Download or read book The Life of Ian Fleming written by John Pearson and published by A&C Black. This book was released on 2011-12-01 with total page 499 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the author of All the Money in the World and The Profession of Violence comes the definitive biography of James Bond's creator, Ian Fleming. It is now over fifty years since the premiere of Dr No, the very first Bond film, with Sean Connery introducing 007 as the glamorous secret agent who would become the single most profitable movie character in the history of cinema. But James Bond was invented by one man, Ian Fleming, a wartime intelligence officer and Sunday Times newspaper man who lived to see only the very beginning of the Bond cult. Pearson, who worked with Fleming at the Sunday Times, based this biography on his own memories of Fleming, on Fleming's private papers, and on a series of interviews with an extraordinary collection of Fleming's contemporaries – family, friends, enemies, teachers, colleagues, mistresses, and former spies from around the world. First published in 1966, John Pearson's famous biography remains the definitive account of how only Ian Fleming could have dreamed up James Bond, for he led a life as colourful as anything in his fiction, which in turn became a covert autobiography. Charming, debonair and a ruthless womaniser, globetrotting from wartime Algiers to beachside Jamaica, Fleming was as elusive and opaque as his imaginary creation. In his new introduction to this edition, Pearson examines the extent to which Fleming's character informs the movie portrayals of Bond, from Sean Connery through to Daniel Craig, and how Bond himself has achieved immortality beyond Fleming's wildest dreams.

Download or read book Last Girl Ghosted written by Lisa Unger and published by Harlequin. This book was released on 2021-10-05 with total page 432 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "A five-alarm fire of a situation…the surprises keep coming." —The New York Times Secrets, obsession and vengeance converge in this riveting thriller about an online dating match turned deadly cat-and-mouse game, from the New York Times bestselling author of Confessions on the 7:45 She met him through a dating app. An intriguing picture on a screen, a date at a downtown bar. What she thought might be just a quick hookup quickly became much more. She fell for him—hard. It happens sometimes, a powerful connection with a perfect stranger takes you by surprise. Could it be love? But then, just as things were getting real, he stood her up. Then he disappeared—profiles deleted, phone disconnected. She was ghosted. Maybe it was her fault. She shared too much, too fast. But isn't that always what women think—that they're the ones to blame? Soon she learns there were others. Girls who thought they were in love. Girls who later went missing. She had been looking for a connection, but now she's looking for answers. Chasing a digital trail into his dark past—and hers—she finds herself on a dangerous hunt. And she's not sure whether she's the predator—or the prey. Don't miss The New Couple in 5B, Lisa Unger's newest psychological thriller about a couple that inherits an apartment with a truly chilling past. Looking for more spine-tingling thrillers? Check out these other titles by New York Times bestselling author Lisa Unger: Under My Skin The Stranger Inside Confessions on the 7:45 Secluded Cabin Sleeps Six The New Couple in 5B (coming March 2024!)

Download or read book The Truth about Keeping Secrets written by Savannah Brown and published by Sourcebooks, Inc.. This book was released on 2020-04-07 with total page 237 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From beloved poet and YouTuber Savannah Brown comes this riveting young adult LGBTQ suspense debut, hailed as "Both ominous and deliciously twisted" (Booklist) and "Visceral, pitch-perfect...A captivatingly moody, introspective drama." (Kirkus Reviews) Sometimes it's safer for the truth to stay a secret. Sydney's dad is the only psychiatrist for miles in their small Ohio town. He knows everybody's secrets. Which is why it's so shocking when he's killed in an accident. Grief-stricken Sydney can't understand why the police have no explanation for what happened the night of her dad's car crash. And when June Copeland, the homecoming queen whose life seems perfect, shows up at the funeral, Sydney's confusion grows. Sydney and June grow closer in the wake of the accident, but it's clear that not everyone is happy about their new friendship. What is picture-perfect June hiding? And does Sydney even want to know? This winding mystery of complex grief, imperfect friendships, and burning secrets is perfect for fans of Sadie and Natasha Preston.

Download or read book Me and You written by Niccolò Ammaniti and published by Open Road + Grove/Atlantic. This book was released on 2012-02-01 with total page 83 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The bestselling author of I’m Not Scared “elegizes adolescence fiercely and sympathetically” in a novel that’s “scary, lovely and at last a heartbreaker” (Kirkus Reviews). Lorenzo Cuni is a fourteen-year-old loner. His wealthy parents think he is away on a school skiing trip, but in fact he has stowed away in a forgotten cellar. For a week he plans to live in perfect isolation, keeping the adult world at bay. Then a visit from his estranged half-sister, Olivia, changes everything. Evoking the fierce intensity and the pulse-quickening creepiness of I’m Not Scared, Ammaniti’s bestselling first novel, Me and You is a breathtaking tale of alienation, acceptance, and wanting to be loved by “a fearsomely gifted writer” (The Independent). “Immensely engaging . . . Both tender and emotionally arresting, Ammaniti’s novel is unforgettable.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review “Italian author Niccolò Ammaniti does a lot in 160 pages, including surprise, humor, and frighten you—sometimes simultaneously.” —Daily Candy “Ammaniti’s prose is nimble, perceptive and economical . . . There’s a lot to love about this book—its reticent empathy, its delicate and pragmatic treatment of addiction, its remarkable use of restricted physical space.” —Full Stop “Me and You takes a short time to read but offers a memorable experience in a mutual recognition of loneliness and grief.” —Curled Up With a Good Book “Me And You, at just over one hundred pages . . . [is a] perfect book . . . Niccolò Ammaniti disgusts me for how talented he is . . . He has written a masterpiece.” —Antonio D’Orrico, Corriere della Sera

Download or read book Apathy written by L K Reid and published by Independently Published. This book was released on 2021-09-18 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: There were sicknesses in this world even holy water couldn't wash away. In vicious nights, beautiful monsters lay. Some with faces known, some ready to play. Unsure of a friend, unsure of a foe, Be certain of nothing you think you know, Because what once enters Winworth, never leaves again. Skylar Blackwood thought she knew what monsters looked like. But in Winworth, nothing is what it seems. Not the arrival of a stranger with eyes that see too much, and lips that taste like danger. Not the young women who begin disappearing in the night. And certainly not the people in the sleepy town she grew up in that begin to turn on one another. One truth is undeniable, something wicked is loose in Winworth. No one is safe, and trusting the wrong person could cost Skylar everything. Trapped between the two worlds as secrets start to unravel, what little sanity Skylar has left threatens to shatter, leaving her with more questions than answers. Turns out, real monsters are never what they seem. APATHY is the first book in Secrets of Winworth series, dealing with dark themes that might not be suitable for all readers. It is recommended only for readers above the age of 18.

Download or read book Barbara Cartland written by John Pearson and published by A&C Black. This book was released on 2011-12-01 with total page 173 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the author of All the Money in the World, now a major motion picture directed by Ridley Scott, comes an account of a phenomenon and a legend in her lifetime, Barbara Cartland. Barbara Cartland published more than 700 novels, and she holds the Guinness World Records for the most novels published in a single year. Now, with her novels being filmed and selling throughout the world, she has become a household name. But what of the woman behind the legend? John Pearson has looked back into her past life and tells of the unexpected hardships and the young girl's dreams that produced the first Barbara Cartland novels, written in her early twenties. He reveals the influence of men like Lord Beaverbrook, Sir Winston Churchill and Lord Birkenhead on her life when she was struggling to achieve fame. This was the era of the dancing Twenties, when she received forty-nine proposals of marriage. He describes her relationships with both her husbands and her love and ambition for her talented brother Ronald - her battle to get him into Parliament and his tragic death in the war. It is a story as romantic and inspiring as any of her own novels. But Barbara Cartland has made her reputation not only as a novelist; she succeeded in getting the law changed to provide camps for gypsies and initiated a Government enquiry into the housing and conditions of old people. She has championed the cause of Natural Health and vitamins which have made such a tremendous difference to her own life. This book reveals the secret of her amazing vitality and personal magnetism which have won her the affection of family and friends, and have provided a hundred million people all over the world with her concept of love.

Download or read book Understanding Digital Culture written by Vincent Miller and published by SAGE. This book was released on 2012-08-15 with total page 266 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "This is an outstanding book. It is one of only a few scholarly texts that successfully combine a nuanced theoretical understanding of the digital age with empirical case studies of contemporary media culture. The scope is impressive, ranging from questions of digital inequality to emergent forms of cyberpolitics." - Nick Gane, York University "Well written, very up-to-date with a good balance of examples and theory. It′s good to have all the major issues covered in one book." - Peter Millard, Portsmouth University "This is just the text I was looking for to enable first year undergraduates to develop their critical understanding of the technologies they have embedded so completely in their lives." - Chris Simpson, University College of St Mark & St John This is more than just another book on Internet studies. Tracing the pervasive influence of ′digital culture′ throughout contemporary life, this text integrates socio-economic understandings of the ′information society′ with the cultural studies approach to production, use, and consumption of digital media and multimedia. Refreshingly readable and packed with examples from profiling databases and mashups to cybersex and the truth about social networking, Understanding Digital Culture: Crosses disciplines to give a balanced account of the social, economic and cultural dimensions of the information society. Illuminates the increasing importance of mobile, wireless and converged media technologies in everyday life. Unpacks how the information society is transforming and challenging traditional notions of crime, resistance, war and protest, community, intimacy and belonging. Charts the changing cultural forms associated with new media and its consumption, including music, gaming, microblogging and online identity. Illustrates the above through a series of contemporary, in-depth case studies of digital culture. This is the perfect text for students looking for a full account of the information society, virtual cultures, sociology of the Internet and new media.

Download or read book The Bluebird and the Dead Lake written by John Pearson and published by Aurum. This book was released on 2013-08-01 with total page 204 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1964, in Australia's remote outback, on the dazzling saltpan of Lake Eyre, Donald Campbell set out to drive his Bluebird car at over 400 miles an hour - faster than any man in history. Things went wrong from the start: unseasonal rains, a sodden lake bed in which every high-speed run slewed dangerously, money running short...even an Aboriginal curse. WIth death shimmering on the horizon before him, the lonely Campbell tried to hold his nerve until he broke the record. Campbell would lose his life eventually on Coniston Water, with over thirty years passing before his body was recovered in 2001, but this strangest - and greatest - of all his world record attempts was witnessed by a young reporter. John Pearson's classic book about Donald Campbell is an extraordinarily compelling and moving portrait of a modern tragic hero, fighting a battle with inhospitable elements and the outer limits of technology - and, above all, with himself.

Download or read book Free Speech in the Digital Age written by Susan J. Brison and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2019-02-27 with total page 281 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This collection of thirteen new essays is the first to examine, from a range of disciplinary perspectives, how the new technologies and global reach of the Internet are changing the theory and practice of free speech. The rapid expansion of online communication, as well as the changing roles of government and private organizations in monitoring and regulating the digital world, give rise to new questions, including: How do philosophical defenses of the right to freedom of expression, developed in the age of the town square and the printing press, apply in the digital age? Should search engines be covered by free speech principles? How should international conflicts over online speech regulations be resolved? Is there a right to be forgotten that is at odds with the right to free speech? How has the Internet facilitated new speech-based harms such as cyber-stalking, twitter-trolling, and revenge porn, and how should these harms be addressed? The contributors to this groundbreaking volume include philosophers, legal theorists, political scientists, communications scholars, public policy makers, and activists.

Download or read book The Black Box Society written by Frank Pasquale and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2015-01-05 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Every day, corporations are connecting the dots about our personal behavior—silently scrutinizing clues left behind by our work habits and Internet use. The data compiled and portraits created are incredibly detailed, to the point of being invasive. But who connects the dots about what firms are doing with this information? The Black Box Society argues that we all need to be able to do so—and to set limits on how big data affects our lives. Hidden algorithms can make (or ruin) reputations, decide the destiny of entrepreneurs, or even devastate an entire economy. Shrouded in secrecy and complexity, decisions at major Silicon Valley and Wall Street firms were long assumed to be neutral and technical. But leaks, whistleblowers, and legal disputes have shed new light on automated judgment. Self-serving and reckless behavior is surprisingly common, and easy to hide in code protected by legal and real secrecy. Even after billions of dollars of fines have been levied, underfunded regulators may have only scratched the surface of this troubling behavior. Frank Pasquale exposes how powerful interests abuse secrecy for profit and explains ways to rein them in. Demanding transparency is only the first step. An intelligible society would assure that key decisions of its most important firms are fair, nondiscriminatory, and open to criticism. Silicon Valley and Wall Street need to accept as much accountability as they impose on others.

Download or read book Motherless Brooklyn written by Jonathan Lethem and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2011-04-20 with total page 373 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD WINNER • A complusively readable riff on the classic detective novel from America's most inventive novelist. "A half-satirical cross between a literary novel and a hard-boiled crime story narrated by an amateur detective with Tourette's syndrome.... The dialogue crackles with caustic hilarity.... Unexpectedly moving." —The Boston Globe Brooklyn's very own self-appointed Human Freakshow, Lionel Essrog is an orphan whose Tourettic impulses drive him to bark, count, and rip apart our language in startling and original ways. Together with three veterans of the St. Vincent's Home for Boys, he works for small-time mobster Frank Minna's limo service cum detective agency. Life without Frank Minna, the charismatic King of Brooklyn, would be unimaginable, so who cares if the tasks he sets them are, well, not exactly legal. But when Frank is fatally stabbed, one of Lionel's colleagues lands in jail, the other two vie for his position, and the victim's widow skips town. Lionel's world is suddenly topsy-turvy, and this outcast who has trouble even conversing attempts to untangle the threads of the case while trying to keep the words straight in his head. Motherless Brooklyn is a brilliantly original, captivating homage to the classic detective novel by one of the most acclaimed writers of his generation.

Download or read book Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe written by Benjamin Alire Sáenz and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2012-02-21 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Fifteen-year-old Ari Mendoza is an angry loner with a brother in prison, but when he meets Dante and they become friends, Ari starts to ask questions about himself, his parents, and his family that he has never asked before.

Download or read book Influence written by Robert B. Cialdini and published by Pearson Scott Foresman. This book was released on 1988 with total page 434 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Influence: Science and Practice is an examination of the psychology of compliance (i.e. uncovering which factors cause a person to say "yes" to another's request) and is written in a narrative style combined with scholarly research. Cialdini combines evidence from experimental work with the techniques and strategies he gathered while working as a salesperson, fundraiser, advertiser, and other positions, inside organizations that commonly use compliance tactics to get us to say "yes". Widely used in graduate and undergraduate psychology and management classes, as well as sold to people operating successfully in the business world, the eagerly awaited revision of Influence reminds the reader of the power of persuasion. Cialdini organizes compliance techniques into six categories based on psychological principles that direct human behavior: reciprocation, consistency, social proof, liking, authority, and scarcity. Copyright © Libri GmbH. All rights reserved.

Download or read book The Panama Papers written by Frederik Obermaier and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2017-03-30 with total page 535 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the winners of the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting 11.5 million documents sent through encrypted channels. The secret records of 214,000 offshore companies. The largest data leak in history. In early 2015, an anonymous whistle-blower led investigative journalists Bastian Obermayer and Frederik Obermaier into the shadow economy where the super-rich hide billions of dollars in complex financial networks. Thus began the ground-breaking investigation that saw an international team of 400 journalists work in secret for a year to uncover cases involving heads of state, politicians, businessmen, big banks, the mafia, diamond miners, art dealers and celebrities. A real-life thriller, The Panama Papers is the gripping account of how the story of the century was exposed to the world.

Download or read book Seven Days in the Art World written by Sarah Thornton and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2008-11-17 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A fly-on-the-wall account of the smart and strange subcultures that make, trade, curate, collect, and hype contemporary art. The art market has been booming. Museum attendance is surging. More people than ever call themselves artists. Contemporary art has become a mass entertainment, a luxury good, a job description, and, for some, a kind of alternative religion. In a series of beautifully paced narratives, Sarah Thornton investigates the drama of a Christie's auction, the workings in Takashi Murakami's studios, the elite at the Basel Art Fair, the eccentricities of Artforum magazine, the competition behind an important art prize, life in a notorious art-school seminar, and the wonderland of the Venice Biennale. She reveals the new dynamics of creativity, taste, status, money, and the search for meaning in life. A judicious and juicy account of the institutions that have the power to shape art history, based on hundreds of interviews with high-profile players, Thornton's entertaining ethnography will change the way you look at contemporary culture.

Download or read book A Terrible Mistake written by H. P. Albarelli and published by Trine Day. This book was released on 2009-07-01 with total page 1125 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Following nearly a decade of research, this account solves the mysterious death of biochemist Frank Olson, revealing the identities of his murderers in shocking detail. It offers a unique and unprecedented look into the backgrounds of many former CIA, FBI, and Federal Narcotics Bureau officials—including several who actually oversaw the CIA's mind-control programs from the 1950s to the 1970s. In retracing these programs, a frequently bizarre and always frightening world is introduced, colored and dominated by many factors—Cold War fears, the secret relationship between the nation's drug enforcement agencies and the CIA, and the government's close collaboration with the Mafia.

Download or read book PostSecret written by Frank Warren and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2005-11-29 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The project that captured a nation's imagination. The instructions were simple, but the results were extraordinary. "You are invited to anonymously contribute a secret to a group art project. Your secret can be a regret, fear, betrayal, desire, confession, or childhood humiliation. Reveal anything -- as long as it is true and you have never shared it with anyone before. Be brief. Be legible. Be creative." It all began with an idea Frank Warren had for a community art project. He began handing out postcards to strangers and leaving them in public places -- asking people to write down a secret they had never told anyone and mail it to him, anonymously. The response was overwhelming. The secrets were both provocative and profound, and the cards themselves were works of art -- carefully and creatively constructed by hand. Addictively compelling, the cards reveal our deepest fears, desires, regrets, and obsessions. Frank calls them "graphic haiku," beautiful, elegant, and small in structure but powerfully emotional. As Frank began posting the cards on his website, PostSecret took on a life of its own, becoming much more than a simple art project. It has grown into a global phenomenon, exposing our individual aspirations, fantasies, and frailties -- our common humanity. Every day dozens of postcards still make their way to Frank, with postmarks from around the world, touching on every aspect of human experience. This extraordinary collection brings together the most powerful, personal, and beautifully intimate secrets Frank Warren has received -- and brilliantly illuminates that human emotions can be unique and universal at the same time.