Book Ten of the Dresden FilesJim says, "Small Favor. Because, y'know, Harry still owes two."No one's tried to kill Harry Dresden for almost an entire year, and his life finally seems to be calming down. For once, the future looks fairly bright. But the past casts one hell of a long shadow.An old bargain has placed Harry in debt to Mab, monarch of the Winter Court of the Sidhe, the Queen of Air and Darkness-and she's calling in her marker. It's a small favor he can't refuse…one that will trap Harry Dresden between a nightmarish foe and an equally deadly ally, and one that will strain his skills-and loyalties-to their very limits.It figures. Everything was going too well to last…

With richly layered characters and a gripping moral dilemma that will lead readers to question everything they know about privilege, power, and race, Small Great Things is the stunning new page-turner from #1 New York Times bestselling author Jodi Picoult. "[Picoult] offers a thought-provoking examination of racism in America today, both overt and subtle. Her many readers will find much to discuss in the pages of this topical, moving book." – Booklist (starred review) Ruth Jefferson is a labor and delivery nurse at a Connecticut hospital with more than twenty years' experience. During her shift, Ruth begins a routine checkup on a newborn, only to be told a few minutes later that she's been reassigned to another patient. The parents are white supremacists and don't want Ruth, who is African American, to touch their child. The hospital complies with their request, but the next day, the baby goes into cardiac distress while Ruth is alone in the nursery. Does she obey orders or does she intervene? Ruth hesitates before performing CPR and, as a result, is charged with a serious crime. Kennedy McQuarrie, a white public defender, takes her case but gives unexpected advice: Kennedy insists that mentioning race in the courtroom is not a winning strategy. Conflicted by Kennedy's counsel, Ruth tries to keep life as normal as possible for her family – especially her teenage son – as the case becomes a media sensation. As the trial moves forward, Ruth and Kennedy must gain each other's trust, and come to see that what they've been taught their whole lives about others – and themselves – might be wrong. With incredible empathy, intelligence, and candor, Jodi Picoult tackles race, privilege, prejudice, justice, and compassion – and doesn't offer easy answers. Small Great Things is a remarkable achievement from a writer at the top of her game. Praise for Small Great Things "Small Great Things is the most important novel Jodi Picoult has ever written… It will challenge her readers… [and] expand our cultural conversation about race and prejudice." – The Washington Post "A novel that puts its finger on the very pulse of the nation that we live in today… a fantastic read from beginning to end, as can always be expected from Picoult, this novel maintains a steady, page-turning pace that makes it hard for readers to put down." – San Francisco Book Review "A gripping courtroom drama… Given the current political climate it is quite prescient and worthwhile… This is a writer who understands her characters inside and out." – Roxane Gay, The New York Times Book Review "I couldn't put it down. Her best yet!" – New York Times bestselling author Alice Hoffman "A compelling, can't-put-it-down drama with a trademark [Jodi] Picoult twist." – Good Housekeeping "It's Jodi Picoult, the prime provider of literary soul food. This riveting drama is sure to be supremely satisfying and a bravely thought-provoking tale on the dangers of prejudice." – Redbook "Jodi Picoult is never afraid to take on hot topics, and in Small Great Things, she tackles race and discrimination in a way that will grab hold of you and refuse to let you go… This page-turner is perfect for book clubs." – Popsugar From the Hardcover edition

Hilarious, poignant and frequently surreal, Small Holdings is a is a comedy of errors from a neglected corner of everyday life by the brilliantly unconventional Nicola Barker. An attractive park in Palmers Green plays host to Phil, a chronically shy gardener who feels truly at home only with his plants. He and his gentle colleague Ray, a man with all the sense of a Savoy cabbage, are tortured by Doug, their imposing and unpredictable supervisor, and a malevolent one-legged ex-museum curator called Saleem. In love with the truck-obsessed Nancy, Phil strives nobly to maintain his equilibrium despite being systematically mystified, brutalised, drugged, derided and seduced. But when he loses his eyebrows, he decides to fight back

A new collection of linked short stories from Charlaine Harris, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Sookie Stackhouse books, the basis for HBO’s True Blood, and the Midnight Crossroad series, the inspiration for Midnight, Texas on NBC. Principal Anne DeWitt knew her past could catch up with her, but she didn’t expect it would make her late for school. Killing a man does take time though; so does disposing the body… if you do it right. After three relatively quiet years at Travis High School, it seems Anne is in danger of being exposed—even the baseball coach knows more about her former life than she ever imagined. Now, she must find out who else holds her secrets and who wants her to pay for them… without letting it make her tardy again. Anne still has a school to run, parents to manage, and a few students who might benefit from her unique—and deadly—experience. Collected together for the first time in Small Kingdoms and Other Stories, “Small Kingdoms,” “Sarah Smiles,” “Small Chances,” and “Small Signs” are sure to delight fans of Charlaine Harris

José Saramago was eighteen months old when he moved from the village of Azinhaga with his father and mother to live in Lisbon. But he would return to the village throughout his childhood and adolescence to stay with his maternal grandparents, illiterate peasants in the eyes of the outside world, but a fount of knowledge, affection, and authority to young José. Shifting back and forth between childhood and his teenage years, between Azinhaga and Lisbon, this is a mosaic of memories, a simply told, affecting look back into the author's boyhood: the tragic death of his older brother at the age of four; his mother pawning the family's blankets every spring and buying them back in time for winter; his beloved grandparents bringing the weaker piglets into their bed on cold nights; and Saramago's early encounters with literature, from teaching himself to read by deciphering articles in the daily newspaper, to poring over an entertaining dialogue in a Portuguese-French conversation guide, not realizing that he was in fact reading a play by Molière. Written with Saramago's characteristic wit and honesty, Small Memories traces the formation of an artist fascinated by words and stories from an early age and who emerged, against all odds, as one of the world's most respected writers

In the summer of 1974, a heat wave blankets Boston, and Mary Pat Fennessy is trying to stay one step ahead of the bill collectors. Mary Pat has lived her entire life in the housing projects of Southie, the Irish American enclave that stubbornly adheres to old tradition and stands proudly apart. One night, Mary Pat’s teenage daughter, Jules stays out late and doesn’t come home. That same evening, a young Black man is found dead, struck by a subway train under mysterious circumstances. The two events seem unconnected. But Mary Pat, propelled by a desperate search for her missing daughter, begins turning over stones best left untouched — asking questions that bother Marty Butler, chieftain of the Irish mob, and the men who work for him, men who don’t take kindly to any threat to their business. Set against the hot, tumultuous months when the city’s desegregation of its public schools exploded in violence, Small Mercies is a superb thriller, a brutal depiction of criminality and power, and an unflinching portrait of the dark heart of American racism. It is a mesmerizing and wrenching work that only Dennis Lehane could write

A startling and tender portrait of one family’s struggle to make peace with their son’s death. An ingeniously layered narrative, told over the course of one week, Eddie Joyce’s debut novel masterfully depicts an Italian-Irish American family on Staten Island and their complicated emotional history. Ten years after the loss of Bobby — the Amendola family’s youngest son — everyone is still struggling to recover from the firefighter’s unexpected death. Bobby’s mother Gail; his widow Tina; his older brothers Peter, the corporate lawyer, and Franky, the misfit; and his father Michael have all dealt with their grief in different ways. But as the family gathers together for Bobby Jr.’s birthday party, they must each find a way to accept a new man in Tina’s life while reconciling their feelings for their lost loved one. Presented through multiple points of view, Small Mercies explores the conflicts and deep attachments that exist within families. Heart-wrenching and profoundly relatable, Joyce’s debut is a love letter to Staten Island and a deeply affecting portrait of an American family

The author of dozens of acclaimed novels including those in the Scudder and Keller series, Lawrence Block has long been recognized as one of the premier crime writers of our time. Now, the breathtaking skill, power, and versatility of this Grand Master are brilliantly displayed once again in a mesmerizing new thriller set on the streets of the city he knows and loves so well. That was the thing about New York — —if you loved it, if it worked for you, it ruined you for anyplace else in the world. In this dazzlingly constructed novel, Lawrence Block reveals the secret at the heart of the Big Apple. His glorious metropolis is really a small town, filled with men and women from all walks of life whose aspirations, fears, disappointments, and triumphs are interconnected by bonds as unbreakable as they are unseen. Pulsating with the lives of its denizens — bartenders and hookers, power brokers and politicos, cops and secretaries, editors and dreamers — the city inspires a passion that is universal yet unique in each of its eight million inhabitants, including: John Blair Creighton, a writer on the verge of a breakthrough; Francis Buckram, a charismatic ex–police commissioner — and the inside choice for the next mayor — on the verge of a breakdown; Susan Pomerance, a beautiful, sophisticated folk-art dealer plumbing the depths of her own fierce sexuality; Maury Winters, a defense attorney who prefers murder trials because there’s one less witness; Jerry Pankow, an ex-addict who has turned being clean into a living, mopping up after New York’s nightlife; And, in the shadows of a city reeling from tragedy, an unlikely killing machine who wages a one-man war against them all. Infused with the raw cadence, stark beauty, and relentless pace of New York City, Small Town is a tour de force Block fans old and new will celebrate

The theme of “the man who played God” has been used many ways in many stories, but never with more tense and chilling effect than in this tight little yarn by the very able Mr. Dick. You'll like it, we're sure

An omnibus of novels Three heartwarming holiday stories to prove that love is the greatest gift of all Kissing Santa Claus NASCAR driver Logan Perrish returns to Lucky Harbor, Washington, with love in his heart and a ring in his pocket. But can Sandy Jansen forget the past and give him a second chance? Or will Logan be spending another Christmas alone? I'll Be Home for Christmas After ignoring the advice of Miz Miriam Randall, local matchmaker, Annie Roberts expects another hum drum holiday in Last Chance, South Carolina. But when a stray cat arrives in the arms of Army sergeant Matt Jasper, a calico named Holly just may be the best matchmaker of all. O Little Town of Bramble All Ethan Miller wants for Christmas is to celebrate in Bramble, Texas, with family and friends. But when his childhood neighbor, Samantha Henderson, comes home for the holiday, Ethan realizes that the girl-next-door could be the girl of his dreams

Young Tess McPhail left tiny Wintergreen, Missouri, for Nashville and is now one of country music's biggest stars. But her sisters insist she come home to help care for their widowed mother. Back home, Tess is suddenly a non-person, until a opportunity to help a rising star sparks passion from close by…

Jack Barnes and Sam Fleetwood have been best friends since they met in foster care. They share a business as cattle ranchers and a house. All they need now is a woman to share. The men are sure they've found that woman when Abigail Moore returns to Willow Fork, Texas. Abby left her hometown twenty years before under a cloud of scandal. She's raised a daughter, forged a new life for herself, and is ready for the next phase when she meets the handsome cowboys. They're a dream come true; Jack is the sexy Dom, and Sam the playful lover. It's everything she's ever fantasized about. There's only one problem. She's still not welcome in Willow Fork, and someone is willing to kill to keep her away

Spenser dies — and lives to tell the tale — in Robert B. Parker’s stunning new bestseller. “Spenser proves himself once more a modern-day knight in shining armor,” cheered Publishers Weekly of Robert B. Parker’s most recent New York Times bestseller, Chance. And, said The New York Times Book Review, “Parker’s stouthearted hero proves that he is still as tough and manly as they come, and more principled than ever." With Small Vices, Parker adds another masterpiece to the private-eye canon, a novel that is both galvanizing action-suspense and a complex meditation on morality and mortality, as Spenser’s very future hangs in the balance. Ellis Alves is a bad kid from the ’hood with a long, long record, but did he really murder Melissa Henderson, a white coed from ritzy Pemberton College? Alves’s former lawyers think he was framed, and they hire Spenser to uncover the truth. As he and longtime associate Hawk race front the back streets of Boston to Manhattan’s most elegant avenues, Spenser gets a postgraduate course in the seamy side of life — an ethical no-man’s-land where twisted cops and spoiled rich kids with peculiar private proclivities are just the tip of the iceberg. The stakes abruptly shift from corruption to catastrophe when a master assassin’s bullets take Spenser down. He survives the attack — barely — but must play dead to the world, while recovering his strength hiding in secret. Only then can he see justice done — and let the shooter know that it’s payback time. Wonderfully wry and powerfully affecting, Small Vices is a splendid showcase for Robert B. Parker’s prodigious talents

In this new ebook exclusive short story, #1 Sunday Times bestselling author Lee Child goes back to 1989, when Jack Reacher is serving as an officer in the military police. A young lieutenant colonel, in a stylish handmade uniform, roars through the damp woods of Georgia in her new silver Porsche — until she meets a very tall soldier with a broken-down car. What could connect a cold-blooded off-post shooting with Reacher, his elder brother Joe, and a secretive unit of pointy-heads from the Pentagon?

Нет ничего тайного, что не стало бы явным. Обнаружить же тайное в явном призван герой романа по имени Конрад Ланг, которого поражает болезнь Альцгеймера. Недуг серьезный, чреватый полной утратой памяти и повседневных рефлексов, однако картины детства и далекого довоенного прошлого при этом оживают с невероятной четкостью. А ожившее прошлое, как вы понимаете, далеко не всем по душе. Не по душе оно в первую очередь Эльвире Зенн, солидной даме, хозяйке заводов Коха, которая своего нынешнего положения в обществе добилась, скажем так, не самым праведным путем. Постепенно, погружаясь в растревоженные видения Ланга,читатель узнает подноготную этой «воротилы» швейцарского бизнеса. Самое же интересное то, что Мартин Сутер сумел нравственно-философскую драму выстроить как детектив, из-за чего роман читается с неослабевающим интересом и по праву сделался на Западе бестселлером

 A. Volkovs RĪGA «ZVAIGZNE» SMARAGDA PILSĒTAS BURVIS

Noah Fisher has worked for months to make Sky High the most prestigious charter airline in California. He's long overdue for a break – something involving ski slopes, cold beers, and hot ski bunny babes, not necessarily in that order. The itinerary doesn't include being hijacked by Bailey Sinclair, gorgeous widow of one of Sky High's wealthiest (ex-) clients. But here they are, and being crammed in a cockpit with the scared, stubborn, unbelievably sexy former model he's been fantasizing about invokes Superman tendencies that could get Noah in serious trouble. Bailey is desperate to find the stash of money hidden by her conniving, thieving late husband – before the bad guys he owed find her. It's a long shot, but nothing compared to the gamble she's taking by being so close to Noah. Every minute in his company has Bailey thinking about doing crazy, reckless things like touching, grabbing, kissing…and oh wow, being kissed right back. Suddenly, seat-of-your-pants seems like the only way to fly, and maybe it's the altitude playing tricks, but this is one trip she never wants to end…

An unflinching look at the aspiring city-builders of our smart, mobile, connected future. From Publishers Weekly Technology forecaster Townsend defines a smart city as an urban environment where information technology is combined with infrastructure, architecture, everyday objects, and even our bodies to address social, economic, and environmental problems. They're already being made, usually piecemeal but sometimes wholesale (as in planned automated cities like South Korea and Cisco's somewhat ill-fated Songdo), and involve refashioning old systems like the electricity grid as well as deploying the latest infrastructure—such as the network of radio waves operating our wireless gadgets—and much more. Of interest to urban planners and designers, tech leaders, and entrepreneurs, Townsend's globe-hopping study examines the trend toward smart cities while addressing pros and cons, as top-down corporate models develop alongside communitarian and entrepreneurial initiatives. Skeptical of the vision and influence of tech giants, Townsend points to smaller stories in making the case that local ingenuity should lead the way, albeit in concert with the corporate innovation and power. The author's perspective is based partly on direct experience (among other things, he was an organizer, in 2002, of NYCwireless, an open-source group distributing free Wi-Fi access in Manhattan). The autobiographical passages and close readings of other scrappy innovators are the most enjoyable part of this impressive survey, which tries to secure democratic impulses amid a new gold rush. Agent: Zoë Pagnamenta, Zoë Pagnamenta Agency. (Oct.) From Booklist Everyone these days is familiar with smartphones and smart homes (even if most can’t afford the latter), but how many people are familiar with smart cities? While there is no master controller—at least not yet—who manipulates apps that keep a city running, increasingly such things as traffic patterns, sewage flow, and street lighting are all being guided by sophisticated software. In this far-reaching overview of all the ways computer technology is transforming life for today’s metropolitan dwellers, urban planning specialist Townsend takes a look at how modern cities around the world are upgrading their infrastructure for the Internet age. From New York to Beijing, city mayors are partnering with organizations like Siemens and IBM to strengthen networks, communications, and crisis-intervention tools such as monitoring flu outbreaks. Although the omnipresent surveillance that accompanies this interconnectivity may make some readers nervous, Townsend persuasively demonstrates how ubiquitous information resources can provide more protection, as it did in the Boston marathon bombing case, and facilitate a more comfortable, less stress-inducing city-living experience. --Carl Hays

“Who am I? An alcoholic and a tramp. But I am no white raven. Our alcoholics outnumber the populations of France and Spain combined. And that’s only the men. If you count women you have to add on all Scandinavia and throw in Monaco for good measure.” For forty years Ivan Petrov careered, stumbled, staggered and rampaged all over the vast Soviet empire. Homeless (an illegal condition in the communist utopia), in and out of prison camps, almost always drunk, and with a gift for hilariously sending up the tragic absurdities of Soviet life, Ivan was a real-life Svejk. This is his unforgettable story, as told to Caroline Walton just before his death. The text is complemented by twelve original illustrations by Natalia Vetrova

SMERSH is the award-winning account of the top-secret counterintelligence organisation that dealt with Stalin’s enemies from within the shadowy recesses of Soviet government. As James Bond’s nemesis in Ian Fleming’s novels, SMERSH and its operatives were depicted in exotic duels with 007, rather than fostering the bleak oppression and terror they actually spread in the name of their dictator. Stalin drew a veil of secrecy over SMERSH’s operations in 1946, but that did not stop him using it to terrify Red Army dissenters in Leningrad and Moscow, or to abduct and execute suspected spooks—often without cause—across mainland Europe. Formed to mop up Nazi spy rings at the end of the Second World War, SMERSH gained its name from a combination of the Russian words for ‘Death to Spies’. Successive Communist governments suppressed traces of Stalin’s political hit squad; now Vadim Birstein lays bare the surgical brutality with which it exerted its influence as part of the paranoid regime, both within the Soviet Union and in the wider world. SMERSH was the most mysterious and secret of organisations—this definitive and magisterial history finally reveals truths that lay buried for nearly fifty years. [Contain tables.]

Tenth-century Iceland. One night in the darkness of winter, two friends set out on an adventure but end up killing a man. Kjaran, a travelling poet who trades songs for food and shelter, and Gunnar, a feared warrior, must make a choice: conceal the deed or confess to the crime and pay the blood price to the family. For the right reasons, they make the wrong choice. Their fateful decision leads to a brutal feud: one man is outlawed, free to be killed by anyone without consequence; the other remorselessly hunted by the dead man’s kin. Set in a world of ice and snow, it is an epic story of exile and revenge, of duels and betrayals, and two friends struggling to survive in a desolate landscape, where honour is the only code that men abide by

Интернет-легенда о хаски с чудовищной улыбкой может напугать разве что впечатлительного подростка, но хаски найдет средства и против невозмутимого охранника богатой дачи…

Vanni is furious when her fiancé tricks her into attending a conference where his father’s church is protesting the New Species Organization. She hates everything those vile bigots stand for. Vanni goes to the bar to cool off and ends up seated next to a handsome New Species. Things heat up fast when they are both drugged. Smiley doesn't want to believe the sweet human would dose them with the breeding drug. He's willing to trust her and determined to save her life. He'll hold her. Protect her. Offer up his body to distract them both from the pain. She is his female, even if she doesn't realize it yet

Agentenroman vom besten: Mitten im kalten Krieg wird George Smiley, ehemaliger Chef des britischen Geheimdienstes, aus dem Ruhestand zurückgeholt, um den führenden Agenten der Gegenseite zu stellen. Dabei holt ihn auch die eigene Vergangenheit ein, hat doch gerade dieser Gegner ihm die große Liebe seines Lebens genommen. Alte Freunde arbeiten auf der Suche wieder mit ihm, einer seiner früheren Helfer kommt tragisch ums Leben. Spannung bis zum Schluß!

A little boy falls off a roof in Copenhagen and is killed. Smilla, his neighbour, suspects it is not an accident: she has seen his footsteps in the snow, and, having been brought up by her mother, a Greenlander, she has a feeling for snow

The five tales are written with the same skill, quality and charm that made The Hobbit a classic. Largely overlooked because of their short lengths, they are finally together in a volume which reaffirms Tolkien's place as a master storyteller for readers young and old. Roverandom is a toy dog who, enchanted by a sand sorcerer, gets to explore the world and encounter strange and fabulous creatures. Farmer Giles of Ham is fat and unheroic, but - having unwittingly managed to scare off a short-sighted giant - is called upon to do battle when a dragon comes to town; The Adventures of Tom Bombadil tells in verse of Tom's many adventures with hobbits, princesses, dwarves and trolls; Leaf by Niggle recounts the strange adventures of the painter Niggle who sets out to paint the perfect tree; Smith of Wootton Major journeys to the Land of Faery thanks to the magical ingredients of the Great Cake of the Feast of Good Children. This new collection is fully illustrated throughout by Oscar-winning artist, Alan Lee, who provides a wealth of pencil drawings to bring the stories to life as he did so memorably for The Hobbit and The Children of Húrin. Alan also provides an Afterword, in which he opens the door into illustrating Tolkien's world. Taken together, this rich collection of new and unknown work from the author of The Children of Húrin will provide the reader with a fascinating journey into lands as wild and strange as Middle-earth

Single mom Lizabeth Kane isn't exactly carpenter material – she's never picked up a hammer in her life. But she desperately needs the construction job that builder Matt Hallahan is offering. And even though he knows trouble is ahead, Matt can't refuse Lizbeth's irresistible smile. Matt Hallahan isn't exactly relationship material – he has always been too busy working on other people's houses to make a home of his own. And even though she knows better, Lizabeth can't stop thinking about the rugged carpenter. Is the relationship Matt and Lizabeth are building solid – or more like a house of cards?

Книга не обещает золотых гор и волшебного преобразования вашей жизни за первую неделю, как по взмаху волшебной палочки. Данный труд направлен на построение грамотной работы в социальных сетях, принципы поиска и взаимодействия с клиентами, основы SMM Маркетинга. Способы продвижения вашего продукта или услуг при помощи соцсетей. Реальный заработок возможно без личных магазинов, товаров и прочих затратных статей. Вы заработаете на своем интеллекте. Здесь приведены конкретные примеры, кто и как зарабатывает на продаже выдуманных услуг, схемы работы мошенников, обещающих 50 000 уже в первую неделю, а то и пару дней. Страницы в социальных сетях ежедневно дублируют нашу жизнь и именно поэтому работать и зарабатывать в этой сфере, а, следовательно, получать живые дивиденды возможно! Здесь вы трудитесь на себя, не в ущерб личному времени и привычному образу жизни. Вы не уйдете от работы в целом, освобождаясь от офиса и ломая рамки серых трудовых будней, но суть ее изменится полностью. Понятие работа перестанет быть «тягостным бременем», а будет служить источником счастливой и успешной жизни. Книга основана на опыте большого количества людей, пытавшихся заработать дополнительные деньги в тот или иной период их жизни. Набивая шишки, попадаясь на фикции, тратя деньги впустую, регистрируясь на не бесполезных сайтах, посещая семинары псевдослециалистов, люди ищут способы мгновенного заработка и прочих 'чудесных' превращений. Всего этого можно избежать, изучив опыт уже рискнувших, давайте учиться на ошибках других, это возможно!

Zdecydowanie najlepsze w tej antologii jest „Smocze mleko” Uspienskiego (zaskakująca kontynuacja „Przyjaciela z piekła”)…

Debren z Dumayki, wędrowny mistrz magii, czarodziej z tytułem uniersyteckim i wiecznie pustą sakiewką musi się zmierzyć z licznymi przeciwnikami. Mimo swej apolityczności, raz po raz wplątywany jest w intrygi tajnych służb, rewolucjonistów i ambitnych pretendentów do już obsadzonych tronów…

Gynécologue dans le ghetto noir de Watts à Los Angeles, Ella Ganaway est une jolie fille dévouée et uniquement préoccupée par son métier au milieu de ses sœurs de couleur. Du jour au lendemain elle plonge en plein cauchemar, devient la victime d’un chantage odieux exercé sur sa sœur et les enfants de celle-ci par un certain Petrus Lindson et ses amis. On veut obtenir d’elle une chose horrible qui risque de compromettre à jamais non seulement la carrière de Diana Jellis, nouvelle leader noire américaine, mais aussi toute la cause de la population noire. Si elle refuse, les enfants de sa sœur Billie seront enlevés et disparaîtront à jamais

Pierwszy tom cyklu „Temeraire” — niezwykłego połączenia fantasy i powieści historycznych z czasów napoleońskich. Załoga HMS Reliant przechwytuje francuską fregatę i odkrywa na jej pokładzie drogocenny ładunek — jajo rzadkiego smoka, gotowego niemal do wyklucia. Wskutek zrządzenia losu kapitan Will Laurence zostaje opiekunem stworzenia i nadaje mu imię Temeraire. Musi zapomnieć o dawnym życiu, porzucić służbę we flocie, wstąpić do Korpusu Powietrznego, brytyjskiej jednostki smoków, i przejść wyjątkowo intensywne szkolenie bojowe. Napoleon bowiem szykuje już śmiałą inwazję na Anglię przy użyciu własnych sił powietrznych… Powieść zdobyła Compton Crook Award w 2007. Nominowana do nagrody Hugo w 2007

The laws of Smoke are complex. Not every lie will trigger it. A fleeting thought of evil may pass unseen. Next thing you know its smell is in your nose. There is no more hateful smell in the world than the smell of Smoke. .' If sin were visible and you could see people's anger, their lust and cravings, what would the world be like? Smoke opens in a private boarding school near Oxford, but history has not followed the path known to us. In this other past, sin appears as smoke on the body and soot on the clothes. Children are born carrying the seeds of evil within them. The ruling elite have learned to control their desires and contain their sin. They are spotless. It is within the closeted world of this school that the sons of the wealthy and well-connected are trained as future leaders. Among their number are two boys, Thomas and Charlie. On a trip to London, a forbidden city shrouded in smoke and darkness, the boys will witness an event that will make them question everything they have been told about the past. For there is more to the world of smoke, soot and ash than meets the eye and there are those who will stop at nothing to protect it

Due to a foiled burglary in a high-tech lab doing research for cigarette manufacturers, Freddie Noon, the thief, is now invisible. This condition has clear-cut advantages for a man in Freddie's profession, but now everybody wants a glimpse of Freddie. But Freddie doesn't dare show his face, his shadow, anything. Because Freddie Noon has gotten a taste of invisibility--and he can't quit now. From Publishers Weekly Yet another variation on the invisible-man notion doesn't sound like a promising prospect, but if any author can wring some fresh fun out of it, Westlake's the one. He doesn't fail. Freddie Noon is a sharp, likable burglar whose mistake is to break into the offices of two doctors doing so-called research for the Tobacco Institute. Catching him, they make him a human guinea pig for one of their formulas, and -- meet disappearing Freddie. Naturally, his life as a burglar gets much easier, but his girlfriend, Peg, isn't too comfortable with an invisible lover. In no time, Freddie is on the run: the Institute wants him for its nefarious purposes, the doctors want to study him further and a corrupt cop has his own reasons for pursuit. How Freddie and Peg run rings around the opposition, in New York and at an upstate hideaway, is the stuff of glorious Westlake comedy, in which Freddie's invisibility is merely one element in a caper full of hilarious characters, crackpot conversations and narrative sleight-of-hand. 

Lydia Strong's old writing student, Lily, has been missing for weeks. Before her disappearance, Lily had left a strange phone message for Lydia, asking for her help. But until now, Lydia did not pay much attention to the message because Lily tended to call occasionally. But when she learns that Lily had been looking into her brother's suicide, Lydia becomes concerned. In this fourth of Lisa Miscione's intense and gripping thrillers, Lydia teams up with her husband, ex-FBI agent, p.i. Jeffrey Mark, to uncover the truth behind Lily's disappearance

New York Times bestselling author Sandra Brown returns with a tale of corruption and betrayal, revenge and reversal – where friends become foes, and heroes become criminals in the ultimate abuse of power. When newswoman Britt Shelley wakes up to find herself in bed with Jay Burgess, a rising star detective in the Charleston PD, she remembers nothing of how she got there…or of how Jay wound up dead. Handsome and hard-partying, Jay was a hero of the disastrous fire that five years earlier had destroyed Charleston 's police headquarters. The blaze left seven people dead, but the death toll would have been much higher if not for the bravery of Jay and three other city officials who risked their lives to lead others to safety. Firefighter Raley Gannon, Jay's lifelong friend, was off-duty that day. Though he might not have been a front-line hero, he was assigned to lead the investigation into the cause of the fire. It was an investigation he never got to complete. Because on one calamitous night, Raley's world was shattered. Scandalized, wronged by the people he trusted most, Raley was forced to surrender the woman he loved and the work to which he'd dedicated his life. For five years his resentment against the men who exploited their hero status to further their careers – and ruin his – had festered, but he was helpless to set things right. That changes when he learns of Jay Burgess's shocking death and Britt Shelley's claim that she has no memory of her night with him. As the investigation into Jay's death intensifies, and suspicion against Britt Shelley mounts, Raley realizes that the newswoman, Jay's last sexual conquest, might be his only chance to get personal vindication – and justice for the seven victims of the police station fire. But there are powerful men who don't want to address unanswered questions about the fire and who will go to any lengths to protect their reputations. As Raley and Britt discover more about what happened that fateful day, the more perilous their situation becomes, until they're not only chasing after the truth but running for their lives. Friends are exposed as foes, heroes take on the taint of criminals, and no one can be trusted completely. A tale about audacious corruption – and those with the courage to expose it – Smoke Screen is Sandra Brown's most searing and intense novel yet

As a child Edward Lincoln had had the run of a racing stable, and as a young man he had earned his living riding horses in films. So when a sick friend asked him to investigate the comprehensive failure of a string of racehorses, he knew more or less what to look for. But there were difficulties. For one thing, the horses in question were in South Africa. For another, it was impossible for him to go about the task quietly and unnoticed. He was by that time a world-class star of action films, in which he played the hero. Everywhere he went he was watched and (when he would allow it) interviewed. Away from his own home, the limelight was permanently switched on. Also, although he knew himself to be a quiet ordinary man with a wife and family, everyone he met persisted in believing him to be a superman, like his image. The easy-seeming survey of the string of racehorses blew him through a smokescreen into circumstances where to survive he had to make himself become the man everyone else already thought he was

Where there’s smoke there’s fire, and no one knows this better than New Jersey bounty hunter Stephanie Plum. Dead bodies are showing up in shallow graves on the empty construction lot of Vincent Plum Bail Bonds. No one is sure who the killer is, or why the victims have been offed, but what is clear is that Stephanie’s name is on the killer’s list.Short on time to find evidence proving the killer’s identity, Stephanie faces further complications when her family and friends decide that it’s time for her to choose between her longtime off-again-on-again boyfriend, Trenton cop Joe Morelli, and the bad boy in her life, security expert Ranger. Stephanie’s mom is encouraging Stephanie to dump them both and choose a former high school football star who’s just returned to town. Stephanie’s sidekick, Lula, is encouraging Stephanie to have a red-hot boudoir “bake-off.” And Grandma Bella, Morelli’s old-world grandmother, is encouraging Stephanie to move to a new state when she puts “the eye” on Stephanie.With a cold-blooded killer after her, a handful of hot men, and a capture list that includes a dancing bear and a senior citizen vampire, Stephanie’s life looks like it’s about to go up in smoke.The hardcover edition of Smokin’ Seventeen contains two smokin’ hot stickers inside!From the Hardcover edition

Очевидно, чтобы оживить литературу, ее надо хорошенько, по-настоящему убить. С поэзией это иногда проделывают, с прозой реже. Проза тяжелая, так просто не убьешь. Перед нами совершенно новая проза, причем, в отличие от иных «новаторских» потуг, не только не скучная, — захватывающая. Сюжет, действие, диалоги, персонажи. Как снящееся кино — не оторвешься. Вашему вниманию предлагается книга Алексея Георгиевича Радова «Smoking kills»

Jack Travis is a macho Houston businessman – rich, tough and always in control. So when a beautiful young woman approaches his office carrying a baby that she claims is his, he's shaken more than he would ever let on. Stunned, Jack listens to Ella Varner as she explains that her sister recently gave birth and then abandoned her baby boy – and that enquiries have brought Ella to Jack's door. He virtually has a seizure when she asks him to do a paternity test. But ultimately, will a paternity test set things right? If Jack is the father, will he be the one to care for the baby? Would Ella be prepared to let him go? And if not? Ella can't bear to think of an answer…

Smouks Belju Džeks Londons IX sēj

Smouks un mazais Džeks Londons IX sēj

В предлагаемой вашему вниманию брошюре собраны самые веселые свежие SMS-ки на все случаи жизни. Юмор, остроумие, парадоксы, случаи из жизни – все это здесь, в новой брошюре, которая способна доставить немало веселых минут каждому, кто возьмет ее в руки