Stranger Than We Can Imagine

Stranger Than We Can Imagine

Author: John Higgs

Publisher: Signal

Published: 2015-10-06

Total Pages: 315

ISBN-13: 0771038488

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The extraordinary story of the 20th century, as told from the furthest fringes of science, art and culture. For readers of Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything. Before 1900, history was an account of great discoveries that actually made sense. People understand innovations like the steam engine, agriculture, or electricity. The twentieth century, by contrast, gave us quantum entanglement, cubism, relativity, psychedelics, postmodernism, chaos maths, and the Somme. This is the story of that confusing century as told through the ideas produced at the furthest fringes of our sciences, arts, and culture. Its cast includes well-known geniuses such as Albert Einstein, Francis Crick, and Pablo Picasso, lesser known geniuses like Edward Lorenz, Sergey Korolyov, or Shigeru Miyamoto, and infamous but influential ne'er-do-wells like Timothy Leary, Aleister Crowley and Keith Richards. In this company we take a tour through ideas as strange as general relativity, DNA, the subconscious, Gaia theory, and Dada. In this brilliantly written and original book, John Higgs explores, with great clarity and wit, the extremes of twentieth century thought, and in doing so shows how a world of empires became a world of individuals. You will never see the twentieth century in the same way again.


I Have America Surrounded

I Have America Surrounded

Author: John Higgs

Publisher: Open Road Media

Published: 2024-07-30

Total Pages: 392

ISBN-13: 1504095715

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“A truth-seeking biography of an iconic cheerleader for LSD and his adventures in consciousness expansion”—with a foreword by Winona Ryder (Paul Krassner, founder of The Realist). The 1960s and ’70s wouldn’t have been the same without Timothy Leary, the renowned psychologist turned psychedelic drug guru. Always challenging authority, Leary rose to prominence through groundbreaking experiments, achieving mystical states and visions using magic mushrooms and LSD. A counterculture hero, his exploits inspired President Richard Nixon to call him “the most dangerous man in America.” In I Have America Surrounded, cultural historian John Higgs delivers an account of Leary’s wild and controversial life—from his inglorious time at West Point and his successful career in academia at Harvard, to the establishment of a psychedelic “summer camp” in Mexico, to his imprisonment, escape, and life as a fugitive in Algiers and Switzerland. Leary and his spiritual revolution were joined by such luminaries as Aldous Huxley, Allen Ginsberg, and Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters. He was kidnapped by Black Panthers, became an FBI narc, and ran for governor of California. I Have America Surrounded is the story of a search for alternate meaning and realities by a man who “was a Chieftain. He stomped on the terra, and he left his elegant hoof prints on all our lives” (Hunter S. Thompson). “Anyone interested in Leary beyond seeing him traduced will be sure to enjoy it, if not love it.” —Reason magazine “You will not want to put this book down—full of unbelievable, gripping adventures—get it!” —Weed World “A remarkable account of a remarkable man.” —reFRESH “A fascinating book about an extraordinary subject.” —The Beat “Enthralling.” —MixMag


Stranger Than Fanfiction

Stranger Than Fanfiction

Author: Chris Colfer

Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers

Published: 2017-02-28

Total Pages: 250

ISBN-13: 0316383414

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From #1 New York Times bestselling author Chris Colfer comes a funny, heartbreaking, unforgettable novel about friendship and fame. Cash Carter is the young, world famous lead actor of the hit television show Wiz Kids. When four fans jokingly invite him on a cross-country road trip, they are shocked that he actually takes them up on it. Chased by paparazzi and hounded by reporters, this unlikely crew takes off on a journey of a lifetime--but along the way they discover that the star they love has deep secrets he's been keeping. What they come to learn about the life of the mysterious person they thought they knew will teach them about the power of empathy and the unbreakable bond of true friendship. In this touching novel, #1 New York Times bestselling author Chris Colfer takes us on a journey full of laughter, tears, and life-changing memories.


Stranger Than Life

Stranger Than Life

Author: M.K. Brown

Publisher: Fantagraphics Books

Published: 2014-03-13

Total Pages: 249

ISBN-13: 1606997084

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One of the funniest cartoonists of the last four decades, M.K. Brown has accumulated a body of work long savored by aficionados but never comprehensively collected ― until now. Stranger Than Life is the first retrospective collection of Brown's cartoons and comic strips from the National Lampoon from 1972-1981, as well as such other magazines as Mother Jones, The New Yorker, Atlantic Monthly, andPlayboy; and her comics from underground publications like Arcade, Wimmin's Comics, Young Lust, andTwisted Sisters. In these pages: Read instructions for the use of glue, making a pair of pants, home auto repair, coping with chainsaw massacres, and jackknifing your big rig. Travel the globe to witness the giant bananas of Maui, strange sightings in Guatemala, camel races, and a "Saga of the Frozen North." Learn about love 'round the world, among eccentric suburbanites, and in a "Condensed Gothic" romance. Meet Virginia Spears Ngodátu, who (with a bit of a name change) would go on to star in "Dr. Janice N!Godatu," Brown's series of animated shorts that appeared on The Tracy Ullman Showalongside the first incarnation of The Simpsons. Aliens, old people, pilgrims, mermen, monitor lizards, tiny floating muggers and other weirdos feature in Brown's side-splitting single-panel gag strips. Brown's cartoons combine a penchant for the absurd with the gimlet observational eye of Roz Chast. Brown satirizes suburban anxiety and ennui by turning it upside-down and sideways, and her slightly grotesque yet lovable characters are perfectly captured in her restless pen line and delicate jewel-tone watercolors.


The Little Stranger

The Little Stranger

Author: Sarah Waters

Publisher: McClelland & Stewart

Published: 2009-05-05

Total Pages: 482

ISBN-13: 1551993392

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From the multi-award-winning and bestselling author of The Night Watch and Fingersmith comes an astonishing novel about love, loss, and the sometimes unbearable weight of the past. In a dusty post-war summer in rural Warwickshire, a doctor is called to see a patient at lonely Hundreds Hall. Home to the Ayres family for over two centuries, the once grand house is now in decline, its masonry crumbling, its garden choked with weeds. All around, the world is changing, and the family is struggling to adjust to a society with new values and rules. Roddie Ayres, who returned from World War II physically and emotionally wounded, is desperate to keep the house and what remains of the estate together for the sake of his mother and his sister, Caroline. Mrs. Ayres is doing her best to hold on to the gracious habits of a gentler era and Caroline seems cheerfully prepared to continue doing the work a team of servants once handled, even if it means having little chance for a life of her own beyond Hundreds. But as Dr. Faraday becomes increasingly entwined in the Ayreses’ lives, signs of a more disturbing nature start to emerge, both within the family and in Hundreds Hall itself. And Faraday begins to wonder if they are all threatened by something more sinister than a dying way of life, something that could subsume them completely. Both a nuanced evocation of 1940s England and the most chill-inducing novel of psychological suspense in years, The Little Stranger confirms Sarah Waters as one of the finest and most exciting novelists writing today.


The Moral Landscape

The Moral Landscape

Author: Sam Harris

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2011-09-13

Total Pages: 322

ISBN-13: 143917122X

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Sam Harris dismantles the most common justification for religious faith--that a moral system cannot be based on science.


Stranger Than We Can Imagine

Stranger Than We Can Imagine

Author: John Higgs

Publisher: Catapult

Published: 2015-11-10

Total Pages: 353

ISBN-13: 1593766262

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“An illuminating work of massive insight” on the complex ideas and events that initiated the historical shift between the 19th and 20th centuries (Alan Moore, author of V for Vendetta and Watchmen). “An always-provocative view of an era that many people would just as soon forget . . . an absorbing tour of the 20th century.” —Kirkus Reviews In Stranger Than We Can Imagine, John Higgs argues that before 1900, history seemed to make sense. We can understand innovations like electricity, agriculture, and democracy. The twentieth century, in contrast, gave us relativity, cubism, quantum mechanics, the id, existentialism, Stalin, psychedelics, chaos mathematics, climate change and postmodernism. In order to understand such a disorienting barrage of unfamiliar and knotty ideas, Higgs shows us, we need to shift the framework of our interpretation and view these concepts within the context of a new kind of historical narrative. Instead of looking at it as another step forward in a stable path, we need to look at the twentieth century as a chaotic seismic shift, upending all linear narratives. Higgs invites us along as he journeys across a century “about which we know too much” in order to grant us a new perspective on it. He brings a refreshingly non-academic, eclectic and infectiously energetic approach to his subjects as well as a unique ability to explain how complex ideas connect and intersect—whether he’s discussing Einstein’s theories of relativity, the Beat poets' interest in Eastern thought or the bright spots and pitfalls of the American Dream.


The Mysterious Stranger

The Mysterious Stranger

Author: Mark Twain

Publisher: BoD – Books on Demand

Published: 2019-03-12

Total Pages: 89

ISBN-13: 3749432686

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It was in 1590-winter. Austria was far away from the world, and asleep; it was still the Middle Ages in Austria, and promised to remain so forever. Some even set it away back centuries upon centuries and said that by the mental and spiritual clock it was still the Age of Belief in Austria. But they meant it as a compliment, not a slur, and it was so taken, and we were all proud of it. I remember it well, although I was only a boy; and I remember, too, the pleasure it gave me. Yes, Austria was far from the world, and asleep, and our village was in the middle of that sleep, being in the middle of Austria.


Stranger Than Fiction

Stranger Than Fiction

Author: Michael L. Williams

Publisher: Createspace Independent Pub

Published: 2012-02-01

Total Pages: 218

ISBN-13: 9781463714857

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Stranger Than Fiction: The Lincoln Curse is a revised edition consisting of 50 stories that prove, in the words of Mark Twain, sometimes truth can be stranger than fiction. According to Southern lore, a dying Confederate, versed in the dark arts, placed a curse on the Lincoln family and the Federal government. Soon afterwards, Abraham Lincoln was assassinated and calamity befell everyone who assisted or abetted the Lincoln family. In the next 98 years three more American presidents were assassinated. Each time an American president has been murdered, he was in the company of a member of the Lincoln family. Mary Lincoln was with her husband the night he was shot. Robert Lincoln, the president's oldest son, was with his father when he died the next morning. Robert Lincoln was in the company of President Garfield when he was gunned down 16 years later. The same Robert Lincoln was in the company of President McKinley when he was felled by an assassin's bullet in 1901. Evelyn Lincoln, personal secretary of President Kennedy, was near the president when he was slain in 1963. Curse or coincidence? Either way it proves truth can be stranger than fiction. Read about how medical bungling killed President Washington who was accidentally bled to death and marvel at the antiquated medical procedures that prompted one doctor to propose resurrecting Washington shortly after he died. Read how President Garfield died as a result of medical bungling. Why did a Japanese soldier go on fighting World War II for 29 years after it had ended? Examine the photo of Abraham Lincoln's ghost taken by a spirit photographer and decide for yourself is it authentic or a hoax? Muse at the antics of love starved sailors who almost took their ship apart and attempted to set sail in the dilapidated vessel to gain the affections of several island women. Read about the origins of the custom of awarding presidential pardons to turkeys. Read about the deadly wolf peach and how it became a part of the American diet. You'll be intrigued by the bizarre deaths of several prominent people including a well-known detective who died from biting his tongue. Learn of General Custer's lost treasure and of the American president who once gave a press conference in the nude. Who was the queen whose corpse was given a coronation after she died? Why was an elephant publicly executed in Tennessee? Read about the wayward outlaw who was given the nickname "The stupidest outlaw in the west." Read about the outlaw who started a movie career that spanned several decades after he was shot to death. You'll be mystified at Mark Twain's premonition of his brother's death--one that came eerily true. Imagine how you would feel if you woke up one morning and read your own obituary in the paper. It happened to Mark Twain. These and many other stories will leave the reader convinced that perhaps Twain was right when he said "truth is stranger than fiction." Michael Williams has written a children's book entitled "Great Kids in History." The book has received rave reviews from readers. The book is a collection of 22 true stories of amazing children that have accomplished incredible feats. Your child will be inspired by the stories of courage and adventure of these amazing kids. For more information visit the web site www.strangerthanfictionnews.com.