30 Second Literature

Whether you're looking for a new author or genre to explore, 30-Second Literature provides you with summaries of the major literary genres, styles and histories. Part of the 30-Second series, this introductory guide to literature is split into 7 chapters that cover: The History of Literature - from Sanskrit to Modernism The Novel - in all its glorious genres Literary Prose - non-fiction from diaries to philosophies Poetry - from the sonnet to the haiku Drama - interesting theatrical forms and genres Literary Devices - the techniques authors use in their works Literary Styles - the features and history of different styles of writing Each topic is summarized in 300 words and contains a small bibliography for you to expand your bookworm horizons. You can also brush up on literary terms ahead of that book-club meeting, as each chapter features its own glossary. Interspersed throughout the book are profiles of key literary figures that have impacted one of our most beloved hobbies. Literature is not just any written work; it is work that has stood the test of time, that is most widely thought to be of lasting merit. Just how particular books are elevated to literary status, reflects the values and judgements of society and mirrors the development of civilisation. This book is a broad overview of the multitude of voices used to describe our human experience. If you like this, you might also be interested in 30-Second Mythology . . .

Keynesian Economics, Free Market Capitalism, Monetarism, Game Theory and the Invisible Hand. Sure, you know what they mean. That is, you've certainly heard of them. But do you know enough about these economic theories to join a dinner party debate or dazzle the bar with your financial knowledge? 30 Second Economics takes the top 50 economic theories, and explains them to the general reader in half a minute, using nothing more than two pages, 300 words and one picture. Economics will suddenly seem a lot more fun than the economy, and make a lot more sense, and along the way you'll meet founding fathers of modern economics such as Adam Smith, David Ricardo and Alfred Marshall. From Marxism to Mercantilism, plus everything in between, this is the ultimate 'crash' course in economic theory.

When was radium discovered? Who are Dmitri Mendeleev and Glenn T. Seaborg? Who discovered uranium's radioactivity? Which element is useful for dating the age of Earth? And why doesn't gold have a scientific name? 30-Second Elements presents you with the very foundations of chemical knowledge, explaining concisely the 50 most significant chemical elements. This book uses helpful glossaries and tables to fast track your knowledge of the other 68 elements and the relationships between all of them.

From Rubik's cubes to Godel's incompleteness theorem, everything mathematical explained, with colour illustrations, in half a minute. Maths is enjoying a resurgence in popularity. So how can you avoid being the only dinner guest who has no idea who Fermat was, or what he proved? The more you know about Maths, the less of a science it becomes. 30 Second Maths takes the top 50 most engaging mathematical theories, and explains them to the general reader in half a minute, using nothing more than two pages, 200 words and one picture. Read at your own pace, and discover that maths can be more fascinating than you ever imagined.

If you would like to know your arch from your elevation, and your Baroque from your Brutalism, or you wish to end your next dinner party with a stirring speech about Sustainable Architecture, this is the quickest way to construct your argument.

The key ideas in Psychology explained, with colour illustrations, in half a minute. Pavlov's Dogs, Psychoanalysis, Milgram's Obedience Study, and Beck's Cognitive Therapy? Sure, you know what they all mean. That is, you've certainly heard of them. But do you know enough about these psychology theories to join a dinner party debate or dazzle the bar with your knowledge? 30-Second Psychology takes the top 50 strands of thinking in this fascinating field, and explains them to the general reader in half a minute, using nothing more than two pages, 300 words, and one picture. The inner workings of the human mind will suddenly seem a lot more fun, and along the way we meet many of the luminaries in the field, including William James, Aaron Beck, and (of course) Sigmund Freud. From Behaviorism to Cognitivism, what better way to get a handle on your inner demons?

Marty English, advertising executive, seems to be leading the perfect life-no one knows that he is really the estranged son of Chicago's Mafia Don. When he pulls in a multi-million dollar account with Isaac Arrow Pharmaceuticals to promote its new herbal line, it looks like he's a shoe-in to replace the aging president of his agency. The only problem is that the ad must be completed for airing during the Superbowl, less than three weeks away-with practically no time to head to Belize and shoot a commercial that will highlight Isaac Arrow's ecological commitment. Unbeknownst to Marty, the heads of Isaac Arrow have long been in cahoots with the Mob, the CIA, and the heads of Planetlife, a bogus eco-resort that is really a front for the manufacture of a highly potent drug. When Tony Inglesia, Marty's father, refuses to go in on the distribution of this new drug, the others in the crime ring plan to "eliminate this roadblock" as soon as he relinquishes his CD-Rom disk which contains one third of the code necessary to access a Swiss bank account containing millions. But their plan is thwarted; Tony's right hand man murders his boss to get in on the action, and now all that matters to them is that they recover the disk (which is now, unmarked, with its significance unexplained, in Marty's possession). For the first time, Marty must depend on the help of a county cop, and his beautiful long-time companion Reiki to help him crack the mysterious code the disc contains and bring down the crime ring...and stay alive in the process.

Examines, then employs the metaphor of cultural impact in an effort to understand how culture works in the German-speaking world. How to gauge the impact of cultural products is an old question, but bureaucratic agendas such as the one recently implemented in the UK to measure the impact of university research (including in German Studies) are new. Impact isseen as confirming a cultural product's value for society -- not least in the eyes of cultural funders. Yet its use as an evaluative category has been widely criticized by academics. Rather than rejecting the concept of impact, however, this volume employs it as a metaphor to reflect on issues of transmission, reception, and influence that have always underlain cultural production but have escaped systematic conceptualization. It seeks to understand how culture works in the German-speaking world: how writers and artists express themselves, how readers and audiences engage with the resulting products, and how academics are drawn to analyze this dynamic process. Formulating such questions afresh in the context of German Studies, the volume examines both contemporary cultural discourse and the way it evolves more generally. It links such topics as authorial intention, readerly reception, intertextuality, andmodes of perception to less commonly studied phenomena, such as the institutional practices of funding bodies, that underpin cultural discourse. Contributors: David Barnett, Laura Bradley, Rebecca Braun, Sarah Colvin, Anne Fuchs, Katrin Kohl, Karen Leeder, Jürgen Luh, Jenny McKay, Ben Morgan, Gunther Nickel, Chloe Paver, Joanne Sayner, Matthew Philpotts, Jane Wilkinson. Rebecca Braun is Executive Dean of the College of Arts, Social Sciences, & Celtic Studies at the National University of Ireland in Galway and Lyn Marven is Lecturer in German at the University of Liverpool.