Bøger af Mark O'Connell

A guide to hundreds of symbols, signs and ideographs and their meanings, with 1200 images.

"From the award-winning author comes a gripping account of one of the most scandalous murder in modern Irish history, at once a propulsive work of true crime and an act of literary subversion. Malcolm MacArthur was a well-known Dublin socialite and heir. Suave and urbane, he passed his days mingling with artists and aristocrats, reading philosophy, living a life of the mind. But by 1982, his inheritance had dwindled to almost nothing, a desperate threat to his lifestyle. MacArthur hastily conceived a plan: He would commit bank robbery, of the kind that had become frightfully common in Dublin at the time. But his plan spun swiftly out of control, and he needlessly killed two innocent people. The ensuing manhunt, arrest, and conviction amounted to one of the most infamous political scandals in modern Irish history, contributing to the eventual collapse of a government. Wellcome and Rooney Prize-winning author Mark O'Connell spent countless hours in conversation with MacArthur-interviews that veered from confession to evasion. Through their tense exchanges and O'Connell's independent reporting, a pair of narratives unspools: a riveting account of MacArthur's crimes and a study of the hazy line between truth and invention. We come to see not only the enormity of the murders but the damage that's inflicted when a life is rendered into story. At once propulsive and searching, A Thread of Violence is a hard look at a brutal act, its subterranean origins, and the long shadow it casts. It offers a haunting and insightful examination of the lies we tell ourselves--and the lengths we'll go to preserve them"--

A journey of discovery into the importance of symbolism and dreaming, with a vast visual resource of signs and symbols.

';This gonzo-journalistic exploration of the Silicon Valley techno-utopians' pursuit of escaping mortality is a breezy romp full of colorful characters.' New York Times Book Review (Editor's Choice)Transhumanism is a movement pushing the limits of our bodiesour capabilities, intelligence, and lifespansin the hopes that, through technology, we can become something better than ourselves. It has found support among Silicon Valley billionaires and some of the world's biggest businesses. In To Be a Machine, journalist Mark O'Connell explores the staggering possibilities and moral quandaries that present themselves when you of think of your body as a device. He visits the world's foremost cryonics facility to witness how some have chosen to forestall death. He discovers an underground collective of biohackers, implanting electronics under their skin to enhance their senses. He meets a team of scientists urgently investigating how to protect mankind from artificial superintelligence.Where is our obsession with technology leading us? What does the rise of AI mean not just for our offices and homes, but for our humanity? Could the technologies we create to help us eventually bring us to harm? Addressing these questions, O'Connell presents a profound, provocative, often laugh-out-loud-funny look at an influential movement. In investigating what it means to be a machine, he offers a surprising meditation on what it means to be human.

The Marriage Benefit reveals how staying together in midlife - when it often seems easier to leave - offers big payoffs in mental and physical health and well-being

A unique and timely memoir, full of '80s nostalgia, that explores the golden age of Hollywood cinema

Tracing Hynek's career, O'Connell examines Hynek's often-ignored work as a professional astronomer to create a complete portrait of a groundbreaking enthusiast who became an American cult icon and transformed the way we see our world and our universe.

Illustrated with paintings, photographs and line drawings of symbols and icons, this book shows how signs and symbols have been used from the dawn of humanity to the modern age as a means of conveying belief, concepts, identity, emotion, philosophical thought, artistic allegory, and literary ideas.

Catching Bullets: Memoirs of a Bond Fan is a wonderfully funny and touching memoir by author and Bond fan Mark O'Connell whose grandfather Jimmy was a chauffeur for Eon Productions. So while Jimmy was driving around the likes of Cubby Broccoli, Roger Moore and Sean Connery, young Mark also hitched a ride and so his infatuation with all things Bond took hold.Set against a backdrop of the Thatcher era, Duran Duran songs and his own closeted adolescence, O'Connell takes the reader on a humorous, filmic journey where Bond films fire like Bullets.Barbara Broccoli, co-Producer of the Bond movies, calls his memoir 'a completely unique...perspective on the franchise' '...a wholly original take on a subject that has been written about so many times with most authors covering the same topics over and over again. O'Connell's book offers a totally fresh take and is a really enjoyable read, not just for Bond fans but for anyone looking for a nostalgic romp through the pop culture of the last fifty years.' O'Connell writes from the heart on a subject he loves passionately, starting back from his childhood when he would bolt down his tea to watch Roger Moore leaping out of a plane without a parachute. A foreword by long-time fan Mark Gatiss and an afterword by Maud Adams herself, is likely to jog magical memories for many, as well as provoke passionate debate. This is perfect bedtime reading and will remind everyone why they fell in love with James Bond in the first place.