Books with author Jan Morris

Meet more than one hundred of the oddest supervillains in comics history, complete with backstories, vintage art, and colorful commentary.This collection affectionately spotlights the most ridiculous, bizarre, and cringe-worthy criminals ever published, from fandom favorites like MODOK and Egg Fu to forgotten weirdos like Brickbat (choice of weapon: poison bricks) and Animal-Vegetable-Mineral Man. Casual comics readers and diehard enthusiasts alike will relish the hilarious commentary and vintage art from obscure old comics.

An extraordinary―and strikingly illustrated―reflection on the meaning of war from one of our greatest living writers. The battleship Yamato, of the Imperial Japanese Navy, was the most powerful warship of World War II and represented the climax, as it were, of the Japanese warrior traditions of the samurai―the ideals of honor, discipline, and self-sacrifice that had immemorially ennobled the Japanese national consciousness. Stoically poised for battle in the spring of 1945―when even Japan’s last desperate technique of arms, the kamikaze, was running short―Yamato arose as the last magnificent arrow in the imperial quiver of Emperor Hirohito. Here, Jan Morris not only tells the dramatic story of the magnificent ship itself―from secret wartime launch to futile sacrifice at Okinawa―but, more fundamentally, interprets the ship as an allegorical figure of war itself, in its splendor and its squalor, its heroism and its waste. Drawing on rich naval history and rhapsodic metaphors from international music and art, Battleship Yamato is a work of grand ironic elegy.

A New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice SelectionRiffing on cats and Brexit, the Royals and the annoyances of aging, the nonagenarian Jan Morris delights with her wickedly hilarious first-ever diary collection.Celebrated as the “greatest descriptive writer of her time” (Rebecca West), Jan Morris has been dazzling readers since she burst on the scene with her on-the-spot reportage of the first ascent of Everest in 1953. Now, the beloved ninety-two-year-old, author of classics such as Venice and Trieste, embarks on an entirely new literary enterprise―a collection of daily diaries, penned over the course of a single year. Ranging widely from the idyllic confines of her North Wales home, Morris offers diverse sallies on her preferred form of exercises (walking briskly), her frustration at not recognizing a certain melody humming in her head (Beethoven’s Pathétique, incidentally), her nostalgia for small-town America, as well as intimate glimpses into her home life.With insightful quips on world issues, including Britain’s “special relationship” with the United States and the #MeToo movement, In My Mind’s Eye will charm old and new Jan Morris fans alike. Frontispiece

A powerful and provocative exploration of how war has changed our society—for the better"War! . . . . / What is it good for? / Absolutely nothing," says the famous song—but archaeology, history, and biology show that war in fact has been good for something. Surprising as it sounds, war has made humanity safer and richer.In War! What Is It Good For?, the renowned historian and archaeologist Ian Morris tells the gruesome, gripping story of fifteen thousand years of war, going beyond the battles and brutality to reveal what war has really done to and for the world. Stone Age people lived in small, feuding societies and stood a one-in-ten or even one-in-five chance of dying violently. In the twentieth century, by contrast—despite two world wars, Hiroshima, and the Holocaust—fewer than one person in a hundred died violently. The explanation: War, and war alone, has created bigger, more complex societies, ruled by governments that have stamped out internal violence. Strangely enough, killing has made the world safer, and the safety it has produced has allowed people to make the world richer too.War has been history's greatest paradox, but this searching study of fifteen thousand years of violence suggests that the next half century is going to be the most dangerous of all time. If we can survive it, the age-old dream of ending war may yet come to pass. But, Morris argues, only if we understand what war has been good for can we know where it will take us next.

A New York Times Notable Book for 2011 Sometime around 1750, English entrepreneurs unleashed the astounding energies of steam and coal, and the world was forever changed. The emergence of factories, railroads, and gunboats propelled the West's rise to power in the nineteenth century, and the development of computers and nuclear weapons in the twentieth century secured its global supremacy. Now, at the beginning of the twenty-first century, many worry that the emerging economic power of China and India spells the end of the West as a superpower. In order to understand this possibility, we need to look back in time. Why has the West dominated the globe for the past two hundred years, and will its power last?Describing the patterns of human history, the archaeologist and historian Ian Morris offers surprising new answers to both questions. It is not, he reveals, differences of race or culture, or even the strivings of great individuals, that explain Western dominance. It is the effects of geography on the everyday efforts of ordinary people as they deal with crises of resources, disease, migration, and climate. As geography and human ingenuity continue to interact, the world will change in astonishing ways, transforming Western rule in the process.Deeply researched and brilliantly argued, Why the West Rules―for Now spans fifty thousand years of history and offers fresh insights on nearly every page. The book brings together the latest findings across disciplines―from ancient history to neuroscience―not only to explain why the West came to rule the world but also to predict what the future will bring in the next hundred years.

After 70 years of life and almost 70 translated volumes, it was high time English-speaking readers were offered a hardback collected edition. This first volume contains the first seven adventures of Lucky Luke, previously published as volumes Arizona, Rodeoand Dick Digger’s Gold Mine, and offers an unrivaled insight into the evolution of the character in terms of design as well as personality. The extras available make up a whooping 48 pages of illustrations, photographs, biographies, essays and anecdotes on Morris and the origins of Luke. A must read for any true fan of this legend of the West!

A 2020 Theodor Seuss Geisel Honor BookMeet Flubby--the lovably lazy feline who prefers a purr-fectly laid-back lifestyle!Flubby is a large, sleepy cat who refuses to do the things that other pets do. He won't sing, catch, or even jump! But when a scary situation brings Flubby and his owner together, they realize they really do need each other--and that makes Flubby a good pet after all. The charming illustrations, simple text, and comic-like panels by J. E. Morris, author-illustrator of the Maud the Koala books, make this a unique format with a narrative style perfect for storytime and progressing readers.

A POWERFUL AND PROVOCATIVE EXPLORATION OF HOW WAR HAS CHANGED OUT SOCIETY―FOR THE BETTER"War! / What is it good for? / Absolutely nothing," says the famous song―but archaeology, history, and biology show that war in fact has been good for something. Surprising as it sounds, war has made humanity safer and richer. In War! What Is It Good For?, the renowned historian and archaeologist Ian Morris tells the gruesome, gripping story of fifteen thousand years of war, going beyond the battles and brutality to reveal what war has really done to and for the world. Stone Age people lived in small, feuding societies and stood a one-in-ten or even one-in-five chance of dying violently. In the twentieth century, by contrast―despite two world wars, Hiroshima, and the Holocaust―fewer than one person in a hundred died violently. The explanation: War, and war alone, has created bigger, more complex societies, ruled by governments that have stamped out internal violence. Strangely enough, killing has made the world safer, and the safety it has produced has allowed people to make the world richer too. War has been history's greatest paradox, but this searching study of fifteen thousand years of violence suggests that the next half century is going to be the most dangerous of all time. If we can survive it, the age-old dream of ending war may yet come to pass. But, Morris argues, only if we understand what war has been good for can we know where it will take us next.

A 2020 Theodor Seuss Geisel Honor BookMeet Flubby--the lovably lazy feline who prefers a purr-fectly laid-back lifestyle!Flubby is a big, sleepy cat who refuses to do the things that other pets do. He won't sing, catch, or even jump! But when a scary situation brings Flubby and his owner together, they realize they really do need each other--and that makes Flubby a good pet after all. The charming illustrations, simple text, and comic-like panels by J. E. Morris, author-illustrator of the Maud the Koala books, make this a unique format with a narrative style perfect for storytime and progressing readers. Exciting, easy-to-read books are the stepping stone a young reader needs to bridge the gap between being a beginner and being fluent.

From the moment she saw him, she knew the bear had come for her. How many times had she dreamt of the bear . Now, here he was, as if spelled from her dreams.“I will come with you, Bear,” she said.It is the beginning of an extraordinary journey for the girl. First to the bear’s secret palace in faraway mountains, where she is treated so courteously, but where she experiences the bear’s unfathomable sadness, and a deep mystery As the bear’s secret unravels, another journey unfolds a long and desperate journey, that takes the girl to the homes of the four Winds and beyond, to the castle east of the sun, west of the moon.This beautiful, mysterious story of love, loyalty and above all, freedom, is inspired by fairy tale, and is magically told and illustrated by Jackie Morris.

Brothers Adolph and Arthur Caille are mechanical geniuses. They’ve just created one of the first slot machines and have presented it to their local senator, a notorious gambler. Much taken with the device, he agrees to send them on a tour of American cities to test the machine’s popularity. And, to escort them on this dangerous journey, he calls on his old friend Lucky Luke… So begins the wacky tale of how the one-armed bandit conquered the West!