From Afghanistan to Zimbabwe, ” The CIA World Factbook 2013” offers complete & up-to-date information on the world`s nations. This comprehensive guide is packed with detailed information on the politics, populations, military expenditures, & economics of 2013. Also included are appendixes with useful abbreviations, international environmental agreements, international organizations & groups, weight & measure conversions, & more. ...

` The reason Homer Wells kept his name was that he came back to St Cloud`s so many times, after so many failed foster homes, that the orphanage was forced to acknowledge Homer`s intention to make St Cloud`s his home.` Homer Wells` odyssey begins among the apple orchards of rural Maine. As the oldest unadopted child at St Cloud`s orphanage, he strikes up a profound & unusual friendship with Wilbur Larch, the orphanage`s founder
- a man of rare compassion & an addiction to ether. What he learns from Wilbur takes him from his early apprenticeship in the orphanage surgery, to an adult life running a cider-making factory & a strange relationship with the wife of his closest friend...
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Fast, thrilling, compulsively addictive
- The Circle is Dave Eggers` timely novel about our obsession with the internet. When
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The first English-language novel ever written by a woman from the Himalayan nation of Bhutan, The Circle of Karma has engaged & absorbed readers from around the world since its 2005 publication. Written originally in English, it tells the story of Tsomo, a fifteen-year-old girl caught up in the everyday realities of household life & work. But when her mother dies, Tsomo suddenly feels called to travel & sets off toward a faraway village to light ritual butter lamps in her mother`s memory. Her travels take her to distant places, across Bhutan & into India, evolving into a major life journey. As she faces the world alone, Tsomo slowly begins to find herself, growing as a person & as a woman. Kunzang Choden`s measured, nuanced prose & multilevel narrative weave a complex tapestry of life & its rituals in Bhutan & across South Asia. Newly reissued as part of Zubaan`s anniversary celebration of a decade of cutting-edge feminist publishing, this extraordinary novel is poised to be discovered by a broad & enthusiastic new audience. ...

A saga of flight & pursuit, this novel chronicles the adventures of Alu, a young weaver who is wrongly suspected of being a terrorist. Chased from Bengal to Bombay & on through the Persian Gulf to North Africa by a bird-watching police inspector, Alu encounters along the way a cast of characters as various & as colourful as the epithets with which the author adorns them. The reader is drawn into their lives by incidents tender & outrageous & all compellingly told. Ghosh is as natural a weaver of words as Alu is of cloth, deftly interlacing humour & wisdom to produce a narrative tapestry of surpassing beauty. ...

After the success of Lonely Planet’s “ The Cities Book” Lonely Planet brings you this fascinating journey through the best cities in the world in a new handy mini-format. It presents the 200 diverse cities in the world, ranked in order as voted by Lonely Planet’s staff, authors, & readers. There are the usual suspects such as Paris, London, New York, as well as the unfamiliar, exotic, & tiny: Abuja (Nigeria), Nuuk (Greenland), Saint-Denis (Réunion) & Ulaanbataar (Mongolia). Using full-colour photographs, the book seeks to give you a genuine taste of each city, giving you insight into the people, a defining experience, strengths & weaknesses, imports/exports, sights to see, things to buy, even urban myths & films it’s been featured in. Inspirational, inviting & beautiful, this volume will make travel from your armchair a delight & perhaps inspire more plans for exciting trips in the future. ...

The Roman province of Africa was one of richest in the Empire & as a result has some of the most spectacular remains. ” The Cities of Roman Africa” examines the development of urban space & cultural life in this province from the beginnings of Roman rule in the second century BC to the fall of the province of Africa to the Vandals in AD 439. In this engaging & strikingly illustrated new book, Gareth Sears considers the incorporation of Roman culture into Africa, & its use by African populations &, in particular, their elites. The author also explores the persistence of pre-Roman cultures, & how these factors affected the evolution of the cities, intellectual life & even entertainment under the Republic & Empire. Dr. Gareth Sears is a lecturer in Roman History at the University of Birmingham. He is a specialist on Roman North Africa, & has co-directed archaeological work at the city of Cyrene in Libya for the Cyrenaica Archaeological Project. ...

With dramatic & exciting stories, Carlos Miller reveals the secrets behind successful citizen journalism. Whether you`re planning a publicity blitz for your cause, you`re interested in the down-&-dirty practices of the police, or just want to be prepared for the moment you`re the first on the scene, this book has everything you`ll need to know to take news-worthy pictures & get them in front of a wide audience. You dont need a DSLR camera
- though they can be useful
- what is essential for citizen journalism is a cool head, an eye for a great angle, & the initiative to capture the moment: let Carlos Miller show you how.

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Perhaps the most charismatic of French marques, Citroen was established in 1919 by the brilliant, mercurial Andre Citroen. In 1934 Citroen adopted a design philosophy for advance front-wheel-drive cars intended for long production runs, a theme which continues to this day. ...

With an introduction by novelist Kamila Shamsie When the body of a murdered woman is found in the extraordinary, decaying city of Beszel, somewhere at the edge of Europe, it looks like a routine case for Inspector Tyador Borlu of the Extreme Crime Squad. But as he probes, the evidence begins to point to conspiracies far stranger, & more deadly, than anything he could have imagined. Soon his work puts him & those he cares for in danger. Borlu must travel to the only metropolis on Earth as strange as his own, across a border like no other. With shades of Kafka & Philip K. Dick, Raymond Chandler & George Orwell, the multi-award winning The City & The City by China Mieville is a murder mystery taken to dazzling metaphysical & artistic heights. ...