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Books > Reference & Interdisciplinary > Controversial knowledge > Hoaxes & deceptions
"A Rum Affair" is an absorbing tale of scientific chicanery and
academic intrigue--critically acclaimed and a finalist for the "Los
Angeles Times"Book Prize. In the 1940s, the eminent British
botanist John Heslop Harrison proposed a controversial theory:
Species of plants on the islands off the west coast of Scotland, he
said, had survived the last Ice Age. His premise flew in the face
of evidence that the last advance of the ice sheets extended well
south of mainland Scotland, but he said he had proof--the plants
and grasses found on the Isle of Rum--that would make his name in
the scientific world. Harrison didn't anticipate, however, the
tenacious John Raven, an amateur botanist who boldly questioned
whether these grasses were truly indigenous to the area, or whether
they had been transported there and planted. What seems at first a
minor infringement of academic honesty soon becomes an enthralling
tale of rival scientists and fraudulent science, a skillful
whodunit that, in the hands of the talented Sabbagh, joins the
ranks of the best narrative nonfiction.
1980s Rio de Janeiro. There's only one king in this city and he's
got the mullet, swagger and fake ID to prove it. Introducing Carlos
Henrique Raposo, known to all as KAISER. This guy's got more front
than Copacabana beach. He's the most loveable of rogues with the
most common of dreams: to become a professional footballer. And he
isn't about to let trivial details like talent and achievement
stand in his way. . . not when he has so many other ways to get
what he wants. In one of the most remarkable football stories ever
told, Kaiser graduates from abandoned slumdog to star striker,
dressing-room fixer, superstar party host and inexhaustible lover.
And all without kicking a ball. He's not just the king... he's the
Kaiser.
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