Rory MacLean Libri

In 1989 the Berlin Wall fell. In that euphoric year Rory MacLean travelled from Berlin to Moscow, exploring lands that were, for most Brits and Americans, part of the forgotten half of Europe. Thirty years on, MacLean traces his original journey backwards, across countries confronting old ghosts and new fears: from revanchist Russia, through Ukraine's bloodlands, into illiberal Hungary, and then Poland, Germany and the UK. Along the way he shoulders an AK-47 to go hunting with Moscow's chicken Tsar, plays video games in St Petersburg with a cyber-hacker who cracked the US election, drops by the Che Guevara High School of Political Leadership in a non-existent nowhereland and meets the Warsaw doctor who tried to stop a march of 70,000 nationalists. Finally, on the shores of Lake Geneva, he waits patiently to chat with Mikhail Gorbachev. As Europe sleepwalks into a perilous new age, MacLean explores how opportunists, both within and outside of Russia, from Putin to Home Counties populists, have made a joke of truth, exploiting refugees and the dispossessed, and examines the veracity of historical narrative from reportage to fiction and fake news. He asks what happened to the optimism of 1989 and, in the shadow of Brexit, chronicles the collapse of the European dream

The Phoenix Keeper is an irresistible queer romantasy standalone set in a magical zoo of mythical creatures by ecology professor and ornithologist S. A. MacLean.

"A universal story about the power of place to shape families: in the spirit of his father's ... classic A River Runs Through It, comes John N. Maclean's meditation on fly fishing and life along Montana's Blackfoot River, where four generations of Macleans have fished, bonded, and drawn timeless lessons from its storied waters"--

A city devastated by Allied bombs, divided by a Wall, then reunited and reborn, Berlin today resonates with the echo of lives lived, dreams realised and evils executed. No other city has repeatedly been so powerful and fallen so low. And few other cities have been so shaped and defined by individual imaginations. Through vivid portraits spanning five centuries, Rory MacLean reveals the varied and rich history of Berlin, from its brightest to its darkest moments. We encounter an ambitious prostitute refashioning herself as a princess, a Scottish mercenary fighting for the Prussian Army, Marlene Dietrich flaunting her sexuality and Hitler fantasising about the mega-city Germania. The result is a uniquely imaginative biography of one of the world's most volatile yet creative cities.

Rory MacLean's uncle and aunt lived in a rambling house filled with animals in Potsdam. The author visited them as he passed through Berlin and when he told his aunt of his intention to travel along the line of the old Iron Curtain, she decided to accompany him - with her pet pig.

As head phoenix keeper at a renowned zoo for magical creatures, Aila's dream of conserving endangered firebirds is within reach, but her zoo's breeding program has been inactive for a decade. Following a tragic phoenix heist at a neighboring zoo, Aila must demonstrate that her facilities can take over the initiative. Saving a species from extinction demands more than just animal handling skills; it requires inspiring zoo patrons. However, seeking help from the zoo's hotshot griffin keeper, Luciana—Aila's college rival—is daunting. Luciana, a brooding know-it-all, believes Aila's beloved phoenix would be better as a performer than a conservation exhibit. With poachers threatening and the world watching, Aila's success is crucial not only for her job but for the future of the phoenix species. She must remember that she is not alone in this endeavor. Set against a vibrant fantasy backdrop filled with mythical creatures like dragons and unicorns, the narrative weaves cozy fantasy elements with heartwarming contemporary romance, creating a tale rich in adventure and emotional depth.

Coverage of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) all too often focuses solely on nuclear proliferation, military parades, and the personality cult around its leaders. This book goes beyond official North Korea to unveil the human dimension of life in that hermetic nation.

After the death of his father, Beagan Gillean finds himself stranded on a wild Scottish island, alone except for a trunk full of three generations of family history. His life adrift on an empty sea, he resolves to retrace the journey his great-grandfather made two hundred years before from the Western Isles to the promised land of Canada, a home that he himself has not seen for twenty years. Immersing himself in the lives, loves, hopes and dreams of his forefathers, Gillean decides to travel as they did - not on land or by air, but by water - navigating the old water routes that ribbon through Canada from the Atlantic to the Pacific. A wave-rocked, wind-tossed travel adventure unfolds, carrying him into his family’s past and across the world’s second-largest country. In his wake trail three ghosts: his great-grandfather, the minister-mariner; his grandfather, a paddle-wheel publisher; and his father, a boat-building broadcaster. Together they cruise up the Saint Lawrence on a lottery-winner’s yacht, canoe through the lonely majesty of the northern woods and cross the Prairies by inflatable dinghy and submarine. Along the way Gillean discovers that his forefathers’ struggles, achievements and failings mirror Canada’s own. Through their memory and the majestic landscape he reaches out to find a place of his own. A haunting tale of loss and discovery, The Oatmeal Ark is the story of one remarkable family and a candid, beautifully rendered portrait of the country that defined it.

A story that combines travel with personal memoir. Rory MacLean sets off to Crete, the land where Icarus and Daedalus made their maiden flight. There, with help from his Cretan neighbours, he attempts to build a woodhopper from scratch and make it fly.

Kréta – ostrov splněných snů. Jednoho větrného jarního rána v prastaré krétské vesnici obklopené horami, spadl Rory MacLean na zem. Před několika měsíci mu zemřela matka, a ze žalu se zrodila touha: touha postavit létající stroj, lehký jako pírko. A tak se MacLean na ostrově, ze kterého vzlétli Daidalos a Ikaros, vrátil zpátky ke kořenům, do dávných řeckých mýtů, a s pomocí velkorysých, avšak nepředvídatelných sousedů a spousty vína postavil letadlo, na němž se pokusil vzlétnout…