It is best known for its search engine but as Steven Levy explains Googles ambitions go far beyond internet searching. It has moved into mobile phones computer operating systems television & is the most powerful company in the advertising business. Its advertising business produces revenues so substantial that the company has no difficulty funding all its other projects. The company has an unusual corporate culture which Levy describes. The founders are often seen on Rollerblades there are exercise breaks for employees & certain foods are either free or minimally priced. There is simultaneously an atmosphere of seriousness & playfulness. What role this corporate culture plays in the companys success is one question that In the Plex will address. For example every Googler has 20% time -- employees are allowed to spend 20% of their time on projects of their own devising. No manager can prevent this. Some successful corporate businesses have come from 20% time. Levy provides the background on Googles decision to enter the Chinese market a decision that was controversial within the company at the time & which has recently made news as Google threatens to withdraw from China. He explains how cloud computing" is the next frontier for Google & he takes the reader into product development including products that should be reaching market around the time the book is published. He explains what Google is doing to counter the rise of social networks such as Facebook (Google has its own social network) real-time competitors such as Twitter & the looming risk of government regulation because of its dominance of the internet." ...

As the editor of a popular left-wing tabloid Dennis Luxford has made a career out of scandal. But this time the scoop involves his own daughter. To save the life of his child Luxford must expose the girl's mother
- Eve Bowen now Under Secretary of State for the Home Office. & Eve refuses to involve the police convinced that Charlotte's disappearance is just one more shabby tabloid ploy. Only when events take an unbearable turn is New Scotland Yard brought in in the guise of Inspector Thomas Lynley & his partner Barbara Havers. & as their investigations move from Westminster to Wiltshire Lynley & Havers discover that treachery & betrayal lie perilously close to home.
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Black-&-white & high-contrast full colour images will capture young babies interest as they focus on the pictures & start to make connections with the world around them. All materials are non-toxic & have been tested to ensure that they are safe for babies. All the designs have evolved by being shown to babies & watching their response. ...

One night before putting him to bed Enaiatollahs mother tells him three things: dont use drugs dont use weapons & dont steal. The next day he wakes up to find she isnt there. Ten-year-old Enaiatollah is left alone in Pakistan to fend for himself. In a book that takes a true story & shapes it into a beautiful piece of fiction Italian novelist Fabio Geda describes Enaiatollahs remarkable five-year journey from Afghanistan to Italy where he finally managed to claim political asylum aged fifteen. His ordeal took him through Iran Turkey & Greece working on building sites in order to pay people-traffickers & enduring the physical misery of dangerous border crossings squeezed into the false bottoms of lorries or trekking across inhospitable mountains. A series of almost implausible strokes of fortune enabled him to get to Turin find help from an Italian family & meet Fabio Geda with whom he became friends. The result of their friendship is this unique book in which Enaiatollahs engaging moving voice is brilliantly captured by Gedas subtly simple storytelling. In Gedas hands Enaiatollahs journey becomes a universal story of stoicism in the face of fear & the search for a place where life is liveable. ...

Recommended by PEN. One night before putting him to bed Enaiatollahs mother tells him three things: dont use drugs dont use weapons dont steal. The next day he wakes up to find she isnt there. They have fled their village in Ghazni to seek safety outside Afghanistan but his mother has decided to return home to her younger children. Ten-year-old Enaiatollah is left alone in Pakistan to fend for himself. In a book based on a true story Italian novelist Fabio Geda describes Enaiatollahs remarkable five-year journey from Afghanistan to Italy where he finally managed to claim political asylum. His ordeal took him through Iran Turkey & Greece working on building sites in order to pay people-traffickers & enduring the physical misery of border crossings squeezed into the false bottoms of lorries or trekking across inhospitable mountains. A series of almost implausible strokes of fortune enabled him to get to Turin where he found help from an Italian family & met Fabio Geda. The result of their friendship is this unique book in which Enaiatollahs engaging moving voice is brilliantly captured by Gedas subtle storytelling. In Gedas hands Enaiatollahs journey becomes a universal story of stoicism in the face of fear & the search for a place where life is liveable. ...

Following the collapse of his business & the loss of his home Frank Kane made a catastrophic decision. In desperation he agreed to smuggle cocaine out of Venezuela. Almost inevitably he & his girlfriend Sam were caught. The price they paid was a ten-year sentence in the hell of the overcrowded Venezuelan prison system notorious for corruption & abuse & rife with weapons & gangs. At one point Frank was held in the remote El Dorado prison better known for being the one-time home of Henri Charriere or Papillon. He witnessed countless murders as gang leaders fought for power & he had to become as ruthless as his fellow inmates in order to survive. In an attempt to dull the reality of the horrendous conditions he succumbed to drugs. After enduring years of systematic beatings by the guards & attempts on his life by inmates Frank suffered more than one breakdown. He lost over four stone & was riddled with disease but somehow he found the strength within himself to survive & was eventually released in 2004 after serving over seven years of his sentence. During the long walk back from hell Frank decided to tell his story. ...

For seven-year-old Raami the shattering end of childhood begins with the footsteps of her father returning home in the early dawn hours bringing details of the civil war that has overwhelmed the streets of Phnom Penh Cambodias capital. Soon the familys world of carefully guarded royal privilege is swept up in the chaos of revolution & forced exodus. Over the next four years as she endures the deaths of family members starvation & brutal forced labour Raami clings to the only remaining vestige of childhood
- the mythical legends & poems told to her by her father. In a climate of systematic violence where memory is sickness & justification for execution Raami fights for her improbable survival. Displaying the authors extraordinary gift for language In the Shadow of the Banyan is testament to the transcendent power of narrative & a brilliantly wrought tale of human resilience.
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For nearly a decade Matteo Pistono smuggled out of Tibet evidence of atrocities by the Chinese government showing it to the United States government human rights organisations & anyone who would listen. Yet Pistono did not originally intend to fight for social justice in Tibet
- he had gone there as a Buddhist pilgrim. Pistonos quest led him to Tibet & to a meditation master whose spiritual brother is Sogyal Rinpoche bestselling author of The Tibetan Book of Living & Dying. Pistono not only became the masters student but also couriered messages to him in Tibet from the Dalai Lama in India. This began an extraordinary & ultimately vital adventure. In the Shadow of the Buddha" is a book about Tibet through the eyes of a devotee
- a stranger hiding in plain sight. Its about how a cultures rich spiritual past is slipping away against the force of a tyrannical future. Its about how Tibetans live today & the tenacity of their faith in the future in spite of dire repression & abuse. Its also about Pistonos own journey from being a frustrated political activist to becoming a practicing Buddhist mystic a man who traveled thousands of miles & risked his own life to pursue freedom & peace."

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The Shadow of the Cross dispels one of the greatest myths of all time that Jesus did not die on the cross & in fact lived on to continue his ministry. The author makes a detailed analysis of the secret life of Jesus that was known to the early Christians & which was suppressed later by the Church of Rome. Did Jesus really travel incognito under the name of Yuz Asaph? Did he really marry Mary Magdalene & father her children? Many religious scholars & historians believe that a 2000 year old tomb in Srinagar Kashmir known as the Rozabal was the final resting place of Jesus The Prophet of the Book. In the Shadow of the Cross explores the scientific as well as the historic facts bringing to light a truth that has lain buried beneath 2000 years of falsehood & which culminates in the greatest conspiracy of all time. ...

In the 6th century AD the Near East was divided between two venerable empires: the Persian & the Roman. A hundred years on & one had vanished forever while the other seemed almost finished. Ruling in their place were the Arabs: an upheaval so profound that it spelt in effect the end of the ancient world. In The Shadow of the Sword Tom Holland explores how this came about. Spanning Constantinople to the Arabian desert & starring some of the most remarkable rulers who ever lived he tells a story vivid with drama horror & startling achievement. ...