Ming was an only child born to loving parents during the ‘one child per family’ regime ,known as the “one child policy”,. She was lucky enough to be an only child but many in her village were not! Second-born children were hidden by their families from the authorities – kept up at night and hidden asleep under their houses during the day. “Children of the Night” fascinated Ming and she sneaked out to join them. She began staying up at night and playing with her friends until she too, started sleeping during the day. One night, the authorities raided her village, and brutally removed all the ‘identity less’ children who were playing outside at night, including Ming, despite her mother’s screams that she is an only child. The militia took them to a remote children’s house for re-education. Under harsh conditions of cold, hunger and physical abuse, Ming spends her adolescence there, even though she has an identity and belongs with her family. Her deep longing for her parents and home, instill in her a strong desire to escape. Will she succeed?

    He falls in love with Jane, the oldest Bennet girl. Everything goes well—for a while. Then the handsome bachelor’s proud best friend, Mr. Darcy, ruins everything.Elizabeth Bennet has never hated anyone as much as she hates Mr. Darcy. How could she ever forgive the man who has ruined her sister’s happiness? She knows everything she needs to know about him. He is proud, hateful, conceited, and horrid—and he wants to marry her.Elizabeth and Darcy’s memorable, witty battle of hearts and minds has made Pride and Prejudice a readers’ favorite for almost two hundred years.Readability Note: This Townsend Library Classic has been carefully edited for clarity and readability.Source: townsendpress.com

    Having achieved a measure of success in the Emperor’s Legions in North Africa, Lucius is recalled to Rome where he finds himself surrounded by enemies, cast into the deadly arena of Roman politics. Amid growing fears of treachery, Lucius meets a young Athenian woman who fills his darkening world with new-found hope. Their love grows, as does their belief that the Gods have planned their meeting but when an ancient oracle of Apollo utters a terrifying prophecy regarding his future, Lucius’ world is once more thrown into chaos. Ultimately, he must choose sides in a war that threatens to destroy his family, his faith and all that he has worked for.

    Mori Rothstein, an art dealer and expert in master paintings from Rococo to Realism, has been sought after by every major museum in the world. Also seeking his expertise is Reichsmarschall Hermann Goering. As his friends and fellow Jews disappear one by one, Mori struggles to protect himself and his family by cooperating with the Germans to catalogue stolen paintings for the Fuhrer’s museum. Mori is neither a prisoner nor a free man as he forges a questionable relationship with one of the most notorious Nazis in Europe—his fidelity and morals tested daily. His once-charmed life transforms into a web of intrigue, kidnapping, and murder, against the backdrop of the world’s most treasured art. How does he get himself and his family out the other side of the war, while also attempting to rescue some of the greatest paintings of all time?

    Peking, 1914. When the eight-year-old princess Eastern Jewel is caught spying on her father's liaison with a servant girl, she is banished from the palace, sent to live with a powerful family in Japan. Renamed Yoshiko Kawashima, she quickly falls in love with her adoptive country, where she earns a scandalous reputation, taking fencing lessons, smoking opium, and entertaining numerous lovers. Sent to Mongolia to become an obedient wife, Yoshiko mounts a daring escape and eventually finds her way back to Peking high society—this time with orders from the Japanese secret service.Based on the true story of a rebellious woman who earned a controversial place in history, The Private Papers of Eastern Jewel is a vibrant reimagining of a thrilling life—a rich historical epic of palace intrigue, sexual manipulation, and international espionage.

    The spiritual leader of Fuama, Gayflor, opts to lead the army on this campaign.

    A wild thriller and deadly game of cat-and-mouse from one of China's most popular authors. For fans of Jo Nesbo, Se7en, and Hong Kong police cinema.The brutal murder of respected police officer Sergeant Zheng Haoming sends shock waves through Chengdu, a modern metropolis in the heart of China's stunning Sichuan province. He had been obsessed by an unsolved, eighteen-year-old murder case until an entity calling itself Eumenides (after the Greek goddess of vengeance and retribution) releases a terrifying manifesto. Is the manifesto a sick joke, or something more sinister? Soon, the public starts nominating worthy targets for Eumenides to kill, and, two days later, Sergeant Zheng is dead. Eumenides' cunning game is only getting started. The police receive a "death notice," a chilling note announcing the the killer's next target, the crimes they have committed, and the date of their execution. The note is both a challenge and a taunt to the police. When the first victim dies in public, under their complete protection, the police are left stunned. More death notices are coming. The chase is on.Death Notice is an explosive, page-turning thriller filtered through a vibrant cultural lens. Zhou Haohui expertly adds an exhilarating new perspective to the twists and tropes of the genre all fans love, making for a uniquely propulsive and entertaining read.

    The Great War is over, and sisters Iris and Rose are adjusting to life in their modest Liverpool home after their brother Charlie has returned from the front. But when their mother sends Rose to the beautiful Welsh village of Tregarron to recover from an illness she discovers a new world of possibility at her feet. There, she obtains a job as housemaid to the wealthy but tragic Rhys-Pritchard family and falls in love with the young but troubled head of house. Meanwhile at home, Charlie, keen to improve his social standing, becomes engaged to the daughter of a successful coal merchant, while Iris falls for a porter from the local fruit market. Then tragedy strikes, and the whole family must pull together if they are to survive the turmoil ahead. Their support of one another can only bring them closer together, but will they be forced to put their dreams on hold in the process?

    During China’s tumultuous Cultural Revolution, the People’s Liberation Army dispatches an elite group of prospectors famous for their work uncovering rare minerals to the mountains of rural Inner Mongolia. Their assignment: to bring honor to their country by descending into a maze of dank caves to find and retrieve the remnants of a buried World War II bomber left by their Japanese enemies. How the aircraft ended up beneath thousands of feet of rock baffles the team, but they’ll soon encounter far more treacherous and equally inexplicable forces lurking in the shadows. Each step taken—and each life lost—brings them closer to a mind-bending truth that should never see the light of day. Pride sent them into the caves, but terror will drive them out.Through the eyes of one of the prospectors, bestselling Chinese author Xu Lei leads readers on a gripping and suspenseful journey.

    Seek this superbly researched and deftly written novel out"Review By Peter Desmond'City Weekend' Magazine, Shanghai 10 December 2013The severed head in the bamboo birdcage swayed above the teeming marketplace. It told Constable Mike Gallagher everything he needed to know about Shanghai.It’s 1927. The son of a rural Irish cop, Gallagher joins the Shanghai Municipal Police. to escape an Ireland crippled by its recent bitter independence fight, and to trace the aristocratic woman whose memory still haunts him. They would venture together to China, Fiona once promised. Then the IRA torched her family estate. Everybody believes she died there. Everybody but Mike Gallagher.Shanghai. Pearl of the East or Whore of the Orient? Depends on who you ask. It’s a cesspool of poverty, thronged with refugees, gripped by civil war. But for some it’s still a fever dream: jazz clubs and opium dens, celebrities and spies, easy money and easier women. Gallagher encounters the city’s biggest philanthropist, a man called Big Ears Lu – who is also its creepiest racketeer. He falls for the beautiful courtesan Miriam Tsai. But does his collusion with Lu keep her trapped in the House of Multiple Joys? Shanghai in 1927 is a city where after dark anything seems possible. A city where anyone can be crushed, and anyone corrupted. Even an innocent Irish cop.From the wreckage of guerrilla war in Ireland to the dawn of world war in Asia, the international mystery thriller Gangsters of Shanghai seethes with 20th Century turbulence and temptation. Can Mike Gallagher escape the imploding city with his life, his self-respect – and the answer to Fiona’s fate? About The Author Of Gangsters Of Shanghai, The International Mystery Thriller.Gerry O'Sullivan was born in Limerick, Ireland in 1961, where he indulged his taste for historical fiction, intelligent action thrillers and men’s adventure books. A graduate of the University of Limerick, he moved to Australia in 1986 and worked in the international education sector. Gerry was inspired to write this action mystery by his granduncle, a Detective Inspector in the Shanghai Municipal Police during the 1920’s. Spellbound by old photographs and family lore, Gerry resolved to write an action adventure thriller with the accuracy of historical fiction. Gerry travelled to Shanghai, Hong Kong, Singapore and Brandeis University, Boston where the top-secret files of the Shanghai Municipal Police Special Branch are kept on microfilm (they were smuggled out of Shanghai by the CIA in 1949).Gerry then moved to Singapore to immerse himself in the atmosphere of a fast paced English-speaking Asian city, as Shanghai was in the 1920’s and 1930’s. To achieve the pulse-quickening features of an action mystery with the demandingly accurate details of historical fiction, Gerry blended his granduncle’s stories about his Shanghai police work, years of scholarly research, and his own experiences of the city.

    Meet the siblings in the mischievous and loving family at Kinfairlie and follow their adventures in pursuit of true love.In The Beauty Bride, Madeline is appalled by her older brother’s determination to see her wed against her will. When he auctions her hand to an outlawed mercenary, she flees them both, certain that her fate cannot be worse. But Rhys FitzHenry is not a man to abandon what he holds dear, and Madeline’s proud beauty has captured his heart. Can a rough knight enchant her with stories and convince her to be his wife in truth, or will his enemies have their vengeance first?In The Rose Red Bride, Vivienne is convinced that only destiny could bring such a wondrous secret lover to her chamber, but with morning’s light, her lover abducts her. Erik knows that justice can only be gained from the Lammergeier with force, especially as the fate of his young daughters hangs in the balance. Can Vivienne help this wounded highlander to regain his legacy, and win his heart for her own?In The Snow White Bride, Eleanor seeks sanctuary at Kinfairlie on Christmas Eve. The Laird of Kinfairlie’s sisters decide that the beautiful widow will be the perfect match for their brother. Alexander’s heart is quickly lost, but as Eleanor’s secrets are revealed, he fears he has trusted too much too soon. Will Eleanor’s past jeopardize the future of this knight who has claimed her heart, or can she save him from the peril that follows her?This digital boxed set includes all three medieval romances in the Jewels of Kinfairlie trilogy – The Beauty Bride, The Rose Red Bride, The Snow White Bride – as well as the linked short story, The Ballad of Rosamunde.

    Traveling from his rural home in Freshwind to the city of Xi’an, Happy brings only an eternally positive attitude, his devoted best friend Wufu, and a pair of high-heeled women’s shoes he hopes to fill with the love of his life.In Xi’an, Happy and Wufu find jobs as trash pickers sorting through the city’s filth, but Happy refuses to be deterred by inauspicious beginnings. In his eyes, dusty birds become phoenixes, the streets become rivers, and life is what you make of it. When he meets the beautiful Yichun, he imagines she is the one to fill the shoes and his Cinderella-esque dream. But when the harsh city conditions and the crush of societal inequalities take the life of his friend and shake Happy to his soul, he’ll need more than just his unrelenting optimism to hold on to the belief that something better is possible.

    She is grateful for her life, but now that she is on the precipice of total independence, she feels she is missing something. Determined to learn more of her past, Mia hops a plane to the country of her birth. As she follows the red thread back through her motherland, she is enamored by the history and culture of her heritage, strengthening her resolve to find the truth of her beginnings, even as Chinese officials struggle to keep it buried. With an unwavering spirit of determination, Mia battles the forces stacked against her and uncovers a truth that will change her life.

    The solitary Englishwoman Grey comes to Japan looking for a rare piece of footage that is said to document a particularly monstrous episode of the 1937 Nanking Massacre. Her quest will take her to a reclusive scholar and a wheelchair-bound gangster who clings to life with the aid of a mysterious elixir, and to a handsome American whose interest in Grey may be more sinister than romantic. The result is a work of spine-chilling suspense, masterful historical detail, and otherworldly beauty.

    An immediate bestseller, it inspired the classic Rodgers and Hammerstein musical. This charming, bittersweet tale of romance and the powerful bonds of family tells the story of Wang Ta, who wants what every young American man wants: a great career and a woman to love. Living in San Francisco's Chinatown—with his widowed father, Old Master Wang, who misses the old way of life in China, and his younger brother, who just wants to be a normal American teenager—Wang Ta becomes involved with a series of women as he searches for love and the American dream. Comic, poignant, and sexy, The Flower Drum Song is an astute portrayal of immigrants struggling with assimilation. This edition features a new introduction by David Henry Hwang.