Is it an immoral spectacle or a metaphor of life? Bullfighting never fails to provoke a reaction. In this unusual travel memoir, Edward Lewine embarks on an eye-opening journey around Spain, to track a typical season for the country's biggest bullfighter, Francisco Rivera Ordonez. Fighting bulls while fleeing celebrity, Spain's most infamous matador lives both his public & his private life on the edge. The last in a distinguished bloodline, he is plagued by the legacies of his great-grandfather, the greatest matador of his day & revered by Hemingway, & by his late father, who was gored to death in the arena. With sixty-two fights & a hundred & twenty bulls to confront in the coming season, Francisco must also endure the aggressive attention of the paparazzi, who pursue him for news of his colourful private life & breakdown of his marriage to a Spanish duchess. Lewine witnesses at first h&, the thrilling routine of a top bullfighter
- the rituals, the risks, & the stage fright
- & assesses the significance of bullfighting in the context of Spanish identity. This national obsession encapsulates the uniqueness of Spanish culture.

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In an unnamed country on the first day of the new year, people stop dying. Amid the general public, there is great celebration: flags are hung out on balconies & people dance in the streets. They have achieved the great goal of humanity
- eternal life. Death is on strike. Soon, though, the residents begin to suffer. For several months undertakers face bankruptcy, the church is forced to reinvent its doctrine, & local `maphia` smuggle those on the brink of death over the border where they can expire naturally. Death does return eventually, but with a new, courteous approach
- delivering violet warning letters to her victims. But what can death do when a letter is unexpectedly returned?

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In an unnamed country, on the first day of the New Year, people stop dying. There is great celebration & people dance in the streets. They have achieved the great goal of humanity: eternal life. Soon, though, the residents begin to suffer. Undertakers face bankruptcy, the church is forced to reinvent its doctrine, & local `maphia` smuggle those on the brink of death over the border where they can expire naturally. Death does return eventually, but with a new, courteous approach
- delivering violet warning letters to her victims. But what can death do when a letter is unexpectedly returned?
...

The twisted maze of Venice`s canals has always been shrouded in mystery. Even the celebrated opera house, La Fenice, has seen its share of death. But nothing so horrific & violent as that of world-famous conductor, Maestro Helmut Wellauer
- poisoned during a performance of La Traviata. Even Commissario of Police, Guido Brunetti, used to the labyrinthine corruptions of the city, is shocked at the number of enemies Wellauer has made on his way to the top
- but just how many have motive enough for murder? The beauty of Venice is crumbling
- & evil can seep through its decaying stones.


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Loyal readers of the monthly ” Universe” essays in Natural History magazine have long recognized Neil de Grasse Tyson`s talent for guiding them through the mysteries of the cosmos with clarity & enthusiasm. Bringing together more than forty of Tyson`s favorite essays, ? Death by Black Hole? explores a myriad of cosmic topics, from what it would be like to be inside a black hole to the movie industry`s feeble efforts to get its night skies right. One of America`s best-known astrophysicists, Tyson is a natural teacher who simplifies the complexities of astrophysics while sharing his infectious fascination for our universe. ...

Barbara Nadel`s new Turkish crime novel sees Inspector Ikmen tackling a complex case of organised crime in London. When the Istanbul police raid a counterfeit goods factory in the run-down district of Tarlabasi, a young man with explosives strapped to his chest blows himself up in front of them. In the process, Istanbul`s Inpsector Cetin Ikmen is injured. Documents found in the factory lead the authorities in both Istanbul & London to believe that a terrorist attack, in part orchestrated from the Tarlabasi factory, is about to be enacted in the British capital. Ikmen goes undercover amongst the Turkish community of North London, although what he uncovers there is certainly not what his British colleagues were expecting... ...

After a brief & undignified stint as a war correspondent, Chris Ayres is exiled by his newspaper to Hollywood, where he lives in a building called The Leisureplex & sends celebrity tittle-tattle back home. Seduced by the apparently infinite wealth of LA, Ayres embarks on an ill-advised odyssey of self-gratification (in the name of research) & breaks first rule of foreign reporting: he goes native. Before long, he is an SUV-driving narcissist with a flat-screen TV in every room, eight pairs of designer flip-flops, a seven-digit overdraft, & a wife he met on the internet. As always, however, disaster looms. After a fire the size of Luxembourg, a Biblical flood, & the apocalypse of Katrina, Ayres realises he is living on a precipice. Like a gonzo Great Gatsby, Death by Leisure is a savage & hilarious takedown of our times, & a wake-up call to aspiring Leisuretocrats everywhere. ...

For the first time in his long life, Nobel-laureate Kogito Choko is suffering from writer`s block. The book that he wishes to write would examine the turbulent relationship he had with his father, & the guilt he feels about being absent the night his father drowned in a storm-swollen river; but how to write about a man he never really knew? When his estranged sister unexpectedly calls, she offers Choko a remedy
- she has in her possession an old & mysterious red trunk, the contents of which promise to unlock the many secrets of the man who disappeared from their lives decades before.
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For the first time in his long life, Nobel-laureate Kogito Choko is suffering from writer`s block. The book that he wishes to write would examine the turbulent relationship he had with his father, & the guilt he feels about being absent the night his father drowned in a storm-swollen river; but how to write about a man he never really knew? When his estranged sister unexpectedly calls, she offers Choko a remedy
- she has in her possession an old & mysterious red trunk, the contents of which promise to unlock the many secrets of the man who disappeared from their lives decades before.
...

A novel of anger, jealousy, betrayal & murder in 2000 BC It is Egypt, 2000 BC, where death gives meaning to life. At the foot of a cliff lies the broken, twisted body of Nofret, concubine to a Ka-priest. Young, beautiful & venomous, most agree that she deserved to die like a snake. Yet Renisenb, the priest`s daughter, believes that the woman`s death was not fate, but murder. Increasingly, she becomes convinced that the source of evil lurks within her own father`s household. As the wife of an eminent archaeologist, Agatha Christie took part in several expeditions to the Middle East. Drawing upon this experience & exhaustive research, she wrote this serial killer mystery laid in Egypt 4000 years ago. ...