The First 20 Minutes (eBook)

The Surprising Science of How We Can Exercise Better, Train Smarter and Live Longer

Gretchen Reynolds

Discover the amazing restorative powers of chocolate milk on tired muscles, how running can actually be good for your knees and how even just 20 minutes of regular exercise can transform your health and well-being.

Right now, modern science is revolutionizing the traditional workout. More is known about exercise, health and fitness than ever before, from how (and how much) we should be exercising, to the pros and cons of barefoot running and the effect music can have on a workout.

In The First Twenty Minutes New York Times columnist Gretchen Reynolds has turned the key findings of cutting-edge research into practical, user-friendly advice to help you improve the way you exercise.

Whether you are a sprinter or a marathon runner, whether your goal is weight loss or a faster 5k, this book provides evidence-based answers showing you how you can train more efficiently, recover more quickly and reap all the physical and mental benefits of an exercise regime specifically tailored to meet your individual needs.

Gretchen Reynolds writes the popular Phys Ed column for the New York Times. She also contributes to a number of other periodicals in the United States, such as the New York Times Magazine, O: The Oprah Magazine, Men’s Journal and Popular Science. She has won a number of awards for her writing and reporting, including two nominations for the prestigious National Magazine Awards.|Gretchen Reynolds writes for the popular ‘Phys ED’ column in The New York Times. She also writes for The New York Times Magazine, O: The Oprah Magazine, Men's Journal, Outside, Parade, Popular Science and others.

Constant Touch (eBook)

A Global History of the Mobile Phone

Jon Agar

Mobile phones are a ubiquitous technology with a fascinating history. There are now as many mobile phones in the world as there are people. We carry them around with us wherever we go. And while we used to just speak into them, now mobiles are used to do all kinds of tasks, from talking to twittering, from playing a game to paying a bill.

Jon Agar takes the mobile to pieces, tracing what makes it work, and puts it together again, showing how it was shaped in different national contexts in the United States, Europe, the Far East and Africa. He tells the story from the early associations with cars and the privileged, through its immense popular success, to the rise of the smartphone.

Few scientific revolutions affect us in such a day-to-day way as the development of the mobile phone. Jon Agar's deft history explains exactly how this revolution has come about – and where it may lead in the future.

Jon Agar is currently Senior Lecturer in Science and Technology Studies at University College London and was previously director of the National Archive for the History of Computing.

Wagner's Tristan und Isolde (eBook)

A Short Guide to a Great Opera

Michael Steen

With the ‘Tristan chord’ at the start of Wagner’s opera Tristan und Isolde, the composer launched modern music. The political refugee, a former revolutionary, was living in Zurich when the lovely Mathilde Wesendonck, the wife of a rich businessman, inspired him to break off from working on Siegfried, part of his ‘Ring cycle’, and refocus his efforts on Tristan. Expelled from there, Wagner continued to work on the opera in the Palazzo Giustiniani in Venice, and finished it in Lucerne in 1859. The première, in Munich, was delayed until 1865, after the ‘Mad’ King Ludwig of Bavaria came to Wagner’s financial rescue.

Wagner blended Gottfried von Strasburg’s medieval epic with Schopenhauer’s philosophy and his own idiosyncratic views on the psychology and metaphysics of love. (As well, Wagner reflected his views on Greek drama and the integrated Gesamtkunstwerk, or ‘art-work’.) The result is a torrent of sound which depicts almost indecent passion. The Liebestod, in which the sexual love of Tristan and Isolde is consummated through death, and which is often presented in concert performance, is some of the most glorious music ever written.

Written by Michael Steen, author of the acclaimed The Lives and Times of the Great Composers, ‘Short Guides to Great Operas’ are concise, entertaining and easy to read. They are packed with useful information and informed opinion, helping to make you a truly knowledgeable opera-goer, and so maximising your enjoyment of a great musical experience.

Other ‘Short Guides to Great Operas’ that you may enjoy include The Magic Flute, Eugene Onegin and Peter Grimes.

Michael Steen, author of the acclaimed The Lives and Times of the Great Composers, provides a compendium of self-standing short guides to 25 of the world’s greatest and most popular operas.

Verdi's Rigoletto (eBook)

A Short Guide to a Great Opera

Michael Steen

From the première of Rigoletto at Venice’s La Fenice in 1851, the Duke’s La donna è mobile caught on with the public and has done much to ensure the ongoing popularity of Verdi’s opera about the body in the sack. Rigoletto, the sarcastic court jester, is cursed by a nobleman who he has mocked. Subsequent events see the curse realised, as Rigoletto’s daughter Gilda is kidnapped, raped, and later killed.

The story, originally about King François, contemporary of the English King Henry VIII, came from a novel by Victor Hugo, author of Les Misérables and the Hunchback of Notre Dame. Concerned by its combination of debauchery, seduction, rape by a king, regicide, kidnap and murder, the censors required the librettist Francesco Piave to relocate it from the Louvre in Paris to the court in Mantua.

The wonderful music also includes the Duke’s Questa o quella, Gilda’s Caro nome, Rigoletto’s Piangi! piangi fanciulla and the glorious ensemble Bella figlia dell’amore.

Enrico Caruso made his début at the Metropolitan Opera House as Rigoletto. Others who have starred include Patti, Melba, Callas, Domingo and Pavarotti.

Written by Michael Steen, author of the acclaimed The Lives and Times of the Great Composers, ‘Short Guides to Great Operas’ are concise, entertaining and easy to read. They are packed with useful information and informed opinion, helping to make you a truly knowledgeable opera-goer, and so maximising your enjoyment of a great musical experience.

Other ‘Short Guides to Great Operas’ that you may enjoy include La Traviata, Tosca and Lucia di Lammermoor.

Michael Steen, author of the acclaimed The Lives and Times of the Great Composers, provides a compendium of self-standing short guides to 25 of the world’s greatest and most popular operas.

Verdi's La Traviata (eBook)

A Short Guide to a Great Opera

Michael Steen

Verdi’s now-popular opera was a fiasco in Venice in 1853, attributable perhaps to the prima donna being noticeably obese, despite apparently wasting with tuberculosis. Soon, however, Verdi’s scandalous love story was on stage contemporaneously at Her Majesty’s Theatre, Covent Garden and Drury Lane.

Piave’s libretto depicts Violetta and Alfredo Germont, the Marguerite and Armand of The Lady with the Camelias by Alexandre Dumas (son of the author of The Count of Monte Cristo and The Three Musketeers). The bestseller was based on the short life of the courtesan Marie Duplessis, mistress of a duke, a viscount and a baron – in Paris the ‘oldest profession’, prostitution, was the only way many women could survive, as Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables depicts.

Featuring some of Verdi’s best-loved tunes, such as the ‘Brindisi’ and Violetta’s Sempre libera, La Traviata is enduringly popular. Violetta has been sung by international operatic sopranos such as Patti and Melba, and recently Gheorghiu. Some, like Joan Sutherland, have preferred to stay off-stage and make an opera recording. Domingo and Pavarotti have sung the role of Alfredo.

Written by Michael Steen, author of the acclaimed The Lives and Times of the Great Composers, ‘Short Guides to Great Operas’ are concise, entertaining and easy to read. They are packed with useful information and informed opinion, helping to make you a truly knowledgeable opera-goer, and so maximising your enjoyment of a great musical experience.

Other ‘Short Guides to Great Operas’ that you may enjoy include Rigoletto, Carmen and La Bohème.

Michael Steen, author of the acclaimed The Lives and Times of the Great Composers, provides a compendium of self-standing short guides to 25 of the world’s greatest and most popular operas.

Rossini's The Barber of Seville (eBook)

A Short Guide to a Great Opera

Michael Steen

The première in 1816 in Rome of Gioachino Rossini’s famous opera was a fiasco comparable to those of Wagner’s Tannhäuser and Bizet’s Carmen. But Il barbiere di Siviglia was soon recognised as being among the greatest of comic operas, comparable to those of Mozart. Even Beethoven was enthusiastic.

Figaro, Seville’s barber, is confident of a good pay-off for facilitating the elopement of Rosina with the Count of Almaviva. Her guardian also has designs on her and her fortune. Who will get there first? The story is based on a comedy by the French playwright Beaumarchais, whose The Marriage of Figaro was used by Mozart.

The Barber is packed with famous tunes, displaying Rossini’s glittering coloratura, trademark crescendos and patter: Figaro’s famous Largo al factotum and Zitti, zitti, piano, piano; the Count’s serenade with guitar, Ecco ridente; Rosina’s Singing Lesson and Una voce poco fa; Doctor Bartolo’s patter song A un dottor; Don Basilio’s La calunnia. These are just some of the ingredients of this feast of humour and good tunes.

Written by Michael Steen, author of the acclaimed The Lives and Times of the Great Composers, ‘Short Guides to Great Operas’ are concise, entertaining and easy to read. They are packed with useful information and informed opinion, helping to make you a truly knowledgeable opera-goer, and so maximising your enjoyment of a great musical experience.

Other ‘Short Guides to Great Operas’ that you may enjoy include The Marriage of Figaro, Così fan tutte and Lucia di Lammermoor.

Michael Steen, author of the acclaimed The Lives and Times of the Great Composers, provides a compendium of self-standing short guides to 25 of the world’s greatest and most popular operas.

Puccini's Tosca (eBook)

A Short Guide to a Great Opera

Michael Steen

Tosca’s première in Rome in January 1900 was nearly disrupted by a terrorist threat to blow up Italy’s King Umberto. Victorien Sardou had written the melodrama for the great actress Sarah Bernhardt. Giacomo Puccini’s popular opera is a tale of sadism and brutality, torture, attempted rape, murder, an execution and two suicides. ‘Realism’ was in vogue: Mascagni’s Cavalleria rusticana had been a great success, as had Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci. With sharp practice, the publisher Giulio Ricordi obtained ‘Tosca’ for Puccini, who had already composed Manon Lescaut and La Bohème. The story, set in the Napoleonic, era was ideal for Puccini, a chain-smoker who enjoyed women, shooting birds, and high-speed motor cars.

A political prisoner seeks sanctuary in the church where prima donna Floria Tosca’s lover Cavaradossi, a role associated with Pavarotti, is painting a picture of Mary Magdalen. In Va, Tosca! the police chief Scarpia fantasises about Tosca during a Te Deum celebrating Napoleon’s victory. Tosca stabs Scarpia following the famous operatic aria, Vissi d’arte, immortalised by Maria Callas on stage and in the film produced by Franco Zeffirelli. Awaiting death before dawn in the Castel Sant’Angelo, Cavaradossi sings the well-known arias E lucevan le stelle and O dolci mani. Tosca’s attempt to save him comes to nothing.

Written by Michael Steen, author of the acclaimed The Lives and Times of the Great Composers, ‘Short Guides to Great Operas’ are concise, entertaining and easy to read. They are packed with useful information and informed opinion, helping to make you a truly knowledgeable opera-goer, and so maximising your enjoyment of a great musical experience.

Other ‘Short Guides to Great Operas’ that you may enjoy include La bohème, Madama Butterfly and Carmen.

Michael Steen, author of the acclaimed The Lives and Times of the Great Composers, provides a compendium of self-standing short guides to 25 of the world’s greatest and most popular operas.

Mozart's The Magic Flute (eBook)

A Short Guide to a Great Opera

Michael Steen

Even Salieri, the notorious villain of Peter Shaffer’s drama Amadeus, admired Mozart’s comic opera Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute), which was premièred in Vienna a few weeks before Mozart’s death in December 1791. Though sometimes enjoyed as a children’s opera, this is not a pantomime: rooted in Freemasonry, the Enlightenment and the Age of Reason, it promotes the ideals of progress, virtue, self-betterment, truth and justice. Tamino, an Egyptian Prince, has a magic flute to take him and his beloved Pamina through trials of constancy and endurance, before they can attain ultimate bliss.

Critics have long been confounded as to how Mozart could present such a light-hearted yet deep masterpiece, with such wonderful music, while being in deep financial trouble.
There is great stylistic diversity. The sensationally difficult part of the Queen of the Night comes from the Italian opera tradition, while the comical bird catcher Papageno (originally performed by the librettist Schikaneder) sings in the popular style of the Viennese suburbs. Such is the beauty of the music that Bernard Shaw thought that the O Isis and Osiris, of Sarastro, the High Priest, was fit to emerge from the mouth of a god.

Written by Michael Steen, author of the acclaimed The Lives and Times of the Great Composers, ‘Short Guides to Great Operas’ are concise, entertaining and easy to read. They are packed with useful information and informed opinion, helping to make you a truly knowledgeable opera-goer, and so maximising your enjoyment of a great musical experience.

Other ‘Short Guides to Great Operas’ that you may enjoy include Don Giovanni, The Marriage of Figaro and Così fan tutte.

Michael Steen, author of the acclaimed The Lives and Times of the Great Composers, provides a compendium of self-standing short guides to 25 of the world’s greatest and most popular operas.

Bizet's Carmen (eBook)

A Short Guide to a Great Opera

Michael Steen

The Paris audience in 1875 was shocked by the sexually explicit realism of Bizet’s exotic operatic masterpiece, its ‘verismo’ depiction of low life and brutal passion. But since the disastrous première – a sensational failure which hastened Bizet’s premature death – it has been the greatest operatic success. It led to a film opera, a jazz opera, a rock ballet and a Broadway musical. Equally, it impressed great composers including Tchaikovsky, Brahms and Vaughan Williams.

The story, written by Prosper Mérimée and adapted by librettists Meilhac and Halévy, is set in colourful Seville, in southern Spain, renowned for bullfights. The corporal Don José is seduced by Carmencita, a gypsy whore who works in a tobacco factory. With her Habanera (a Cuban dance like the tango) and Andalusian Seguidilla, she charms him, and escapes prison. She falls for Escamillo, a celebrity toreador associated with the famous tune Toréador en garde. Don José’s Flower Song fails to win her for long. We visit the haunt of Seville’s demi-monde, Lillas Pastia’s bodega, and a gypsy encampment in the mountains, before José stabs Carmen outside the bullring.

Written by Michael Steen, author of the acclaimed The Lives and Times of the Great Composers, ‘Short Guides to Great Operas’ are concise, entertaining and easy to read. They are packed with useful information and informed opinion, helping to make you a truly knowledgeable opera-goer, and so maximising your enjoyment of a great musical experience.

Other ‘Short Guides to Great Operas’ that you may enjoy include Tosca, Madama Butterfly and Eugene Onegin.

Michael Steen, author of the acclaimed The Lives and Times of the Great Composers, provides a compendium of self-standing short guides to 25 of the world’s greatest and most popular operas.

Project Sunshine (eBook)

How science can use the sun to fuel and feed the world

Steve McKevitt

Tony Ryan

It’s an astonishing fact that capturing all the energy in just one hour’s worth of sunlight would enable us to meet the planet’s food and energy needs for an entire year.

Project Sunshine tells the story of how scientists are working to reconnect us to the ‘solar economy’, harnessing the power of the sun to provide sustainable food and energy for a global population of 10 billion people: an achievement that would end our dependence on ‘fossilised sunshine’ in the form of coal, oil and gas and remake our connection with the soil that grows our food.

Steve McKevitt and Tony Ryan describe the human race’s complex relationship with the sun and take us back through history to see how our world became the place it is today – chemically, geologically, ecologically, climatically and economically – before moving on to the cutting-edge science and technology that will enable us to live happily in a sustainable future.

Steve McKevitt is an expert in communications and consumerism. Over a 25-year career his clients have included Nike, Coca-Cola, Deutsche Bank, Sony PlayStation, Harvey Nichols, Motorola, Universal, Virgin, BT and Atari. Steve is chairman of Golden, an ideas agency with clients in the UK, Europe and the USA, and also works as an advisor to national and regional UK government on employment, skills, business innovation and international trade.

Professor Tony Ryan OBE is a polymer chemist at the University of Sheffield. He delivered the 2002 Royal Institution Christmas Lectures and regularly appears on Radio 4's Infinite Monkey Cage with Brian Cox and Robin Ince, and has been on In Our Time with Melvyn Bragg.

FREE Icon Books eBook Sampler (eBook)

Greg Grandin

James Hannam Jim Baggott

With extracts from twelve fantastic independently published books, this free ebook download provides the perfect introduction to the Icon Books catalogue.

Dice World (eBook)

Science and Life in a Random Universe

Brian Clegg

LONGLISTED FOR THE 2014 WINTON ROYAL SOCIETY PRIZE FOR SCIENCE BOOKS

As troubling as we pattern-seeking humans may find it, modern science has repeatedly shown us that randomness is the underlying heartbeat of nature.

In Dice World, acclaimed science writer Brian Clegg takes readers on an incredible trip around our random universe, uncovering the truths and lies behind probability and statistics, explaining how chaotic intervention is behind every great success in business, and demonstrating the possibilities quantum mechanics has given us for creating unbreakable ciphers and undergoing teleportation.

He explores how the ‘clockwork universe’ imagined by Newton, in which everything could be predicted given enough data, was disproved bit by bit, to be supplanted by chaos theory and quantum physics. Clegg reveals a world in which not only is accurate forecasting often impossible but probability is the only way for us to understand the fundamental nature of things.

Forget the clockwork universe. Welcome to Dice World, a unique portrait of a startlingly complex cosmos, from the bizarre microscopic world of the quantum to the unfathomable mechanics of planetary movements, where very little is as it seems…

Brian Clegg is a science journalist and author whose numerous books include Inflight Science and The Universe Inside You, both published by Icon. He also runs popularscience.co.uk

The First 20 Minutes Personal Trainer (eBook)

The right - and the wrong - workouts for everyone

Gretchen Reynolds

Much of what we thought we knew about fitness is turning out to be wrong. You should always stretch before exercising? Wrong! Sit-ups are good for you? Wrong!

In the ideal companion to her brilliant and bestselling The First 20 Minutes, Gretchen Reynolds identifies these common misconceptions and develops a health and fitness workout tailored to your own level of ability – and all based on the latest scientific discoveries.

Whether you have 2 minutes to spare, 10 minutes or 20 minutes, this ebook special will give you invaluable tips for optimising your fitness plan.

You will also find out how to exercise to benefit specific problem areas such as the shoulder, lower back and knees. And finally there are insider tips on hot topics such as when to eat before exercise, whether beetroot juice improves blood flow to the muscles, how running backwards can liven up your workout, and why unplugging your headset may help you enjoy exercise more.

Gretchen Reynolds writes the popular Phys Ed column for the New York Times and also contributes to the New York Times Magazine, O: The Oprah Magazine, Men’s Journal and Popular Science. She has won a number of awards for her writing and reporting, including two nominations for the prestigious National Magazine Awards. She is also the author of The First 20 Minutes: The surprising science of how we can exercise better, train smarter and live longer (Icon Books, 2012).

The Nature Magpie (eBook)

A Cornucopia of Facts, Anecdotes, Folklore and Literature from the Natural World

Daniel Allen

A collection of anecdotes, facts, figures, folklore and literature, The Nature Magpie is a veritable treasure trove of humanity’s thoughts and feelings about nature.

With acclaimed nature writer Daniel Allen as your guide, join naturalists, novelists and poets as they explore the most isolated parts of the planet, choose your side – pineapple or durian – in the great 'king of fruits' debate and discover which plants can be used to predict the weather.

Meet the roadkill connoisseurs, learn to dance the Hippopotamus Polka, find out the likelihood of sharing your name with a hurricane – and much more.

Dr Daniel Allen is a British author making a name for himself in the world of animal/nature writing. His first book, Otter, was published in Reaktion Books' Animal series in September 2010. Virginia McKenna OBE described the book as 'the most brilliant mix of facts ancient and modern about the otter species'. A second title, Squirrel, will be published as part of the series in 2013. Daniel is also a columnist for Small Furry Pets and Practical Reptile Keeping magazines.

Pocket Guide to the Birds of Southern Africa (Paperback)

5th EDITION (Updated & Revised)

Burger Cillié

Ulrich Oberprieler

To both the beginner and the experienced
birdwatcher this compact guide will prove as
indispensable as binoculars.

Special features:

Fits your pocket
Practical and user-friendly
Over 400 bird species
Excellent colour photographs
Logical grouping of birds
Concise biological information
English & Afrikaans names
Southern African bird numbers
Distribution maps according to the new bird atlas
Index

An essential aid for nature-lovers and heavy-weight birders, you cannot afford to be without this book. 

Burger Cillié is a well-known wildlife photographer and the author of various field guides to the mammals of Southern Africa. He has co-authored three bird guides with Ulrich, and a book on the animals of Pilanesberg with both Ulrich and Christo. His photographs are not only used to illustrate his own books, but have been published in a variety of titles. He has also acted as advisor to a variety of nature related books published in South Africa and abroad.

Ulrich Oberprieler, a well-known ornithologist and wildlife photographer, has co-authored four bird and mammal guides with Burger and Christo. He is presently education manager at the National Zoological Gardens. Ulrich is an enthusiastic wildlife photographer and most well known for his superb courses on mammals, birds and the environment.

Imagine That – Technology (eBook)

Michael Sells

Technology’s most intriguing stories are the tales of what might have been, those seemingly insignificant incidents that would have had the largest unforeseen effects.

Imagine That…

Alexander Fleming cleans up his dishes … and penicillin is washed down the drain

Steve Jobs skips the company visit to Xerox PAR C … and computers never crack the commercial market

Nikola Tesla receives philanthropic support … and the 20th century is illuminated by space age energy and technology

Engaging, contentious and compulsively readable, each book in this new series takes the reader on a historical flight of fancy, imagining the consequences if history had gone just that little bit differently.

Michael Sells is a historian educated at the University of Chester. Captivated by history from a young age, he is especially interested in Jack Kerouac and the Beat Generation and 1960s and 70s football. Outside of history, his passions include dystopian novels, animal sanctuaries and lower-league football. Born in the South East of England, he now lives in Cambridge and the Imagine That titles are his first books.

Imagine That – Technology (Paperback)

The History of Technology Rewritten

Michael Sells

Technology’s most intriguing stories are the tales of what might have been, those seemingly insignificant incidents that would have had the largest unforeseen effects.

Imagine That…

Alexander Fleming cleans up his dishes … and penicillin is washed down the drain

Steve Jobs skips the company visit to Xerox PAR C … and computers never crack the commercial market

Nikola Tesla receives philanthropic support … and the 20th century is illuminated by space age energy and technology

Engaging, contentious and compulsively readable, each book in this new series takes the reader on a historical flight of fancy, imagining the consequences if history had gone just that little bit differently.

Michael Sells is a historian educated at the University of Chester. Captivated by history from a young age, he is especially interested in Jack Kerouac and the Beat Generation and 1960s and 70s football. Outside of history, his passions include dystopian novels, animal sanctuaries and lower-league football. Born in the South East of England, he now lives in Cambridge and the Imagine That titles are his first books.

Imagine That – Football (eBook)

The History of Football Rewritten

Michael Sells

International football’s most intriguing stories are the tales of what might have been, those seemingly insignificant incidents that would have had the largest unforeseen effects.

Imagine That…

Messi is unable to afford growth hormone treatment … and Spanish football loses its charitable nature

Technology helps prevent decades of human error in football … and West Germany claims victory at Wembley in 1966

Substitutions are never introduced to football … and the game is rid of greed and disloyalty

Engaging, contentious and compulsively readable, each book in this new series takes the reader on a historical flight of fancy, imagining the consequences if history had gone just that little bit differently.

Michael Sells is a historian educated at the University of Chester. Captivated by history from a young age, he is especially interested in Jack Kerouac and the Beat Generation and 1960s and 70s football. Outside of history, his passions include dystopian novels, animal sanctuaries and lower-league football. Born in the South East of England, he now lives in Cambridge and the Imagine That titles are his first books.