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Learn something new about yourself today. What does your workspace say about you? The most revealing clues aren't on your desk or on your computer. Rather, they're those paperclips in your bin - the ones you've fiddled with, probably without even realising it. When psychiatrist Mario Gmur started scrutinising paperclips bent by his patients, he found that they actually reveal multitudes about the creator's character, quirks and hidden desires. Are you an optimist? A pushover? A Lothario? A bully? After studying the links between paperclip shapes and distinct character types, Gmur has created a delightful collection of quizzes and psychological profiles that allow readers to discover their innermost truths using these miniature metallic sculptures. Part Rorschach test and part humorous horoscope, The Paperclip Test offers an amusing yet astonishingly insightful personality gauge for anyone who has ever bent a paperclip without thinking about what secrets that tiny shape might hold.

The acclaimed author of "Founding Gardeners "reveals the forgotten life of Alexander von Humboldt, the visionary German naturalist whose ideas changed the way we see the natural world and in the process created modern environmentalism. NATIONAL BEST SELLER One of the"New York Times "10Best Books of the Year A""Best Book of the Year: "The Economist," "Publishers Weekly," "Kirkus Reviews" Shortlist -- Costa Biography Award Finalist -- Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction Finalist -- Kirkus Reviews Prize for Nonfiction Alexander von Humboldt (1769 1859) was an intrepid explorer and the most famous scientist of his age. In North America, his name still graces four counties, thirteen towns, a river, parks, bays, lakes, and mountains. His restless life was packed with adventure and discovery, whether he was climbing the highest volcanoes in the world or racing through anthrax-infected Siberia or translating his research into bestselling publications that changed science and thinking. Among Humboldt s most revolutionary ideas was a radical vision of nature, that it is a complex and interconnected global force that does not exist for the use of humankind alone. Now Andrea Wulf brings the man and his achievements back into focus: his daring expeditions and investigation of wild environments around the world and his discoveries of similarities between climate and vegetation zones on different continents. She also discusses his prediction of human-induced climate change, his remarkable ability to fashion poetic narrative out of scientific observation, and his relationships with iconic figures such as Simon Bolivar and Thomas Jefferson. Wulf examines how Humboldt s writings inspired other naturalists and poets such as Darwin, Wordsworth, and Goethe, and she makes the compelling case that it was Humboldt s influence that led John Muir to his ideas of natural preservation and that shaped Thoreau s "Walden." With this brilliantly researched and compellingly written book, Andrea Wulf shows the myriad fundamental ways in which Humboldt created our understanding of the natural world, and she champions a renewed interest in this vital and lost player in environmental history and science. "From the Hardcover edition.""

From the National Book Award?winning author of Just Kids: an unforgettable odyssey of a legendary artist, told through the prism of the cafés and haunts she has worked in around the world. It is a book Patti Smith has described as ?a roadmap to my life.? M Train begins in the tiny Greenwich Village café where Smith goes every morning for black coffee, ruminates on the world as it is and the world as it was, and writes in her notebook. Through prose that shifts fluidly between dreams and reality, past and present, and across a landscape of creative aspirations and inspirations, we travel to Frida Kahlo?s Casa Azul in Mexico; to a meeting of an Arctic explorer?s society in Berlin; to a ramshackle seaside bungalow in New York?s Far Rockaway that Smith acquires just before Hurricane Sandy hits; and to the graves of Genet, Plath, Rimbaud, and Mishima. Woven throughout are reflections on the writer?s craft and on artistic creation. Here, too, are singular memories of Smith?s life in Michigan and the irremediable loss of her husband, Fred Sonic Smith. Braiding despair with hope and consolation, illustrated with her signature Polaroids,M Train is a meditation on travel, detective shows, literature, and coffee. It is a powerful, deeply moving book by one of the most remarkable multiplatform artists at work today. From the Hardcover edition.

Quite possibly the greatest science fiction collection of all time?past, present, and future! What if life was neverending? What if you could change your body to adapt to an alien ecology? What if the pope were a robot? Spanning galaxies and millennia, this must-have anthology showcases classic contributions from H. G. Wells, Arthur C. Clarke, Octavia E. Butler, and Kurt Vonnegut, alongside a century of the eccentrics, rebels, and visionaries who have inspired generations of readers. Within its pages, you?ll find beloved worlds of space opera, hard SF, cyberpunk, the New Wave, and more. Learn about the secret history of science fiction, from titans of literature who also wrote SF to less well-known authors from more than twenty-five countries, some never before translated into English. In The Big Book of Science Fiction, literary power couple Ann and Jeff VanderMeer transport readers from Mars to Mechanopolis, planet Earth to parts unknown. Immerse yourself in the genre that predicted electric cars, space tourism, and smartphones. Sit back, buckle up, and dial in the coordinates, as this stellar anthology has got worlds within worlds. Including: · Legendary tales from Isaac Asimov and Ursula K. Le Guin · An unearthed sci-fi story from W. E. B. Du Bois · The first publication of the work of cybernetic visionary David R. Bunch in twenty years · A rare and brilliant novella by Chinese international sensation Cixin Liu Plus: · Aliens! · Space battles! · Robots! · Technology gone wrong! · Technology gone right!

Great Expectations

Enter the gas-lit streets of post-war Prague, the steelworks run by singed men, the covered market that smells of new-born babes, the cacophonous open-air dance hall. Mr Kafka is avoiding his landlady’s blueberry wine breath, a stonemason witnesses the destruction of a monument to Stalin he risked his life to build, and factory men strain to catch a glimpse of a beautiful bathing murderess. In these newly discovered stories, Hrabal captures men and women in an eerily beautiful nightmare and their spirit in all its misery and splendour. Bohumil Hrabal was born in 1914 in Brno-Zidenice, Moravia. He received a degree in Law from Prague's Charles University, and lived in Prague since the late 1940s. In the 1950s he worked as a manual laborer in the Kladno ironworks, from which he drew inspiration for his 'hyper-realist' texts he was writing at that time. He won international acclaim for such books as I Served the King of England and Too Loud a Solitude. Hrabal is considered, along with Jaroslav Hasek and Karel Capek, as one of the greatest Czech writers of the 20th century, and perhaps the most important in the post-war period. In February 1997 he flew out of his hospital window never to return.

Nora hasn't seen Clare for ten years. Not since the day Nora walked out of her old life and never looked back. Until, out of the blue, an invitation to Clare's hen party arrives. A weekend in a remote cottage - the perfect opportunity for Nora to reconnect with her best friend, to put the past behind her. But something goes wrong. Very wrong.

Rediscover Emily Brontë's powerful tale of love, violence and obsession. 'May you not rest, as long as I am living. You said I killed you - haunt me, then' Wuthering Heights is the tale of two families both joined and riven by love and hate. Cathy is a beautiful and wilful young woman torn between her soft-hearted husband and Heathcliff, the passionate and resentful man who has loved her since childhood. The power of their bond creates a maelstrom of cruelty and violence which will leave one of them dead and cast a shadow over the lives of their children. Emily Brontë's novel remains a stunningly original and shocking exploration of obsessive passion.

1945, Lake Como. Mussolini and his mistress are captured by local partisans and shot in a summary execution. The precise circumstances of Il Duce's death remain shrouded in confusion and controversy. 1992, Milan. Colonna, a depressed writer picking up hack work, is offered a fee he can't refuse to ghost-write a memoir. His subject: a fledgling newspaper, which happens to be financed by a powerful media magnate. As Colonna gets to know the team of journalists, he learns the paranoid theories of Braggadocio who is convinced that Mussolini's corpse was a body-double and part of a wider Fascist plot. It's the scoop he desperately needs. The evidence? He's working on it. Colonna is sceptical. But when a body is found, stabbed to death in a back alley and the paper is shut down, even he is jolted out of his complacency. Fuelled by media hoaxes, Mafiosi, love, gossip and murder, Numero Zero reverberates with the clash of the cynical forces that have shaped Italy since the last days of World War II. This gripping story from the author of The Name Of The Rose is told with all the power of a master storyteller.

When the mysterious and beautiful young widow Helen Graham becomes the new tenant at Wildfell Hall rumours immediately begin to swirl around her. As her neighbour Gilbert Markham comes to discover, Helen has painful secrets buried in her past that even his love for her cannot easily overcome.

A beautiful deluxe gift edition of Charlotte Brontë's masterpiece. WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY MAGGIE O'FARRELL As an orphan, Jane's childhood is full of trouble, but her stubborn independence and sense of self help her to steer through the miseries inflicted by cruel relatives and a brutal school. A position as governess at the Thornfield Hall promises a kind of freedom. But Thornfield is a house full of secrets, its master a passionate, tormented man, and before long Jane faces her greatest struggle in a choice between love and self-respect.

A beautifully intimate novel from award-winning Danish novelist, Helle Helle This should be written in the present tense. But it isn't. Dorte should be at uni in Copenhagen. But she's not. She should probably put some curtains up in her new place. And maybe stop sleeping with her neighbour's boyfriend. Perhaps things don't always work out the way they should.

Jon is on the run. He has betrayed Oslo's biggest crime lord: The Fisherman. Fleeing to an isolated corner of Norway, to a mountain town so far north that the sun never sets, Jon hopes to find sanctuary amongst a local religious sect. Hiding out in a shepherd's cabin in the wilderness, all that stands between him and his fate are Lea, a bereaved mother and her young son, Knut. But while Lea provides him with a rifle and Knut brings essential supplies, the midnight sun is slowly driving Jon to insanity. And then he discovers that The Fisherman's men are getting closer...

Part of the balance of life lies in understanding that different days require different ways of eating...' Whatever the occasion, food - in the making and the eating - should always be pleasurable. Simply Nigella taps into the rhythms of our cooking lives, with recipes that are uncomplicated, relaxed and yet always satisfying. From quick and calm suppers (Miso Salmon, Cauliflower & Cashew Nut Curry) to stress-free ideas when catering for a crowd (Chicken Traybake with Bitter Orange & Fennel), or the instant joy of bowlfood for cosy nights on the sofa (Thai Noodles with Cinnamon and Prawns), here is food guaranteed to make everyone feel good. Whether you need to create some breathing space at the end of a long week (Asian-Flavoured Short Ribs), indulge in a sweet treat (Lemon Pavlova, Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Pots) or wake up to a strength-giving breakfast (Toasty Olive Oil Granola), Nigella's new cookbook is filled with recipes destined to become firm favourites. Simply Nigella is the perfect antidote to our busy lives: a calm and glad celebration of food to soothe and uplift.

The New Simon Serrailler Case from Susan Hill, the bestselling author of The Woman in Black. Simon Serrailler Faces His Most Dangerous Challenge Yet. Going undercover, he must leave town immediately, change his identity and sever all contact with friends and family. And, more importantly, he must inhabit the mind of the worst kind of criminal. But can he do so without losing everything?

Some cases aren't as cold as you'd think Kurt Wallander's life looks like it has taken a turn for the better when his offer on a new house is accepted, only for him to uncover something unexpected in the garden - the skeleton of a middle-aged woman. As police officers comb the property, Wallander attempts to get his new life back on course by finding the woman's killer with the aid of his daughter, Linda. But when another discovery is made in the garden, Wallander is forced to delve further back into the area's past. A treat for fans and new readers alike, this is a never before published Kurt Wallander novella.