Her particular instrument was a gift from her grandmother-intricately carved with a mysterious-looking dragon. When this special family heirloom vanishes from a local church, strange clues surface: a tea kettle ornamented with a familiar pointy-faced dragon, a threatening note, a connection to a famous dead musician, and even a legendary curse. The clues point all the way to India, where it seems that Neela's instrument has a long history of vanishing and reappearing. Even if Neela does track it down, will she be able to stop it from disappearing again?Sheela Chari's debut novel is a finely tuned story of coincidence and fate, trust and deceit, music and mystery.

    It contains simple but powerful techniques, moves, and lines that offer a direct line to casual sex. Bang includes... • The 8 essential beliefs of the alpha male.• The 5 critical components of the "vibe," an optimal attitude women find most attractive.• Tons of natural, high-impact opening lines that work just about anywhere women can be found.• Best answers to a girl's common questions that heighten the tension and build attraction.• A technique to get her phone number without asking for it.• Detailed text messaging strategy that shows you word-for-word how to get dates in the shortest amount of time possible (no need to make voice calls).• The one text messaging mistake 95% of guys make that kill the interaction.• A simple trick for the first date that will make her feel like she has known you longer than she actually has.Bang goes into explicit detail on how to escalate to intimacy...• "Four key moves" to the kiss that are so natural and easy to pull off that the girl won't even recognize them as moves.• A comprehensive dating strategy so you bang her no later than the third date.• The 5 magic words to say when you want to get inside her place • How to make a smooth transition to the bedroom.• 7 detailed steps to taking off her clothes.There is also an appendix that covers unique situations you may face...• How to approach girls in coffee shops, the gym, and foreign countries.• How to prevent a girl from seeing you as too young or too old.• A bonus "cheat sheet" that contains six of the most crucial points you need to remember when it's time to pickup girls.Dozens of additional topics are logically organized into five chapters...• Internal Game. How to build your confidence and adopt the correct beliefs that maximize your notch count.• Early Game. How to meet women, have good conversations, build attraction, and get either numbers, kisses, or one-night stands. • Middle Game. How to set up a date along with what to do and say while out on them.• Late Game. How to seal the deal and plan for future dates.• End Game. How to take your results to the next level.The lessons taught in this no-nonsense, no-fluff textbook aim to help men reach their sex potential based on their existing look and status.

    in a rural western New York State. Dubbed the "Henry Ford of Natural History," by 1917 Craxton has become America's preeminent taxidermist. Into this magic box of a world-filled with eerily inanimate gibbons and bats, owls and peacocks, quetzals and crocodiles-wanders young Peg Griswood, daughter of Craxton's newest housekeeper. Part coming-of-age story, part gothic mystery, and part exploration of the intimate embrace between art and life, Joanna Scott's The Manikin is compulsively readable and beautifully written.

    Or you're whipping up quesadillas for a snack, using your homemade Triple Pepper Hack. Or the dinner party's in high gear and out comes the cheese plate—and yes, you've made all the cheeses on it. Even better—you made them all earlier that day.In a cookbook whose results seem like magic but whose recipes and instructions are specific, easy-to-follow, and foolproof, Claudia Lucero shows step by step—with every step photographed—exactly how to make sixteen fresh cheeses at home, using easily available ingredients and tools, in an hour or less. The approach is basic and based on thousands of years of cheesemaking wisdom: Heat milk, add coagulant, drain, salt, and press. Simple variations produce delicious results across three categories—Creamy and Spreadable, Firm and Chewy, and Melty and Gooey. And just as delicious, the author shows the best ways to serve them, recipes included: Squeaky “Pasta” Primavera, Mozzarella Kebab Party, and Curry in a Hurry Lettuce Wraps.

    He's been busy making beds at the family motel and writing alien stories to entertain his friends. Sure, a murder is big news, but what would "really" interest him? A paying job and a story line free of UFOs and poop jokes. And then he meets Rat. Just a little older than Todd, Rat's already been to Vietnam and back. He's got a tattoo and a messed-up family life. And when he offers Todd a gig at the drive-in theater, Todd takes it. After all, it pays actual money. But hanging out with Rat leads to a host of strange experiences and perplexing questions. More and more, that corpse from the river is on Todd's mind, and no matter how he shifts the pieces around, Rat is always part of the puzzle. "

    Clear, comprehensive coverage of utility theory, 2-person zero-sum games, 2-person non-zero-sum games, n-person games, individual and group decision-making, more. Bibliography.

    Banister Fletcher has been the standard one volume architectural history for over 100 years and continues to give a concise and factual account of world architecture from the earliest times.In this twentieth and centenary edition, edited by Dan Cruickshank with three consultant editors and fourteen new contributors, chapters have been recast and expanded and a third of the text is new. * There are new chapters on the twentieth-century architecture of the Middle East (including Israel), South-east Asia, Hong Kong, Japan and Korea, the Indian subcontinent, Russia and the Soviet Union, Eastern Europe and Latin America. * The chapter on traditional architecture of India has been rewritten and the section on traditional Chinese architecture has been expanded, both with new specially commissioned drawings* The architecture of the Americas before 1900 has been enlarged to include, for the first time, detailed coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean* The book's scope has been widened to include more architecture from outside Europe* The bibliography has been expanded into a separate section and is a key source of information on every period of world architecture* The coverage of the 20th century architecture of North America has been divided into two chapters to allow fuller coverage of contemporary works* 20th century architecture of Western Europe has been radically recast* For the first time the architecture of the twentieth century is considered as a whole and assessed in an historical perspective* Coverage has been extended to include buildings completed during the last ten years* The coverage of Islamic architecture has been increased and re-organised to form a self contained sectionThis unique reference book places buildings in their social, cultural and historical settings to describe the main patterns of architectural development, from Prehistoric to the International Style. Again in the words of Sir Banister Fletcher, this book shows that 'Architecture ... provides a key to the habits, thoughts and aspirations of the people, and without a knowledge of this art the history of any period lacks that human interest with which it should be invested.'

    But growing evidence suggests instead that our choices are often irrational, biased, and occasionally even moronic. Which view is right—or is there another possibility?In this animated tour of the inner workings of the mind, psychologist Douglas T. Kenrick and business professor Vladas Griskevicius challenge the prevailing views of decision making, and present a new alternative grounded in evolutionary science. By connecting our modern behaviors to their ancestral roots, they reveal that underneath our seemingly foolish tendencies is an exceptionally wise system of decision making.From investing money to choosing a job, from buying a car to choosing a romantic partner, our choices are driven by deep-seated evolutionary goals. Because each of us has multiple evolutionary goals, though, new research reveals something radical—there's more than one “you” making decisions. Although it feels as if there is just one single “self” inside your head, your mind actually contains several different subselves, each one steering you in a different direction when it takes its turn at the controls.The Rational Animal will transform the way you think about decision making. And along the way, you'll discover the intimate connections between ovulating strippers, Wall Street financiers, testosterone-crazed skateboarders, Steve Jobs, Elvis Presley, and you.

    One night, she steals out to look for him, and makes two surprising discoveries: She stumbles upon a séance that she suspects involves Orion, and she meets the author Charles Dickens, also unable to sleep, and roaming the London streets. He is a customer of Meg’s father, who owns a print shop, and a family friend. Mr. Dickens fears that the children of London aren’t safe, and is trying to solve the mystery of so many disappearances. If he can, then perhaps he’ll be able to write once again.   With stunning black-and-white illustrations by Greg Ruth, here is a literary mystery that celebrates the power of books, and brings to life one of the world’s best-loved authors.

    Before long, it becomes apparent that hers is a prodigious talent, and as she progresses to the top of the US chess rankings she is able to forge a new life for herself. But she can never quite overcome her urge to self-destruct. For Beth, there’s more at stake than merely winning and losing.

    Every Wednesday, I hope for more than, “what’s your drink order?” Until one Wednesday, a week from Christmas, she needs me. Okay… so she needs anyone, it seems, to be her fake-date to her sister’s Christmas wedding. I happened to be in the right place at the right time. But a week in the mountains with my dream girl? Sign me up.Hmmm, Patrick Kelley? My borderline stalker? My Wednesday regular? I’m not interested. I’d never bring him home to meet my family. But times are desperate. I can’t spend a week in the mountains with my family alone, plus my ex will be there, so I ask Patrick…“Will you be my fake-date for the holidays?”I figure he’ll be easy to control.I couldn’t have been more wrong.*FAKED is sexy Christmas standalone with a HEA. It is a companion novel to Sarah Darlington's KILL DEVIL INK series. It does not need to be read with the others in the series to enjoy. Happy Holidays!

    But what the Habsburg court hails as the greatest innovation of the century is really nothing more than a brilliant illusion. The chess machine is secretly operated from inside by the Italian dwarf Tibor, a God-fearing social outcast whose chess-playing abilities and diminutive size make him the perfect accomplice in this grand hoax.Von Kempelen and his helpers tour his remarkable invention all around Europe to amaze and entertain the public, but despite many valiant attempts and close calls, no one is able to beat the extraordinary chess machine. The crowds all across Europe adore the Turk, and the success of Baron von Kempelen seems assured. But when a beautiful and seductive countess dies under mysterious circumstances in the presence of the automaton, the Mechanical Turk falls under a cloud of suspicion, and the machine and his inventor become the target of espionage, persecution, and aristocratic intrigue.

    Ned Conti needs a stipend. So the struggling young historian agrees to trace the mysterious past of a Brooklyn nun for evidence of miracles. Trapped in a neighborhood of cheap rents and failed promise, in a rent-controlled apartment suddenly, inexplicably seized by a beautiful and angry ghost, Ned's only refuge is the F train to Manhattan's East Village bars, where he and his friends drown their sorrows in drink....But Ned is about to heed another call, the siren song of New Orleans, where the history of countless lost souls seems to rise from the steaming streets--and where, ten years before, he ended a brief, passionate affair with a woman whose memory has haunted him ever since. Here, in a city of spirits, Ned will embrace a dead saint and a living sinner...as a beautiful ghost offers him her desire. And his destiny....Set amid the sleepless energy and seething passion of New York and New Orleans, Madeleine's Ghost is a spellbinding novel of lost love, history, and desire--a work of startling originality that is at once exquisitely written and compulsively readable.

    A roman à clef about Eisner's early years in the thriving comics industry prior to World War II featuring new annotations that reveal the comics pioneers like Bob Kane and Jack Kirby who appear under pseudonyms.

    "-O'Shaughnessy's conclusion that some strategies do produce consistently strong results while others underperform could shake up the investment business."-Barron's. The New York Times and Business Week bestseller, What Works on Wall Street is now updated throughout to include the most current data available and 50 new sample portfolios. Hailed as "a great book" by Forbes, What Works on Wall Street is a must read for any investor looking to make savvy, historically informed decisions.