Growing up in a strict Muslim community in south-east London, Alom Shaha learnt that religion was not to be questioned. Reciting the Qu'ran without understanding what it meant was simply a part of life; so, too, was obeying the imam and enduring beatings when he failed to attend the local mosque. Shaha was more drawn to science and its power to illuminate. As a teen, he lived between two worlds: the home controlled by his authoritarian father, and a school alive with books and ideas. In a charming blend of memoir, philosophy, and science, Shaha explores the questions about faith and the afterlife that we all ponder. Through a series of loose 'lessons', he tells his own compelling story, drawing on the theories of some of history's greatest thinkers and interrogating the fallacies that have impeded humanity for centuries. Shaha recounts how his education and formative experiences led him to question how to live without being tied to what his parents, priests, or teachers told him to believe, and offers insights so that others may do the same. This is a book for anyone who thinks about what they should believe and how they should live. It's for those who may need the facts and the ideas, as well as the courage, to break free from inherited beliefs. In this powerful narrative, Shaha shows that it is possible to live a compassionate, fulfilling, and meaningful life without God.

Reviews: 

'Illuminates the route to a better destination for all those who seek what Alom found: namely, that precious liberty of mind which makes its possessor open to all good things.' - A.C. Grayling, author of The Good Book.                                                       

More than twenty years after the collapse of the Berlin Wall and the Soviet political system, history continues apace. Free market capitalism has failed to deliver on its utopian promises, and there has been a renewed interest, especially in light of the current global recession, in Karl Marx. "Everyman's Marx" offers a fresh take on Marx's work and legacy by, in the author's words, "defamiliarizing" it. Like other titles in MBP's Everyman's series, this book pairs contemporary, insightful text with images that elucidate the major ideas and biographies of our time's most vital thinkers, all in an affordable and attractive format. "Everyman's Marx" turns an illuminating eye on the celebrated and vilified, and often misunderstood, work of Karl Marx.

Release Date: May 2012

The boring debate between fundamentalist believers and non-believers is finally moved on by Alain de Botton's inspiring new book, which boldly argues that the supernatural claims of religion are of course entirely false - and yet that religions still have important things to teach the secular world. Rather than mocking religions, agnostics and atheists should instead steal from them - because they're packed with good ideas on how we live and arrange our societies. Blending deep respect with total impiety, de Botton (a non-believer) proposes that we should look to religions for insights into how to build a sense of community, make our relationships last, get more out of art, overcome feelings of envy and inadequacy, and much more. For too long non-believers have faced a stark choice between either swallowing peculiar doctrines or doing away with consoling and beautiful rituals and ideas. At last Alain de Botton has fashioned a far more interesting and truly helpful alternative.

Author Biography: Alain de Botton was born in 1969 and is the author of non-fiction essays on themes ranging from love and travel to architecture and philosophy. His bestselling books include How Proust Can Change Your Life, The Art of Travel, and The Architecture of Happiness. He lives in London and founded The School of Life (www.theschooloflife.com) and Living Architecture (www.living-architecture.co.uk). For more information, consult www.alaindebotton.com.                                            

At a time when everyone, from big businesses to ordinary individuals, is trying to make sense of their connected lives, Hamlet's BlackBerry presents a bold new paradigm for understanding the devices that now demand so much of our time and attention. It shows how our computers and mobile devices are changing the way we think, feel, and relate to others. While these technologies are tremendously helpful, they are also becoming our greatest burden, making it harder for us to focus and think clearly, do our best work and achieve the depth and fulfillment we crave. It argues that we have surrendered too much of our lives to our screens, by following a philosophy the author calls digital maximalism. He offers an alternative approach that any individual or organisation can use to manage their connectedness more wisely. Drawing on the ideas of some of the most brilliant thinkers in the history of human connectedness, from Socrates to Shakespeare and Ben Franklin to Marshall McLuhan, this new philosophy proceeds from the simple notion that connectedness serves us best when it is offset by its opposite, disconnectedness. There are ways to strike a healthy balance between the two, and Hamlet's BlackBerry shows how, using concrete examples from everyday life.                                  

Why shouldn't neighbourhoods change? Why is wearing a suit a good way to quit smoking? Why do people think that if you do one thing you're against something else? Is monogamy a trick? Why should making the city more fun for you and your friends be a super-noble political goal? Why does a computer last only three years? How often should you see your parents? What do spam filters tell us about the world? How should we behave at parties? Is marriage getting easier? What do gyms say about the way we live now? Why do we sometimes feel like frauds? In short, pithy chapters ('Gentrification', 'People's Protective Bubbles Are OK', 'A Mind Is Not a Terrible Thing to Measure'), Misha Glouberman tells us what he has learned about life, tackling the most trivial of questions alongside the more important ones and revealing that they have more in common than you might think. From thoughts about conflict resolution in the Middle East to observations about loud music in rowdy neighbourhoods, from questions on the function of spam filters to ideas on how to edit our own lives, The Chairs Are Where the People Go is an invigorating, entertaining handbook for the times we live in.