QUICK DELIVERY
Swift dispatch
Children of the Quicksands by Efua Tr...
City girl Simi is sent to stay with her long-lost grandmother in a remote Nigerian village.
There’s no TV, internet or phone. Not a single human-made sound can be heard at night, just the noise of birds and animals rustling in the dark forest outside.
Her witchlike grandmother dispenses advice and herbal medicine to the village, but she’s tight lipped about their family history. Something must have happened, but what? Determined to find out, Simi disobeys her grandmother and goes exploring. Caught in the sinking red quicksand of a forbidden lake, her fantastical journey begins …
Winner of the 2019 Times/Chicken House Children’s Fiction Competition, Children of the Quicksands is a richly imagined magical realist adventure set in West Africa by a new voice in children’s writing, Efua Traoré.
The Crisis of Islamic Civilization by...
A bold analysis of the sources of the crisis in today’s Islamic world, from a public intellectual and statesman at its heart
Islam as a religion is central to the lives of over a billion people, but its outer expression as a distinctive civilization has been undergoing a monumental crisis. Buffeted by powerful adverse currents, Islamic civilization today is a shadow of its former self. The most disturbing and possibly fatal of these currents—the imperial expansion of the West into Muslim lands and the blast of modernity that accompanied it—are now compounded by a third giant wave, globalization.
These forces have increasingly tested Islam and Islamic civilization for validity, adaptability, and the ability to hold on to the loyalty of Muslims, says Ali A. Allawi in his provocative new book. While the faith has proved resilient in the face of these challenges, other aspects of Islamic civilization have atrophied or died, Allawi contends, and Islamic civilization is now undergoing its last crisis.
The book explores how Islamic civilization began to unravel under colonial rule, as its institutions, laws, and economies were often replaced by inadequate modern equivalents. Allawi also examines the backlash expressed through the increasing religiosity of Muslim societies and the spectacular rise of political Islam and its terrorist offshoots. Assessing the status of each of the building blocks of Islamic civilization, the author concludes that Islamic civilization cannot survive without the vital spirituality that underpinned it in the past. He identifies a key set of principles for moving forward, principles that will surprise some and anger others, yet clearly must be considered.
White Malice: The CIA and the Covert ...
A revelatory history of how postcolonial African Independence movements were systematically undermined by one nation above all: the US.
In 1958 in Accra, Ghana, the Hands Off Africa conference brought together the leading figures of African independence in a public show of political strength and purpose. Led by the charismatic Kwame Nkrumah, who had just won Ghana’s independence, his determined call for Pan-Africanism was heeded by young, idealistic leaders across the continent and by African Americans seeking civil rights at home. Yet, a moment that signified a new era of African freedom simultaneously marked a new era of foreign intervention and control.
In White Malice, Susan Williams unearths the covert operations pursued by the CIA from Ghana to the Congo to the UN in an effort to frustrate and deny Africa’s new generation of nationalist leaders. This dramatically upends the conventional belief that the African nations failed to establish effective, democratic states on their own accord. As the old European powers moved out, the US moved in.
Drawing on original research, recently declassified documents, and told through an engaging narrative, Williams introduces readers to idealistic African leaders and to the secret agents, ambassadors, and even presidents who deliberately worked against them, forever altering the future of a continent.
My Grandmother Sends Her Regards and ...
Everyone remembers the smell of their grandmother's house.
Everyone remembers the stories their grandmother told them.
But does everyone remember their grandmother flirting with policemen? Driving illegally?
Breaking into a zoo in the middle of the night? Firing a paintball gun from a balcony in her dressing gown?
Seven-year-old Elsa does.
Some might call Elsa's granny 'eccentric', or even 'crazy'. Elsa calls her a superhero. And granny's stories, of knights and princesses and dragons and castles, are her superpower. Because, as Elsa is starting to learn, heroes and villains don't always exist in imaginary kingdoms; they could live just down the hallway.
As Christmas draws near, even the best superhero grandmothers may have one or two things they'd like to apologise for. And, in the process, Elsa can have some breath-taking adventures of her own . . .
Britt Marie Was Here by Fredrik Backman
Britt-Marie can’t stand mess. A disorganized cutlery drawer ranks high on her list of unforgivable sins. She is not one to judge others—no matter how ill-mannered, unkempt, or morally suspect they might be. It’s just that sometimes people interpret her helpful suggestions as criticisms, which is certainly not her intention. But hidden inside the socially awkward, fussy busybody is a woman who has more imagination, bigger dreams, and a warmer heart that anyone around her realizes.
When Britt-Marie walks out on her cheating husband and has to fend for herself in the miserable backwater town of Borg—of which the kindest thing one can say is that it has a road going through it—she finds work as the caretaker of a soon-to-be demolished recreation center. The fastidious Britt-Marie soon finds herself being drawn into the daily doings of her fellow citizens, an odd assortment of miscreants, drunkards, layabouts.
Most alarming of all, she’s given the impossible task of leading the supremely untalented children’s soccer team to victory. In this small town of misfits, can Britt-Marie find a place where she truly belongs?
Things My Son Needs to Know About the...
Things My Son Needs to Know About the World collects the personal dispatches from the front lines of one of the most daunting experiences any man can experience: fatherhood.
As he conveys his profound awe at experiencing all the "firsts" that fill him with wonder and catch him completely unprepared, Fredrik Backman doesn't shy away from revealing his own false steps and fatherly flaws, tackling issues both great and small, from masculinity and mid-life crises to practical jokes and poop.
In between the sleep-deprived lows and wonderful highs, Backman takes a step back to share the true story of falling in love with a woman who is his complete opposite, and learning to live a life that revolves around the people you care about unconditionally. Alternating between humorous side notes and longer essays offering his son advice as he grows up and ventures out into the world, Backman relays the big and small lessons in life, including:
-How to find the team you belong to
-Why airports explain everything about religion and war
-The reason starting a band is crucial to cultivating and keeping friendships
-How to beat Monkey Island 3
-Why, sometimes, a dad might hold onto his son's hand just a little too tight.
Things My Son Needs to Know About the World collects the personal dispatches from the front lines of one of the most daunting experiences any man can experience: fatherhood.
As he conveys his profound awe at experiencing all the "firsts" that fill him with wonder and catch him completely unprepared, Fredrik Backman doesn't shy away from revealing his own false steps and fatherly flaws, tackling issues both great and small, from masculinity and mid-life crises to practical jokes and poop.
In between the sleep-deprived lows and wonderful highs, Backman takes a step back to share the true story of falling in love with a woman who is his complete opposite, and learning to live a life that revolves around the people you care about unconditionally. Alternating between humorous side notes and longer essays offering his son advice as he grows up and ventures out into the world, Backman relays the big and small lessons in life, including:
-How to find the team you belong to
-Why airports explain everything about religion and war
-The reason starting a band is crucial to cultivating and keeping friendships
-How to beat Monkey Island 3
-Why, sometimes, a dad might hold onto his son's hand just a little too tight.
Beartown by Fredrik Backman
People say Beartown is finished. A tiny community nestled deep in the forest, it is slowly losing ground to the ever encroaching trees. But down by the lake stands an old ice rink, built generations ago by the working men who founded this town. And in that ice rink is the reason people in Beartown believe tomorrow will be better than today. Their junior ice hockey team is about to compete in the national semi-finals, and they actually have a shot at winning. All the hopes and dreams of this place now rest on the shoulders of a handful of teenage boys.
Being responsible for the hopes of an entire town is a heavy burden, and the semi-final match is the catalyst for a violent act that will leave a young girl traumatized and a town in turmoil. Accusations are made and, like ripples on a pond, they travel through all of Beartown, leaving no resident unaffected.
Beartown explores the hopes that bring a small community together, the secrets that tear it apart, and the courage it takes for an individual to go against the grain. In this story of a small forest town, Fredrik Backman has found the entire world.
Us Against You by Fredrik Backman
After everything that the citizens of Beartown have gone through, they are struck yet another blow when they hear that their beloved local hockey team will soon be disbanded. What makes it worse is the obvious satisfaction that all the former Beartown players, who now play for a rival team in Hed, take in that fact. Amidst the mounting tension between the two rivals, a surprising newcomer is handpicked to be Beartown’s new hockey coach.
Soon a new team starts to take shape around Amat, the fastest player you’ll ever see; Benji, the intense lone wolf; and Vidar, a born-to-be-bad troublemaker. But bringing this team together proves to be a challenge as old bonds are broken, new ones are formed, and the enmity with Hed grows more and more acute.
As the big match approaches, the not-so-innocent pranks and incidents between the communities pile up and their mutual contempt grows deeper. By the time the last game is finally played, a resident of Beartown will be dead, and the people of both towns will be forced to wonder if, after all they’ve been through, the game they love can ever return to something simple and innocent.
Sankofa by Chibundu Onuzo
Anna is at a stage of her life when she's beginning to wonder who she really is. In her 40s, she has separated from her husband, her daughter is all grown up, and her mother—the only parent who raised her—is dead.
Searching through her mother's belongings one day, Anna finds clues about the African father she never knew. His student diaries chronicle his involvement in radical politics in 1970s London. Anna discovers that he eventually became the president—some would say dictator—of a small nation in West Africa. And he is still alive...
When Anna decides to track her father down, a journey begins that is disarmingly moving, funny, and fascinating. Like the metaphorical bird that gives the novel its name, Sankofa expresses the importance of reaching back to knowledge gained in the past and bringing it into the present to address universal questions of race and belonging, the overseas experience for the African diaspora, and the search for a family's hidden roots.
Examining freedom, prejudice, and personal and public inheritance, Sankofa is a story for anyone who has ever gone looking for a clear identity or home, and found something more complex in its place.
Under The Black Sun by Davey K Giturwa
Davey Giturwa was born in Nairobi, Kenya. He is an author of sparklingly readable literature often centered around the myriad nuances and dilemmas of life in contemporary Africa. He began writing his debut book after obsessing over long form literature with intricately connected chapters which delve into ethereal and existential subject matter. He moonlights as a writer and daylights as a lawyer.
In the old, during war, monotonous humdrum of marching was cued by the beating of drums.
To some, they endeared certainty; as sure as the rhythm, so would victory be. To others, gave hope, a distraction, enthusiasm; and to all, whatever they wanted the cadence to be.
The drums were the poets and their beats their words. Hymns, plays, film, rap and other new drums followed later on.
Settler Colonialism by Roxanne Dunbar...
Settler Colonialism examines the genesis in the USA of the first full-fledged settler state in the world, which went beyond its predecessors in 1492 Iberia and British-colonized Ireland with an economy based on land sales and enslaved African labor, an implementation of the fiscal-military state. Both the liberal and the rightwing versions of the national narrative misrepresent the process of European colonization of North America. Both narratives serve the critical function of preserving the “official story” of a mostly benign and benevolent USA as an anticolonial movement that overthrew British colonialism. The pre-US independence settlers were colonial settlers just as they were in Africa and India or like the Spanish in Central and South America.
The nation of immigrants myth erases the fact that the United States was founded as a settler state from its inception and spent the next hundred years at war against the Native Nations in conquering the continent. The founding of the United States created a division of the Anglo empire, with the US becoming a parallel empire to Great Britain, ultimately overcoming it. From day one the new “republic for empire,” as Thomas Jefferson called the new United States, envisioned the future shape of what is now the forty-eight states of the continental US.
The text originates from Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz (2021) Not A Nation of Immigrants: Settler Colonialism, White Supremacy, and a History of Erasure and Exclusion.
Religion, Politics and Society – A Pr...
Religion, Politics and Society focuses on the four major global religions—Hinduism, Buddhism, Christianity and Islam—together with minor religions like the Ahmadiyya, Confucianism, Sikhism, Seventh Day, Adventism and Traditional African Religion as well as on Secularism. The foundational premise of this book is that while spiritual beliefs differ, all humans are equal in dignity and have equal rights. No religion is more exalted than others; there are no chosen people. We all belong to the global human family. Our religious and cultural diversity is a cause for celebration, not conflict.
Religion, Politics and Society – A Pr...
Religion, Politics and Society focuses on the four major global religions—Hinduism, Buddhism, Christianity and Islam—together with minor religions like the Ahmadiyya, Confucianism, Sikhism, Seventh Day, Adventism and Traditional African Religion as well as on Secularism. The foundational premise of this book is that while spiritual beliefs differ, all humans are equal in dignity and have equal rights. No religion is more exalted than others; there are no chosen people. We all belong to the global human family. Our religious and cultural diversity is a cause for celebration, not conflict.
Transparent City by Ondjaki
In a crumbling apartment block in the Angolan city of Luanda, families work, laugh, scheme, and get by. In the middle of it all is the melancholic Odonato, nostalgic for the country of his youth and searching for his lost son. As his hope drains away and as the city outside his doors changes beyond all recognition, Odonato’s flesh becomes transparent and his body increasingly weightless. A captivating blend of magical realism, scathing political satire, tender comedy, and literary experimentation, Transparent City offers a gripping and joyful portrait of urban Africa quite unlike any before yet published in English, and places Ondjaki, indisputably, among the continent’s most accomplished writers.
The Parasitic Mind: How Infectious Id...
There's a war against truth... and if we don't win it, intellectual freedom will be a casualty.
The West’s commitment to freedom, reason, and true liberalism has never been more seriously threatened than it is today by the stifling forces of political correctness.
Dr. Gad Saad, the host of the enormously popular YouTube show THE SAAD TRUTH, exposes the bad ideas—what he calls “idea pathogens”—that are killing common sense and rational debate. Incubated in our universities and spread through the tyranny of political correctness, these ideas are endangering our most basic freedoms—including freedom of thought and speech.
The danger is grave, but as Dr. Saad shows, politically correct dogma is riddled with logical fallacies. We have powerful
weapons to fight back with—if we have the courage to use them.
A provocative guide to defending reason and intellectual freedom and a battle cry for the preservation of our fundamental rights, The Parasitic Mind will be the most controversial and talked-about book of the year.
Constitution Makers on Constitution M...
Constitution-making is a major event in the life of a country, with constitutions often acting as a catalyst for social and political transformation. But what determines the visions, aspirations and compromises that go into a written constitution? In this unique volume, constitution makers from countries around the world come together to offer their insights.
Using a collection of case studies from countries with recently written constitutions, Constitution Makers on Constitution Making provides a common framework to explain how constitutions are created. Scholars and practitioners very close to the process illuminate critical insights into how participants see constitutional options, how deadlocks are broken, and how changes are achieved.
This vital volume also draws lessons concerning the role of courts in policing the process, on international involvement, and on public participation.
The Next Millionaire Next Door: Endur...
What does it take to be The Millionaire Next Door today? Find out in this research-backed, highly anticipated follow up.
In The Next Millionaire Next Door, Dr. Thomas J. Stanley and Dr. Sarah Stanley Fallaw provide data-backed insights into what it takes to become the millionaire next door today, including:
- Identifying and ignoring the myths about wealth and income
- Understanding how those around you influence your financial behaviors
- Living below your means
- Identifying and developing your own behaviors that are conducive to building wealth
- Finding careers and opportunities that allow for both economic and lifestyle-related freedom
- Gaining knowledge and composure to invest and grow wealth
Never Lose Again: Become a Top Negoti...
The Most Practical Book on Negotiating Ever Written
Negotiating is an art. It's complicated. To become an exceptional negotiator traditionally requires years of experience in negotiations. But that doesn't mean that most people can't quickly and easily learn proven negotiating skill and techniques if someone shows them what to do. This book does exactly that.
Never Lose Again reveals a simple but remarkably effective set of fifty questions that anyone can immediately use to become far better negotiators. The fifty questions apply to all types of negotiation situations, from conflicts like buying a home or car to business transactions of all kinds. Each question has been designed to put you in the best position possible, helping you to avoid tricks, break deadlocks, discover conflict and dispute resolutions, and find hidden deals in all types of negotiations.
No other book on the market distills the key negotiation principles into such a simply, effective, and instantly usable form. By learning to use these questions, you can start thinking like expert negotiators and make better deals for yourself, your family, and your business.
Give People Money by Annie Lowrey
A brilliantly reported global look at universal basic income a stipend given to every citizen and why it might be necessary in an age of rising inequality persistent poverty and dazzling technology Imagine if every month the government deposited into your bank account with nothing expected in return It sounds crazy.
But it has become one of the most influential and hotly debated policy ideas of our time Futurists radicals libertarians socialists union representatives feminists conservatives Bernie supporters development economists child care workers welfare recipients and politicians from India to Finland to Canada to Mexico all are talking about UBI In this sparkling and provocative book economics writer Annie Lowrey examines the UBI movement from many angles,
She travels to Kenya to see how a UBI is lifting the poorest people on earth out of destitution India to see how inefficient government programs are failing the poor South Korea to interrogate UBI s intellectual pedigree and Silicon Valley to meet the tech titans financing UBI pilots in expectation of a world with advanced artificial intelligence and little need for human labor,
Lowrey explores the potential of such a sweeping policy and the challenges the movement faces among them contradictory aims uncomfortable costs and most powerfully the entrenched belief that no one should get something for nothing In the end she shows how this arcane policy has the potential to solve some of our most intractable economic problems while offering a new vision of citizenship and a firmer foundation for our society in this age of turbulence and marvels
The Book of Humans: A Brief History o...
In this new evolutionary history, geneticist Adam Rutherford explores the profound paradox of the human animal. Looking for answers across the animal kingdom, he finds that many things once considered exclusively human are not:
We aren’t the only species that “speaks,” makes tools, or has sex outside of procreation. Seeing as our genome is 98 percent identical to a chimpanzee’s, our DNA doesn’t set us far apart, either.
How, then, did we develop the most complex culture ever observed? The Book of Humans proves that we are animals indeed—and reveals how we truly are extraordinary.