The No. 1 New York Times Bestseller Jess Walter's Beautiful Ruins is a gorgeous glamorous novel set in 1960s Italy & a modern Hollywood studio. The story begins in 1962. Somewhere on a rocky patch of the sun-drenched Italian coastline a young innkeeper chest-deep in daydreams looks out over the incandescent waters of the Ligurian Sea & views an apparition: a beautiful woman a vision in white approaching him on a boat. She is an American starlet he soon learns & she is dying. & the story begins again today half a world away in Hollywood when an elderly Italian man shows up on a movie studio's back lot searching for the woman he last saw at his hotel fifty years before. Gloriously inventive funny tender & constantly surprising Beautiful Ruins is a novel full of fabulous & yet very flawed people all of them striving towards another sort of life a future that is both delightful & yet tantalizingly seems just out of reach. Magic...A monument to crazy love with a deeply romantic heart". (New York Times). "A novel shot in sparkly Technicolor". (Booklist). " Hilarious & compelling". (Esquire). " Beautiful Ruins is a novel unlike any other you're likely to read this year". (Nick Hornby The Believer). Jess Walter is the author of the National Book Award finalist The Zero & the Edgar Award-winning Citizen Vince. His previous book The Financial Lives of the Poets was published in the UK by Penguin." ...

This beautiful collection of portraits shows sheep as you have never seen them before
- polished preened & styled to perfection
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When Ryan Media Group opens a new office in New York numbers whiz Sara Dillon happily accepts the position of Director of Finance. On her first weekend in her new town Sara has wild
- & very public
- sex with a gorgeous stranger on a balcony overlooking Chloe Mills' raucous engagement party. Sara assumes the tryst was a one-time thing but when her mysterious lover sends her the steamy phone video he took of their encounter she realizes he might have unearthed a side of her she'd never let herself explore. Unfortunately an affair with Max Stella Wall Street's newly-imported golden boy could be very very bad for her new career. Max has a legendary appetite for casual sex but the kindred kink he finds in Sara is hard to brush off. Soon the formerly-irresistible investment banker finds himself pursuing a woman who seems to want very little to do with him outside of their playful & creative exhibitionism. They have only three rules: keep it casual keep it private & no faces. That is until Max convinces Sara to come with him to a club that opens a new world for them & their sex-only relationship grows decidedly more intimate.

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Portraits of 40 majestic models The best-selling Beautiful...series has seen a plethora of handsome thoroughbreds step into the spotlight to have their looks preserved for posterity. Now our leading portrait photographer focuses his lens on beasts of an altogether different nature. Beautiful Tractors presents a fabulous variety box of the worlds most magnificent agricultural machines each primed polished & gleaming in all its robust glory. Stylishly lit against a studio backdrop these superb photographs of vintage & modern masterpieces make for an impressive line-up of engineering prowess. Each photograph is accompanied by a directory offering information on the machines history production & distribution use & of course size. From the elegant early Titan (oddly reminiscent of Stephensons Rocket) to the classic big red tractor looks of the prosaically named Allis-Chalmers Model U theres plenty here to stir the senses whether youre a bona fide petrol head or simply nostalgic for a simpler world in which a straightforward piece of farm machinery could also be a feast for the eyes. ...

Photographer & conservationist Bryant Austin had long searched for an impactful way to inspire change in whaling nations. For many years he searched for a way to photograph whales in the wild that would capture their awe inspiring beauty grace & intelligence. A chance encounter with a humpback calf & mother finally opened Austins eyes & helped him to develop a novel way of producing high resolution life size photography of these astounding creatures. Spending weeks with groups of whales off Tonga Dominica & the Great Barrier Reef in Australia Austin immerses himself in the water for many hours each day waiting patiently for whales to approach him. He remains motionless allowing humpback sperm & minke whales that are sometimes 100 feet in length & weigh as much as 55 tons to come within ten feet of him. This allows him to create detailed intimate portraits of his subjects. Austins first book Beautiful Whale presents remarkable close ups of whales including a special focus on their eyes as well as full body portraits created by compiling hundreds of images. The book

Includes:: a foreword by oceanographer Dr. Sylvia Earle.

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The source of tremendous power & the focus of incredible devotion throughout history notions of beauty have been integral to social life & culture. Each age has had its own standards: a gleaming white brow during the Renaissance the black eyebrows considered charming in the early eighteenth century & the thin lips thought desirable by Victorians. Beauty has ensured good marriages enabled social mobility & offered fame & notoriety & has led women
- & some men
- to remarkable lengths in cultivating it from the dangerous quantities of lead applied by Elizabeth I to the women of the 1940s & 50s who employed face powder lipstick & mascara to look their best during the privations of war & austerity creating a chic appearance to which many still aspire.

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These are two popular titles in the Young Reading" series with audio CDs inserted into wallets inside the back cover making the books & CDs easy to store together. " The Young Reading" series is developed with experts at Roehampton University to help young readers grow in confidence & ability. The packaging also allows potential purchasers to view the inside of the book." ...

This is a wonderful picture book retelling the classic fairytale. The simple & engaging text is accompanied by colourful illustrations by Victor Tavares. It is perfect for sharing with young children. Theres a fairy hiding in the Beasts garden which children might not spot on the first reading but theres lots of fun to be had looking for her when re-reading the story. ...

True love blossoms & wins through in this innovative pop-up adaptation of a beloved fairy tale. Once again bestselling pop-up & paper engineer Robert Sabuda has created amazing paper structures that will lead readers through the magical story of this age-old story. With artful renditions of the magnificent castle a life-like Beast & an enchanting closing scene ~ just to name a few ~ this three-dimensional retelling of a classic tale with surprises throughout is certain to become a favourite in every familys library. ...

This simplified retelling of the classic story Beauty & the Beast" is part of " Read It Yourself" a series of graded readers designed to give young children a confident & successful start to reading. This book is a Level Two title suitable for beginner readers who can read short simple sentences with help." ...