The Albigensian Crusade


Jonathan Sumption - 1978
    The Albingenses believed that the world was created by an evil spirit, and that all worldly things - including the Church - were by nature sinful.Jonathan Sumption's acclaimed history examines the roots of the heresy, the uniquely rich culture of the region which nurtured it, and the crusade launched against it by the Church which resulted in one of the most savage of all medieval wars.'[Sumption] never fails to keep his narrative lively with the particular and the pertinent. He is excellent on the tactics and spirit of medieval warfare.' Frederic Raphael, Sunday Times

Hitler's Panzers: The Lightning Attacks that Revolutionized Warfare


Dennis E. Showalter - 2009
     Determined to secure a quick, decisive victory on the World War II battlefields, Adolf Hitler adopted an attack plan that combined tools with technique- the formidable Panzer divisions. Self-contained armored units able to operate independently, the Panzers became the German army's fighting core as well as its moral focus, establishing an entirely new military doctrine. In Hitler's Panzers, renowned World War II scholar Dennis Showalter presents a comprehensive and unbiased study of Nazi Germany's armored forces. By delving deeply into a detailed history of the theory, strategy, myths, and realities of Germany's technologically innovative approach to warfare, Showalter provides a look at the military lessons of the past, and a speculation on how the Panzer ethos may be implemented in the future of international conflict.

A history of the United States


Cecil Chesterton - 1919
    This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words. This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book.

The Riftwar Legacy: The Complete 4-Book Collection


Raymond E. Feist - 2013
    Feist. This bundle includes the complete Riftwar Legacy.The bundle includes: Krondor: The Betrayal (1), Krondor: The Assassins (2), Krondor: Tear of the Gods (3) and the new novella Jimmy and the Crawler.From the endlessly inventive mind of one of fantasy’s all time greats, comes a spellbinding new adventure featuring old favourites Jimmy, Locklear and Pug.It is nine years on from the aftermath of Sethanon. There has been peace awhile and it’s been needed. But news is feeding through to the people of the Kingdom of the Isles that deadly forces are stirring on the horizon. The bringer of the latest tidings is Gorath, a moredhel.The bloodletting has started. Nighthawks are murdering again. Politics is a dangerous, cut-throat game once more. At the root of all this unrest lie the mysterious machinations of a group of magicians known as The Six.Meanwhile, renegade Tsurani gem smugglers, a rival criminal gang to the Mockers led by someone known only as The Crawler, and traitors to the crown are all conspiring to bring the Kingdom of the Isles to its knees.Join the adventure with all four books in the Riftwar Legacy series which includes the new novella, Jimmy and the Crawler!

Stolen Secrets


J.S. Donovan - 2018
    After creating her latest masterpiece, Ellie's entire world is flipped upside down. What caused her to paint the bloodied stranger? Ellie didn’t know, but days later a woman of the painting’s exact likeness is found dead. Obsessed with finding answers, Ellie quickly becomes the next target of a mysterious killer hunting artists throughout the city of Northampton, Massachusetts. The Secret Letter A mysterious chain letter is only the beginning to an inescapable nightmare. Homicide Detective Michael Dobson has seen many things in his long years on the force, but nothing can prepare him for a series of murders linked through the same mysterious chain letter mailed to the victims before their untimely demise. The answers lie in the victims’ pasts, leading Dobson and his rookie partner on a serpentine quest through the dark recesses of vengeance and betrayal. Can he stop the killer in time, or will a brutal fate await all who have made the killer’s list?

Agincourt: Henry V and the Battle that Made England


Juliet Barker - 2005
    Although almost six centuries old, the Battle of Agincourt still captivates the imaginations of men and women on both sides of the Atlantic. It has been immortalized in high culture (Shakespeare's Henry V) and low (the New York Post prints Henry's battle cry on its editorial page each Memorial Day). It is the classic underdog story in the history of warfare, and generations have wondered how the English -- outnumbered by the French six to one -- could have succeeded so bravely and brilliantly. Drawing upon a wide range of sources, eminent scholar Juliet Barker casts aside the legend and shows us that the truth behind Agincourt is just as exciting, just as fascinating, and far more significant. She paints a gripping narrative of the October 1415 clash between outnumbered English archers and heavily armored French knights. But she also takes us beyond the battlefield into palaces and common cottages to bring into vivid focus an entire medieval world in flux. Populated with chivalrous heroes, dastardly spies, and a ferocious and bold king, Agincourt is as earthshaking as its subject -- and confirms Juliet Barker's status as both a historian and a storyteller of the first rank.

Everything Under the Heavens


Dana Stabenow - 2014
    Hers is a world of spice merchants and pearl divers, bandits and troubadours, servants and sheikhs. A world in which trust is more valuable than gold, and the right name can unlock a network of contacts from Japan to North Africa. Johanna is, after all, the granddaughter of Marco Polo. In the wake of her father’s death, however, Johanna finds that lineage counts for little amid the disintegrating court of the Khan. Dynastic loyalties are shifting, petty jealousies lead to cold-blooded murders, and the long knives are coming out. If Johanna is to find a future for herself, she’ll have to rely on her wits, the vagaries of fortune, and a close-knit circle of friends and traveling companions. Her destiny—if she has one—lies more than a continent away, at the very edge of the known world.

Blood + Water


Judd Winick - 2004
    Now Adam is a vampire living it up on the wild side and it's everything he could ever want. But the eternal party crashes to a bloody halt when an ancient monster awakens from the dark, forgotten places of the world and comes looking for Adam. The startling reason this monster has come looking for him may be the most horrifying realization of all.

Two Complete Novels: Disclosure / Rising Sun


Michael Crichton - 1996
    An up-and-coming executive at DigiCom, Tom Sanders is a man whose corporate future is certain. But after a closed door meeting with his new boss--his former lover who has been promoted to the position he expected to have--Sanders is caught in a web of deceit where he is branded the villain. As Sanders scrambles to defend himself, he uncovers an electronic trail into the company's cynical and manipulative secrets.Rising SunOn the forty-fifth floor of the Nakamoto Tower in downtown L.A.--the American headquarters of the immense Japanese conglomerate--a grand opening celebration is in full swing. On the forty-sixth floor, in an empty conference room, the dead body of a beautiful woman is discovered. The investigation begins...and immediately becomes a headlong chase through a twisting maze of industrial intrigue. With a no-holds-barred conflict in which control of a vital American technology is the fiercely coveted prize, the saying "business is war" takes on a terrifying reality.Now for the first time ever, two of Michael Crichton's most captivating and controversial novels are combined in one exciting volume. Her is America's top suspense writer at the top of his form.--jacket

The Lesser Evil


Andrzej Sapkowski - 1990
    (also contained in "The Last With" collection). It is notable for being the only edition of Sapkowski's Witcher stories to have all expletive words censored.

The Monster in My Closet


NOT A BOOK - 2011
    A short story written for Halloween

The Malazan Book of the Fallen - Collection 4: Reaper's Gale, Toll The Hounds


Steven Erikson - 2009
    And the Edur fleet draws ever closer. Warriors, gods and wanderers converge. Soon there will be a reckoning - and it will be on an unimaginable scale...TOLL THE HOUNDSThe Lord of Death stands at the beginning of a conspiracy that will shake the cosmos, but at its end there waits another. For Anomander Rake, Son of Darkness, has come to right an ancient and terrible wrong...

The Friar and the Cipher: Roger Bacon and the Unsolved Mystery of the Most Unusual Manuscript in the World


Lawrence Goldstone - 2005
    A small six inches by nine inches, but over two hundred pages long, with odd illustrations of plants, astrological diagrams, and naked women, it is written in so indecipherable a language and contains so complicated a code that mathematicians, book collectors, linguists, and historians alike have yet to solve the mysteries contained within.However, in The Friar and the Cipher, the acclaimed bibliophiles and historians Lawrence and Nancy Goldstone describe, in fascinating detail, the theory that Roger Bacon, the noted thirteenth-century, pre-Copernican astronomer, was its author and that the perplexing alphabet was written in his hand. Along the way, they explain the many proposed solutions that scholars have put forth and the myriad attempts at labeling the manuscript’s content, from Latin or Greek shorthand to Arabic numerals to ancient Ukrainian to a recipe for the elixir of life to good old-fashioned gibberish.As we journey across centuries, languages, and countries, we meet a cast of impassioned characters and case-crackers, including, of course, Bacon, whose own personal scientific contributions, Voynich author or not, were literally and figuratively astronomical.

Death and the Senator


Arthur C. Clarke - 1961
    His only hope for a cure is to accept a innovative treatment which he campaigned against funding, a decision for which he will be branded a hypocrite. The decision has placed him in the crucible of his life.

Life in a Medieval City


Joseph Gies - 1969
    The time is A.D. 1250 and the city is Troyes, capital of the county of Champagne and site of two of the cycle Champagne Fairs—the “Hot Fair” in August and the “Cold Fair” in December. European civilization has emerged from the Dark Ages and is in the midst of a commercial revolution. Merchants and money men from all over Europe gather at Troyes to buy, sell, borrow, and lend, creating a bustling market center typical of the feudal era. As the Gieses take us through the day-to-day life of burghers, we learn the customs and habits of lords and serfs, how financial transactions were conducted, how medieval cities were governed, and what life was really like for a wide range of people.For serious students of the medieval era and anyone wishing to learn more about this fascinating period, Life in a Medieval City remains a timeless work of popular medieval scholarship.