revealed; in which Wilde indicted Lord Alfred’s vanity and blamed him for his downfall - ‘appetite without distinction, desire without limit, and formless greed’. Years after Oscar Wilde’s death, two of his closest friends, Lord Alfred Douglas and his literary executor Robert Ross - both former lovers - engaged in a bitter battle over Wilde’s legacy and who was to blame for his downfall and early death. The furious struggle led to stalking, blackmail, witness tampering, prison, and a series of dramatic lawsuits. The feud had long-lasting repercussions, not only for the two men, but also for how we remember Oscar Wilde today. Ross was systematic, had more friends, and as Wilde’s executor had access to all of Wilde’s papers, including personal letters from Douglas to Wilde; as the controller of Wilde’s copyright, he had sole discretion as to which of Wilde’s views of Douglas could be published. Douglas had a tenacious fighting spirit, and the sense of entitlement that came with being a lord. This is the first book to focus on the heated feud and to assess the motivations, misconceptions, and actions of all parties involved.

Explores the origins of common words and names

Freelance writer and former radio announcer Lee explores the history of Trinity Church in western Massachusetts, saying that "few churches... have had so many distinct and fascinating rebirths." Indeed, Trinity reflects many of America's transformations in microcosm: in the Gilded Age, it was a posh branch church of an Episcopalian parish. After it fell on hard times in the mid-20th century, it was deconsecrated and purchased by a "hippie" couple named Alice and Ray Brock in the early 1960s. They converted it into a home and a haven for countercultural youth. It was there, on Thanksgiving 1965, that musician Arlo Guthrie offered to take out the garbage from the meal and threw it down a local hill. His arrest for littering, and subsequent night in jail, resulted in the famous 18-minute song-cum-manifesto called "Alice's Restaurant" and a 1969 movie by the same name.

Since the loss of his lively, charming wife to cancer six years ago, minister Paul Tobit has been operating on autopilot, performing his religious duties by rote. Everything changes the day he enters the church lobby and encounters a radiant, luminous being lit from behind, breathtakingly beautiful and glowing with life. An angel. For a moment Paul is so moved by his vision that he is tempted to fall on his knees and pray. Even after he regains his focus and realizes he simply met a flesh-and-blood young man, Paul cannot shake his sense of awe and wonder. He feels an instant and overwhelming attraction for the young man, which puzzles him even as it fills his thoughts and fires his feelings. Paul has no doubt that God has spoken to him through this vision, and Paul must determine what God is calling him to do. Thus begins a journey that will inspire Paul's ministry but put him at odds with his church as he is forced to examine his deeply held beliefs and assumptions about himself, his community, and the nature of love.

In this lavishly illustrated volume, Laura Lee introduces the art of Tokyo-based digital art collective teamLab, which has soared to global fame with its electrifying immersive and interactive installations. The first of its kind, Worlds Unbound: The Art of teamLab provides a comprehensive overview of teamLab’s artistic vision and achievements from its beginnings to its twentieth anniversary in 2021, and illuminates the remarkable scope of teamLab’s groundbreaking art and its fundamental contribution to the pivotal field of new media art. This original new book, the first scholarly monograph on this popular group, unpacks the popularity and success of the digital immersive environments created worldwide by the Tokyo-based collective, teamLab, from multiple perspectives and addresses the lack of critical appreciation of their work. The book includes an extensive interview with teamLab. teamLab launched in January 2001 with five members and now comprises more than 600 individuals in a multidisciplinary collaboration of engineers, computer graphics animators, mathematicians, graphic designers, architects, artists and computer programmers. The digital art collective has attained international celebrity for its electrifying installations that transcend boundaries between gallery, public space and popular entertainment and, judging from press coverage, ticket sales and prolific production, it seems clear teamLab’s success is only on the rise. In 2018, the collective opened the MORI Building DIGITAL ART MUSEUM: teamLab Borderless, a massive technological environment in Tokyo that recorded 2.3 million visitors in its first year of operation – the world’s largest annual number of visitors of any single-artist museum. The same year saw numerous other high-profile immersive exhibitions, including teamLab: Massless in Helsinki, Au-delà des limites in Paris, and teamLab Planets TOKYO, a second exhibition in Tokyo. These were quickly followed by two new museums, teamLab Borderless Shanghai in 2019 and, in 2020, teamLab SuperNature in Macao. The vast sea of selfies that have emerged from these venues index the collective’s soaring global popularity. At the same time, teamLab’s works have found art market success and have been exhibited in major museums worldwide, including the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC and Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), and they are part of the permanent collection of The Art Gallery of New South Wales, the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, and Amos Rex in Helsinki, among numerous others. This canonization of teamLab’s art belies the fact that the group did not have a traditional gallery start, and in fact teamLab has always engaged in software development and corporate work, in addition to creating artworks. The collective thus boasts an enigmatic status, spanning conventional categories and defying traditional art world pedigree. In so doing it has produced a tremendously rich body of work that speaks to several overlapping issues pertinent to contemporary art while advancing a unique artistic vision. Primary readership will include artists, art historians and visual studies scholars who are particularly interested in the most recent media art and Japanese contemporary art. It will be an essential resource for students and scholars working in Japanese art, global contemporary art, digital art, augmented reality, expanded cinema and installation art and related fields. It will also be of more general interest to those who have visited, or hope to visit, teamLab environments worldwide.

From a writer whose work has been called "breathtaking and dazzling" by Roxane Gay, this moving, illuminating, and multifaceted memoir explores, in a series of essays, the emotional scars we carry when dealing with mental and physical illnesses--reminiscent of The Collected Schizophrenias and An Unquiet Mind. In this stunning debut, Laura Lee weaves unforgettable and eye-opening essays on a variety of taboo topics. In "History of Scars" and "Aluminum's Erosions," Laura dives head-first into heavier themes revolving around intimacy, sexuality, trauma, mental illness, and the passage of time. In "Poetry of the World," Laura shifts and addresses the grief she feels by being geographically distant from her mother whom, after being diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer's, is relocated to a nursing home in Korea. Through the vivid imagery of mountain climbing, cooking, studying writing, and growing up Korean American, Lee explores the legacy of trauma on a young queer child of immigrants as she reconciles the disparate pieces of existence that make her whole. By tapping into her own personal, emotional, and psychological struggles in these powerful and relatable essays, Lee encourages all of us to not be afraid to face our own hardships and inner truths.

Situated in picturesque countryside on the North Staffordshire / South Cheshire border, the villages of Betley, Balterley and Wrinehill are steeped in centuries of history. Betley was mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086 and was granted a Royal Charter in the 13th century to hold a weekly market. Famous Victorian visitors to Betley included author Elizabeth Gaskell and the young Florence Nightingale, who went boating on Betley Hall Pool. The three villages also had a brush with royalty when a Grand Duke of Russia opened the local flower show and The Queen's grandparents George V and Queen Mary passed through on their tour of North Staffordshire. Published in the milestone year of The Queen's Platinum Jubilee, this collection of pictures from the 19th century onwards captures and collates some well-known landmarks of Betley, Balterley and Wrinehill, both past and present. From garages to pubs, churches to country mansions, 'Snapshots of Village Life' outlines their stories within the villages they helped to shape. Celebrations of local and national events (such as the 50th anniversary of VE Day) also demonstrate a strong sense of community running through that village life. A community depicted, a heritage captured. 'Snapshots of Village Life' creates an engaging pictorial record of Betley, Balterley and Wrinehill and provides a fascinating glimpse of their journey through time.

From USA Today bestselling author, Laura Lee, comes a witty and sexy office romance that's sure to make your temperature rise. It can't get much worse than finding your fianc banging his secretary over the back of your couch, right?Wrong.Try discovering your unforgettable, dirty talking, arrogant as f*ck one-night stand is your new boss. The same man that you hate with a fiery passion but your traitorous body refuses to read the memo.I'll admit, Liam Maxwell's cockiness is not unwarranted--in the bedroom or the boardroom--but I'm a professional. I refuse to let an inconvenient attraction affect my career. I'll just have to do what I do best: manage the situation objectively.Why do I get the feeling that's going to be much easier said than done?Note: This is an interconnected standalone novella in the Bedding the Billionaire world. It was previously published under the title PUBLIC RELATIONS. The content has not been revised.

From USA Today bestselling author, Laura Lee, comes a hot enemies-to-lovers romance filled with second chances.Forget about those other celebrity chefs. Or as I like to call them...Amateurs.Nobody can perfect a pastry like yours truly. People come from all over the world to taste my delectable treats. Women practically throw themselves at me, begging for a chance to suck the cream out of my clair.I'm handsome, I'm wealthy, and I'm talented.All in all, life is pretty sweet.At least it was...until a beautiful Latina walked into my life and lit my whole damn world on fire.They say all is fair in love and war. Well, Gabriela Martinez may not know it yet, but she and I are definitely at war.Note: Billionaire Bad Boy is an interconnected standalone novella in the Bedding the Billionaire world. This story was previously published under the title: Sweet Temptations. The content has not been revised.

From USA Today bestselling author, Laura Lee, comes the sexy and heart-wrenching new standalone story set in the Windsor Academy world. They call me a player.A joker.The guy always down for a good time.But if they knew the secrets I've been keeping, they'd call me something else entirely.For the last two years, I've been buried in shame, numbing the pain with various vices. Drowning in self-hatred and concealing it with a smile.I had a system in place, a surety that no one would learn the truth. Then Sydney Carrington came waltzing back into my life.She's the new headmaster's daughter.The most beautiful girl I've ever met.The one person on Earth who can expose what I've worked so tirelessly to hide: That I'm the fucking villain in this story. ◆ BROKEN PLAYBOY is the fourth book in the Windsor Academy world. While it may be read as a standalone, as it focuses on a new couple, your reading experience may be enhanced if you read the entire series in order. This book may contain triggers for sensitive readers. Due to mature subject matter, it is recommended for readers 17+ only.WINDSOR ACADEMY SERIES1. Wicked Liars2. Ruthless Kings3. Fallen HeirsNOTE: Books 1-3 MUST be read in order to follow the story properly. 4. Broken Playboy (can be read as a standalone)