Brida

Brida, a young Irish girl, has long been interested in various aspects of magic but is searching for something more. Her search leads her to people of great wisdom. She meets a wise man who dwells in a forest, who teaches her to trust in the goodness of the world, and a woman who teaches her how to dance to the music of the world. As Brida seeks her destiny, she struggles to find a balance between her relationships and her desire to become a witch.

This enthralling novel incorporates themes that fans of Paulo Coelho will recognize and treasure. It is a tale of love, passion, mystery, and spirituality from the master storyteller.

Persepolis

Wise, often funny, sometimes heartbreaking, “Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood” tells the story of Marjane Satrapi’s life in Tehran from the ages of six to fourteen, years that saw the overthrow of the Shah’s regime, the triumph of the Islamic Revolution and the devastating effects of war with Iraq. The intelligent and outspoken child of radical Marxists, and the great-grandaughter of Iran’s last emperor, Satrapi bears witness to a childhood uniquely entwined with the history of her country. Persepolis paints an unforgettable portrait of daily life in Iran and of the bewildering contradictions between home life and public life. Amidst the tragedy, Marjane’s child’s eye view adds immediacy and humour, and her story of a childhood at once outrageous and ordinary, beset by the unthinkable and yet buffered by an extraordinary and loving family, is immensely moving. It is also very beautiful; Satrapi’s drawings have the power of the very best woodcuts.

Ways of Seeing (Penguin Modern Classics)

John Berger

How do we see the world around us? “The Penguin on Design” series includes the works of creative thinkers whose writings on art, design and the media have changed our vision forever. “Seeing comes before words. The child looks and recognizes before it can speak.” “But, there is also another sense in which seeing comes before words. It is seeing which establishes our place in the surrounding world; we explain that world with words, but word can never undo the fact that we are surrounded by it. The relation between what we see and what we know is never settled.” John Berger’s “Ways of Seeing” is one of the most stimulating and influential books on art in any language. First published in 1972, it was based on the BBC television series about which the (London) “Sunday Times” critic commented: ‘This is an eye-opener in more ways than one: by concentrating on how we look at paintings …he will almost certainly change the way you look at pictures.’ By now he has.

It’s Not How Good You Are, Its How Good You Want to Be: The World’s Best Selling Book

Paul Arden

It’s Not How Good You Are, It’s How Good You Want to Be is a handbook of how to succeed in the world - a pocket ‘bible’ for the talented and timid to make the unthinkable thinkable and the impossible possible. The world’s top advertising guru, Paul Arden, offers up his wisdom on issues as diverse as problem solving, responding to a brief, communicating, playing your cards right, making mistakes and creativity, all notions that can be applied to aspects of modern life. This book provides a unique insight into the world of advertising and is a quirky compilation of quotes, facts, pictures, wit and wisdom, packed into easy-to-digest, bite-sized spreads. If you want to succeed in life or business, this is a must! Paul Arden began his career in advertising at the age of 16. For 14 years he was Executive Creative Director at Saatchi and Saatchi, where he was responsible for some of Britain’s best known campaigns including British Airways, Silk Cut, Anchor Butter, InterCity and Fuji. His famous slogans include 'The Car in front is a Toyota’ and 'The Independent - It is - Are You?’. In 1993 he set up the London-based production company Arden Sutherland-Dodd where he is now a commercials director for clients such as BT, BMW, Ford, Nestle and Levis.

WHATEVER YOU THINK, THINK THE OPPOSITE

PAUL ARDEN

Life’s a Pitch: How to Sell Yourself and Your Brilliant Ideas

Roger Mavity

The pitch is the essence of modern business. In pitching for new business, ideas and emotional intelligence dominate. And the skills of the pitch can also apply to just about every significant personal transaction in your life.

The ultimate how-to book; a mixture of mentoring, graphics, anthropology, market research and modern Machiavellianism, Life’s a Pitch shows you how to handle human transactions and prepare you for success. Whether at a sales conference in corporate conference room hell or over lunch at a glamorous restaurant, a pitch is not about transferring information, it’s about transferring power. It is business, but it is also theatre, and the results of a successful pitch are, quite simply, money and power.

Part inspirational manual for business, part guidebook to a successful and happy social life, Life’s a Pitch is the result of an accumulated half-century of (mostly successful) pitching by the authors and will transform the way you think about the art of persuasion forever.

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