Most Popular Books by Peter Brown

This classic biography was first published thirty years ago and has since established itself as the standard account of Saint Augustine''s life and teaching.

The national bestseller that Newsday called “the most authoritative and candid look yet at the personal lives…of the oft-scrutinized group,” from the author of All You Need Is Love: The Beatles in Their Own Words. In The Love You Make, Peter Brown, a close friend of and business manager for the band—and the best man at John and Yoko’s wedding—presents a complete look at the dramatic offstage odyssey of the four lads from Liverpool who established the greatest music phenomenon of the twentieth century. Written with the full cooperation of each of the group’s members and their intimates, this book tells the inside story of the music and the madness, the feuds and the drugs, the marriages and the affairs—from the greatest heights to the self-destructive depths of the Fab Four. In-depth and definitive, The Love You Make is an astonishing account of four men who transformed the way a whole generation of young people thought and lived. It reigns as the most comprehensive, revealing biography available of John, Paul, George, and Ringo. Includes 32 pages of rare and revealing photos A Literary Guild® Alternate Selection

In this history of the late antique period, which appeared earlier in the five-volume series A History of Private Life, Peter Brown shows the slow shift from one form of public community to another--from the ancient city to the Christian church. In the four centuries between Marcus Aurelius (161-180) and Justinian (527-565), the Mediterranean world passed through a series of profound transmutations that affected the rhythms of life, the moral sensibilities, and the sense of the self of the inhabitants of its cities, and of the countryside around them.

"So real it hurts."—David Arnold, New York Times bestselling author of Mosquitoland. A summer of basketball, first love, and the friends who''ve got your back when life gets crazy, set in a trailer park in small town America. Travis never gives up. Not when his mom takes off. Not when he gets suspended from basketball. Not when he cracks four ribs jumping off a bridge to impress a girl. Not when he and his best friend Creature get into trouble deeper than they know how to handle. From acclaimed author Peter Brown Hoffmeister comes a painfully-funny, sometimes-crushing story of growing up, making mistakes, and pressing on, against the odds. "In my mind the best storytellers walk that high tight wire between tragedy and comedy. This Is the Part Where You Laugh is exactly the part where you laugh. And ache. This is a really good book!"—Chris Crutcher "A courageous novel. Incandescent and unflinching." —Jeff Zentner, author of The Serpent King "A raw offbeat novel with an abundance of honesty and heart." —Publishers Weekly, starred review "Hoffmeister crushes it. There is blood and truth on every page." —Estelle Laure, author of This Raging Light

This New York Times bestselling modern classic explores the perennial topic of environmentalism in an urban world, from the creator of The Wild Robot and Mr. Tiger Goes Wild One boy''s quest for a greener world... one garden at a time. While out exploring one day, a little boy named Liam discovers a struggling garden and decides to take care of it. As time passes, the garden spreads throughout the dark, gray city, transforming it into a lush, green world. This is an enchanting tale with environmental themes and breathtaking illustrations that become more vibrant as the garden blooms. Red-headed Liam can also be spotted on every page, adding a clever seek-and-find element to this captivating picture book.

This tenth anniversary revised edition of the authoritative text on Christianity''s first thousand years of history features a new preface, additional color images, and an updated bibliography. The essential general survey of medieval European Christendom, Brown''s vivid prose charts the compelling and tumultuous rise of an institution that came to wield enormous religious and secular power. Clear and vivid history of Christianity''s rise and its pivotal role in the making of Europe Written by the celebrated Princeton scholar who originated of the field of study known as ''late antiquity'' Includes a fully updated bibliography and index

A beautifully written personal account of the discovery of late antiquity by one of the world’s most influential and distinguished historians The end of the ancient world was long regarded by historians as a time of decadence, decline, and fall. In his career-long engagement with this era, the widely acclaimed and pathbreaking historian Peter Brown has shown, however, that the “neglected half-millennium” now known as late antiquity was in fact crucial to the development of modern Europe and the Middle East. In Journeys of the Mind, Brown recounts his life and work, describing his efforts to recapture the spirit of an age. As he and other scholars opened up the history of the classical world in its last centuries to the wider world of Eurasia and northern Africa, they discovered previously overlooked areas of religious and cultural creativity as well as foundational institution-building. A respect for diversity and outreach to the non-European world, relatively recent concerns in other fields, have been a matter of course for decades among the leading scholars of late antiquity. Documenting both his own intellectual development and the emergence of a new and influential field of study, Brown describes his childhood and education in Ireland, his university and academic training in England, and his extensive travels, particularly in the eastern Mediterranean and the Middle East. He discusses fruitful interactions with the work of scholars and colleagues that include the British anthropologist Mary Douglas and the French theorist Michel Foucault, and offers fascinating snapshots of such far-flung places as colonial Sudan, midcentury Oxford, and prerevolutionary Iran. With Journeys of the Mind, Brown offers an essential account of the “grand endeavor” to reimagine a decisive historical moment.

A young boy named Bobby has the worst teacher. She''s loud, she yells, and if you throw paper airplanes, she won''t allow you to enjoy recess. She is a monster! Luckily, Bobby can go to his favorite spot in the park on weekends to play. Until one day... he finds his teacher there! Over the course of one day, Bobby learns that monsters are not always what they seem. Each page is filled with "monstrous" details that will have kids reading the story again and again. Peter Brown takes a universal and timeless theme, and adds his own humorous spin to create another winner of a picture book.

From New York Times bestselling author Peter Brown comes a hilarious and heartwarming story that introduces a uniquely endearing character: a weird but loveable bulldog who learns to make friends by being true to his quirks. As hard as he tries, Chowder has never managed to fit in with the other neighborhood dogs. While the neighborhood dogs are content to fetch newspapers and take walks, Chowder spends his days on the computer, dancing with his headphones, and using his favorite toy of all, his telescope. But being different makes Chowder lonely. When a petting zoo opens, Chowder is determined to make friends with the zoo animals. And with a strong kick and a flying leap, Chowder finally finds a place where he can be comfortable being his silly, slobbery self.

The sequel to thebestselling The Wild Robot, by award-winning author Peter Brown Shipwrecked on a remote, wild island, Robot Roz learned from the unwelcoming animal inhabitants and adapted to her surroundings--but can she survive the challenges of the civilized world and find her way home to Brightbill and the island? From bestselling and award-winning author and illustrator Peter Brown comes a heartwarming and action-packed sequel to his New York Times bestselling The Wild Robot,about what happens when nature and technology collide.

Are you bored with being so proper? Do you want to have more fun? Mr. Tiger knows exactly how you feel. So he decides to go wild. But does he go too far? From Caldecott Honor artist Peter Brown comes a story that shows there''s a time and place for everything...even going wild.

"A powerful and uncompromising story about survival, loss, fear, and what happens when hope is only the bleakest sliver of light. You will not soon forget Little McCardell or his unwavering spirit."--Kathleen Glasgow, "New York Times"-bestselling author of "Girl in Pieces."

With the blend of art and learning that is the hallmark of his work, Peter Brown here examines how the sacred impinged upon the profane during the first Christian millennium.

The enchanting new addition to the #1 New York Times bestselling THE WILD ROBOT series from award-winning author-illustrator Peter Brown, packed full of glorious illustrations. Roz the robot has made an unlikely home for herself on an idyllic island dense with forests, wildflowers and friendly animal inhabitants - including her own young son Brightbill the gosling. Life on the island is perfect, until a dying seal washes ashore and warns of dangerous, cloudy waters that are flowing towards the island, bringing new dangers for the animals. Forced inland they will have to fight over fewer resources - and Roz realises that she must march into the waves and undertake an incredible undersea adventure to find a way to protect her beloved island and all who live on it ... From bestselling author and illustrator Peter Brown comes a heartwarming and action-packed third book in his New York Times bestselling The Wild Robot series, exploring what happens when nature and technology collide. Praise for The Wild Robot ''An Iron Man style fable for our age'' - Piers Torday, award-winning author of The Last Wild ''A modern-day classic in the making'' - Booktrust [Peter Brown''s THE WILD ROBOT was a #1 New York Times bestseller w/c 11th June 2023.]

A preeminent classical scholar on the emergence of one of our most familiar social divisions.

Following the fall of the Roman Empire in the West, the cult of the saints was the dominant form of religion in Christian Europe. In this elegantly written work, Peter Brown explores the role of tombs, shrines, relics, and pilgrimages connected with the sacred bodies of the saints. He shows how men and women living in harsh and sometimes barbaric times relied upon the merciful intercession of the holy dead to obtain justice, forgiveness, and to find new ways to accept their fellows. Challenging the common treatment of the cult as an outbreak of superstition among the lower classes, Brown demonstrates how this form of religiousity engaged the finest minds of the Church and elicited from members of the educated upper classes some of their most splendid achievements in poetry, literature, and the patronage of the arts. "Brown has an international reputation for his fine style, a style he here turns on to illuminate the cult of the saints. Christianity was born without such a cult; it took rise and that rise needs chronicling. Brown has a gift for the memorable phrase and sees what the passersby have often overlooked. An eye-opener on an important but neglected phase of Western development."—The Christian Century "Brilliantly original and highly sophisticated . . . . [The Cult of the Saints] is based on great learning in several disciplines, and the story is told with an exceptional appreciation for the broad social context. Students of many aspects of medieval culture, especially popular religion, will want to consult this work."—Bennett D. Hill, Library Journal

''I can think of no one better placed to tell the story behind The Beatles than Peter Brown.'' -Pattie Boyd Harrison ''A revealing oral history of the forces that spurred the band''s breakup... drawing from a trove of never before published conversations. Beatles fans will be impatient to get their hands on this.'' -Publishers Weekly ''**** A gossipy, insider oral history'' -MOJO magazine All You Need is Love is a ground-breaking oral history of the Beatles and how it all came to an end. Based on never-before-published or heard interviews with Paul McCartney, Yoko Ono, George Harrison, Ringo Starr, and their families, friends, and business associates, this is a landmark book, containing stunning new revelations, about the biggest band the world has ever seen. In 1980-1981 former COO of Apple Corp, Peter Brown and author Steven Gaines interviewed everyone in the Beatles'' inner circle and included a small portion of the transcripts in their international bestselling book The Love You Make, which spent four months on the New York Times bestseller list. But left in their archives was a treasure trove of unique and candid interviews that they chose not to publish, until now. A powerful work assembled through honest, intimate, sometimes contradictory and always fascinating testimony, All You Need is Love is a one-of-a-kind insight into the final days, weeks, months and years of the Beatles phenomenon.

Central to the repertoire of Western art music since the 18th century, the symphony has come to be regarded as one of the ultimate compositional challenges. Surprisingly, heretofore there has been no truly extensive, broad-based treatment of the genre, and the best of the existing studies are now several decades old. In this five-volume series, A. Peter Brown explores the symphony from its 18th-century beginnings to the end of the 20th century. Synthesizing the enormous scholarly literature, Brown presents up-to-date overviews of the status of research, discusses any important former or remaining problems of attribution, illuminates the style of specific works and their contexts, and samples early writings on their reception. The Symphonic Repertoire provides an unmatched compendium of knowledge for the student, teacher, performer, and sophisticated amateur. The series is being launched with two volumes on the Viennese symphony. Volume IV The Second Golden Age of the Viennese Symphony Brahms, Bruckner, Dvorák, Mahler, and Selected Contemporaries Although during the mid-19th century the geographic center of the symphony in the Germanic territories moved west and north from Vienna to Leipzig, during the last third of the century it returned to the old Austrian lands with the works of Brahms, Bruckner, Dvorák, and Mahler. After nearly a half century in hibernation, the sleeping Viennese giant awoke to what some viewed as a reincarnation of Beethoven with the first hearing of Brahms''s Symphony No. 1, which was premiered at Vienna in December 1876. Even though Bruckner had composed some gigantic symphonies prior to Brahms''s first contribution, their full impact was not felt until the composer''s complete texts became available after World War II. Although Dvorák was often viewed as a nationalist composer, in his symphonic writing his primary influences were Beethoven, Schubert, and Brahms. For both Bruckner and Mahler, the symphony constituted the heart of their output; for Brahms and Dvorák, it occupied a less central place. Yet for all of them, the key figure of the past remained Beethoven. The symphonies of these four composers, together with the works of Goldmark, Zemlinsky, Schoenberg, Berg, Smetana, Fibich, Janácek, and others are treated in Volume IV, The Second Golden Age of the Viennese Symphony, covering the period from roughly 1860 to 1930.

When Lucy, a young bear, discovers a boy lost in the woods, she asks her mother if she can have him as a pet, only to find him impossible to train.

Since its publication this book has become the standard for both students studying for their examinations and practitioners needing a comprehensive reference book covering rating law, valuation and, importantly, practice. This third edition brings the reader up to date with the changes for the 2010 Rating Revaluation, developments in case law, the new appeals regulations and current approaches to valuing many classes of hereditament, as well as highlighting the differences between cases in England and Wales. The book is well illustrated with example valuations showing both methods of valuation and the variety of property surveyors come across in practice. The authors have extensive experience in the subject and regularly lecture on rating, valuation and taxation matters.

First published in 1988, Peter Brown''s The Body and Society was a groundbreaking study of the marriage and sexual practices of early Christians in the ancient Mediterranean and Near East. Brown focuses on the practice of permanent sexual renunciation-continence, celibacy, and lifelong virginity-in Christian circles from the first to the fifth centuries A.D. and traces early Christians'' preoccupations with sexuality and the body in the work of the period''s great writers. The Body and Society questions how theological views on sexuality and the human body both mirrored and shaped relationships between men and women, Roman aristocracy and slaves, and the married and the celibate. Brown discusses Tertullian, Valentinus, Clement of Alexandria, Origen, Constantine, the Desert Fathers, Jerome, Ambrose, and Augustine, among others, and considers asceticism and society in the Eastern Empire, martyrdom and prophecy, gnostic spiritual guidance, promiscuity among the men and women of the church, monks and marriage in Egypt, the ascetic life of women in fourth-century Jerusalem, and the body and society in the early Middle Ages. In his new introduction, Brown reflects on his work''s reception in the scholarly community.

More than 170 symphonies from this repertoire are described and analyzed in The First Golden Age of the Viennese Symphony, the first volume of the series to appear.

Through the Eye of a Needle is a sweeping intellectual and social history of the vexing problem of wealth in Christianity in the waning days of the Roman Empire.

Today is the day the exuberant Lucy is going to make a new friend! But she finds it''s harder than she had thought--she accidentally ruins the giraffe''s breakfast and is much too big for the frogs'' pond. Just when she''s about to give up, an unexpected friend finds her, and loves her just the way she is. This heartwarming story offers a unique and humor-filled spin on the all-important themes of persistence and friendship.

This book explores the significant changes that took place in the classical world between the late second and early fourth centuries. A new elitism in religion had its parallel in society as a whole and a wide polarization of the wealthy and the poor developed, as unbridled ambition made the sharp distinction between the rulers and the ruled. --From publisher''s description.

A preliminary report on continuing research into the political, cultural, and religious milieu of the later Roman Empire, from a humanist historiographic perspective. Discusses autocracy and the elites, power, poverty, and the forging of a Christian empire. Does not assume a knowledge of Latin. Paper edition (unseen), $12.95. Annotation copyright by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Get ready to go out and play… Based on the author’s acclaimed Integrated Outdoor Program, Let Them Be Eaten by Bears is Peter Hoffmeister’s inspiring guide to helping kids enjoy nature and appreciate the great outdoors. Drawing from his personal and professional background as an educator, guide, writer, and father, and focusing on fun rather than fear, Hoffmeister offers an approachable, fun reintroduction to hiking, camping, and all-around exploring that will help parents and kids alike feel empowered and capable. Whether you’re a veteran outdoorsperson, a first-time hiker, or anything in between, get ready to put on your sneakers, turn off your video games, and rediscover the simple, powerful joy of going out to play.

A Choice Outstanding Academic Title of the Year A Tablet Book of the Year Marking a departure in our understanding of Christian views of the afterlife from 250 to 650 CE, The Ransom of the Soul explores a revolutionary shift in thinking about the fate of the soul that occurred around the time of Rome’s fall. Peter Brown describes how this shift transformed the Church’s institutional relationship to money and set the stage for its domination of medieval society in the West. “[An] extraordinary new book...Prodigiously original—an astonishing performance for a historian who has already been so prolific and influential...Peter Brown’s subtle and incisive tracking of the role of money in Christian attitudes toward the afterlife not only breaks down traditional geographical and chronological boundaries across more than four centuries. It provides wholly new perspectives on Christianity itself, its evolution, and, above all, its discontinuities. It demonstrates why the Middle Ages, when they finally arrived, were so very different from late antiquity.” —G. W. Bowersock, New York Review of Books “Peter Brown’s explorations of the mindsets of late antiquity have been educating us for nearly half a century...Brown shows brilliantly in this book how the future life of Christians beyond the grave was influenced in particular by money. —A. N. Wilson, The Spectator

When Chowder goes off to the Fabu Pooch Boot Camp, as usual he just doesn''t fit in. Chowder tries his best, but his attempts to make himself more fabulous all fall flat. When the First Annual Fabu Pooch Pageant is announced, Chowder anxiously tries to think of a way to stand out. After all, the prize is a one-year supply of Snarf Snacks! Some pups practice their pearly grins, other hounds get massages to relax. One pooch even gets permed! But Chowder finds his calling when he discovers a trampoline. He leaps, he flips, he bounces, and he wows the crowd!

An exuberant new picture book from NYT bestselling author/illustrator Peter Brown, inspired by his own childhood.

When Penguin gets pooped on by a flying goose, he doesn''t just get angry--he decides to do something about it. Penguin and his flightless friends set out to build a flying machine that will give them the bird''s eye view they''ve never had in this picture book. Illustrations.

Computer Law covers topics as: hardware acquisition, financing/maintenance, software licensing, development/maintenance, antitrust law, copyright, patent/trade secret protection of software, and more.

The first century AD was one of momentous events: the end of the Roman empire, the rise of Christianity across western Europe and the disappearance of Persia from the Near East; an era in which the most deep-rooted of ancient institutions disappeared for all time creating divergent legacies which are still present. Renowned historian Peter Brown examines these changes and the reactions to them, to show that the period of Late Antiquity was one of outstanding new beginnings and far-reaching impacts. The result is a lucid answer to a crucial question in world history; how the exceptionally homogenous Mediterranean world of the first century AD became divided into the three mutually estranged societies of the Middle Ages: Catholic Western Europe, Byzantium and the Islamic world. Browns remarkable study in social and cultural transformation explains how and why the Late Antique world, came to differ from the Classical civilization of the Greeks and Romans. Featuring a new preface and updated with colour illustrations throughout, The World of Late Antiquity demonstrates that we still have much to learn from this enduring and intriguing period of history.