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BBS
Atlas of Improbable Places
by Travis Elborough and Alan Horsfield
#UM2152
Hardcover, 224 pages; 2016
$29.99
A captivating
“journey to the world’s most
unusual corners,”
this unique armchair-travel
guide whisks curious readers around the globe
to explore architectural marvels, geological
oddities, historical wonders, abandoned
treasures…more than fifty remarkable places that
all
“have stories to tell.”
With detailed maps and
stunning photographs, each featured locale—
William Randolph Hearst’s opulent sixty-
bedroom estate in California, an island off Siberia where the woolly
mammoth staved off extinction for 4,000 years, a French village left
undisturbed since World War II, a vast network of subterranean
bunkers under Beijing constructed under Mao Zedong, to name just
a few—offers an illuminating and fascinating snapshot of history.
Inquisitive minds will relish this unusual atlas!
(AG)
Empress Dowager Cixi:
The Concubine Who Launched Modern China
by Jung Chang
#UM2442
Paperback, 436 pages; 2014 (2013)
$17.95
In spring 1852, in one of the periodic nationwide selections for imperial
consorts, a sixteen-year-old girl caught the eye of the emperor and was
chosen as a concubine….In the court registry she was entered simply as
‘the woman of the Nala family’, with no name of her own. Female names
were deemed too insignificant to be recorded. In fewer than ten years,
however, this girl, whose [birth] name may have been lost for ever, had
fought her way to become the ruler of China.
So begins a fascinating biography of a controversial woman, a former
concubine who seized power in a (mostly) bloodless coup after the
death of Emperor Xianfeng. During Cixi’s rule, China outlawed foot-binding, introduced modern
industry, redesigned its educational system, and granted new freedoms to the press. But Cixi has
long been vilified for the means by which she achieved these ends, some of which biographer
Jung Chang acknowledges; others, Chang argues, are lies woven by Cixi’s modern successors.
Complex, astonishing, and sometimes mysterious, Cixi’s story is an engrossing one!
(KG)
BBS
Members’ Price $15.26
BBS
Members’ Price $25.49
Small Squares
With Mighty Words
#UM3592 $22.95
Even youths grow tired and weary,
and young men stumble and fall; but
those who hope in the Lord will renew
their strength. They will soar on wings
like eagles; they will run and not grow
weary, they will walk and not be faint.
—Isaiah 40: 30–31
For centuries, Christians have sought
comfort and guidance in the words of
the Bible. This little kit contains one
hundred uplifting verses, sourced from
both the Old and New Testaments, on
fifty colorful 2½"–square cards, each
of which fits neatly into a small wooden display stand. Keep this diminutive set on your desk or
bedside table for a daily dose of inspiration, or slip a card into your pocket whenever you need
extra encouragement.
“Mighty words”
indeed!