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Dirtbag : essays / by Frost, Amber A'Lee,author.;
Includes bibliographical references."The complete story of the victories and failures of millennial socialism, as told by the writer who witnessed it all firsthand. Amber A'Lee Frost came to New York City as a working class activist in a punk band, arriving just before the start of Occupy Wall Street -- the first major event in decades for a socialist movement that was nearly extinct at the turn of the century. She's been at the vanguard of radical politics ever since, as a writer, veteran member of the Democratic Socialists of America, and cohost of the wildly popular Chapo Trap House podcast. She has reported on millennial activism everywhere from the sunny streets of Havana, to the Labour Party's unexpected victory in the UK, to small towns in her home state of Indiana. Dirtbag is a much-anticipated debut from one of the greatest emerging writers in modern socialism. This memoir is more than Frost's story; it is also the story of the only movement that has a chance to reshape our world. Both are chock-full of momentary triumphs, stupid decisions, new international friendships and rivalries, struggle, joy, setbacks, and heartbreak. Both are related with magnetic prose, remarkable candor, and unflappable humor. Throughout it all, Frost burned the candle at both ends. She kissed a man in the rain at a train stop after he sang her "The Internationale," and gave herself hangovers that left her begging for death. But all of the late nights, heated debates, and joyous camaraderie was set against the unmistakable sense that somehow, socialism was winning"--
Subjects: Biographies.; Essays.; Personal narratives.; Frost, Amber A'Lee.; Socialism; Socialists; Young adults;

The spinning magnet : the force that created the modern world and could destroy it / by Mitchell, Alanna,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."The magnetic North Pole will eventually trade places with the South Pole. Satellite evidence suggests to some scientists that the move has already begun, but most still think it won't happen for many decades. All agree that it has happened many times before and will happen again. But this time it will be different. It will be a very bad day for modern civilization. Award-winning science journalist Alanna Mitchell tells in The Spinning Magnet the fascinating history of one of the four fundamental physical forces in the universe, electro-magnetism. From investigations into magnetism in 13th century feudal France and the realization six hundred years later in the Victorian era that electricity and magnetism were essentially the same, to the discovery that the earth was itself a magnet, spinning in space with two poles and that those poles aperiodically reverse, this is an utterly engrossing narrative history of ideas and science that readers of Stephen Greenblatt and Sam Kean will love. But the recent finding that the Earth's magnetic force field is decaying ten times faster than previously thought, portending an imminent pole reversal, ultimately gives this story a spine tingling urgency. When the poles switch, a process that takes many years, the Earth is unprotected from solar radiation storms that would, among other things, wipe out all electromagnetic technology. No satellites, no internet, no smart phones--maybe no power grid at all. Such potentially cataclysmic solar storms are not unusual. The last one occurred in 2012 and we avoided returning to the dark ages only because the part of the sun that erupted happened to be facing away from the Earth. One leading US researcher is already drawing maps of the parts of the planet that would likely become uninhabitable."--
Subjects: Geomagnetism.; Magnetic pole.; Electromagnetism.; Civilization, Modern;

In praise of retreat : finding sanctuary in the modern world / by MacLeod, Kirsteen,author.;
"For readers of Walden, Wild, Pilgrim at Tinker's Creek, A Book of Silence, A Gift from the Sea and other celebrations of the inner adventure. An utterly engaging dive into our modern ways of retreat -- where we go, why we're drawn, and how it's urgent. From pilgrim paths to forest cabins, and from rented hermitages to arts temples and quiet havens for yoga and meditation, In Praise of Retreat explores the pleasures and powers of this ancient practice for modern people. Kirsteen MacLeod draws on the history of retreat and personal experiences to reveal the many ways readers can step back from society to reconnect with their deepest selves -- and to their loftiest aspirations in life. In the 21st century, disengaging, even briefly, is seen by many as self-indulgent, unproductive, and antisocial. Yet to retreat is as basic a human need as being social, and everyone can benefit, whether it's for a weekend, a month, or a lifetime. Retreat is an uncertain adventure with as many peaks and valleys as any mountain expedition, except we head inward, to recharge and find fresh energy and brave new ideas to bring back into our everyday lives."-- Provided by publisher.
Subjects: Solitude; Solitude.; Spiritual retreats.;

We don't know ourselves : a personal history of modern Ireland / by O'Toole, Fintan,1958-author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."A celebrated Irish writer's magisterial, brilliantly insightful chronicle of the wrenching transformations that dragged his homeland into the modern world. Fintan O'Toole was born in the year the revolution began. It was 1958, and the Irish government?in despair, because all the young people were leaving?opened the country to foreign investment and popular culture. So began a decades-long, ongoing experiment with Irish national identity. In We Don't Know Ourselves, O'Toole, one of the Anglophone world's most consummate stylists, weaves his own experiences into Irish social, cultural, and economic change, showing how Ireland, in just one lifetime, has gone from a reactionary "backwater" to an almost totally open society-perhaps the most astonishing national transformation in modern history. Born to a working-class family in the Dublin suburbs, O'Toole served as an altar boy and attended a Christian Brothers school, much as his forebears did. He was enthralled by American Westerns suddenly appearing on Irish television, which were not that far from his own experience, given that Ireland's main export was beef and it was still not unknown for herds of cattle to clatter down Dublin's streets. Yet the Westerns were a sign of what was to come. O'Toole narrates the once unthinkable collapse of the all-powerful Catholic Church, brought down by scandal and by the activism of ordinary Irish, women in particular. He relates the horrific violence of the Troubles in Northern Ireland, which led most Irish to reject violent nationalism. In O'Toole's telling, America became a lodestar, from John F. Kennedy's 1963 visit, when the soon-to-be martyred American president was welcomed as a native son, to the emergence of the Irish technology sector in the late 1990s, driven by American corporations, which set Ireland on the path toward particular disaster during the 2008 financial crisis. A remarkably compassionate yet exacting observer, O'Toole in coruscating prose captures the peculiar Irish habit of "deliberate unknowing," which allowed myths of national greatness to persist even as the foundations were crumbling. Forty years in the making, We Don't Know Ourselves is a landmark work, a memoir and a national history that ultimately reveals how the two modes are entwined for all of us"--
Subjects: Biographies.; Personal narratives.; O'Toole, Fintan, 1958-;

Olga : a novel / by Schlink, Bernhard,author.; Collins, Charlotte,1967-translator.; translation of:Schlink, Bernhard.Olga.English.;
"Abandoned by her parents, Olga is raised by her grandmother in a Prussian village around the turn of the 20th century. Smart and precocious, endearing but uncompromising, she fights against the prejudices of the time to find her place in a world that sees women as second-best. When Olga falls in love with Herbert, a local aristocrat obsessed with gaining all the power, glory and greatness the modern age can provide, her life is irremediably changed. Their love goes against all odds and encounters many obstacles, entwined with the twisting paths of German history, leading us from the late 19th to the early 21st century, from Germany to Africa and the Arctic, from the Baltic Sea to the German south-west. Unfolding across centuries, Olga is an epic romance, and a wrenching tale of devotion to a restless man in a fateful moment of great rebellion. Though Olga lives her life within the margins of others, her magnetic presence breathes vivid life into these pages. Told in three distinct parts-which brilliantly shift from different points of view to the epistolary form-Schlink paints a full portrait of a singular woman's complex life"--
Subjects: Historical fiction.; Friendship; Man-woman relationships; Teachers; Travelers;

Courtiers : intrigue, ambition, and the power players behind the House of Windsor / by Low, Valentine,author.;
Includes bibliographical references (pages 341-359) and index."Throughout history, the British monarchy has relied on its courtiers-the trusted advisers in the King or Queen's inner circle-to ensure its survival as a family and a pillar of the country. Today, as ever, a carefully selected team of people hidden from view steers the royal family's path between public duty and private life. Queen Elizabeth II, after a remarkable 70 years of service, saw the final seasons of her reign without her husband Philip to guide her. Now, a newly ascended Charles seeks to define what his future as King, and that of his court, will be. The question of who is entrusted to guide the royals has never been more vital. Yet, as the tensions within the family are exposed to global scrutiny like never before, the task these courtiers face has never been more challenging. With a dark cloud hanging over Prince Andrew as well as Harry and Meghan's controversial departure from royal life, William and Kate-equipped with a very 21st century approach to press and public relations-now hold the responsibility of making an ancient institution relevant for the decades to come. In fascinating and explosive detail, Valentine Low explores the previously unknown relationship between modern courtiers and the royal family. Courtiers pulls back the veil to reveal an ever-changing system of complex characters, shifting alliances, and a battle of ideas over what the future of the institution should be. This is the inside story of how the monarchy really works, at a pivotal moment in its history."--
Subjects: Charles III, King of Great Britain, 1948-; Elizabeth II, Queen of Great Britain, 1926-2022.; Windsor, House of.; Monarchy;

Metropolis : a history of the city, humankind's greatest invention / by Wilson, Ben,1980-author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."From a brilliant young historian, a colourful journey through 7,000 years and twenty-six world cities that shows how urban living has been the spur and incubator to humankind's greatest innovations. In the two hundred millennia of our existence, nothing has shaped us more profoundly than the city. Ben Wilson, author of bestselling and award-winning books on British history, now tells the grand, glorious story of how city living has allowed human culture to flourish. Beginning in 5,000 BC with Uruk, the world's first city, immortalized in The Epic of Gilgamesh, he shows us that cities were never a necessity, but that once they existed, their density created such a blossoming of human endeavour--producing new professions, art forms, worship and trade--that they kickstarted civilization itself. Guiding readers through famous cities over 7,000 years, Wilson reveals the innovations driven by each: civics in the agora of Athens, global trade in 9th century Baghdad, finance in the coffeehouses of London, domestic comforts in the heart of Amsterdam, peacocking in Belle Epoque Paris. In the modern age, he studies the impact of verticality in New York City, the sprawl of LA and the eco-reimagining of 21st-century Shanghai. Lively, erudite, page-turning and irresistible, Metropolis is a grand tour of human endeavour"--
Subjects: Cities and towns;

Finding Larkspur : a return to village life / by Needles, Dan,author.;
"Bestselling chronicler of village life Dan Needles (author of the Wingfield Farm stage plays) leads an insightful and laugh-out-loud tour through the quirks and customs of today's Canadian small town. Modern literature has not been kind to village life. For almost two centuries, small towns have been portrayed as backward, insular places needing to be escaped. But anthropologists tell us that the human species has spent more than 100,000 years living in villages of 100 to 150 people. This is where the oldest part of our brain, the limbic system, grew and adapted to become a very sophisticated instrument for reading other people's emotions and figuring out how we might cooperate to find food, shelter and protection. By comparison, the frontal cortex, which helps us do our taxes, drive a car and download cat videos, is a very recent aftermarket addition, like a sunroof. And it is the village where almost half the world's population still chooses to live. Finding Larkspur takes a walk through the Canadian village of the twenty-first century, observing customs and traditions that endure despite the best efforts of Twitter, Facebook and Amazon. The author looks at the buildings and organizations left over from the old rural community, why they were built in the first place and how they have adapted to the modern day. The post office, the general store, the church, the school and the service club all remain standing, but they operate quite differently than they did for our ancestors. Drawing from his experience working in rural communities across Canada and in other countries, Needles reveals how a national conversation may be driven by urban voices but the national character is often very much a product of its small towns and back roads."-- Provided by publisher.
Subjects: Sociology, Rural; Villages; Villages;

The missing cryptoqueen : the billion dollar cryptocurrency con and the woman who got away with it / by Bartlett, Jamie,author.;
Includes bibliographical references.In 2016, on stage at Wembley Arena in front of thousands of adoring fans, Dr. Ruja Ignatova promised her followers a financial revolution. The future, she said, belonged to cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin. And the Oxford-educated, self-styled cryptoqueen vowed that she had invented the Bitcoin Killer. OneCoin would not only earn its investors untold fortunes; it would change the world. By March 2017, more than $4 billion had been invested in OneCoin in countries all around the world. But by October 2017, Ruja Ignatova had disappeared, and it slowly became clear that her revolutionary cryptocurrency was not all it seemed. Fortune was left asking, "Is OneCoin the biggest financial fraud in history?" In The Missing Cryptoqueen, acclaimed tech journalist Jamie Bartlett tells the story he began in his smash hit BBC podcast, entering the murky worlds of little-regulated cryptocurrencies and multilevel marketing schemes. Through a globe-crossing investigation into the criminal underworlds, corrupt governments, and the super-rich, he reveals a very modern tale of intrigue, techno-hype and herd madness that allowed OneCoin to become a million-person pyramid scheme--where, at the top, investors were making millions and, at the bottom, people were putting their livelihoods at risk. It's the inside story of the smartest and biggest scam of the 21st Century--and the genius behind it, who is still on the run.
Subjects: Ignatova, Ruja.; Commercial crimes; Commercial crimes.; Cryptocurrencies.; Swindlers and swindling.;

The great wave : the era of radical disruption and the rise of the outsider / by Kakutani, Michiko,author.;
Includes bibliographical references."An urgent examination of how disruptive politics, technology, and art are capsizing old assumptions in a great wave of change breaking over today's world, creating both opportunity and peril-from the Pulitzer Prize-winning critic and author of the New York Times bestseller The Death of Truth. The twenty-first century is experiencing a watershed moment defined by chaos and uncertainty, as one emergency cascades into another, underscoring the larger dynamics of change that are fueling instability across the world. Since the global financial crisis of 2008, people have increasingly lost trust in institutions and elites, while seizing upon new digital tools to sidestep traditional gatekeepers. As a result, powerful new voices-once regarded as radical, unorthodox or marginal-are disrupting the status quo in politics, business and culture. Meanwhile, social and economic inequalities are stoking populist rage across the world, toxic partisanship is undermining democratic ideals, and the internet and AI have become high-speed vectors for the spread of misinformation. Writing with a critic's understanding of cultural trends and a journalist's eye for historical detail, Michiko Kakutani looks at the consequences of these new asymmetries of power. She maps the migration of ideas from the margins to the mainstream and explores the growing influence of outsiders-those who have sown anger and fear (like Donald Trump), and those who have provided inspirational leadership (like Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelensky). At the same time, she situates today's multiplying crises in context with those that defined earlier hinge moments in history, from the waning of the Middle Ages, to the transition between the Gilded Age and Progressive era at the end of the nineteenth century. Kakutani argues that today's crises are not only signs of an interconnected globe's profound vulnerabilities, but stress tests pointing to the essential changes needed to survive this tumultuous era and build a more sustainable future"--
Subjects: Civilization, Modern; Elite (Social sciences); Globalization.; Political culture.; Power (Social sciences); Uncertainty.;

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