Than Shwe 
Unmasking Burma’s Tyrant
Pre-order the first ever account of Than Shwe's rise to power here.
About the book:
Than Shwe: Unmasking Burma’s Tyrant provides the first-ever account of Than Shwe’s journey from postal clerk to dictator, analysing his rise through the ranks of the army, his training in psychological warfare, his belief in astrology, his elimination of rivals and his ruthless suppression of dissent. Drawing on the insights of Burma Army defectors, international diplomats and others, Benedict Rogers provides a compelling account of the reclusive and xenophobic character of Than Shwe and life in Burma under his rule.
Interviews with the author:
VOA Burmese interview with Benedict Rogers, in both English and Burmese (also available on YouTube in English and Burmese) (Voice of America, 19 May 2010)
Exclusive Interview (Chinland Guardian, 21 April 2010)
Talking About Burma’s Dictator (Democracy for Burma, 4 February 2010)
Unmasking Burma’s Dictator (Mizzima Monthly Journal, Vol. 8, No. 1, January 2010)
Searching for Than Shwe (The Irrawaddy, 26 November 2009)
Benedict Rogers on writing the book and the character of Than Shwe:
“The General must not be disturbed” (Democratic Voice of Burma online, 12 April 2010)
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I Know My Own Heart
The Diaries of Anne Lister, 1791-1840
Watch a dramatisation of Anne Lister's Diaries on BBC iPlayer!
About the book:
Helena Whitbread, the editor of these diaries, allows us an inside look at the long-running love affair between Anne Lister and Marianna Lawton, an affair complicated by Anne's infatuation with Maria Barlow. Anne travels to Paris where she discovers a new love interest that conflicts with her developing social aspirations. For the first time, she begins to question the nature of her identity and the various roles female lovers may play in the life of a gentlewoman. Though unequipped with a lesbian vocabulary with which to describe her erotic life, her emotional conflicts are contemporary enough to speak to us all. This book will satisfy the curiosity of the many who became acquainted with Lister through I Know My Own Heart and are eager to learn more about her revealing life and what it suggests about the history of sexuality.
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Alpa Shah on BBC Radio 4
Alpa Shah, author of In the Shadows of the State appeared on BBC Radio 4's crossing continents.
Alpa Shah, author of In the Shadows of the State appeared on BBC Radio 4's crossing continents.
During this programme, India's Red Belt, Shah explores life and industry in Jharkand in Eastern India and the social friction between Maoists and the Indian authorities.
To listen to this programme on BBC Iplayer click here
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Swords from the West 
Harold Lamd's Swords from the West received a positive review from SSF World
"The pace is rapid from the outset, the tales driven forward by exciting chases, thrilling battles and characters you quickly recognise. Unlike many of the tales of today, they are tightly written (for who could afford diversions when you were paid mere cents per word) and fast-moving. Evidently an influence on Robert E Howard, I can see the similarities, as well as on other writers of that time. There’s a breathlessness, a springing into action that is quite endearing." - Mark Yon, SSF World
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Hold On To Y our Dreams
Arthur Russell's Hold On To Your Dreams has received a positive review in the Times Higher Education
"Full marks to Duke University Press... for this welcome addition to the pop music pantheon. Not only is it not another foray along well-trodden routes (do we really need more books about the Beatles and Bob Dylan?), but it's also an exemplary demonstration of exactly what a biography should do.
In his rigorously researched investigation of musician and composer Arthur Russell, ... Tim Lawrence effortlessly explores his subject and in so doing shines fresh light on the darkened recesses of both New York's downtown music scene and the popular cultural landscape of Russell's times...." - Times Higher Education
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Out in the Country
Author of Out in The Country, Mary Gray, reviews LGBT life in Rural and Urban Communities in The Guardian
"... I had been taught by television and movies that the sweet queer life was to be found in the hustle and bustle of the city. At 18, I had left home for college three hours away to find fulfillment (and that dating pool) promised to queer kids like me. While working in the queer dotcom bubble, trying to figure out how new media might create social change for LGBT folk and finishing a master's thesis on narratives of queer youth activism, I began to wonder what the everyday skirmishes in places that did not have a strong network of LGBT services looked like, and I tried to make sense of why we knew so little about them..." – Mary Gray, The Guardian
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Hot type about the Venus Hottentot 
Deb Wills, on Black Venus 2010 and why Sarah Baartman is still such a figure of cultural significance today.
“Readers may ask one of the most obvious questions surrounding the interest in Baartman —why her? She was neither the first nor the only African woman on display in Europe. Some of the writers in this volume noted that at least one other African woman was exhibited as a “Hottentot Venus” after Baartman’s death. We have only to look at contemporary culture to see the way in which Sarah Baartman’s image continues to be recycled as fashion in the works of some contemporary photographers. The anthology also examines the lives of women who were and still are iconic figures in the twentieth century, such as Josephine Baker.” - Deb Willis, editor of Black Venus 2010
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Seth L. Sanders Finalist in 2009 National Jewish Book Awards 
The Invention of Hebrew came runner up in the Scholarship category at the 2009 National Jewish Book Awards.
About the Book:
The Invention of Hebrew is the first book to approach the Bible in light of recent findings on the use of the Hebrew alphabet as a deliberate and meaningful choice. Seth L. Sanders connects the Bible's distinctive linguistic form - writing down a local spoken language - to a cultural desire to speak directly to people, summoning them to join a new community that the text itself helped call into being.
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The Guantanamo Lawyers 
The Guantanamo Lawyers has received a passionate review from Truthout
"At once shocking, frustrating and inspiring, the book chronicles the courageous and hard-working lawyers who took time from law firms, small and large, human rights organizations and military assignments to step up and provide legal aid to people whom the Bush administration was calling "the worst of the worst" after 9/11." - Stephen Rhode, Truthout
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An Unusual Torah 'Outing' 
Torah Queeries has received a positive review in the Jerusalem Post
"The Editors of Torah Queeries have gathered together many leading rabbis and scholars to provide a perspective through what they call a "bent lens." This exceptional collection brings together the voices of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and gay-friendly writers, including some of the best-known names in the Jewish world, from all of the major denominations, including Orthodox. … [Torah Queeries] should appeal to those who wish to read the Torah with an open mind and the willingness to look at the words from 3,000 years ago with new, and often jarring, perspectives…. this is a volume that I would describe as a must for the Jewish bookshelf."
- Andrew Sacks, director of the Rabbinical Assembly in Israel
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"Every practitioner and student of international relations should read Armatta’s book. It’s a glimpse into the crazy world of state-sponsored criminal violence, and a discovery journey into how to strengthen the reach of international justice. Still, it should also be read with pride, for the West acted—imperfectly and late, yes, but we acted. And ultimately we did stop Milosevic and brought him to trial. He forfeited his life and, ironically, died the way he lived—manipulating, lying, bullying, and heartless. No more fitting end could have emerged. And it will be a powerful beginning of a new era, in places like Darfur and Sudan, if we but have the courage to live the lessons we’ve learned here." - Wesley Clark, Washington Post
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"An unforgettable feminist family-on-the-road saga the likes of which I've never read before. The Burton family stops at lonely pioneer graves off highways and swims in the Great Salt Lake, and all the while, fledgling writer Gabrielle is making daily calculations about how to fulfill her responsibilities as a wife and mother, without (like Tamsen Donner) discovering all too late that "her duty had cost her her life." ... Both Tamsen Donner, Madonna of the Trail, and Gabrielle Burton, feminist mother, turned out to be pioneers, carving new roads for women to travel. Both their stories are absolutely unforgettable." - Maureen Corrigan, Fresh Air
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"This is a beautifully illustrated book of serious scholarship and the three editors and the other contributing authors are to be congratulated...This gives the book a unique quality, offering anyone interested in colonial and post-colonial Algeria a different way of looking not only at the city of Algiers but also at the nature of the colonial experience in Algeria. To read Walls of Algiers is therefore to stimulate reflection. This is not because one disagrees with the analytical stance of the authors but because Walls of Algiers provokes new questions especially for those of us who experienced the period of decolonization, however distantly, and who have since spent much of their subsequent academic career studying the events of the period." - Kay Adamson, Glasgow Caledonian University, Reviews in History
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"A chance invitation to view a rare book said to have been produced in early Mexico led Bauer to a quarter-century investigation into the origin and ownership of the Codex Cardona. This ancient book, filled with lavish decorations akin to a Book of Hours and including maps with tax data like the Domesday Book, was written in Mexico around the mid-16th century. As in the best suspense novels, Bauer begins in the middle of the action. Obsessed with tracing the provenance and present location of this historical volume, he follows clues into the murky world of international antiquities dealers and prestigious auction houses. His intriguingly conspiratorial tone enables the reader to be privy to his search for the answers to the scholarly riddles." - Brian RenVall, Mesalands Community Collage, The Library Journal
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"War demands a soundtrack. Seventeenth-century Scottish troops listened to pipers; Hitler's army would play Ride of the Valkryies. But after interviewing ... soldiers for his recent book, Sound Targets, Jonathan Pieslak discovered that the iPod is now a combat weapon.... Along with RPGs and M16s, soldiers took their MP3s to the Iraqi frontline. Tracks got them charged up before battle, or calmed them down afterwards....
A musicologist, Pieslak discusses why these songs triggered a "mental transformation".... His interviews raise an old question: how does violent music affect the listener's behaviour?" -
Aditya Chakrabortty, The Guardian
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"Academic freedom, as imbedded in the customs and practices of institutions of higher education, is an essential ingredient of intellectual life. It ensures the remarkable progress in all disciplines and underpins the vast changes that have collectively defined the world in which we live. It is difficult, if not impossible to imagine that the modern university could not exist, much less succeed, without it....
Cary Nelson seeks to provide [guidance for the futureof academic freedom] in this engaging book that starts with the premise that academic freedom is under attack and that it needs “saving”.... The scholarship is extensive and makes several telling points...." - Charles R. Middleton, Times Higher Education
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Ariel Dorfman to deliver the Eighth Nelson Mandela Annual Lecture
World-acclaimed Chilean-American author, human rights activist and distinguished professor of Literature and Latin-American Studies, Ariel Dorfman, will present the Eighth Nelson Mandela Annual Lecture at Johannesburg’s Linder Auditorium on July 31, 2010.
Dorfman served as the cultural advisor to Salvador Allende, Chile’s president from 1970 to 1973. The democratically elected Allende died during the 1973 coup, staged by Augusto Pinochet. This coup also resulted in the death and disappearance of thousands of Chileans and forced Dorfman into exile.
The author of many novels, plays, poems, essays and films will speak on the theme “Memory and Justice” at the 2010 Annual Lecture.
Click Here to purchase Dorfman's latest title The Empire’s Old Clothes
“There's a certain Keats-like romance in "discovering" an artist who died before their time, before their gifts were truly appreciated. And so it is with Arthur Russell who, thanks to a series of posthumous releases of and on his music, has in the last few years come to more widespread – and deserving – attention. The latest of these eulogies comes from Tim Lawrence, whose recently released biography, Hold on to Your Dreams, adds flesh to the basic facts of Russell's life...” – The Guardian Click Here to Read Full Article
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Quietus has just announced that Arthur’s Landing, a collective of musicians and collaborators who originally worked with Arthur Russell, will perform their debut UK gig on 20th February at the ICA to coincide with the launch of Hold On to Your Dreams, Tim Lawrence’s critically acclaimed biography of Arthur Russell.
Click Here to Order Hold On to Your Dreams
Sky Train Receives Air Time
Canyon Sam, author of Sky Train, will be on Diane Rehm's nationally aired NPR show in the USA on February the 23rd 2010
"Canyon Sam's Sky Train powerfully moves the heart, as it brings to life deep truths about our world today, about Tibet, the land and people and especially its outstanding women. Just as important is the author's own revelatory discovery of 'Tibet' as a compassionate, wise, and down to earth state-of-mind essential to the survival of the whole world. Words cannot express how wonderful is this honest, generous, and perceptive book." -Robert Thurman, Jey Tsong Khapa Professor of Buddhist Studies at Columbia University
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Impunity
