The Kenneth Williams Diaries

Hadfield, Chris

An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth: What Going to Space Taught Me about Ingenuity, Determination, and Being Prepared for Anything

7,Travel to space and back with astronaut Chris Hadfield's "enthralling" bestseller as your eye-opening guide (Slate). Colonel Chris Hadfield has spent decades training as an astronaut and has logged nearly 4000 hours in space. During this time he has broken into a Space Station with a Swiss army knife, disposed of a live snake while piloting a plane, and been temporarily blinded while clinging to the exterior of an orbiting spacecraft. The secret to Col. Hadfield's success-and survival-is an unconventional philosophy he learned at NASA: prepare for the worst- and enjoy every moment of it. In An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth, Col. Hadfield takes readers deep into his years of training and space exploration to show how to make the impossible possible. Through eye-opening, entertaining stories filled with the adrenaline of launch, the mesmerizing wonder of spacewalks, and the measured, calm responses mandated by crises, he explains how conventional wisdom can get in the way of achievement -- and happiness. His own extraordinary education in space has taught him some counterintuitive lessons: don't visualize success, do care what others think, and always sweat the small stuff. ...

Clara Batten (Author)

Gin & Phonics: My Journey Through Middle-Class Motherhood (Via the Occasional Pub)

'I was asked the other day what I thought the hardest part of parenting was. I'd have to say that it's definitely the kids.' TikTok sensation Clara Batten has dedicated the last few years to seeking the answer to one of life's most crucial questions: Is it possible to raise and nurture two small humans without losing your bloody mind? The good news is, now she's found (some of) the answers and is sharing her secrets with the rest of us! In this riotous book, Clara reveals: when it's acceptable to buy your kids lunch from a kebab shop. why a jar of pickled herrings from Waitrose is the ultimate guilty pleasure, nay necessity, for a sleep-deprived parent. how to finally pursue your acting ambitions in your forties (despite a toddler sh*tting on the stairs during a self-tape audition). Most importantly, Clara shows us that no matter how much we adore our little treasures, life isn't just about their A, B and bloody Cs.

Anthony Julius (Author)

Abraham: The First Jew

1,The story of Abraham, the first Jew, portrayed as two lives lived by one person, paralleling the contradictions in Judaism throughout its history In this new biography of Abraham, Judaism's foundational figure, Anthony Julius offers an account of the origins of a fundamental struggle within Judaism between skepticism and faith, critique and affirmation, thinking for oneself and thinking under the direction of another. Julius describes Abraham's life as two separate lives, and as a version of the collective life of the Jewish people. Abraham's first life is an early adulthood of questioning the polytheism of his home city of Ur Kasdim until its ruler, Nimrod, condemns him to death and he is rescued, he believes, by a miracle. In his second life, Abraham's focus is no longer on critique but rather on conversion and on his leadership over his growing household, until God's command that he sacrifice his son Isaac. This test, the Akedah (or "Binding"), ends with another miracle, as he believes, but as Julius argues, it is also a catastrophe for Abraham. The Akedah represents for him an unsurpassed horizon--and in Jewish life thereafter. This book focuses on Abraham as leader of the ...