"Photographed across four years and four continents, 'The Canary and The Hammer' details our reverence for gold and its role in humanity's ruthless pursuit of progress. Through a mix of image, text and archival material, the third book by British artist Lisa Barnard provides insight into the troubled history of gold and the complex ways it intersects with the global economy. Gold is ubiquitous in modern life; the mineral is concealed at the heart of much of the technology we use and is, most fundamentally, a potent symbol of value, beauty, purity, greed and political power. The Canary and The Hammer strives to connect these disparate stories -- from the mania of the gold rush and the brutal world of modern mining, to the sexual politics of the industry and gold's often dark but indispensable role at the heart of high-tech industry. Prompted by the financial crisis of 2008 and its stark reminder of the global west's determination to accumulate wealth, Barnard sets out to question gold's continued status as economic barometer amidst new intangible forms of technological high--finance. By addressing this through photography, Barnard in turn raises the question of how her chosen medium can respond to such abstract events and concepts. The result is an ambitious project, one sketching a personal journey in which she ultimately tackles the complexity of material representation in these fragmented and troubling times."-- Publisher's website

"Considine's writing style goes onto any subject like a piece of contact paper on furniture, and with about as profound an effect. His biography of the Occidental Petroleum (""Oxy"") sultan--a self-made millionaire who engineered grain deals with Lenin, sold the Hearst art collection to the great unwashed in Gimbels, collected the finest herd of Black Angus Aberdeens in America, and finally turned his attention to oil at the age of fifty-nine--prudently masks all individuality with a thin film of unconvincing hagiography. Dr. Hammer (no relation to the baking-soda company) got waylaid by other interests on the way to a medical career; he was starting pencil factories in the USSR and collecting icons long before America recognized the Red government (or the Soviets recognized the value of their art heritage). He cornered the market on barrel staves just in time for the end of Prohibition, made forays into the grain alcohol, potato alcohol, and both bonded and blended bourbon markets, and found time for public-spirited gestures like buying Campobello to donate it to the U.S. and Canadian governments. Much is made here of Hammer's multimillion-dollar art collection and of his hobnobbings with the great. Not the slightest mention is made of a 1974 disagreement with the IRS about alleged overvaluation of art works Hammer used as charitable donations for tax purposes, or those other nasty allegations about channeling illegal contributions to Nixon's 1972 campaign through Governor Tim Babcock of Montana. The few legal squabbles Considine does mention are of course all due to the greed, malice, or underhandedness of others, and the disastrous slump in Oxy's stock since 1972 is blandly attributed to a tactless remark by the Secretary of Commerce pooh-poohing the huge fertilizer deal being negotiated between Oxy and the Russians. An instructive exercise in bowdlerization." --AbeBooks.com.

This collection launches the second part of a special two volume series of exciting stories taking place in the world of Jeff Lemire (Sweet Tooth, Moon Knight) and Dean Ormston’s (Neil Gaiman's The Sandman, Books of Magick: Life During Wartime) Eisner Award–winning Black Hammer superhero comics. Creators such as Kelly Thompson, Cullen Bunn, Cecil Castellucci, Scott Snyder and many more of comics’ top talents take on some of the greatest heroes and villains of Spiral City! This graphic novel collects Black Hammer: Visions #5-8 and also features a sketchbook section and pinups by Yuko Shimizu, Veronica Fish, Dan Brereton, Annie Wu, Brian Hurtt, and more! Featuring tales of the cult heroes and villains of Spiral City such as the Horseless Rider, Ms. Moonbeam, Cthu-Lou, and Skulldigger!

An instant #1 New York Times bestseller! Pacific Rim meets The Handmaid's Tale in this blend of Chinese history and mecha science fiction for YA readers. The boys of Huaxia dream of pairing up with girls to pilot Chrysalises, giant transforming robots that can battle the mecha aliens that lurk beyond the Great Wall. It doesn't matter that the girls often die from the mental strain. When 18-year-old Zetian offers herself up as a concubine-pilot, it's to assassinate the ace male pilot responsible for her sister's death. But she gets her vengeance in a way nobody expected—she kills him through the psychic link between pilots and emerges from the cockpit unscathed. She is labeled an Iron Widow, a much-feared and much-silenced kind of female pilot who can sacrifice boys to power up Chrysalises instead.​ To tame her unnerving yet invaluable mental strength, she is paired up with Li Shimin, the strongest and most controversial male pilot in Huaxia​. But now that Zetian has had a taste of power, she will not cower so easily. She will miss no opportunity to leverage their combined might and infamy to survive attempt after attempt on her life, until she can figure out exactly why the pilot system works in its misogynist way—and stop more girls from being sacrificed.

This publication is made up of a series of photographs taken inside the abandoned Conservative Party headquarters at 32 Smith Square in London. Award-winning artist Lisa Barnard was granted access to the abandoned site in 2009 and documented the building and found objects. This book features previously unseen photos of the interior documenting the dulled shades of corporate blue, stained carpets, peeling paintwork and discarded iconography of past alliances.

A page-turning novel that is also an exploration of the great philosophical concepts of Western thought, Jostein Gaarder's Sophie's World has fired the imagination of readers all over the world, with more than twenty million copies in print. One day fourteen-year-old Sophie Amundsen comes home from school to find in her mailbox two notes, with one question on each: "Who are you?" and "Where does the world come from?" From that irresistible beginning, Sophie becomes obsessed with questions that take her far beyond what she knows of her Norwegian village. Through those letters, she enrolls in a kind of correspondence course, covering Socrates to Sartre, with a mysterious philosopher, while receiving letters addressed to another girl. Who is Hilde? And why does her mail keep turning up? To unravel this riddle, Sophie must use the philosophy she is learning—but the truth turns out to be far more complicated than she could have imagined.

This vintage book contains a comprehensive handbook on keeping canaries. It includes full directions for the breeding, rearing, and management of canaries and canary mules; information on cage making; formation of canary societies; exhibition canaries, their points, and how to breed and exhibit them; and all other matters connected with this fancy. This book constitutes an invaluable resource for the modern canary breeder, and it would make for an great addition to collections of related literature. The chapters include: “Cages and Cage-Making”, “Breeding and Management”, “Mule Breeding”, “Diseases”, “Moulting”, “Miscellaneous”, “The Original Canary”, “The Belgian”, etcetera. This antiquarian volume is being republished now in an affordable, modern edition - complete with a specially commissioned new introduction on aviculture.