Five years later, Stephen Venables intensified the challenge by leading three unknown American climbers up the East Face - this time without oxygen. The question to most climbing experts wasn't whether they would summit, but whether they would live. They nearly didn't Everest: Alone at the Summit is Venables' rousing account of one of the greatest feats of twentieth century mountaineering, a triumph over doubt, the elements and the limits of human endurance that has never been repeated. "Climbers or not, all will be interested in this mountaineering thriller of a tiny band pulling off an incredible victory-an account so stirring it will be put down only to obtain a moment's breather." -- American Alpine Journal

    But hip-hop deejays and producers have collectively developed an artistic system that features a complex aesthetic, a detailed array of social protocols, a rigorous set of ethical expectations and a rich historical consciousness. Based on ten years of research among hip-hop producers, Making Beats is the first work of scholarship to explore the goals, methods and values of this surprisingly insular community. Focusing on a variety of subjects--from hip-hop artists' pedagogical methods to the Afro-diasporic roots of the sampling process to the social significance of "digging" for rare records--Joseph G. Schloss examines the way hip-hop artists have managed to create a form of expression that reflects their creative aspirations, moral beliefs, political values and cultural realities.

    But he’s planning another kind of hostile takeover – of Anika herself.James Dawson just sold the biggest tech company in Silicon Valley. He’s come to the city for a fresh start. But also to rub his success in the face of the woman who rejected him eight years earlier: Anika Knight.Will Marco manage to steal Anika’s heart along with her business?Or will James fall in love with her all over again, despite his best efforts to the contrary?The Lark Notes:This was the first romance novel I ever wrote. It’s a loose modern adaptation of my all-time favorite romance “Persuasion” by Jane Austen. I identify with the heroine’s inability to ever stop longing for her first and only love. I later gender-swapped this concept for my mafia novel “Bloody Heart”. – Sophie“Always” is a Second Chance Romance, inspired by Jane Austen’s “Persuasion”. It will break your heart and put it back together again with a HEA that will leave you cheering. This is a stand-alone novel, the first in the Classic Billionaires series.

    But even with the assistance of skilled-yet-shabby new girl Natalie, things start to go mysteriously wrong, and it soon becomes clear that someones got it in for the salon. And with tactics dirtier than a gardeners fingernails, the battle of the beauticians commences. For under all the makeup and manicures, Carina is not who she seems, and although confronting the past can be more painful than a bikini wax, Emily eventually has to stare the truth in the face and realise its whats inside that really counts ...

    A place for the elite. Where the smartest, fastest, and strongest go to train in preparation to defend the world from the scourge of vampires that have taken over. But the Administration is getting desperate, and apparently “kind of smart, a little fast, and somewhat strong” is good enough, because guess who just got the invite? This girl. Now I have to face off against an instructor with a massive chip on his shoulder, a bunch of catty chicks who think they’re better than me (spoiler alert: they are) and a boy who treats me like the gum on the bottom of his shoe. Oh yeah, and did I mention the whole “fighting bloodthirsty monsters” thing? It’s gonna be a long year… Helsing Academy is an action-packed YA/Young Adult paranormal fantasy adventure series with romantic elements.

    Abducted by a corrupt vampire king, I’ve gone from night classes to navigating the dangerous world of the Darkfell Clan, where the courts are a maze of deception, you test your wine before you drink it and never, ever sit with your back to a door. They say I’m the strongest queen in a thousand years. Destined to overthrow the king and take back my kingdom. I don’t know about all that, but I know I can’t face him alone. I’m building my own army, and while my bonded warriors are few, they love me, and together, we’ll defeat Viktor. Or die trying.I might be a queen, but this isn’t like any other fairytale. Midnight Marked is the first book in the Darkfell Vampire Clan series, which is intended for adults. This MMFM is filled with unforgettable characters, magic and steamy romance! * Recommended for 18+ due to language and sexual situations.

    Music for Silenced Voices looks at Shostakovich through the back door, as it were, of his fifteen quartets, the works which his widow characterized as a "diary, the story of his soul." The silences and the voices were of many kinds, including the political silencing of adventurous writers, artists, and musicians during the Stalin era; the lost voices of Shostakovich's operas (a form he abandoned just before turning to string quartets); and the death-silenced voices of his close friends, to whom he dedicated many of these chamber works.Wendy Lesser has constructed a fascinating narrative in which the fifteen quartets, considered one at a time in chronological order, lead the reader through the personal, political, and professional events that shaped Shostakovich's singular, emblematic twentieth-century life. Weaving together interviews with the composer's friends, family, and colleagues, as well as conversations with present-day musicians who have played the quartets, Lesser sheds new light on the man and the musician. One of the very few books about Shostakovich that is aimed at a general rather than an academic audience, Music for Silenced Voices is a pleasure to read; at the same time, it is rigorously faithful to the known facts in this notoriously complicated life. It will fill readers with the desire to hear the quartets, which are among the most compelling and emotionally powerful monuments of the past century's music.

    The bicycle enables us to feel a landscape, rather than just see it, and in the great tradition of the psychogeographers, Day attempts to depart from the map and reclaim the streets of the city.Informed by several grinding years spent as a bicycle courier, Day lifts the lid on the solitary life of the courier. Travelling the unmapped byways, short-cuts and edgelands of the city, couriers are the declining, invisible workforce of the city. The parcels they deliver – either commonplace or illicit – keep the city – and capitalism - running. 'This is a street-smart, super-sharp exploration of the "soft city" as seen from the saddle; Jon Day has written a bold and clever book about the zone where capital and cycling collide. It fascinated me from first page to last.’ - Robert Macfarlane'Magically good. Jon Day conjures the secret city of the cyclist, revealing himself over the course of his swooping journeys as an astonishing writer, capable of dizzyingly elegant and thrilling flights of thought.' - Olivia Laing Following in the footsteps of the literary walkers, Day explores the connection between cycling and writing, and in the history of the bicycle he reveals also the history of the landscape. The great bicycle road races – the Tour de France, the Giro d’Italia, the Vuelta a España – are exercises in applied topography. Cyclogeography explores the relationship between bodies, bikes and geography.• Includes interviews with Iain Sinclair and Richard Long• Lifts the lid on the underworld of Cycle Couriering – and the strange or illicit contents of the parcels that are delivered.• Explores the subculture of courier bicycle races including the Cycle Messenger World Championships and the Alleycat races.• Traces the beginnings of the great bicycle races such as the Tour de France Jon Day is a writer, academic and cyclist. He worked as a bicycle courier in London for several years, and is now a lecturer in English Literature at King's College London. He writes for the London Review of Books, n+1, the New Statesman and others, and is a regular book critic for the Financial Times and the Telegraph. He is a contributing editor of the Junket, an online quarterly.

    As the road bent and the outline of Buachaille Etive Mor slid into sight, I did what I always did, and always would. I felt for that flutter of awe and that indefinable, unmistakable quickening of the pulse.’In the late 18th century, mountains shifted from being universally reviled to becoming the most inspiring things on earth. Simply put, the monsters became muses – and an entire artistic movement was born. This movement became a love affair, the love affair became an obsession, and gradually but surely, obsession became lifestyle as mountains became stitched into the fabric of the British cultural tapestry.In his compelling new book, Simon Ingram explores how mountains became such a preoccupation for the modern western imagination, weaving his own adventures into a powerful narrative which provides a kind of experiential hit list for people who don’t have the time nor the will to climb a thousand mountains.For some of these mountains, the most amazing thing about them might be the journey they’ve taken to get here. Others, the tales of science, endeavour and art that have played out on their slopes. The mythology they’re drenched in. The history they’ve seen. The genius they’ve inspired. The danger that draws people to them. The life that clusters around them, human and otherwise. The extreme weather they conjure. The adventure they fuel. The way that some raise the hairs on the back of your neck, and trigger powerful, strange emotions. And moreover, what they’re like to be amidst, under, on – just what that indefinable quality is that the British mountains wield which takes possession of you so powerfully, and never goes away.Ingram takes us high into the rafters of Britain’s most forbidding, unflinching and unchanging wild places through all the seasons of the year – from the first blush of spring to the deepest, darkest bite of the mountain winter. From Beinn Dearg to Ben Nevis, he takes us on a journey spanning sixteen of Britain’s most evocative mountainous landscapes, and what they mean to us today.

    Although ‘normal’ can hardly be applied to a psychic medium. As if her life as the only non-magical person in the Delaney Coven isn’t hard enough, she’s the prime suspect in Edward Creighton’s murder. Disliked by most, the only people who will miss the grumpy old warlock are the members of the Creighton Coven.Their hot local sheriff, Drew McTavish, is Diva’s ex, sort of. They dated three times a couple of years ago before the mysterious curse someone put on her kicked in and punished him for kissing her. He doesn’t believe in the mystical and he’s just waiting to find proof of her involvement in the murder so he can lock her away.The Creighton Coven want justice for the death of one of their own. Haydn, Edward’s great-nephew, has returned from England to take over running the Creighton Bookstore. Wickedly handsome and powerfully dangerous, he has his sights set on Diva and not in a good way. If she doesn’t find the real killer, she could end up paying the price for a murder she didn’t commit. Not even her four ghostly friends will be able to save her if the warlock decides she’s guilty.

    He dreamt that music was a rich meadow of possibility, a liberating leap to a sparkling future, an industry of human happiness - and he wanted to be part of it. Thus began his 50-year love affair with rock and roll. From his time at the NME and Smash Hits to Radio One, Old Grey Whistle Test, Live Aid, Q, Select, Mojo and The Word magazines, he's been at the molten core of its evolution, and watched its key figures from a unique perspective. This funny and touching personal memoir maps out his eventful journey. It tells stories and settles scores. It charts the peaks and disappointments. It flags up surprising heroes and barbecues the dull and self-deluded. It puts a chaotic world to rights and pours petrol on the embers of a glorious industry now in spiralling decline.

    Her first book—The Well-Tended Perennial Garden—is Timber's best-selling title and widely considered the bible of perennial maintenance. 50 High-Impact, Low-Care Garden Plants is packed with useful tips, practical hints, and Tracy's own gardening experience. It is sure to find a place on the shelf and in the heart of every gardener. Tracy has identified 50 show-stopping plants that anyone can grow. Each selection is a dynamic choice for nearly every garden. Even better? All 50 plants have passed Tracy's test for toughness, beauty, and durability. These are Tracy's personal favorites, chosen after years of studying how to make beautiful outdoor spaces with a minimum of maintenance.

    18+Synopsis: Dr. Leila Reynolds is working her shift at Southside Medical Hospital in Las Vegas, Nevada, when she meets a mysterious man, Lance Steel. Although Leila is a married woman, she is enticed by this bold Renaissance man. Lance seduces her, surprising her with the most erotic weekend of her life … with a vampire. She convinces herself that it was just an affair, but she can’t get Lance—or the time they shared—out of her mind.As owner of the Caprice Casino and the exclusive Club Moroii, Lance has more money and heartbreaking good looks than any one man deserves. He soon introduces her to an underground world that she never knew existed, fraught with sex, booze, blood … and danger. When Leila’s life crumbles around her, Lance is there to pick up the pieces … but her connection with him has a price. Can Leila leave the past behind and become eternally his, allowing her heart—as well as her body—to be touched by a vampire?

    Holed up in a tiny flat during a Sydney summer American Adam, weary activist Graeme and wild Katie are each searching for life's biggest questions: why are we here; what is love; what constitutes betrayal and over an intense two-week period they begin to form answers and in doing so confront their darkest demons.

    In Legend of a Rock Star the myth of the rock 'n' roll good life is destroyed once and for all. Touring is hell, and Dee Dee should know, after fifteen plus years with the legendary Ramones, he's back on the road with a new band and a new set of nightmares. Riddled with acerbic hilarity, Legend of a Rock Star offers a fantastic, unflinching look at the abysmal underbelly of the rock ‘n' roll dream as Dee Dee and his new brothers tour Europe in a tiny cramped van and try their best not to kill one another. With shifty promoters out to suck him dry, and fans who mean well but just won't leave him alone, all Dee Dee can do is wrestle with his conscience and hope the drugs aren't bad. Written in a fierce chaotic prose uniquely his own, Dee Dee also offers a brutally honest, yet surprisingly touching account of the weeks leading up to and just after the death of friend and longtime bandmate Joey Ramone.