'There have always been lighthouses in my life. There has been a closeness and steadiness to our relationship, as if they have kept pace and in close contact with me.' Lighthouses punctuate Scotland's coastline - a stoic presence on the edge of the landscape. Since the earliest of these hardy structures were raised, they have been a lifeline for seafarers at the mercy of treacherous weather and uncertain navigation. Today over 100 of Scotland's lighthouses are listed buildings. The lighthouse is now one of many maritime resources which act 'for the safety of all'. But we are still drawn to the solitary life of the keeper, the beauty of the lens of the lamp and the calm reassurance of a flashing light on a distant shore. Donald S Murray explores Scotland's lighthouses through history, storytelling and the voices of the lightkeepers. From ancient beacons to the work of the Stevensons and the Northern Lighthouse Board, and from wartime strife to automation and preservation, the lighthouses stand as a testament to the nation's innate connection to the sea. Published in partnership between Historic Environment Scotland and the Northern Lighthouse Board.

Every year, ten men from Ness, at the northern tip of the Isle of Lewis, sail north-east for some forty miles to a remote rock called Sulasgeir. Their mission is to catch and harvest the guga; the almost fully grown gannet chicks nesting on the two hundred foot high cliffs that circle the tiny island, which is barely half a mile long. After spending a fortnight in the arduous conditions that often prevail there, they return home with around two thousand of the birds, pickled and salted and ready for the tables of Nessmen and women both at home and abroad. The Guga Hunters tells the story of the men who voyage to Sulasgeir each year and the district they hail from, bringing out the full colour of their lives, the humour and drama of their exploits. They speak of the laughter that seasons their time together on Sulasgeir, of the risks and dangers they have faced. It also provides a fascinating insight into the social history of Ness, the culture and way-of-life that lies behind the world of the Guga Hunters, the timeless nature of the hunt, and reveals the hunt's connections to the traditions of other North Atlantic countries. Told in his district's poetry and prose, English and - occasionally - Gaelic, Donald S. Murray shows how the spirit of a community is preserved in this most unique of exploits.

In the small hours of January 1st, 1919, the cruellest twist of fate changed at a stroke the lives of an entire community. Tormod Morrison was there that terrible night. He was on board HMY Iolaire when it smashed into rocks and sank, killing some 200 servicemen on the very last leg of their long journey home from war. For Tormod - a man unlike others, with artistry in his fingertips - the disaster would mark him indelibly. Two decades later, Alasdair and Rachel are sent to the windswept Isle of Lewis to live with Tormod in his traditional blackhouse home, a world away from the Glasgow of their earliest years. Their grandfather is kind, compassionate, but still deeply affected by the remarkable true story of the Iolaire shipwreck - by the selfless heroism and desperate tragedy he witnessed. A deeply moving novel about passion constrained, coping with loss and a changing world, As the Women Lay Dreaming explores how a single event can so dramatically impact communities, individuals and, indeed, our very souls.

Donald S Murray is widely recognised for his empathy and remarkable ability to convey emotion with restraint and poignancy. In this short collection of poems written during lockdown at his Shetland home, Murray explores the changing geography of the island and how it has, in turn, changed him. On his daily walks through the village, Murray found himself noting shifts in the wind and weather, the imperceptible widening of the sea, and the way time has slowed. Noting the way, too, in which flocks of sheep or birds congregated in a field in anticipation of the arrival of a storm. With beautiful imagery and lyricism, The Man Who Talks to Birds taps into a deep connection with nature, and its ability to ground us, that many of us have rediscovered during 2020.

A lighthearted and informative narrative about the history of herring and our love affair with the silver darlings. Scots like to smoke or salt them. The Dutch love them raw. Swedes look on with relish as they open bulging, foul-smelling cans to find them curdling within. Jamaicans prefer them with a dash of chilli pepper. Germans and the English enjoy their taste best when accompanied by pickle's bite and brine. Throughout the long centuries men have fished around their coastlines and beyond, the herring has done much to shape both human taste and history. Men have co-operated and come into conflict over its shoals, setting out in boats to catch them, straying, too, from their home ports to bring full nets to shore. Women have also often been at the centre of the industry, gutting and salting the catch when the annual harvest had taken place, knitting, too, the garments fishermen wore to protect them from the ocean's chill. Following a journey from the western edge of Norway to the east of England, from Shetland and the Outer Hebrides to the fishing ports of the Baltic coast of Germany and the Netherlands, culminating in a visit to Iceland's Herring Era Museum, Donald S. Murray has stitched together tales of the fish that was of central importance to the lives of our ancestors, noting how both it - and those involved in their capture - were celebrated in the art, literature, craft, music and folklore of life in northern Europe. Blending together politics, science, history, religious and commercial life, Donald contemplates, too, the possibility of restoring the silver darlings of legend to these shores.

From the mind of Murr from the Impractical Jokers comes the third book in the hilarious and action-packed series about a world of bizarre creatures, wacky gadgets, and four kid interns at the most interesting place on Earth: Area 51! After the shocking revelation about her long-lost father, Viv, Elijah, Charlotte, and Ray are determined to save him at any cost. So it's a no-brainer for them to sneak into one of Area 51's finicky time machines to try to bring him back. What could go wrong? Well, how about not being able to track Viv's father through time, almost getting destroyed by the same meteor that killed the dinosaurs, and being chased by strange beings that preserve the proper flow of time? And with her father's life—and their own histories— at stake, Viv and her friends may be running out of time to set things right...    This third book in the debut middle-grade series from Murr of the Impractical Jokers and co-author Carsen Smith, Area 51 Interns is filled with enough high-tech hijinks, strange creatures and technology, and laugh-out-loud humor (plus an extra color insert full of gadgets) to make even Area 51 skeptics hooked for more!

From the author of the prize-winning As the Women Lay Dreaming comes a remarkable 'unreliable biography' of Karl Kjerulf Einarsson: an artist and an adventurer, a charlatan and a swindler, forever in search of Atlantis. As a child in the windswept, fog-bound Faroe Islands in the late nineteenth century, Karl Einarsson believes he is special, destined for a life of art and adventure. As soon as he can, he sets out for Copenhagen and beyond, styling himself as the Count of St. Kilda. He's an observer and citizen of nowhere, a serial swindler of aristocrats and Nazis, fishermen and fops. But when his adventures find him in 1930s Berlin, he is forced for the first time to reckon with something much bigger than himself. As the Nazis rise to power around him, his wilful ignorance becomes unwitting complicity, even betrayal. Based on a true story, this is a fantastical tale of island life, of those who leave and those who stay behind, and the many dangers of delusions and false identities.

*** #1 The Sunday Times bestseller *** Publishers Weekly bestseller "This book is no joke. Get ready to not sleep tonight. Awakened does exactly what it advertises. Scary amazing fun." -- Brad Meltzer, bestselling author of The Escape Artist. "Awakened hits the high notes of Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child's Relic and Scott Snyder's The Wake [...] but its scope actually extends much further." -- Kirkus *** The star of truTV's hit show Impractical Jokers-alongside veteran sci-fi and horror writer Darren Wearmouth-delivers a chilling and wickedly fun supernatural novel in the vein of The Strain, in which a beautiful new subway line in New York City unearths an ancient dark horror that threatens the city's utter destruction and the balance of civilization itself. After years of waiting, New York's newest subway line is finally ready, an express train that connects the city with the burgeoning communities across the Hudson River. The shining jewel of this state-of-the-art line is a breathtaking visitors' pavilion beneath the river. Major dignitaries, including New York City's Mayor and the President of the United States, are in attendance for the inaugural run, as the first train slowly pulls in. Under the station's bright ceiling lights, the shiny silver cars gleam. But as the train comes closer into view, a far different scene becomes visible. All the train's cars are empty. All the cars' interiors are drenched in blood. As chaos descends, all those in the pavilion scramble to get out. But the horror is only beginning. High levels of deadly methane fill the tunnels. The structure begins to flood. For those who don't drown, choke or spark an explosion, another terrifying danger awaits-the thing that killed all those people on the train. It's out there...and it's coming. There's something living beneath New York City, and it's not happy we've woken it up.

In Latin American history, women have not only played key roles within the family and society, but have long been active participants in political and economic life. The explosion of research over the last fifteen years testifies to how much we still have to learn about their experiences. "Women and Gender in Modern Latin America" brings together selections from recent scholarship with excerpts from an exciting array of primary sources, many translated into English for the first time, to bring the story of women s involvement in modern Latin American history up to date.

Covering major developments in the region from the bitter wars of Spanish American independence (1810-1825) through the turn of the twenty-first century, this collection examines the expectations, responsibilities, and limitations that have confronted women in their varied roles. The book explores:

• The nature and impact of feminist movements
• Women s role in economic modernization and the gendered division of labor
• Women s contributions to 20th-century nationalism and social revolutions
• Changing gender roles and relations within marriage and the family
• The impact of modern birth control methods and changing sexual mores

In the concise introductory essays, Pamela S. Murray synthesizes recent research to provide readers with a context for the selections in each chapter, including primary sources that range from trial records, legal codes, and other official documents to personal letters, excerpts from women s published writings, speeches, and images.

Whether for a course specifically on women in Latin America, or as an addition to a Modern Latin America survey course, "Women and Gender in Modern Latin America" provides a comprehensive overview of the experiences of women and workings of gender over time across a vast and diverse region."

Every cortical area receives input from the thalamus and projects to the thalamus. The cortex and thalamus, therefore, are inseparable partners for sensation, action, and cognition. Exploring Thalamocortical Interactions provides readers with foundational knowledge needed to understand the cellular and circuit properties of thalamocortical networks, and then goes on to consider new ideas and hypotheses, some of which are quite speculative. Some of the major themes emphasized throughout the book include: * the need for a proper classification of thalamocortical and corticothalamic circuits * the role of spike timing for thalamocortical and corticothalamic communication and the mechanisms for modulating spike timing * the organization and function of corticothalamic feedback projections * the role of higher order thalamic nuclei in cortico-cortical communication and cortical functioning * attentional modulation of thalamocortical interactions * a rethinking of efference copies and distinguishing neural signals as sensory versus motor Exploring Thalamocortical Interactions combines foundational knowledge from decades of research with fresh ideas and hypotheses on how the thalamus and cortex work together for sensation, action, and cognition.

In response to the September 11th terrorist attacks, Congress authorized "war" against al Qaeda in the statute known as the 2001 AUMF (Authorization for the Use of Military Force). Meant to be a temporary grant of powers to allow the President to retaliate against the perpetrators of the attack, two administrations have used the 2001 AUMF to justify controversial policies such as the indefinite detention of terrorist suspects at the Guantanamo Bay prison facility, domestic surveillance without a warrant by the National Security Agency, and the lethal targeting of terrorist suspects using drone strikes in countries with which the United States is not at war. Shoon Murray explores the debate that has emerged about whether it is time to repeal the 2001 AUMF. She documents how the Bush and Obama administrations have used this "war" authority and warns against the sources of inertia--organizational interests, psychological biases, and political incentives--that could make it permanent.

Investigating the current interest in obesity and fatness, this book explores the problems and ambiguities that form the lived experience of 'fat' women in contemporary Western society. Engaging with dominant ideas about 'fatness', and analysing the assumptions that inform anti-fat attitudes in the West, The 'Fat' Female Body explores the moral panic over the 'obesity epidemic', and the intersection of medicine and morality in pathologising 'fat' bodies. It contributes to the emerging field of fat studies by offering not only alternative understandings of subjectivity, the (re)production of public knowledge(s) of 'fatness', and politics of embodiment, but also the possibility of (re)reading 'fat' bodies to foster more productive social relations.