Simon & Schuster strana 11 z 101

Blunt, irreverent, and at times wittily subversive, Opera Wars spotlights opera's colorful and sometimes warring personalities, increasingly fierce controversies over content, and the battles being waged for its economic future. Drawing on interviews with dozens of opera insiders-as well as her own experience as an award-winning librettist, trained vocalist, opera company director, and arts commentator-Caitlin Vincent deftly unravels clichés and presumptions, exposing such debates as how much fidelity is owed to long-dead opera composers whose plots often stir racial and gender sensitivities, whether there's any cure for typecasting that leaves talented performers out of work and other performers chained to the same roles, and what explains the bizarre kowtowing of opera companies to the demands of traditionalist patrons. Vincent never shrinks from depicting the industry's top-to-bottom messiness and its stubborn resistance to change. Yet, like a lover who can't quite break away, she always comes back to her veneration for the artform and in these pages stirringly evokes those moments on stage that can be counted on to make ardent fans of the most skeptical.

Navigate the emotional side of divorce and emerge stronger, more confident, and ready to thrive with this essential guide for women. Unhitched inspires women to use their divorce as a transformational opportunity for growth and self-discovery. Nationally recognized divorce expert and therapist Oona Metz provides a compassionate yet practical roadmap through every stage of the divorce process. Whether making the decision to end a marriage, coping during separation, dealing with the rollercoaster of emotions, coparenting, or navigating life after divorce, this book offers a wealth of psychological tools to guide you forward. With over thirty years of experience supporting women as they navigate divorce, Metz weaves together practical guidance, relatable vignettes, and engaging exercises to help make the journey through divorce less overwhelming and more empowering. Topics include: -The five phases of divorce grief -Establishing separation boundaries -Supporting children through the process -Rediscovering your identity and confidence -Exploring new relationships post-divorce Filled with key takeaways, reassuring insights, and inclusive stories tailored for women in both heterosexual and LGBTQ+ relationships, Unhitched offers a reassuring guide to life before, during, and after divorce.

A stunning tour de force of a novel based on the true story of a fourteen-year-old boy’s harrowing experience fleeing a Hitler youth camp with his best friend in the last days of the Second World War—perfect for readers of All the Light WeCannot See and The German Girl. At the start of the war, eight-year-old Max Bernot lives with his sister and parents in Lauterbach, Saarland, a narrow strip of territory between the French and German defence lines. His German father, Anton, and his French mother, Marguerite, do their best to shield Max and his sister, Anna, from Nazi violence, but in late 1944, their beloved godfather is executed in their garden by the SS, and Max, now thirteen, is conscripted in the Volkssturm. Less than a month later, Max flees a Hitler Youth camp in Bavaria with his best friend, Hans. His mission: to return home and tell his mother the truth about his godfather’s murder As he escapes, he sends postcards to his family that trace his fraught journey across a country in its death throes. Unbeknownst to Max, his mother is trapped in the German interior, coerced into working for a fanatical Nazi officer. Desperate to escape and reunite her family, Marguerite must first protect Anna from the sinister attentions of their captor, who could hold information on Max’s whereabouts even as Allied planes circle closer. Deftly interweaving the wartime stories of Max and Marguerite, The End and the Beginning maps the loss of innocence of a generation of children raised in the shadow of the Reich and follows the fate of one family, neither wholly French nor entirely German, who find themselves on the wrong side whichever way they turn.

Few forces have shaped our world as powerfully – or as secretly – as mafias. Groups such as La Cosa Nostra, the Medellín Cartel, New York’s Five Families, the Japanese yakuza and Russian vory are notorious, endlessly covered in news stories and popular media. Yet when official histories are written, their role in shaping nations, economies and societies is rarely acknowledged. In Mafia: A Global History, Ryan Gingeras draws on more than a decade of research to uncover this suppressed underworld history. Crossing centuries and continents, he introduces legendary figures – Al Capone, Pablo Escobar, Du Yuesheng – and explores the conditions, cultures and locales that gave birth to modern mafias: Sicily, Marseille, New York, Colombia, Tokyo. As he reconstructs the rise of a gang or the life of a gangster, he also charts the expanding power of states and the increasingly international reach of trade, crime and law enforcement. After all, governments define what is a crime and who is a criminal, and their agents create the strategies used to limit or defend against their threat. Beginning with bandits and ending with today’s ‘mafia states’ – and the alarming blurring of lines between gangsters, corporations and political leaders – this sweeping narrative traces the evolution of organised crime in response to industrialisation, globalisation and technological change. By charting the origins, consolidation and transformation of mafias, Gingeras reveals not only where contemporary gangsters come from, but how they became central to our imagination and why they are the uncredited architects of the modern world.

This is one killer love story ... For fans of Love in the Time of Serial Killers and Butcher & Blackbird, a horror movie fanatic gets caught in the middle of a murder spree and must use her encyclopedic knowledge of the romance and horror genres to escape a killer and become the Final Girl. When Jamie's best friend drags her to a speed-dating event, she knows what to expect . . . mediocre men and the opportunity to eat her feelings later. She's not expecting a blackout and for her date to be gruesomely killed at their table. After the lights come back on, Jamie sees more bodies on the floor. Knowing there's strength in numbers, she pulls together a band of would-be survivors to escape. Armed with makeshift weapons and Jamie's extensive knowledge of what NOT to do in a slasher movie - starting with not splitting up - the group try to find a way out whilst the killer stalks them. But is he simply picking them off or is he playing some sick game to woo one of the daters and turn them into his real-life Final Girl? Nothing speeds up love like fighting for your life and Jamie somehow finds herself in a love triangle despite the potentially deadly consequences. Has she finally found true love or does the prospect of death via machete-wielding psychopath mean she's already met her match?

The #1 New York Times bestselling authors of Designing Your Life return with a groundbreaking guide to transforming your daily routine into one brimming with joy, purpose, and meaning. In a world grappling with major societal shifts and increasing isolation, it's easy to feel like nothing you do matters. Even when we're at the top of our game in our careers and have reached the personal milestones we've always dreamed about, so many of us still feel like something is missing, disconnected, and stuck. There must be more to life than simply surviving each day-but how do we uncover it? Bestselling authors Bill Burnett and Dave Evans, the "empowering" (Publishers Weekly) visionaries behind Stanford's renowned Life Design Lab, have already inspired millions of readers to use design thinking principles to craft lives and careers they love. Now, in How to Live a Meaningful Life, they take on the most profound design problem of all: how to make a life rich with meaning and purpose. Evolving their revolutionary framework, Burnett and Evans present the latest research on what makes life worth living, showing us how to bring wonder, coherence, flow, and community into our everyday experiences. Instead of cramming more into an already packed life, they give us the steps we need to extract more out of it, moment by moment. Through actionable insights and with Burnett and Evans's signature compassion and warmth, How to Live a Meaningful Life equips you with the tools to turn your ordinary days into an extraordinary life today.

In this sixth installment in the New York Times bestselling series from Edgar Award winner James Ponti, the young group of spies stages a rescue in Rome in another international adventure perfect for fans of Spy School and Charlie Thorne. Cairo, the newest member of the City Spies, takes the lead when his sister disappears in Istanbul. Determined to save the family of one of their own, the team risks discovery as their search leads them to Rome. Meanwhile, there’s been intel that seems to threaten the royal wedding about to take place in Westminster, bringing the team back to the UK on an official case for MI6. With so much security all over the city, it’s harder than ever for the City Spies to go unnoticed. Will their skills be up to the task?

AI is here, bringing a seismic shift in the way our society operates. Might this mean a future reimagined on equitable terms for women and marginalised groups everywhere? Not unless we fight for it. At present, power remains largely in the hands of a few rich, white men. New AI-driven technologies, with misogyny baked into their design, are putting women in danger, their rights and safety sacrificed at the altar of profitability and reckless speed. In The New Age of Sexism, Sunday Times bestselling author and campaigner Laura Bates takes us deep into the heart of this rapidly evolving world. She explores the metaverse, confronts deepfake pornography, travels to cyber brothels, tests chatbots, and hears from schools in the grip of online sexual abuse, showing how our lives – from education to work, sex to entertainment – are being infiltrated by easily accessible technologies that are changing the way we live and love. What she finds is a wild west where existing forms of discrimination, inequality and harassment are being coded into the future we will all have little choice about living in – unless we seize this moment to demand change. Gripping, courageous and eye-opening, The New Age of Sexism exposes a phenomenon we can’t afford to ignore any longer. Our future is on the line. We need to act now, before it is too late.

Paedyn Gray and Kai Azer return to the Kingdom of Ilya... ? And Paedyn has a life-altering choice to make. Whatever she decides will determine her fate – and the fate of those around her – forever. ? In the ultimate battle of love and loyalty, who wins? Be swept away by the conclusion to the smash hit, romantasy trilogy that has taken the world by storm.

When Easter comes to Old MacDonald’s farm, the egg hunt is on! Set to the tune of “Old MacDonald Had a Farm,” little ones will love this barnyard board book.With an Easter egg here and an Easter egg there. Here an egg, there an egg, everywhere an egg! Egg! Old MacDonald had a farm E-I-E-I-O.It’s Easter on Old MacDonald’s farm, and the animals are looking for their eggs! Can you help the lamb, chick, and bunny find their Easter surprises in this adorable board book that’s set to the tune of “Old MacDonald Had a Farm?”

Every year night skies get 10% brighter. Light pollution is erasing the stars. In Nightfaring, travel writer and ‘dark sky’ advocate Megan Eaves travels the world to better understand our deep connection with the night sky. Finding solace in the stars at a time of difficulty in her own life, she embarks on a journey that takes her from New Zealand to Uzbekistan, Italy to Japan, Germany to the Himalaya, exploring the many ways that we have depended on, feared and mythologised darkness culturally and historically. The constellations have guided humankind in navigation and husbandry since the very earliest cultures, yet as nocturnal cities bleach our skies and that deep knowledge is lost, are we also losing our connection with the wild, with stillness, with the possibility that self-knowledge and healing can come from darkness, too? Blending travel and nature writing with history and self-discovery, Nightfaring is a profound and often startling journey through darkness and the endangered night.

The “extraordinary life story” (Publishers Weekly) of the billionaire businessman Jimmy Lai, a leading Hong Kong democracy activist fighting for freedom of speech who became China’s most famous political prisoner. Jimmy Lai escaped mainland China when he was twelve years old, at the height of a famine that killed tens of millions. In Hong Kong, he hustled and often slept overnight on a table in a clothing factory where he did odd jobs. At twenty-one, he was running a factory. By his mid-twenties, he owned one and was supplying sweaters and shirts to some of the biggest brands in the United States, from Polo to The Limited. His ideas about retail led him to create Giordano in 1981, and with it “fast fashion.” A restless entrepreneur, as Giordano prepared to go public, he was thinking about a dining concept that would disrupt Hong Kong’s fast-food industry. But then came Tiananmen Square democracy protest and the massacre of 1989. His reaction to the violence was to enter the media industry to push China toward more freedoms. He started a magazine, Next, to advocate for democracy in Hong Kong. Then, just two years before the city was to return to Chinese control, he founded the Apple Daily newspaper. Its mix of bold graphics, gossip, local news, and opposition to the Chinese Communist Party was an immediate hit. For more than two decades, Lai used Apple and Next as part of a personal push for democracy—in weekly columns, at rallies and marches, and, memorably, sitting in front of a tent during the 2014 Occupy Central movement. Lai took his activism abroad, traveling frequently to Washington. China reacted with fury in 2019 when he met with Vice President Mike Pence and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. A draconian new security law came into effect in Hong Kong in mid-2020, effectively making human rights advocacy and free speech a crime and censorship a fact. Lai was arrested and held without bail before being convicted on trumped-up charges. At the end of 2023, a lengthy national security trial, that could see him jailed for life, alleged “collusion with foreign forces” and printing seditious materials. China’s most famous political prisoner has been held in solitary confinement since December 2020, while his supporters and family continue the fight to have him freed. “A sympathetic and inspiring biography” (The Wall Street Journal) and “a genuinely gripping yarn” (The New York Times), The Troublemaker is his story.

An unsuspecting Gilbert the Goblin finds himself in the crosshairs of cupids and their heart-tipped arrows in the hilarious latest installment in The Worst! picture book series, where even the strangest of creatures can become the best of friends.Who needs valentines? Not Gilbert the goblin! There’s no time for cards and hugs and all that mushy malarky with far more important matters at hand—like, uh…eating tacos. When Gilbert bumps into a squad of cupids bent on showering him with love arrows, he runs for his life! This is clearly proof that valentines are the worst! Can Gilbert avoid the trappings of the holiday or will love find a way?

In this companion to the beloved and bestselling classic Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, rollicking rhyme revels in all the ways your little one is special in this board book featuring a mirror on every page. I ask you, and you ask me, Look in the mirror, who do you see? Chicka Chicka You You! Little ones will delight in finding their faces in shaped mirrors on every page and enjoy the playful rhythm of this engaging take on the perennial classic perfect for baby showers, birthdays, or any time of year!

Set against the desolate beauty of the Yorkshire moors, the all-consuming love between Catherine Earnshaw and the foundling Heathcliff has captivated readers for centuries. When forces of class and society tear them apart, Heathcliff embarks on a bitter quest for vengeance that threatens to destroy two generations of the Linton and Earnshaw families. This paperback is part of Simon & Schuster's Female Filmmakers Collection, a series of books thoughtfully curated by female filmmakers. Each title includes an introduction by a woman who has made an indelible impact on cinema. Celebrate over a century of female filmmaking and discover the classics-timeless and modern-that inspired the creators behind your favorite films.

It’s time for spring in this companion to the beloved and bestselling classic Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, and the letters peep something hidden up in the tree…A asked B and B asked C, “What’s up there in the pretty pink tree?” Everyone’s favorite alphabet crew is ready to hop to the occasion and sniff out the surprise, with the help of some fuzzy new friends. Celebrate springtime in this colorful romp that will have everyone chanting—and hopping!—along.