In this remarkably assured and satisfying debut collection, John Murray seamlessly meshes fact with fiction, taking his inspiration from the worlds of science, medicine, and nature. The stories are set in intriguing locations across the globe -- a cholera tent in the slums of Bombay, a United Nations refugee camp in the mountains of Africa, a Key West hideaway -- where his characters, among them doctors, nurses, research scientists, explorers, and collectors, can be found reading The Manual of Clinical Microbiology or Gray's Anatomy or the Complete Textbook of Psychiatry.
And yet, despite the pull of the outer world, these stories are all about the internal world of emotions -- love, loss, obsession, and conflict -- and about families and how they survive. They unfold to tell of moments when people catch glimpses of their real selves, their pasts, and have flashes of understanding about their lives. In "The Hill Station," an American-born scientist is drawn to Bombay, the homeland of her parents, where she breaks free from the confines of her well-ordered life. The title story tells of an aging surgeon who uses his grandfather's collection of butterflies to try and make sense of his past. In "Blue" a young man -- still haunted by the tragic death of his father years earlier -- traverses the Himalayan mountain that would have been his father's last climb. In "Acts of Memory, Wisdom of Man," the son of Indian immigrants relives the summer of 1968, and the events that determined his brother's fate.
Vivid and alive, these stories reveal whole lives -- characters caught between the past and the present, between different cultures, and between their intellects and emotions. Global in scope, classical in form, evocative of place, this rich collection marks an exciting and original debut.

A Few Short Notes on Tropical Butterflies: Stories

Literature & Fiction

Murray., John

United States

Harper

These vivid and compelling tales, many set in Africa and Asia, are about immigrants and others facing change and dislocation. The science is never pedantic; indeed the language of biology and natural history is used to great lyrical effect. The stories are accomplished and seasoned, remarkably so given that this is the author’s first book. Murray is adept at holding together a complex narrative and creating characters who reach out emotionally to the reader upon first meeting.
Global in scope, classical in form, evocative of place, and deeply emotional, this collection marks the beginning of what promises to be an illustrious career.

Harper-perennial

Literary

HarperAudio

A Few Short Notes on Tropical Butterflies SP, Stories

Contemporary

How Flash rose and fell as the world's most ubiquitous yet divisive software platform, enabling the development and distribution of a world of creative content.
Adobe Flash began as a simple animation tool and grew into a multimedia platform that offered a generation of creators and innovators an astonishing range of opportunities to develop and distribute new kinds of digital content. For the better part of a decade, Flash was the de facto standard for dynamic online media, empowering amateur and professional developers to shape the future of the interactive Web. In this book, Anastasia Salter and John Murray trace the evolution of Flash into one of the engines of participatory culture. 
Salter and Murray investigate Flash as both a fundamental force that shaped perceptions of the web and a key technology that enabled innovative interactive experiences and new forms of gaming. They examine a series of works that exemplify Flash's role in shaping the experience and expectations of web multimedia. Topics include Flash as a platform for developing animation (and the “Flashimation” aesthetic); its capacities for scripting and interactive design; games and genres enabled by the reconstruction of the browser as a games portal; forms and genres of media art that use Flash; and Flash's stance on openness and standards―including its platform-defining battle over the ability to participate in Apple's own proprietary platforms. 
Flash's exit from the mobile environment in 2011 led some to declare that Flash was dead. But, as Salter and Murray show, not only does Flash live, but its role as a definitive cross-platform tool continues to influence web experience.

Flash: Building the Interactive Web (Platform Studies)

Computers & Technology

Salter, Anastasia

Web Development & Design

The MIT Press

Excerpt from A Handbook for Travellers in Syria and Palestine, Vol. 1: Including an Account of the Geography, History, Antiquities, and Inhabitants of These Countries, the Peninsula of Sinai, Edom, and the Syrian Desert; With Detailed Descriptions of Jerusalem, Petra, Damascus, and PalmyraIt represents and is a breathing rendered rough and tremulous by the motion of e epiglottis. It is much deeper than the German ch.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

A Handbook for Travellers in Syria and Palestine, Vol. 1: Including an Account of the Geography, History, Antiquities, and Inhabitants of These ... Detailed Descriptions of Jerusalem, Petra,

Travel

Middle East

Forgotten Books

A Classical Manual (Classic Reprint): Being a Mythological, Historical, and Geographical Commentary on Pope's Homer, and Dryden's Æneid of Virgil; With a Copious Index

Politics & Social Sciences

Social Sciences

In an urbane and persuasive tract for our time, the distinguished Catholic theologian combines a comprehensive metaphysics with a sensitivity to contemporary existentialist thought. Father Murray traces the “problem of God” from its origins in the Old Testament, through its development in the Christian Fathers and the definitive statement by Aquinas, to its denial by modern materialism. Students and nonspecialist intellectuals may both benefit by the book, which illuminates the problem of development of doctrine that is now, even more than in the days of Newman, a fundamental issue between Roman Catholic and Protestant, theologians and nonspecialst intellectuals alike will find the subject of vital interest. As a challenge to the ecumenical dialogue, the question is raised whether, in the course of its development through different phases, the problem of God has come back to its original position. Father Murray is Ordinary professor of theology at Woodstock College, Woodstock, Maryland. St. Thomas More Lectures, 1. "A gem of a book—lucid, illuminating, brilliantly written. A fine contribution to the current Catholic theological renaissance."—Paul Weiss.

The Problem of God: Yesterday and Today (The St. Thomas More Lectures Series)

Religion & Spirituality

Yale University Press

Excerpt from A Handbook for Travellers in Southern Italy: Being a Guide for the Provinces Formerly Constituting the Continental Portion of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies; With a Travelling Map, Several Plans, &CIn ancient times the Tiber was the boundary between U per and Lower Italy. The acquisitions of the Holy See in the mi dle ages changed the ancient landmarks, and transferred a rtion of Southern Italy to the Papes. The frontier-line which now Ivides the provinces of Naples from the Papal States, with few triﬂing exceptions, was before the recent political changes the same as it was at the establish ment of the monarchy b the Normans in 1130. It commenced on the Adriatic at the N. Ank of the Tronto, and terminated on the shore of the Mediterranean, about 2 m. E. Of Terracina. The length of this line of frontier, following its numerous windings, was about 210 m. The direct distance is not more than 115.The area included within these limits was estimated at about English square miles. The length of the kingdom, measured along the curved line of the chain of the Apennines, from the Tronto to the Capo Spartivento, was 350 m the breadth varying considerably. From the mouth of the Garigliano in the Bay of Gaeta, to the mouth of the Trigno on the Adriatic, is 70 m., and about the same from Salerno to the mouth of the Carapelle; from Capo di Licosa to Bari 112 m., and to Brindisi 150; from the shore N. Of Paola to S. Of the mouth of the Crati it is 29 m., and only 16 between the Gulfs of Sant' Eufemia and of Squillace.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

A Handbook for Travellers in Southern Italy: Being a Guide for the Provinces Formerly Constituting the Continental Portion of the Kingdom of the Two ... Map, Several Plans, &C (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from A Handbook for Travellers in France: Being a Guide to Normandy, Brittany; The Rivers Seine, Loire, Rhône, and Garonne; The French Alps, Dauphiné, the Pyrenees, Provence, and Nice, &C., &C., &C.; Their Railways and RoadsThis volume contains no description of Paris, because to have included the capital would have extended this book to nearly double its present size.An entirely new, condensed, and portable Handbook to Paris,' suitable to the wants of enlightened English travellers of the present day, was published by Mr. Murray in August, 1864.A description of N ice and its neighbourhood, now annexed to France, is inserted in the present Edition, and, to make room for it, the account of the Island of Corsica is removed. It may be had separately, with a Map.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

A Handbook for Travellers in France: Being a Guide to Normandy, Brittany; The Rivers Seine, Loire, Rhône, and Garonne; The French Alps, Dauphiné, the ... Their Railways and Roads (Classic Reprint)

History

Europe

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