{"title":"Books by James Fowler","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"9780007303601","title":"Connected","description":"\u003cp\u003eIs happiness catching? Are your friends making you fat? Can your sibling make you smart? Is wealth contagious? Where is true love found? Does free will exist?\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBased on exciting discoveries in mathematics, genetics, psychology and sociology, ‘Connected’ is an innovative and fascinating exploration of how social networks operate. Think it's all about who you know? It is. But not the way you think. Turns out your colleague's husband's sister can make you fat, even if you don't know her. And a happy friend is more relevant to your happiness than a bigger income. Our connections – our friends, their friends, and even their friends' friends – have an astonishing power to influence everything from what we eat to who we sleep with. And we, in turn, influence others. Our actions can change the behaviours, the beliefs, and even the basic health of people we've never met.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn this brilliantly original and effortlessly engaging exploration of how much we truly influence one another.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePre-eminent social scientists Nicholas Christakis and James Fowler explain why obesity is contagious, why the rich get richer, even how we find and choose our partners. Intriguing and entertaining, with revelatory implications for everything from our notion of the individual to ideas about public health initiatives, ‘Connected’ will change the way you think about every aspect of your life, and how you live it.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43399926775986,"sku":"9780007303601","price":10.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780007303601.jpg?v=1785658770"},{"product_id":"9781936135899","title":"The Pain Trader","description":"\u003cp\u003eIn \u003cem\u003eThe Pain Trader\u003c\/em\u003e, James Fowler creates timeless narratives around the people, history, and landmarks of rural America. Divided into “Hereabouts” (the Ozark region) and “Thereabouts” (a broader area), his 48 poems find meaning and beauty in the seemingly ordinary—from cheap roadside attractions (\"IQ Zoo\") to an impromptu chivaree. (“Ozark Yarn”), to local resentment of “Mr. [Woodrow] Wilson’s war” (“Over Here”), to a set of “Mountain Airs” documenting a long and mostly uneventful marriage.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Pain Trader\u003c\/em\u003e opens with pioneers settling in the Ozarks, aware of the Indian cultures and the (Louisiana) Purchase. Fowler’s quiet, often wry, voice guides readers through Ozark perspectives on the Civil War, the Sultana disaster (“Aftermath”), saltpeter mining (“Below, Above”), and sundowner laws (“Sundown”). Eureka Springs gets an especially memorable treatment in “Eureka,” as a place in which layers of past are still accessible under the current wash of artist colonies and Bible belters.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFrom the titular poem, “The Pain Trader,” readers feel the ordinary become something to be revered. They watch a peddlar\/artist listening to his customers as he carves: “All this while a shape emerges,\/carved, etched: creaturely perhaps;\/blossoming; stark, like crystals.\/A thing of power rough hewn.” These lines could describe Fowler’s poetry, “a thing of power” which can make readers feel welcome in the rolling, cavernous hills of the Ozarks: “Setting shrewdness\/ aside,” readers may find themselves “surprised what value\/ something neither finery nor tool\/ can have.”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn the words of Phil Howerton, editor of the 2019 Anthology of Ozark Literature:\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eFowler unfolds a many-sided verbal diorama of the history and culture of Arkansas and the South. Observer and participant, he combines wit, irony, acumen, empathy, and a sense of place to salvage the sacred and noble from even the most chaotic remnants of human recklessness. Fowler, like his protagonist in the title poem, absorbs regret, sorrow, guilt, and pain and translates it all into vigorous and vibrant art that humanizes the past and offers redemption.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56309077213557,"sku":"9781936135899","price":12.25,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781936135899_a9e3d5c4-71ed-473b-ad10-411373798996.jpg?v=1786030436"},{"product_id":"9781398127388","title":"Passengers, Citizens, Consumers","description":"Drawing on a wide variety of historical and media sources, this book tells the story of London’s transport during an unexplored era in a novel way. It takes the passengers’ perspective to explain fares, services and competitors through a new, accessible and challenging set of arguments, describing the users’ experience. To do that, the book approaches London’s commuters in the three ways that they have been seen by providers and politicians: as passive passengers, recipients of a service designed for them by experts; as active citizens, prepared to be directly involved in running a municipal system; and as discerning customers with choices about how, where and when they travel. The 1948–2000 period saw these viewpoints move in and out of fashion, and since each was intrinsically linked to politics and represented a complete prescription for how a transport system should work, the clashes were dramatic and had palpable effects on the daily experience of millions of people. Here James Fowler explains what ensued on London’s transport, why it happened, and how the hard lessons for Transport for London’s later success were learned in the preceding decades.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56367997419893,"sku":"9781398127388","price":19.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781398127388_c54d2760-d81e-4371-a4ad-90a2ffa59986.jpg?v=1786018413"},{"product_id":"9781399818681","title":"Complete French","description":"The flagship course from Teach Yourself, \u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eComplete French\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e is specifically designed for the self-leaner. It is comprehensive but flexible, allowing learners to take control of the learning process and work at their own pace. 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No more giving up-this course keeps you moving forward, step by step with tools to support your learning and an engaging story to keep you curious.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56368014721397,"sku":"9781399818681","price":29.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781399818681_0ff5eccc-0172-449d-ad91-24f92824e0f9.jpg?v=1786019564"}],"url":"https:\/\/backstory.london\/collections\/author-james-fowler.oembed","provider":"Backstory","version":"1.0","type":"link"}