Living In The Best Of Times And The Worst Of Times

A Tale of Two Cities (1859) is the second historical novel by Charles Dickens, set in London and Paris before and during the French Revolution. It depicts the plight of the French proletariat under the brutal oppression of t+E3he French aristocracy in the years leading up to the revolution, and the corresponding savage brutality demonstrated by the revolutionaries toward the former aristocrats in the early years of the revolution. It follows the lives of several protagonists through these events, most notably Charles Darnay, a French once-aristocrat who falls victim to the indiscriminate wrath of the revolution despite his virtuous nature, and Sydney Carton, a dissipated English barrister who endeavours to redeem his ill-spent life out of love for Darnay's wife, Lucie Manette.

In the decades since the end of the Second World War, it has been widely assumed that the western model of liberal democracy and free trade is the way the world should be governed. However, events in the early years of the twenty-first century – first, the 2003 war with Iraq and its chaotic aftermath and, second, the financial crash of 2008 – have threatened the general acceptance that continued progress under the benign (or sometimes not so benign) gaze of the western powers is the only way forwards. And as America turns inwards and Europe is beset by austerity politics and populist nationalism, the post-war consensus looks less and less secure. But is this really the worst of times? In a forensic examination of the world we now live in, acclaimed historian Michael Burleigh sets out to answer that question. Who could have imagined that China would champion globalization and lead the battle on climate change? Or that post-Soviet Russia might present a greater threat to the world’s stability than ISIS? And while we may be on the cusp of still more dramatic change, perhaps the risks will – in time – bring not only change but a wholly positive transformation. Incisive, robust and always insightful, The Best of Times, The Worst of Times by Michael Burleigh is both a dazzling tour d’horizon of the world as it is today and a surprisingly optimistic vision of the world as it might become.

Living in the Best of Times and the Worst of Times—Let not Your Heart be Troubled is a volume of sermons which proclaims God’s love for a dying, sin-sick world (Second Timothy 3:1-4). In this volume, you will hear how God loved the world so much that he gave His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, so that anyone who believes in Him may not die but have everlasting life (John 3:16).

Helen Kings and Alma Carneggio couldn’t be more different: Helen makes a living as a single-mum and partner in a London law firm, while Alma lives a privileged life as the wife of a Milanese industrial aristocrat. Yet, their lives are haunted by the same tragedy: the mysterious death of Luca Carneggio, Alma’s son and Helen’s lover- and the father of Helen’s teenage daughter Emmy, an illegitimate child and therefore a disgrace to the Carneggio family. While Alma drifts through her days on painkillers and tranquillizers, hiding in her family’s estate, Helen is keeping up the façade of a tough self-made woman. But in her quiet moments, only a ghost Luca keeps her company – and her resentment towards the Carneggios alive. She blames them for the dreams she had to give up. But as Emmy turns into a young adult, this truth is being challenged - until it finally falls apart. The reader follows Alma and Helen on their winded - and sometimes funny - ways to come to terms with their past, finding a new way of being after having lost what they loved the most. When Alma is suddenly stripped of her family corset, she begins to long for meeting her only granddaughter. But is it too late for a new beginning?

A unique, highly readable approach to the environmental crisis, with alternating chapters outlining the effects on society if left unchecked, and the radical actions we can take to prevent it Now includes updated sections on COVID-19 and COP26 The environmental emergency is the greatest threat we face. Preventing it will require an unprecedented political and social response. And yet, there is still hope. Academic, physicist, environmental expert and award-winning science communicator Paul Behrens presents a radical analysis of a civilization on the brink of catastrophe. Setting out the pressing existential threats we face, he writes, in alternating chapters, of what the future could look like at its most pessimistic and hopeful. In lucid prose, Behrens argues that structural problems need structural solutions, and examines critical areas in which political will is required, including women's education, food and energy security, biodiversity and economics. The book was printed with two different jackets, to illustrate the unique duality of the author's approach.

Joe’s love of flying and adventure led him to volunteer for active service: dropping bombs on Nazi Germany. Tom’s hatred of Hitler’s vile regime brought him to the same point. The war was to throw Joe and Tom together. Within a few desperate seconds, on the way to Berlin a night-fighter attack would rip them apart. Best of Times Worst of Times tells the story of two very different men but with a single vocation: to put the Nazi war machine out of action. Each would describe themselves as ordinary men. For each, in their different ways, their wartime experience was extraordinary. For Joe fate would bring the best of times. He would cross the Atlantic on the Queen Elizabeth. He would find the woman to whom he would be married for the rest of his life. As a gunner on a Lancaster Bomber he would enjoy the camaraderie of a band of brothers on a wartime bomber station and high status among the wartime population. For Tom, fate decreed the worst of times. He would be thrown out of an exploding plane to survive; then be sentenced to death by the French resistance for being a Nazi stooge. He would know the horror of betrayal by someone he trusted and thrown into the hands of the Nazi secret police. He would know abject fear of the living death within the Buchenwald concentration camp. He would become one of very few people ever to leave it – and that in the most dramatic of circumstances. A gripping true story of war, betrayal and survival constructed from personal experience, meticulous research and eye-witness accounts.

An honest and inspiring personal account of living with bi-polar disorder.