The stories are told in a country villa outside the city of Florence by ten young noble men and women who are seeking to escape the ravages of the plague. Boccaccio's skill as a dramatist is masterfully displayed in these vivid portraits of people from all stations in life, with plots that revel in a bewildering variety of human reactions.Translated with an Introduction and Notes by G. H. McWilliam

    

    Once a year, the old friends put aside their daily, separate lives to drink champagne, swap stories, and swim naked under the Nantucket stars. This time though, one of them swims out from the shore and doesn't return. After the surviving friends emerge from their grief, they realize that the repercussions of their loss go far beyond their little circle, and they begin to uncover layers of secrets, and their connections to each other, that were never revealed on the beach. What has made their friendship strong now has the power to destroy their marriages, families--and even themselves.BLUE BISTROAdrienne Dealey has spent the past six years working for hotels in exotic resort towns and this summer has decided to relocate to Nantucket. Left flat broke by her ex-boyfriend, she is desperate to earn some fast money. When the desirable Thatcher Smith, owner of the hottest restaurant on the island, is the only one to offer her a job, she wonders if she can get by with no restaurant experience. There seems to be a lot at stake: The Blue Bistro is in its final summer, before closing its doors for good. Adrienne gets a crash course in the restaurant business and things seem to be going smoothly...until Thatch makes Adrienne break one of her cardinal rules, which is never date the boss. Instant chemistry notwithstanding, Adrienne can't quite shake the feeling that there's something more to Thatch's relationship with his brilliant chef Fiona. It's a mystery she can't quite solve. Does she open her heart for the first time, or move on, as she always does?

    Jerusalem lies ransacked. Amidst the chaos, an English knight is entrusted with a valuable religious relic: a fragment of the True Cross, allegedly stained with the blood of Christ. The relic is said to be cursed: anyone who touches it will meet an untimely and gruesome end. Several decades later, the Cross turns up in the possession of a dealer, robbed and murdered en route to Glastonbury. Investigating the death, Bernard Knight's protagonist, Crowner John learns of its dark history. In Oxford in 1269, the discovery of a decapitated monk leads Ian Morson's academic sleuth William Falconer to uncover a link to the relic. In 1323, in Exeter, Michael Jecks' Sir Baldwin has reason to suspect its involvement in at least five violent deaths. Thirty years later, several suspicious deaths occur in Cambridge - and, once again, the tainted relic has a crucial part to play. Finally, it's despatched to London, where Philip Gooden's Nick Revill will determine its ultimate fate.

    This outstanding history illustrates the utter futility of fighting the market process through legislation, which always uses despotic measures to yield socially catastrophic results.The book covers the ancient world, the Roman Republic and Empire, Medieval Europe, the first centuries of the United States and Canada, the French Revolution, the 19th century, World Wars I and II, the Nazis, the Soviets, postwar rent control, and the 1970s. It also includes a very helpful conclusion spelling out the theory of wage and price controls.This book is a treasure, and super entertaining!To search for Mises Institute titles, enter a keyword and LvMI (short for Ludwig von Mises Institute); e.g., Depression LvMI

    Its dazzling virtuosity and spectacular live concerts made it hugely popular with fans during the 1970s, who saw bands such as King Crimson, Emerson, Lake and Palmer, Yes, Genesis, Pink Floyd, and Jethro Tull bring a new level of depth and sophistication to rock. On the other hand, critics branded the elaborate concerts of these bands as self- indulgent and materialistic. They viewed progressive rock's classical/rock fusion attempts as elitist, a betrayal of rock's populist origins. In Rocking the Classics, the first comprehensive study of progressive rock history, Edward Macan draws together cultural theory, musicology, and music criticism, illuminating how progressive rock served as a vital expression of the counterculture of the late 1960s and 1970s. Beginning with a description of the cultural conditions which gave birth to the progressive rock style, he examines how the hippies' fondness for hallucinogens, their contempt for Establishment-approved pop music, and their fascination with the music, art, and literature of high culture contributed to this exciting new genre. Covering a decade of music, Macan traces progressive rock's development from the mid- to late-sixties, when psychedelic bands such as the Moody Blues, Procol Harum, the Nice, and Pink Floyd laid the foundation of the progressive rock style, and proceeds to the emergence of the mature progressive rock style marked by the 1969 release of King Crimson's album In the Court of the Crimson King. This golden age reached its artistic and commercial zenith between 1970 and 1975 in the music of bands such as Jethro Tull, Yes, Genesis, ELP, Gentle Giant, Van der Graaf Generator, and Curved Air. In turn, Macan explores the conventions that govern progressive rock, including the visual dimensions of album cover art and concerts, lyrics and conceptual themes, and the importance of combining music, visual motif, and verbal expression to convey a coherent artistic vision. He examines the cultural history of progressive rock, considering its roots in a bohemian English subculture and its meteoric rise in popularity among a legion of fans in North America and continental Europe. Finally, he addresses issues of critical reception, arguing that the critics' largely negative reaction to progressive rock says far more about their own ambivalence to the legacy of the counterculture than it does about the music itself. An exciting tour through an era of extravagant, mind-bending, and culturally explosive music, Rocking the Classics sheds new light on the largely misunderstood genre of progressive rock.

    . .A razor-sharp action thriller with the raw inventiveness of I Am Pilgrim and the breathless pace of movies like John Wick and James Bond, Arkhangel sees James Brabazon stake his claim alongside Lee Child, David Baldacci and Gregg Hurwitz as a master of the genre. Praise for James Brabazon 'Don't plan on sleeping' Lee Child'A full-throttle exercise in tension' Crimetime'A thriller of an unusually classy calibre' Financial Times'Outstanding . . . I couldn't put this book down' Andy McNab

    They bring Lesra to Toronto to help with his education. While learning to read, Lesra finds a copy of Rubin Carter's The Sixteenth Round.Rubin Carter, the subject of Bob Dylan's song "Hurricane", was a #1 middleweight boxing contender who had been wrongfully imprisoned after a white jury found him guilty of the murder of three whites in 1966. A huge public outcry followed the publication of Carter's memoir The Sixteenth Round in 1974, culminating in a retrial, which was a virtual reenactment of the original travesty, with Carter receiving the same triple-life sentence.Inspired by Lesra's passion, his adopted Canadian family made contact with Carter and reinvigorated the legal battle. The Hurricane is the moving story of the eight year struggle Carter and his Canadian friends waged to win his exoneration and freedom.

    These were the days when the young Oilers, led by a teenaged Wayne Gretzky, were poised on the edge of greatness, and about to blaze their way into the record books and the consciousness of a nation. While the story of the early Oilers embodies the book, The Game of Our Lives is much more than a retelling of one season in the life of an NHL team.Unlike any book ever written in the annals of hockey, Gzowski beautifully weaves together the anatomy of a modern NHL team with the magnificent history of the game to create one of the best books about hockey in Canada. Here are the great teams and the great players through the ages—Morenz, Richard, Howe, Orr, Hull—the men whose rare and indefinable genius on the ice exemplified the speed, grit and innovation of the game.The Game of Our Lives is the best book on the Canadian passion for hockey; a wondrously perceptive account of the hold the game has on Canadians. —Jack Granatstein, The National Post

    By focusing on the experiences of ordinary villagers as they lived-and died-during the Black Death (1345-50), Hatcher vividly places the reader directly inside those tumultuous times and describes in fascinating detail the day-to-day existence of people struggling with the tragic effects of the plague. Dramatic scenes portray how contemporaries must have felt and thought about these momentous events: what they knew and didn't know about the horrors of the disease, what they believed about death and God's vengeance, and how they tried to make sense of it all despite frantic rumors, frightening tales, and fearful sermons.

     AFTER MATH Scarlett Goodwin find solace from her social anxiety by focusing on her math studies. But Southern University soccer star, Tucker Price, enters her world when he needs a tutor, and Scarlett’s not sure she’ll survive the aftermath REDESIGNED Caroline Hunter has one goal: graduate from Southern University with a fashion degree major and an engagement ring. But she finds herself in her senior year without a boyfriend, let alone a finance’. There’s no doubt she’s extremely attracted to math grad student Reed Pendergraft, but he doesn’t fit her master plan. Still when he suggests they have a temporary relationship until her Mr. Right rides in on his white horse, she’s surprised to find herself saying yes. BUSINESS AS USUAL Lexi Pendergraft lives with her overprotective older brother Reed and his finance Caroline, not that it matters to Lexi’s non-existent social life. A traumatic rape at another college campus a year ago left her with trust issues no college boy can deal with. But when Lexi wears a black wig to a bar one night she feels empowered, and Ben Masterson notices. Now if he can get her to admit who she really is.

    I was no longer happy and barely smiled. Every day seemed to be the same thing with my husband, William. Life had taken its course, but I wasn’t prepared for the way it turned around. I would have never caught myself ten years ago when we had been college sweethearts. Now ten years so far away and often I try to go back to the past to kiss it one last time, wondering if this time would be the last.Carlipian College was where I had met my husband. He had majored in medicine and I majored in business and business administration. Secretly back then I dreamed of being a CEO for a large company. That was just a dream. Graduation had brought joy to my parents, a new life and a diploma I wouldn’t use for a while. William and I got married shortly after graduation and he was the type of man who thought women should stay at home. That was short lived when we almost lost everything we owned due to a poor investment.Constantly I wonder where the love we had gone. He had changed and wasn’t the same man I had met and fell in love with. He was now trying to hide the fact he had other women on the side. It wasn’t any secret what had been going on for some time. His cell phone had a password on it and locked when it wasn’t in his hands. His work clothes had female’s perfume and lipstick on them neither was things that I would where.I knew I would never have the answers of why he did what he did.

    But no one ever said being the new girl was easy... His name was Victor, and he was the hot, untouchable football captain whose piercing grey eyes noticed me from Day One. Bad luck for me. Because now I was placed in the spotlight of Ravenshaw Academy's elite - Adrienne, Elijah, Jessica and Victor himself, to name a few - and straight into the claws of its worst bullies. And bully me they did. I thought I had been through pain, but their methods are far worse than I could imagine... This is an enemies-to-lovers high school bully romance, non-RH, with a trigger warning. TRIGGER WARNING: Cruel Bully: The Ravenshaw Academy Box Set is a duet with bonus material at the end. It is a compilation of both Cruel Bully and Shattered Rose, and has no cliffhangers (as a duet) and a HEA. If topics such as violence, rape and abuse is something you will not tolerate, please do not read. It also contains sexual content, and thus is for readers aged 18 and above. You have been warned!

    But when Richard Colman adopts his dead sister's daughter, he has no idea how tough life can be.Richard's girlfriend walks out. His business starts losing clients. And there's something terribly wrong with the little girl.Her name is Bernadette, but Richard calls her "Barney". It's a word his own father used to use... a barney, a row, a terrible racket. And Barney is well-named – she never stops screaming. She hammers her head on the floor and the walls. She's adorable, but she doesn't sleep. She cannot talk. She won't even respond to her name.Richard slowly faces the unbearable truth that his little girl is profoundly autistic. And as he prepares for a battle simply to be allowed to keep his child, he's only beginning to find out how tough life can be. Christopher Stevens, the bestselling author of A REAL BOY, draws on painful and intensely personal experiences of raising his own autistic child, to create this compelling story of a single parent who must come to terms with his beloved little girl's autism.AUTHOR'S NOTE: This is a novel. The characters are fictional, though they are very real to me. Many of the events in the story did really happen to my family, following the diagnosis of my younger son with autism. I later wrote a memoir about this intensely emotional and exhausting experience: it was published as A REAL BOY. If you have read this memoir, you might recognise some of the scenes and situations in A GIRL CALLED BARNEY – and if you want to read a strictly factual account, the memoir will better suit your needs. A GIRL CALLED BARNEY is more dramatic, more tragic and less humorous than the later, non-fiction book. I used the novel to express the darker, more frightening emotions that, in real life, we hardly dare admit that we feel.Praise for A REAL BOY, Christopher Stevens's factual account of raising his autistic son:Jane Asher, President of the National Autistic Society"This wonderfully honest book tells us a great deal, not only about autism, but also about the extraordinary tolerance and unselfishness that is borne out of unequivocal love. At the same time, it reveals some uncomfortable truths about the struggle it takes to access the rights of those with disabilities in our so-called civilized society."The Sun, 15 Feb 08"incredibly moving"Daily Mail, February 26, 2008Christopher Stevens writes poignantly about life with his autistic son. It's a moving account of the boy's struggle to cope with a world that confuses him - and the extraordinary leap forward that gave them all hope.Bournemouth Daily Echo, 27th June 08By turns harrowing, humorous and inspirational.About the AuthorChristopher Stevens has been a senior sub-editor at the Observer for fourteen years and is also the author of Born Brilliant, the acclaimed biography of Kenneth Williams; Masters of Sitcom, a celebration of Galton and Simpson; and Thirty Days Has September, the bestselling reference book on Kindle.Born Brilliant was shortlisted for a "Sherry", the Sheridan Morley Theatre Biography Prize. It was adapted and broadcast as a Radio Four Book of the Week.

    The hottest band in the world. Talented. Good looking. And the biggest jerks ever.Yeah, every girl loves a bad boy rockstar. Or three.But what about stuck-on-themselves too-cool-for-school party boys who can’t keep their their pants zipped?Who also happened to make my life a living hell ten years ago?No thanks.But when they needed help with their image, they called me.And now I have to clean up their act before they lose their multi-gazillion dollar record deal and world tour. That’s how far gone they are.Now I’m babysitter to a bunch of party boy rockstars.But they’re paying me a crap ton of money, and for that, I can put up with a little… madness while I clean up their reputation. It’s only a few weeks.And then I’ll be back to my orderly existence.Or so I thought.Her Dirty TeachersWellshire University’s hottest professors. Brainy. Brawny. And forbidden.My Math professor is dexterous with his… equations.My English professor is a champ at caressing my… run-on sentences.And, my French professor is magnifique around penetrating… verb conjugations.I love their classes. I always sit in front. And I raise my hand for every question.Until the day I saw them watching my little show at Club V, where I earn money for school by showing off my… skills.I thought they’d stop coming when they realized I worked there.But now that they’ve seen me, they can’t seem to look away.The dude I’d just given the special dance? He was my English professor.And I’d be seeing him at 8 a.m. tomorrow morning.Her Dirty DoctorsHeadlands Hospital’s hottest doctors. Brilliant. Good looking. And terribly off limits.I went to the hospital with an aching… need.And the handsome doctors made me all better with their big… instruments.I want to show them my… gratitude.But first I have make sure they don’t find out my father is their boss.Or that I’m just finishing nursing school—and will start working with them next week.These hot, over-the-top romances include sexy working men with a penchant for pursuing and protecting the women who give them a run for their money. If you love outrageously naughty stories as a way to indulge your not-so-secret bad girl side, this is for you.Her Dirty BodyguardsThe city’s hottest bodyguards. Deadly. Fearless. Gorgeous as hell. And assigned to protect… me.Just go on about your day, they say. Pretend we’re not there.But how could I ignore the three hottest men I’d ever laid eyes on?It’s true, I need them to stay alive.And when I realize they are watching me a little more closely than they have to, it seems like it’s time to have some fun.#1 Her Dirty Rockers#2 Her Dirty Teachers#3 Her Dirty Doctors#4 Her Dirty Bodyguards