Archives de catégorie : Nonfiction

SOONISH: 25 Technologies That Will Make the Future Awesome de Zach Weinersmith

The basic notion of a bunch of technologies that’ll shape the world in your lifetime

SOONISH:
25 Technologies That Will Make the Future Awesome
by Zach Weinersmith and Dr. Kelly Weinersmith
Penguin Press, tentative publication: Autumn 2016
Proposal available
Agent: The Gernert Company

In SMBC, Zach Weinersmith pours a ton of research into his web comics and would like to do a book where he can expand upon his ideas in a broader way. SOONISH focuses on twenty-five technologies that exist today, that have a shot at changing the future in amazing (and positive) ways. The book will be co-written with Zach’s wife, (doctor) Kelly Weinersmith who is on the Faculty in the BioSciences Department at Rice University in Texas. Kelly has been identified as an up-and-comer by popular science media such as BuzzFeed and The New Scientist and she will be conducting interviews with experts in various fields for the book.

Zach Weinersmith is the founder, brain and artist behind Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal – a very popular web comic that explores all sorts of topics with a smart, funny voice. His work has been featured in The Economist, The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, io9, NPR, the Freakonomics Blog, Entertainment Weekly, Mother Jones, CNN, Discovery Magazine and more. Zach’s last two books were launched on Kickstarter and raised over $700,000 combined in 30 days each. His most recent book is the most funded children’s book ever on Kickstarter. SMBC has an international following as well.

Elon Musk, l’itinéraire d’un audacieux entrepreneur

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt publiera INSANE MODE: Inside Tesla and Elon Musk’s Mission to Save the World de Hamish McKenzie, une enquête journalistique sur le fondateur de Tesla Motors, surnommé le « nouveau Steve Jobs ». Né en 1971 et d’origine sud-africaine, Elon Musk est en effet considéré aujourd’hui comme l’un des chefs d’entreprise les plus influents. Ses sociétés Tesla Motors (automobile et énergie) et Space X (aérospatial) sont au centre des plus importants progrès technologiques des dernières années.

An insider’s account of how Elon Musk is shaping the story of our future

INSANE MODE
Inside Tesla and Elon Musk’s Mission to Save the World
by Hamish McKenzie
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2016 (Manuscript due March 2016)
Agent: James Levine – Levine Greenberg Rostan Literary Agency

With every audacious announcement, interest in Elon Musk and Tesla increases. Just as there was huge demand for another book about Steve Jobs after Walter Isaacson’s bestselling biography, so there will be demand for Insane Mode, even in the wake of Ashlee Vance’s recent bestseller and Musk’s own future-oriented book. Elon Musk, like Thomas Edison before him, has a keen understanding that his success will depend not just on his genius as an inventor, but also on his ability to form a commanding narrative: to craft, control, and compel people to believe in the story of a world that does not yet exist.

Hamish McKenzie is an international journalist and former lead writer for Tesla Motors. In recent years, he was also a reporter for the tech blog PandoDaily, where he covered tech media, politics, and international startups, and he is the author of “Beta China: The Dawn of an Innovation Generation”.  Formerly, he was a freelancer writing features for the Listener, New Zealand’s leading current affairs and arts magazine, and the South China Morning Post, Hong Kong’s leading English-language newspaper. His work has also appeared in a wide range of publications in the UK, the US, Australia, and Canada, including the Guardian, Globe and Mail, and Toronto Star, and helped launch Time Out Hong Kong. He has reported from Asia, Australasia, North America, and Europe, and he has interviewed many leading figures from the worlds of tech, academia, and entertainment, including Sting, John Cleese, Robert Smith, Bret McKenzie, Billy Corgan, Wayne Coyne, Ndaba Mandela, and Cory Booker.

HUMANS OF NEW YORK: STORIES de Brandon Stanton

Filled with longer, more in-depth stories, along with the gorgeous photos and insights that made HUMANS OF NEW YORK such a massive success

HUMANS OF NEW YORK: STORIES
by Brandon Stanton
St. Martin’s Press, October 2015
Agent: Brian DeFiore

OVER 650,000 COPIES SOLD OF HUMANS OF NEW YORK

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

35 WEEKS ON NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER LIST

OVER FIFTEEN MILLION FOLLOWERS ON FACEBOOK/INSTAGRAM/TUMBLR AROUND THE WORLD

Brandon came to New York four years ago, at age 26, an amateur street photographer with the idea of creating what he calls “a visual census” of the five boroughs. What he has created has now become, in the words of The New York Times: « …an instant publishing phenomenon. » HONY has been featured in The Times, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Entertainment Weekly, he has appeared on Nightline, CBS This Morning, Fox and Friends, has been a « person of the week » on the ABC Nightly News and a Time Magazine « 30 under 30 » who have changed the world.
The highly anticipated new book HUMANS OF NEW YORK: STORIES expands on the richness and beauty of the first book, and delves deeper, as the website now does, turning the book more into a storytelling experience than a purely photographic one. With an almost 20% larger page count, more photos, more stories, much bigger reach and following and prestige for the project, this is destined to be one of the biggest bestsellers of the year.

Brandon Stanton studied at the University of Georgia and worked as a bond trader in Chicago before starting “Humans of New York”—a photography and storytelling blog—in the Summer of 2010. He has appeared on Ellen, Good Morning America, Nightline, MSNBC, CNN, has been featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Los Angeles Times, Huffington Post, Mashable, and dozens of other media venues. He has also been named a ‘person of the week’ on the ABC Evening News with Diane Sawyer, and a Time Magazine “30 Under 30 Who are Changing the World” and has photographed President Obama in the Oval Office. He is the author of the #1 New York Times Bestseller HUMANS OF NEW YORK and the New York Times bestselling children’s book LITTLE HUMANS.

THE LIGHT OF THE SAME SUN de Kailash Satyarthi, Prix Nobel de la paix 2014

An extraordinary man

THE LIGHT OF THE SAME SUN
by Kailash Satyarthi
Proposal available

 The Light of the Same Sun will trace Kailash’s path from his awakening to the injustices plaguing his own city of birth in central India to his emergence as one of the most steadfast and essential seekers of justice in our time. Kailash will also focus on the stories of individual children who he’s rescued during frequently harrowing operations, allowing us to glimpse their progress beyond the restraints of their captivity. This book will look back on the tragedies and triumphs of his efforts, as it points the way forward, with the unyielding optimism and call to action that the matter so desperately requires. This is a book born of and dedicated to a mission that we would all do well to join – national governments, inter-governmental organizations and NGO’s, private industry and the individual citizens who populate all of these entities. We are all implicated, just as we are all capable, in Kailash’s words, of “doing our bit.”

Kailash Satyarthi is a human rights activist from India who has been at the forefront of the global movement to end child slavery and exploitative child labor since 1980 when he gave up a lucrative career as an Electrical Engineer for initiating crusade against Child Servitude. As a grassroots activist, he has led the rescue of over 80000 child slaves and developed a successful model for their education and rehabilitation. As a worldwide campaigner, he has been the architect of the single largest civil society network for the most exploited children, the Global March Against Child Labor, which is a worldwide coalition of NGOs, Teachers’ Union and Trade Unions. He is a member of a High Level Group formed by UNESCO on Education for All comprising of select Presidents, Prime Ministers and UN Agency Heads. He has survived numerous attacks on his life during his crusade to end child labour, but despite of these attacks his commitment to stand tall for the cause of child slaves has been unwavering.

Kailash Satyarthi’s Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech:

BLAIR INC., les masques tombent

BLAIR INC. est un livre à charge contre l’ancien premier ministre britannique, soulignant entre autres son obsession pour l’argent. Destiné à faire polémique, il sera publié le 19 mars prochain par l’éditeur anglais John Blake (le texte est actuellement sous embargo). Mais la presse française en parle déjà…

A heavyweight, hard-hitting book by three critically-acclaimed, hugely respected political journalists that places the financial empire of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair under the microscope, revealing the extremely morally suspect ways in which he has amassed a fortune to be counted in tens of millions since leaving office in 2007

BLAIR INC.:
The Man Behind the Mask
by Francis Beckett, David Hencke and Nick Kochan
John Blake Publishing Ltd, March 2015

Since leaving office in 2007, the empire of Tony Blair has grown exponentially. As a businessman he has been unprecedentedly successful for a former public servant, with a large property portfolio and an estimated GBP80 million of earnings accrued in just a few short years. But how has he managed to achieve this? Being an ex-Prime Minister comes with certain advantages, and besides his excellent state pension and twenty-four-hour security team, Blair enjoys the best contacts that money can buy – as do those willing to pay him for access to those contacts. Consequently, Tony Blair Associates’ clients can be found around the world, and include the controversial presidents of Kazakhstan and Burma.

There is also Blair’s role as special envoy in the Middle East. While his record as a peacemaker is in doubt, the position has brought him into contact with a variety of oil-rich potentates in the region who now number among his most profitable clients. BLAIR INC.: The Man behind the Mask takes a close look at the complex financial structures in Blair’s world. From the many layers of tax liability to the multiple conflicts of interest produced by his increasing web of relationships, this book exposes the private dealings of this very public figure.