Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void
Mary Roach

The best-selling author of Stiff and Bonk explores the irresistibly strange universe of space travel and life without gravity. Space is a world devoid of the things we need to live and thrive: air, gravity, hot showers, fresh produce, privacy, beer. Space exploration is in some ways an exploration of what it means to be human. How much can a person give up? How much weirdness can they take? What happens to you when you can’t walk for a year? have sex? smell...

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Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void
Mary Roach

The best-selling author of Stiff and Bonk explores the irresistibly strange universe of space travel and life without gravity. Space is a world devoid of the things we need to live and thrive: air, gravity, hot showers, fresh produce, privacy, beer. Space exploration is in some ways an exploration of what it means to be human. How much can a person give up? How much weirdness can they take? What happens to you when you can’t walk for a year? have sex? smell flowers? What happens if you vomit in your helmet during a space walk? Is it possible for the human body to survive a bailout at 17,000 miles per hour? To answer these questions, space agencies set up all manner of quizzical and startlingly bizarre space simulations. As Mary Roach discovers, it’s possible to preview space without ever leaving Earth. From the space shuttle training toilet to a crash test of NASA’s new space capsule (cadaver filling in for astronaut), Roach takes us on a surreally entertaining trip into the science of life in space and space on Earth.

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Monty Python's Tunisian Holiday: My Life with Brian
Kim Howard Johnson

“One of the finest and most accurate records of the making of the film that I have ever read. I just wished I could remember what actually went on then.”
--Terry Jones

“If anyone can remember more about making the Life of Brian than me, it’s Kim ‘Howard’ Johnson. He came, he saw, he got into costume. While the rest of us were fighting to upstage each other, Howard had a notebook hidden in his toga.”
--Michael Palin

“Since I’ve forgotten everything, it will be gre...

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Monty Python's Tunisian Holiday: My Life with Brian
Kim Howard Johnson

“One of the finest and most accurate records of the making of the film that I have ever read. I just wished I could remember what actually went on then.”
--Terry Jones

“If anyone can remember more about making the Life of Brian than me, it’s Kim ‘Howard’ Johnson. He came, he saw, he got into costume. While the rest of us were fighting to upstage each other, Howard had a notebook hidden in his toga.”
--Michael Palin

“Since I’ve forgotten everything, it will be great to read what was actually going on in Tunisia. Just as long as I’m the most quoted, the most vital to the shooting, and the most interesting. You don’t have to mention my stunning good looks if you don’t want to.”
--Terry Gilliam

“Of all the books that I am planning to read in my dotage, there is none I am more looking forward to than Monty Python’s Tunisian Holiday. . . . Not only does ‘Howard’ Johnson know more about Python than anyone outside of the IRS, he was in Tunisia for most of the filming of Life of Brian, and is the only person who captured every thoughtless remark, heated exchange, embarrassing detail, petty insult, and spiteful act of indifference.”
--John Cleese

“Kim ‘Howard’ Johnson was invented by Graham Chapman during an idle moment on the set of The Life of Brian. ‘Let’s invent a person,’ he said. ‘An American fan from the Midwest,’ chimed in Michael Palin, ‘who keeps a daily diary of Python filming. And then doesn’t publish it for years and years.’ How we laughed, and each day we’d make up stuff this ‘person’ would write about us.”
--Eric Idle

In 1978, Kim “Howard” Johnson ran away to join the circus---Monty Python’s Flying Circus, that is. The Pythons converged on Tunisia to film their timeless classic, Life of Brian, and Howard found himself in the thick of it, doubling for nearly all the Pythons, playing more roles in the film than John Cleese, and managing to ruin only one shot. He became the unit journalist, substitute still photographer, Roman soldier, peasant, Biggus Dickus’s double, near-stalker, and, ultimately, friend and confidant of the comedy legends. He also kept a detailed journal of what he saw and heard, on set and off, throughout those six weeks.
The result is a unique eyewitness account that reveals the Pythons at work and at play in a way that nothing else written about them could do. Now, for the first time ever, the inside story of the making of the film is revealed through the fly-on-the-castle-wall perspective. Even the most diehard fans will get a fresh take on the comedy greats through some never-before-revealed nuggets of Python brilliance: what John Cleese offered to exchange for suntan lotion; Terry Jones directing in drag; Michael Palin’s secret to playing revolutionaries and peasants; Graham Chapman gets naked; Terry Gilliam gets filthy; Eric Idle haggles; the secret of the Thespo-Squat; Mrs. Pilate; talk of George Harrison; the cake-flinging that jeopardized the production; badminton, impromptu cricket, and erotic frescoes; and the first-ever presentation of “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life.”
Here, uncensored, are the legendary Pythons in their prime. It was a period of comedy history that will never be duplicated, and Monty Python’s Tunisian Holiday captures the wit, the genius, and the sheer silliness of the six men that comprised Python.

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Mad Men: The Illustrated World
Dyna Moe

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Mad Men: The Illustrated World
Dyna Moe

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Art in the Age of Technoscience: Genetic Engineering, Robotics, and Artificial Life in Contemporary Art
Ingeborg Reichle

Is science the new art? Starting from this provocative question, art historian Ingeborg Reichle examines in her book fascinating responses of contemporary artists when faced with recent scientific and technological advances. In the last two decades a growing number of artists has left the traditional artistic playground to work instead in scientific contexts such as the laboratories of molecular biology, robotics, and artificial life. New art forms like “Transgenic Art" and "Bio-Art” have ...

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Art in the Age of Technoscience: Genetic Engineering, Robotics, and Artificial Life in Contemporary Art
Ingeborg Reichle

Is science the new art? Starting from this provocative question, art historian Ingeborg Reichle examines in her book fascinating responses of contemporary artists when faced with recent scientific and technological advances. In the last two decades a growing number of artists has left the traditional artistic playground to work instead in scientific contexts such as the laboratories of molecular biology, robotics, and artificial life. New art forms like “Transgenic Art" and "Bio-Art” have emerged from the laboratory. These art forms differ dramatically from traditional artistic approaches that explore the natural: they have crossed the boundaries between the artificial and the natural, and thus provoke passionate debates about the growing influence of science and technology. This first comprehensive survey presents a well-selected number of significant artworks and with over 280 colour illustrations provides a broad overview of this new and relevant development in art.

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On the Beach (Vintage International)
Nevil Shute

Nevil Shute’s most powerful novel—a bestseller for decades after its 1957 publication—is an unforgettable vision of a post-apocalyptic world.

After a nuclear World War III has destroyed most of the globe, the few remaining survivors in southern Australia await the radioactive cloud that is heading their way and bringing certain death to everyone in its path. Among them is an American submarine captain struggling to resist the knowledge that his wife and children in the United Sta...

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On the Beach (Vintage International)
Nevil Shute

Nevil Shute’s most powerful novel—a bestseller for decades after its 1957 publication—is an unforgettable vision of a post-apocalyptic world.

After a nuclear World War III has destroyed most of the globe, the few remaining survivors in southern Australia await the radioactive cloud that is heading their way and bringing certain death to everyone in its path. Among them is an American submarine captain struggling to resist the knowledge that his wife and children in the United States must be dead. Then a faint Morse code signal is picked up, transmitting from somewhere near Seattle, and Captain Towers must lead his submarine crew on a bleak tour of the ruined world in a desperate search for signs of life. Both terrifying and intensely moving, On the Beach is a remarkably convincing portrait of how ordinary people might face the most unimaginable nightmare.

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