The Dictator's Eyebrow


Book Description

This is a disturbing, poetic account of an unnamed dictator’s eyebrow whose longings, delusions of grandeur, and curious influence have shaped history in ways previously unknown—until now. Within a surreal tale about an eyebrow’s thirst for recognition and power, a love story also unexpectedly emerges. Finalist for the Singapore Book Publishers Association Awards 2016. “An enthralling pyroclastic flow of poetic flagellation ripping the mask of stoic indifference and lapdog-media concocted majestic stature of a narcissistic tyrant. And every wordstroke of the poet never fails to decode and eviscerate the megalomaniac to the grave.” - Elangovan, recipient of the 1997 SEA Write Award




How to Be a Dictator


Book Description

'Brilliant' NEW STATESMAN, BOOKS OF THE YEAR 'Enlightening and a good read' SPECTATOR 'Moving and perceptive' NEW STATESMAN Mussolini, Hitler, Stalin, Mao Zedong, Kim Il-sung, Ceausescu, Mengistu of Ethiopia and Duvalier of Haiti. No dictator can rule through fear and violence alone. Naked power can be grabbed and held temporarily, but it never suffices in the long term. A tyrant who can compel his own people to acclaim him will last longer. The paradox of the modern dictator is that he must create the illusion of popular support. Throughout the twentieth century, hundreds of millions of people were condemned to enthusiasm, obliged to hail their leaders even as they were herded down the road to serfdom. In How to Be a Dictator, Frank Dikötter returns to eight of the most chillingly effective personality cults of the twentieth century. From carefully choreographed parades to the deliberate cultivation of a shroud of mystery through iron censorship, these dictators ceaselessly worked on their own image and encouraged the population at large to glorify them. At a time when democracy is in retreat, are we seeing a revival of the same techniques among some of today's world leaders? This timely study, told with great narrative verve, examines how a cult takes hold, grows, and sustains itself. It places the cult of personality where it belongs, at the very heart of tyranny.




The Dictatorship Syndrome


Book Description

The study of dictatorship in the West has acquired an almost exotic dimension. But authoritarian regimes remain a painful reality for billions of people worldwide who still live under them, their freedoms violated and their rights abused. They are subject to arbitrary arrest, torture, corruption, ignorance, and injustice. What is the nature of dictatorship? How does it take hold? In what conditions and circumstances is it permitted to thrive? And how do dictators retain power, even when reviled and mocked by those they govern? In this deeply considered and at times provocative short work, Alaa Al Aswany tells us that, as with any disease, to understand the syndrome of dictatorship we must first consider the circumstances of its emergence, along with the symptoms and complications it causes in both the people and the dictator.




Dictator Lunches


Book Description

Pack lunch with this fun and creative cookbook of lunchbox ideas and healthy recipes to please even your pickiest eater—from Jenny Mollen, the Instagram personality behind @dictatorlunches! “Jenny makes all of us moms wanna be more creative! Her humor and inventiveness are such a winning combination. I love this amazing method of edible food art she has brought to life. It makes us all smile and cheer.” — Drew Barrymore Lighthearted cooking with a heavy dose of love Any parent will tell you that raising dictators… errr, children … can be challenging. Thankfully Jenny Mollen of @dictatorlunches takes the power struggle out of mealtime with this inspired collection of 40 recipes, from filling breakfasts to healthy snacks, dinners, and desserts—with a special emphasis on solving the age-old problem of school lunch. Dictator Lunches will soon become your secret weapon in the kitchen. Mollen shares her foolproof method for packing winning lunches along with easy-to-master techniques that will transform ordinary ingredients into adorable edible art, like Strawberry Actresses, Cucumber Penguins, and Rice Pandas. With her trademark playfulness and whimsy, Mollen turns meals into feasts fit for any autocrat, no matter how demanding, featuring: Insta-ready Avocado Toast Better Than Alphabet Cookies Logs. They Aren’t Just for Ants Anymore Fruit-juiced Gummy Worms in Granola soil Healthy Chocolate-Peanut Butter Cups on a Stick Complete with international dishes for your jet-setting tyrant like Amateur Hour Japchae, Curry Chicken, and Coconut Rice and Beans, and holiday-themed boxes with Reindeer Celery Sticks, Baruch Atah Adon-Applesauce, and Spinach Frankenstein Quesadillas, Dictator Lunches has you covered for every meal, every holiday, and any dictator’s whim.




Face Reading Quick & Easy


Book Description

Based on ancient Chinese wisdom similar to palmistry and acupuncture, face reading teaches us to really see the faces we look at every day. Learn how the zones of the face reveal personality characteristics and how meaning is hidden in our features. Read the fortune written on your own face and those of friends, family, colleagues, and business contacts. Also included are helpful tips for reading emotional cues during important meetings like job interviews, as well as tips for recognizing when a person is lying. Better relationships and a more successful life can be yours when you learn to read faces!




The Prince and the Dancing Girl


Book Description

A dazzling page-turner, this novel depicts some of the great and near-great of history. The locale spans three continents: it is the story of wise men, heroes and fools. Peopled by a sprawling cast of memorable characters-royalty, patriots, heroic men and courageous women. The story moves with a tremendous sweep from one adventure to another, and is a network of intrigue and misunderstandings and missed opportunities, It is a powerful portrait of the great Austrian dynasty of Europe containing scenes of wealth and privilege and dire responsibility. A prince strives to inspire his people with hope and courage, gathering his forces, and stimulating them into action. While he works hard in many ways to rescue his country from the plight into which it had been thrown and all the while searching for an even deeper understanding of life and wise judgment. Politicians, philosopher and pundits lend thoughts to the judgments made by rulers and commoners alike. Princesses and exotic women add their love for the arts and fashion and enticement. All of these qualities combined make a dynamic story line for a magnetic novel. A novel crowded with beauty and incident, the search for wisdom, ambition, and adventure. A living novel which unexpectedly makes you feel you are in a story filled with people you know personally.




The Vekaiyun


Book Description

It exists. At least, it has to exist, right? Somewhere between the wild expanse of the unknown and teetering on the scale of unrestrained innovation and morality must exist a specimen capable of complete and utter submission to the Vekaiyun Ideal. Maybe there exists more than one specimen. Perhaps these specimens, if they exist, merely need to be conditioned, controlled, and taught from an early age to bend to the wills and wants of the state. Azsur Venavle and his array of like-minded generals longed for such devoted subjects; therefore, it was made so. One such individual, Ikrisia Levinile, known as Number Eight, is among such rootless specimens and is a peculiar study. Though a child, she is quick to grasp advanced concepts, and like her groupmates, she is a capable tactician. She was made that way, after all. Any vestige of compassion or emotional weaknesses appears to have been corrected, leaving a clean slate ready to accept the dogma of the all-important Vekaiyun state under Venavle's rule, thereby ensuring his regime and those like his will remain intact for years to come. Or so it appears. Specimens can have souls. They are more than a simple line of data tested against an algorithm of conditioned responses. Perhaps there's something more to this Ikrisia Levinile that the analysts missed. Perhaps there's another side that the cold hands of Azsur Venavle's subordinates haven't grasped. Perhaps a change is slowly forming against the horizon. Somewhere between the lines and existing only as harmless anomalies, an independent soul, an entity apart from the supplements and indoctrinations, exists. It exists. At least, it has to exist, right?




Dictators


Book Description

A New Statesman, Financial Times and Economist Book of the Year 'Brilliant' NEW STATESMAN, BOOKS OF THE YEAR 'Enlightening and a good read' SPECTATOR 'Moving and perceptive' NEW STATESMAN Mussolini, Hitler, Stalin, Mao Zedong, Kim Il-sung, Ceausescu, Mengistu of Ethiopia and Duvalier of Haiti. No dictator can rule through fear and violence alone. Naked power can be grabbed and held temporarily, but it never suffices in the long term. A tyrant who can compel his own people to acclaim him will last longer. The paradox of the modern dictator is that he must create the illusion of popular support. Throughout the twentieth century, hundreds of millions of people were condemned to enthusiasm, obliged to hail their leaders even as they were herded down the road to serfdom. In Dictators, Frank Dikötter returns to eight of the most chillingly effective personality cults of the twentieth century. From carefully choreographed parades to the deliberate cultivation of a shroud of mystery through iron censorship, these dictators ceaselessly worked on their own image and encouraged the population at large to glorify them. At a time when democracy is in retreat, are we seeing a revival of the same techniques among some of today's world leaders? This timely study, told with great narrative verve, examines how a cult takes hold, grows, and sustains itself. It places the cult of personality where it belongs, at the very heart of tyranny.




The Immortals


Book Description

In 1980s Bombay, a highly regarded voice teacher and his affluent sixteen-year-old student enter into a relationship that will have unexpected and lasting consequences in their lives, and the lives of their families. With exquisitely sensuous detail, quiet humor, and unsentimental poignancy, Amit Chaudhuri paints a luminous portrait of the spiritual and emotional force behind a revered Indian tradition; of two fundamentally different but intricately intertwined families; and of a society choosing between the old and the new.