The book to read if you want to get some idea of the original primal energy of pop music. Nik Cohn: A Derry boy who became the omnipresent man in music's developing story from the 50s to the present; a self-styled rat, addicted to adventure, a rock legend, forever at the heart of the real action. This memoir provides a strong flavour of the person whose writing inspired Saturday Night Fever and several other pop-culture landmarks. Cohn leads us, in reverse order, through the decades of his musical life and times, meeting familiar heroes and rogues - let readers decide the categories to which Hendrix, Moon, Proby, Vicious et al belong. The Noise From The Streets is elegiac, charming and thoughtful - wallow in it. Nik Cohn recently headed Jarvis Cocker's top 10 music books in The Guardian (13 June 2014) for his title Awopbopaloobop Alopbamboom. 'The original title for this book was ' Pop from the Beginning' and that pretty much sums it up. Nik Cohn was only just out of his teens when he wrote it and it's the book to read if you want to get some idea of the original primal energy of pop music. Loads of unfounded, biased assertions that almost always turn out to be right. He went on to provide the inspiration for Saturday Night Fever (Hurrah!) and Tommy (Boo!), but this is still his best book. Absolutely essential.'

As the twentieth century roared on, transformative technologies—from trains, trams, and automobiles to radios and loudspeakers—fundamentally changed the sounds of the Egyptian streets. The cacophony of everyday life grew louder, and the Egyptian press featured editorials calling for the regulation of not only mechanized and amplified sounds, but also the voices of street vendors, the music of wedding processions, and even the traditional funerary wails. Ziad Fahmy offers the first historical examination of the changing soundscapes of urban Egypt, highlighting the mundane sounds of street life, while "listening" to the voices of ordinary people as they struggle with state authorities for ownership of the streets. Interweaving infrastructural, cultural, and social history, Fahmy analyzes the sounds of modernity, using sounded sources as an analytical tool for examining the past. Street Sounds also reveals a political dimension of noise by demonstrating how the growing middle classes used sound to distinguish themselves from the Egyptian masses. This book contextualizes sound, layering historical analysis with a sensory dimension, bringing us closer to the Egyptian streets as lived and embodied by everyday people.

Nature Based Strategies for Urban and Building Sustainability reviews the current state-of-the-art on the topic. In the introduction, the editors review the fundamental concepts of nature elements in the built environment, along with the strategies that are necessary for their inclusion in buildings and cities. Part One describes strategies for the urban environment, discussing urban ecosystems and ecosystem services, while Part Two covers strategies and technologies, including vertical greening systems, green roofs and green streets. Part Three covers the quantitative benefits, results, and issues and challenges, including energy performances and outdoor comfort, air quality improvement, acoustic performance, water management and biodiversity. - Provides an overview of the different strategies available to integrate nature in the built environment - Presents the current state of technology concerning systems and methodologies on how to incorporate nature in buildings and cities - Features the latest research results on operation and ecosystem services - Covers both established and new designs, including those still in the experimental stage

Part memoir, part literary biography, the writing of Sylvia Plath teaches one young woman the power of her own feelings.