The wines of California have a distinctive personality & style, which arise from a culture very different from that of most other wine regions. Whilst the area has abundant sunshine, the unique character of the wines comes from other elements, mainly the maritime influence or the elevation of the vineyards. Californian wines also benefit from the industry`s lack of regulation which allows a grower to grow what he wants where he wants & use any grapes he likes. This freedom has led to the swift evolution & diversification of the state`s wine industry. Stephen Brook has identified the region`s top 90 producers, though the nature of the industry there makes the selection particularly difficult. The author considers quality as the most important but not sole criterion. He looks more indulgently on wineries that make considerable volumes of excellent wine than on boutique operations that do one small thing very well This guide, the fourth in the acclaimed Finest Wines series, from Hugh Johnson`s award-winning team, casts a whole new light on the region. Authoritative, bang up-to-date, & brimming with fascinating information, this essential guide is required reading for all wine lovers & makes a handsome present. ...

'HIGHLY COMMENDED' AT ANDRE SIMON AWARDS 2011 Picturesque Rioja, Spain's most prominent wine region, is a new world within a very old world. Beautifully illustrated with photographs of the people & landscape & with detailed maps, this guide ranges over a diverse area including not only Rioja but Navarra, Bierzo, Galicia, & the Basque country as it explores winemaking from the ancient to the traditional & modern. Written by a trio of experts on Spanish wine, it provides insider information on a region home to Spain's finest Tempranillo, its exciting Albarino, & many other indigenous grape varieties such as Garnacha, Mazuelo, & Viura. The authors look in depth at topics including climate & soil, grape varieties, & viticulture, & profile more than 85 individual wineries. They also include information not available elsewhere: several top ten lists plus secret addresses for the best restaurants & shops in which to find aged & historic vintages of Rioja. ...

Highly interactive book with die-cuts throughout that are ideal for developing visual awareness, creativity, & imagination. To play with this book, all you need is your finger. Take a pen, draw two eyes & a mouth, & there you are
- your very own finger worm! Follow finger worm around the world & beyond
- gazing at the Eiffel tower, skiing down snow-capped mountains, flying to outer space & more! Pop a finger through this fun, interactive book ideal for infants & toddlers & watch them travel around the world & beyond! Take a pen, draw two eyes & a mouth, & there you are
- your very own finger worm! From the innovative children`s author, Herve Tullet, & part of the beloved Let`s Play Games series of board books, The Finger Travel Game will expand a child`s creativity, stimulating thought & imagination. Featuring thick board pages that are perfect for little hands to hold & turn. Encourages young ones to exercise fine motor skills in the context of humour & play. From the hand & mind of Herve Tullet, author of Press Here (over 1 million copies sold worldwide & a The New York Times bestseller for 3 years running). Part of the ` Let`s Play Games` series, which offers a range of thought-provoking concepts, formats, & visuals for young children, & has sold more than 250, 000 copies worldwide. The perfect gift for pre-school children.


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WINNER OF THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE Julian Treslove, a professionally unspectacular former BBC radio producer, & Sam Finkler, a popular Jewish philosopher, writer & television personality, are old school friends. Despite very different lives, they`ve never quite lost touch with each other
- or with their former teacher, Libor Sevcik. Both Libor & Finkler are recently widowed, & together with Treslove they share a sweetly painful evening revisiting a time before they had loved & lost. It is that very evening, when Treslove hesitates a moment as he walks home, that he is attacked
- & his whole sense of who & what he is slowly & ineluctably changes.

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The Finns, in the Xenophobe guide series; consisting of a range of pocket-sized guides which take a humorous & irreverent approach to a wide range of world cultures. Each guide explores the characteristics of a country’s people in a series of dedicated sections, encompassing nationalism & identity, behaviour, manners, character, obsessions, beliefs & values, leisure & pleasure, culture, custom & tradition, business, systems, health & hygiene, crime & punishment, government & bureaucracy, conversation & gestures & language. Written in a wholly irreverent style, Xenophobes guides attempt to forewarn readers of the main stereotypes & foibles that are associated with individual nationalities. ...

From No.1 bestselling author Andrew Taylor comes the sequel to the phenomenally successful The Ashes of London Somewhere in the soot-stained ruins of Restoration London, a killer has gone to ground... The Great Fire has ravaged London, wreaking destruction & devastation wherever its flames spread. Now, guided by the incorruptible Fire Court, the city is slowly rebuilding, but times are volatile & danger is only ever a heartbeat away. James Marwood, son of a traitor, is thrust into this treacherous environment when his ailing father claims to have stumbled upon a murdered woman
- in the very place where the Fire Court sits. Then his father is run down & killed. Accident? Or another murder...? Determined to uncover the truth, Marwood turns to the one person he can trust
- Cat Lovett, the daughter of a despised regicide. Marwood has helped her in the past. Now it`s her turn to help him. But then comes a third death... & Marwood & Cat are forced to confront a vicious & increasingly desperate killer whose actions threaten the future of the city itself.

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The fifth book in the classic Martin Beck detective series from the 1960s
- the novels that shaped the future of Scandinavian crime
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In these wide-ranging tales from a life on the road, Vietnam vet & ”adventure eater” Richard Sterling takes the reader deep into the heart of cultures from Asia to Africa to North America. Whether he is breaking bread with a murderer in the Baja desert or enjoying a shipboard dalliance with a mysterious new acquaintance on the South China Sea, Sterling`s faith in humanity is continually renewed through the sharing of food, drink, & passion. Provocative & testosterone-edged, his writing is also poignant & hilarious. ...

A timely & groundbreaking collection of essays & poems about race in America edited by Jesmyn Ward, the first woman to win the National Book Award twice THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLERIn this bestselling collection of essays & poems, Jesmyn Ward gathers a new generation of writers & thinkers to speak on race. From Claudia Rankine to Rachel Kaadzi Ghansah, Jericho Brown to Carol Anderson, these voices shine a light on the darkest corners of American history, wrestle with the struggles the country faces today & imagine a better future. Envisioned as a response to The Fire Next Time, James Baldwin`s groundbreaking 1963 essay collection, The Fire This Time considers the black experience in modern America. Significant progress has been made in the fifty years since Baldwin`s essays were published, but America is a long distance away from a post-racial society
- a truth that must be confronted if the country is to continue to work towards change. Baldwin`s `fire next time` is now upon us, & it needs to be talked about. Sage, urgent & impassioned, this is an essential collection edited by one of America`s greatest writers.
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The No 1 Swedish thriller by the author of The Hypnotist & The Nightmare One girl is dead Detective Inspector Joona Linna has been called to a home for troubled girls, north of Stockholm. A young girl has been brutally murdered, her body arranged in bed with her hands covering her eyes. One girl is missing Vicky Bennet is the only girl unaccounted for. Did she run away to escape the chaos or does a bloody hammer found under her pillow make her the prime suspect? One girl claims to have witnessed it all In Stockholm, Flora Hansen works as a medium, pretending to commune with the dead. When she begins to suffer crippling visions of the young girl`s murder, will anyone believe her? As Joona refuses to accept the easy answers, his search leads him into darker, more violent territory, &, finally, to a shocking confrontation with his past. ...