Showing results by author "A.J." in All Categories

Late at night inside the two-person Dragon spacecraft resting on the frozen surface of Saturn’s moon Enceladus, Derya Terzi put on headphones and became the first Earthling to hear the sloshing of the enormous subsurface ocean beneath his feet. Intoxicated with the promise of discovery, he could have sworn it was whispers between inscrutable creatures of the deep. He was convinced they were days away from settling the most profound and existential mystery known to humanity: are we alone in the universe?

Most of us have a limited understanding of the powerful role economics has played in shaping human civilization. This makes economic history - the study of how civilizations structured their environments to provide food, shelter, and material goods - a vital lens through which to think about how we arrived at our present, globalized moment. Designed to fill a long-empty gap in how we think about modern history, these 48 lectures are a comprehensive journey through more than 600 years of economic history.

Hadrian Blackwater, a warrior with nothing to fight for, is paired with Royce Melborn, a thieving assassin with nothing to lose. Hired by an old wizard, they must steal a treasure that no one can reach. The Crown Tower is the impregnable remains of the grandest fortress ever built and home to the realm’s most prized possessions. But it isn’t gold or jewels that the wizard is after, and if he can just keep them from killing each other, they just might succeed.

Eve Dallas is one tough cop. She's got no problem dealing with a holiday reveler in a red suit who plunges 37 stories and gives new meaning to the term "sidewalk Santa". But when she gets back to the station and Trudy Lombard shows up, it's all Eve can do to hold it together.

This dark and gripping noir adaptation takes listeners on a journey through the underworld like never before. In this bold reimagining of Dante Alighieri's classic Inferno, the realms of Hell are recast in the shadowy style of 1940s film noir.

L'école de sorcellerie Poudlard n'a plus rien de secret pour Harry Potter. Mais il est très anxieux... L'adolescence, les examens, la présence des membres de l'Ordre du Phénix et ces étranges cauchemars... Car Voldemort est bel et bien de retour. Le ministère de la Magie semble ne pas prendre la menace au sérieux, contrairement à Dumbledore. La résistance s'organise autour d'Harry Potter qui va devoir compter sur ses amis Ron et Hermione pour affronter de nouvelles épreuves.

Young, headstrong chef Slade has talent to spare but a chip on her shoulder. When she loses her job after clashing with a tyrannical boss, she reluctantly takes a private chef gig for a group of wealthy women at a lavish retreat. Little does she expect to meet Marissa Guzman, a glamorous TV personality on the brink of forty wrestling with complacency. Though on paper they have little in common, the sparks between them are instant and undeniable. As Marissa encourages Slade to embrace her dreams of opening her own restaurant, Slade coaxes Marissa to rediscover her adventurous spirit.

This magnificent history provides the first full account of Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger’s secret support for Pakistan in 1971 as it committed shocking atrocities in Bangladesh—which led to war between India and Pakistan, shaped the fate of Asia, and left major strategic consequences for the world today.

DCI Harry Grimm is still grappling with the Yorkshire Dales custom of eating cheese with cake. But the seasoned big-city cop has more than enough experience getting pulled out of bed in the middle of the night for the grisliest crimes. So the gruesome early-hour discovery of a woman’s savaged remains on the bleakly beautiful terrain has the detective keen to slam an ugly killer behind bars. But when the prime suspect goes missing and Grimm reworks the scene, he fears he sees signs of meticulous military planning and a culprit with a long list of victims.

After a devastating car crash stole both her family and her memory, Grace Stanton was left with no past and an uncertain future. Now Grace likes to keep things simple. No sleepovers, never date a guy more than a month, and never, ever fall in love. Which is exactly why Grace avoids Bad Habit's lead guitarist, Brody Scott, at all costs. The green-eyed, sexy-as-hell musician has "trouble" tattooed all over him, and Grace isn't taking any chances with her heart.

Charles Darwin's theory of organic evolution-the idea that life on earth is the product of purely natural causes, not the hand of God-set off shock waves that continue to reverberate through Western society, and especially the United States. What makes evolution such a profoundly provocative concept, so convincing to most scientists, yet so socially and politically divisive? These 12 eye-opening lectures are an examination of the varied elements that so often make this science the object of strong sentiments and heated debate.

Whisked from his comfortable hobbit-hole by Gandalf the wizard and a band of dwarves, Bilbo Baggins finds himself caught up in a plot to raid the treasure hoard of Smaug the Magnificent, a large and very dangerous dragon.

Mystery author Rachel Goldman is getting used to the idea that her fictional creation, Duffy Madison, has somehow taken flesh-and-blood form and is investigating missing person cases not far from where Rachel lives. Wait. No. She's not getting used to it at all, and the presence of this real-life Duffy is making her current manuscript - what's the word? - lousy.

Between the end of Frank Herbert's Dune and his next novel, Dune Messiah, lies a mystery: how a hero adored by a planet became a tyrant hated by a universe. Paul of Dune begins the story of those 12 fateful years and the wars of the jihad of Paul Muad'Dib. It is an epic of battle and betrayal; of love and idealism; of ambition and intrigue. Above all, it is the story of how Paul Atreides - who achieved absolute power when scarcely more than a boy - changes from an idealist into a dictator who is the prisoner of the bureaucrats and fanatics who surround him.

Detective Chief Inspector Harry Grimm is forced to take leave from Bristol’s Major Investigations Team when his boss, tired of Harry chasing the ghost of his murderous father, sends him north on secondment. Used to city life and high stress, Harry fears his life will now be spent handing out speeding tickets, finding lost sheep, and directing tourists. But when a local teenager runs away, Harry finds himself pulled into an investigation much worse than anyone could have ever expected.

England, 1546: King Henry VIII is slowly, painfully dying. His Protestant and Catholic councillors are engaged in a final and decisive power struggle; whoever wins will control the government of Henry's successor, eight-year-old Prince Edward. As heretics are hunted across London, and the radical Protestant Anne Askew is burned at the stake, the Catholic party focus their attack on Henry's sixth wife, Matthew Shardlake's old mentor, Queen Catherine Parr.

J. D. Vance grew up in the hills of Kentucky. His family and friends were the people most of the world calls rednecks, hillbillies or white trash. In this deeply moving memoir, Vance tells the story of his family’s demons and of America’s problem with generational neglect. How his mother struggled against, but never fully escaped, the legacies of abuse, alcoholism, poverty and trauma. How his grandparents, ‘dirt poor and in love’, gave everything for their children to chase the American dream. How Vance beat the odds to graduate from Yale Law School.

She was admired by women and desired by men, until jealousy and past secrets took center stage. Help Cleo and her friends solve the murder of one of London’s leading actresses. When a hotel guest’s mistress is found dead in the stalls of the Piccadilly Playhouse, a verdict of suicide is given. Convinced his lover didn’t kill herself, Lord Rumford wants the truth uncovered. Against his better judgement, he hires Cleo Fox to find the murderer. Cleo needs to solve this case if she wants to make a living from being a private detective.

Sienna. It's been ten years since he left me with nothing but a pendant, a photo, and a broken heart. He was but a ghost, there one minute and gone the next. I picked myself up, dried my eyes, and built my life without him. Now he has come back into my life like a raging storm surrounded by crime and bloodshed. Elio. Ten years ago, I had to leave behind the only light I had in my life. Without her, I live in darkness. Everything I did had been to protect her. Now that she is back and we have a second chance, they will learn one way or another you do not touch my queen.

After a long and eventful winter, DCI Ryan and his team are looking forward to the joys of spring. But, when one of their colleagues is shot dead on her own doorstep and the brass think it’s an inside job, Ryan finds himself drafted in to investigate. He’s barely scratched the surface when reports flood in of a terror explosion at Durham Cathedral. Chaos descends on the sleepy, historic city and, when the smoke clears, they find a priceless artefact that once belonged to Saint Cuthbert is missing.