CERN Institute, Switzerland: a world-renowned scientist is found brutally murdered with a mysterious symbol seared onto his chest. The Vatican, Rome: the College of Cardinals assembles to elect a new pope. Somewhere beneath them, an unstoppable bomb of terrifying power relentlessly counts down to oblivion. In a breathtaking race against time, Harvard professor Robert Langdon must decipher a labyrinthine trail of ancient symbols if he is to defeat those responsible – the Illuminati, a secret brotherhood presumed extinct for nearly four hundred years, reborn to continue their deadly vendetta against their most hated enemy, the Catholic Church.
Fantastiline Taisho ajastu müsteerium; Seiklus 1930. aastate Tokyo tänavatel; Sukeldu kummitavasse pimeduse maailma; Üle 120 deemoni; Üleloomulik detektiiviseiklus
'What's so hard about pulling a sword out of a stone? The real work's already been done. You ought to make yourself useful and find the man who put the sword in the stone in the first place.' The City Watch needs MEN! But what it's got includes Corporal Carrot (technically a dwarf), Lance-constable Cuddy (really a dwarf), Lance constable Detritus (a troll), Lance constable Angua (a woman ...most of the time) and Corporal Nobbs (disqualified from the human race for shoving). And they need all the help they can get, because someone in Ankh Morpork has been getting dangerous ideas - about crowns and legendary swords, and destiny. And the problem with destiny is, of course, that she is not always careful where she points her finger. One minute you might be minding your own business on a normal if not spectacular career path, the next you might be in the frame for the big job, like saving the world...
Timothy Pope has a brand new telescope and he's testing it out at the park. Children will delight in peeping through the die-cut holes and guessing what Tim has spotted. Is that really a shark he can see?
Lockwood & Co is a psychic detective agency dedicated to wiping out the epidemic of hauntings that has beset Britain for more than fifty years. Now the trio face their deadliest challenge yet. Full of suspense, humour and truly terrifying ghosts, this is the third book in the brilliant new series from the author of the BARTIMAEUS sequence.
The gripping new Jack Reacher thriller from the No.1 bestselling authors Lee Child and Andrew Child. When your name is Jack Reacher, the truth is always worth doing time for. Gerrardsville, Colorado. One tragic event. Two witnesses. Two conflicting
They say that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, but it is not one half so bad as a lot of ignorance. The last thing the wizard Drum Billet did, before Death laid a bony hand on his shoulder, was to pass on his staff of power to the eighth son of an eighth son. Unfortunately for his colleagues in the chauvinistic (not to say misogynistic) world of magic, he failed to check that the baby in question was a son. Everybody knows that there's no such thing as a female wizard. But now it's gone and happened, there's nothing much anyone can do about it. Let the battle of the sexes begin...
All this books and stuff, that isn't what it should all be about. What we need is real wizardry. There was an eighth son of an eighth son. He was, quite naturally, a wizard. And there it should have ended. However (for reasons we'd better not go into), he had seven sons. And then he had an eighth son ...a wizard squared ...a source of magic ...a Sourcerer. Unseen University has finally got what it wished for: the most powerful wizard on the disc. Which, unfortunately, could mean that the death of all wizardry is at hand. And that the world is going to end, depending on whom you listen to. Unless of course one inept wizard can take the University's most precious artefact, the very embodiment of magic itself, and deliver it halfway across the disc to safety...
Susan had never hung up a stocking. She'd never put a tooth under her pillow in the serious expectation that a dentally inclined fairy would turn up. It wasn't that her parents didn't believe in such things. They didn't need to believe in them. They know they existed. They just wished they didn't. It's the night before Hogswatch. And it's too quiet. Where is the big jolly fat man? There are those who believe and those who don't, but either way it's not right to find Death creeping down chimneys and trying to say Ho Ho Ho. Superstition makes things work in Discworld, and undermining it can have Consequences, particularly on the last night of the year when the time is turning. Susan the gothic governess has got to sort everything out by morning, otherwise there won't be a morning. Ever again...This 20th Discworld novel is a festive feast of darkness and Death (but with jolly robins and tinsel too). As they say: 'You'd better watch out...'.
'Deighton's best book ... an absorbingly exciting spy story that is also a fascinating exercise in might-have-been speculation' The New York Times Book Review It is 1941 and Germany has won the war. Britain is occupied, Churchill executed and the Ki
Hunters are a special breed, dedicated to tracking down treasures, magical beasts, and even other men. But such pursuits require a license, and less than one in a hundred thousand can pass the grueling qualification exam. Those who do pass gain access to restricted areas, amazing stores of information, and the right to call themselves Hunters. ChargeAs the midnight hour nears, all the Hunters are rarin' to go! With some surprising allies on their side, they launch their blitz against the ruthless Ants. While Chairman Netero is past his prime, don't count this old man out! He's got a trick or two up his sleeve for his battle with the King. But an unexpected turn of events reveal a side of the King that no one could have predicted...
When the dead come back to haunt the living, Lockwood & Co. step in...For more than fifty years, the country has been affected by a horrifying epidemic of ghosts. A number of Psychic Investigations Agencies have sprung up to destroy the dangerous apparitions. Lucy Carlyle, a talented young agent, arrives in London hoping for a notable career. Instead she finds herself joining the smallest most ramshackle agency in the city, run by the charismatic Anthony Lockwood. When one of their cases goes horribly wrong, Lockwood & Co. have one last chance of redemption. Unfortunately this involves spending the night in one of the most haunted houses in England, and trying to escape alive. Set in a city stalked by spectres, The Screaming Staircase is the first in a chilling new series full of suspense, humour and truly terrifying ghosts. Your nights will never be the same again...
When the dead return to haunt the living, Lockwood & Co. step in. A series of grisly thefts have been taking place across the capital: powerful supernatural artefacts have been stolen, and their warders murdered. In an atmosphere of mounting panic, a mysterious skull in an iron box is unearthed in Kensal Green Cemetery. Witnesses hear it whispering urgently, but the words cannot be understood. Lockwood & Co. will have to use all their ingenuity and skill to uncover the secret of the whispering skull.
Father Damien Karras: 'Where is Regan?' Regan MacNeil: 'In here. With us'. The terror begins unobtrusively. Noises in the attic. In the child's room, an odd smell, the displacement of furniture, an icy chill. At first, easy explanations are offered. Then frightening changes begin to appear in eleven-year-old Regan. Medical tests fail to shed any light on her symptoms, but it is as if a different personality has invaded her body. Father Damien Karras, a Jesuit priest, is called in. Is it possible that a demonic presence has possessed the child! Exorcism seems to be the only answer...First published in 1971, "The Exorcist" became a literary phenomenon and inspired one of the most shocking films ever made. Freshly polished and expanded by the author, including new dialogue, a new character and a chilling new extended scene, this unique fortieth anniversary edition provides an unforgettable reading experience that has lost none of its power to shock - and is poised to terrify a new generation of readers.
The Handmaid's Tale meets The Village in this stunning feminist debut . . . Shortlisted for the GoodReads Choice Awards 2020 for Best Debut Novel and Best Horror Novel . . . 'A magnificent, raw slice of folk horror, dark with threat and clenched wi
Together with the rats, and young (rather simple) Keith, the `piper', they work the towns to create their very own plague of rats - then lure them away for cash.
The first volume in the brilliant, best-selling Bartimaeus sequence. When the 5,000-year-old djinni Bartimaeus is summoned by Nathaniel, a young magician's apprentice, he expects to have to do nothing more taxing than a little levitation or a few simple illusions. But Nathaniel is a precocious talent and has something rather more dangerous in mind: revenge. Against his will, Bartimaeus is packed off to steal the powerful Amulet of Samarkand from Simon Lovelace, a master magician of unrivalled ruthlessness and ambition. Before long, both djinni and apprentice are caught up in a terrifying flood of magical intrigue, murder and rebellion. Set in a modern-day London controlled by magicians, this hilarious, electrifying thriller will enthral readers of all ages.
Focus on a planet revolving in space...Focus in on a small country in the northern hemisphere - Great Britain. Closer, closer...and on the western edge of London you can see the county of Buckinghamshire. Small villages and winding country roads. And if you could go back in time to the mid nineteen-sixties, you might spot a young lad on a motorbike coming down one such lane, notebook and pen in his jacket pocket. This is me. A junior reporter for the Bucks Free Press, where I began writing stories for young readers that were published every week in the newspaper. The stories in this collection are a selection of those. There are wizards and mayors, carpet people and a monster in a lake, along with plenty of pointy hats. And some of these stories even spawned my later novels.
The tremendous climax of the Bartimaeus sequence. Three years on from the events in The Golem's Eye, the magicians' rule in London is teetering on a knife-edge, with strikes, riots and general unrest. The Prime Minister is largely controlled by two advisers, one of whom is 17-year-old Nathaniel. Meanwhile, living under a false identity, Kitty has been researching djinn; she has come to believe that the only way to destroy the magicians is with an alliance of some kind between djinn and ordinary people. Kitty seeks out Bartimaeus and embarks on a terrifying journey into the djinn's chaotic domain - the Other Place - which no human being has ever survived. But even as she does so, Makepeace engineers a dramatic coup d'etat. The outcome is a shattering of the magicians' control and all magical laws are turned upside down. Can Bartimaeus, Nathaniel and Kitty settle old scores if they are to survive and prevent the earth's destruction?
The final book in the Lockwood saga. Join Lucy, Lockwood, George and Holly for one last time as they battle ghosts and humans for truth and justice in this breathtaking finale to the bestselling series.
Barney Willow's life couldn't get any worse. He's weedy, with sticky-out ears. Horrible Gavin Needle loves tormenting him - Barney has no idea why. And headteacher-from-hell Miss Whipmire seems determined to make every second of Barney's existence a complete misery! Worst of all, Dad has been missing for almost a year, and there's no sign of him ever coming home. Barney just wants to escape. To find another life. To be a cat, for example. A quiet, lazy cat. Things would be so much easier - right?
'Death has to happen. That's what bein' alive is all about. You're alive, and then you're dead. It can't just stop happening.' But it can. And it has. Death is missing - presumed.er.gone (and on a little farm far, far away, a tall dark stranger is turning out to be really good with a scythe). Which leads to the kind of chaos you always get when an important public service is withdrawn. If Death doesn't come for you, then what are you supposed to do in the meantime? You can't have the undead wandering about like lost souls. There's no telling what might happen, particularly when they discover that life really is only for the living...
In Jilly Cooper's third Rutshire chronicle, we meet Ricky France-Lynch, who is moody, macho, and magnificent. He had a large crumbling estate, a nine-goal polo handicap, and a beautiful wife who was fair game for anyone with a cheque book. He also had the adoration of fourteen-year-old Perdita MacLeod. Perdita couldn't wait to leave her dreary school and become a polo player. The polo set were ritzy, wild, and gloriously promiscuous. Perdita thought she'd get along with them very well. But before she had time to grow up, Ricky's life exploded into tragedy, and Perdita turned into a brat who loved only her horses - and Ricky France-Lynch. Ricky's obsession to win back his wife, and Perdita's to win both Ricky and a place as a top class polo player, take the reader on a wildly exciting journey - to the estancias of Argentina, to Palm Beach and Deauville, and on to the royal polo fields of England and the glamorous pitches of California where the most heroic battle of all is destined to be fought - a match that is about far more than just the winning of a huge silver cup...
Lysander Hawkley combined breathtaking good looks with the kindest of hearts. He couldn't pass a stray dog, an ill-treated horse or a neglected wife without rushing to the rescue. And with neglected wives the rescue invariably led to ecstatic bonking, which didn't please their erring husbands one bit. Lysander's mid-life crisis had begun at twenty-two. Reeling from the death of his beautiful mother, he was out of work, drinking too much and desperately in debt. The solution came from Ferdie, his fat, fast-operating friend: if Lysander was so good at making husbands jealous, why shouldn't he get paid for it? Let loose among the neglected wives of the ritzy county of Rutshire, Lysander causes absolute havoc. But it is only when he meets Rannaldini, Rutshire's King Rat of Rutshire and a temperamental, fiendishly promiscuous international conductor, that the trouble really starts. The only unglamorous woman around Rannaldini was Kitty, his plump young wife who ran his life like clockwork. Soon Lysander was convinced that Kitty must be rescued from Rannaldini at all costs, even if it means enlisting the help of the old blue-eyed havoc maker: Rupert Campbell-Black.
Now in paperback, this is the latest racy novel from the bestselling author of "Score!, Jump!, Wicked!, Riders" and many others. Features a raft of characters, new and old, human and equine. 'Sex and horses: who could ask for more?' "Sunday Telegraph"
The Capitol Building, Washington DC: Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon believes he is here to give a lecture. He is wrong. Within minutes of his arrival, a shocking object is discovered. It is a gruesome invitation into an ancient world of hidden wisdom. When Langdon's mentor, Peter Solomon - prominent mason and philanthropist - is kidnapped, Langdon realizes that his only hope of saving his friend's life is to accept this mysterious summons. It is to take him on a breathless chase through Washington's dark history. All that was familiar is changed into a shadowy, mythical world in which Masonic secrets and never-before-seen revelations seem to be leading him to a single impossible and inconceivable truth...
Try me...Test me...Taste me. When an exotic stranger, Vianne Rocher, arrives in the French village of Lansquenet and opens a chocolate boutique directly opposite the church, Father Reynaud identifies her as a serious danger to his flock - especially as it is the beginning of Lent, the traditional season of self-denial. War is declared as the priest denounces the newcomer
DOM SALABOS HAD A LOT OF ADVANTAGES. As heir to a huge fortune, he had an excellent robot servant (with Man-Friday subcircuitry), a planet (the First Syrian Bank) as godfather, a security chief who even ran checks on himself, and on Dom's home world even death was not always fatal. Why, then, in an age when prediction was a science, was his future in doubt?
I can't believe that out of every person I could have kissed . . .I chose McKee's new quarterback.JamesFootball is my everything. But when I transfer to McKee University to escape the distractions that nearly cost me my future in the NFL, I'm faced with another consequence: retake the writing class I failed at my last college, or lose any chance I have at making it big. That's where fellow senior Beckett Wood - gorgeous, stubborn, and just my type - comes in.She's the key to my success in this class . . .but the price of her help is a fake relationship, and I never do things halfway.BexI don't mess around with athletes, and handsome, self-assured James Callahan is no exception. He wants me to help him pass the writing class we're both stuck taking, but I'm too busy to take on yet another responsibility. But when his teammate - my cheating ex - won't leave me alone, I realize I need to convince him I've moved on .. . and what better way than by pretending to be with James, who wants nothing to do with a real relationship?But with every fake kiss, why does James pull me deeper into a place that thrills me?And why don't I want it to end?
'You are here for the rest of your life. Do you understand? You are not leaving Iran. You are here until you die.' Betty Mahmoody and her husband, Dr Sayyed Bozorg Mahmoody ('Moody'), came to Iran from the USA to meet Moody's family. With them was their four-year-old daughter, Mahtob. Appalled by the squalor of their living conditions, horrified by what she saw of a country where women are merely chattels and Westerners are despised, Betty soon became desperate to return to the States. But Moody, and his often vicious family, had other plans. Mother and daughter became prisoners of an alien culture, hostages of an increasingly tyrannical and violent man. Betty began to try to arrange an escape. Evading Moody's sinister spy network, she secretly met sympathisers opposed to Khomeini's savage regime. But every scheme that was suggested to her meant leaving Mahtob behind for ever...
'This is an essential read for every gay person on the planet' - Elton JohnWINNER BOYZ BEST LGBT BOOK 2017SHORTLISTED FOR THE POLARI BOOK PRIZE 2017Straight Jacket is a revolutionary clarion call for gay men, the wider LGBT community, their friends and family.
One of the finest chess books ever written Vukovic expounds both the basic principles and the most complex forms of attack on the king. A study of this masterpiece will add new power and brilliance to any player's game.
When Eragon finds a polished blue stone in the forest, he thinks it is the lucky discovery of a poor farm boy, perhaps it will buy his family meat for the winter. But when the stone brings a dragon hatchling, Eragon soon realizes he has stumbled upon a legacy nearly as old as the Empire itself.Overnight his simple life is shattered, and he is trust into a perilous new world of destiny, magic, and power. Can Eragon take up the mantle of the legendary Dragon Riders?The fate of the Empire may rest in his hands...
Enter the strange natural world of epic doodler Kerby Rosanes, where animals and scenes from the natural world morph and explode into majestic, geographic detail.Meet animals that morph from waterfalls and whirlwinds, firey foxes that erupt from volcanoes and fairy-tale castles that grow out of crystal foundations - all for you to bring to life in colour. As an extra challenge, seek out the search items at the back of the book.There's more to discover within these pages than you ever dreamed possible.
Jeff Bridges unforgettable performance as The Dude in THE BIG LEBOWSKI made him a cult hero. Away from the spotlight, he is a dedicated practitioner of Zen Buddhism, and is close friends with Zen leader Bernie Glassman. With wit, charm and insight, the duo discover the Zen in iconic scenes and lines from THE BIG LEBOWSKI, and Bridges explores the way his Zen practice informs his life and work.
'I loved this book.' Matt Haig, author of Reasons to Stay Alive'Probably the best book on living with anxiety that I've ever read.' Mark Manson, author of The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck If you have anxiety, this book is for you.
In 2011, Novak Djokovic had what has been called the greatest single season ever by a professional tennis player. He won ten titles, three Grand Slams and 43 consecutive matches. Remarkably, less than two years earlier, this champion could barely complete a tournament. How did a player once plagued by aches, breathing difficulties and injuries on court suddenly become the number-one tennis player in the world? The answer is astonishing: he changed what he ate. In Serve to Win, Djokovic recounts how he survived the bombing of Belgrade, rising from a war-torn childhood to the top tier of his sport. He reveals the diet that transformed his health and pushed him to the pinnacle. While Djokovic loved and craved bread, pasta and, of course, the pizza from his family's restaurant, he found his body couldn't process wheat.Eliminating gluten made him feel instantly better, clearer, lighter and quicker. His new physical health and mental focus enabled him to achieve his two childhood dreams: to win Wimbledon and to be ranked the world's number-one tennis player. Djokovic challenges you to try his way of eating for just 14 days. He provides weekly menus and easy-to-prepare recipes that will help you lose weight and find your way to a better you.You don't need to be a professional athlete to start living and feeling better. A trimmer, stronger, healthier you is just two weeks away!
November 2009. An emaciated young lawyer, Sergei Magnitsky, is led to a freezing isolation cell in a Moscow prison, handcuffed to a bed rail, and beaten to death by eight police officers. His crime? To testify against the Russian Interior Ministry officials who were involved in a conspiracy to steal $230 million of taxes paid to the state by one of the world’s most successful hedge funds. Magnitsky’s brutal killing has remained uninvestigated and unpunished to this day. His farcical posthumous show-trial brought Putin's regime to a new low in the eyes of the international community. Red Notice is a searing exposé of the wholesale whitewash by Russian authorities of Magnitsky’s imprisonment and murder, slicing deep into the shadowy heart of the Kremlin to uncover its sordid truths. Bill Browder – the hedge fund manager who employed Magnitsky – takes us on his explosive journey from the heady world of finance in New York and London in the 1990s, through his battles with ruthless oligarchs in the turbulent landscape of post-Soviet Union Moscow, to his expulsion from Russia on Putin’s orders. Browder’s graphic portrait of the Russian government as a criminal enterprise wielding all the power of a sovereign state illuminates his personal transformation from financier to human rights activist, campaigning for justice for his late lawyer and friend. With fraud, bribery, corruption and torture exposed at every turn, Red Notice is a shocking but true political roller-coaster that plays out in the highest echelons of Western power.Bill Browder, founder and CEO of Hermitage Capital Management, was the largest foreign investor in Russia until 2005, when he was denied entry to the country after exposing widespread corruption. Since 2009, when his lawyer Sergei Magnitsky was murdered in Russian police custody, he has been leading a global campaign to expose human rights abuses endemic in Russia. Consequentially, the 'Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act’ was signed into US law in 2012, imposing visa bans and asset freezes on certain officials involved in Magnitsky’s death. Browder is currently working to have similar legislation passed across the European Union and Canada
Sam Harris's first book, The End of Faith, ignited a worldwide debate about the validity of religion. In the aftermath, Harris discovered that most people - from religious fundamentalists to nonbelieving scientists - agree on one point: science has nothing to say on the subject of human values. Indeed, our failure to address questions of meaning and morality through science has now become the primary justification for religious faith. In this highly controversial book, Sam Harris seeks to link morality to the rest of human knowledge. Defining morality in terms of human and animal well-being, Harris argues that science can do more than tell how we are; it can, in principle, tell us how we ought to be. In his view, moral relativism is simply false - and comes at an increasing cost to humanity. And the intrusions of religion into the sphere of human values can be finally repelled: for just as there is no such thing as Christian physics or Muslim algebra, there can be no Christian or Muslim morality.Using his expertise in philosophy and neuroscience, along with his experience on the front lines of our 'culture wars', Harris delivers a game-changing book about the future of science and about the real basis of human cooperation.
Life is the most extraordinary phenomenon in the known universe; but how does it work? Even in this age of cloning and synthetic biology, the remarkable truth remains: nobody has ever made anything living entirely out of dead material. Life remains the only way to make life. Are we missing a vital ingredient in its creation? Like Richard Dawkins' The Selfish Gene, which provided a new perspective on evolution, Life on the Edge alters our understanding of life's dynamics as Jim Al-Khalili and Johnjoe Macfadden reveal the hitherto missing ingredient to be quantum mechanics. Drawing on recent ground-breaking experiments around the world, they show how photosynthesis relies on subatomic particles existing in many places at once, while inside enzymes, those workhorses of life that make every molecule within our cells, particles vanish from one point in space and instantly materialize in another. Each chapter in Life on the Edge opens with an engaging example that illustrates one of life's puzzles - How do migrating birds know where to go? How do we really smell the scent of a rose? How do our genes manage to copy themselves with such precision?- and then reveals how quantum mechanics delivers its answer. Guiding the reader through the maze of rapidly unfolding discovery, Al-Khalili and McFadden communicate vividly the excitement of this explosive new field of quantum biology, with its potentially revolutionary applications, and also offer insights into the biggest puzzle of all: what is life?
Parenting advice from French Children Don't Throw Food, now distilled into 100 short and easy tips. In response to the enthusiastic reception of her bestselling parenting memoir French Children Don't Throw Food, Pamela Druckerman now offers a practical handbook that distils her findings into one hundred short and straightforward tips to bring up your child a la francaise. It includes advice about pregnancy, feeding (including meal plans and recipes from Paris creches), sleeping, manners, and more. "Her book should be dispensed on prescription". (Spectator).
In Rutherford and Fry's comprehensive guidebook, they tell the complete story of the universe and absolutely everything in it - skipping over some of the boring parts. This is a celebration of the weirdness of the cosmos, the strangeness of humans and the fact that amid all the mess, we can somehow make sense of life.Our brains have evolved to tell us all sorts of things that feel intuitively right but just aren't true: the world looks flat, the stars seem fixed in the heavenly firmament, a day is 24 hours... This book is crammed full of tales of how stuff really works. With the power of science, Rutherford and Fry show us how to bypass our monkey-brains, taking us on a journey from the origin of time and space, via planets, galaxies, evolution, the dinosaurs, all the way into our minds, and wrestling with some truly head-scratching questions that only science can answer:What is time, and where does it come from? Why are animals the size and shape they are?What is a thought?How horoscopes work (Spoiler: they don't, but you think they do)Does my dog love me?Why nothing is truly roundDo you need your eyes to see?
What really goes on in the long grass? Meadowland gives an unique and intimate account of an English meadow's life from January to December, together with its biography. In exquisite prose, John Lewis-Stempel records the passage of the seasons from cowslips in spring to the hay-cutting of summer and grazing in autumn, and includes the biographies of the animals that inhabit the grass and the soil beneath: the badger clan, the fox family, the rabbit warren,the skylark brood and the curlew pair, among others. Their births, lives, and deaths are stories that thread through the book from first page to last. In Meadowland Lewis-Stempel does for meadows what Roger Deakin did for woodland and rivers in his bestselling books Wildwood and Waterlog.
