Twisted Strands

Twisted Strands
Author: Margaret Dickinson
Publisher: Pan Macmillan
Total Pages: 420
Release: 2010-11-30
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0330526952

The follow-up to Tangled Threads, Margaret Dickinson's Twisted Strands follows the dramatic highs and lows of the Hardcastle family as they endure the upheaval caused by war. It is 1914, and Eveleen Hardcastle, now in in her early thirties, has married Richard. As the First World War breaks out, Eveleen, a sophisticated young woman, is left to manage the factory while Richard goes off to fight for his country. Eveleen's mother Mary has found happiness at last in her marriage to Josh. Her young granddaughter, Bridie, still lives at home, and is beautiful, but has a spirited, strong will which her grandmother finds hard to control. Bridie is secretly besotted with her godfather, Andrew, whom she is convinced she will marry when she is older. While the war plays out, Bridie becomes a nurse, looking after wounded soldiers billeted in the local Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire stately homes and there finds a vocation that is both rewarding and gives her a maturity beyond her years . . .

Brilliant

Brilliant
Author: Jane Brox
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Total Pages: 382
Release: 2010-06-29
Genre: History
ISBN: 0547487150

This “superb history” of artificial light traces the evolution of society—“invariably fascinating and often original . . . [it] amply lives up to its title” (Publishers Weekly, starred review). In Brilliant, Jane Brox explores humankind’s ever-changing relationship to artificial light, from the stone lamps of the Pleistocene to the LEDs embedded in fabrics of the future. More than a survey of technological development, this sweeping history reveals how artificial light changed our world, and how those social and cultural changes in turn led to the pursuit of more ways of spreading, maintaining, and controlling light. Brox plumbs the class implications of light—who had it, who didn’t—through the centuries when crude lamps and tallow candles constricted waking hours. She identifies the pursuit of whale oil as the first time the need for light thrust us toward an environmental tipping point. Only decades later, gas street lights opened up the evening hours to leisure, which changed the ways we live and sleep and the world’s ecosystems. Edison’s bulbs produced a light that seemed to its users all but divorced from human effort or cost. And yet, as Brox’s informative portrait of our current grid system shows, the cost is ever with us. Brilliant is infused with human voices, startling insights, and timely questions about how our future lives will be shaped by light

Last Night in Twisted River

Last Night in Twisted River
Author: John Irving
Publisher: Random House
Total Pages: 577
Release: 2009-10-27
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1588369005

In 1954, in the cookhouse of a logging and sawmill settlement in northern New Hampshire, an anxious twelve-year-old boy mistakes the local constable’s girlfriend for a bear. Both the twelve-year-old and his father become fugitives, forced to run from Coos County—to Boston, to southern Vermont, to Toronto—pursued by the implacable constable. Their lone protector is a fiercely libertarian logger, once a river driver, who befriends them. In a story spanning five decades, Last Night in Twisted River depicts the recent half-century in the United States as “a living replica of Coos County, where lethal hatreds were generally permitted to run their course.” What further distinguishes Last Night in Twisted River is the author’s unmistakable voice—the inimitable voice of an accomplished storyteller.

Having and Being Had

Having and Being Had
Author: Eula Biss
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 336
Release: 2020-09-01
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0525537473

A NEW YORK TIMES EDITORS’ CHOICE NAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY TIME , NPR, INSTYLE, AND GOOD HOUSEKEEPING “A sensational new book [that] tries to figure out whether it’s possible to live an ethical life in a capitalist society. . . . The results are enthralling.” —Associated Press A timely and arresting new look at affluence by the New York Times bestselling author, “one of the leading lights of the modern American essay.” —Financial Times “My adult life can be divided into two distinct parts,” Eula Biss writes, “the time before I owned a washing machine and the time after.” Having just purchased her first home, the poet and essayist now embarks on a provocative exploration of the value system she has bought into. Through a series of engaging exchanges—in libraries and laundromats, over barstools and backyard fences—she examines our assumptions about class and property and the ways we internalize the demands of capitalism. Described by the New York Times as a writer who “advances from all sides, like a chess player,” Biss offers an uncommonly immersive and deeply revealing new portrait of work and luxury, of accumulation and consumption, of the value of time and how we spend it. Ranging from IKEA to Beyoncé to Pokemon, Biss asks, of both herself and her class, “In what have we invested?”

Guide to Electrical Power Distribution Systems, Sixth Edition

Guide to Electrical Power Distribution Systems, Sixth Edition
Author: Anthony J. Pansini
Publisher: CRC Press
Total Pages: 275
Release: 2020-11-26
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 8770222452

Written by a highly regarded power industry expert, this comprehensive manual covers in full detail all aspects of electric power distribution systems, both as they exist today and as they are evolving toward the future. A new chapter examines the impact of the emergence of cogeneration and distributed generation on the power distribution network. Topics include an overview of the process of electricity transmission and distribution, a thorough discussion of each component of the system - conductor supports, insulators and conductors, line equipment, substations, distribution circuits and more - as well as both overhead and underground construction considerations. Improvements in both materials and methods of power distribution are also explored, including the trend toward gradual replacement of heavier porcelain insulators with lighter polymer ones. The complex aspects of electric power distribution are explained in easy-to-understand, non-technical language.

Glass Reinforced Plastics

Glass Reinforced Plastics
Author: Brian Parkyn
Publisher: Elsevier
Total Pages: 315
Release: 2013-10-22
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 148310298X

Glass Reinforced Plastics discusses several areas in the production of glass reinforced plastics. The 20 chapters of the book are organized into four parts — introduction, end uses, materials, and engineering design. The first part covers the historical background of glass reinforced plastics. Part II talks about the various application of glass reinforced plastics, such as in constructions, boat hulls, and chemical plants. Part III covers the materials, which include resin systems, reinforcement, and specifications. Part IV deals with the engineering design concerns, such as nature of composites, weathering, and fatigue. The text will be of great use to researchers and practitioners in the field of materials science.

The Needlepoint Book

The Needlepoint Book
Author: Jo Ippolito Christensen
Publisher: Touchstone
Total Pages: 560
Release: 2017-10-10
Genre: Crafts & Hobbies
ISBN: 1476754098

Now in paperback, The Needlepoint Book is the only needlework guide you’ll ever need—now including 436 stitches and 1,680 illustrations. Since its original publication in 1976, The Needlepoint Book has become known as the bible for all stitching enthusiasts—the one resource for every needlepoint aficionado. Whether you’re new to the craft or have been practicing for years, this guide covers your sewing journey from inspiration to achievement with specific guidelines on how to make the painted canvas yours. Featuring all-new projects and stitch patterns for every level of expertise, you will learn practical skills, such as how to: -Choose your project with purpose -Tell its story with stitches and fibers -Create mood with color and texture -Fill that blank background -Select and use embellishments such as beads and sequins Included in this revised and expanded edition is a crash course on how to use new fibers; updated information on materials, as well as how to work with and care for them; dozens of new stitches; and diagrams and stitch guides for select projects included in the book. Also featured are thirty-two pages of color photographs with all-new projects; dozens of new stitches explained with photos and drawings; and a new ribbon stitch chapter. The Needlepoint Book is the one book to own on the topic. In one comprehensive volume, it has everything you'll need to create your own artistic, high-quality heirloom.