Showing results by author "Os Swift" in All Categories

Never Eat Alone (first published in 2005, and updated in 2014) by Keith Ferrazzi and Tahl Raz is a how-to guide to networking. Networking is frequently cast as selfish or shallow....

The Brain That Changes Itself: Stories of Personal Triumph from the Frontiers of Brain Science (2007) by psychiatrist Norman Doidge explores breakthroughs in neuroscience regarding plasticity, or the brain’s ability to change. Doidge shares inspiring stories of the work done by what he calls “neuroplasticians” - neuroscientists who are pioneering new methods for optimizing brain function....

Swift's allegorical satire about religion and politics follows the lives of three brothers, Martin, Peter, and Jack, each of who represents a faction of the Christian faith - Anglicanism, Roman Catholicism, and the dissenting faiths, respectively. Each brother inherits a coat (representing religious practice) from their father (God) on the condition that they do not change it. But instead the three quarrelsome youths disobey their father and change their coats beyond recognition.

In The Laws of Human Nature (2018), best-selling author Robert Greene dissects the elaborate lies that people tell themselves. Purchase this in-depth summary to learn more.

The Definitive Book of Body Language (2004) by body language experts Allan and Barbara Pease is a comprehensive guide to non-verbal communication. An expanded version of Allen Pease’s Body Language (1981), The Definitive Book of Body Language outlines the basics of body language, including expressions, gestures, and physical movements. (Disclaimer: This is NOT the original book. If you’re looking for the original book, it is available from Amazon.)

In 1725, Jonathan Swift published Gulliver's Travels, a book universally acknowledged as one of the most fantastic adventure stories and best satires on the human condition ever written.

A wild land too mountainous to be tamed by plows…A Duke of the Holy Roman Empire, his cunning overshadowed only by his ambition…A young Priestess of the Old Religion, together with a charismatic outlaw, sparking a rebellion from deep within the forests…And an ex-Hospitaller caught between them all. At the end of the thirteenth century, five hundred orphans and second sons are rounded up from villages in the Alpine countryside and sold to the Hospitaller Knights of St John. Trained to serve as Soldiers of Christ, they fight in eastern lands they know nothing about, for a cause they do not understand.

The Good Gut: The Good Gut: Taking Control of Your Weight, Your Mood, and Your Long-Term Health (2015) by Justin Sonnenburg and Erica Sonnenburg explores the fascinating machinations of the human gut. Also known as the microbiome, the gut is teeming with live bacteria that help make or break one’s physical and mental health.

New Amerland was designed and built by survivors of the Incident. Those were the people who, by some miracle, managed to get underground before the bombs fell; they managed to lock away themselves and their families and to survive the worst nuclear attack in history. A lucky few would be selected by lottery and handed a ticket for free. At least 50 percent failed the test and were fated to die on their desolate and degraded planet.

To Kill a Mockingbird (1960), by Harper Lee, is a coming-of-age novel that traces young Scout Finch’s growing awareness of racism in her hometown of Maycomb, Alabama. Watching her father, a lawyer, represent a Black man who has been falsely accused of rape, Scout comes to understand some difficult truths about her neighbors and, by extension, about the world. (Disclaimer: This is NOT the original book. If you’re looking for the original book, it is available from Amazon and Audible.)

Fuzzy and Coco are online again, and they've found the luxury guinea pig hotel of their dreams! But at Furry Towers the squeaky pals find themselves in a smelly old hutch with only soggy lettuce to nibble. And with Nasty Nigel the horrible human in charge, it seems something sinister is going on.... Luckily, they've got help from old friends and new: Heroic Eduardo, Soldier Pat, and Lazy Lulu. Armed with soap bubbles and a tank full of poo, can the guinea pigs save the day again?

Peggy's family has lost its Christmas spirit and Peggy is desperate to help them get it back. The little pug wishes she could turn into a reindeer so she could work some Christmas magic on her family. She tries eating carrots, giving herself antlers and a glowing red nose, but nothing works - and the messes she makes only create more problems at home! Finally, the brave little pug decides that the only solution is to ask Santa for help. But the North Pole is far away, and Peggy gets lost in a snowstorm before she even makes it out of town.

Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst (2017) explains the numerous biological, cultural, and evolutionary factors that shape human behavior. Neurobiologist Robert M. Sapolsky uses studies from various scientific disciplines, including neurology, psychology, sociology, and anthropology, to explore why humans exhibit variable responses to both provocative and mundane situations.... (Disclaimer: This is NOT the original book. If you’re looking for the original book, it is available from Amazon and Audible.)

Alec Guinness delivers beautifully a selection of passages from Gulliver's Travels.

London 1666. Elizabeth 'Bird' Carpenter has a wonderful singing voice, and music is her passion. When her father persuades her to marry horse-dealer Christopher Knepp, she suspects she is marrying beneath her station, but nothing prepares her for the reality of life with Knepp. He is a tyrant and a bully and will allow Bird no life of her own. When Knepp goes away, she makes a secret visit to the theatre. Entranced, she falls in love with the theatre and is determined to forge a path of her own as an actress.

Peggy the pug's family are getting ready for Halloween, but Peggy's friend Chloe is too scared of monsters to look forward to trick-or-treating. Peggy can't let her best friend miss out on all the Halloween fun. She'll just have to conquer her own fears and go trick-or-treating with Chloe, to keep her safe. But first she needs the perfect costume. Peggy's bravery helps Chloe realise that monsters aren't real in this heartwarming Halloween story about overcoming fears and anxiety.

These 25 new stories mark Graham Swift's return to the short form after seven acclaimed novels and confirm him as a master storyteller. They unite into a richly peopled vision of a country that is both a crucible of history and a maze of contemporary confusions.

From the acclaimed New York Times bestselling author of Chesapeake Requiem comes a gripping new work of narrative nonfiction telling the forgotten story of the mass killing of eleven Black farmhands on a Georgia plantation in the spring of 1921—a crime which exposed for the nation the existence of the “peonage system,” a form of legal enslavement established after the Civil War across the American South.

It's Christmas in Strawberry Park and our squeaky pals are decorating the hutch and rocking around their broccoli Christmas tree! But when Henrietta's mother is called to investigate the mystery of missing Inca gold, the furry friends find themselves on their way to... Peru! Eduardo is thrilled to be back home with his family. But when he discovers that their precious Christmas Cocoa Bean has been stolen, he realizes he has a mission too... Can the pals find the Cocoa Bean and save Christmas?

Lemuel Gulliver sets out on a series of travels, but each time he finds himself shipwrecked in new and unfamiliar lands. And how unfamiliar! In Lilliput, everyone is tiny, and it takes thousands of them to capture him; in Brobdingnag, they’re huge and treat him as a sort of living toy; in Laputa, they live on a floating island inventing impossibly mad projects; and the Houyhnhnms are horses! But through all his adventures, Gulliver learns to see humans in a different way, too.