![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Unfortunately, the mystery has less bite than Roberts's ( Enigma Variations ) erudite social critique. Eyeballing his era, Decius serves up drolleries aplenty about historical events and characters-Cicero, Julius Caesar-and concocted ones: his father and patron, an ``old Roman to the core,'' chains his janitor to the gatepost, although it is obvious to passersby that the measly hook could be detached by the slave at any time a ``bite of lunch'' at the home of a ``new-rich'' is a profusion of delicacies, from pickled peacocks' tongues to sows' udders stuffed with Libyan mice, deep-fried. How is the strangulation of a freed gladiator linked to the fatal stabbing of a foreigner, an importer of wine and oil, and the arson of the foreigner's warehouse? And why are those at the highest level of the Senate interested in, indeed panicked about, the demise of such seeming nonentities? With the help of his aunt, an aging Vestal Virgin, and a Greek physician whose demonstration of a garrote leaves marks on the detective's neck, Decius sniffs out a government cover-up and some fishy activities of Pompey and Crassus. This literate mystery introduces the newest in an ever-expanding genre of quirky dicks: Decius Caecilius Metellus the Younger, a high-born bad boy, but patriotic head of a civil detective force in ancient Rome. In S.P.Q.R., world-renowned classicist Mary Beard narrates the unprecedented rise of a civilization that even two thousand years later still shapes many of our most fundamental assumptions about power, citizenship, responsibility, political violence, empire, luxury, and beauty. ![]()
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![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() While investigating the fallen hero's death, Marion discovers family connections and an old Ojibwe legend that may be the secret to unraveling the mystery he has found himself in. ![]() The mysterious revenant leads him to the grave of Kayden Kelliher, an Ojibwe basketball star who was murdered at the young age of seventeen and whose presence still lingers in the memories of the townsfolk. Then one night, while roaming the dark streets of Geshig, Marion unknowingly brings to life the spirit of a dog from beneath the elementary school playground. While Marion is far more open about his sexuality, neither is immune to the realities of the lives of gay men in small towns and closed societies. Marion Lafournier, a midtwenties gay Ojibwe man, begins a relationship with his former classmate Shannon, a heavily closeted white man. In language subtle and precise, it explores the echoing past, both tenuous and inescapable, illuminating the resonant powers of one’s physical and cultural landscapes. On an Ojibwe reservation called Languille Lake, within the small town of Geshig at the hub of the rez, two men enter into a secret romance. Dennis Staples’ This Town Sleepsis part mystery, part family saga, part meditation. Set on a reservation in far northern Minnesota, This Town Sleeps explores the many ways history, culture, landscape, and lineage shape our lives, our understanding of the world we inhabit, and the stories we tell ourselves to make sense of it all. ![]() ![]() Bookseller's ticket of Henry Sotheran on front pastedown of For Your Eyes Only neat ink ownership inscription of "Peris Sinnett Jones April 1963" on pastedowns of On Her Majesty's Secret Service. Casino Royale housed in a custom morocco-backed black solander box. Original boards, lettering and devices on some boards in gilt or colour, spines lettered in gilt, The Man with the Golden Gun in bronze. Dr No is in the second state binding with the Honeychile silhouette on the front cover The Man with the Golden Gun is in the second state as usual, without the gilt gun design on the front board, which proved too expensive and was dropped after the first 940 copies had been sent abroad, here in binding B with the spine bronze-lettered Diamonds are Forever in binding B (no priority). ![]() ![]() Moonraker is signed on the front free endpaper by Roger Moore For Your Eyes Only is from the library of Baron Fanshawe of Richmond, with his bookplate on the front pastedown. All except Dr No and The Man with the Golden Gun are in the first states, and all are in the first state jackets. ![]() The complete set of the original sequence of James Bond novels and stories, all first editions, first impressions. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() When she went to the police to claim credit for her murders, which were being pinned to the infamous Zodiac killer due to a traitor in her ranks, the male cop laughed at her confession. After shooting Warhol in his Factory over a script squabble, she served out a three-year prison sentence and continued to run her own serial killing operation with her SCUM followers from the psychiatric ward. In the flashback, Dunham inhabited a gradually spinning out Solanas, who had diagnosed paranoid schizophrenia. ![]() When announcing his idea for the semi-stand-alone episode - the Solanas story was told through a flashback tying the women of the present to Solanas‘ fictional then-girlfriend, Bebe Babbitt, played by another guest-star Frances Conroy - American Horror Story creator and showrunner Ryan Murphy had explained that the intent was to explore “female rage then and in the country now.” In telling the story of how Solanas preached her SCUM Manifesto (“Society for Cutting Up Men”), in which she instructed women to kill men in order to rise to power, the FX anthology series also offered an alternate theory to the identity of the famed Zodiac serial killer, someone Murphy had also explored in the show’s fifth season, Hotel. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() But being the main caretaker for his mother, who has multiple sclerosis, and his little brother means his dreams will stay just that and the only romances in his life are the ones he hears about from his listeners. Prince has always dreamed of becoming a DJ and falling in love. After all, at seventeen, he has his own segment on Detroit’s popular hip-hop show, Love Radio, where he dishes out advice to the brokenhearted. Prince Jones is the guy with all the answers-or so it seems. Hitch meets The Sun Is Also a Star in this “mega swoon-worthy, effortlessly cool” (Casey McQuiston, New York Times bestselling author) novel about a self-professed teen love doctor with a popular radio segment who believes he can get a girl who hates all things romance to fall in love with him in only three dates. “Readers won’t be able to get enough of these dope-ass characters.” -Elizabeth Acevedo, author of Clap When You Land ![]() ![]() ![]() There is a good example of how a LinkedIn profile can be represented as a JSON document – the tree-like structure of a profile is a good fit to represent with JSON. This chapter discusses the well-known relational model and the document model (NoSQL). ![]() There is also a good point made about response times: when end-users require multiple back-end calls, many users may experience delays, even if only a fraction of individual requests are slow (tail latency amplification). I particularly liked the example of the evolution of how Twitter delivers tweets to followers. Foundations of Data SystemsĪn introductory chapter that defines reliability, scalability and maintainability. I really like the mix of references – some are to computer science papers from the 1970s and onwards, and many are to various blog posts. Each chapter ends with lots of references (between 30 and 110). There are three parts in the book: Foundations of Data Systems (chapters 1 – 4), Distributed Data (chapters 5 – 9), and Derived Data (chapters 10 – 12). ![]() There is so much to learn for me in this book, so I have summarized the main points from each chapter, with a special emphasis on what I found most interesting. I particularly like that the author Martin Kleppmann knows the theory very well, but also seems to have a lot of practical experience of the types of systems he describes. What a great book Designing Data-Intensive Applications is! It covers databases and distributed systems in clear language, great detail and without any fluff. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Mattie's feisty mother, Isa, ages precipitously and becomes increasingly disoriented, leading to a series of calamities. Meanwhile, Mattie grows close to a married friend named Daniel, who also feels a romantic pull although he's happily married. The divorce dominates in the early going as Mattie continues to sleep with her sexy but egotistical ex-husband, Nick, even though his new romance with a younger woman is clipping along at a sprightly pace. Memoirist and novelist Lamott ( Operating Instructions Crooked Little Heart,Įtc.) brilliantly captures the dilemma of a divorced woman from the so-called "sandwich generation" in her latest, a funny, poignant and occasionally gut-wrenching novel that tracks the efforts of Mattie Ryder to cope with her divorce, find a new man, deal with her mother's aging and restore the emotional equilibrium of her two young children. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() The cast for All the Light We Cannot See is a mix of recognizable names and young talent just getting into their careers. Can they survive with their faith in mankind intact?" All the Light We Cannot See cast As the bombs fall on Saint-Malo, Werner and Marie-Laure's invisible bond over the airwaves is put to the test. Enlisted by Hitler's regime, he's put to work tracking illegal broadcasts but finds none - until one day, a girl's voice crackles to life on a defunct frequency he used to tune into as a child. "Meanwhile, in Germany, young orphan Werner discovers that he has a rare gift for radio repairs. Blind French girl Marie-Laure escapes German-occupied Paris with her father in an effort to safeguard a priceless diamond from a Nazi Gestapo officer, and the two find refuge in her reclusive uncle's seaside home. "The series tracks the two protagonists' seemingly parallel journeys as they make their way to the French coastal town of Saint-Malo, where their stories eventually intersect. ![]() ![]() ![]() He is without home and without roots, all he has is his job. Sam Howard is trying to pull his life back together after his wife has left him for another. With Christmas approaching, Carrie agrees to look after her aunt's awkward and quiet teenage daughter, Lucy, so that her mother might enjoy a romantic fling in America. They have a beautiful daughter, Francesca, and it is only because of their little girl that Oscar views his sacrificed career as worthwhile.Ĭarrie returns from Australia at the end of an ill-fated affair with a married man to find her mother and aunt sharing a home and squabbling endlessly. Oscar Blundell gave up his life as a musician in order to marry Gloria. Gradually she settled into the comfortable familiarity of village life - shopkeepers knowing her tastes, neighbors calling her by name - still she finds herself lonely. ![]() In Winter Solstice Rosamunde Pilcher brings her readers into the lives of five very different people.Įlfrida Phipps, once of London's stage, moved to the English village of Dibton in hopes of making a new life for herself. ![]() ![]() Macabre mementoes of the earlier climbers turn up on the trail. As they climb higher and higher, and the air becomes thinner, his unease turns to dread. But Pearce is determined to press on and complete something that he has dreamed off his entire life. A survivor of the 1906 expedition, Charles Tennant, warns him off, hinting of dark things ahead. Five men lost their lives back then, overcome by the atrocious weather, misfortune and ‘mountain sickness’ at such high altitudesĪs the team prepares for the epic climb, Pearce’s unease about the expedition deepens. No one has scaled it before, and they are, quite literally, following in the footsteps of one of the most famous mountain disasters of all time – the 1906 Lyell Expedition. The elite team of five will climb Kangchenjunga, the world’s third highest mountain and one of mountaineering’s biggest killers. ![]() It is 1935, and young medic Stephen Pearce travels to India to join an expedition with his brother, Kits. Read an exclusive extract of the chilling and dark Thin Air by Michelle Paver. ![]() |