Boukje Verheij Libri

Pompeii explodes a number of myths - from the very date of the eruption, probably a few months later than usually thought; the hygiene of the baths which must have been hotbeds of germs; and the legendary number of brothels, most likely only one, to the massive death count which was probably less than ten per cent of the population.Street Life, Earning a Living: Baker, Banker and Garum Maker (who ran the city), The Pleasure of the Body: Food, Wine, Sex and Baths, these chapter headings give a surprising insight into the workings of a Roman town. At the Suburban Baths we go from communal bathing to hygiene to erotica. A fast-food joint on the Via dell' Abbondanza introduces food and drink and diets and street life. These are just a few of the strands that make up an extraordinary and involving portrait of an ancient town, its life and its continuing re-discovery, by Britain's leading classicist.

A masterful history of Rome's first imperial dynasty by the award-winning author of Rubicon, Persian Fire and In the Shadow of the Sword.

At a Christie's auction in October 1998, a battered medieval manuscript sold for two million dollars to an anonymous bidder, who then turned it over to the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore for further study. The manuscript was a palimpsest-a book made from an earlier codex whose script had been scraped off and the pages used again. Behind the script of the thirteenth-century monk's prayer book, the palimpsest revealed the faint writing of a much older, tenth-century manuscript. Part archaeological detective story, part science, and part history, The Archimedes Codex tells the extraordinary story of this lost manuscript, from its tenth-century creation in Constantinople to the auction block at Christie's, and how a team of scholars used the latest imaging technology to reveal and decipher the original text. What they found was the earliest surviving manuscript by Archimedes (287 b.c.-212 b.c.), the greatest mathematician of antiquity-a manuscript that revealed, for the first time, the full range of his mathematical genius, which was two thousand years ahead of modern science.

A guy walks into a bar . . . From here the story could take many turns. A guy walks into a bar and meets the love of his life. A guy walks into a bar and finds no one else is there. When this guy is David Sedaris, the possibilities are endless. In Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls, Sedaris delights with twists of humour and intelligence, remembering his father's dinnertime attire (shirtsleeves and underpants) his first colonoscopy (remarkably pleasant) and the time he considered buying the skeleton of a murdered pygmy. By turns hilarious and moving, David Sedaris masterfully looks at life's absurdities as he takes us on adventures that are not to be forgotten.

Quando una rapina a mano armata in un casinò di Atlantic City finisce in un bagno di sangue, all'uomo che ha organizzato il colpo non rimane che rivolgersi a Jack. Jack è quello che in gergo si definisce un'«ombra»: un uomo privo di un'identità, che ripulisce le scene dei crimini senza lasciare traccia. Un mestiere da professionisti, spesso rischioso. Ma mai come questa volta. Perché sulle sue tracce c'è l'Fbi, e qualcuno che vuole approfittare dell'occasione per regolare conti antichi, facendo sparire l'Ombra. Una volta per tutte. L'ombra, scritto da un esordiente di ventidue anni scoperto dall'editor di Raymond Carver e Cormac McCarthy, best-seller negli Stati Uniti e in Gran Bretagna, acclamato dai critici, è stato venduto in sedici paesi. I diritti cinematografici sono stati acquistati dalla Warner Brothers.

Van je familie moet je het hebben bevat een zorgvuldig en kundig samengestelde en ingeleide selectie door Aaf Brandt Corstius van David Sedaris' mooiste, ontroerendste en vooral geestigste verhalen: ze gaan over de dood, over zijn knotsgekke familie, over nudistencampings, over roken, over de zes tot acht zwarte mannen die Sinterklaas assisteren, over dwangneuroses, lichamelijk verval, over shoppen met zijn zus Amy, en over nog meer dood.David Sedaris is een fenomeen in de Verenigde Staten: van zijn boeken zijn meer dan een miljoen exemplaren verkocht. Zijn verhalen verschijnen in The New Yorker, hij leest voor op National Public Radio, en is regelmatig te zien bij David Letterman. Ook in België is zijn faam groot: 'Is David Sedaris de grappigste schrijver ter wereld? Wij zijn er alvast van overtuigd,' schreef Het Nieuwsblad geheel terecht.