Grace Valley Trilogy Complete Collection: Deep in the Valley\Just Over the Mountain\Down by the River


Robyn Carr - 2014
    Visitors to the town often remark about the valley’s peace and beauty—both of which are plentiful. Unlocked doors, front porches, pies cooling in the windows—this is country life at its finest. But visitors don’t always see what lies at the heart of a community. Or just beyond…Deep in the ValleyThe daughter of the town doctor, June Hudson left only to get her medical training, then returned home and followed in her father’s footsteps. Some might say she chose the easy, comfortable route…but June knows better. Her emergency room is wherever she’s needed—or wherever a patient finds her. She is always on call, her work is her life, and these people are her extended family. Which is a good thing, since this is a town where you should have picked your husband in the ninth grade. It’s not exactly the place to meet eligible men—until an undercover DEA agent suddenly starts appearing at all sorts of strange hours. Everybody has secrets down in the valley. Now June has one of her own.Just Over the MountainIn this peaceful community, it’s hard to keep a secret—but Dr. June Hudson has managed to keep one heck of a humdinger. Though visits from undercover DEA agent Jim Post are as clandestine as they are passionate, somehow it fits with her demanding schedule. But how can a secret lover compete with a flesh-and-blood heartthrob from her past? June’s old flame has just returned after twenty years—and he’s divorced. June is seriously rattled. So when the town’s most devoted wife takes buckshot to her husband and some human bones turn up in her aunt Myrna’s backyard, June is almost happy for the distraction. Sooner or later, love will have its way in Grace Valley. It always does.Down by the RiverPeople in town are beginning to notice the bloom in Dr. June Hudson’s cheeks—and the swell of her belly. Happily, DEA agent Jim Post is back in June’s arms for good, newly retired from undercover work and ready for new beginnings. And the community is overflowing with gossip right now. Who is the secret paramour June’s aunt Myrna is hiding? Does the town’s poker-playing pastor have too many aces up his sleeve? But when dangers, from man and nature, rise up with a vengeance to threaten June and the town, this community pulls together and shows what it’s made of. And Jim discovers the true meaning of happiness here in Grace Valley: there really is no place like home.

Tempest in the Tea Room


Libi Astaire - 2012
    When the ailment travels to the Mayfair home of Lady Marblehead, a young Jewish physician is accused of poisoning his patients - a suspicion that is further fueled when a priceless pearl bracelet is discovered missing from Lady Marblehead's jewellery box.As more outbreaks occur, an increasingly hysterical community turns to Mr Ezra Melamed to investigate the case. But once again there are too few clues and too little time, especially since the littlest victim, a frail orphan boy, is already almost at death's door.

Vampire on the Orient Express


Shane Carrow - 2019
    American adventurer Sam Carter boards the Orient Express, departing France in style after an impulsive decision to desert the Foreign Legion. British diplomat Lucas Avery is already nursing a drink in the smoking car, resenting his assignment to the distant Ottoman Empire. Neither man expects anything more from the next three days and three thousand miles than rich food, expensive champagne and fine cigars. But something dangerous is lurking aboard the train, hiding in plain sight among French aristocrats and German businessmen. Through fire and darkness, through blood and ice, the Orient Express is bearing an ancient evil across the continent - and not all its passengers will live to see Constantinople...

The Legends and Myths of Hawai'i


David Kalākaua - 1888
    It is rich in historical narrative. King Kalakaua relates the stories of certain great events with such verve that one can readily imagine he was an eyewitness. No doubt he had heard the same tales from the sons and daughters of those who had been present on occasions such as the death of Captain Cook. Since the momentous Hawaiian rejection of the ancient gods took place only two decades before his birth, many of the people about him as he grew to manhood had lived under the old system. His sources of knowledge were direct indeed.

The Grub-And-Stakers Move a Mountain


Alisa Craig - 1981
    Sergeant MacVicars polices close-knit Lobelia Falls, where every citizen is an archery addict. Aided by author Arethusa Monk, the crew find out who shish-kebobbed the Water Works man, run a campaign, plan a 25th anniversary party, and inhale unwholesome amounts of Fig Newtons.

The Granny Square Book: Timeless Techniques and Fresh Ideas for Crocheting Square by Square


Margaret Hubert - 2011
    They originated with pioneer women using up precious scraps of yarn to make blankets for their families, and over the years, many recognized, named patterns have been handed down from one generation to the next. Beyond this treasury of 75 different granny square motifs, Margaret Hubert shows the evolution of the granny square, how it can be used and interpreted in different ways with different yarns, and how today's crocheter can design her own projects using the granny squares of her choice with the yarn choices of today. Just as Margaret learned from her grandmother and mother and then passed the skill down to her daughter and granddaughter, each generation finds new uses and artistic ways to interpret granny squares.

Survival in the Shadows: Seven Jews Hidden in Hitler's Berlin


Barbara Lovenheim - 2002
    Ellen Lewinsky and her mother, Charlotte, joined them; a year later, Bruno Gumpel arrived. Hiding in a small factory near Hitler’s bunker, without identification cards or food-ration stamps, they were dependent on German strangers for survival.   When Russian soldiers finally rescued the group in April 1945, the families were near death from starvation. But their will to live triumphed and two months later, four of the survivors—Erich Arndt and Ellen Lewinsky, and Ruth Arndt and Bruno Gumpel—reunited in a double wedding ceremony.  Survival in the Shadows chronicles the previously untold story of the largest group of German Jews to have survived hiding in Berlin through the final and most deadly years of the Holocaust.   Relayed to Barbara Lovenheim by three survivors from the group, the riveting story is a touching portrayal of the bravery of these seven Jews, and a heartfelt acknowledgment of the fortitude and humanity of the compassionate Germans who kept them alive.

AWS Well-Architected Framework (AWS Whitepaper)


AWS Whitepapers - 2020
    We address general design principles as well as specific best practices and guidance in five conceptual areas that we define as the pillars of the Well-Architected Framework. This documentation is offered for free here as a Kindle book, or you can read it in PDF format at https://aws.amazon.com/whitepapers/.

Hawaiian Mythology


Martha Warren Beckwith - 1940
    They were life's fruitfulness and all the generations of mankind, both those who are to come and those already born.The Hawaiian gods were like great chiefs from far lands who visited among the people, entering their daily lives sometimes as humans or animals, sometimes taking residence in a stone or wooden idol. As years passed, the families of gods grew and included the trickster Maui, who snared the sun, and fiery Pele of the volcano.Ancient Hawaiian lived by the animistic philosophy that assigned living souls to animals, trees, stones, stars, and clouds, as well as to humans. Religion and mythology were interwoven in Hawaiian culture; and local legends and genealogies were preserved in song, chant, and narrative.Martha Beckwith was the first scholar to chart a path through the hundreds of books, articles, and little-known manuscripts that recorded the oral narratives of the Hawaiian people. Her book has become a classic work of folklore and ethnology, and the definitive treatment of Hawaiian mythology.With an introduction by Katherine Luomala.

Helen of Pasadena


Lian Dolan - 2010
    She's a sharp and funny speaker who is much in demand.

The Other Log of Phileas Fogg


Philip José Farmer - 1973
    Phileas Fogg's epic global journey is not the product of a daft wager but, in fact, a covert mission to chase down the elusive Captain Nemo, who is none other than Professor Moriarty. About a hundred years ago, a group of mutant supermen began playing a major role in our affairs. In the Wold Newton universe, It was no accident characters such as Sherlock Holmes, Flash Gordon, Doc Savage, James Bond and Jack the Ripper are all mysteriously connected. Nor was it accidental that their biographers titillated their public with hints of their true natures while not daring to part the veil. Just what was it that restrained them from telling all?

W.E.B. Du Bois: The Fight for Equality and the American Century, 1919-1963


David Levering Lewis - 2000
    This monumental biography--eight years in the research and writing--treats the early and middle phases of a long and intense career: a crucial fifty-year period that demonstrates how Du Bois changed forever the way Americans think about themselves.

The Byzantine World War


Nick Holmes - 2019
    But why did they happen?Their origins are revealed in a new light. As part of a medieval world war that stretched from Asia to Europe. At its centre was an ancient empire – Byzantium.Told for the first time as a single, linked narrative are three great events that changed history: the fall of Byzantium in the eleventh century, the epic campaign of the First Crusade and the origins of modern Turkey.Nick Holmes not only presents the First Crusade in a wider global context but he also puts forwards new interpretations of the original sources, suggesting that its success was in fact largely accidental, and that the central role of Byzantium in the Crusades has been underestimated.

The Last Wild Men of Borneo: A True Story of Death and Treasure


Carl Hoffman - 2018
    The other vanished forever into an endless jungle. Had he shed civilization—or lost his mind? Global headlines suspected murder. Lured by these mysteries, New York Times bestselling author Carl Hoffman journeyed to find the truth, discovering that nothing is as it seems in the world’s last Eden, where the lines between sinner and saint blur into one.In 1984, Swiss traveler Bruno Manser joined an expedition to the Mulu caves on Borneo, the planet’s third largest island. There he slipped into the forest interior to make contact with the Penan, an indigenous tribe of peace-loving nomads living among the Dayak people, the fabled “Headhunters of Borneo.” Bruno lived for years with the Penan, gaining acceptance as a member of the tribe. However, when commercial logging began devouring the Penan’s homeland, Bruno led the tribe against these outside forces, earning him status as an enemy of the state, but also worldwide fame as an environmental hero. He escaped captivity under gunfire twice, but the strain took a psychological toll. Then, in 2000, Bruno disappeared without a trace. Had he become a madman, a hermit, or a martyr?American Michael Palmieri is, in many ways, Bruno’s opposite. Evading the Vietnam War, the Californian wandered the world, finally settling in Bali in the 1970s. From there, he staged expeditions into the Bornean jungle to acquire astonishing art and artifacts from the Dayaks. He would become one of the world’s most successful tribal-art field collectors, supplying sacred works to prestigious museums and wealthy private collectors. And yet suspicion shadowed this self-styled buccaneer who made his living extracting the treasure of the Dayak: Was he preserving or exploiting native culture?As Carl Hoffman unravels the deepening riddle of Bruno’s disappearance and seeks answers to the questions surrounding both men, it becomes clear saint and sinner are not so easily defined and Michael and Bruno are, in a sense, two parts of one whole: each spent his life in pursuit of the sacred fire of indigenous people. The Last Wild Men of Borneo is the product of Hoffman’s extensive travels to the region, guided by Penan through jungle paths traveled by Bruno and by Palmieri himself up rivers to remote villages. Hoffman also draws on exclusive interviews with Manser’s family and colleagues, and rare access to his letters and journals. Here is a peerless adventure propelled by the entwined lives of two singular, enigmatic men whose stories reveal both the grandeur and the precarious fate of the wildest place on earth.

Oliver Cromwell and the Rule of the Puritans in England


Charles Harding Firth - 1900
     Frith describes the years which led to Cromwell seizing power. These years included the rise and fall of megalomaniac King Charles I, meetings of the Long Parliaments of the 1640s and the discussions concerning the newer ideas in English Christianity (Presbyterianism, Calvinism and so forth). Then came the Puritan rebellion against Charles following their Nineteen Propositions of 1642. Throughout the 1640s and 1650s the Royalists, fighting on behalf of the King, were engaged in fighting with the Puritans, and Firth gives excellent and vivid descriptions of battle based on first-hand accounts. Assisted by the Scottish Army, the Battle of Marston Moor was a key point in the conflict, where Cromwell gained the nickname ‘Ironsides’ from his followers and ‘Lord of the Fens’ from his opponents due to his support of the rights of peasants. In 1648 he joined the army to quell any outbreak of civil war and anarchy, persuading the soldiers to side with him and Parliament. He also formulated ‘The Agreement of the People’. Then Ireland rose up against its Parliament, leading to Cromwell’s attempt to convert the nation to Protestantism, and England went to war with Scotland and the Netherlands. After the execution of Charles I in 1649, Cromwell was placed at the head of the English Republic, ‘a perpetual Parliament always sitting’, which became the Little Parliament within a few years. Opposed to him were the Levellers and Presbyterians, which shows that the events had both a political and religious dimension. He also gave kindness to the Quakers and formed an alliance with France against Spain in a move that was much criticised in the years that followed. Cromwell initially wanted to incorporate the army into how England was governed, but by 1653 civilian rule had been restored. Cromwell was given the title of Protector and set about promoting the separation of powers within government and the reform of law and the English courts system. He also encouraged education and scholarship, which were linked with his own religious ideals to unite the branches of the English church, and hoped to secure England’s commercial and religious interests within Europe and the colonies. Right up to his death in 1660, argues Firth in a wide-ranging and brilliant study of Puritanism and the man who stood at its head, no man exerted more influence on the religious development of England. Charles Firth (1857-1936) was Regius Professor of Modern History at Oxford University and president of the Royal Historical Society. His works concerned seventeenth-century England and included Scotland and the Commonwealth.