Title: The System of the World Author: Neal Stephenson File Type: Mobi Subject:Fiction:Historical Description:
Tis done.
The world is a most confused and unsteady place -- especially London, center of finance, innovation, and conspiracy -- in the year 1714, when Daniel Waterhouse makes his less-than-triumphant return to Englands shores. Aging Puritan and Natural Philosopher, confidant of the high and mighty and contemporary of the most brilliant minds of the age, he has braved the merciless sea and an assault by the infamous pirate Blackbeard to help mend the rift between two adversarial geniuses at a princesss behest. But while much has changed outwardly, the duplicity and danger that once drove Daniel to the American Colonies is still coin of the British realm.
No sooner has Daniel set foot on his homeland when he is embroiled in a dark conflict that has been raging in the shadows for decades. It is a secret war between the brilliant, enigmatic Master of the Mint and closet alchemist Isaac Newton and his archnemesis, the insidious counterfeiter Jack the Coiner, a.k.a. Jack Shaftoe, King of the Vagabonds. Hostilities are suddenly moving to a new and more volatile level, as Half-Cocked Jack plots a daring assault on the Tower itself, aiming for nothing less than the total corruption of Britains newborn monetary system.
Unbeknownst to all, it is love that set the Coiner on his traitorous course; the desperate need to protect the woman of his heart -- the remarkable Eliza, Duchess of Arcachon-Qwghlm -- from those who would destroy her should he fail. Meanwhile, Daniel Waterhouse and his Clubb of unlikely cronies comb city and country for clues to the identity of the blackguard who is attempting to blow up Natural Philosophers with Infernal Devices -- as political factions jockey for position while awaiting the impending death of the ailing queen; as the holy grail of alchemy, the key to life eternal, tantalizes and continues to elude Isaac Newton, yet is closer than he ever imagined; as the greatest technological innovation in history slowly takes shape in Waterhouses manufactory.
Everything that was will be changed forever ... The System of the World is the concluding volume in Neal Stephensons Baroque Cycle, begun with Quicksilver and continued in The Confusion.
Title: Beauty's Punishment
Author: A. N. Roquelaure
File Type: Mobi
Subject:Romance
Description:
This sequel to The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty, the first of Anne Rices elegantly written volumes of erotica, continues her explicit, teasing exploration of the psychology of human desire. Beauty, having indulged in a secret and forbidden infatuation with the rebellious slave Prince Tristan, is sent away from the Satyricon-like world of the castle. Once again Rices fabulous tale of pleasure and pain dares to explore the most primal and well-hidden desires of the human heart.
Title: Prophets
Author: S. Andrew Swann
File Type: Mobi
Subject:Science-Fiction
Description:It’s been nearly 200 years since the collapse of the Confederacy, the last government to claim humanity’s colonies. So when signals come in revealing lost human colonies that could shift the power balance, the race is on between the Caliphate ships and a small team of scientists and mercenarys. But what awaits them all is a threat far beyond the scope of any human government.
Title: A Short History of Nearly Everything
Author: Bill Bryson
File Type: Mobi
Subject:Science
Description:
One of the world’s most beloved and bestselling writers takes his ultimate journey -- into the most intriguing and intractable questions that science seeks to answer.In **A Walk in the Woods**, Bill Bryson trekked the Appalachian Trail -- well, most of it. In **In A Sunburned Country**, he confronted some of the most lethal wildlife Australia has to offer. Now, in his biggest book, he confronts his greatest challenge: to understand -- and, if possible, answer -- the oldest, biggest questions we have posed about the universe and ourselves. Taking as territory everything from the Big Bang to the rise of civilization, Bryson seeks to understand how we got from there being nothing at all to there being us. To that end, he has attached himself to a host of the world’s most advanced (and often obsessed) archaeologists, anthropologists, and mathematicians, travelling to their offices, laboratories, and field camps. He has read (or tried to read) their books, pestered them with questions, apprenticed himself to their powerful minds. **A Short History of Nearly Everything*** *is the record of this quest, and it is a sometimes profound, sometimes funny, and always supremely clear and entertaining adventure in the realms of human knowledge, as only Bill Bryson can render it. Science has never been more involving or entertaining.*From the Hardcover edition.*
Title: The Crystal Brucephalus
Author: Craig Hinton
File Type: Mobi
Subject:Science-Fiction:Doctor Who
Description:meta charset=utf-8span class=Apple-style-span style=font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 64); font-size: 13px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font class=minus1 style=font-size: 13px; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; b‘I’m a Time Lord, not a bank manager. When I invested in this place I had no idea that it would succeed. I mean - a time travelling restaurant?’bThe Crystal Bucephalus: a restaurant patronized by the highest echelons of society in the 10th millennium. The guests are projected back in time to sample the food and drink of a bygone age.fontfont class=minus1 style=font-size: 13px; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; When the galaxy’s most notorious crime boss is murdered in the Bucephalus, the Doctor, Tegan and Turlough are immediately arrested for the killing. To prove their innocence, they must track down the perpetrators of slaughter and sabotage, and uncover a conspiracy which has been 5,000 years in the making.fontspan
Title: Shadows in Bronze
Author: Lindsey Davis
File Type: Mobi
Subject:Mystery:Historical
Description:From Publishers WeeklyNo caveats for readers of Davis's second playful, well-plotted mystery featuring imperial agent Marcus Didius Falco and based in first century, C.E., Rome. Nero's successor Vespasian has squelched an early treasonous plot and assigned Falco to take care of loose ends, which include the body of the uncle of the high-born young widow Helena Justina, whom Falco met and courted stormily in Silver Pigs. Disguised as an idle vacationer in the company of his comrade and captain of the Aventine Watch, Petronius Longus and family, Falco travels south to Neapolis, Capreae and Pompeii (eight years before its destruction) where he uncovers and must thwart a new conspiracy involving the shipment of Egyptian grain to Rome and an unwitting Helena. Like a toga-clad McGee or Spenser, Falco has a modern sensibility that wears its ancient trappings comfortably, whether he's sneaking down a narrow Roman street or feasting sumptuously at a sunlit coastal villa. A rousing horserace in the Circus Maximus, balanced with a touching romantic resolution, rounds out this action-packed entertainment, enlivened by Davis's vivid characterization of both major and minor players, and his clear delight in--and easy authority with--the story's time and place. br 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. From School Library JournalYA-- That rascally Roman detective, Marcus Didius Falco, is back, still pining for the unavailable, upper-class Helen; bumbling through investigations; and dodging his nagging mother. Set in Italy in a.d. 70, the mystery of Helen's returned-to-life husband flows smoothly, accompanied by such historical details as descriptions of prostitutes flourishing in Pompeii, salesmen hawking used chariots, and women dying their hair with the newest shade--Egyptian Russet. It's great fun to read of Falco's dubious detecting skills, aided by his sharp eye for noticing and reporting on the world around him. A book that should be required reading for those students who foolishly believe the adage Latin is a dead language.-- Pam Spencer, Jefferson Sci-Tech, Alexandria, br 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Title: The Machine Crusade
Author: Brian Herbert
File Type: Mobi
Subject:Science-Fiction:Dune
Description:
The breathtaking vision and incomparable storytelling of Brian Herbert and Kevin Anderson's Dune: The Butlerian Jihad, a prequel to Frank Herbert's classic Dune, propelled it to the ranks of speculative fiction's classics in its own right. Now, with all the color, scope, and fascination of the prior novel, comes Dune: The Machine Crusade.. More than two decades have passed since the events chronicled in The Butlerian Jihad. The crusade against thinking robots has ground on for years, but the forces led by Serena Butler and Irbis Ginjo have made only slight gains; the human worlds grow weary of war, of the bloody, inconclusive swing from victory to defeat. The fearsome cymeks, led by Agamemnon, hatch new plots to regain their lost power from Omnius--as their numbers dwindle and time begins to run out. The fighters of Ginaz, led by Jool Noret, forge themselves into an elite warrior class, a weapon against the machine-dominated worlds. Aurelius Venport and Norma Cenva are on the verge of the most important discovery in human history-a way to fold space and travel instantaneously to any place in the galaxy. And on the faraway, nearly worthless planet of Arrakis, Selim Wormrider and his band of outlaws take the first steps to making themselves the feared fighters who will change the course of history: the Fremen.Here is the unrivaled imaginative power that has put Brian Herbert and Kevin Anderson on bestseller lists everywhere and earned them the high regard of readers around the globe. The fantastic saga of Dune continues in Dune: The Machine Crusade.
Title: Charley's Web
Author: Joy Fielding
File Type: Mobi
Subject:Fiction:Thriller
Description:From Publishers WeeklyJill Rohmer, a convicted child killer with a borderline personality disorder, lures Charlotte Charley Webb, a popular columnist for the Palm Beach Post and single mom, into a web of danger and deceit in this spine-tingler from bestseller Fielding (_Heartstopper_). When Jill invites Charley to collaborate on the true story of what really happened to the three children she was convicted of murdering, Charley at first thinks it sounds like a great idea. Her sister Anne is, after all, a bestselling romance author, so why couldn't Charley have a nonfiction bestseller? Charley meets with Jill's attractive lawyer, Alex Prescott, who secures a book contract. After committing to the project, Charley begins dating Alex. Then Charley learns Jill had an accomplice, someone on the loose whom Jill calls Jack. Fielding pulls out all the stops as the identity of the ruthless murderer becomes obvious, and Charley must race against time to catch the horrible Jack and save his next target—her son. (Mar.) br Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. FromFresh off the solid thriller Heartstopper (2007), prolific, perennially best-selling Fielding delivers another suspenseful tale. Feisty Charley Webb is forever stirring up controversy with her popular column for the Palm Beach Post. But while her career is going great guns, her personal life is something of a struggle. She’s raising two children on her own, her satirical columns about her neighbors’ hobbies and opinions have not made her very popular in her residential community, and she has only recently reestablished a relationship with her mother, who abandoned the family when Charley was eight. When she is asked to write a biography of notorious female serial killer Jill Rohmer, whose victims were children, she sees it as a chance to take her career to the next level. However, she is unprepared for the emotional toll that her interviews with the wily felon will exact, and she begins to receive a series of e-mails threatening harm to her own children. Despite the repetitive and, at times, inane dialogue, Fielding turns her latest page-turner into a chillingly tense read while creating another winning lead in the smart-mouthed Charley. --Joanne Wilkinson