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There is no doubt that Allan Massie has incontrovertibly established himself as the master of Roman historical fiction and the heir apparent to Robert Graves. His narratives of intrigue in the Roman Empire are always totally compelling and the large readership they have acquired is no surprise whatsoever. In the new one, Nero's Heirs, set at the beginning of the year 66, the despotic Emperor Nero has committed suicide and already three of his successors are dead. The turmoil of civil war (and a nationalistic uprising in Judaea) has produced a new Emperor, Vespasian. A remarkable year is reviewed in letters by Scaurus, once the lover of both Vespasian's son and daughter. This chronicle of treachery and passion is rendered in prose of the most riveting kind, such as the depraved Nero's attempt at suicide: "Nero picked up two daggers and tested their points. "How ugly and vulgar my life has become", he said, but still couldn't bring himself to. "I'm such a coward. Set me an example, Phaon", he said ... then he held one of the daggers against his throat and began to sob, and his secretary Epaphroditus stepped forward ..." Scauraus is the perfect conduit for the reader into this lethal world, bringing alive for us all the murderous sexual intrigues of a fascinating era Views: 27
Poet, writer, performer, teacher, and director Maya Angelou was raised in Stamps, Arkansas, and then moved to San Francisco. In addition to her bestselling autobiographies, beginning with I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, she has also written a cookbook, Hallelujah! The Welcome Table; five poetry collections, including I Shall Not Be Moved and Shaker, Why Don't You Sing?; and the celebrated poems "On the Pulse of Morning," which she read at the inauguration of President William Jefferson Clinton, and "Amazing Peace," which she read at the lighting of the National Christmas Tree in Washington, D.C., in December 2005.From the Hardcover edition. Views: 27
Liverpool, 1939. Lonely historian Tom Baines is at work on a study of the city's architectural past but the ominous news from Europe, together with his burgeoning friendship with Richard, a young photographer, and his beautiful wife, Bella, are proving a distraction. When the bombings begin, Tom joins up as 'rescue man', retrieving the wounded and dying from the ruins of buildings, but the love affair he embarks on soon leads him into a very different kind of danger. Views: 27
SUMMARY: Death is what happens while you're busy making other plans. Coming home from a Hawaiian vacation with her best girlfriends, Lucy Fisher is stunned to find everything she owns tossed out on her front lawn, the locks changed, and her fiancée's phone disconnected-plus she's just lost her job. With her world spinning wildly out of her control, Lucy decides to make a new start and moves upstate to live with her sister and nephew. But then things take an even more dramatic turn: A fatal encounter with public transportation lands Lucy not in the hereafter but in the nearly hereafter. She's back in school, learning the parameters of spooking and how to become a successful spirit in order to complete a ghostly assignment. If Lucy succeeds, she's guaranteed a spot in the next level of the afterlife-but until then, she's stuck as a ghost in the last place she would ever want to be. Trying to avoid being trapped on earth for all eternity, Lucy crosses the line between life and death and back again when she returns home. Navigating the perilous channels of the paranormal, she's determined to find out why her life crumbled and why, despite her ghastly death, no one seems to have noticed she's gone. But urgency on the spectral plane-in the departed person of her feisty grandmother, who is risking both their eternal lives-requires attention, and Lucy realizes that you get only one chance to be spectacular in death. Views: 26
Get your backstage pass at the ready as you go behind the scenes with Justin Bieber, in his brand new book – 100% official – and discover what life is really like as the world’s hottest pop star!Justin Bieber has come a long way from being your average school kid, busking on the streets of the small town of Stratford, Ontario in Canada. And he wouldn’t be where he is today without his legion of loyal Beliebers – who have been with him every step of the way on this incredible journey. Now Justin wants to give something back to you, his very special fan – a VIP backstage peek at life behind the scenes, in his incredible new book.Starting from the first night of his debut world tour, Justin invites you to follow him on his rollercoaster ride to superstardom – as he visits the far corners of the globe, makes his very own movie, records his new album, wins numerous awards and pens a bestselling book, to name just a few of the amazing feats he’s achieved over the past few years.Justin Bieber: Just Getting Started is an exclusive peek inside Justin’s phenomenal world. You’ll share in the highs and lows of life on the road, reading Justin’s innermost thoughts and feelings as he navigates life in the limelight. You’ll hang out with him on the tour bus, and will share in the laughter as he pulls pranks on his crew!Jam packed with behind-the-scenes gossip, this is the only official book for Justin’s true fans.This ebook has been optimised for colour screens. Views: 26
This is the book that Daniel Tammet, bestselling author and mathematical savant, was born to write. In Tammet's world, numbers are beautiful and mathematics illuminates our lives and minds. Using anecdotes and everyday examples, Tammet allows us to share his unique insights and delight in the way numbers, fractions and equations underpin all our lives.Inspired by the complexity of snowflakes, Anne Boleyn's sixth finger or his mother's unpredictable behaviour, Tammet explores questions such as why time seems to speed up as we age, whether there is such a thing as an average person and how we can make sense of those we love.Thinking in Numbers will change the way you think about maths and fire your imagination to see the world with fresh eyes.ReviewThinking in Numbers is unprecedented: a pitch-perfect duet between mathematics and literature ... Mathematics, Tammet says, is illimitable. It is a language through which the human imagination expresses itself. Presumably this means mathematics has, or deserves, a literature. In Tammet, it already has a laureate. -- New Scientist A collection of essays on subjects as diverse as Shakespeare and Tolstoy, a rumination on snow and another on chess, as well as a fantastically nuanced piece about his mother. It is a collection which showcases Tammet's extraordinary talent ... a writer of unique capabilities. -- Scotsman Magazine An interesting and often beautiful approach: Tammet writes well... and his love of numbers shines from the page... Tammet's discussion of big numbers is fascinating. -- Daily Telegraph Tammet's choice of subjects is personal, and wonderfully eclectic... What lifts Tammet's entertaining collection above the ordinary are the often surprising links that he sees, explores and explains. -- Sunday Telegraph Explores the 'what if' of maths and links it with literature and life. He is an exhilarating thinker, an exciting writer, and looks at the world with an eclectic, quizzical eye. -- Saga magazine Tammet is an accomplished writer with a prose style akin to a warm embrace... scintillating ... enlightens and entertains in (approximately) equal measure. -- Daily Express When he talks about his own extreme skills, such as his feat of pi memorisation, the book comes alive. -- BBC Focus Daniel Tammet's unique take on the world will prove that life - not just classroom maths - is more than just a numbers game. -- Gay Times As fluid with words as with numbers, his essays are artfully constructed: intriguing openings to entice us; interesting snippets of history; accessible but unpatronising tones; neat endings. -- Independent In Tammet's mind, literature, art and maths are united. For him, maths' real-life applications are not merely tax returns and restaurant bills, but the storytelling of an infinite subject and the reasoning behind our daily existence. -- The Huffington Post Thinking in Numbers is a mind-expanding, kinetic aesthetic experience. My mind shot off the page, spurred to see universal patterns very much alive in everything from the natural world we share to how imagery and metaphor occur in my own creative process. Tammet's poetic mathematics are beautiful guideposts for thinking about life and even love. As I read, I found myself saying, 'Yes, this is true, and this is true, and this is so true...' -- Amy Tan Always informative, always entertaining, Daniel Tammet never loses his respect for the mystery of the universe of number. -- JM Coetzee Born on a Blue Day introduced us to the extraordinary phenomenon of Daniel Tammet, and Thinking in Numbers enlarges one's wonder at Tammet's mind and his all-embracing vision of the world as grounded in numbers. -- Oliver Sacks, MD His aim with Thinking in Numbers is to show that mathematics can be as rich, inspiring and human as literature - and to "bruise" the line between fiction and non-fiction... he succeeds magnificently. -- Times Literary Supplement About the AuthorDaniel Tammet is the critically acclaimed author of the worldwide bestselling memoir, BORN ON A BLUE DAY, and the international bestseller EMBRACING THE WIDE SKY. Tammet's exceptional abilities in mathematics and linguistics are combined with a unique capacity to communicate what it is like to be a savant. His idiosyncratic world view gives us new perspectives on the universal questions of what it is to be human and how we make meaning in our lives. Tammet was born in London in 1979, the eldest of nine children. He lives in Paris. Views: 25
THE HEIRS OF CAHIRA O'CONNOR SERIESBOOK TWOA line of women who would be warriors for truth"It is said that as Cahira, daughter of the great Irish king Rory O'Connor, lay dying of a wound from a Norman blade, she lifted her hand toward heaven and beseeched God that others would follow after her, bright stars who would break forth from the courses to which they are bound and restore right in this murderous world..."To Kathleen O'Connor, Cahira's story is nothing more than a charming legend--until her research divulges that several of Cahira's heirs did, indeed, leave the traditional roles of womanhood to fight for right. Stunned, Kathleen realizes she herself bears Cahira's mark. Is Kathleen destined to continue the legacy in the twenty-first century? To discover how the histories of these women relate to her own future, Kathleen must delve deep into the past to learn the truth about The Heirs of Cahira... Views: 25
