It's 1766 The oldest vampires in the world siblings Klaus Elijah & Rebekah Mikaelson have rebuilt New Orleans to great glory The witches live on the fringes in the bayou & the werewolves have fled But still Klaus isn't satisfied No kingdom is complete without a queen to sit beside the king Klaus has spent years trying to find a witch who will resurrect his love Vivianne When he finally finds a witch powerful enough & willing to perform the spell happiness suddenly seems within reach But things aren't as simple as they seem & the witch has an agenda of her own ...

It's the year 1722 Ever since the siblings Klaus Elijah & Rebekah Mikaelson landed on the shores of New Orleans they have been fighting to claim the city as their own They are the oldest vampires in the world trying to share the city with the witches & the werewolves Enter Vivianne Raised as a witch she is betrothed to a werewolf for a union that should bring peace between the witches & the werewolves She is the only girl in New Orleans off limits to the Mikaelsons Klaus immediately plans to make Vivianne his own Can the vampires cling on to their territories in the city? Or will Vivienne & Klaus trigger a battle bigger than anything New Orleans has ever known? ...

' An intellectual hero A superb celebrator of science in all its manifestations' Ian Mc Ewan' Darwin's great successor' Jeffrey ...

Covering 138 billion years in some 100 pages a calculatedly concise wryly intelligent history of everything from the Big Bang to the advent of human civilization With wonder wit & flair-and in record time & space-geophysicist David Bercovici explains how everything came to be everywhere from the creation of stars & galaxies to the formation of Earth's atmosphere & oceans to the origin of life & human civilization Bercovici marries humor & legitimate scientific intrigue rocketing readers across nearly fourteen billion years & making connections between the essential theories that give us our current understanding of topics as varied as particle physics plate tectonics & photosynthesis Bercovici's unique literary endeavor is a treasure trove of real compelling science & fascinating history providing both science lovers & complete neophytes with an unforgettable introduction to the fields of cosmology geology climate science human evolution & more ...

Nations are not trapped by their pasts but events that happened hundreds or even thousands of years ago continue to exert huge influence on present-day politics If we are to understand the politics that we now take for granted we need to understand its origins Francis Fukuyama examines the paths that different societies have taken to reach their current forms of political order This book starts with the very beginning of mankind & comes right up to the eve of the French & American revolutions spanning such diverse disciplines as economics anthropology & geography The Origins of Political Order is a magisterial study on the emergence of mankind as a political animal by one of the most eminent political thinkers writing today ...

Exploring the reasons why the Second World War broke out in September 1939 & why a European conflict developed into a war that spanned the globe The Origins of the Second World War argues that this was not just ' Hitler's War' but one that had its roots & origins in the decline of the old empires of Britain & France & the rise of ambitious new powers in Germany Italy & Japan who wanted large empires of their own This fourth edition has been revised throughout covering the origins of the war from its background in the First World War to its expansion to embrace the Soviet Union Japan & the United States by the end of 1941 Creating a comprehensive & analytical narrative while remaining a succinct overview of the subject this book takes a thematic approach to the complex range of events that culminated in global warfare discussing factors such as economic rivalry rearmament & domestic politics & emphasising that any explanation of the outbreak of hostilities must be global in scope Containing updated references & primary source documents alongside a glossary a chronology of key events & a Who's Who of important figures this book is an invaluable introduction for any student of this fascinating period ...

& How could such a book speak so powerfully to our present moment? The short answer is that we too live in dark times& Washington Post Hannah Arendt&s chilling analysis of the conditions that led to the Nazi & Soviet totalitarian regimes is a warning from history about the fragility of freedom exploring how propaganda scapegoats terror & political isolation all aided the slide towards total domination &A non-fiction bookend to Nineteen Eighty-Four& The New York Times& The political theorist who wrote about the Nazis & the &banality of evil& has become a surprise bestseller& Guardian ...

& How could such a book speak so powerfully to our present moment? The short answer is that we too live in dark times& Washington Post Hannah Arendt&s chilling analysis of the conditions that led to the Nazi & Soviet totalitarian regimes is a warning from history about the fragility of freedom exploring how propaganda scapegoats terror & political isolation all aided the slide towards total domination &A non-fiction bookend to Nineteen Eighty-Four& The New York Times& The political theorist who wrote about the Nazis & the &banality of evil& has become a surprise bestseller& Guardian ...

Flavia was born with a birthmark marring her face in the shape of a bird in flight A dyer's daughter she grows up in a secluded little house in the woods away from prying eyes Ashamed of the mark her mother forces Flavia to conceal her face behind a veil But on the night before her younger sister's wedding Flavia does something drastic something that will draw her into a much wider & stranger world than she could have imagined the convent of Santa Giuliana just outside the city walls There she meets Ghostanza a courtesan turned widow whose white-lead painted face entrances Flavia & whose beauty & cruelty are unmatched Flavia becomes her ornatrix her hairdresser & personal maid But as white-lead paint rots the flesh below it the bustling city & Santa Giuliana is rotting below the shimmer of wealth & privilege & Flavia is drawn into a world of desire & jealousy that has devastating consequences Set in sixteenth century & painted against a vivid historical Italian landscape rich in description & character & with themes & characters relevant to today it tackles issues of belonging female identity & the perception of beauty It cannot fail to move ...

Little Sarah is found in the snow an orphaned new-born baby She is taken in at Meadow Hall in South Riding Yorkshire to be trained as a scullery maid Feisty & headstrong at fourteen Sarah decides to run away Dressed as a boy she meets good-hearted Aidan & impulsive Danby forming an unlikely but happy trio When Sarah is found out Aidan knows she can not live with two young men & reluctantly takes her to the workhouse He plans to rescue Sarah just as soon as he can but something keeps Aidan from his promise Reunited as adults but now strangers Sarah holds a secret about Danby Aidan & her unborn child But can she do what is right for her baby even if it means losing the love of her life? ...