What does "good luck" look like and how do you achieve it? The Japanese have been doing it for centuries!

Lucky symbols, lucky numbers, lucky charms and luck-creating rituals--how is it that a disciplined and hard-working country like Japan is so invested in the idea of luck? And what, exactly, does "good luck" mean?

This insightful book by a leading expert on the subject explores the ways in which luck-encouraging and misfortune-repelling rituals--long woven into the fabric of Japanese life-...

“A fascinating, provocative case that the metaverse will not merely transform our virtual experience—it may actually enrich the quality of our lives” (Adam Grant)—from the visionary co-founder of one of today’s most innovative technology companies

“Mind-expanding . . . This important book offers a highly persuasive argument that a new kind of virtual world, the metaverse, marks a profound new stage in this long human quest for fulfillment through creation.”—Chris Anderson, Hea...

'A ground-breaking book that speaks to all women' Bernardine Evaristo

What can ancestral practices teach us about how to live fuller lives today?

Upon turning forty, Afua Hirsch had an encounter that forever altered her preconceived notions of ancestry and body image, making her question everything from body-modification rituals such as tattoos and piercings to the foundations of sexuality, as well as attitudes towards puberty, ageing and death. This book charts her year-long journey of radic...

From Hello Kitty to Maneki Neko--Japan is the epicentre of global cat culture!

Whether lurking in corners or taking center stage, cats are a ubiquitous presence in Japanese art. Depending on the situation, they may invite good fortune, prompt the viewer to meditate on a tale or provide evidence of an unseen world of magic and supernatural happenings.

In 200 charming woodblock prints, paintings, screens and figurines spanning three centuries, Japanese art expert Rhiannon Paget celebrates the r...

In this brilliant selection of essays, the award-winning, best-selling author of The Handmaid's Tale and The Testaments offers her funny, erudite, endlessly curious, and uncannily prescient take on everything from debt and tech to the climate crisis and freedom and the importance of how to define granola—and seeks answers to Burning Questions such as...

• Why do people everywhere, in all cultures, tell stories?

• How much of yourself can you give away without evaporating?

• How can we...

This powerful memoir by New York Times bestselling author Amy Bloom is an illuminating story of two people whose love and shared life experiences led them to find a courageous way to part—and of a woman’s struggle to go forward in the face of loss.

“What a book this is—full of everything that matters . . . gripping, moving, and beautifully told.”—Meg Wolitzer, author of The Female Persuasion

ONE OF THE MOST ANTICIPATED BOOKS OF 2022—Oprah Daily, BookPage

Amy Bloom began to notic...

In this love letter to reading, curated by Pandora Sykes in aid of the National Literacy Trust, bestselling and beloved writers share their favourite books: the ones they hold most dearly, that they return to time and again and that helped make them the writers they are.

WITH CONTRIBUTIONS FROM :

NICK HORNBY * RUTH OZEKI * ANN PATCHETT * BENJAMIN ZEPHANIAH * MARIAN KEYES * ELIZABETH STROUT * DEBORAH LEVY * TESSA HADLEY * ELIF SHAFAK * GEORGE THE POET * LEILA SLIMANI * ALI SMITH * DEREK OWUSU ...

‘History doesn’t repeat itself, it rhymes.’

One day in 1988, an enigmatic priest knocks on Pieter Waterdrinker’s door with an unusual request: will he smuggle seven thousand bibles into the Soviet Union? Pieter agrees, and soon finds himself living in the midst of one of the biggest social and cultural revolutions of our time, working as a tour operator ... with a sideline in contraband.

Thirty years later, from his apartment on Tchaikovsky Street in Saint Petersburg, where he lives w...

Steeped in honey, Juventius,

your golden eyes, and as sweet too

when I press my lips to them -

three hundred thousand kisses

is not close to enough

For centuries, evidence of queer love in the ancient world was ignored or suppressed. Even today, only a few, famous narratives are widely known - yet there's a rich literary tradition of Greek and Roman love that extends far beyond this handful of stories. Here, the poet Seán Hewitt and painter Luke Edward Hall collect together, for the first ti...

THIS BOOK TRANSLATES ALL THE MEOWS - IN CASE YOU MISSED ANYTHING

Today, domestic cats live harmoniously with devoted owners all over the world. But how did the wildcats of old creep into our homes and our hearts, convincing us to keep them warm, fed, and pampered?

They learned to talk to us.

Renowned cat behaviour scientist Dr. Sarah Brown reveals the previously unexplored secrets of cat communication in a book that is both scientifically grounded and utterly delightful.

Each chapter dives in...