The Hidden Library

The Hidden Library
Author: Heather Lyons
Publisher:
Total Pages: 284
Release: 2015-02-17
Genre: Secret societies
ISBN: 9780990843634

Sometimes, the rabbit hole is deeper than expected . . . Alice Reeve and Finn Van Brunt have tumbled into a life of secrets. Some secrets they share, such as their employment by the clandestine organization known as The Collectors' Society. Other secrets they carry within them, fighting to keep buried the things that could change everything they think they know. On the hunt for an elusive villain who is hell-bent on destroying legacies, Alice, Finn, and the rest of the Society are desperate to unravel the mysteries surrounding them. But the farther they spiral down this rabbit hole, the deeper they fall into secrets that will test their loyalties and pit them against enemies both new and old. Secrets, they come to find, can reveal the deadliest of truths.

The Hidden Library of Tanith Lee

The Hidden Library of Tanith Lee
Author: Mavis Haut
Publisher: McFarland
Total Pages: 225
Release: 2015-11-12
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 0786483687

Despite the great diversity of settings in Tanith Lee's novels--from the pre-historic origins of Christianity to robot-dominated futurescapes--certain underlying thoughts and references appear consistently. While adhering formally to many of the writing conventions of the fantasy, science fiction and horror genres, Lee also engages the meaning of myths of the Greeks (particularly Dionysos), Egyptians, Persians and Indians. The dynamics of magic, alchemy, shamanism, Gnosticism and reincarnation also surface frequently. This critical work examines Lee's highly original applications of such themes and subtexts. Less prominent themes are also covered, as well as her insights into human nature, her humor, her numerous tributes to literature, her comments on writing, her games with space, time and language, and her preoccupation with detail and background. Also included is an interview with Tanith Lee, a bibliography of Lee's work, a general bibliography, and an index.

Syria's Secret Library

Syria's Secret Library
Author: Mike Thomson
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Total Pages: 274
Release: 2019-08-20
Genre: History
ISBN: 1541767616

The remarkable story of a small, makeshift library in the town of Daraya, and the people who found hope and humanity in its books during a four-year siege. Daraya lies on the fringe of Damascus, just southwest of the Syrian capital. Yet for four years it lived in another world. Besieged by government forces early in the Syrian Civil War, its people were deprived of food, bombarded by heavy artillery, and under the constant fire of snipers. But deep beneath this scene of frightening devastation lay a hidden library. While the streets above echoed with shelling and rifle fire, the secret world below was a haven of books. Long rows of well-thumbed volumes lined almost every wall: bloated editions with grand leather covers, pocket-sized guides to Syrian poetry, and no-nonsense reference books, all arranged in well-ordered lines. But this precious horde was not bought from publishers or loaned by other libraries--they were the books salvaged and scavenged at great personal risk from the doomed city above. The story of this extraordinary place and the people who found purpose and refuge in it is one of hope, human resilience, and above all, the timeless, universal love of literature and the compassion and wisdom it fosters.

The Great Mental Models, Volume 1

The Great Mental Models, Volume 1
Author: Shane Parrish
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 209
Release: 2024-10-15
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0593719972

Discover the essential thinking tools you’ve been missing with The Great Mental Models series by Shane Parrish, New York Times bestselling author and the mind behind the acclaimed Farnam Street blog and “The Knowledge Project” podcast. This first book in the series is your guide to learning the crucial thinking tools nobody ever taught you. Time and time again, great thinkers such as Charlie Munger and Warren Buffett have credited their success to mental models–representations of how something works that can scale onto other fields. Mastering a small number of mental models enables you to rapidly grasp new information, identify patterns others miss, and avoid the common mistakes that hold people back. The Great Mental Models: Volume 1, General Thinking Concepts shows you how making a few tiny changes in the way you think can deliver big results. Drawing on examples from history, business, art, and science, this book details nine of the most versatile, all-purpose mental models you can use right away to improve your decision making and productivity. This book will teach you how to: Avoid blind spots when looking at problems. Find non-obvious solutions. Anticipate and achieve desired outcomes. Play to your strengths, avoid your weaknesses, … and more. The Great Mental Models series demystifies once elusive concepts and illuminates rich knowledge that traditional education overlooks. This series is the most comprehensive and accessible guide on using mental models to better understand our world, solve problems, and gain an advantage.

Unusual Sounds

Unusual Sounds
Author: David Hollander
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2018
Genre: Music
ISBN: 9781944860127

Unusual Sounds is a deep dive into the hidden musical universe of Library Music, featuring histories, interviews, and extraordinary visuals from the field's most celebrated creators.

The Library Book

The Library Book
Author: Susan Orlean
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Total Pages: 336
Release: 2019-10-01
Genre: History
ISBN: 1476740194

Susan Orlean’s bestseller and New York Times Notable Book is “a sheer delight…as rich in insight and as varied as the treasures contained on the shelves in any local library” (USA TODAY)—a dazzling love letter to a beloved institution and an investigation into one of its greatest mysteries. “Everybody who loves books should check out The Library Book” (The Washington Post). On the morning of April 28, 1986, a fire alarm sounded in the Los Angeles Public Library. The fire was disastrous: it reached two thousand degrees and burned for more than seven hours. By the time it was extinguished, it had consumed four hundred thousand books and damaged seven hundred thousand more. Investigators descended on the scene, but more than thirty years later, the mystery remains: Did someone purposefully set fire to the library—and if so, who? Weaving her lifelong love of books and reading into an investigation of the fire, award-winning New Yorker reporter and New York Times bestselling author Susan Orlean delivers a “delightful…reflection on the past, present, and future of libraries in America” (New York magazine) that manages to tell the broader story of libraries and librarians in a way that has never been done before. In the “exquisitely written, consistently entertaining” (The New York Times) The Library Book, Orlean chronicles the LAPL fire and its aftermath to showcase the larger, crucial role that libraries play in our lives; delves into the evolution of libraries; brings each department of the library to vivid life; studies arson and attempts to burn a copy of a book herself; and reexamines the case of Harry Peak, the blond-haired actor long suspected of setting fire to the LAPL more than thirty years ago. “A book lover’s dream…an ambitiously researched, elegantly written book that serves as a portal into a place of history, drama, culture, and stories” (Star Tribune, Minneapolis), Susan Orlean’s thrilling journey through the stacks reveals how these beloved institutions provide much more than just books—and why they remain an essential part of the heart, mind, and soul of our country.

Hidden Treasure

Hidden Treasure
Author: Michael Sappol
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2012
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9780922233427

"This spectacular illustrated book showcases rare, beautiful, idiosyncratic, and sometimes surprising works in the National Library of Medicine, the world's largest medical library. From thirteenth-century manuscripts to extravagant anatomical atlases to silent movies, pamphlets, magic lantern slides, stereograph cards, and much, much more, each item featured is a remarkable hidden treasure."--Jacket.

The Hidden History of South Africa's Book and Reading Cultures

The Hidden History of South Africa's Book and Reading Cultures
Author: Archie L. Dick
Publisher: University of Toronto Press
Total Pages: 217
Release: 2013-06-17
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 1442695080

The Hidden History of South Africa's Book and Reading Cultures shows how the common practice of reading can illuminate the social and political history of a culture. This ground-breaking study reveals resistance strategies in the reading and writing practices of South Africans; strategies that have been hidden until now for political reasons relating to the country's liberation struggles. By looking to records from a slave lodge, women's associations, army education units, universities, courts, libraries, prison departments, and political groups, Archie Dick exposes the key works of fiction and non-fiction, magazines, and newspapers that were read and discussed by political activists and prisoners. Uncovering the book and library schemes that elites used to regulate reading, Dick exposes incidences of intellectual fraud, book theft, censorship, and book burning. Through this innovative methodology, Dick aptly shows how South African readers used reading and books to resist unjust regimes and build community across South Africa's class and racial barriers.

The Invisible Library

The Invisible Library
Author: Genevieve Cogman
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 352
Release: 2016-06-14
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1101988657

Collecting books can be a dangerous prospect in this fun, time-traveling, fantasy adventure—the first in the Invisible Library series! One thing any Librarian will tell you: the truth is much stranger than fiction... Irene is a professional spy for the mysterious Library, a shadowy organization that collects important works of fiction from all of the different realities. Most recently, she and her enigmatic assistant Kai have been sent to an alternative London. Their mission: Retrieve a particularly dangerous book. The problem: By the time they arrive, it's already been stolen. London's underground factions are prepared to fight to the death to find the tome before Irene and Kai do, a problem compounded by the fact that this world is chaos-infested—the laws of nature bent to allow supernatural creatures and unpredictable magic to run rampant. To make matters worse, Kai is hiding something—secrets that could be just as volatile as the chaos-filled world itself. Now Irene is caught in a puzzling web of deadly danger, conflicting clues, and sinister secret societies. And failure is not an option—because it isn’t just Irene’s reputation at stake, it’s the nature of reality itself... FEATURING BONUS MATERIAL: including an interview with the author, a legend from the Library, and more!

American Philosophy

American Philosophy
Author: John Kaag
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Total Pages: 273
Release: 2016-10-11
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0374713111

The epic wisdom contained in a lost library helps the author turn his life around John Kaag is a dispirited young philosopher at sea in his marriage and his career when he stumbles upon West Wind, a ruin of an estate in the hinterlands of New Hampshire that belonged to the eminent Harvard philosopher William Ernest Hocking. Hocking was one of the last true giants of American philosophy and a direct intellectual descendent of William James, the father of American philosophy and psychology, with whom Kaag feels a deep kinship. It is James’s question “Is life worth living?” that guides this remarkable book. The books Kaag discovers in the Hocking library are crawling with insects and full of mold. But he resolves to restore them, as he immediately recognizes their importance. Not only does the library at West Wind contain handwritten notes from Whitman and inscriptions from Frost, but there are startlingly rare first editions of Hobbes, Descartes, and Kant. As Kaag begins to catalog and read through these priceless volumes, he embarks on a thrilling journey that leads him to the life-affirming tenets of American philosophy—self-reliance, pragmatism, and transcendence—and to a brilliant young Kantian who joins him in the restoration of the Hocking books. Part intellectual history, part memoir, American Philosophy is ultimately about love, freedom, and the role that wisdom can play in turning one’s life around.