Exploring more than seventy-five well-known paradoxes in mathematics, philosophy, physics, and the social sciences showing how reason and logic can dispel the illusion of contradiction.
Paradox is a sophisticated kind of magic trick. A magician's purpose is to create the appearance of impossibility, to pull a rabbit from an empty hat. Yet paradox doesn't require tangibles, like rabbits or hats. Paradox works in the abstract, with words and concepts and symbols, to create the illusion of contradiction. There are no contradictions in reality, but there can appear to be. In Sleight of Mind, Matt Cook and a few collaborators dive deeply into more than 75 paradoxes in mathematics, physics, philosophy, and the social sciences. As each paradox is discussed and resolved, Cook helps readers discover the meaning of knowledge and the proper formation of concepts―and how reason can dispel the illusion of contradiction. 
The journey begins with “a most ingenious paradox” from Gilbert and Sullivan's Pirates of Penzance. Readers will then travel from Ancient Greece to cutting-edge laboratories, encounter infinity and its different sizes, and discover mathematical impossibilities inherent in elections. They will tackle conundrums in probability, induction, geometry, and game theory; perform “supertasks”; build apparent perpetual motion machines; meet twins living in different millennia; explore the strange quantum world―and much more.

Sleight of Mind: 75 Ingenious Paradoxes in Mathematics, Physics, and Philosophy (Mit Press)

Politics & Social Sciences

Cook, Matt

Philosophy

The MIT Press

This “fun, brain-twisting book . . . will make you think” as it explores more than 75 paradoxes in mathematics, philosophy, physics, and the social sciences (Sean Carroll, New York Times–bestselling author of Something Deeply Hidden)\nParadox is a sophisticated kind of magic trick. A magician’s purpose is to create the appearance of impossibility, to pull a rabbit from an empty hat. Yet paradox doesn’t require tangibles, like rabbits or hats. Paradox works in the abstract, with words and concepts and symbols, to create the illusion of contradiction. There are no contradictions in reality, but there can appear to be. In Sleight of Mind, Matt Cook and a few collaborators dive deeply into more than 75 paradoxes in mathematics, physics, philosophy, and the social sciences. As each paradox is discussed and resolved, Cook helps readers discover the meaning of knowledge and the proper formation of concepts—and how reason can dispel the illusion of contradiction.\nThe journey begins with “a most ingenious paradox” from Gilbert and Sullivan’s Pirates of Penzance. Readers will then travel from Ancient Greece to cutting-edge laboratories, encounter infinity and its different sizes, and discover mathematical impossibilities inherent in elections. They will tackle conundrums in probability, induction, geometry, and game theory; perform “supertasks”; build apparent perpetual motion machines; meet twins living in different millennia; explore the strange quantum world—and much more.

London and the Culture of Homosexuality, 1885–1914 (Cambridge Studies in Nineteenth-Century Literature and Culture, Series Number 39)

Matt Cook explores the relationship between London and homosexuality from 1885 to 1914, years marked by intensification in concern about male-male relationships and also by the emergence of an embryonic homosexual rights movement. Cook combines his coverage of London's homosexual subculture and various major and minor scandals with a detailed examination of representations in the press, science and literature. This conjunction of approaches distinguishes this study from other works and provides new insight into the development of ideas about homosexuality during the period.

Literature & Fiction

British & Irish

Cambridge University Press

A cruise ship loses power in the North Atlantic. A satellite launches in the South Pacific. Professor Malcolm Clare―celebrated aviator, entrepreneur, and aerospace engineer―disappears from Stanford University and wakes up aboard an unknown jet, minutes before the aircraft plunges into the high seas. 
An extortionist code-named "Viking" has seized control of a private warfare technology, pitting a U.S. defense corporation against terrorist conspirators in a bidding war. His leverage: a threat to destroy the luxury liner and its 3,000 passengers. 
Stanford doctoral student Austin Hardy, probing the disappearance of his professor, seeks out Malcolm Clare's daughter Victoria, an icy brunette with a secret that sweeps them to Saint Petersburg. Helped by a team of graduates on campus, they must devise Trojan horses, outfox an assassin, escape murder in Bruges, and sidestep treachery in order to unravel Viking's scheme. Failure would ensure economic armageddon in the United States.
Both on U.S. soil and thousands of miles away, the story roars into action at supersonic speed. Filled with an enigmatic cast of characters, Sabotage, Matt Cook's debut novel, is a sure thrill ride for those who love the puzzles of technology, cryptology, and people.

Sabotage

United States

Forge Books

Spoken word artist Matt Cook tackles life perceptively in bars, his neighborhood, and at work. His poems are a shrewd blend of cracker-barrel philosopher and an over-caffeinated Groucho Marx. Quirky and humorous, his writing is perfect for people who think they hate poetry (and those who love it, too).

In The Small Of My Backyard

Poetry

Manic D Press, Inc.

Poetry. "The thing about Matt's writing, 'poetry' if you will, is that it's funny. Not 'funny for poetry' but straight up funny. And thoughtful. And human."—David Cross"Matt Cook sings the unsung—the restaurant supply store, the backs of paintings—while teasing our unexamined lives. His poems point to our emotional slippage, revealing the Spanish Cement Mixer to be much more than the Spanish Cement Mixer. You're all like 'Nuh uh' and these poems are all like 'Uh huh.'"—Sommer Browning

Proving Nothing to Anyone

Publishing Genius Press

Queer beyond London: LGBTQ stories from four English cities

History

Oram, Professor Alison

Europe

Manchester University Press

Oram, Alison

1962: At a high-end art brokerage in Paris, Kate Atwell's friends know her as the lucky one. The daughter of a wealthy British family, she's got everything. Talent. Beauty. Privilege. A promising career as an art consultant.And a secret . . .Her name isn't Atwell. Her real father had been an officer in the Third Reich, and Germany's most infamous forger of art. She's kept her family history buried for twenty years, ever since the awful night in 1942, when Allied soldiers had raided her home, crashing into her father's studio and gunning him down.So much about that night is still shrouded in mystery. She'd escaped from Germany with a forged painting clutched tight in her trembling hands--a copy of William-Adolphe Bouguereau's portrait of a child, The Little Marauder.What was the significance of the forgery? Why had her driver wanted so desperately to save it?The mystery begins to unravel when Moritz Dahl--ostensibly an art student from Denmark--confronts Kate with information from her past. Before Moritz can share his own strange story, an attempt is made on both their lives.On the run with a man she doesn't know or trust, Kate and her unwelcome companion must delve into an historical deception so profound that it threatens everything she knows and believes.

Good Little Marauder

Mystery, Thriller & Suspense

Thrillers & Suspense

Braveship Books

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