Troubled by an inability to find any meaning in his life, the 25-year-old narrator of this deceptively simple novel quits university and eventually arrives at his brother's New York apartment. In a bid to discover what life is all about, he writes lists. He becomes obsessed by time and whether it actually matters. He faxes his meteorologist friend. He endlessly bounces a ball against the wall. He befriends a small boy who lives next door. He yearns to get to the bottom of life and how best to live it. Funny, friendly, enigmatic and frequently poignant - superbly naive.

In this new textbook, acclaimed author John Stillwell presents a lucid introduction to Lie theory suitable for junior and senior level undergraduates. In order to achieve this, he focuses on the so-called "classical groups'' that capture the symmetries of real, complex, and quaternion spaces. These symmetry groups may be represented by matrices, which allows them to be studied by elementary methods from calculus and linear algebra. This naive approach to Lie theory is originally due to von Neumann, and it is now possible to streamline it by using standard results of undergraduate mathematics. To compensate for the limitations of the naive approach, end of chapter discussions introduce important results beyond those proved in the book, as part of an informal sketch of Lie theory and its history. John Stillwell is Professor of Mathematics at the University of San Francisco. He is the author of several highly regarded books published by Springer, including The Four Pillars of Geometry (2005), Elements of Number Theory (2003), Mathematics and Its History (Second Edition, 2002), Numbers and Geometry (1998) and Elements of Algebra (1994).

Who killed game warden Blinde? Why won't he stay dead? What dark secret causes landowner Gjaernes and his butler to act so suspiciously? And, most maddening of all, precisely what is the invisible "Iron Wagon" whose clatter and tumult accompanies these sinister occurrences in the otherwise idyllic Norwegian countryside?

Blending existential and occult thought, a highly acclaimed philosopher explains how we can find profound meaning and joy by inducing states of extreme awareness and emotion Throughout history there have been references and examples in literature, art and philosophy of an increased awareness of life while under the influence of extreme emotions. These have become known as Peak Experiences. Soon after Colin Wilson became aware of this phenomenon in the 1960s, he wondered about its history and how its power could be harnessed, and began a forty-year investigation. In Super Consciousness, we see how such luminaries as Yeats, Blake, Sartre, Nietzsche, and Robert Graves were affected by Peak Experiences, and how it has long been noted that we are least insightful when we are at our lowest ebb. By looking in detail through the different areas where this phenomenon has occurred—and by offering anecdotes and examples of how many people in history (as well as himself) were affected—Wilson reveals a pattern of insight with emotions. He ends the book with an instructional section on achieving power consciousness for yourself.

Meet Bror Telemann. 42 years old. Husband to Nina Telemann. Father to Heidi, Berthold and Sabine. Currently: stage director at the Norwegian National Theatre. Soon to be: world-famous playwright and general talking head. Now he's on holiday with his family at the foot of the Alps, south of Munich. That's in Germany. Nina loves Germany. Telemann does not. Telemann loves Nigella Lawson. Ahem... he loves the theatre.That's better. So, whilst his wife and children frolic in the dusky sunshine with lederhosen-sporting, schnitzel-scoffing locals, Telemann prefers to spend his time thinking about theatre... except when his mind wanders... again. Subversive and original, this is the 2009 Norwegian bestseller from the deliciously dark mind of Erlend Loe.

Doppler has a nice house, a nice wife and a nice job. But Doppler isn't happy. 'Wonderfuly subversive, funny and original' Observer. 'A darkly comic fable' Independent. When his father dies, Doppler decides to leave everything behind and start a new life in the forest. There, deep amongst the trees, he reconnects with nature, ponders the meaning of life, and bonds with a baby elk called Bongo. Sweet, funny and subversive, this is a charming fable about the pressures of modern existence and finding friends in the strangest of places. 'Dead-pan comedy' Financial Times. 'An absurdist, hilariously subversive novel'Saga.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A deliciously dark tale of America’s dysfunctional coming years—and the timeless and tender feelings that just might bring us back from the brink. NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The New York Times • The Washington Post • The Boston Globe • San Francisco Chronicle • The Seattle Times • O: The Oprah Magazine • Maureen Corrigan, NPR • Salon • Slate • Minneapolis Star Tribune • St. Louis Post-Dispatch • The Kansas City Star • Charlotte Observer • The Globe and Mail • Vancouver Sun • Montreal Gazette • Kirkus Reviews In the near future, America is crushed by a financial crisis and our patient Chinese creditors may just be ready to foreclose on the whole mess. Then Lenny Abramov, son of an Russian immigrant janitor and ardent fan of “printed, bound media artifacts” (aka books), meets Eunice Park, an impossibly cute Korean American woman with a major in Images and a minor in Assertiveness. Could falling in love redeem a planet falling apart?