Seven years before Richard Preston wrote about horrifying viruses in The Hot Zone, he turned his attention to the cosmos. In First Light, he demonstrates his gift for creating an exciting and absorbing narrative around a complex scientific subject--in this case the efforts by astronomers at the Palomar Observatory in the San Gabriel Mountains of California to peer to the farthest edges of space through the Hale Telescope, attempting to solve the riddle of the creation of the universe. Richard Preston's name became a household word with The Hot Zone, which sold nearly 800,000 copies in hardcover, was on The New York Times's bestseller list for 42 weeks, and was the subject of countless magazine and newspaper articles. Preston has become a sought-after commentator on popular science subjects. For this hardcover reprint of what has been called "the best popular account of astronomy in action," (Kirkus Reviews) he has revised the text and written a new introduction.

For the first time in publishing history readers can enjoy the complete works of Sheridan Le Fanu, the leading ghost-story writer of the nineteenth century, whose groundbreaking works were central to the development of the Gothic genre in the Victorian era. This comprehensive eBook is complemented with numerous illustrations, informative introductions, scarce texts and the usual Delphi bonus material. (Version 1) Beautifully illustrated with images relating to Le Fanu's life and works Concise introductions to the novels and other texts ALL 14 novels, with individual contents tables Rare novels like THE FORTUNES OF COLONEL TORLOGH O’BRIEN appearing for the first time in digital publishing history Images of how the books were first printed, giving your eReader a taste of the original texts Excellent formatting of the texts Several novels are fully illustrated with their original artwork Rare novellas from CHRONICLES OF GOLDEN FRIARS, available nowhere else The complete 54 short stories – with many supernatural tales appearing here for the first time Special chronological and alphabetical contents tables for the short stories Includes Le Fanu's poetry and memoir - spend hours exploring the author’s diverse works Special criticism section, with two detailed essays evaluating Le Fanu’s contribution to literature Scholarly ordering of texts into chronological order and literary genres CONTENTS: The Novels THE COCK AND ANCHOR THE FORTUNES OF COLONEL TORLOGH O’BRIEN THE HOUSE BY THE CHURCH-YARD WYLDER’S HAND UNCLE SILAS GUY DEVERELL ALL IN THE DARK THE TENANTS OF MALORY A LOST NAME HAUNTED LIVES THE WYVERN MYSTERY CHECKMATE THE ROSE AND THE KEY WILLING TO DIE The Shorter Fiction THE PURCELL PAPERS GHOST STORIES AND TALES OF MYSTERY GHOSTLY TALES CHRONICLES OF GOLDEN FRIARS IN A GLASS DARKLY SPALATRO A STABLE FOR NIGHTMARES UNCOLLECTED TALES The Tales LIST OF TALES IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER LIST OF TALES IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER The Poems THE POETRY OF SHERIDAN LE FANU The Criticism A FORGOTTEN CREATOR OF GHOSTS: JOSEPH SHERIDAN LE FANU by Edna Kenton SHERIDAN LE FANU by E. F. Benson The Memoir MEMOIR OF JOSEPH SHERIDAN LE FANU

I didn't read your books. I licked them, I rubbed them all over my naked body and licked them. Protasov, detached and idealistic, wants only to immerse himself in chemical experiments to perfect mankind. He's more or less oblivious to the voracious advances of the half-crazed widow Melaniya and his best friend's unrelenting pursuit of his wife, let alone the cholera epidemic and the starving mob at his gates. While Nanny fusses round, Protasov's admiring circle, variously skeptical, romantic and lovesick, spar over culture and the cosmos. Only Liza, neurotic and patronized, feels the suffering of the peasantry and senses that their own privileged world is in jeopardy.** Gone? They're everywhere. Have you heard about the riots? The starvation and the flagrant disregard of authority. This disregard is building walls and barriers between us all. And they are massing. The crowds of angry people. And the hate... the hate between us all... kills everything. Written during the abortive Russian Revolution of 1905, Maxim Gorky's darkly comic Children of the Sun depicts the new middle-class, foolish perhaps but likeable, as they flounder around, philosophizing, yearning, or scuttling between test tubes, blind to their impending annihilation. This is Andrew Upton's fourth English version of a play for the National by one of the great Russian masters, including his acclaimed adaptation of Gorky's Philistines.

In The Road to Lichfield, Penelope Lively explores the nature of history and memory as it is embodied in the life of a forty-year-old woman, Anne Linton, who unexpectedly learns that her father had a mistress. With this new knowledge, Linton must now examine the realities of her own life - of her childhood, her husband - and ask, What do they really know of her? Deeply felt, beautifully controlled, The Road to Lichfield is a subtle exploration of memory and identity, of chance and consequence, of the intricate weave of generations across a past never fully known, a future never fully anticipated.

I come from a family of fighters. I always thought I’d follow in their shadows, becoming unstoppable in the ring. That changed the day I saved the life of a woman I loved, but could never have. My brother hailed me as a hero, and my reward was a wheelchair. Paralyzed, my life became an inescapable nightmare. Until I met her. Ash Mabie had a heart-stopping smile and a laugh that numbed the rage and resentment brewing inside of me. She showed me that even the darkest night still had stars, and it didn’t matter one bit that you had to lie in the weeds to see them. I was a jaded asshole who fell for a girl with a knack for running away. I couldn’t even walk but I would have spent a lifetime chasing her. Now, I’m on the ropes during the toughest battles of my life. Fighting the shadows of our past. Fighting to reclaim my future. Fighting for her.

In a land called Mira, the brutal sacking of a young colony links the fates of two opposite characters: a twelve-year-old printer's son named Simon Jones and his long-lost uncle Tiberius Bogg, one of Mira's legendary mountain men.Together they trek through a merciless landscape full of extraordinary creatures -- all culled from American tall tales, Indian legends, and backwoods folklore.Across the sea lies a newly discovered continent, a world whose forests and beasts are unknown to the recorded memory of elves, dwarves, or men.In this land called Mira, the brutal sacking of a young colony links the fates of two opposite characters: a twelve-year-old printer's son named Simon Jones and his long-lost uncle Tiberius Bogg, one of Mira's legendary mountain men.Simon is small, but smart; scared but determined. Bogg, with his raccoon-skin cap and smart-talking grammar abuse, is fast as a splintercat and stealthy as a hidebehind. Together, they turn the tables and pursue their attackers (a cruel knight and his soldiers from the old country) through a wilderness full of extraordinary creatures – jackelopes and thunderbirds, fur-bearing trout and four-legged hills – all culled from American tall tales, Indian legends, and backwoods folklore.

Sian, tired of nightmares in which she meets a grisly end, decides she needs to get out more, so she joins an archaeological dig at Whitby Abbey. What she finds is a mystery involving a long-hidden murder.

This is the frank journal of a six week tour of South America from Buenos Aires, around the horn to Valparaíso, Easter Island and Peru, chronicling the good the bad and the insane of the southern continent.In six weeks the author and his wife, both experienced adventure travelers, toured the lower two thirds of South America making calls in Argentina, Chile with a side trip to Easter Island and Peru. Dining, sights, people, politics, pitfalls misfortune and craziness are recounted in concise detail. The author shares travel tips learned the hard way and what should have been avoided at all costs.

Imagine going about your daily life observing and walking past different people not knowing if that one face could be the last one you see.Each of the short stories explore this with emotion and courage. Prepare to open your awareness and think about that face your mind never traced.This is a fictional book but can be seen as a reality for a lot of people.I hope that the reader will be able to relate to some of these life experiences.I would invite you to think about the different emotions that are evoked whilst paying particular attention to the actual conclusion as it was this real life experience that the concept for this book was derived.EnjoyMark A. Cherrington.

Shortlisted for the 2015 Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse prize for comic fiction A rampaging force of nature is wreaking havoc on the streets of Edinburgh, but has top shagger, drug-dealer, gonzo-porn-star and taxi-driver, ‘Juice’ Terry Lawson, finally met his match in Hurricane ‘Bawbag’? Can Terry discover the fate of the missing beauty, Jinty Magdalen, and keep her idiot-savant lover, the man-child Wee Jonty, out of prison? Will he find out the real motives of unscrupulous American businessman and reality-TV star, Ronald Checker? And, crucially, will Terry be able to negotiate life after a terrible event robs him of his sexual virility, and can a new fascination for the game of golf help him to live without… A DECENT RIDE? A Decent Ride sees Irvine Welsh back on home turf, leaving us in the capable hands of one of his most compelling and popular characters, ‘Juice’ Terry Lawson, and introducing another bound for cult status, Wee Jonty MacKay: a man with the genitals and brain of a donkey. In his funniest, filthiest book yet, Irvine Welsh celebrates an un-reconstructed misogynist hustler – a central character who is shameless but also, oddly, decent –and finds new ways of making wild comedy out of fantastically dark material, taking on some of the last taboos. So fasten your seatbelts, because this is one ride that could certainly get a little bumpy…

Being a divorce attorney for the rich and famous isn't all it's cracked up to be. Julie Harrison has learned that love doesn't last, and she's sworn never to make the same mistakes as her mother, or her clients. She uses the games men play to keep them at a distance. The only man who managed to break down her walls was Luke Walker, a Navy SEAL who loved her and left her, and changed her forever. When Luke arrives back in New York, running Walker Security with his brothers and having left his Navy SEAL days behind, he sets his sights on Julie, the woman he's always wanted and couldn't have. Except, she runs from him every time he gets close. But now, one of Julie's clients, a powerful judge, gets involved with a dangerous cartel, and his soon-to-be-ex-wife ends up dead. Julie's next on the list, and she finds herself on the run from those who believe she knows too much, and counting on Luke to keep her alive. In the deepest, darkest moments of the night, passion will bring them together while danger threatens to tear them apart. Can Julie and Luke trust each other and find their happy ending before they find ... the end?

Tracy Kidder -- the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Soul of a New Machine and the extraordinary national bestseller House -- spent nine months in Mrs. Zajac's fifth-grade classroom in the depressed "Flats" of Holyoke, Massachusetts. For an entire year he lived among twenty schoolchildren and their indomitable, compassionate teacher -- sharings their joys, their catastrophes, and their small but essential triumphs. As a result, he has written a revealing, remarkably poignant account of education in America . . . and his most memorable, emotionally charged, and important book to date.