What with overdue homework overdue pocket money & a bag full of overdue newspapers one thing's for sure: life for Norm isn't getting any less unfair. & did he mention the fact that he's the only kid on the planet without an iPad? ABSO-FLIPPING-LUTELY RIGHT HE DID! An award-winning laugh-out-loud series for fans of Diary of a Wimpy Kid & David Walliams. ...

Harry is a Richard Nixon scholar who leads a quiet regular life; his brother George is a high-flying TV producer with a murderous temper. They have been uneasy rivals since childhood. Then one day Georges loses control so extravagantly that he precipitates Harry into an entirely new life. In May We Be Forgiven Homes gives us a darkly comic look at 21st century domestic life
- at individual lives spiraling out of control bound together by family & history. The cast of characters experience adultery accidents divorce & death. But this is also a savage & dizzyingly inventive vision of contemporary America whose dark heart Homes penetrates like no other writer
- the strange jargons of its language its passive aggressive institutions its inhabitants desperate craving for intimacy & their pushing it away with litigation technology paranoia. At the novels heart are the spaces in between where the modern family comes together to re-form itself. May We Be Forgiven explores contemporary orphans losing & finding themselves anew; & it speaks above all to the power of personal transformation
- simultaneously terrifying & inspiring.


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A chance meeting on the Fijian island of Taveuni is the trigger for a fascinating & mysterious novel that intertwines the stories of John Spooke an English author who is grieving for his dead wife; Frank Andersen a Norwegian evolutionary biologist estranged from his wife Vera; & an enigmatic Spanish couple Ana & Jose who are absorbed in their love for each other. Why does Ana bear such a close resemblance to the model for Goyas famous Maja paintings? What is the significance of the Joker as he steps out of his pack of cards? As the action moves from Fiji to Spain from the present to the past unfolding further stories within the stories the novel reveals an astonishing richness & complexity. As bold & imaginative in its sweep as Sophies World it shows again that Jostein Gaarders unique & special gift is to make us wonder at the awe-inspiring mystery of the universe. ...

Well-known Maya professional Michael Ingrassia takes readers through his unique style of modeling: Image Based Modeling" where efficient realistic models can be created very quickly. Ingrassias techniques allow modelers to create exact replicas of their concept characters or objects. The techniques presented are very efficient & allow game modelers to quickly build out stand alone props to populate environments & game levels. Presented are tried & true techniques that the author has used successfully in game production for the past 10 years. Most if not all 3D books focus on basic "box" modeling techniques which are the basis for proper 3D modeling but not the complete solution. In the authors experience students who have learned through the Image Based Modeling brand have quickly excelled into effective modelers. One of the hardest things for any modeler to do is match their model EXACTLY to the concept art or photos they are provided. The insider tips in this book walk artists through this process. Artists begin with basic modeling & advance to a creating a complete scene & set design/game level. Rather than including sporadic models with zero association from to one another each model in the book becomes an integral part of an overall theme realistic in game development today. The accompanying DVD

Includes:: 8 exclusive video tutorials on advanced Maya techniques as bonus tracks for artists providing invaluable modeling rigging & texturing samples. Also an in-depth video on assembling a " Killer Demo Reel" showing simple but highly effective video editing techniques used by the author so that artists can learn how to get their work seen. The book not only teaches effective methodology but provides the user with impressive content for producing effective demo reels & portfolios. Pros & cons of demo reel website & artist representation are given along with insights into the expectations of game studios today. The video tutorials show users the finished product & then run through the process of step by step creation of that particular technique."

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The Music Fairies desperately need Rachel's & Kirsty's help! Jack Frost & his naughty goblins have stolen the fairies' Magical Musical Instruments which means that music is being ruined for everyone! Jack Frost plans to use the instruments to help him win a national talent competition in the human world & with the help of the enchanted instruments he's bound to win. If this happens humans will find out about Fairyland & then all the fairies will be in danger! Can Rachel & Kirsty help Maya to take back her enchanted harp from the pesky goblins? ...

It is 2047: fourteen years since Jacob Gabriel descended into the Mayan netherworld while his twin brother turned from their chosen path opting to remain behind. Immanuel Gabriel
- still running from the forces that hunt his bloodline
- believes his actions proved his role in the Mayan prophecy to be nothing but an ancient myth. Now though he will realize his mistake. As the prophecy begins to repeat itself & mankind once again faces annihilation Immanuel learns there was only ever one person with the power to end the cycle of destruction: himself.

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For centuries wise men of the Mayan civilisation of Central America devoted themselves to predicting the movements of celestial bodies & amassing a body of revelations about the future. At the winter solstice in 2012 their prophecies will come to fruition: this is when according to the chilam (time-keeper priests) the current epoch of time will come to an end. One way to interpret this is in terms of looming apocalypse; but a more thoughtful way is to look at human thinking & behaviour & consider how they can be revolutionised to usher in a new & more balanced way of living. The Mayan Prophecies presents twenty-one predictions based on original Mayan texts each fully explained & beautifully illustrated. From the prophecy of energy release at the 26 000-year galactic syncronisation climax to the possibility that humankind itself may be the living prophecy of which all the prophecies speak the urgent message is not cataclysm but challenge. The books starting-point is a detailed overview of Mayan science belief & ritual. We learn how the Mayans saw their own time & the time to come. Their astronomical understanding was highly advanced: they were the only civilisation in antiquity to know that the morning star & the evening star were one & the same (Venus). This book takes us right to the heart of the Mayan world-view & shows how it can be seen as the foundation-stone for a new way of thinking about our planet our survival & our well-being. ...

On 21 December 2012 the ancient Mayan calendar will complete its thirteenth cycle. Archaeologist Julius Gabriel dies certain of one fact: that on this date the human race will cease to exist. Mankinds salvation lies in a millennia-old code. Ancient legacies
- from the pyramids of Mexico & Egypt to the Nazca desert drawings
- are key to preventing the imminent global holocaust. Only Juliuss son Michael Gabriel can decipher this puzzle. Michael is incapable of action locked in an asylum where he has been wrongly incarcerated for the past eleven years. But now he has been assigned a new psychiatrist Dominique Vazquez upon whose actions the fate of the world will soon rest.

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After sacrificing himself to preserve the human race Michael Gabriel is imprisoned in a torturous purgatory-like dimension in the Mayan netherworld. The Mayan prophecy states that the Hero Twins
- Michael's sons Jacob & Immanuel born to his wife Dominique the year after his entrapment
- must travel to the Mayan realm in their twentieth year to free & resurrect him. Yet it also heeds a warning. Born the same day as the twins is a dark force that threatens their destiny. This The Abomination
- the female yin to their yang
- represents evil in its purest form & will not yield until they succumb to its temptation.



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The tale of an outsider told from the inside. It speaks to the resilience of the human spirit. Cadence Roth holds the world record of shortest woman & is trying to renew her failed acting career Maupin narrates the story through Cadences journal entries. ...