Brilliant observations on the anthropology of power. You will laugh aloud and you won't put it down' Daniel Kahneman In this eye-opening exploration of the human weaknesses for power, Daniel Levin takes us on a hilarious journey through the absurd world of our global elites, drawing unforgettable sketches of some of the puppets who stand guard, and the jugglers and conjurers employed within. Most spectacular of all, however, are the astonishing contortions performed by those closest to the top in order to maintain the illusion of integrity, decency, and public service. Based on the author's first hand experiences of dealing with governments and political institutions around the world, Nothing but a Circus offers a rare glimpse of the conversations that happen behind closed doors, observing the appalling lengths that people go to in order to justify their unscrupulous choices, from Dubai to Luanda, Moscow to Beijing, and at the heart of the UN and the US government.
Jonathan Marcus, a young American lawyer and former doctoral student in classics, is summoned to Rome for a case and stumbles across a message hidden inside an ancient stone fragment. The discovery propels him and UN preservationist Dr. Emili Travia into a coldblooded modern plot to erase every remnant of Jewish and Christian presence from Jerusalem's Temple Mount, in the process redefining history itself.
An “extraordinary” (Nylon) firsthand account of the creation of a modern cult and the costs paid by its young victims: a group of college roommates “Intense . . . [a tale] of hard-won survival, and creating a life after the unimaginable.”—Salon The inspiration for the Hulu docuseries Stolen Youth, directed by Zach Heinzerling and co-produced by Daniel Barban Levin In September 2010, at the beginning of the academic year at Sarah Lawrence College, a sophomore named Talia Ray asked her roommates if her father could stay with them for a while. No one objected. Her father, Larry Ray, was just released from prison, having spent three years behind bars after a conviction during a bitter custody dispute. Larry Ray arrived at the dorm, a communal house called Slonim Woods 9, and stayed for the whole year. Over the course of innumerable counseling sessions and “family meetings,” the intense and forceful Ray convinced his daughter’s friends that he alone could help them “achieve clarity.” Eventually, Ray and the students moved into a small Manhattan apartment, beginning years of manipulation and abuse, as Ray tightened his control over his young charges through blackmail, extortion, and ritualized humiliation. After a decade of secrecy, Larry Ray was finally indicted on charges of extortion, sex trafficking, forced labor, and money laundering. Daniel Barban Levin was one of the original residents of Slonim Woods 9. Beginning the moment Daniel set foot on Sarah Lawrence’s idyllic campus and spanning the two years he spent in the grip of a megalomaniac, this brave, lyrical, and redemptive memoir reveals how a group of friends were led from college to a cult without the world even noticing.
“Riveting . . . Well-written and highly compelling."—Wall Street Journal “Truly thrilling. Daniel Levin brilliantly conveys both the menace and the evil of Middle Eastern intrigue, and some victories of human kindness over cruelty and despair.”—Daniel Kahneman, New York Times bestselling author of Thinking, Fast and Slow Daniel Levin was in his New York office when he got a call from an acquaintance with an urgent, cryptic request to meet in Paris. A young man had gone missing in Syria. No government, embassy, or intelligence agency would help. Could he? Would he? So begins a suspenseful, shocking, and at times brutal true story of one man’s search to find a missing person in Syria over twenty tense days. Levin, a lawyer turned armed-conflict negotiator, chases leads throughout the Middle East, meeting with powerful sheikhs, drug lords, and sex traffickers in his pursuit of the truth. In Proof of Life, Levin dives deep into the shadows—an underground industry of war where everything is for sale, including arms, drugs, and even people. He offers a fascinating study of how people use leverage to get what they want from one another and of a place where no one does a favor without wanting something in return, whether it’s immediately or years down the road. A fast-paced thriller wrapped in a memoir, Proof of Life is a cinematic must-read by an author with access to a world that usually remains hidden.
A ground-breaking book in the tradition of The Alchemist and The Celestine Prophecy, The Mosaic, by marketing expert and activist Daniel Bruce Levin invites you to see the world from a new point-of-view-- one that focuses on what connects us to each other and brings us happiness. The Mosaic follows the journey of Mo, a boy who loses his parents two years apart on the same day. When he asks the adults where his parents went, they tell him they are in heaven. Mo sets out to find the place called heaven and along the way, he meets an assortment of ordinary people, who are anything but ordinary. The Mosaic is a magical book that will inspire conversation around the possibilities that exist when we are able to see what we do not see. It will entertain and uplift you through the magic of connection, and it will linger with you well after you finish its story. "The most profound and lasting way to learn is through story, and a story that reflects so many aspects of our shared human journey keeps the lessons learned alive in the heart forever. This is one such beautiful and lasting story." -- Sonia Choquette New York Times best-selling author of The Answer is Simple...Love yourself, Live your Spirit! .
The zen mind is the beginner’s mind, which sees everything as if for the first time. It is in this zen mind that realization comes. People sit for many years in meditation to find that suddenly in hearing something again for the first time, they’re lifted to a state of understanding that’s far beyond anything they’ve ever experienced. This is why the sayings in this book were written. They’re not meant to teach, but rather to remind you of things you already know.
Main description: What sort of society could bind together Jacques Roubaud, Italo Calvino, Marcel Duchamp, and Raymond Queneau-and Daniel Levin Becker, a young American obsessed with language play? Only the Oulipo, the Paris-based experimental collective founded in 1960 and fated to become one of literature's quirkiest movements. An international organization of writers, artists, and scientists who embrace formal and procedural constraints to achieve literature's possibilities, the Oulipo (the French acronym stands for 0workshop for potential literature0) is perhaps best known as the cradle of Georges Perec's novel A Void, which does not contain the letter e. Drawn to the Oulipo's mystique, Levin Becker secured a Fulbright grant to study the organization and traveled to Paris. He was eventually offered membership, becoming only the second American to be admitted to the group. From the perspective of a young initiate, the Oulipians and their projects are at once bizarre and utterly compelling. Levin Becker's love for games, puzzles, and language play is infectious, calling to mind Elif Batuman's delight in Russian literature in The Possessed. In recent years, the Oulipo has inspired the creation of numerous other collectives: the OuMuPo (a collective of DJs), the OuMaPo (marionette players), the OuBaPo (comic strip artists), the OuFlarfPo (poets who generate poetry with the aid of search engines), and a menagerie of other Ou-X-Pos (workshops for potential something). Levin Becker discusses these and other intriguing developments in this history and personal appreciation of an iconic-and iconoclastic-group.
Using the events of the Constitutions Bicentennial from 1987 to 1991 as a case study, Representing Popular Sovereignty explores the contradiction between the Constitutions importance as a political document and its weakness as a symbol in American popular culture.
Ein herzzerreißendes Porträt vom Erwachsenwerden Der fünfzehnjährige Jim flüchtet sich vor dem gewalttätigen Vater in die warmen Arme des Alkohols. In der Freundschaft zu Phillys und Jeremy und seiner Liebe zu Leslie findet er die grundehrlichen Werte und die Wärme, die er in seiner Familie nicht kriegen kann. Da geschieht eine Katastrophe und die Achterbahn seiner Gefühle fährt mit Vollgas in den Abgrund ... „Dieser Junge macht ALLES durch. Ich habe nie zuvor nachts wach gelegen und wegen einer Figur in einem Buch geweint ... Trotzdem ist das Buch auch witzig – und es geht ans Herz.“ (Janina, 13 Jahre)
“The role of the critic,” Daniel Mendelsohn writes, “is to mediate intelligently and stylishly between a work and its audience; to educate and edify in an engaging and, preferably, entertaining way.” His latest collection exemplifies the range, depth, and erudition that have made him “required reading for anyone interested in dissecting culture” (The Daily Beast). In Ecstasy and Terror, Mendelsohn once again casts an eye at literature, film, television, and the personal essay, filtering his insights through his training as a scholar of classical antiquity in illuminating and sometimes surprising ways. Many of these essays look with fresh eyes at our culture’s Greek and Roman models: some find an arresting modernity in canonical works (Bacchae, the Aeneid), while others detect a “Greek DNA” in our responses to national traumas such as the Boston Marathon bombings and the assassination of JFK. There are pieces on contemporary literature, from the “aesthetics of victimhood” in Hanya Yanagihara’s A Little Life to the uncomfortable mixture of art and autobiography in novels by Henry Roth, Ingmar Bergman, and Karl Ove Knausgård. Mendelsohn considers pop culture, too, in essays on the feminism of Game of Thrones and on recent films about artificial intelligence—a subject, he reminds us, that was already of interest to Homer. This collection also brings together for the first time a number of the award-winning memoirist’s personal essays, including his “critic’s manifesto” and a touching reminiscence of his boyhood correspondence with the historical novelist Mary Renault, who inspired him to study the Classics.
Ocular Disease—a newly introduced companion volume to the classic Adler’s Physiology of the Eye—correlates basic science and clinical management to describe the how and why of eye disease processes and the related best management protocols. Editors Leonard A. Levin and Daniel M. Albert—two of the world’s leading ophthalmic clinician-scientists—have recruited as contributors the most expert and experienced authorities available in each of the major areas of ophthalmic disease specific to ophthalmology: retina, cornea, cataract, glaucoma, uveitis, and more. The concise chapter structure features liberal use of color—with 330 full-color line artworks, call-out boxes, summaries, and schematics for easy navigation and understanding. This comprehensive resource provides you with a better and more practical understanding of the science behind eye disease and its relation to treatment. Covers all areas of disease in ophthalmology including retina, cornea, cataract, glaucoma, and uveitis for the comprehensive information you need for managing clinical cases. Presents a unique and pragmatic blend of necessary basic science and clinical application to serve as a clinical guide to understanding the cause and rational management of ocular disease. Features 330 full-color line artworks that translate difficult concepts and discussions into concise schematics for improved understanding and comprehension. Provides the expert advice of internationally recognized editors with over 40 years of experience together with a group of world class contributors in basic science and clinical ophthalmology.
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