James Cameron Stewart
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"Responding to an urgent plea from a troubled family friend, the Earl of Wrexford journeys to Oxford only to find the reclusive university librarian has been murdered and a rare manuscript has gone missing. The only clue is that someone overheard an argument in which Wrexford's name was mentioned. At the same time, Charlotte -- working under her pen name, A. J. Quill -- must determine whether a laboratory fire was arson and if it's connected to the...
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"Basil St. Florian is an accomplished agent in the British Army, tasked with dozens of dangerous missions for crown and country across the globe. But his current mission, going undercover in Nazi-occupied France during World War II, might be his toughest assignment yet. He will be searching for an ecclesiastic manuscript that doesn't officially exist, one that genius professor Alan Turing believes may hold the key to a code that could prevent the...
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For fans of Bridgerton looking for a mysterious twist on the glittering ballrooms of the Regency—a masterfully plotted story from a USA Today bestselling author that combines engaging protagonists with rich historical detail and international intrigue, plus a touch of romance that readers of Amanda Quick and Deanna Raybourn will savor.
"[Penrose] mixes well thought out mysteries, early forensic science, great details of...
"[Penrose] mixes well thought out mysteries, early forensic science, great details of...
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From an expert on the Eastern Front of World War II, this book chronicles the cataclysmic experience of the region that includes modern-day Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia.
The Baltic States suffered more than almost any other territory during World War II, caught on the front-line of some of the war's most vicious battles and squeezed between the vast military might of the German Wehrmacht and the Soviet Red Army.
Combining new archival...
The Baltic States suffered more than almost any other territory during World War II, caught on the front-line of some of the war's most vicious battles and squeezed between the vast military might of the German Wehrmacht and the Soviet Red Army.
Combining new archival...
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"If you're looking for a dose of wonder in your reading life, I recommend this beautiful book about the magic of fig trees."—Book Riot
Over millions of years, fig trees have shaped our world, influenced our evolution, nourished our bodies and fed our imaginations. And as author and ecologist Mike Shanahan proclaims, "The best could be yet to come."
Gods, Wasps and Stranglers weaves together the mythology, history
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Gerry, once an architect, is forgetful and set in his ways. Stella is tired of his lifestyle, worried about their marriage, and angry at his constant undermining of her religious faith. Things are not helped by memories that have begun to resurface of a troubled time in their native Ireland. As their midwinter break comes to an end, we understand how far apart they are--and can only watch as they struggle to save themselves. -- amazon.com.
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The New York Times–bestselling author of Brunelleschi's Dome captures the Renaissance spirit in this biography of "the king of the world's booksellers."
During the Renaissance, Florence's manuscript hunters, scribes, scholars, and booksellers blew the dust off a thousand years of history and, through the discovery and diffusion of ancient knowledge, imagined a new and enlightened world.
At the heart of this activity,...
During the Renaissance, Florence's manuscript hunters, scribes, scholars, and booksellers blew the dust off a thousand years of history and, through the discovery and diffusion of ancient knowledge, imagined a new and enlightened world.
At the heart of this activity,...
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In the year 800, Pope Leo III placed the crown of imperial Rome on a Germanic king named Karl. Thus, the man later hailed as Charlemagne claimed his empire and forever shaped the destiny of Europe. Transporting readers far beyond Europe to the glittering palaces of Constantinople and the streets of medieval Baghdad, this far-ranging book shows how the Frankish king and his wise counselors built an empire not only through warfare but also by careful...
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December 1348. The country is in the grip of the Black Death. Brothers John and William are given an unexpected choice: either to go home and spend their last six days in their familiar world, or to search for salvation across the forthcoming centuries- living each one of their remaining days ninety-nine years after the last. They choose the future and find themselves in 1447, ignorant of almost everything going on around them. The year 1546 brings...
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"An explosive global history that redefines the historical origins of the modern world through the life of Sultan Selim I and his Ottoman Empire. Long neglected in accounts of world history, the Ottoman Empire was a hub of flourishing intellectual fervor, geopolitical power, and enlightened pluralistic rule. At the helm of its ascent was the omnipotent Sultan Selim I (1470-1520), who, with the aid of his extraordinarily gifted mother, Gülbahar,...
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The Habsburg Empire was a ramshackle, lumbering old giant centered in the Danube Valley that held a central place in European politics from the Middle Ages to the end of WW I, ruled by the dominant dynasty of Europe for four centuries, the Habsburg family. Winder set out to wander through the lands that used to constitute the Empire, describing and reflecting on what he sees now, particularly in terms of the appearance of villages, towns, and cities,...
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From Robert Hughes, one of the greatest art and cultural critics of our time, comes a sprawling, comprehensive, and deeply personal history of Rome--as city, as empire, and, crucially, as an origin of Western art and civilization covering the span from the city's origins more than two thousand years ago through the twentieth century.
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On August 19, 1418, a competition concerning Florence's magnificent new cathedral, Santa Maria del Fiore--already under construction for more than a century--was announced: "Whoever desires to make any model or design for the vaulting of the main Dome....shall do so before the end of the month of September." The proposed dome was regarded far and wide as all but impossible to build: not only would it be enormous, but its original and sacrosanct design...
14) Maritime power & the struggle for freedom: naval campaigns that shaped the modern world, 1788-1851
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In Maritime Power and the Struggle for Freedom, Peter Padfield presents a superb description and analysis of naval campaigns, conducted between 1788 and 1851, that shaped the modern world.
This is the second of Padfield's masterful trilogy that traces the impact of naval power on modern history, and the means by which it has been enacted. The book combines vivid and engrossing descriptions of historically important events with careful analysis and...
15) The pirate round
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In 1706, war still rages in Europe, and the tobacco planters of the Virginia colony's tidewater struggle against shrinking markets and pirates lurking off the coast. But American seafarers have found a new source of wealth: the Indian Ocean and ships carrying fabulous treasure to the great Mogul of India.
Faced with ruin, former pirate Thomas Marlowe is determined to find a way to the riches of the East. Carrying his crop of tobacco in his privateer,...
16) Metaphysics
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Aristotle's Metaphysics was the first major study of the subject of metaphysics - in other words, an inquiry into 'first philosophy', or 'wisdom'. It differs from Physics, which is concerned with the natural world: things which are subject to the laws of nature, things that move and change, are measurable. In Metaphysics, the study falls on 'being qua being' - being insofar as it is being; the causes and principles of being, the causes and principles...
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Timeless wisdom on generosity and gratitude from the great Stoic philosopher Seneca
To give and receive well may be the most human thing you can do-but it is also the closest you can come to divinity. So argues the great Roman Stoic thinker Seneca in his longest and most searching moral treatise, "On Benefits" (De Beneficiis). James Romm's splendid new translation of essential selections from this work conveys the heart of Seneca's argument that...
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Two contrasting reflections by Aristotle which cover very particular ground. In 'On the Soul', Aristotle presents his view of the 'life essence' which, he argues, is possessed by living things whether plants, animals or humans.
Not a 'soul' in the generally accepted Western use of the term, this 'soul', he says, is a life force that is indivisible from the organism that possesses it. The essay is divided into three books. Presenting his concept in...
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The Secret History, written by the sixth-century Byzantine historian Procopius, is one of the most extraordinary and scandalous documents to have survived from the early Byzantine period.
Procopius, the leading official historian of his time, lived during the testing and indulgent time of Emperor Justinian the Great and wrote the official records of the successful wars and the grand building projects of his ruler. These were words of aggrandisement....
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In the great wars of modern history, maritime powers have always prevailed over land-based empires, whether Habsburg, Napoleonic, Nazi or Soviet.
In contrast to the rigid hierarchies and centralization of land-based empires, those nations attaining mastery at sea have been distinguished by liberty, flexibility, and enterprise. The seventeenth-century Dutch were the first to achieve naval and trading dominance and, exploring the effects on daily...