David Rintoul
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This daring tale of revenge and exotic intrigue is demonstrative of Stevenson's broad range and unique genius. "The Master of Ballantrae", first published in 1889, follows the conflict between two Scottish brothers of noble origins during the tumultuous Jacobite Risings of 1745. Greed and envy threaten to tear the brothers apart as a race for the family inheritance intensifies. James Durie, the protagonist and Master of Ballantrae, is as charming...
2) Waverley
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Edward Waverly enjoyed a privileged upbringing, despite his family's drama. Coming of age during a political uprising, Edward's time is split between his father and his uncle, who each have opposing political views, which causes a rift in the family. His uncle is a traditional British subject that wishes to overthrow the government so that Charles Edward Stuart is restored to power, commonly known as a Jacobite. However, Edward's father is a Hanoverian,...
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After meeting during their travels, William Lovel, a young man, and Oldbuck, an antiquary, become good friends. Bonded over their shared interests, Lovel is very intrigued by Oldbuck's collections, particularly by the elder man's latest find, an ancient book about Roman ruins. Impressed by the young man's manners and intelligence, Oldbuck invites Lovel to meet some of his influential friends, including a wealthy man named Sir Arthur Wardour. While...
5) Armadale
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Allan Armadale makes a startling deathbed confession to be shared with his young son once he reaches adulthood-he murdered another man named Allan Armadale. It's a dark secret that inevitably looms over the child of the perpetrator and his victim.
Before dying, Allan Armadale reveals that he previously killed a man also named Allan Armadale. It's a revelation meant for his young son who discovers the information as an adult.
At this point, he's...
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One of the world's leading authorities on Zen Buddhism, D. T. Suzuki was the author of more than a hundred works on the subject in both Japanese and English, and was most instrumental in bringing the teachings of Zen Buddhism to the attention of the Western world. Written in a lively, accessible, and straightforward manner, An Introduction to Zen Buddhism is illuminating for the serious student and layperson alike. Suzuki provides a complete vision...
7) Alex
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Commandant Camille Verhoeven trilogy volume 2
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English
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"Alex Prevost - kidnapped and suspended from the ceiling of an abandoned warehouse in a tiny cage - is running out of time. Her abductor appears to want only to watch her die. Will hunger, thirst, or the rats get her first? As diminutive Police Commandant Camille Verhoeven and his band of talented, eccentric detectives uncover the details of the young woman's singular history, they are forced to acknowledge that she is no ordinary victim. She is beautiful,...
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From his humble beginnings as a Scottish immigrant to his ascension to wealth and power as a 'captain of industry', Andrew Carnegie embodied the American 'rags to riches' dream. Alive in the time of the Civil War, Carnegie was the epitome of a self-made man, first working his way up in a telegraph company and then making astute investments in the railroad industry. Through hard work, perseverance, and an earnest desire to develop himself in his education,...
9) Hell Fire
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A gruesome tableau awaits Inspector Konrad Sejer in the oppressive summer heat: a woman and a young boy lay dead in a pool of blood near a dank trailer. The motivation behind the deaths of Bonnie Hayden and her five-year-old son, Simon, is mysterious-there is no sign of robbery. Who would brutally stab a defenseless woman and her child? In a parallel story, another mother, Mass Malthe, navigates life with her adult son, Eddie. It's a relationship...
10) Don't Look Back
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At the foot of the imposing Kollen Mountain lies a small, idyllic village, where neighbors know neighbors and children play happily in the streets. But when the body of a teenage girl is found by the lake at the mountaintop, the town's tranquility is shattered forever.
Annie was strong, intelligent, and loved by everyone. What went so terribly wrong? Doggedly, yet subtly, Inspector Sejer uncovers layer upon layer of distrust and lies beneath the...
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Julian Baggini is an independent scholar, philosopher, and writer. He was the founding editor of The Philosophers' Magazine and is the author of many books, including How the World Thinks: A Global History of Philosophy and The Edge of Reason: A Rational Skeptic in an Irrational World. Website julianbaggini.com Twitter @JulianBaggini
Invaluable wisdom on living a good life from one of the Enlightenment's greatest philosophers
David Hume (1711–1776)...
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To the Western imagination, Tibet has always been a mysterious place. For centuries its capital, Lhasa, was known as a Forbidden City: it was ruled by a priest-king, and its medieval society was not welcoming to foreigners. But the exile of the Dalai Lama and his followers half a century ago, the destruction of the monasteries, and the plight of the Tibetan people who remained, evoked continuing sympathy. Jonathan Gregson places the religious and...
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Knockout Sales Tactics They Won't Teach You at Business School
Written by a sales veteran with a track record spanning millions of pounds and dollars in sealed deals, this book blends the best psychological, NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming) and classical persuasion techniques with a streetwise, gritty success system based on the author's own hard experience in selling and training sales professionals at the highest level. This book strips selling...
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Demosthenes (384-322 BCE) is regarded as one of the greatest orators of Classical times. This view has persisted through the centuries even though his rousing speeches warning of the dangers of Macedonian expansion - firstly guided by Philip II and then Alexander the Great - failed to stem the course of continued military success.
A contemporary of Plato and Aristotle, it is said that Demosthenes undertook arduous measures to cure himself of a stammer...
15) Sacred hunger
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Sacred Hunger is a stunning and engrossing exploration of power, domination, and greed. Filled with the "sacred hunger" to expand its empire and its profits, England entered fully into the slave trade and spread the trade throughout its colonies. In the Booker Prize–winning work, Barry Unsworth follows the failing fortunes of William Kemp, a merchant pinning his last chance to a slave ship; his son who needs a fortune because he is in love with...
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Here, in this second collection of Socratic Dialogues from Plato's Early Period, read by David Rintoul as Socrates with a full cast, are contrasting six works. Often, as with Gorgias, which opens the recording, Socrates combats the popular subjects of sophistry and rhetoric, in direct conversation with Gorgias (a leading sophist teacher), and with one of his pupils, Callicles.
In Meno, Socrates encounters another Gorgias pupil, Meno, and a debate...
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One of the finest German medieval epic poems, The Lay of the Nibelungs is perhaps best known now as one of the principal sources for Wagner's four-part music drama The Ring of the Nibelung. It is easy to see how Wagner was enthralled by the story and the poetry for the power of the tale drives the narrative: intense love, loyalty, jealousy, murder, duty, honour and massacre are all interwoven into a classic.
Many of the figures known to us by Wagner's...
18) Beyond: The Astonishing Story of the First Human Being to Leave our Planet and Journey into Space
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"A fresh and exciting take on an epic flight into space, the triumph of technology, and the Cold War battle in which the Soviets pre-empted the first American space mission by three weeks—a history with uncanny echoes of contemporary Russian resurgence at the expense of the U.S.
On April 12, 1961, twenty-seven-year old Yuri Gagarin, a Russian ex-foundry worker and loyal member of the Communist Party, climbed inside a tiny spherical capsule sitting...
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Xenophon was a friend of Socrates, and yet his concise memories of the iconic philosopher have lived under the shadow of the more voluminous accounts by Plato. Yet Xenophon's two works - Apology and Memorabilia - are, in many ways, more entertaining and more accessible, and they present a different view of the man who embodies a clear mind, temperate, ethical living, sharp intellect and humour.
For example, in Apology - the account of Socrates' trial...
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When the theft of a purse from a stroller results in an infant's death, two teenagers are in trouble. Unaware of the enormity of their crime, Zipp and Andreas are intent on committing still another. They follow an elderly woman home, and Andreas enters her house with his ever-reliable switchblade. Motionless in the dark, Zipp waits for his friend to come out.
Inspector Konrad Sejer and his colleague Jacob Skarre see no connection between the infant's...