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The Whisper of Stars: A lush 1920s alternate history filled with magic and intrigue
by Cristin WilliamsA frozen island.A monastery turned political prison.A cipher inked in blood.When anarchist poet Katya Efremova is transferred to the prison colony on Solovetsky Island, she finds an enigma among her returned possessions - a blood-stained book containing a cipher left by her murdered mother, written on the day she died.Following her mother's clues, Katya begins to unravel a centuries-old mystery woven into the history of Solovetsky Island. Finding the island's legendary power might be the key to overthrowing the Bolshevik regime, but Katya wasn't sent to Solovetsky by chance. The head of the government's spy network is watching, and there will be no hope of a free Russia if he takes hold of the magic hidden beneath the White Sea snow.Readers are loving THE WHISPER OF STARS 'The perfect blend of fantasy and historical fiction' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐'A magic infused sonnet to revolutionaries everywhere... for anyone who enjoys magic, who loves the underdogs, or is feeling overwhelmed with everything that has gone wrong recently, take a break and listen to the stars' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐'Good story, mega-great plot twists and i loved șo much the evolution of the heroine' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐'This novel felt like stepping into a dream, beautiful, cold, and filled with whispers of light in the darkness. It is not a book to rush through but one to savor slowly, letting the weight of its themes and its quiet magic linger long after turning the final page' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐'This was such a cool story! I love a good follow-the-clues plot anyway, but I found myself so interested in the Russian folklore and history' ⭐⭐⭐⭐
The Blackfire Blade: a thrilling epic fantasy perfect for fans of Scott Lynch and James Islington (Book 2 of the Last Legacy) (The Last Legacy)
by James LoganThe hotly anticipated sequel to The Silverblood Promise, continuing the incredible new epic fantasy series perfect for fans of Scott Lynch and James IslingtonSome doors should not be opened . . .Winter has come early to Korslakov, City of Spires, and Lukan Gardova has arrived with it. Most visitors to this famous city of artifice seek technological marvels, or alchemical ingenuity. Lukan only desires the unknown legacy his father has left for him, in the vaults of the Blackfire Bank.But when Lukan's key to the vault is stolen by a mysterious thief known as the Rook, he and his friends find themselves trapped in a deadly web of murder and deceit. In desperation, Lukan seeks help from Lady Marni Volkova, scion of Korslakov's most powerful family.Yet Lady Marni has secrets of her own. Worse, she has plans for Lukan and his friends. Plans that involve a journey into Korslakov's dark past, in search of a long-lost alchemical formula that could lead to the city's greatest discovery . . . or its destruction.Praise for the Last Legacy series:'A fast-paced carnival of setbacks and skullduggery that reminds me of . . . me! Charming from the first twist to the last' Scott Lynch'Relentlessly entertaining, defiantly idealistic, it's a daring debut filled to the brim with classic fantasy fun' Sebastien de Castell'An undeniable masterwork - and a blueprint for how adventure fantasy should be written' Kirkus (starred review)'A superb debut filled to the brim with action, adventure and a murder mystery that will keep you on the edge of your seat' Fantasy Hive'An engaging and action-packed fantasy read' James IslingtonThe Last Legacy series The Silverblood PromiseThe Blackfire Blade
Road to Nowhere: How a Highway Map Wrecked Baltimore (Historical Studies of Urban America)
by Emily LiebTraces the birth, plunder, and scavenging of Rosemont, a Black middle-class neighborhood in Baltimore. In the mid-1950s Baltimore’s Rosemont neighborhood was alive and vibrant with smart rowhouses, a sprawling park, corner grocery stores, and doctor’s offices. By 1957, a proposed expressway threatened to gut this Black, middle-class community from stem to stern. That highway was never built, but it didn’t matter—even the failure to build it destroyed Rosemont economically, if not physically. In telling the history of the neighborhood and the notional East–West Expressway, Emily Lieb shows the interwoven tragedies caused by racism in education, housing, and transportation policy. Black families had been attracted to the neighborhood after Baltimore’s Board of School Commissioners converted several white schools into “colored” ones, which had also laid the groundwork for predatory real-estate agents who bought low from white sellers and sold high to determined Black buyers. Despite financial discrimination, Black homeowners built a thriving community before the city council formally voted to condemn some nine hundred homes in Rosemont for the expressway, leading to deflated home values and even more predatory real estate deals. Drawing on land records, oral history, media coverage, and policy documents, Lieb demystifies blockbusting, redlining, and prejudicial lending, highlighting the national patterns at work in a single neighborhood. The result is an absorbing story about the deliberate decisions that produced racial inequalities in housing, jobs, health, and wealth—as well as a testament to the ingenuity of the residents who fought to stay in their homes, down to today.
The Winter Dead: An atmospheric Scottish detective crime thriller that will keep you on the edge of your seat (Detective Shona Oliver)
by Lynne McewanHow do you solve a murder when you don't have the body?A blood-soaked hammer is discovered in a lorryload of wood delivered to a local pub. DI Shona Oliver appears to have a murder weapon, but where is the victim?Then a call comes in that local forest ranger and ex-soldier John MacFarlane isn't answering his phone. There's no sign of MacFarlane at his cottage, and the only clue the team have to go on is a bloody trail in the snow which ends abruptly and leads to nowhere. A manhunt begins.It seems something from MacFarlance's past may have caught up with him. But what exactly is unclear. And Shona has her own past to contend with when someone from long ago makes an unexpected reappearance. Can she keep her head in the game?A fast-paced, twisty Scottish crime thriller. Perfect for fans of Lin Anderson, Val McDermid and Neil Lancaster.
The Stolen Dead (Cora Lael Mystery)
by MJ WhiteA victim stabbed through the heart sets off a deadly chain of events that will plunge Cora into her most personal case yet.The first victim was found on a shingled Suffolk beach, his life extinguished by a single stab through the heart, a pile of pebbles, seaweed and sand carefully arranged onto his body. When DS Rob Minshull and Dr Cora Lael stumble across the body while out on a run, South Suffolk CID are quickly thrown into a perplexing murder case.Then another victim is found on another beach, the body and objects around it carefully posed. As the media whips up a frenzy for the killer dubbed 'The Beachcomber', the pressure is on for South Suffolk CID to find the murderer, fast.Cora's ability to sense psychic echoes from found objects might bring some answers. But what is the significance of the voice whispering 'mine'? And when Cora hears that same voice in objects close to home, can she really trust the people around her?With a fractured police squad, a terrified community and too many theories to the killer's identity, can The Beachcomber be stopped before more lives are lost?A heart-stopping detective novel that fans of Cara Hunter, LJ Ross and Kate Ellis will love.Readers can't get enough of the Cora Lael Mysteries:'Fast paced, cleverly thought out and gripping to the very end, if you want a police procedural crime read with that added something extra, then I would definitely recommend this!' Reader Review'Gripping from the first page to the lastThis is a brilliant book!!' Reader Review'Suspense, intrigue, great police work and a great storyline! It definitely had my heart pumping!' Reader Review'Truly could not put this down so many twists and turns Great characters who are also believable.' Reader Review
The Rebel Daughter: A page-turning, dramatic and emotional historical novel (House of Help for Friendless Girls)
by Joanne ClagueMothers against daughters. Lovers on opposing sides. Families torn apart. Where will she fall in this battle for what's right?While her mother is preparing Alice Leigh for marriage, she has other plans. Working at the House of Help for Friendless Girls, Alice's eyes have been opened to the injustices faced by girls and women. Instead of a husband, she now dreams of fighting for women's rights.Meanwhile, Isaac Hinchcliffe is set to take over his adoptive father's steel works when his long-lost birth mother reappears. But when he turns to Alice for support, he finds her distracted by politics he cannot agree with soon, their friendship is torn apart.With both her mother and childhood best friend against her, will Alice continue to fight for a fairer world? Can she and Isaac reconcile before tragedy strikes, or are their differences too big to overcome?A thrilling and inspiring Victorian saga, perfect for fans of Kitty Neale, Diane Allen and Val Wood.
Milton's Strenuous Liberty
by Tobias GregoryWhat motivated John Milton? Amidst his shifting concerns, which ones moved him most deeply? These are the animating questions of Milton's Strenuous Liberty. Tobias Gregory advances a new paradigm for Milton's priorities as a heterodox, godly, lay intellectual, arguing that, at the heart of Milton's public agenda from the early 1640s to the end of his life, there lay a concern to maximize liberty of conscience. In contrast to the republican Milton prevalent in recent scholarship, Gregory presents an anticlerical Milton whose real radicalism lay in his individualistic view of the church. Milton emerges in this study as an eloquent spokesman for unpopular positions, and as a poet who, in his late masterpieces, arrived at a broader perspective on the Puritan revolution, though without ever disavowing it as a dearly-held cause.
Playing the Chorus in Greek Tragedy
by Rosa AndújarModern audiences see the chorus as an emblematic yet static element of ancient Greek drama, whose reflective songs puncture the action. This is the first book to look beyond these odes to the group's complex and varied roles as actors and physical performers. It argues that the chorus' flexibility and interactive nature has been occluded by the desire from Aristotle onwards to assign the group a single formal role. It presents four choreographies that ancient playwrights employed across tragedy, satyr play, and comedy: fragmentation, augmentation, interruption, and interactivity. By illustrating how the chorus was split, augmented, interrupted, and placed in dialogue, this book shows how dramatists experimented with the chorus' configuration and continual presence. The multiple self-reflexive ways in which ancient dramatists staged the group confirms that the chorus was not only a nimble dramatic instrument, but also a laboratory for experimenting with a range of dramatic possibilities.
Ruin Ecology: An Exercise in Environmental Imagination (Elements in Environmental Humanities)
by Marco MalvestioThis Element discusses the presence of ruins in contemporary environmental imagination. Contemporary ruins, much more than those that served as constituents of Romantic and Gothic aesthetics, simultaneously express a fascination with and a dread of the non-human agencies at play in the world, while also countering the nostalgic dimension of traditional representations of ruins. The contemporary success of ruins can be connected to the sense of planetary precarity induced by anthropogenic climate change, and to the widespread presence of eco-anxiety in the public conscience. Moreover, at the centre of ruins' aesthetic power is the interaction of human and non-human forces, and in the process of ruination, buildings and monuments find new meaning thanks to the intervention of external agents that human civilization has long attempted to tame or eliminate and that make a disturbing return as soon as anthropic activity ceases.
The Archaeology of the Cyclades in the Roman and Late Antique Periods: Globalization, Christianization and Resilience
by Rebecca SweetmanThe Cycladic islands have traditionally been considered as backwaters during the Roman and Late Antique periods. Through analysis of the material culture produced from the late first century BCE through to the seventh century CE, however, Rebecca Sweetman offers a fresh interpretation of Cycladic societies across this diachronic period. She demonstrates that the Cyclades remained vibrant, and that the islands embraced the potential of being part of wider political, economic and religious networks that were enabled as part of the Roman Empire. Sweetman also argues that the Cyclades were at the forefront of key social developments, notably, female social and physical mobility, as well as in the islands' early adoption of Christianity. Drawing on concepts related to Globalization, Christianization, and Resilience, Sweetman's analysis highlights the complex relationships between the islands and their Imperial contexts over time. The gazetteer of archaeological sites will be fundamental for all working on archaeology of the Roman and Late Antique periods as well as those interested in the Mediterranean.
Politics as Exchange: An Analysis of the Political Marketplace (Cambridge Studies in Economics, Choice, and Society)
by Randall G. HolcombePolitical institutions have been depicted by academics as a marketplace where citizens transact with each other to accomplish collective ends difficult to accomplish otherwise. This depiction supports a romantic notion of democracy in which democratic governments are accountable to their citizens, and act in their best interests. In Politics as Exchange, Randall Holcombe explains why this view of democracy is too optimistic. He argues that while there is a political marketplace in which public policy is made, access to the political marketplace is limited to an elite few. A small group of well-connected individuals-legislators, lobbyists, agency heads, and others-negotiate to produce public policies with which the masses must comply. Examining the political transactions that determine policy, Holcombe discusses how political institutions, citizen mobility, and competition can limit the ability of elites to abuse their power.
Greening the International Monetary Fund (Organizational Response to Climate Change: Businesses, Governments)
by Alexandros Kentikelenis Thomas StubbsThe International Monetary Fund (IMF) has emerged as a key player in climate policy. The organization introduced its Climate Strategy in 2021 and established the Resilience and Sustainability Facility in 2022 to provide financial support to countries facing adaptation and mitigation challenges. The IMF's closer engagement with the economic dimensions of climate change holds the promise of helping countries pre-empt large-scale economic dislocations from climate risks. But how much progress has the IMF made in supporting the green transition? What is the policy track record of the IMF's climate loans? How do regular IMF loans and mandated reforms encompass climate considerations? How have the IMF's economic surveillance activities considered climate risks? Based on new evidence, the findings in this Element point to the multifaceted, and at times contradictory, ways green transition objectives have become embedded within IMF activities. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.
Herodotus and the Greek Poetic Tradition
by Charles C. ChiassonThis is the first comprehensive analysis in any language of Herodotus' interaction with the Greek poetic tradition, including epic, lyric, and tragic poetry. It is essential reading for scholars of ancient Greek storytelling (including myth) and those interested in the hybrid nature of narrative history, as both a true or truth-based account of past events and a necessarily creative account, which requires the author to present data in a meaningful and engrossing literary form. Close readings of specific passages demonstrate how Herodotus uses the linguistic, thematic, and narrative resources of the poets to channel and challenge their social authority, and to engage the emotions and intellect of a broad Hellenic audience steeped in the traditions of poetic performance. Herodotus adopts or adapts some poetic features while rejecting others (explicitly or implicitly) as a means of defining the nature of his own research and narrative.
The Little Book of Archaeology: A Pocket Guide to How Archaeology Works and What It Can Teach Us
by Peter SalmonPacked with fascinating facts, intriguing mysteries and breathtaking discoveries, from the ancient wonders of Egypt and Pompeii to the mysteries of lost Mayan civilizations and the enigmatic Nazca Lines in Peru, this captivating guide offers a whirlwind tour of humanity's past through the art of archaeology.
The Little Book of Sleep Meditations: Mindfulness Exercises to Help You Sleep
by Annie Fay MeitchikFall asleep every night with this little book of sleep meditations that will leave you feeling rested and revitalized. Packed with advice on better sleep hygiene, and 5-, 10- and 15-minute meditations, it will help you change your sleeping habits and ease your anxious thoughts. Your journey towards a better night's sleep starts now.
You're a Star: Quotes and Statements to Make You Shine
by Summersdale PublishersSome people have a special place in our lives. They make us smile, they make us laugh and they brighten up our days. Spread love and joy by saying thank you to the person who shines especially bright in your life with this stellar collection of heart-warming quotes and affirmations.
Aliens: Mystifying True Stories of Alleged Alien Encounters
by Jamie KingThis intriguing anthology examines incidents that were so puzzling they led witnesses to draw one inevitable conclusion: that aliens really do exist. Inside you will discover some of the most mysterious reports of UFO sightings, close encounters and alien abductions from across the globe.
War Dog Heroes: Inspirational True Stories of Real-Life Military Canine Heroes
by Ben HoltFilled with inspirational tales, War Dog Heroes is a moving tribute to the noble war dogs who supported their human comrades throughout the world's most challenging conflicts. Whether serving as sentries, messengers or trackers, the dogs within these stories all share three things in common: bravery, intelligence and unwavering loyalty.
You Do You: Quotes to Uplift, Empower and Inspire
by Summersdale PublishersNo one is better at being you than you... and there's only one you in the universe. These inspirational quotes and uplifting affirmations will remind you that you don't need to follow the crowd - follow your heart and keep on being your amazing, individual self. With the help of this book, spend your days being happy and confident.
Kitty Care: A Guide to Understanding and Building a Lifelong Bond with Your Cat
by Susan McCannThis illustrated guide tells you everything you need to know to help you understand and bond with your cat. Filled with practical advice - including the secrets of cat body language and tips to help you nurture their happiness - it will deepen your knowledge and help you give your four-legged feline friend a life full of love, joy and affection.
The Little Book of Ayurveda: A Beginner's Guide to the Art of Balancing Mind, Body and Spirit
by Lucy FleetwoodMake your well-being a priority and embrace your connection to the world around youWithin these pages you will find everything you need to know about this ancient healing practice, including its history, the basic principles and how you can benefit from it. It's time to unlock the powers of Ayurveda and begin your journey towards a healthier you.
The Little Book of Fortune Telling: An Introduction to the Art of Divination
by Elsie WildWould you like to be able to interpret the signs the universe is sending you? Do you want to know what's in store for you and your loved ones? Are you interested in the deeper meaning behind everyday events? Discover the methods for divining your future with this beginner's guide to fortune telling.
Strong Woman Era: How to Embrace Your Strength and Elevate Your Life
by Saffron HootonEmpower your mind, strengthen your body and build your best life with this girl-power guide to strength training. With helpful tips, practical advice and energizing affirmations, this wellness and weightlifting companion will support you on your journey to becoming your strongest self.
Lady Killers: Shocking True Stories of the World's Most Barbaric Female Murderers
by Jamie KingWhatever their motive - be it a crime of passion or an act of vengeance - this true crime compendium covers the heinous acts of the most monstrous women in the world. Whether you're a true crime follower or simply curious, let the stories of these lady killers satiate your appetite for the macabre.
The Conspiracy Theory Trivia Book: A Deep Dive into the World’s Most Puzzling Secrets with Trivia Questions, Fascinating Facts and More
by Jamie KingPrepare to test your knowledge, challenge your assumptions and unlock the peculiar secrets around history's greatest mysteries! Whether you're a seasoned conspiracy enthusiast or a curious sceptic, The Conspiracy Theory Trivia Book is your passport to a world where truth and speculation collide.