Iran: A destination that is seldom seen by westerners yet often misunderstood. A country that simultaneously “enchants & enrages” those who visit it. A place where leading a double life has become the norm. In Couchsurfing in Iran, award-winning author Stephan Orth spends sixty-two days on the road in this mysterious Islamic republic to provide a revealing, behind-the-scenes look at life in one of the world’s most closed societies. Through the unsurpassed hospitality of twenty-two hosts, he skips the guidebooks & tourist attractions & travels from Persian carpet to bed to cot, covering more than 8, 400 kilometers to recount “this world’s hidden doings.” Experiencing daily what he calls the “two Irans” that coexist side by side?the “theocracy, where people mourn their martyrs” in mausoleums, & the “hide-&-seek-ocracy, where people hold secret parties & seek worldly thrills instead of spiritual bliss”?he learns that Iranians have become experts in navigating around their country’s strict laws. Though couchsurfing is officially prohibited in Iran?the state fears spies would be able to travel undetected through the country?more than a hundred thousand Iranians are registered with online couchsurfing portals. & thanks to these hospitable, English-speaking strangers, Orth gets up close & personal with locals, peering behind closed doors & blank windows to uncover the inner workings of a country where public show & private reality are strikingly opposed. ...

Could a Penguin Ride a Bike? provides a fun & informative introduction into the life of a penguin. By imagining animals in everyday scenarios, readers can learn about their size, diet & other features. For example, a penguin chick eats 200 fish a day
- so imagine having one round for dinner! Featuring superb illustrations & an engaging question & answer format, this title is extremely engaging & enjoybale. Could A Penguin Ride A Bike will be sure to keep young readers entertained whilst also helping them to understand & retain animal facts.
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Topographic survey of France at 1:25, 000 in IGN`s excellent TOP25 / Série Bleue series. All the maps are GPS compatible, with a 1km UTM grid plus latitude & longitude lines at 5’ intervals. Contours are at 5m intervals except for mountainous areas where the maps have contours at 10m intervals, vividly enhanced by hill shading & graphics for rocky terrain. Colouring with graphics indicates different types of vegetation or land use (deciduous or coniferous forests, moors, orchards, vineyards, etc). PLEASE NOTE: coverage of France at this scale is currently being revised – the format & the presentation of each title are indicated by the letters at the end of its Sheet Reference number (e.g. 0416ET, 3531ETR, 1923SB, etc.)MAPS WITH FULL TOURIST OVERPRINT & AN ENGLISH MAP LEGEND: all TOP25 maps & the SB editions of Série Bleue have an overprint highlighting waymarked walking trails including long-distance GR routes &, where appropriate, ski routes. Symbols indicate campsites, gîtes d’etape, refuges, equestrian centres & other recreational facilities or sites, tourist information centres, cultural heritage, etc. Towns & locations of particular interest are highlighted.- ET or OT = single-sided TOP25 map covering approx. 29x 21 km / 18x 13 miles.- ETR or OTR = waterproof & tear resistant TOP25 map covering the same area as the corresponding ET or OT number, but double-sided, printed on a smaller size sheet with a good overlap between the sides.- SB = Série Bleue map with full tourist overprint; these maps, first introduced in summer 2014, each cover approx. 29x 24km / 18x 15 miles.SÉRIE BLEUE maps with numbers ending in E (Est) or O (Ouest): most editions now indicate the GR routes, but do not show any other tourist information. Map legend is in French only. Each map covers approx. 14x 20km / 9x 12 miles. ...

Couldson Common in 1895 in a fascinating series of reproductions of old Ordnance Survey plans in the Alan Godfrey Editions, ideal for anyone interested in the history of their neighbourhood or family. The map covers Coulsdon Common & the area to the east, including Ninhams where development had just started, Salmons, & the area around Whyteleafe Road, Portley & Portley Wood. The map portrays a semi-rural area of villas in large gardens: Blizewood, Maes Mawr, Bleak House, Portley, Thornbury, Flintfield House, with just the northern tip of Caterham Barracks at the foot of the map. On the reverse is a section of the 1910 revision showing the Ninhams (or Ninehams) estate & Caterham Barracks further developed. About the Alan Godfrey Editions of the 25” OS Series: Selected towns in Great Britain & Ireland are covered by maps showing the extent of urban development in the last decades of the 19th & early 20th century. The plans have been taken from the Ordnance Survey mapping & reprinted at about 15 inches to one mile (1:4, 340). On the reverse most maps have historical notes & many also include extracts from contemporary directories. Most maps cover about one mile (1.6kms) north/south, one & a half miles (2.4kms) across; adjoining sheets can be combined to provide wider coverage.FOR MORE INFORMATION & A COMPLETE LIST OF ALL AVAILABLE TITLES PLEASE CLICK ON THE SERIES LINK. ...

The story of Edmund Dantes, self-styled Count of Monte Cristo, is told with consummate skill. The victim of a miscarriage of justice, Dantes is fired by a desire for retribution & empowered by a stroke of providence. In his campaign of vengeance, he becomes an anonymous agent of fate. The sensational narrative of intrigue, betrayal, escape, & triumphant revenge moves at a cracking pace. Dumas` novel presents a powerful conflict between good & evil embodied in an epic saga of rich diversity that is complicated by the hero`s ultimate discomfort with the hubristic implication of his own actions. Our edition is based on the most popular & enduring translation first published by Chapman & Hall in 1846. The name of the translator was never revealed. ...

Following on the heels of the successful alphabetic phenomenon, Countablock features thick pages cut into the shape of each number, creating a sort of peek-through guessing game around the number form itself. One egg becomes...one chick! From snowmen to puddles & acorns to oaks, quantities are illustrated twice: both before & after their ”transformations.” As children interact with the pages, they will familiarise themselves not only with the numbers 1-100 & associated quantities, but with each numeral`s physicality -- angles, holes & curves, both front & back. Illustrated by hip British design team Peskimo, this fresh take on the 1-2-3s encourages readers to manipulate numbers in a whole new way. ...

The subtitle
- 50 Odd Things to do in a Heritage Site (and other places)
- says it all. This is a book to take with you next

...

Ranging from the seventeenth century to our current moment, & crossing multiple continents, Counternarratives` stories & novellas draw upon memoirs, newspaper accounts, detective stories, interrogation transcripts, & speculative fiction to create new & strange perspectives on our past & present. ` An Outtake` chronicles an escaped slave`s take on liberty & the American Revolution; ` The Strange History of Our Lady of the Sorrows` presents a bizarre series of events that unfold in a nineteenth-century Kentucky convent; ` The Aeronauts` soars between bustling Philadelphia, still-rustic Washington, & the theater of the U.S. Civil War; ` Rivers, ` presents a free Jim meeting up decades later with his former raftmate Huckleberry Finn; & in ` Acrobatique, ` the subject of a famous Edgar Degas painting talks back. ...

Make learning fun with this stylish & tactile book of numbers. Journey from numbers one to ten, & see & say objects along the way. Count the animals & lift the flaps to see to discover a host of surprises on every page. Bold, eye-catching artwork & sturdy card lift-flaps throughout will make this a favourite with children & adults alike. ...

Willow Chance is a twelve-year-old genius, obsessed with nature & diagnosing medical conditions, who finds it comforting to count by 7s. It has never been easy for her to connect with anyone other than her adoptive parents, but that hasn`t kept her from leading a quietly happy life.. .until now. Suddenly Willow`s world is tragically changed when her parents both die in a car crash, leaving her alone in a baffling world. The triumph of this book is that it is not a tragedy. This extraordinarily odd, but extraordinarily endearing, girl manages to push through her grief. Her journey to find a fascinatingly diverse & fully believable surrogate family is a joy & a revelation to read. ...