In her remarkable new book, Alison Weir recounts one of the greatest love stories of medieval England. It is the extraordinary tale of an exceptional woman, Katherine Swynford, who became first the mistress and later the wife of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster. Katherine Swynford’s charismatic lover was one of the most powerful princes of the 14th century, the effective ruler of England behind the throne of his father Edward III in his declining years, and during the minority of his nephew, Richard II. Katherine herself was enigmatic and intriguing, renowned for her beauty, and regarded by some as dangerous. Her existence was played out against the backdrop of court life at the height of the age of chivalry and she knew most of the great figures of the time — including her brother-in-law, Geoffrey Chaucer. She lived through much of the Hundred Years War, the Black Death, and the Peasants’ Revolt. She knew loss, adversity, and heartbreak, and she survived them all triumphantly. Although Katherine’s story provides unique insights into the life of a medieval woman, she was far from typical in that age. She was an important person in her own right, a woman who had remarkable opportunities, made her own choices, flouted convention, and took control of her own destiny — even of her own public image. Weir brilliantly retrieves Katherine Swynford from the footnotes of history and gives her life and breath again. Perhaps the most dynastically important woman within the English monarchy, she was the mother of the Beauforts and through them the ancestress of the Yorkist kings, the Tudors, the Stuarts, and every other sovereign since — a legacy that has shaped the history of Britain.

“A stranger could drive through Miguel Street and just say ‘Slum!’ because he could see no more.” But to its residents this derelict corner of Trinidad’s capital is a complete world, where everybody is quite different from everybody else. There’s Popo the carpenter, who neglects his livelihood to build “the thing without a name.” There’s Man-man, who goes from running for public office to staging his own crucifixion, and the dreaded Big Foot, the bully with glass tear ducts. There’s the lovely Mrs. Hereira, in thrall to her monstrous husband. In this tender, funny early novel, V. S. Naipaul renders their lives (and the legends their neighbors construct around them) with Dickensian verve and Chekhovian compassion. Set during World War II and narrated by an unnamed–but precociously observant–neighborhood boy, Miguel Street is a work of mercurial mood shifts, by turns sweetly melancholy and anarchically funny. It overflows with life on every page. From the Trade Paperback edition.

"The ultimate focus of the rest of my life is to eradicate the use of child soldiers and to eliminate even the thought of the use of children as instruments of war." —Roméo Dallaire In conflicts around the world, there is an increasingly popular weapon system that requires negligible technology, is simple to sustain, has unlimited versatility and incredible capacity for both loyalty and barbarism. In fact, there is no more complete end-to-end weapon system in the inventory of war-machines. What are these cheap, renewable, plentiful, sophisticated and expendable weapons? Children. Roméo Dallaire was first confronted with child soldiers in unnamed villages on the tops of the thousand hills of Rwanda during the genocide of 1994. The dilemma of the adult soldier who faced them is beautifully expressed in his book's title: when children are shooting at you, they are soldiers, but as soon as they are wounded or killed they are children once again. Believing that not one of us should tolerate a child being used in this fashion, Dallaire has made it his mission to end the use of child soldiers. In this book, he provides an intellectually daring and enlightening introduction to the child soldier phenomenon, as well as inspiring and concrete solutions to eradicate it. From the Hardcover edition.

A literary discovery: an uproarious tragicomedy of modernization, in its first-ever English translation. Perhaps the greatest Turkish novel of the twentieth century, being discovered around the world only now, more than fifty years after its first publication, The Time Regulation Institute is an antic, freewheeling send-up of the modern bureaucratic state. At its center is Hayri Irdal, an infectiously charming antihero who becomes entangled with an eccentric cast of characters-a television mystic, a pharmacist who dabbles in alchemy, a dignitary from the lost Ottoman Empire, a "clock whisperer"-at the Time Regulation Institute, a vast organization that employs a hilariously intricate system of fines for the purpose of changing all the clocks in Turkey to Western time. Recounted in sessions with his psychoanalyst, the story of Hayri Irdal's absurdist misadventures plays out as a brilliant allegory of the collision of tradition and modernity, of East and West, infused with a poignant blend of hope for the promise of modernity and nostalgia for a simpler time

When a priceless treasure brings together . . . W ealthy and powerful Marcus St. John, the Marquis of Treymount, must recover a lost family heirloom that is in the possession of Miss Honoria Baker-Sneed. All he needs to do is convince her to relinquish his treasure for a reasonable sum. But when he meets Honoria, he's surprised to discover she is as headstrong as she is beautiful.Two unlikely hearts . . . Honoria is astounded when Marcus shows up on her doorstep and arrogantly demands a ring that is rightfully hers. She agrees to return the heirloom, but on one condition: He must sponsor her sister into society--an idea Marcus considers absolutely preposterous.Only love can decide the outcome. W hen a heated argument ensues, they find themselves in a compromising position and are forced to marry. What starts out as a marriage in name only soon becomes much more as Marcus realizes Honoria has stolen his heart. But can...

Hobart, Tasmania, 1894. From the mouldering cells of Port Arthur to the sun-dappled grounds of Wintersleigh House, Breakfast at Midnight analyses the expectations placed on young people by family members and by society as a whole. It also explores the polarised society of the mid 1890's, a time when trenchant Victorian conservatism and burgeoning feminist ideals seemed increasingly incompatible.Miss Frances Norwood's new life as a governess in Hobart begins inauspiciously when her pupil dies before she arrives, leaving Frances unemployed, with nowhere to live. With few connections and little personal fortune in a climate of economic depression and rampant unemployment, Frances has little option but to live with her Aunt Louisa Wentworth at her stately home, Wintersleigh House.With Christmas fast approaching, new and unexpected visitors arrive on the scene, including Frances's cousins, Agnes and Charlotte, local doctor Michael Brearly, and his charismatic younger brother George.The festive season of 1894, however, will bring no 'peace on earth' for the Brearly and Wentworth families, only an inevitable conflict that will drag everyone into the fray and change the family dynamics forever...From the mouldering cells of Port Arthur to the sun-dappled grounds of Wintersleigh House, Breakfast at Midnight analyses the expectations placed on young people by family members and by society as a whole. It also explores the polarised society of the mid 1890s, a time when trenchant Victorian conservatism and burgeoning feminist ideals seemed increasingly incompatible.

I’ve done bad things. I’ve lied. I’ve cheated. Whenever my family gets doughnuts, I hide the blueberry fritter so no one else can eat it. This issue of Record is all about shame, and the stories we'd rather not tell.I’ve done bad things.I’ve lied. I’ve cheated. Whenever my family gets doughnuts, I hide the blueberry fritter so no one else can eat it.And yet, it’s not me who does those things, not really. It’s another guy, another me that I push to the side of my head. I’m a nice guy. How could I do bad stuff?In this issue, we wrote about events we’re not proud of. It wasn’t easy. Dredging up those dark, wriggling bits of ourselves, throwing them into the light, taking careful pictures to record for posterity, we learned some uncomfortable truths about who we are.What we are, is stories. Some of which we’d rather not tell. It’s not easy to come to terms with the shameful parts, to admit that the same guy who gives money to the homeless guy by the subway is the same guy who undresses women in bars. But, on a positive note, I believe that by writing through them, by admitting our faults, we merge the shameful stories with the narrative of our life, and I think that makes us a bit more whole.

This is the account of the experiences of Ruth and Naomi from the Bible book of Ruth. It tells the conversations that might have taken place when Ruth is trying to decide to go with her Mother-in-law or stay with her own family.Have you ever wondered what actually took place when Naomi announced she wanted to go home to Israel? This is my interpretation of the conversations that might have happened as Ruth and Orpha try to decide to go with Naomi or stay with their own families in Moab.See if your feelings would be the same as I felt for the two young women as they work through this tough decision. Thrill with them as they both come to the decision that is best for them with the blessings of their Mother-in-law.

This poem set journeys into the postmodern American psyche. The book walks the streets in ecclesiast humor, insight, meditation, and atomic power of desire for culture. An odyssey offering commercial mind's regress wrote to our age of medication and lack of focus. How our deepest desire for love, lust, and lucidity all commingle. Ideas about culture ranging from classical past, to present.This poem set journeys into the postmodern American psyche. The book walks the streets in ecclesiast humor, insight, meditation, and atomic power of desire for culture. An odyssey offering commercial mind's regress wrote to our age of medication and lack of focus. How our deepest desire for love, lust, and lucidity all commingle. Ideas about culture ranging from classical past, to stagnate commercial present. The poems bend and blend our heritage, and create no distinction between our loves and commercial vapidity. The book starts in the funny trippy way some pop culture personas have influenced our lives. From Cary Grant dropping acid in the 50's, to the salacious Debbie of Dallas the book covers the gamut of pop culture. The book then goes into a dream state of pop culture. Popular pop subjects Kurt Vonnegut, Orson Welles, Sergei Eisenstein, tripping to a movie theater, subway voyage, Bonnie Raitt, and Michael Bolton turning and twisting into a mind meld. The Jeremiads arriving last into our collective unconsciousness on the foibles of our society. With poems on Jersey Shore, cell phones, righteous persons, and a Howl inspired poem called 2 My Generation (The Baby Boomers Children). This book can not be missed. It will tap you consciousness, inspire, and drive your soul. The first work penned from a unique and embryonic writer.

The year is 1920 and Godfrey Leduc has a difficult decision to make. Stay on the family farm in rural Quebec or make the move out West and start his own? Family, love, and a bit of humour set against the backdrop of post-WWI Canada make this semi-biographical work an entertaining read for all ages.The last transmission of Kalmor Yintih, the first leader of Jazidal- the capital home world of The Federation of Stellar Systems. The Federation of Stellar Systems (FSS) Gazette Editor’s Note: Kalmor Yintih was killed in battle aboard the Ilmytine fighting in the Jazidal civil war. His last known message to his fleet was, “Fight on brave men, for we fight not in hope of victory over worlds or minds, no we fight to conquer all that has trapped us within these walls. I will take you to victory, follow me now and we shall cry out in victorious reign upon this sky.” Kalmor Yintih was survived by twelve children and fifty-seven grand and great-grandchildren. He was buried next to Vadek in Kaltrow four province. Pealar was the great rebel fighter over the first War, she is honored along with Kalmor. The shrine on Bedriod moon is a tribute to Kalmor and Pealar’s victories. Vadek was unknown until Kalmor’s last message. 

Gene One: Introducing the monk Gregor Mendel, his friends and his enemies. How and where Mendel presented his results to the world - made history - and no one understood a word he was saying.These Brother Gregory stories are historical scientific fiction. They start on a cold night in Brno in 1865 when the world learns, for the first time, about the mechanism of genetic inheritance. A giant scientific mystery was revealed, but the time was not quite right. Why? Meet Gregor Mendel, his friends - and his enemies - and find the answer.

Drug addict almost dies and the afterlife forces her to relive the parts of her life that made her what she is today.Naomi Boyd, on the run from the law, was shot and left for dead on the street by her good-for-nothing accomplice. Now, as she dies, she is forced to relive a fractured, insane version of her life. Color, her guardian angel, is just trying to make her a good person again. A hippy named Bobby brings forth her untainted desires to expand her mind via drug use. General Deed brings up ghosts from her past and forces her to face her inner demons. And Marry Lauper even makes an appearance and shows her the shortcomings of fast times and loose money. She has to face who she was, what she has become, and who she wants to be all before she dies. Otherwise, she'll be stuck in a hell for an imperfect version of herself forever.

If you give in to temptation, eventually you will get burned. You will get trapped in a lifestyle of sin. If you play with temptation, eventually Satan will have you trapped. Satan makes you think that there are no consequences to playing with temptation. He will make you think that you can get away with it. But he will trap you if you give in. Eventually you will become a slave to that sinThe following is taken from intro story.Imagine that you loved Mike and Ike’s (the candy). You loved them so much that you would do anything to get them. In fact, you loved them so much that you would dream about them when you were at school. You couldn't wait until payday. That’s when your mom would give you your monthly allowance. Each month, when she would give you your $12.29 allowance, you’d race to the closest grocery store, head directly towards the candy aisle and grab yourself a handful of Mike and Ike boxes. You’d head to the checkout counter with your handful of Mike and Ikes. The checkout line seemed soooo slow every time you’d try to buy your M & I’s, but they were worth the wait. You finally made it to the front of the line and the clerk started ringing up your stash of candy. The clerk finally finished ringing them up and you whipped out your money and paid for them.They were yours now and no one could take them away from you. You ran home as fast as you could to add them to your already huge stash of M&I’s. You made it home and headed for your bedroom where your treasure was hidden where no one could find it. You head towards your top secret, highly confidential, enter at your own risk, camouflaged, hidden in a really, really, really tough and inaccessible compartment, for your eyes only place. You were so proud to have concealed the M&I’s in a place that only you and God could find. If you had the money, you would have put guard dogs, barbed wire and electric fences around it. But for now, you had to settle for a home-made booby trap system. This story is kinda what temptation is like. If you give in to temptation, eventually you will get burned. You will get trapped in a lifestyle of sin. If you play with temptation, eventually Satan will have you trapped. Satan makes you think that there are no consequences to playing with temptation. He will make you think that you can get away with it. But he will trap you if you give in. Eventually you will become a slave to that particular sin. This week we are going to study about temptation and what it is. Temptation itself is not a sin. It’s when you give in to the temptation that it is sin. If temptation was a sin, then Jesus would have sinned because He was tempted in every way just as we are. The difference is that He never gave in. But often we do. Especially when we play around with temptation.