DOCSLIB.ORG

Reading Group Collection October 2019

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Reading Group Collection October 2019 The Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead Libraries & Residents Service Reading Group Collection Reading Group Collection October 2019 NEW – New to reading group list, not a new release. *All page numbers are approximate Half of a Yellow Sun Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Set in Nigeria during the 1960s, this novel contains three main characters who get swept up in the violence during these turbulent years. It is about Africa, about the end of colonialism, about class and race, and the ways in which love can complicate these things. 448 pages* Purple Hibiscus Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie When Nigeria begins to fall apart under a military coup, Kambili's father, involved in mysterious ways with the unfolding political crisis, sends Kambili and her brother away to their aunt's. Here she discovers love and a life - dangerous and heathen - beyond the confines of her father's authority. 358 pages Fighting on the Home Front: the Legacy of Women in World War One Kate Adie Bestselling author and award-winning former BBC Chief News Correspondent Kate Adie reveals the ways in which women's lives changed during World War One and what the impact has been for women in its centenary year. 328 pages The Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead Libraries & Residents Service Reading Group Collection Poppy Shakespeare Clare Allan When Poppy Shakespeare walks into the Dorothy Fish Day Hospital in her six- inch skirt & 12-inch heels, she is certain she isn't mentally ill & is desperate to return to her life outside. Together with another patient, Poppy plots to gain freedom. But in a world where everything's upside-down, is she crazy enough to upset the system? 341 pages Somewhere Towards the End Diana Athill This book tells the story of what it means to be old: how the pleasure of sex ebbs, how the joy of gardening grows, how much there is to remember, to forget, to regret, to forgive - and how one faces the inevitable fact of death. 182 pages Oryx and Crake Margaret Atwood Pigs might not fly but they are strangely altered. So, for that matter, are wolves and racoons. A man, once named Jimmy, lives in a tree, wrapped in old bedsheets, now calls himself Snowman. The voice of Oryx, the woman he loved, teasingly haunts him. And the green-eyed Children of Crake are, for some reason, his responsibility. 433 pages The Handmaid’s Tale Margaret Atwood The Republic of Gilead allows Offred only one function - to breed. If she deviates, she will, like all dissenters, be hanged at the wall or sent out to die slowly of radiation sickness. But even a repressive state cannot obliterate desire - neither Offred's nor that of the two men on whom her future hangs. 324 pages The Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead Libraries & Residents Service Reading Group Collection The Heart Goes Last Margaret Atwood Stan and Charmaine are a married couple trying to stay afloat in the midst of economic and social collapse. Living in their car, surviving on tips from Charmaine's job at a dive bar, they're increasingly vulnerable to roving gangs and in a rather desperate state. So when they see an advertisement for the Positron Project in the town of Consilience - a 'social experiment' offering stable jobs and a home of their own - they sign up immediately. All they have to do in return for this suburban paradise is give up their freedom every second month, swapping their home for a prison cell. 416 pages Sense and Sensibility Jane Austen A work of romantic fiction, better known as a comedy of manners, Sense and Sensibility is set in southwest England, London and Kent between 1792 and 1797, and portrays the life and loves of the Dashwood sisters, Elinor and Marianne. The novel follows the young ladies to their new home, a meagre cottage on a distant relative's property, where they experience love, romance and heartbreak. 353 pages Longbourn Jo Baker It is wash-day for the housemaids at Longbourn House, and Sarah's hands are chapped and bleeding. Domestic life below stairs, ruled tenderly and forcefully by Mrs Hill the housekeeper, is about to be disturbed by the arrival of a new footman smelling of the sea, and bearing secrets. For in Georgian England, there is a world the young ladies in the drawing room will never know, a world of poverty, love, and brutal war. 447 pages Penguin’s Poems for Life Laura Barber (Ed.) Ranging from Chaucer to Carol Ann Duffy, via Shakespeare, Keats, and Lemn Sissay, this book offers something for each of those moments in life - whether falling in love, finding your first grey hair or saying your final goodbyes - when only a poem will do. 416 pages The Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead Libraries & Residents Service Reading Group Collection The Sense of an Ending Julian Barnes Tony Webster and his clique first met Adrian Finn at school. Sex-hungry and book-hungry, they would navigate the girl-less sixth form together, trading in affectations, in-jokes, rumour and wit. They all swore to stay friends for life. Now Tony is in middle age and he is finding that memory is imperfect. 150 pages On Canaan’s Side Sebastian Barry Narrated by Lilly Bere, 'On Canaan's Side' opens as she mourns the loss of her grandson, Bill. The story then goes back to the moment she was forced to flee Sligo, at the end of the First World War. 340 pages The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake Aimee Bender When 9-year-old Rose Edelstein bites into her mother's home-made lemon chocolate cake, to her horror, she discovers she can taste her mother's emotions in the slice. And her mother - her cheerful, can-do mother - tastes of despair and desperation. Suddenly food becomes perilous. 325 pages Turn Again Home Carol Birch A story of ambition and opportunity, providence and survival that explores a family's bond of unspoken love and loyalty. Beginning in Manchester in 1930, it follows Nell, who grows up to work in a factory, and her younger brother, Bobby, who finds himself fighting in the jungles of Malaya. 405 pages Jamrach’s Menagerie Carol Birch Jaffy Brown is running through the London backstreets when he comes face to face with an escaped circus animal. His life is transformed by the encounter. Plucked from the jaws of death by Mr Jamrach, the two strike up a friendship. Before he knows it, Jaffy finds himself on board a ship bound for the South Seas. 348 pages The Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead Libraries & Residents Service Reading Group Collection A Street Cat Named Bob James Bowen The moving, uplifting true story of an unlikely friendship between a man on the streets and the ginger cat who adopts him and helps him heal his life. 279 pages Any Human Heart William Boyd This is the story of Logan Mountstuart, told through his journals. His travels take the reader from Uruguay to Oxford, Paris, the Bahamas, New York and Africa. This is the story of a life lived to the full - and a journey deep into a very human heart. 503 pages Restless William Boyd What happens to your life when everything you thought you knew about your mother turns out to be an elaborate lie? Ruth Gilmartin discovers the strange and haunting truth about her mother, Sally, during the long hot summer of 1976. 325 pages The Sixth Lamentation William Brodrick A man arrives at Larkwood Monastery claiming sanctuary. Eduard Schwermann is accused of Nazi war crimes: the chances are he is stained with blood, but politics demand that Larkwood shelter him. Father Anselm is given the task of finding out more about Shwermann's crimes. 433 pages The Tenant of Wildfell Hall Anne Bronte This is the story of a woman's struggle for independence. Helen Huntingdon has returned to Wildfell Hall in flight from a disastrous marriage. Exiled to the desolate moorland mansion, she adopts an assumed name and earns her living as the painter, Mrs Graham. 432 pages The Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead Libraries & Residents Service Reading Group Collection Milkman - NEW Anna Burns In this unnamed city, to be interesting is dangerous. Middle sister, our protagonist, is busy attempting to keep her mother from discovering her maybe-boyfriend and to keep everyone in the dark about her encounter with Milkman. But when first brother-in-law sniffs out her struggle, and rumours start to swell, middle sister becomes 'interesting'. The last thing she ever wanted to be. To be interesting is to be noticed and to be noticed is dangerous. 348 pages The Miniaturist Jessie Burton On an autumn day in 1686, Nella Oortman knocks at the door of a grand house in the wealthiest quarter of Amsterdam. She has come from the country to begin a new life as the wife of illustrious merchant trader Johannes Brandt, but instead she is met by his sharp-tongued sister, Marin. Nella is at first mystified by the closed world of the Brandt household, but as she uncovers its secrets she realizes the escalating dangers that await them all. 424 pages The Children’s Book A.S. Byatt A panoramic novel of family secrets, set against a backdrop of a bohemian, artistic late Victorian and Edwardian world, and with real commercial as well as literary potential, about the damage wrought by writers of children's books on their children - about predators and innocents, war and peace, art and society. 617 pages Perdita Paula Byrne A portrait of one of the most flamboyant women of the late 18th century.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Reading Group Sets in Isle of Wight Libraries
    Reading Group Sets in Isle of Wight Libraries July 2021 Reading Group Sets in Isle of Wight Libraries Only titles from this list are available. Titles from old lists are no longer available 84 Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff ( 10 copies ) In 1949 Helene Hanff, ‘a poor writer with an antiquarian taste in books’, wrote to Marks & Co. Booksellers of 84 Charing Cross Rd in search of the rare editions she was unable to find in New York. Her books were dispatched with polite but brisk efficiency. But, seeking further treasures, Helene soon found herself in regular correspondence with book seller Frank Doel, laying siege to his English reserve with her warmth and wit. And, as letters, books and quips crossed the ocean, a friendship flourished that would endure for twenty years. 84k by Claire North (12 copies at Ryde) Theo Miller knows the value of human life - to the very last penny. Working in the Criminal Audit Office, he assesses each crime that crosses his desk and makes sure the correct debt to society is paid in full. But when his ex-lover is killed, it's different. This is one death he can't let become merely an entry on a balance sheet. Because when the richest in the world are getting away with murder, sometimes the numbers just don't add up. The Abortionist’s Daughter by Elizabeth Hyde (12 copies) Two weeks before Christmas, Diana Duprey, an outspoken abortion doctor, is found dead in her swimming pool. A national figure, Diana inspired passion and ignited tempers, but never more so than the day of her death.
    [Show full text]
  • Author Surname
    Author surname Author first name Title Genre Copies Abercrombie Joe Red country Fantasy 10 Shy South hoped to bury her bloody past and ride away smiling, but she'll have to sharpen up some bad old ways to get her family back, and she's not a woman to flinch from what needs doing. She sets off in pursuit with only a pair of oxen and her cowardly old stepfather Lamb for company. But it turns out Lamb's buried a bloody past of his own. And out of the lawless Far Country the past never stays buried. Ackroyd Peter Hawksmoor Crime 10 Nicholas Dyer, assistant to Sir Christopher Wren and the man with a commission to build seven London churches, plans to conceal a dark secret at the heart of each church. 250 years later, detective Nicholas Hawksmoor is investigating a series of gruesome murders. Ackroyd Peter The Lambs of London Historical 10 Touching and tragic, ingenious, funny and vividly alive, this is Ackroyd at the top of his form in a masterly retelling of a 19th century drama which keeps the reader guessing right to the end. Adichie Chimamanda Ngozi Americanah General 10 From the award winning author of Half of a Yellow Sun', a powerful story of love, race and identity. As teenagers in Lagos, Ifemelu and Obinze fall in love. Their Nigeria is under military dictatorship, and people are fleeing the country if they can. The self-assured Ifemelu departs for America. There she suffers defeats and triumphs, finds and loses relationships, all the while feeling the weight of something she never thought of back home: race.
    [Show full text]
  • Full Cast Announced for the Treatment
    PRESS RELEASE Friday 24 February 2017 THE ALMEIDA THEATRE ANNOUNCES THE FULL CAST FOR THE TREATMENT, MARTIN CRIMP’S CONTEMPORARY SATIRE, DIRECTED BY LYNDSEY TURNER CHOREOGRAPHER ARTHUR PITA JOINS THE CREATIVE TEAM Joining Aisling Loftus and Matthew Needham in THE TREATMENT will be Gary Beadle, Ian Gelder, Ben Onwukwe, Julian Ovenden, Ellora Torchia, Indira Varma, and Hara Yannas. The Treatment begins previews at the Almeida Theatre on Monday 24 April and runs until Saturday 10 June. The press night is Friday 28 April. New York. A film studio. A young woman has an urgent story to tell. But here, people are products, movies are money and sex sells. And the rights to your life can be a dangerous commodity to exploit. Martin Crimp’s contemporary satire is directed by Lyndsey Turner, who returns to the Almeida following her award-winning production of Chimerica. The Treatment will be designed by Giles Cadle, with lighting by Neil Austin, composition by Rupert Cross, fight direction by Bret Yount, sound by Chris Shutt, and voice coaching by Charmian Hoare. The choreographer is Arthur Pita. Casting is by Julia Horan. ALMEIDA QUESTIONS In response to The Treatment - where it’s material that matters – Whose Life Is It Anyway? continues the Almeida’s programme of pre-show discussions as a panel delves into the worldwide fascination with constructed realities in art and in life. When you sell your story is your life still your own? In the golden age of social media - where immaculately contrived worlds are labelled as real life - what is the cost? Can truth be traced in art at all? The panel includes Instagram star Deliciously Stella, Made In Chelsea producer Nick Arnold, and Anita Biressi, Professor of Media and Communications at Roehampton University.
    [Show full text]
  • Server and Jounal-Keeper in Dodie Smith's I
    Postgraduate English www.dur.ac.uk/postgraduate.english Issue 29 September 2014 Editors Yuexi Liu and Hazel Monforton ‘I Write This Sitting in the Kitchen Sink’: The Novelist as Ob- server and Jounal-Keeper in Dodie Smith’s I Capture the Castle and William Boyd’s Any Human Heart Rachel Darling King’s College London 2 ‘I Write This Sitting in the Kitchen Sink’: The Novelist as Ob- server and Jounal-Keeper in Dodie Smith’s I Capture the Castle and William Boyd’s Any Human Heart Rachel Darling King’s College London Postgraduate English, Issue 29, September 2014 I don’t really want to write any more, I just want to lie here and think. But there is something I want to capture. It has to do with the feeling…the queer separate feeling. I like seeing people when they can’t see me. I have often looked at our family through lighted windows and they seem quite different, a bit the way rooms seen in looking-glasses do. I can’t get the feeling into words – it slipped away when I tried to capture it.1 Dodie Smith, I Capture The Castle (1949) We keep a journal to entrap that collection of selves that forms us, the individual human being…a true journal presents us with the more riotous and disorganized reality. The various stages of development are there, but they are jumbled up, counterposed and repeated randomly. The selves jostle for prominence in these pages…I am all these different people and all these different people are me.
    [Show full text]
  • Restless by William Boyd
    Restless by William Boyd ‘Death may occur this very afternoon.’- Marcel Proust Historical Background – Real Spies Restless is based on the little known fact that there were a huge number of British spies in America in1940. American society and the political climate were markedly different from today. Eighty percent of Americans were opposed to war; the government was anti-interventionist; and there was no ‘special relationship’ with Britain, as there is now. The British government under Churchill was desperate for the US to join them in the war effort, so they set up a massive ‘British Security Coordination’ (BSC) office in New York. The BSC’s role was to ‘persuade’ the American people to help Britain. Employing up to 3000 personnel, the BSC planted propaganda with journalists and newspapers, manipulated radio with fake news, and generally played up the Nazi threat. The episode in the novel with Nazi maps of the Americas, is authentic. Of course it wasn’t the BSC that turned the tide of American involvement – it was the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour and Hitler’s declaration of war on the US. James Bond is possibly the most well-known spy in fiction. But author Ian Fleming admits that ‘Bond is a highly romanticized version of a true spy. The real thing is...William Stephenson.’ Stephenson was a Canadian war hero and spymaster who ran the BSC office in New York – and no doubt an inspiration for the characters in Restless. The BSC’s covert actions are not part of the official canon of heroic World War Two stories.
    [Show full text]
  • New Microsoft Word Document
    W. A. McCay Chains of Command While exploring a group of devastated class-M planets in a remote sector of space, the crew of the U.S.S. "Enterprise (TM) " is shocked to discover a group of human slaves on a forbidding, glacial world. When the slaves revolt against their human overseers, Captain Picard, and his crew sympathize with the slaves’ plight but cannot interfere in the conflict. After the revolt is a success, Captain Picard learns that both the slaves and the overseers were controlled by a mysterious bird-like race called the Tseetsk, who are coming to reclaim their property. With the time running out, the rebels kidnap Captain Picard and Counsellor Troi -- drawing the U.S.S. "Enterprise" into the middle of their deadly plan of vengeance. ( AS THE AWAY TEAM winked into existence on the planet’s surface, the luxuriant undergrowth stirred, riffled by a gentle breeze. Commander William Riker saw the leaves shiver in the gust, but he couldn’t feel it through his atmosphere suit. He glanced around. There was no sign of animal life in the pristine landscape. “No bugs,” he muttered. “Paradise for picnickers.” A laugh crackled in his ear. Riker turned and gestured impatiently at the other members of the team. “Let’s get on with the readings and samples.” He shifted uncomfortably in the suit. “Move, people, unless you want to spend your entire time planetside in these blasted things.” The young crew members burst into a flurry of activity, none of them eager to appear slow in front of their commander.
    [Show full text]
  • Dark Canadee
    Dark Canadee The Third Voyage Previously on DARK CANADEE. ‘It’s from my mother, it’s our paper shipment…’ ‘writhing of its own accord, fire at its edges, so bright I look away – what am I looking at?’ ‘You of all people? She’s sent us the White Space…’ ‘ I had a message for Max…’ ‘Three women!... some kind of cart, or wagon… I remember the colour blue…’ ‘The lovely snow falls all around them…’ ‘This is suspicious to the Land boys…’ ‘RAID!!! Got any White Stuff, ladies?’ ‘There are two wide eyes at the little window…’ ‘Can we help you?’ ‘I think she wanted to come in…‘ ‘the old abandoned library looms aslant in the darkness…’ ‘who are they?’ ‘well one of them’s Romanian… au un foc minumat… it means they have a lovely fire…’ ‘McCloud’s boat, the sides stoved in, the precious box with the lid torn off and hanging…’ ‘They took it all, I don’t know who they were…’ Upon the Thirtieth Day of March… They call it Dark Canadee. Not because it’s dark, it isn’t, the famous port is a great red blaze upon the night, its colours ripple and play in the black water and you can see the glow of the marketplace from miles out to sea, you can imagine anything happening there. They call it Dark because it’s free, in that it’s lawless and unclaimed, does not belong to any realm, neither ministers nor monarchs, no one quite knows why. It just – escaped attention and long may it do so.
    [Show full text]
  • A Collection of Multiple Copies of Fiction and Non-Fiction Titles, Available for Reading Groups to Borrow
    A collection of multiple copies of fiction and non-fiction titles, available for reading groups to borrow. About the collection EDLC Libraries hold a dedicated Reading Group Collection of multiple copies of over 250 fiction and non-fiction titles for use by reading groups. These can be borrowed by both library and private reading groups. This is an interactive document. If you are viewing this document online, you can request items by clicking on the desired title. You will then be directed to our 24/7 online catalogue, where you can view the number of copies available, log in and request titles for your group. Titles can also be requested by contacting your local library. If you are in a reading group and would like a book that is not in the Reading Group Collection, get in touch as we can often locate multiple copies of titles across our eight library branches. Suggest additions to the collection by emailing [email protected] Once your group has discussed a book, why not write a review for our website? Aboulela, Leila 12 copies The kindness of enemies Natasha Wilson knows how difficult it is to fit in. Born to a Russian mother and a Muslim father, she feels adrift in Scotland and longs for a place which really feels like home. Then she meets Oz, a charismatic and passionate student at the university where Natasha teaches. As their bond deepens, stories from Natasha's research come to life - tales of forbidden love and intrigue in the court of the Tsar. But when Oz is suspected of radicalism, Natasha's own work and background suddenly come under the spotlight.
    [Show full text]
  • The Jesus College Record 2014
    RECORD 2014 CONTENTS FROM THE EDITOR . 3 THE PRINCIPAL’s REPORT . 5 FROM THE PRINCIPAL-ELECT PROFESSOR SIR NIGEL SHADBOLT . 13 FELLOWS & COLLEGE LECTURERS . 16 NON-ACADEMIC STAFF . 21 FELLOWs’ NEWS . 24 THE DON FOWLER MEMORIAL LECTURE 2015 . 32 WILLIAM BOYD: GOING SOLO . 34 THE URBANE FOX: A FABLE FROM PHAEDRUS . 38 TRAVEL AWARDS REPORTS . 40 TRAVEL AWARDS . 49 WATERCOLOUR BY PAUL SHREDER . 51 LIKE A DIAMOND IN THE SKY . 52 A MEMOIR OF PUNTING DAYS . 56 A BOOK FOR EACH MONTH . 60 GEOFFREY TYNDALE YOUNG 1915-2014 . 62 200 YEARS OF JESUS COLLEGE BOAT CLUB ROWING . 68 FAIR WEATHER WITH A CHANCE OF FISH . 74 OPERATION JESUS DUCKLINGS . 78 REMEMBERING FREDDIE PAGE . 80 COLLEGE PEOPLE: THE ACADEMIC OFFICE . 84 A YEAR IN THE JCR . 88 A YEAR IN THE MCR . 89 A YEAR IN DEVELOPMENT . 90 A YEAR IN CHAPEL . 94 SPORTS REPORTS . 96 PRIZES, AwARDS, DOCTORATES & ELECTIONS . 104 OLD Members’ OBITUARIES . 111 SELECT PUBLICATIONS . 120 HONOURS, AwARDS & QUALIFICATIONS . 128 APPOINTMENTS, MARRIAGES, BIRTHS, IN MEMORIAM . 131 USEFUL INFORMATION . 144 MERCHANDISE . 150 1 2 FROM THE EDITOR DR ARMAND D’ANGOUR When I recently spoke at another university about the fascinating results of my research (supported by both the British Academy and the College) into ancient Greek music, a friend said to me ‘You should appreciate how lucky you are. At Jesus you have the opportunity to increase knowledge and enrich your pupils’ education, whereas all my colleagues seem to talk about nowadays is money. Students are increasingly just seen as a source of fees, research is relegated in favour of research funding, and everyone worries about the next round of job cuts.’ Her comments made me ponder the word ‘appreciate’, whose different connotations don’t relate obviously to one another.
    [Show full text]
  • Sample Spreads
    Book Club Bible CORRECTED:Layout 1 1/6/12 11:11 Page 3 Contents Foreword 7 Editors’ Notes 8 Introduction: A Book Lover Speaks 9 Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe 10 Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie 12 Brick Lane by Monica Ali 14 I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou 16 Behind the Scenes at the Museum by Kate Atkinson 18 The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood 20 The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks 22 The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes 24 Light a Penny Candle by Maeve Binchy 26 Lorna Doone by R. D. Blackmore 28 Any Human Heart by William Boyd 30 The Thirty-Nine Steps by John Buchan 32 A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess 34 Top Ten British and American Classics 36 Top Ten World Classics 37 Oscar and Lucinda by Peter Carey 38 Wise Children by Angela Carter 40 2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke 42 Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke 44 What a Carve Up! by Jonathan Coe 46 The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho 48 The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins 50 Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad 52 The Passage by Justin Cronin 54 [3] Book Club Bible CORRECTED:Layout 1 1/6/12 11:11 Page 4 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin by Louis de Bernières 56 The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai 58 Room by Emma Donoghue 60 House of Sand and Fog by Andre Dubus III 62 Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier 64 A Spell of Winter by Helen Dunmore 66 Top Ten Quick Reads 68 Top Ten Challenging Reads 69 Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides 70 As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner 72 Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks 74 The Great Gatsby by F.
    [Show full text]
  • Any Human Heart Free
    FREE ANY HUMAN HEART PDF William Boyd | 512 pages | 06 Jan 2004 | Random House USA Inc | 9781400031009 | English | New York, United States Heart of the matter | William Boyd | The Guardian Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read. Want to Read saving…. Want to Read Currently Reading Read. Other editions. Enlarge cover. Error rating book. Refresh Any Human Heart try again. Open Preview See a Problem? Details if other :. Thanks for telling us about the problem. Any Human Heart to Book Page. Any Human Heart by William Boyd. Logan Gonzago Mountstuart, writer, was born inand died of Any Human Heart heart attack on October 5,aged William Boyd's novel Any Human Heart is his disjointed autobiography, a massive tome chronicling "my personal rollercoaster"--or rather, "not so much a rollercoaster", but a yo-yo, "a jerking spinning toy in the hands of a maladroit child. Early and easy success is succeeded by a long half-century of mediocrity, disappointments and setbacks, both personal and professional, leading him to multiple failed marriages, internment, alcoholism, and abject poverty. Mountstuart's sorry tale is also the story of a British way Any Human Heart life in inexorable decline, as his journey takes in the Bloomsbury set, the General Strike, the Spanish Civil War, s Americans in Paris, wartime espionage, New York avant garde art, even the Baader-Meinhof gang--all with a stellar supporting cast. The most sustained and best moment comes mid-book, as Mountstuart gets caught up in one of Britain's murkier wartime secrets, in the company of the here truly despicable Duke and Duchess of Windsor.
    [Show full text]
  • Consciousness and Moral Status
    Consciousness and Moral Status It seems obvious that phenomenally conscious experience is something of great value, and that this value maps onto a range of important ethical issues. For example, claims about the value of life for those in Permanent Vegetative State (PVS); debates about treatment and study of disorders of consciousness; controversies about end-of-life care for those with advanced dementia; and arguments about the moral status of embryos, fetuses, and non-human animals arguably turn on the moral significance of various facts about consciousness. However, though work has been done on the moral significance of elements of consciousness, such as pain and pleasure, little explicit attention has been devoted to the ethical significance of consciousness. In this book Joshua Shepherd presents a systematic account of the value present within conscious experience. This account emphasizes not only the nature of consciousness, but also the importance of items within experience such as affect, valence, and the complex overall shape of particular valuable experiences. Shepherd also relates this account to difficult cases involving non-humans and humans with disorders of consciousness, arguing that the value of consciousness influences and partially explains the degree of moral status a being possesses, without fully determining it. The upshot is a deeper understanding of both the moral importance of phenomenal consciousness and its relations to moral status. This book will be of great interest to philosophers and students of ethics, bioethics, philosophy of psychology, philosophy of mind, and cognitive science. Joshua Shepherd is Assistant Professor in the Philosophy Department at Carleton University, Canada, and Research Professor at the University of Barcelona, Spain.
    [Show full text]