Here She Comes Now (eBook)

Women in Music Who Have Changed Our Lives

Jeff Gordinier

Marc Weingarten

Here She Comes Now brings together some of America’s best music writers – such as Susan Choi, recipient of the inaugural PEN / W.G. Sebald award, Daniel Walters, whose credits include the screenplay for Heathers, and Alina Simon, whose novel Note to Self was described as ‘hilarious’ by Amanda Palmer – to explore incredible women in popular music. 

Often wryly amusing – even occasionally heart-rending – and covering artists from Dolly Parton and Nina Simone to Bjork, Taylor Swift and Riot Grrrl pioneer Kathleen Hanna, this is a feisty celebration of the transformative power of musicians who have truly rocked our world. 

The full list of artists covered is: 

Dolly Parton, Taylor Swift, Sinéad O’Connor, Mary J. Blige, June Carter Cash, Björk, Ronnie Spector, Laurie Anderson, Judee Sill, Patti Smith, Nina Simone, Poly Styrene, Stevie Nicks, Kim Gordon, Kate Bush, P.J. Harvey, Loretta Lynn, Sandy Denny, Tina Turner, Kathleen Hanna, Liz Phair, Madonna and Miley Cyrus.

Edited by Jeff Gordinier – a staffer for The NY Times and writer for Esquire, GQ, Entertainment Weekly, Elle, the LA Times, Fortune, the NY Times Book Review and more – and Marc Weingarten, author of Station to Station, The Gang That Wouldn’t Write Straight, and Thirsty, as well as co-editor of Yes Is The Answer. He produced the 2011 documentary God Bless Ozzy Osbourne, The Other One: The Long Strange Trip of Bob Weir, and television’s The Bachelor and The Bachelorette

The 50 Greatest Walks of the World (eBook)

Barry Stone

Barry Stone, author of 1001 Walks You Must Experience Before You Die, delves into some of the lesser-known aspects of the world's most famous – and not-quite-famous-yet – trails.

The perfect accompaniment to practical guidebooks, Stone relates how slings and carabiners kept him from falling headlong off the Sydney Harbour Bridge, and reports on the progress of the continental-wide monster, the Trans Canada Trail, gaps in which are still being filled by countless grass-roots communities.

With walks that will appeal to everyone regardless of ability, The 50 Greatest Walks of the World includes British classics such as the Pennine Way, Offa's Dyke Path, and the Old Man of Hoy as well as personal favourites such as Italy's Cinque Terre Classic and the Isle of Skye's Trotternish Ridge, one of Britain's finest ridge traverses with almost 2,500m of ascents. Whether it's a climb, a stroll, or a life-changing slog, this book has the walk for you.

Barry Stone is an established travel writer and author of eight books on subjects from religious hermits to mutinies in the Age of Sail to military history titles for publishers including Hardie Grant, Allen & Unwin, and Harper Collins. He is currently writing a history on the early growth of colonial Australia's outback pastoral stations. He lives in Sydney, Australia.

Restless Creatures (eBook)

The Story of Life in Ten Movements

Matt Wilkinson

A billion-year history of movement,
from bacteria to Olympic athletes.

'Packed with revelations, scholarly but clear, Restless Creatures carries
you from the kinetics of the amoeba to that of the blue whale, from the
swim-cycle of spermatozoa, to why skipping works best on the moon. A
pop-science treat.' Gavin Francis, author of Adventures in Human Being

Despite the overwhelming diversity of life on earth, one theme has
dominated its evolution: the apparently simple act of moving from one place to
another. Restless Creatures is the first book for a general
audience telling the incredible story of locomotion in human and animal
evolution.

Evolutionary biologist Matt Wilkinson traces this 4-billion-year
history, showing why our ancestors became two-legged, how movement explains why
we have opposable thumbs and a backbone, how fish fins became limbs, how even
trees are locomotion-obsessed, and how movement has shaped our minds as well as
our bodies. He explains why there are no flying monkeys or biological wheels,
how dinosaurs took to the air, how Mexican waves were the making of the animal
kingdom, and why moving can make us feel good.

Restless Creatures opens up an astonishing new perspective –
that little in evolution makes sense unless in the light of movement.

 

Matt Wilkinson is a zoologist and science communicator at the University of Cambridge. His work has been covered in the Telegraph, Metro, New Scientist and Nature. He has been a runner-up in the Daily Telegraph/BASF science writer competition, and reached second place in the first Cheltenham Science Festival FameLab competition. In 2007 he went to drama school, and he wrote a play about T.H. Huxley that was premiered at the 2009 Darwin Festival. Restless Creatures is his first book.

A Practical Guide to the Psychology of Success (eBook)

Reach Your Goals & Enjoy the Journey

Alison Price

David Price

'A brilliant, brilliant book.' Ben Hunt-Davis MBE, Olympic Champion Men’s Rowing 8+

Identify your dreams. Achieve your goals. Enjoy the process.

In Psychology of Success, Alison and David Price help you to identify your personal vision of success, building goals around what you really want and what you have the potential to achieve. With the benefit of expert insights, real-life case studies and powerful techniques, you’ll build day-to-day strategies to help define and reach your goals, overcome obstacles and succeed in the face of adversity.

If you’re looking to reach your full potential – whether it’s making a personal change, achieving a sporting goal, or putting a business plan into practice – this book will give you the map to changing your life, and enjoying the journey.

Alison Price is a business psychologist, inspirational keynote speaker and an international training consultant. David Price is qualified in disciplines including positive psychology, sports psychology, peak performance coaching and NLP. Together they are The Success Agents.

The 50 Greatest Train Journeys of the World (eBook)

Anthony Lambert

Whether you’re on the Orient Express or the Inverness to Wick and Thurso route traversing some of the wildest country in Britain, train travel affords a vision of the world like no other.

From the modest line through North Yorkshire’s Esk Valley to the Trans-Siberian; from a narrow-gauge web of lines in the Harz Mountains to the coast-tocoast journey through the mountains of Corsica, acclaimed travel writer Anthony Lambert presents an unmissable selection for any traveller who loves the journey as much as the destination.

Here is a carefully chosen, wide-ranging selection of train journeys with character, sublime scenery and a real sense of history.

Anthony Lambert has written fifteen books about railways and railway travel, including Switzerland without a Car, the Insight Guide to Great Railway Journeys of Europe and the Insight Guide to Pakistan. He has also written on railway journeys and travel for the Independent, New York Times, Daily Telegraph, The Sunday Times, Wanderlust and Orient-Express Magazine. He was consultant editor to the 9-volume partwork The World of Trains, and has travelled on the railways of over 50 countries.

Saving Capitalism (eBook)

For The Many, Not The Few

Robert Reich

'A very good guide to the state we’re in' Paul Krugman, New York Review of Books

'A well-written, thought-provoking book by one of America’s leading economic thinkers and progressive champions.' Huffington Post

Do you recall a time when the income of a single schoolteacher or baker or salesman or mechanic was enough to buy a home, have two cars, and raise a family?

Robert Reich does – in the 1950s his father sold clothes to factory workers and the family earnt enough to live comfortably. Today, this middle class is rapidly shrinking: American income inequality and wealth disparity is the greatest it’s been in eighty years.

As Reich, who served in three US administrations, shows, the threat to capitalism is no longer communism or fascism but a steady undermining of the trust modern societies need for growth and stability.
With an exclusive chapter for Icon’s edition, Saving Capitalism is passionate yet practical, sweeping yet exactingly argued, a revelatory indictment of the economic status quo and an empowering call to action.

Robert Reich is Chancellor’s Professor of Public Policy at the Richard and Rhoda Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California, Berkeley, and senior fellow at the Blum Center for Developing Economies. He has served in three national administrations and has written fourteen books, including the bestsellers Supercapitalism and Locked in the Cabinet. His articles have appeared in the New Yorker, Atlantic, New York Times, Washington Post, and Wall Street Journal. He is co-creator of the award-winning 2013 film Inequality for All.

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) (eBook)

Your Toolkit to Modify Mood, Overcome Obstructions and Improve Your Life

Clair Pollard

Elaine Iljon Foreman

Change can often seem like an impossible task, but this practical book will help you put it into perspective. With guidance from two experts, you’ll recognise the behaviours and thoughts that hold you back, and will develop skills to think more positively, act more calmly and feel better about yourself.

Using the same tools employed by CBT practitioners, this book is full of activities and experiments to explore and challenge, stories and exercises to provide perspective, and a clear framework to encourage and guide you. The authors’ friendly and supportive approach will help you learn to manage recurrences of negative thinking and behaviours, and to develop strong coping strategies.

CBT incorporates the latest therapies and research, including ACT and mindfulness, and explicitly addresses problem areas like insomnia and depression.

Elaine Iljon Foreman and Clair Pollard are Chartered Clinical Psychologists with expertise in cognitive behavioural therapies. Elaine’s focus is in clinical research into anxiety, while Clair works with the NHS and The Back-Up Trust.

Make Way for the Superhumans (eBook)

How the science of bio enhancement is transforming our world, and how we need to deal with it

Michael Bess

Biomedical research is changing the both the format and the functions of human beings. Very soon the human race will be faced with a choice: do we join in with the enhancement or not? 

Make Way for the Superhumans looks at how far this technology has come and what aims and ambitions it has.
From robotic implants that restore sight to the blind, to performance enhancing drugs that build muscles, improve concentration, and maintain erections, bio-enhancement has already made massive advances. 

Humans have already developed the technology to transmit thoughts and actions brain-to-brain using only a computer interface.
By the time our grandchildren are born, they will be presented with the option to significantly alter and redesign their bodies. 

 Make Way for the Superhumans is the only book that poses the questions that need answering now: suggesting real, practical ways of dealing with this technology before it reaches a point where it can no longer be controlled.

Michael Bess is a specialist in 20th- and 21st-century Europe, with a particular interest in the social and cultural impacts of technological change. He is the author of three other books, one of which, The Light Green Society (U Chicago Press, 2003) won the George Perkins Marsh prize (2004) of the American Society for Environmental History and an Honorable Mention (2004) from the Pinkney Prize committee of the Society for French Historical Studies.

The 50 Greatest Road Trips (eBook)

Sarah Woods

If you’ve ever dreamed of completing an epic car journey, The 50 Greatest Road Trips is for you. Packed full of the most exotic, exciting and iconic road trips across the Americas, Asia, Europe and Africa, it showcases the ultimate in car adventures.

Sarah Woods is a veteran of road-tripping, having driven the iconic 19,000-mile route from North America to South America’s tip, completed several dusty voyages in the Australian outback and scaled towering Saharan sand dunes in a 4×4.

Readers are sure to feel the urge to climb into an old Chevrolet, crank up the tunes on the stereo, flick the sunroof open and settle back for one heck of a ride on the open road …

SARAH WOODS is the author of over a dozen travel books, a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and a member of the British Guild of Travel Writers. She writes for national newspapers and travel magazines and appears regularly on TV and radio. She has been awarded the BGTW ‘Travel Guide Writer of the Year’

The 50 Greatest Westerns (eBook)

Barry Stone

Author Barry Stone has served his apprenticeship as a western movie geek and aficionado. The Magnificent Seven, The Wild Bunch, Red River – for 50 years the western has been the only genre in a life that ‘just ain’t big enough for two’. He has written on the history of cinema for the illustrated reference book Historica, is a regular attendee to western premieres for FOX Studios Australia, and was recently a guest of the Museum of Western Film History in Independence, California.

Intrigued by the idea of frontier wilderness, of law and order vs lawlessness, and a firm belief that ‘the better the bad guy, the better the film’, he goes beyond the American south-west to pay homage to the Italian and even Australian western – and, after much deliberation, he ranks them in order…

Barry Stone is a an established travel writer and author of nine books on subjects ranging from religious hermits to mutinies in the age of sail and military history titles, for publishers including Hardie Grant, Allen & Unwin and HarperCollins. He is also the author of The 50 Greatest Walks of the World in this series. He lives in Sydney, Australia.

The 50 Greatest Beers of the World (eBook)

Tim Hampson

On just about every continent, from Boston’s strong ale to Norwegian stout, there are people brewing great beer. From English ales to Czech lager, Belgian sour to American pale ale, German Berliner Weisse to Australian Adelaide sparkling ale, the number of brewed beers is big and increasing daily. 

Award-winning author Tim Hampson explores beers from four continents, marvelling at how from such simple notes – malt, hops, water and yeast – a symphony of tastes and colours can be created. He discovers dark beers, light beers, sour beers, imperial stouts, beers flavoured with honey, herbs and spices, and beers that have been matured in wooden barrels that once stored some of the world’s best whiskies. 

The world of beer is undergoing a revolution. This wide-ranging selection will give any beer fan a tour of the world through their favourite drink. 

Tim Hampson has travelled the world in search of the perfect beer, a quest he hopes will continue for many more years. His previous books include World Beer, The Beer Book, the Haynes Beer Manual, London’s Best Pubs, 101 Beer Days Out and Great Beers. He is the Chairman of the British Guild of Beer Writers, and in 2015 he was knighted by the Belgian Brewers’ Guild for services to beer culture. Tim lives in Oxford together with his family, three dogs and a parrot.

From Bags to Blenders (eBook)

The Journey of a Yorkshire Businessman

Gordon Black

This is a book about success and how to achieve it. 

While there are many books about eminent retailers, From Bags to Blenders tells the story from a different angle – from the point of view of a supplier. 

Gordon Black’s career at Peter Black spanned over 40 years. He led a team with his brother which built a substantial business with sales of approximately £300 million and 3,000 employees. His revealing book faces up to the difficulties of supplying retailers today, and contrasts that with the close and fruitful relationship the Blacks enjoyed in the 1980s and 1990s with their main customer, Marks & Spencer. 

This fascinating and amusing book explains why the biggest challenge in building a successful company is the development of a culture of teamwork and passion for the business while, at the same time, avoiding arrogance and taking advice from those with experience. 

In Gordon’s opinion, exiting a business is as big a challenge as building a business. He pinpoints the different options and the pitfalls to be avoided, and emphasises the need for first-class products: ‘You can have the most modern factories and the best systems, but, without the right product, you’re dead!’ 

Gordon Black CBE DL was born in 1943 and educated at Bootham School, York and Clare College, Cambridge, where he took a degree in History.

He joined Peter Black in 1965 and became Chairman in 1977. Peter Black Holdings was a major supplier of footwear, toiletries, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals and logistics to the UK’s leading retailers, with annual sales of £300 million and around 3,000 employees. It was a plc for 25 years and was then taken private in 2000. The remaining companies were sold to Li & Fung, a Hong Kong-based global trading company, in 2007.

Gordon Black now runs Black Family Investments with his brother Thomas, and was awarded a CBE in 2005 for services to business and charity. He is married to Louise, with three children and nine grandchildren, and lives in Ilkley, Yorkshire. 

Love Voltaire Us Apart (eBook)

A Philosopher’s Guide to Relationships

Julia Edelman

Hallie Bateman

What would Kant’s sexts look like? How would Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir break up? What would Confucius think of Tinder?

Love Voltaire Us Apart is a hilarious spoof relationship guide with a philosophical edge, made up of philosophers’ love letters, advice columns and breakup letters.

From Confucius learning the Golden Rules of dating to Simone de Beauvoir considering bangs after breaking up with Jean-Paul Sartre, comedy writer Julia Edelman views the love lives of prominent philosophers through a clever and contemporary lens. She points out that Margaret Fuller is the “Carrie” of transcendentalism, and Nietzsche will always find a way to make a bad breakup infinitely worse.

“Getting Meta(Physical)—Who is Your Philosopher Crush?” is the only quiz you’ll need to find your soul mate, and “How To Know if Your Man is Writing a Manifesto” will show you how to avoid losing your relationship to imminent revolution.

Based on Edelman’s New Yorker article, “Excerpts from Philosophers’ Breakup Letters Throughout History”, Love Voltaire Us Apart is funny, smart, refreshingly original, and brought to life with charming illustrations by Hallie Bateman.

Julia Edelman grew up in New York. She studied film theory and philosophy at McGill University. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, New York magazine, McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, VICE, Cosmopolitan, Playboy, CollegeHumor and the Believer. She lives in Brooklyn.

Hallie Bateman is a Los Angeles-based writer and illustrator. Her work can be seen on halliebateman.com

What Colour is the Sun? (eBook)

Mind-Bending Science Facts in the Solar System's Brightest Quiz

Brian Clegg

Why do your fingers go wrinkly in the bath? What kind of animal can have 21 limbs? Who would really win a fight between a T.Rex and Godzilla?

Test your knowledge of all things scientific with the biggest, brightest and most mind-bending quiz book this side of the Big Bang. Featuring 100 brain-melting Q&As, with enlightening explanations provided throughout, this is the ultimate examination of what you know about space, chemistry, quantum physics, science fiction and much more.

Science writer Brian Clegg studied physics at Cambridge and specialises in making the strangest aspects of the universe accessible to the general reader. He is editor of popularscience.co.uk and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. His previous books include Inflight Science, The Universe Inside You and Science for Life.

Jane Austen, the Secret Radical (eBook)

Helena Kelly

‘A sublime piece of literary detective work that shows us once and for all how to be precisely the sort of reader that Austen deserves.’ Caroline Criado-Perez, Guardian

Almost everything we think we know about Jane Austen is wrong. Her novels don’t confine themselves to grand houses and they were not written just for readers’ enjoyment. She writes about serious subjects and her books are deeply subversive. We just don’t read her properly – we haven’t been reading her properly for 200 years. 

Jane Austen, The Secret Radical puts that right. In her first, brilliantly original book, Austen expert Helena Kelly introduces the reader to a passionate woman living in an age of revolution; to a writer who used what was regarded as the lightest of literary genres, the novel, to grapple with the weightiest of subjects – feminism, slavery, abuse, the treatment of the poor, the power of the Church, even evolution – at a time, and in a place, when to write about such things directly was seen as akin to treason. 

Uncovering a radical, spirited and political engaged Austen, Jane Austen, The Secret Radical will encourage you to read Jane, all over again.

Helena Kelly holds degrees in Classics and English from Oxford and King’s College London. She teaches Austen at an Oxford summer school, and for a programme for American visiting students in Bath. She has taught Austen to hundreds of people, of all ages, nationalities, and backgrounds. Jane Austen, The Secret Radical is her first book.

How to be Cool (eBook)

The 150 Essential Idols, Ideals and Other Cool S***

Thomas W Hodgkinson

Cool can’t be taught. That’s the received wisdom, yet this wry, entertaining compendium by Thomas W. Hodgkinson (author of the indispensable How to Sound Cultured) shows that, on the contrary, anyone can increase their cool quotient by learning from the masters and the methods of the past.

It’s never an easy journey. But to set yourself on the path to true cool, you’ll need this invaluable roadmap.

Thomas W. Hodgkinson is the co-author of How to Sound Cultured (Icon, 2015) and author of the novel Memoirs of a Stalker (Silvertail, 2015). He writes regularly for The Spectator and the Daily Mail, and is a contributing editor at The Week. He lives in North London.

Fucking Apostrophes (eBook)

Simon Griffin

'At last, a book that tells you exactly where to stick your apostrophe … funny and useful, the perfect stocking filler.' David Marsh, Guardian

Apostrophes are a pain. The rules about how to use them are complicated, and have evolved haphazardly. Originally written as advice by a copywriter for designers – wont to insert and remove apostrophes at will, for visual effect – this is a light-hearted pocket-sized guide to getting the things right.

Simon Griffin lets off steam so that we don't have to, showing precisely why 'Rhianna and Jennifer's photos were all over the internet' is quite different to 'Rhianna's and Jennifer's photos' or what words apostrophes are replacing in sentences such as 'He'd like you to buy him some cocaine', or 'They've got it all on camera.'

Elegantly produced, this is the perfect gift for any pedant, as well as an indispensable guide in all our moments of grammar-related frustration.

Simon Griffin is the founder of copywriting agency Hyperbolic (www.thisishyperbolic.com) and lives with his wife and two children in Leeds. He currently has no plans to learn how to touch type and can happily write whole paragraphs without realising he’s left caps lock on.

The Brontesaurus (eBook)

An A–Z of Charlotte, Emily and Anne Brontë (and Branwell)

Jon Sutherland

John Crace

Did Charlotte Brontë take opium? Did the Reverend Brontë carry a loaded pistol? What, precisely, does ‘wuthering’ mean?

Distinguished literary critic John Sutherland takes an idiosyncratic look at the world of the Brontës, from the bumps on Charlotte’s head to the nefarious origins of Mr Rochester’s fortune, by way of astral telephony, letterwriting dogs, an exploding peat bog, and much, much more.

Also features ‘Jane Eyre abbreviated’ by John Crace, author of the Guardian’s ‘Digested Reads’ column – read Charlotte Brontë’s masterpiece in five minutes!

John Sutherland is Lord Northcliffe Professor Emeritus at University College London and an eminent scholar in the field of Victorian fiction, author of many works including The Longman Companion to Victorian Fiction. He has also written the bestselling popular titles Is Heathcliff a Murderer? and Can Jane Eyre be Happy?, and such scholarly jeux d’esprit as Curiosities of Literature. His most recent books include How Good is Your Grammar?, Stars, Cars, and Crystal Meth and Orwell’s Nose.

John Crace is the parliamentary sketch writer for the Guardian newspaper, for which he also writes the regular Digested Read feature. He is the author of several books including, with John Sutherland, the multi-volume The Incomplete Shakespeare.