Download or read book A Mirror for Monkeys written by John Spurling and published by Prelude Books. This book was released on 2021-04-22 with total page 239 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Beneath the floorboards of a ruined house, an 18th-century memoir is discovered. It reveals the life story of William Congreve, the acclaimed English playwright. The lost manuscript is penned by his faithful servant, Jeremy, who tells how they lived together through fierce political division and triumphal nationalism in that era of war with France, the aftermath of the Glorious Revolution. Upon his death a monument in Stowe is erected to honour Mr Congreve. Atop a slender pyramid sits a monkey peering into a mirror, a court wit seeing reflected the ironies of polite society folding in on itself as Whigs and Tories feud with scant ground for compromise. Through the prisms of memory and art, award-winning author John Spurling reimagines this tumultuous period and brings to life historical figures Dryden, Vanbrugh, Swift, Pope and Lady Mary Wortley Montagu as never before.
Download or read book The Monkey in the Mirror written by Ian Tattersall and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2002 with total page 203 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The fundamental questions of our origins, along with our evolutionary future, find new life in this extraordinary book. In this superb collection of essays, eminent scientist, Ian Tattersall takes up some of the most controversial questions in evolutionary history. He argues that far from being finely engineered organisms, we are in fact improvised beings, owing as much to chance as adaptation. Tattersall leads us around the world and into the far reaches of the past, and reveals the complexities of the science of human evolution.
Download or read book The Master of Measham Hall written by Anna Abney and published by Prelude Books. This book was released on 2021-07-15 with total page 294 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 1665. It is five years since King Charles II returned from exile, the scars of the English Civil Wars are yet to heal and now the Great Plague engulfs the land. Alethea Hawthorne is safe inside the walls of the Calverton household as a lady's companion waiting in anticipation of the day she can return to her ancestral home of Measham Hall. But when Alethea suddenly finds herself cast out on the plague-ridden streets of London, a long road to Derbyshire lies ahead. Militias have closed their boroughs off to outsiders for fear of contamination. Fortune smiles on her when Jack appears, an unlikely travelling companion who helps this determined girl to navigate a perilous new world of religious dissenters, charlatans and a pestilence that afflicts peasants and lords alike. The Master of Measham Hall is the first book in a page-turning historical series. In lyrical prose, Anna Abney portrays the religious divides at the heart of Restoration England in a timeless novel about survival, love, and family loyalty. PRAISE FOR THE MASTER OF MEASHAM HALL ‘It’s rare for a historical novel to feel so timely.’ Jo Baker, Sunday Times bestselling author of Longbourn ‘Impeccably researched and wonderfully atmospheric, with a heroine you can’t help rooting for.’ Frances Quinn, author of The Smallest Man ‘Exciting and immersive. It took me straight into the heart of Restoration England in all its rich and vivid detail. I was gripped! Such beautiful writing too - Anna is a stunning new talent.’ Nicola Cornick, international bestselling author of House of Shadows ‘A thoroughly engaging romp... By turns entertaining, surprising and thought-provoking, this is an impressive debut.’ Jane Johnson, author of The Sea Gate ‘A gripping depiction of what people will do to survive, the long-held beliefs and scruples questioned and cast aside as well as the unexpected kindnesses and unusual alliances made. In elegant prose, this enthralling novel puts a human face to the trials, terrors and enduring hopes of the plague years.’ Catherine Meyrick, author of The Bridled Tongue 'A thrilling and original tale of reinvention! Death in a time of plague is expected. What happens to Abney's heroine Alethea is not. The Master of Measham Hall is a vivid and extraordinary journey of survival, and ultimately an exploration of what we gain and what we lose as we pass through this world.' VL Valentine, The Plague Letters ‘A powerful and engaging story, full of good characters, satisfying plot turns, and excellent scene-setting. With all the details and insights on offer, it feels like a rich and rewarding panorama of English culture in the 1660s. The transformation of Alethea was wonderful to read, and genuinely gripping.’ Richard Hamblyn
Download or read book The Monkey as Mirror written by Emiko Ohnuki-Tierney and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 1987 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This tripartite study of the monkey metaphor, the monkey performance, and the 'special status' people traces changes in Japanese culture from the eighth century to the present. During early periods of Japanese history the monkey's nearness to the human-animal boundary made it a revered mediator or an animal deity closest to humans. Later it became a scapegoat mocked for its vain efforts to behave in a human fashion. Modern Japanese have begun to see a new meaning in the monkey--a clown who turns itself into an object of laughter while challenging the basic assumptions of Japanese culture and society.
Download or read book The Monkeys and the Mirror written by Sutton, Vi and published by . This book was released on 1983 with total page 13 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Myth of Mirror Neurons The Real Neuroscience of Communication and Cognition written by Gregory Hickok and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2014-08-18 with total page 251 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An essential reconsideration of one of the most far-reaching theories in modern neuroscience and psychology. In 1992, a group of neuroscientists from Parma, Italy, reported a new class of brain cells discovered in the motor cortex of the macaque monkey. These cells, later dubbed mirror neurons, responded equally well during the monkey’s own motor actions, such as grabbing an object, and while the monkey watched someone else perform similar motor actions. Researchers speculated that the neurons allowed the monkey to understand others by simulating their actions in its own brain. Mirror neurons soon jumped species and took human neuroscience and psychology by storm. In the late 1990s theorists showed how the cells provided an elegantly simple new way to explain the evolution of language, the development of human empathy, and the neural foundation of autism. In the years that followed, a stream of scientific studies implicated mirror neurons in everything from schizophrenia and drug abuse to sexual orientation and contagious yawning. In The Myth of Mirror Neurons, neuroscientist Gregory Hickok reexamines the mirror neuron story and finds that it is built on a tenuous foundation—a pair of codependent assumptions about mirror neuron activity and human understanding. Drawing on a broad range of observations from work on animal behavior, modern neuroimaging, neurological disorders, and more, Hickok argues that the foundational assumptions fall flat in light of the facts. He then explores alternative explanations of mirror neuron function while illuminating crucial questions about human cognition and brain function: Why do humans imitate so prodigiously? How different are the left and right hemispheres of the brain? Why do we have two visual systems? Do we need to be able to talk to understand speech? What’s going wrong in autism? Can humans read minds? The Myth of Mirror Neurons not only delivers an instructive tale about the course of scientific progress—from discovery to theory to revision—but also provides deep insights into the organization and function of the human brain and the nature of communication and cognition.
Download or read book The Spirit Engineer written by A. J. West and published by Prelude Books. This book was released on 2021-10-07 with total page 282 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Belfast, 1914. Two years after the sinking of the Titanic, high society has become obsessed with spiritualism. In their collective grief they are attempting to reach their departed through séances. William Jackson Crawford is a man of science and a sceptic, but one night with everyone sitting around the circle, voices come to him seemingly from beyond the veil, placing doubt in his heart and a seed of obsession in his mind. Could the spirits truly be communicating with him or is this one of Kathleen's parlour tricks gone too far? Based on the true story of William Jackson Crawford and famed medium Kathleen Goligher, and with a cast of characters that includes Arthur Conan Doyle and Harry Houdini, West conjures a haunting tale that will keep you guessing until the end.
Download or read book Monkey Sonatas written by Orson Scott Card and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 1993-03-15 with total page 363 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A collection of science fiction and fantasy tales by the acclaimed author offers readers ten excursions into the realm of the fantastic and the mythic. Orson Scott Card's Monkey Sonatas: Fables and Fantasies is part of the Maps in a Mirrors series of the author's extraordinary range of collected fiction. Introduction Unaccompanied Sonata A Cross-Country Trip to Kill Richard Nixon The Porcelain Salamander Middle Woman The Bully and the Beast The Princess and the Bear Sandmagic The Best Day A Plague of Butterflies The Monkeys Thought ‘Twas All in Fun Afterword At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
Download or read book Year of the Monkey written by Patti Smith and published by Knopf Canada. This book was released on 2019-09-24 with total page 140 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the National Book Award-winning author of Just Kids and M Train, a profound, beautifully realized memoir in which dreams and reality are vividly woven into a tapestry of one transformative year. Following a run of New Year's concerts at San Francisco's legendary Fillmore, Patti Smith finds herself tramping the coast of Santa Cruz, about to embark on a year of solitary wandering. Unfettered by logic or time, she draws us into her private wonderland with no design, yet heeding signs--including a talking sign that looms above her, prodding and sparring like the Cheshire Cat. In February, a surreal lunar year begins, bringing with it unexpected turns, heightened mischief, and inescapable sorrow. In a stranger's words, "Anything is possible: after all, it's the Year of the Monkey." For Smith--inveterately curious, always exploring, tracking thoughts, writing--the year evolves as one of reckoning with the changes in life's gyre: with loss, aging, and a dramatic shift in the political landscape of America. Smith melds the western landscape with her own dreamscape. Taking us from California to the Arizona desert; to a Kentucky farm as the amanuensis of a friend in crisis; to the hospital room of a valued mentor; and by turns to remembered and imagined places, this haunting memoir blends fact and fiction with poetic mastery. The unexpected happens; grief and disillusionment set in. But as Smith heads toward a new decade in her own life, she offers this balm to the reader: her wisdom, wit, gimlet eye, and above all, a rugged hope for a better world. Riveting, elegant, often humorous, illustrated by Smith's signature Polaroids, Year of the Monkey is a moving and original work, a touchstone for our turbulent times.
Download or read book Still Life with Monkey written by Katharine Weber and published by Paul Dry Books. This book was released on 2018-08-21 with total page 294 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “A brilliantly crafted novel, brimming with heart.”―Tayari Jones, author of An American Marriage “Rich and compelling . . . Her characters are vividly, achingly real, including the tiny, furry one at the novel’s center.”―Ann Packer, author of The Dive From Clausen’s Pier “Stark and compelling . . . rigorously unsentimental yet suffused with emotion.”―Kirkus Reviews (starred review) Duncan Wheeler is a successful architect who savors the quotidian pleasures in life until a car accident leaves him severely paralyzed and haunted by the death of his young assistant. Now, Duncan isn’t sure what there is left to live for, when every day has become “a broken series of unsuccessful gestures.” Duncan and his wife, Laura, find themselves in conflict as Duncan’s will to live falters. Laura grows desperate to help him. An art conservator who has her own relationship to the repair of broken things, Laura brings home a highly trained helper monkey―a tufted capuchin named Ottoline―to assist Duncan with basic tasks. Duncan and Laura fall for this sweet, comical, Nutella-gobbling little creature, and Duncan’s life appears to become more tolerable, fuller, and funnier. Yet the question persists: Is it enough? Katharine Weber is a masterful observer of humanity, and Still Life with Monkey, full of tenderness and melancholy, explores the conflict between the will to live and the desire to die.
Download or read book Monkey in the Mirror written by Nersel Zur Muehlen and published by . This book was released on 2012-11-01 with total page 56 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Monkey Forest is a happy place, until monkey Merlin stumbles upon a magic mirror that gives him vast power over the other monkeys. He seizes the opportunity and reigns as the vicious King Merlin, until one day a curious little monkey named Koko discovers his secret... This imaginative picture book, written by Nersel zur Muehlen (Little Green Bird, Imaginary Toys) is beautifully illustrated by Sara Sanchez and illustrates the dark side of unjustified power and the power of curiosity.
Download or read book New World Monkeys written by Nancy Mauro and published by Crown. This book was released on 2009-09-15 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A savagely smart, darkly comic literary debut, New World Monkeys exposes the false idols of marital tranquillity, small-town idyll, and corporate Darwinism in the dazzling voice of a major new talent. Duncan and Lily, young and adrift in a prickly marriage and lackluster careers, flee Manhattan for the peaceful allure of a recently inherited crumbling Victorian home. But the two are left with little time to ponder the traditional "he said, she said" failings of a relationship: On an upstate road miles shy of their house, a wild boar leaps to his death in front of their Saab–an accident whose consequences will haunt them throughout the summer. That was no ordinary hog. Lily and Duncan arrive in the eccentric town of Osterhagen to discover the boar had a name: The Sovereign of the Deep Wood. That it was the town mascot. And, as the hapless urbanites are coerced into the vortex of tea socials, cannon fire, and communal history, they realize that the residents of the bizarre hamlet intend to seek justice for their fallen hero. Next come the bones. Duncan, an adman whose controversial new campaign could make or break his career, wants a temporary escape from the pressures of urban life. But his pastoral retreat darkens when an attempt at gardening turns up a human femur in the lawn, a headstone inscribed simply Tinker, 1902, and a sense that Lily’s family may have violence in its aristocratic blood. And then there’s Lloyd. Lily, conflicted about her marriage and her career, spends her days at the local library researching her impossibly arcane dissertation topic but can’t seem to make any progress. One day she observes the town pervert in action and befriends him. Lloyd, a Peeping Tom, invites her to follow him on a bird’s-eye tour of Osterhagen that may help her home in on her own flaws and failings. Keep digging. Thrown together in their complicity over the boar’s death, fueled to exhume Tinker’s bones from the garden, and inspired by Lloyd’s philosophical savoir faire, Duncan and Lily begin to excavate the profound truth about themselves and their marriage. But how deep can the two dig before the summer’s violent beginning catches up with them?
Download or read book Spider Monkeys written by Megan Borgert-Spaniol and published by Bellwether Media. This book was released on 2014-01-01 with total page 24 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: These thumbless mammals swing from branch to branch in the tropical rain forests of Central and South America. Spider monkeys are wildly social animals that sleep and eat in groups called troops. Emerging readers will learn all about spider monkeys and what sets them apart from other primates.
Download or read book That s Not My Monkey written by Fiona Watt and published by Usborne Pub Limited. This book was released on 2008-06-01 with total page 10 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Young readers may touch various surfaces on monkeys that are not the one someone is looking for, until at last the right one appears. On board pages.
Download or read book Macachiavellian Intelligence written by Dario Maestripieri and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2008-09-15 with total page 206 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Judged by population size and distribution, homo sapiens are clearly the most successful primates. A close second, however, would be rhesus macaques, who have adapted to—and thrived in—such diverse environments as mountain forests, dry grasslands, and urban sprawl. Scientists have spent countless hours studying these opportunistic monkeys, but rhesus macaques have long been overshadowed in the public eye by the great apes, who, because of their greater intelligence, are naturally assumed to have more to teach us, both about other primates and about humans as well. Dario Maestripieri thinks it is high time we shelve that misperception, and with Macachiavellian Intelligence he gives rhesus macaques their rightful turn in the spotlight. The product of more than twenty years studying these fascinating creatures, Macachiavellian Intelligence caricatures a society that is as much human as monkey, with hierarchies and power struggles that would impress Machiavelli himself. High-status macaques, for instance, maintain their rank through deft uses of violence and manipulation, while altruism is almost unknown and relationships are perpetually subject to the cruel laws of the market. Throughout this eye-opening account, Maestripieri weds his thorough knowledge of macaque behavior to his abiding fascination with human society and motivations. The result is a book unlike any other, one that draws on economics as much as evolutionary biology, politics as much as primatology. Rife with unexpected connections and peppered with fascinating anecdotes, Macachiavellian Intelligence has as much to teach us about humans as it does about macaques, presenting a wry, rational, and wholly surprising view of our humanity as seen through the monkey in the mirror.
Download or read book Monkey Portraits written by Jill Greenberg and published by Little, Brown. This book was released on 2007-10-12 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Jill Greenberg offers a fascinating, funny, and all-too-human collection of celebrity monkey and ape portraits. Each of these 76 amazing anthropomorphic photographs will remind readers of someone they know. Little, Brown and Company
Download or read book Maps in a Mirror written by Orson Scott Card and published by Tor Books. This book was released on 2009-11-30 with total page 686 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Maps in a Mirror brings together nearly all of Orson Scott Card's short fiction written between 1977 and 1990. For those readers who have followed this remarkable talent since the beginning, here are all those amazing stories gathered together in one place, with some extra surprises as well. For the hundreds of thousands who are newly come to Card, here is chance to experience the wonder of a writer so versatile that he can handle everything from traditional narrative poetry to modern experimental fiction with equal ease and grace. The brilliant story-telling of the Alvin Maker books is no accident; the breathless excitement evoked by the Ender books is not a once-in-a-lifetime experience. In this enormous volume are forty-six stories, plus ten long, intensely personal essays, unique to this volume. In them the author reveals some of his reasons and motivations for writing, with a good deal of autobiography into the bargain. "One of the genre's most convincing storytellers. An important volume."--Library Journal At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
