Artists today can choose to lead relatively comfortable lives. The cliché is that they suffer, but if they are willing to make shiny objects for wealthy collectors, paint decorative murals for the lobbies of banks, or aggregate existing images into new supports for digital currencies, then they can reasonably hope for a good chance of achieving some measure of commercial success. Why, then, have some the most interesting artists of our time committed themselves, for a decade or more, to some of the most devastating conflicts on earth, including wars over precious metals that have devastated indigenous lands, crimes associated with the drug trade that have shattered poor and vulnerable communities, and popular uprisings for dignity and justice that have been pummeled by autocratic regimes and mired in civil strife? This book tells the stories of three such artists--Amar Kanwar in India, Teresa Margolles in Mexico, and Abounaddara in Syria--and considers what their work means for the future of contemporary art and the global circuits that are meant to sustain it. Drawing on years of research and extensive reporting, Kaelen Wilson-Goldie vividly recounts the worlds these artists inhabit and the profound and unflinching works they create. As a longtime critic attuned to close looking, she follows her subjects through the materials they gather, the relationships they form, and the responsibilities they bear to the people who make their art possible. Pushing at the boundaries of what art is and testing out new modes of working together, these artists express deep ambivalence toward a field they entered largely by chance. With intensifying debates about the market, museum ethics, and institutional politics, the art world stands to benefit from the provocative examples that Kanwar, Margolles, and Abounaddara set, adept as they are at translating chaotic violence into meaningful works of art.

'I heard a horrible screaming sound, like an animal being slaughtered ... then I realised it was me.' When Katie Piper was 24, her life was near perfect. Young and beautiful, she was well on her way to fulfilling her dream of becoming a model. But then she met Daniel Lynch on Facebook and her world quickly turned into a nightmare ... After being held captive and brutally raped by her new boyfriend, Katie was subjected to a vicious acid attack. Within seconds, this bright and bubbly girl could feel her looks and the life she loved melting away. Beautiful is the moving true story of how one young woman had her mind, body and spirit cruelly snatched from her and how she inspired millions with her fight to get them back.

Phineas Gage was truly a man with a hole in his head. Phineas, a railroad construction foreman, was blasting rock near Cavendish, Vermont, in 1848 when a thirteen-pound iron rod was shot through his brain. Miraculously, he survived to live another eleven years and become a textbook case in brain science. At the time, Phineas Gage seemed to completely recover from his accident. He could walk, talk, work, and travel, but he was changed. Gage "was no longer Gage," said his Vermont doctor, meaning that the old Phineas was dependable and well liked, and the new Phineas was crude and unpredictable. His case astonished doctors in his day and still fascinates doctors today. What happened and what didn't happen inside the brain of Phineas Gage will tell you a lot about how your brain works and how you act human.

Bestselling author David Shields analyzed over a decade's worth of front-page war photographs fromTheNew York Timesand came to a shocking conclusion: the photo-editing process ofthe "paper of record,"by way of pretty, heroic, and lavishly aesthetic image selection, pullsthe woolover the eyes of its readers; Shields forces us to face not only the the media's complicity in dubious and catastrophic military campaigns but our own as well.This powerful media mouthpiece, the mightyTimes, far from being a check on governmental power, is in reality a massive amplifier for its dark forces by virtue of the way it aestheticizeswarfare. Anyone baffled by the willful American involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan can't help but see in this book how eagerly and invariably theTimesled the way in making the case for these wars through the manipulation of its visuals. Shields forces the reader to weigh the consequences of our own passivity in the face of these images' opiatic numbing. The photographs gathered inWar Is Beautiful, often beautiful and always artful, are filters of reality rather than the documentary journalism they purport to be.

Over 250 of the most bloodcurdling and bone-chillingly fascinating and true monster stories. Not recommended for reading just before bedtime! Monsters have been spotted everywhere, not just slithering under a child’s bed or lurking in the closet. Paranormal researcher extraordinaire Brad Steiger, an author of thousands of books and articles on the mysterious and unknown, collects some of the scariest, most unbelievable but true monster stories in his latest collection, Real Monsters, Gruesome Critters and Beasts from the Darkside. From slightly demented humans to spine-tingling paranormal encounters, each outlandish occurrence is detailed with thorough research and recounted with a storyteller’s crafted voice. This bold telling of verified monster sightings taken from historical records and first-person accounts features: The British scientists’ discovery of a tuft of hair in the Himalayan mountains containing DNA that cannot be matched with any known animal—the most convincing proof yet that Yetis are real; The “Mothman” sighted in West Virginia that some believe to be a harbinger of death; The monstrous creature, complete with horns and tail, that still lurks in the shadows of the Big Easy; The expectant mother examined by the strange praying-mantis entities aboard a UFO; and The couple walking near a lake in British Columbia, Canada, astonished to see a reptilian humanoid emerging from the lake's depths; UFO abductors seeking to create human-alien hybrids; Lake monsters, lizardmen, and creepy mermaids troll the waters for prey; Dinosaurs terrorize the jungles; Yeti and Bigfoot leave clues that they live in the mountains; Big cats, black dogs, and giant snakes prowl neighborhoods; And many, many more hair-raising stories! Highlighting news articles, historical accounts, and first-person interviews, this chronicle of human interactions with monsters will convince even the most hardened skeptic of the existence of the bogeyman, Bigfoot, shadow people, devils, mutant animals, swamp creatures, and all kinds of heinous beasts. Real Monsters, Gruesome Critters and Beasts from the Darkside will leave you constantly looking over your shoulder and wondering about the things that go bump and howl and screech in the night.

From ancient times, philosophers, theologians, and artists have attempted to describe and categorize the defining virtues of civilization. In Truth, Beauty, and Goodness Reframed, renowned education authority Howard Gardner explores the meaning of the title's three virtues in an age when vast technological advancement and relativistic attitudes toward human nature have deeply shaken our moral worldview. His incisive examination reveals that although these concepts are changing faster than ever before, they are -- and will remain, with our stewardship -- cornerstones of our society. Designed to appeal to a wide readership, Truth, Beauty, and Goodness Reframed is an approachable primer on the foundations of ethics in the modern age.

In this “sharp, scary, gorgeously evocative tale of love, art, and obsession” (Paula Hawkins, bestselling author of The Girl on the Train), a beautiful young woman aspires to be an artist, while a man’s dark obsession may destroy her world forever. The Doll Factory is a sweeping tale of curiosity, love, and possession set among all the sordidness and soaring ambition of 1850s London. The greatest spectacle London has ever seen is being erected in Hyde Park and, among the crowd watching, two people meet. For Iris, an aspiring artist of unique beauty, it is the encounter of a moment—forgotten seconds later—but for Silas, a curiosity collector enchanted by the strange and beautiful, the meeting marks a new beginning. When Iris is asked to model for Pre-Raphaelite artist Louis Frost, she agrees on the condition that he will also teach her to paint, and suddenly her world expands beyond anything she ever dreamed of. But she has no idea that evil stalks her. Silas, it seems, has thought of only one thing since that chance meeting, and his obsession is darkening by the day...