Losing The Sky

From the foreword by Brian May: "Professor Lawrence, in this timely book, tackles an issue which is about to become highly contentious around the world... This book will hopefully spark enough discussion to put the brakes on this destruction of our dark skies.".

Includes excerpts from Clean; and Beautiful both by Amy Reed.

"This collection of thirty-one essays by contemporary teachers of Tibetan Buddhism, both Western teachers and Tibetan lamas, provides readers a multifaceted glimpse of the Buddhist practice within the Dzogchen tradition, from its biggest authorities. Sogyal Rinpoche, the author of the bestselling Tibetan Book of Living and Dying, is the primary contributor, contributing seven of the teachings included here, but the collection also includes teachings from the Dalai Lama, Ringu Tulku, Francesca Fremantle, Chökyi Nyima Rinpoche, Dzogchen Pönlop Rinpoche, Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche, and many others. From basic advice on turning the mind toward spiritual concerns through expressions of the highest insights on mind and reality, readers will discover how to integrate Buddhist ideas and practices with the activities and experiences that make up our day-to-day lives. "

From the bestselling author of The Longest Holiday comes a heart-warming novel about a woman contemplating her life: Is the grass really greener on the other side of the world? Settling down for a twenty-four-hour flight to Australia, Lucy finds a text message on her phone—not from her boyfriend James, as she fondly hopes, but from a woman claiming to have slept with him four times in the past month. Trapped on the plane, she questions everything about her relationship with James. She finally calls him and he reassures her: it was only his mates playing a silly joke. James is a lawyer, persuasive and gorgeous, and Lucy adores him. So why, at her best friend’s wedding, does she have niggling doubts, and find herself attracted to the bride’s brother-in-law Nathan? The sooner she gets back to her regular life in London, the flat she shares with James, her job in PR, the better. Nathan is just a happy-go-lucky surfer boy, with no prospects, no place to live, an almost-girlfriend in tow. Suddenly Lucy finds herself caught between two distant continents and two very different men…

The threat to the sky from satellite mega-constellations, why it matters, and what we can do about it From the foreword by Brian May: "Professor Lawrence, in this timely book, tackles an issue which is about to become highly contentious around the world... This book will hopefully spark enough discussion to put the brakes on this destruction of our dark skies." From Dava Sobel, author "Longitude" and "The Glass Universe": "At the beginning of this essential book, Andy Lawrence shares dark sky memories in which even a car breakdown on a deserted road turns magical and formative when the stars appear. Let there be dark." From Dave Eicher, editor-in-chief of Astronomy Magazine: “Professor Lawrence’s book ought to be required reading for every astronomer and astronomy enthusiast who values the starry sky and what might happen to it in future times.” From Mark McCaughrean, Senior Science Adviser, European Space Agency: "As commercial developers flood low Earth orbit with satellites to exploit the demand for more movie streaming, videoconferencing, low-latency gaming, and high-speed trading, what's the real cost? ." From Pippa Goldschmidt, author of The Falling Sky and The Need for Better Regulation of Outer Space: “An important book about an important subject. Professor Andy Lawrence explains how obliteration of our view of the heavens by the next generation of communications satellites is akin to destruction of the Earth’s natural habitats.” From John A. Murray, author or editor of 45 nature books, including Wild Africa, A Republic of Rivers, and The Islands and The Sea: "Simply put, this remarkable book should be in all libraries, public or private, that aspire to be complete on the subjects of science and technology. Working together, people around the planet, inspired by this eloquent and passionate book, can put an end to the madness and folly of "artificial constellations" "

In this contemporary graphic novel, twelve-year-old Lucy discovers her father's collection of Beatles records and is inspired to form an all-girl rock band. It’s the first day of seventh grade, and everything is going downhill for Lucy Sutcliffe. At school, she has the feeling her friends are all leaving her behind. At home, her single father is in a rut, and her perpetually traveling photojournalist mother is more absent than ever. Worst of all, Lucy’s grandmother is undergoing chemotherapy and is no longer the warm, vibrant presence that her family has come to depend on. But everything changes the day Lucy discovers a box of her father’s Beatles records. Inspired by their music, she gets a drum set and forms an all-girl rock band with her friends. But can she keep the band together when petty rivalries, unrequited crushes, and outside pressures threaten to tear it apart?

Amidst the Chinese-Malay conflict in Kuala Lumpur in 1969, sixteen-year-old Melati must overcome prejudice, violence, and her own OCD to find her way back to her mother.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER “This is history at its most immediate and moving…A marvelous and memorable book.” —Jon Meacham “Remarkable…A priceless civic gift…On page after page, a reader will encounter words that startle, or make him angry, or heartbroken.” —The Wall Street Journal “Visceral...I repeatedly cried…This book captures the emotions and unspooling horror of the day.” —NPR “Had me turning each page with my heart in my throat…There’s been a lot written about 9/11, but nothing like this. I urge you to read it.” —Katie Couric The first comprehensive oral history of September 11, 2001—a panoramic narrative woven from the voices of Americans on the front lines of an unprecedented national trauma. Over the past eighteen years, monumental literature has been published about 9/11, from Lawrence Wright’s The Looming Tower, which traced the rise of al-Qaeda, to The 9/11 Commission Report, the government’s definitive factual retrospective of the attacks. But one perspective has been missing up to this point—a 360-degree account of the day told through the voices of the people who experienced it. Now, in The Only Plane in the Sky, award-winning journalist and bestselling historian Garrett Graff tells the story of the day as it was lived—in the words of those who lived it. Drawing on never-before-published transcripts, recently declassified documents, original interviews, and oral histories from nearly five hundred government officials, first responders, witnesses, survivors, friends, and family members, Graff paints the most vivid and human portrait of the September 11 attacks yet. Beginning in the predawn hours of airports in the Northeast, we meet the ticket agents who unknowingly usher terrorists onto their flights, and the flight attendants inside the hijacked planes. In New York City, first responders confront a scene of unimaginable horror at the Twin Towers. From a secret bunker underneath the White House, officials watch for incoming planes on radar. Aboard the small number of unarmed fighter jets in the air, pilots make a pact to fly into a hijacked airliner if necessary to bring it down. In the skies above Pennsylvania, civilians aboard United Flight 93 make the ultimate sacrifice in their place. Then, as the day moves forward and flights are grounded nationwide, Air Force One circles the country alone, its passengers isolated and afraid. More than simply a collection of eyewitness testimonies, The Only Plane in the Sky is the historic narrative of how ordinary people grappled with extraordinary events in real time: the father and son working in the North Tower, caught on different ends of the impact zone; the firefighter searching for his wife who works at the World Trade Center; the operator of in-flight telephone calls who promises to share a passenger’s last words with his family; the beloved FDNY chaplain who bravely performs last rites for the dying, losing his own life when the Towers collapse; and the generals at the Pentagon who break down and weep when they are barred from rushing into the burning building to try to rescue their colleagues. At once a powerful tribute to the courage of everyday Americans and an essential addition to the literature of 9/11, The Only Plane in the Sky weaves together the unforgettable personal experiences of the men and women who found themselves caught at the center of an unprecedented human drama. The result is a unique, profound, and searing exploration of humanity on a day that changed the course of history, and all of our lives.