So...the story of my life. I've often thought about this moment about what it would be like to write my memoirs. I always thought it would make me feel important. It doesn't. If anything it makes me feel a little strange. The truth is I should never have been this famous guy. I wasn't the cool clever good-looking boy at school. But I always dreamt of it hoped for it longed for it: throughout school when I was disruptive in my teens when I tried to form my own boy band & through hundreds of auditions for parts which were met with constant rejection. Until finally I co-wrote Gavin & Stacey". & my whole life changed. This is that story. The story of how I found myself here talking to you." ...

Best known as the third presenter in the unholy trinity that is Clarkson Hammond & May on Top Gear James has lived breathed & dreamt about cars his entire life. There is something about cars that stirs up intense feelings in people
- how it makes them look to the outside world how it makes them feel about themselves how it looks to their girlfriends or their mates or their neighbours. These feelings are humorously described in May on Motors" as James takes us on the road & looks at the cars that have shaped him his world & the ordinary people of Britain. In " May on Motors" James has brought together his most controversial & amusing pieces to make a brilliant collection that will amuse & inspire all car enthusiasts."
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It seems like the whole world has gone mad. His dad's obsessed with gas his best friend has come down with a case of hormones & his brother is in dire need of deodorant. Looks like there's going to be quite a stink. Is life still unfair for Norm? ABSO-FLIPPING-LUTELY! Jonathan Meres follows up May Contain Nuts & May Cause Irritation with another laugh-out-loud story about Norm a boy who can't understand why everything always seems unfair... An award-winning laugh-out-loud series for fans of Diary of a Wimpy Kid & David Walliams. ...

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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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? ...

From the author of ' The House of Spirits'
- teenage Maya is in trouble. She's an alcoholic an addict & deeply involved with a
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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.

...

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. ...