Editors Sean Wilsey & Matt Weiland have turned to 50 of the finest funniest & foremost writers in America to create a state by state celebration of their country: Jonathan Franzen on New York Louise Erdrich on North Dakota Dave Eggers on Illinois Ann Patchett on Tennessee Jhumpa Lahiri on Rhode Island
- the list goes on. At turns poignant & hysterical & uniformly insightful these fifty writers capture the beauty the kitsch the unexpected & the quintessential things that make America. There is something & someone in State by State for everyone. With a roster of bestsellers & award winners from Ann Patchett to Rick Moody to Myla Goldberg Wilsey & Weiland have culled the best of the best from the literary creme de la creme to write on something all Americans are interested in: our country.
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General Khrapov newly appointed Governor-General of Siberia & soon-to-be Minister of the Interior is murdered in his official saloon carriage on his way from St Petersburg to Moscow. The killer disguised as Fandorin leaves a knife thrust up to the hilt in his victims chest & escapes through the window of the carriage. Can Fandorin escape suspicion? A battle of wills & ideals revolutionaries & traditionalists & good versus evil. ...

Africa is forever on our TV screens but the bad-news stories (famine genocide corruption) massively outweigh the good (South Africa). Ever since the process of de-colonialisation began in the mid-1950s & arguably before the continent has appeared to be stuck in a process of irreversible decline. Constant war improper use of natural resources & misappropriation of revenues & aid monies contribute to an impression of a continent beyond hope. How did we get here? What if anything is to be done? Fully revised & updated & weaving together the key stories & characters of the last sixty years into a stunningly compelling & coherent narrative Martin Meredith has produced the definitive history of how European ideas of how to organise 10 000 different ethnic groups has led to what Tony Blair described as the 'scar on the conscience of the world'. Authoritative provocative & consistently fascinating this is the updated edition of the seminal book on one of the most important issues facing the West today. ...

The book behind major BBC2 series The Seventies" Dominic Sandbrook's " State of Emergency
- The Way We Were: Britain 1970-74" is
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The Number One international bestselling author of Jurassic Park Congo & Sphere takes on global warming in this gripping & critically acclaimed thriller. In Paris a physicist dies after performing a laboratory experiment for a beautiful visitor. In the jungles of Malaysia a mysterious buyer purchases deadly cavitation technology built to his specifications. In Vancouver a small research submarine is leased for use in the waters of New Guinea. & in Tokyo an intelligence agent tries to understand what it all means. Thus begins Michael Crichtons exciting & provocative techno-thriller State of Fear. Only Crichtons unique ability to blend scientific fact with pulse-pounding fiction could bring such disparate elements to a heart-stopping conclusion. This is Crichtons most wide-ranging thriller. State of Fear takes the reader from the glaciers of Iceland to the volcanoes of Antarctica from the Arizona desert to the deadly jungles of the Solomon Islands from the streets of Paris to the beaches of Los Angeles. The novel races forward on a roller-coaster thrill ride all the while keeping the brain in high gear. Gripping & thought-provoking State of Fear is Michael Crichton at his best. ...

The first ever collection of Iain Banks's short fiction this volume

Includes:: the acclaimed novella The State

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Hannah Buchan thinks herself ordinary. She is not the revolutionary child that her painter mother & famous radical father had hoped for. Raised in the creative chaos of 1960s America Hannah vows to reject her parents' liberal lifestyle & settles instead for typical family life in a nondescript corner of Maine. But normality isn't quite what Hannah imagined it would to be & try as she might to fight it the urge to rebel against the things that hem her in grows ever stronger. Eventually a series of encounters puts Hannah in an exhilarating but dangerous position
- one in which she never thought she would find herself. For decades this one transgression in an otherwise faultless life lies buried deep in the past all but forgotten
- until a turn of fate brings it crashing back into the limelight. As her secret emerges Hannah's life goes into freefall & she is left struggling against the force of the past. State of the Union is a stunning & grippingly honest story about life love & family set against the backdrop of two different but strikingly similar eras.

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Many of the environmental & social problems we face today are symptoms of a deeper systemic failing: a dominant cultural paradigm that encourages living in ways that are often directly counter to the realities of a finite planet. This paradigm typically referred to as 'consumerism ' has already spread to cultures around the world & has led to consumption levels that are vastly unsustainable. If this pattern spreads further there will be little possibility of solving climate change or other environmental problems that are poised to dramatically disrupt human civilization. It will take a sustained long-term effort to redirect the traditions social movements & institutions that shape consumer cultures towards becoming cultures of sustainability. These institutions include schools the media businesses & governments. Bringing about a cultural shift that makes living sustainably as 'natural' as a consumer lifestyle is today will not only address urgent crises like climate change it could also tackle other symptoms like extreme income inequity obesity & social isolation that are not typically seen as environmental problems. State of the World 2010" paints a picture of what this sustainability culture could look like & how we can
- & already are
- making the shift."

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SHORTLISTED FOR THE ORANGE PRIZE FOR FICTION 2012 There were people on the banks of the river. Among the tangled waterways & giant anacondas of the Brazilian Rio Negro an enigmatic scientist is developing a drug that could alter the lives of women for ever. Dr Annick Swenson's work is shrouded in mystery; she refuses to report on her progress especially to her investors whose patience is fast running out. Anders Eckman a mild-mannered lab researcher is sent to investigate. A curt letter reporting his untimely death is all that returns. Now Marina Singh Anders' colleague & once a student of the mighty Dr Swenson is their last hope. Compelled by the pleas of Anders's wife who refuses to accept that her husband is not coming home Marina leaves the snowy plains of Minnesota & retraces her friend's steps into the heart of the South American darkness determined to track down Dr. Swenson & uncover the secrets being jealously guarded among the remotest tribes of the rainforest. What Marina does not yet know is that in this ancient corner of the jungle where the muddy waters & susurrating grasses hide countless unknown perils & temptations she will face challenges beyond her wildest imagination. Marina is no longer the student but only time will tell if she has learnt enough. ...

If America is the Roman Empire of our time then New York City is Rome. The pulsating heart of the West pumps greenbacks through the veins of Manhattan the richest place in the world. Power emanates from it's corporate brains & financial muscle across the whole surface of the globe. So how is it that even in the body of America land of eternal youth there is failure death & decay hidden just beneath its glossy surfaces? A new breed of urban adventurers take a savage ride through the invisible story of the North Eastern USA. From NYC to the infamous Rust Belt once home to America's heavy industry States of Decay brings you a glimpse of the broken the doomed the entropic dreamlands on the flipside of the silver dollar coin. A unique exploration of everything from abandoned power plants hospitals asylums schools theatres steel mills prisons factories hotels cathedrals blast furnaces convents to a boat graveyard. This extended photo-essay functions as a visual poem allowing the reader to draw their own experiences & conclusions from the images themselves. No interpretation necessary. This book will ask disturbing questions & inspire unexpected answers from anyone with an imagination & a heart. Sit back & let us take you on a walk around the Bad Apple. ...