The Sleeping Beauties PDF Download

Author: Suzanne O'Sullivan
Publisher: Pan Macmillan
ISBN: 1529010543
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 336

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Book Description
Shortlisted for the Royal Society Science Book Prize 2021 'To compare any book to a Sacks is unfair, but this one lives up to it . . . I finished it feeling thrillingly unsettled, and wishing there was more.' James McConnachie, Sunday Times 'A study of diseases that we sometimes say are 'all in the mind', and an explanation of how unfair that characterisation is.' Tom Whipple, The Times Books of the Year In Sweden, refugee children fall asleep for months and years at a time. In upstate New York, high school students develop contagious seizures. In the US Embassy in Cuba, employees complain of headaches and memory loss after hearing strange noises in the night. These disparate cases are some of the most remarkable diagnostic mysteries of the twenty-first century, as both doctors and scientists have struggled to explain them within the boundaries of medical science and – more crucially – to treat them. What unites them is that they are all examples of a particular type of psychosomatic illness: medical disorders that are influenced as much by the idiosyncratic aspects of individual cultures as they are by human biology. Inspired by a poignant encounter with the sleeping refugee children of Sweden, Wellcome Prize-winning neurologist Suzanne O’Sullivan travels the world to visit other communities who have also been subject to outbreaks of so-called ‘mystery’ illnesses. From a derelict post-Soviet mining town in Kazakhstan, to the Mosquito Coast of Nicaragua via an oil town in Texas, to the heart of the Maria Mountains in Colombia, O’Sullivan hears remarkable stories from a fascinating array of people, and attempts to unravel their complex meaning while asking the question: who gets to define what is and what isn’t an illness? Reminiscent of the work of Oliver Sacks, Stephen Grosz and Henry Marsh, The Sleeping Beauties is a moving and unforgettable scientific investigation with a very human face. 'To compare any book to a Sacks is unfair, but this one lives up to it.' Sunday Times

Author: Senan Molony
Publisher: Mercier Press Ltd
ISBN: 1781176388
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 450

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Book Description
Senan Molony caused a worldwide media flurry in 2017 by publicly revealing an uncontrolled coal bunker fire on the Titanic. Experts said the fire would have significantly weakened a linchpin bulkhead, the failure of which hastened the sinking. The Titanic might otherwise have lasted until daylight, with many more being saved by a flotilla of arriving ships. In Titanic: why she collided, why she sank, why she should never have sailed, Senan goes much further and outlines numerous theories about what led to the Titanic's sinking. Senan appeared on CNN, NBC, CBS and ABC, along with NPR (National Public Radio) in the US after his Channel 4 documentary Titanic: The New Evidence, on which this book is based, was aired.

Author: Adrian Addison
Publisher: Atlantic Books (UK)
ISBN: 9781782399728
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
From its founding by the Harmsworth brothers in 1896, to turning 'compact' in 1971 and becoming the world's biggest newspaper website in 2011, Mail Men explores the rise and rise of the Daily Mail, Britain's most profitable newspaper. Charting the controversy that has always dogged the publication - from its flirtation with fascism in the 1930s to its fractious relationship with celebrities today, Addison explains how the divisive paper has shaped British journalism and, indeed, Britain itself. With colourful portraits of rambunctious life behind the masthead (discover why one corridor is dubbed 'scary' by staffers), Mail Men includes fascinating biographical details of key figures in the history of the paper - including idiosyncratic boss Paul Dacre, unrivalled moral arbiter for Middle England and the highest paid newspaper editor in the UK. Drawing on interviews with a vast array of the paper's journalists, past and present -- as well as fans, victims, and critics - this is the uncut story of the Mail Men who created and ran the paper, and the underlings who were expected to give their lives to this peculiarly British institution--

Author: A.N. Wilson
Publisher: HarperCollins
ISBN: 0062954962
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 343

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Book Description
Winner of the Plutarch Award for Best Biography A lively and insightful biographical celebration of the imaginative genius of Charles Dickens, published in commemoration of the 150th anniversary of his death. Charles Dickens was a superb public performer, a great orator and one of the most famous of the Eminent Victorians. Slight of build, with a frenzied, hyper-energetic personality, Dickens looked much older than his fifty-eight years when he died—an occasion marked by a crowded funeral at Westminster Abbey, despite his waking wishes for a small affair. Experiencing the worst and best of life during the Victorian Age, Dickens was not merely the conduit through whom some of the most beloved characters in literature came into the world. He was one of them. Filled with the twists, pathos, and unusual characters that sprang from this novelist’s extraordinary imagination, The Mystery of Charles Dickens looks back from the legendary writer’s death to recall the key events in his life. In doing so, he seeks to understand Dickens’ creative genius and enduring popularity. Following his life from cradle to grave, it becomes clear that Dickens’s fiction drew from his life—a fact he acknowledged. Like Oliver Twist, Dickens suffered a wretched childhood, then grew up to become not only a respectable gentleman but an artist of prodigious popularity. Dickens knew firsthand the poverty and pain his characters endured, including the scandal of a failed marriage. Going beyond standard narrative biography, A. N. Wilson brilliantly revisits the wellspring of Dickens’s vast and wild imagination, to reveal at long last why his novels captured the hearts of nineteenth century readers—and why they continue to resonate today. The Mystery of Charles Dickens is illustrated with 30 black-and-white images.

Author: Sinclair McKay
Publisher: Headline
ISBN: 1472258304
Category : Games & Activities
Languages : en
Pages : 257

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Book Description
You've already broken codes in Sinclair McKay's bestselling Bletchley Park Brainteasers, now it's time to pit your wits against the secret heroes of MI5 and MI6 and find out if YOU have what it takes to be a spy! If you cracked the GCHQ Puzzle Book and followed the Ordnance Survey Puzzle Book, you MUST show off your James Bond credentials with Secret Service Brainteasers. . . Whether you have linguistic flair, an instinct for technology or good old common sense, pit your wits against some of the greatest minds of our time with ingenious brainteasers including secret languages, sabotage themed brain bogglers, deadly countdowns and hidden codes. Weaving astonishing stories of the men and women who operate from the shadows, the secret heroes and heroines of MI5 and MI6 who have faced extraordinary and terrifying challenges and a wide range of mind twisting puzzles, Secret Service Brainteasers will test your mental agility to discover: Do YOU have what it takes to be a spy?

Author: Fiona Barton
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 1101990538
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 437

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Book Description
The New York Times bestselling author of The Widow returns with a brand new novel of twisting psychological suspense about every parent’s worst nightmare... When two eighteen-year-old girls go missing in Thailand, their families are thrust into the international spotlight: desperate, bereft, and frantic with worry. What were the girls up to before they disappeared? Journalist Kate Waters always does everything she can to be first to the story, first with the exclusive, first to discover the truth—and this time is no exception. But she can’t help but think of her own son, whom she hasn’t seen in two years, since he left home to go travelling. As the case of the missing girls unfolds, they will all find that even this far away, danger can lie closer to home than you might think...

Author: Robin Stevens
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1481422162
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 352

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Book Description
In 1930s England, schoolgirl detectives Daisy Wells and Hazel Wong are at Daisy's home for the holidays when someone falls seriously, mysteriously ill at a family party, but no one present is what they seem--and everyone has a secret or two--so the Detective Society must do everything they can to reveal the truth ... no matter the consequences.

Author: Florence de Changy
Publisher: HarperCollins UK
ISBN: 0008381569
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 432

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Book Description
‘People often say that non-fiction books read like fast-moving thrillers, but this one genuinely does... This is a splendid book – and highly recommended.’ Daily Mail A remarkable piece of investigative journalism into one of the most pervasive and troubling mysteries of recent memory.

Author: Edward Powys Mathers
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781460765395
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Six murders. One hundred pages. Millions of possible combinations... but only one is correct. Can you solve Torquemada's murder mystery? 'If James Joyce and Agatha Christie had a literary love child, this would be it.' The Daily Telegraph In 1934, the Observer's cryptic crossword compiler, Edward Powys Mathers (aka Torquemada), released a novel that was simultaneously a murder mystery and the most fiendishly difficult literary puzzle ever written. The pages have been printed in an entirely haphazard order, but it is possible - through logic and intelligent reading - to sort the pages into the only correct order, revealing six murder victims and their respective murderers. Only three puzzlers have ever solved the mystery of Cain's Jawbone: do you have what it takes to join their ranks? Please note: this puzzle is extremely difficult and not for the faint-hearted. 'A unique hybrid of word puzzle and whodunnit.' Literary Review

Author: C.J. Daugherty
Publisher: Bookouture
ISBN: 1910751375
Category : Young Adult Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 382

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Book Description
Sacha Winters can't die. Until his eighteenth birthday he is invincible. On that day it all ends for Sacha - the result of a curse that has plagued his family for centuries. His death will fulfil the curse - and unleash a wave of destruction. He has no idea how to stop it, only the cryptic notes left behind by his father, and a strange connection with a girl he has only just met to guide him. Taylor Montclair is a quiet, studious girl focused on her dream of getting into Oxford University. She's also the only one who can save Sacha. Only neither of them knows that yet. And Sacha lives hundreds of miles away, in Paris. Taylor and Sacha have eight weeks to find each other. To unravel the secrets buried in their families' past. And to discover the power that lies within them. Sacha's life, and the fate of the world depends on it. The clock starts NOW. What readers are saying about The Secret Fire... 'Pure awesome... There were moments when I laughed, moments where I gasped in surprise, and moments where I knew I could not read fast enough because I had to know what was going to happen next... My only complaint? That it ended and now I need to wait. I must know what happens next. I must!!!!' Series Tracker 'Are you ready for a grip the edge of your seat-repeating mantra of OMG as you turn the pages eagerly? Looking for something with intensity but also something that leaves you begging for more??? Looking for a new fav??? YES. This book is all of what you need and so much more! Go Into This One Knowing. Best. Book. Ever.' Crossroad Reviews 'This was incredible!... such a slow burn romance but the build-up had my heart beating out of my chest, the angst and suspense was killing me... This book was perfectly paced and the lack of info-dumping, love triangles and insta-love made for a perfect start to a new series. Switching from POV's from England and Paris and following the characters as they go from across countries was a great concept. With the addition of magic, action and adventure this book could really do no wrong in my eyes. There isn't a cliffhanger ending just the promise of lots more to come in the next installment which I'm now anxiously awaiting. I highly recommend this to fellow fantasy lovers who are looking for a brand new world to immerse themselves in, with great characters, a promising romance and a thrilling journey ahead.' Literary-ly Obsessed 'I love this book! It was really great! I've always loved books that include Alchemy as its major fantasy core, I just think that it's such a fascinating 'science'! ... I read the first chapter, and I was completely swept into this amazing world! ... can't wait until the second book comes out, and to continue exploring this amazing story! Just Another Bookish Blog 'thrilling and exciting all at the same time... an excellent paranormal fantasy... such amazing story telling' Books at Dawn