Atomic Beauty

Atomic Beauty
Author: Barb Han
Publisher: Harlequin
Total Pages: 105
Release: 2015-02-02
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1460380231

"You wouldn't call me angel if you really knew me," Erika said. Erika Nile knows her devastating beauty always leaves men begging for more, but her lust for Jace Mitchell is raw and powerful. And although she's just obeying orders when she cozies up to the rogue agent, giving in to temptation is the worst possible idea. Still, how can she ignore what her body craves: to be with Jace, no matter the cost. And that cost will be high. Because there's a lot more to this case than anyone is telling her—including Jace. Trust and feelings have no place in her work, or in her life. And yet there's no denying Jace is a distraction. They're perfectly matched as adversaries—and as lovers—and if this mission goes wrong, it could be Erika's undoing. Especially once the kill order comes in and it's clear only one of them will get out alive…

Atomic Tunes

Atomic Tunes
Author: Tim Smolko
Publisher: Indiana University Press
Total Pages: 211
Release: 2021-05-11
Genre: Music
ISBN: 0253056187

What is the soundtrack for a nuclear war? During the Cold War, over 500 songs were written about nuclear weapons, fear of the Soviet Union, civil defense, bomb shelters, McCarthyism, uranium mining, the space race, espionage, the Berlin Wall, and glasnost. This music uncovers aspects of these world-changing events that documentaries and history books cannot. In Atomic Tunes, Tim and Joanna Smolko explore everything from the serious to the comical, the morbid to the crude, showing the widespread concern among musicians coping with the effect of communism on American society and the threat of a nuclear conflict of global proportions. Atomic Tunes presents a musical history of the Cold War, analyzing the songs that capture the fear of those who lived under the shadow of Stalin, Sputnik, mushroom clouds, and missiles.

Chain Reactions

Chain Reactions
Author: Lucy Jane Santos
Publisher: Icon Books
Total Pages: 304
Release: 2024-07-04
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1837731551

Tracing uranium's past, and how it intersects with our understanding of other radioactive elements, this book aims to disentangle our attitudes and to unpick the atomic mindset. Chain Reactions looks at the fascinating, often-forgotten, stories that can be found throughout the history of the element. Ranging from glassworks to penny stocks; medicines to weapons; something to be feared to a powerful source of energy, this global history not only explores the development of our scientific understanding of uranium, but also shines a light on its cultural and social impact. By understanding our nuclear past, we can move beyond the ideological opposition to atomic technology and encourage a more nuanced dialogue about whether it is feasible - and desirable - to have a genuinely nuclear-powered future.

The Girls of Atomic City

The Girls of Atomic City
Author: Denise Kiernan
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 416
Release: 2014-03-11
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1451617534

Looks at the contributions of the thousands of women who worked at a secret uranium-enriching facility in Oak Ridge, Tennessee during World War II.

Epigenetics in the Age of Twitter

Epigenetics in the Age of Twitter
Author: Gerald Weissmann
Publisher: Bellevue Literary Press
Total Pages: 300
Release: 2012-03-06
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1934137510

"America's most interesting and important essayist." —Eric Kandel, Nobel Prize–winning author of The Age of Insight "[Gerald Weissmann] bridges the space between science and the humanities, and particularly between medicine and the muses, with wit, erudition, and, most important, wisdom." —Adam Gopnik Epigenetics, which attempts to explain how our genes respond to our environment, is the latest twist on the historic nature vs. nurture debate. In addressing this and other controversies in contemporary science, Gerald Weissmann taps what he calls "the social network of Western Civilization," including the many neglected women of science: from the martyred Hypatia of Alexandria, the first woman scientist, to the Nobel laureates Marie Curie, Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard, and Elizabeth Blackburn, among other luminaries in the field. Always instructive and often hilarious, this is a one-volume introduction to modern biology, viewed through the lens of contemporary mass media and the longer historical tradition of the Scientific Revolution. Whether engaging in the healthcare debate or imagining the future prose styling of the scientific research paper in the age of Twitter, Weissmann proves himself as an incisive cultural critic and satirist. Gerald Weissmann (August 7, 1930 – July 10, 2019) was a physician, scientist, editor, and essayist whose collections include The Fevers of Reason: New and Selected Essays; Epigenetics in the Age of Twitter: Pop Culture and Modern Science; Mortal and Immortal DNA: Science and the Lure of Myth; and Galileo’s Gout: Science in an Age of Endarkenment.

Welcome to Shirley

Welcome to Shirley
Author: Kelly McMasters
Publisher: Public Affairs
Total Pages: 330
Release: 2008-01-11
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1586486535

Shirley seemed to be doomed from the beginning. Founded by a Vaudevillian huckster who touted it as a seaside haven despite the sand bar that blocks access to the shore, the town has been plagued by one disaster after another—a UFO, a childhood cancer cluster, and a mysterious federal nuclear laboratory in nearby Brookhaven that leaked toxic nuclear and chemical waste into the aquifer from which the residents unknowingly drew their well water. This is Kelly McMasters' account of growing up in a cursed town and loving it anyway, and of a girl's awakening to tragedy and to a sense of mission. Told in a deliciously engaging voice, Welcome to Shirley balances the bitter with the sweet, the funny with the infuriating, in an unforgettable story of working class Long Island.

Two Minutes to Midnight

Two Minutes to Midnight
Author: Roger Hermiston
Publisher: Biteback Publishing
Total Pages: 348
Release: 2022-02-22
Genre: History
ISBN: 1785906550

A SPECTATOR BOOK OF THE YEAR – 'a dark remembrance of 1953, when nuclear annihilation was only the press of a button away'. January 1953. Eight years on from the most destructive conflict in human history, the Cold War enters its deadliest phase. An Iron Curtain has descended across Europe, and hostilities have turned hot on the Korean peninsula as the United States and Soviet Union clash in an intractable and bloody proxy war. Former wartime allies have grown far apart. An ageing Winston Churchill, back in Downing Street, yearns for peace with the Kremlin – but new American President Dwight Eisenhower cautions the West not to drop its guard. Joseph Stalin, implacable as ever, conducts vicious campaigns against imaginary internal enemies. Meanwhile, the pace of the nuclear arms race has become frenetic. The Soviet Union has finally tested its own atom bomb, as has Britain. But in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, the United States has detonated its first thermonuclear device, dwarfing the destruction unleashed on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. For the first time, the Doomsday Clock is set at two minutes to midnight, with the risk of a man-made global apocalypse increasingly likely. As the Cold War powers square up, every city has become a potential battleground and every citizen a target. 1953 is set to be a year of living dangerously.

Staging Process

Staging Process
Author: Rachel Anderson-Rabern
Publisher: Northwestern University Press
Total Pages: 206
Release: 2020-02-15
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 0810141477

Staging Process examines contemporary collective creation practices, with particular focus on the work of four third wave American performance ensembles: Goat Island, Elevator Repair Service, Nature Theater of Oklahoma, and the TEAM. The book examines ways in which these groups create blueprints for developing collaborative performance, entwining methodology with emerging performance aesthetics. Rachel Anderson-Rabern explores the ideas of boredom and quotidian employment that permeate particular performance projects. Using Henri Lefebvre’s concepts of work roles within everyday philosophy, she demonstrates that collective creation gives rise to new economies of performance. The book also presents theories of the political stakes of danced gestural forms in performance, informed by Giorgio Agamben’s writings on gesture, and elaborates the ways in which these ensembles make use of durational performance to posit ethical frameworks: ways of living in the world. Conversing with the ideas of Paul Virilio and Guy Debord among others, Anderson- Rabern claims that these groups posit new models of aesthetic politics through careful, speed-based investigations of construction and destruction that unearth the powerful potential of contemporary collaborative methods to be at once aesthetically minded, ethically driven, and politically engaged.

The Sound of a Thousand Stars

The Sound of a Thousand Stars
Author: Rachel Robbins
Publisher: Crooked Lane Books
Total Pages: 286
Release: 2024-10-08
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1639108971

Oppenheimer meets Hidden Figures in this sweeping historical debut where two Jewish physicists form an inseverable bond amidst fear and uncertainty. Sure to captivate readers of Kate Quinn and Bonnie Garmus, The Sound of a Thousand Stars eerily mirrors modern-day questions of wartime ethics and explores what it means to survive—at any cost. Alice Katz is a young Jewish physicist, one of the only female doctoral students at her university, studying with the famed Dr. Oppenheimer. Her well-to-do family wants her to marry a man of her class and settle down. Instead, Alice answers her country’s call to come to an unnamed city in the desert to work on a government project shrouded in secrecy. At Los Alamos, Alice meets Caleb Blum, a poor Orthodox Jew who has been assigned to the explosives division. Around them are other young scientists and engineers who have quietly left their university posts to come live in the desert. No one seems to know exactly what they are working on—what they do know is that it is a race and that they must beat the Nazis in developing an unspeakable weapon. In this atmosphere of fear and uncertainty, and despite their many differences, Alice and Caleb find themselves drawn to one another. Inspired by the author’s grandparents and sure to appeal to fans of Good Night, Irene, The Sound of a Thousand Stars is a propulsive novel about love in desperate times, the consequences of our decisions, and the roles we play in history.

American History: Concrete Jungle To Neon Oasis

American History: Concrete Jungle To Neon Oasis
Author: A.J.Kingston
Publisher: A.J.Kingston
Total Pages: 409
Release: 2023
Genre: History
ISBN: 1839383054

Discover the history of America's most iconic cities with "American History: Concrete Jungle To Neon Oasis," a four-in-one book bundle featuring in-depth explorations of New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Las Vegas. In "Empire City: The History Of New York City," readers will delve into the fascinating story of the city that never sleeps, from its origins as a Dutch trading post to the bustling metropolis of today. Explore the birth of Wall Street, the immigrant experience, and the rise of iconic landmarks such as the Empire State Building and the Statue of Liberty. "City Of Angels: The History Of Los Angeles" takes readers on a journey through the glamour and grit of the City of Dreams. From the golden age of Hollywood to the Watts riots and beyond, this book examines the forces that have shaped one of America's most iconic cities. "City On The Make: The Evolution Of Chicago" tells the story of the Windy City, from its humble beginnings as a fur trading post to its status as a global economic powerhouse. Discover the rise of Al Capone and the influence of architects such as Frank Lloyd Wright on this city that has always been defined by its ambition and drive. Finally, "The Neon Oasis: The History Of Las Vegas" explores the glitz and glamour of Sin City. From the mobsters who built the first casinos to the rise of mega-resorts such as the Bellagio and the Mirage, this book is a must-read for anyone who wants to understand the city that has become synonymous with excess and entertainment. With "American History: Concrete Jungle To Neon Oasis," readers will gain a deeper understanding of the forces that have shaped some of America's most iconic cities. Whether you're a history buff, a fan of these cities, or just looking for a great read, this book bundle is sure to satisfy.