Como en el cuento de Cenicienta, Sophie ve una noche cumplirse su sueño. A espaldas de su madrastra, se viste como una reina y acude al baile de disfraces más importante de Londres. Lo que es más, consigue captar la atención de Benedict Bridgerton, el soltero más atractivo y encantador de la reunión. Sin embargo, pronto vuelve a enfrentarse a su cruda realidad, la de una hija ilegítima, pobre y sin recursos. El destino quiere darle una segunda oportunidad cuando entra a servir en casa de Benedict, aunque él no reconoce en ella a la hermosa joven a la que lleva años buscando. Ella es ahora una simple criada, incapaz de revelarle la verdad. La magia de aquella noche parece perdida para siempre ¿o quizás no? De princesa radiante… Sophie vivió una infancia extraña. Todos sabían que era hija del conde de Penwood y, aunque éste nunca la reconoció como tal, cuidó de que no le faltara nada. Todo cambió cuando su padre se casó de nuevo, y la madrastra y sus dos hijas hicieron de la vida de Sophie una pesadilla. Muerto el conde, su testamento las obligaba a cuidar de la niña, pero nunca la consideraron una igual. Y tampoco le permitirían nunca que se atreviera a competir con ellas por las atención de los muy cotizados solteros de la familia Bridgerton, tan atractivos como bien situados. Antes, la echarían a la calle donde, suponían, no tendría jamás una oportunidad de acercarse a ellos. …a criada en casa del príncipe ¿Quién era esa mujer extraordinaria? Benedict no puede olvidar aquella belleza enmascarada que le hechizó en un instante, a la que sólo conoce como la Dama Plateada por el color de su vestido y a quien, inconscientemente, le entregó su corazón. Pero ahora, años después, se siente poderosamente atraído por una sencilla criada a la que salva de un asaltante borracho. Ella es la única que le hace revivir la emoción que le produjo la misteriosa enmascarada. Pero también ella parece fuera de su alcance, a causa de las insalvables barreras de clase que los separan. Sin embargo, la familia Bridgerton tiene muchos recursos para ayudar a uno de los suyos cuando surgen problemas de amor…

The tenth installment of this universally beloved and best-selling series finds Precious Ramotswe in personal need of her own formidable detection talents. Mma Ramotswe's ever-ready tiny white van has recently developed a rather disturbing noise. Of course, Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni-her estimable husband and one of Botswana 's most talented mechanics-'"is the man to turn to for help. But Precious suspects he might simply condemn the van and replace it with something more modern. And as usual, her suspicions are well-founded: without telling her, he sells the van and saddles his wife with a new, characterless vehicle… a situation that must be remedied. And so she sets out to find the van, unaware, for the moment, that it has already been stolen from the man who bought it, making recovery a more complicated process than she had expected. In the meantime, all is not going smoothly for Mma Makutsi in her engagement to Mr Phuti Radiphuti (to make matters worse, Violet Sephotho, who could not have gotten more than fifty percent on her typing final at the Botswana Secretarial School, is involved). And finally, the proprietor of a local football team has enlisted the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency to help explain its dreadful losing streak: surely someone must be fixing the games, it can't just be a case of unskilled players. And as we know, there are few mysteries that can't be solved and fewer problems that can't be fixed when Precious Ramotswe puts her mind to it

Martha Macnamara knows that her daughter Elizabeth is in trouble, she just doesn’t know what kind. Mysterious phone calls from San Francisco at odd hours of the night are the only contact she has had with Elizabeth for years. Now, Elizabeth has sent her a plane ticket and reserved a room for her at San Francisco’s most luxurious hotel. Yet she has not tried to contact Martha since she arrived, leaving her lonely, confused and a little bit worried. Into the story steps Mayland Long, a distinguished-looking and wealthy Chinese man who lives at the hotel and is drawn to Martha’s good nature and ability to pinpoint the truth of a matter. Mayland and Martha become close in a short period of time and he promises to help her find Elizabeth, making small inroads in the mystery before Martha herself disappears. Now Mayland is struck by the realization, too late, that he is in love with Martha, and now he fears for her life. Determined to find her, he sets his prodigious philosopher’s mind to work on the problem, embarking on a potentially dangerous adventure

Never, ever cry... Seventeen-year-old Eureka won't let anyone close enough to feel her pain. After her mother was killed in a freak accident, the things she used to love hold no meaning. She wants to escape, but one thing holds her back: Ander, the boy who is everywhere she goes, whose turquoise eyes are like the ocean. And then Eureka uncovers an ancient tale of romance and heartbreak, about a girl who cried an entire continent into the sea. Suddenly her mother's death and Ander's appearance seem connected, and her life takes on dark undercurrents that don't make sense. Can everything you love be washed away?

In Alexander's lackluster fourth Lady Emily historical (after A Fatal Waltz), Emily and her new husband, British intelligence agent Colin Hargreaves, are honeymooning in Constantinople when a half-English harem girl is murdered. After Colin is charged with the investigation, the British crown reluctantly allows Emily to handle questioning within the harem. Emily follows the clues much farther afield, exploring the tangled histories of the victim's diplomat father from whom she was abducted many years before, her troubled archeologist brother and sultans both current and deposed. The author deftly handles the exotic setting and a subplot in which Emily worries she may be pregnant, but a lack of tension and a number of implausibilities, starting with the ease with which a Western woman can play detective in despotic, late 19th-century Constantinople, make this a relatively weak entry. Hopefully, Emily will recover her usual sparkle once the newlyweds return to more familiar ground

THE NO.1 LADIES’ DETECTIVE AGENCY introduced the world to the one and only Precious Ramotswe – the engaging and sassy owner of Botswana’s only detective agency. TEARS OF THE GIRAFFE, McCall Smith’s second book, takes us further into this world as we follow Mama Ramotswe into more daring situations … Among her cases this time are wayward wives, unscrupulous maids, and the challenge to resolve a mother’s pain for her son who is long lost on the African plains. Indeed, Mma Ramotswe’s own impending marriage to the most gentlemanly of men, Mr J.L.B. Matekoni, the promotion of Mma’s secretary to the dizzy heights of Assistant Detective, and the arrival of new members to the Matekoni family, all brew up the most humorous and charmingly entertaining of tales. TEARS OF THE GIRAFFE was selected as one of the GUARDIAN’s top ten ‘Fiction Paperbacks of the Year, 2000

What happens when a girl who always calls the shots meets a guy who's too wild for even her? A born flirt and good-time party girl, Emerson has never had a problem finding a willing guy. She's always chosen her hookups carefully, and she's never broken her three cardinal rules: Never let them see the real you. Never fall in love. Always leave them begging for more. Then Shaw comes along. A hottie from the wrong side of the tracks, he's immune to her flirtatious banter and come-hither smile. After rescuing her from a disastrous night at a biker bar, he doesn't even try to take her to bed—he calls her a tease and sends her home instead. Unable to resist a challenge, or forget the sexy, dark-eyed, bad-boy biker, she vows to bring him to his knees. But instead of making Shaw beg, Emerson finds herself craving him. For the first time in her life, she's throwing out her rule book. Suddenly, she's the one panting for a guy she can't control—a guy who won't settle for anything less than the real Emerson and who forces her to do things she's never imagined, including facing a past she thought she'd buried. A guy who just might leave her wanting more

With a second CSI spinoff hitting the airwaves this fall, the timing couldn't be better for this intriguing memoir by a leading forensic anthropologist. The only full-time state employee in her field, Craig utilizes her expertise to identify victims from the tiniest remnant of tissue or bone. The author's reputation as an international expert on human anatomy led her to reconstructing faces of the dead from skull fragments to aid the police. Her credentials involved her in many notorious cases, most notably Waco, the Oklahoma City bombing and the destruction of the World Trade Center. In each instance, her dedication, professionalism and knowledge played key roles; Craig's scientific analysis established that more than one-third of the dead at Waco had died before the fire as a result of a mass murder-suicide by the Branch Davidians. She also rebutted claims that the real bomber of the Murrah Federal Building had died in the explosion by proving that a mysterious severed limb actually belonged to a victim. Despite occasional gratuitous gross-out details concerning maggots, Craig does a good job of explaining her science to the layperson and portraying the nitty-gritty everyday realities of her job. *** Teasing Secrets from the Dead is a front-lines story of crime scene investigation at some of the most infamous sites in recent history. In this absorbing, surprising, and undeniably compelling book, forensics expert Emily Craig tells her own story of a life spent teasing secrets from the dead. Emily Craig has been a witness to history, helping to seek justice for thousands of murder victims, both famous and unknown. It's a personal story that you won't soon forget. Emily first became intrigued by forensics work when, as a respected medical illustrator, she was called in by the local police to create a model of a murder victim's face. Her fascination with that case led to a dramatic midlife career change: She would go back to school to become a forensic anthropologist-and one of the most respected and best-known "bone hunters" in the nation. As a student working with the FBI in Waco, Emily helped uncover definitive proof that many of the Branch Davidians had been shot to death before the fire, including their leader, David Koresh, whose bullet-pierced skull she reconstructed with her own hands. Upon graduation, Emily landed a prestigious full-time job as forensic anthropologist for the Commonwealth of Kentucky, a state with an alarmingly high murder rate and thousands of square miles of rural backcountry, where bodies are dumped and discovered on a regular basis. But even with her work there, Emily has been regularly called to investigations across the country, including the site of the terrorist attack on the Murrah Building in Oklahoma City, where a mysterious body part-a dismembered leg-was found at the scene and did not match any of the known victims. Throughcareful scientific analysis, Emily was able to help identify the leg's owner, a pivotal piece of evidence that helped convict Timothy McVeigh. In September 2001, Emily received a phone call summoning her to New York City, where she directed the night-shift triage at the World Trade Center's body identification site, collaborating with forensics experts from all over the country to collect and identify the remains of September 11 victims. From the biggest news stories of our time to stranger-than-true local mysteries, these are unforgettable stories from the case files of Emily Craig's remarkable career

With a second CSI spinoff hitting the airwaves this fall, the timing couldn't be better for this intriguing memoir by a leading forensic anthropologist. The only full-time state employee in her field, Craig utilizes her expertise to identify victims from the tiniest remnant of tissue or bone. The author's reputation as an international expert on human anatomy led her to reconstructing faces of the dead from skull fragments to aid the police. Her credentials involved her in many notorious cases, most notably Waco, the Oklahoma City bombing and the destruction of the World Trade Center. In each instance, her dedication, professionalism and knowledge played key roles; Craig's scientific analysis established that more than one-third of the dead at Waco had died before the fire as a result of a mass murder-suicide by the Branch Davidians. She also rebutted claims that the real bomber of the Murrah Federal Building had died in the explosion by proving that a mysterious severed limb actually belonged to a victim. Despite occasional gratuitous gross-out details concerning maggots, Craig does a good job of explaining her science to the layperson and portraying the nitty-gritty everyday realities of her job. *** Teasing Secrets from the Dead is a front-lines story of crime scene investigation at some of the most infamous sites in recent history. In this absorbing, surprising, and undeniably compelling book, forensics expert Emily Craig tells her own story of a life spent teasing secrets from the dead. Emily Craig has been a witness to history, helping to seek justice for thousands of murder victims, both famous and unknown. It's a personal story that you won't soon forget. Emily first became intrigued by forensics work when, as a respected medical illustrator, she was called in by the local police to create a model of a murder victim's face. Her fascination with that case led to a dramatic midlife career change: She would go back to school to become a forensic anthropologist-and one of the most respected and best-known "bone hunters" in the nation. As a student working with the FBI in Waco, Emily helped uncover definitive proof that many of the Branch Davidians had been shot to death before the fire, including their leader, David Koresh, whose bullet-pierced skull she reconstructed with her own hands. Upon graduation, Emily landed a prestigious full-time job as forensic anthropologist for the Commonwealth of Kentucky, a state with an alarmingly high murder rate and thousands of square miles of rural backcountry, where bodies are dumped and discovered on a regular basis. But even with her work there, Emily has been regularly called to investigations across the country, including the site of the terrorist attack on the Murrah Building in Oklahoma City, where a mysterious body part-a dismembered leg-was found at the scene and did not match any of the known victims. Throughcareful scientific analysis, Emily was able to help identify the leg's owner, a pivotal piece of evidence that helped convict Timothy McVeigh. In September 2001, Emily received a phone call summoning her to New York City, where she directed the night-shift triage at the World Trade Center's body identification site, collaborating with forensics experts from all over the country to collect and identify the remains of September 11 victims. From the biggest news stories of our time to stranger-than-true local mysteries, these are unforgettable stories from the case files of Emily Craig's remarkable career

Thomas Ligotti is one of the most original and remarkable figures in horror literature since H. P. Lovecraft. In Teatro Grottesco Ligotti follows the literary tradition that began with Edgar Allan Poe: portraying characters that are outside of anything that might be called normal life, depicting strange locales far off the beaten track, and rendering a grim vision of human existence as a perpetual nightmare. Just by entering his unique world where odd little towns and dark sectors are peopled with clowns, manikins and hideous puppets, and where tormented individuals and blackly comical eccentrics play out their doom, is to risk your own vision of the world

Книга посвящена социально-философскому и политико-экономическому анализу эволюции общества. Исследование основывается на представлении о гетерархии как фрактальной структуре социальности. Показано, что любые формы социальной жизни фундаментально едины между собой в качестве коммуникации и различаются композицией множественных отношений. Динамика процессов самоорганизации представлена на примере иерархических институциализированных сообществ, где власть и капитал являются средствами социальной организации. Показана институциональная динамика исторических сообществ и условия формирования традиционного и капиталистического типов организации. Анализируется повторяющееся сходство и условия дифференциации в организации политико-экономических институтов. Объясняется роль частных лиц как источника социальной сложности и развития. Издание второе, исправленное и дополненное

Organised nonviolent struggle, using methods such as strikes, boycotts and noncooperation, is a possible alternative to military methods. However, compared to military funding, there has been hardly any financial and organisational support for nonviolent struggle. Putting a priority on nonviolent struggle would lead to significant differences in technological development and scientific method. Research and development relevant to a number of areas — especially communication and survival — are assessed in terms of their relevance to nonviolent struggle. The findings are used to suggest how science and technology used for the purposes of war and repression can be converted most effectively to serve the purposes of nonviolent struggle. Brian Martin lives in Wollongong, Australia. He trained and worked as an applied mathematician before switching to social science. He has been active for many years in the radical science, environmental and peace movements and is the author of numerous works in many fields

Вы держите в руках новое руководство по действительно эффективному общению. Каждый, кто сталкивается с необходимостью доносить до окружающих свои идеи, участвовать в презентациях, выступлениях и публичных мероприятиях, просто обязан прочесть эту книгу. Бесконечные доклады и унылые лекции ушли в прошлое, в современном мире у вас есть всего несколько минут, чтобы донести свою мысль до слушателей. В этой книге рассказывается о том, как сотворить чудо эффективного публичного выступления. Воспользуйтесь советами самого авторитетного человека в этой области – и ваше выступление станет незабываемым

Nostalgia comes to many of us eventually, but some can do a bit more about it than others…

В свои тридцать с небольшим лет Виржини Депант — одна из самых модных современных французских писательниц лауреат престижной литературной премии «Флор». Первый же ее роман «Трахни меня» (Baise-moi, 1993) произвел подлинный фурор. Фильм по этому роману, снятый ею совместно с бывшей порноактрисой Корали, упрочил ее скандальную славу. «Дрессированные сучки» (Les Chiennes savantes, 1999), где сюжеты «Трахни меня» получили еще более скандальное продолжение, — уже не один год среди лидеров продаж во Франции. Новый роман Виржини Депант — «Teen spirit» (2002) — это опять вызов обществу, вещь провокационная и предельно откровенная