Archives de catégorie : Nonfiction

EDEN UNDONE d’Abbott Kahler

With a mystery as alluring and exotic as the Galapagos itself, EDEN UNDONE explores the universal and timeless desire to seek Utopia—and how human fallibility renders such a quest doomed.

EDEN UNDONE:
A True Story of Sex, Murder, and Utopia at the Dawn of World War II
by Abbott Kahler
Crown, Fall 2024
(via Writers House)

In December 1934, at the height of the Great Depression, Los Angeles oil mogul George Allan Hancock and his crew of Smithsonian scientists came upon a gruesome scene: two bodies, mummified by the searing heat, on the shore of a remote Galapagos island. The deaths, though shocking, seemed inevitable. For the past four years Hancock had been traveling to the Galapagos, as had other wealthy, prominent Americans, to collect specimens for scientific research. On his first trip, Hancock was surprised to discover an equally exotic group of humans: European exiles who had fled political and economic unrest, hoping to create a Utopian paradise. One was so devoted to a life of isolation that he’d had his teeth extracted and replaced with a set of steel dentures.

As Hancock and his fellow American explorers would witness, the paradise suffered from chaos. The three sets of exiles—a Berlin doctor and his lover, a traumatized World War I veteran and his young family, and an Austrian Baroness with two adoring lovers—turned against each other. Petty slights led to angry confrontations. The Baroness, wielding a riding crop and pearl-handled revolver, staged physical fights between her two lovers, seduced American tourists, and threatened a friend of businessman and philanthropist Vincent Astor. The conclusion was deadly: two exiles missing and two others dead, with the survivors hurling accusations of murder.

Using never-before-published archives, and set against the backdrop of the Great Depression and the march to World War II, Abbott Kahler weaves a chilling, stranger-than-fiction tale worthy of Agatha Christie. With a mystery as alluring and exotic as the Galapagos itself, EDEN UNDONE explores the universal and timeless desire to seek Utopia—and how human fallibility renders such a quest doomed.

Abbott Kahler, formerly writing as Karen Abbott, is the New York Times bestselling author of Sin in the Second City; American Rose; Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy; and The Ghosts of Eden Park, which was an Edgar Award finalist for best fact crime and a finalist for the Ohioana Book Award. Her debut novel, Where You End, was published January 2024.

THE SEASON de Helen Garner

[Garner’s sharp eye, wit and warm humour bring the team and the season to life, as she documents this pivotal moment, both as part of the story and as silent witness. It’s a reflection on masculinity, on the nobility, grace and grit of team spirit and the game’s power to enthrall.

THE SEASON
by Helen Garner
Text Publishing, August 2024

I pull up at the kerb. I love this park they train in. I must have walked the figure-of-eight around its ovals hundreds of times, at dawn, winter and summer, to throw the ball for Dozer, our red heeler, but he’s buried now, in the backyard, under the crepe myrtle near the chook pen.

The boy jumps out with his footy and trots away, bouncing it. Boy? Look at him. He’s five foot eleven. The last of my three grandkids. This year he’s in the Under 16s.

It’s footy [Australian football] season in Melbourne, and Helen Garner is following her grandson’s suburban team. She turns up not only at every game (give or take), but at every training session, shivering on the sidelines in the dark, fascinated by the spectacle.

She’s a passionate Western Bulldogs supporter (with a rather shaky grasp of the rules) and a great admirer of the players and the epic theatre of the game. But this is something more than that. It is a chance to connect with her youngest grandchild, to be close to him in his last moments as a child and in his headlong rush into manhood. To witness his triumphs and defeats, to fear for his safety in battle, to gasp and to cheer for the team as it fights its way towards the finals.

Helen Garner writes novels, stories, screenplays and works of non-fiction. In 2006 she received the inaugural Melbourne Prize for Literature, and in 2016 she won the prestigious Windham–Campbell Prize for non-fiction. In 2019 she was honoured with the Australia Council Award for Lifetime Achievement in Literature. And in 2023 she was awarded the ASA Medal for her outstanding contribution to Australian literature. Her works include Monkey Grip, The Children’s Bach, The First Stone, The Spare Room, This House of Grief and three volumes of her diaries. She lives in Melbourne.

GREAT QUOTES FROM GREAT SCIENTISTS de Chris Ferrie

From #1 bestselling author Chris Ferrie comes a collection of can’t miss quotes and life lessons from some of history’s greatest scientists!

GREAT QUOTES FROM GREAT SCIENTISTS
Quotes, Lessons, and Universal Truths from the World’s Greatest Scientific Minds
by Chris Ferrie
Simple Truths/Sourcebooks, May 2024

Mixing famous scientists from history with modern-age ground breakers, this collection explores life lessons from the scientific mindset of: experiment, fail, repeat. Curiosity is king and finding answers through the process of learning (and failure) is all any good scientist can ask! This giftable package offers quotes and life lessons that are equally educational and inspirational, allowing people to learn and feel inspired when meeting new challenges and in their every day life.

Chris Ferrie is an award-winning physicist and Senior Lecturer for Quantum Software and Information at the University of Technology Sydney. He has a Masters in applied mathematics, BMath in mathematical physics and a PhD in applied mathematics. He lives in Australia with his wife and children.

PREDICTED FUTURES de Jackie Snow

With the urgency of Naomi Klein and the expert on-the-ground reporting of Elizabeth Kolbert, Jackie Snow’s PREDICTED FUTURES dives into the world of climate change and technology and emerges with a rare find: hope.

PREDICTED FUTURES
How Artificial Intelligence Could Save the Natural World
by Jackie Snow
TBD
(via The Friedrich Agency)

Using case studies that range from AI assisted reforestation in Australia to coral mapping in Belize, PREDICTED FUTURES is a cohesive, imagery-rich narrative arguing for AI’s uniquely qualified ability to help us protect our planet. Written with elegance and authority, this galvanizing proposal is free of hysteria but clear-eyed about what it will take—and more importantly, what is already being done—to save our cherished world.

Jackie Snow is a multimedia journalist published by National Geographic, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and others. She reported a 10-part series for PBS called “AI for Good,” and received the Harvard Medical School Media Fellowship in 2019.

WHY WON’T YOU SLEEP? de Kim West et Gordon Macall

Sleep training didn’t work for you? You’re not the only one—and you don’t need to give up. Researcher and sleep coach Macall Gordon and the Sleep Lady Kim West offer a tried-and-true approach to shifting sleep behavior that actually works . . . even when nothing else has.

WHY WON’T YOU SLEEP?
A Game-Changing Approach for Exhausted Parents of Nonstop, Super Alert, Big Feeling Kids
by Kim West & Gordon Macall
BenBella, November 2024
(via Levine Greenberg Rostan)

A tsunami of modern sleep training methods promise “easy” and “quick” results and for many parents and children, these methods work as intended. However, there is a large, exhausted group of parents whose children have sleep problems that are not responsive to those crying-based methods. These children tend to be more reactive, persistent, and perceptive than their peers. And when it comes to sleep, little ones with this kind of temperament put up a much, much bigger fight. They need a different approach. That’s where Why Won’t You Sleep? comes in. Based on extensive research and proven methods used with thousands of families just like yours, this guide gives you strategies tailored to your child’s unique temperament. Readers will learn:

  • Why popular sleep training techniques, don’t work for some children
  • Simple changes to your child’s routine and environment that prime their nervous system for slumber
  • A step-by-step plan for your child, using the time-tested approach that doesn’t require leaving babies alone to cry
  • Tips, tricks, and workarounds for night wakings, co-sleeping, and more
  • How to gently push past plateaus and setbacks

Additionally, Gordon and West provide much-needed encouragement, validation, and insights to bolster parents’ self-confidence and resilience along the way. Why Won’t You Sleep? will finally give you concrete answers to why sleep has been more challenging for you and your child—and offers a much-needed confidence boost that will leave you saying, “I’ve got this.” Kim West, MSW, is a mom of two who has been a practicing child and family social worker for over 25 years. She has personally helped over twenty thousand families all over the world gently teach their children how to fall asleep—and fall back asleep without leaving them to cry it out alone. She started training Gentle Sleep Coaches internationally in 2010 and has appeared as a child sleep expert on numerous magazines, newspapers, and television programs including Dr. Phil, TODAY, and Good Morning America.

Macall Gordon has a master’s degree in applied psychology from Antioch University in Seattle with a research-based specialization in infant mental health, sleep advice, and parenting culture. She also has a BS in human biology from Stanford University. She is a senior lecturer in the graduate counseling psychology program at Antioch University. She has conducted and presented her own research on temperament, sleep, and parenting advice at infant and child development conferences around the world. She has been a featured speaker at national sleep conferences and has led webinar-based advanced training for sleep coaches, mental health providers, and others on the impact of temperament on sleep. She is a certified Gentle Sleep Coach (trained by Kim West) and a featured provider on the women’s telehealth platform, Maven Clinic. She comes to this work because she had two sensitive, alert, intense children, and she didn’t sleep for 18 years.