Penguin Books strana 11 z 487

Short History of Ancient Rome transforms 1,000 years of history into a riveting and action-packed account of the inception, expansion and ultimate fall of Ancient Rome. Combining impeccable research with gripping storytelling, A Short History of Ancient Rome takes readers through the dramatic twists and turns of the kingdom, the republic, the empire and its decline in less time than it would take to watch the Gladiator movies. Filled with the sights, sounds, smells and characters that shaped Rome, this book brings the ancient world to life and tells you everything you need to know about this crucial period in history.

The US government has been investigating unidentified aerial phenomena in a secret division of the Department of Defence. A former intelligence official urged the US to disclose evidence of UFOs after saying the government possesses 'intact and partially intact' alien vehicles. And what about those sightings of Tic Tac, Gimbal, Go Fast and the infamous Oumuamua? Danny Lavelle, our charming, borderline-bewildered investigator, sets out on a road trip through America's UFO heartlands to get some answers (thankfully 41% of Americans believe aliens have made contact so he has plenty of sources to choose from). Talking to those in the know in government and the UFO scene - often the same thing - Danny follows Lue Elizondo, Jeremy Corbell, attends sky watches (sometimes falling asleep in the desert), listens to alien abductees and has coffee with Starseeds (human beings who claim to be actual aliens). Whether he's smoking weed whilst holding dumortierite crystals to access his interdimensional past, or discussing 'space beads' with the Harvard astrophysicist who's convinced he's found evidence of alien life, Danny's journey becomes a deeper story about our unshakeable fascination with little green men - and our deepest wishes not to be alone in the universe.

Something changed for Rhya Fleetwood in the battle of Fyremas. Her untrained power feels both heavy with grief and volatile, crackling with each pulse of her simmering rage. Caeldera lies in ruins. Her friends are dead or wounded. And Pendefyre, their newly crowned king, is shutting her out. The Remnant of Fire needs all his focus for his kingdom, his people, and-perhaps more than anything-his insatiable need for revenge. When a twist of fate leads Rhya to the last place she expected-the Water Court-the novice wind weaver is forced to confront the limitations of her power as well as her increasingly complicated relationships. For enigmatic King Soren of Llyr is as different from Penn as sparks are from the sea. The more insight he offers into the maegic that binds them together, the more confused Rhya feels-about her future as a Remnant, about her deepest desires, and about her role in the coming war. Enemies circle close, ready to strike. And if Rhya isn't careful, she'll lose more than just her heart. She'll lose her life.

What are the origins of shamanism and what is its future? Do shamans believe in their powers? What exactly is trance? And what can we learn from indigenous healing practices? In this enlightening book, anthropologist Manvir Singh offers a new explanation for one of the most misunderstood religious traditions. Travelling from Indonesia to the Amazon, living with shamans and observing music, drug use and indigenous curing ceremonies, he journeys into the origins of shamanism. Fundamentally, shamans are specialists who use altered states to engage with unseen realities and provide services like healing and divination. As Singh shows, shamanism's ubiquity stems from its psychological resonance. Its core appeal is transformation: a specialist uses initiations, deprivation and non-ordinary states to seemingly become a different kind of human, one possessed with the superpowers necessary to tame life's uncertainty. Following a fascinating cast of characters, Singh tells a larger story about the ancient and modern expressions of this timeless tradition. He argues that biomedicine can learn from shamanic practices, yet that psychedelic enthusiasts completely misrepresent history. He also shows that shamanic traditions will forever re-emerge - and that by journeying into humanity's oldest spiritual practice, we come to better understand ourselves, our history and our future.

In the mid-fourteenth century, a lethal plague struck the medieval world, causing unimaginable suffering and destruction. This terrifying pandemic - the Black Death - was unquestionably one of history's defining episodes, yet a critical feature of its progress has often been ignored: the disease was not confined to Europe, but rather affected almost all of the known world, including the Near and Middle East, Byzantium, north Africa and Asia. Tracing the pandemic's course across the medieval globe, The Black Death contrasts the experiences of different peoples, including Christians, Muslims and Jews, charting this catastrophe's transformative effects on diverse aspects of medieval life. And crucially, Asbridge demonstrates that the plague was often at its most destructive in the Islamic world, where it ultimately played a role in the collapse of the mighty Mamluk Empire. The Black Death also brings the human drama of this calamitous era to life, evoking the terror and the turmoil that beset cities such as London, Cairo and Florence. Asbridge reconstructs the lives of the men, women and children who faced the Black Death - from ruling monarchs to peasant farmers - laying bare both the abject horror they endured and the courageous resolve they often demonstrated while striving to survive. Uncovering a story that speaks to our own age, The Black Death highlights humankind's capacity for compassion and resilience amidst a global crisis to explain how the medieval world confronted, and ultimately overcame, this shattering pandemic.

We live in an age obsessed with reinvention. But what does it really mean to change – and why do some transformations inspire us while others make us bristle? New York Times journalist Benoit Denizet-Lewis’s thought-provoking investigation takes us inside the lives of people who’ve changed themselves, or say they have: from political converts to a seemingly transformed murderer and a bully-turned-Buddhist. Through their stories and his own, he explores how identity, belief, and belonging shift despite the certainties we often cling to. Drawing on insights from psychologists, neuroscientists and spiritual teachers, You’ve Changed shows how self-reinvention is more often self-discovery, and why personal change is like a team sport – revealing the compassionate truth at the heart of our deepest hopes and fears.

Is this a pear? No, it's a bear! This delightfully clever picture book is full of visual tricks and rhyming reveals to inspire wonder while making you chuckle - brought to life by an Oscar-nominated animator and based on his seven-year-old son's original idea and drawings! Through the hole in the page, you might see a plum . . . or a spider . . . or a spoon. But turn the page to see the full picture and - SURPRISE! - it's something unexpected: the moon, a tiger, even a hippo's bum!

With his Odyssey, best-selling author and classicist Daniel Mendelsohn has created a momentous new work, hailed by classicists and poets alike - a translation to stand with those of E. V. Rieu and Robert Fagles. Setting aside the streamlining, modernizing approach of many recent translations, Mendelsohn artfully reproduces the epic's formal qualities - meter, enjambment, alliteration, assonance - and in so doing restores to Homer's master work its archaic grandeur. His expansive six-beat line, far closer to the original than that of other recent translations, allows him to capture each of Homer's verses line for line, without sacrificing the amplitude and shadings of the original. The result is the richest, most precise, and most musical Odyssey in English, one that fully conveys its oral poetics while bringing to vivid life the gripping adventure, profound human insight and powerful themes that make Homer's work resonate some twenty-eight centuries after its composition. Supported by an extensive introduction and the fullest notes and commentary currently available, Mendelsohn's Odyssey is poised to become the authoritative English-language version of this magnificent, endlessly enjoyable masterpiece.

Grace Underwood has been keeping a dark secret from the day her parents died. Only her ruthless uncle Bellamy knows the truth, and he’s been using it against her ever since. When his cruelty pushes her too far, Grace decides to walk away from her family for good and take a job as a horse trainer at Halcyon Ranch. It’s a chance to start over. That is, if the owner’s son, Crew Caldwell, doesn’t stand in her way. Crew doesn’t trust outsiders, especially one from Bellamy's bloodline. But Grace's undeniable gift with horses slowly wins over the other ranch hands and even Crew - the one man she shouldn’t want but can’t seem to ignore. As the tension between them grows, so does the risk of Grace’s secret unravelling. And with her uncle's threats still looming, she’ll have to decide whether she’s willing to fight for the only place - and the only man - that’s ever felt like home.

Maggie McCabe is on the brink. A highly skilled and renowned army combat surgeon, she has always lived life at the edge. But now, after a devastating series of personal tragedies, Maggie is thrown a lifeline by a former colleague, an elite surgeon whose anonymous clientele demand the best care money can buy - as well as absolute discretion. Halfway across the globe, one of the world's most mysterious men requires unconventional medical assistance. Desperate, and one of the few surgeons in the world skilled enough to take this job, Maggie enters his realm of unspeakable opulence and fulfils her end of the agreement. But when the patient suddenly disappears while still under her care, Maggie must become a fugitive herself - or she will be the next one who is ... Gone Before Goodbye.

Eight self-drive cars set on a collision course. Who lives, who dies? You decide. When someone hacks into the systems of eight self-driving cars, their passengers are set on a fatal collision course. The passengers are: a TV star, a pregnant young woman, a disabled war hero, an abused wife fleeing her husband, an undocumented immigrant, a husband and wife - and parents of two - who are travelling in separate vehicles and a suicidal man. Now the public have to judge who should survive but are the passengers all that they first seem?

AN UNLEASHED POWER. AN ALL-CONSUMING DESIRE. Decades after a rebellion tore through the Isle of Sidhe, Fia Riftborne has learnt three important lessons to survival: keep your head down, don't draw attention to yourself, and avoid the Sídhe Guard at all costs. That isn't so easy though when she harbours a secret power, one that would paint a target on her back if discovered. But, after a simple errand goes awry and her explosive power erupts, Fia knows she can no longer hide in the shadows. Only, the swift punishment she expected never materialises. Instead, the elusive General Laryk Ashford offers her a choice: join the Sídhe Guard ... or face execution. Soon, Fia faces another impossible choice: surrender to the chaos within and risk destroying everything she holds dear or become a weapon in the hands of those who took everything from her. Including the alluring General who is starting to consume her every thought ...

1917, France: American Detective Isaac Bell finds himself on the war's front line. Sent by the US President to act as an observer, Bell is soon caught up in the thick of the fighting. Shot down behind enemy lines, he is taken prisoner and locked up in a medieval chateau. Bell knows he faces execution unless he can escape. With him are other captured Allied airmen and gunners. But can they break out of a fortress guarded by the latest German military technology - the armoured tank? The US President is relying on Bell. Bell knows he mustn't fail. Because a secret anarchist plot is in play to bring down America. And only Isaac Bell can stop it...

Magical-antique experts Amelia Tarrant and Caleb Sterling have been best friends forever, although lately each has begun secretly wishing for more than friendship. But when rumors about their relationship spread, they're forced to fake being enemies to protect their reputations and keep their jobs. The resulting arguments spark havoc across Oxford University, and when they cause an explosion while fighting over a magical antique, it's the final straw for their exasperated faculty head. He dispatches them to a job in Cumbria where even they can't get into trouble.… Which proves just how wrong one man can be. In a stormbound old manor house, Amelia and Caleb face magical mayhem and rampaging ghosts that make the previous havoc look mild in comparison. Most troublesome of all, though, is the secret of how they feel about each other. When it comes to tackling deadly antiques, hiding the truth in their hearts could destroy them for real.

THE MARTINI CLUB ISN'T OPEN TO EVERYONE ... Maggie Bird's 'book group' is an unusual one - a group of retired spies living an anonymous life in the seaside town of Purity. And this summer they plan little more than 'reading' (whilst sipping martinis), and some gentle birdwatching. But trouble is just around the corner as the summer guests arrive. For acting Police Chief Jo Thibodeau, summer brings its own problems - packed streets, bar brawls, petty theft. And now, a missing teenager down by the lake. When their good friend becomes a prime suspect in the girl's disappearance, Maggie and her Martini Club must put down their binoculars and roll up their sleeves. Leaving Jo to deal with not only a powerful family desperate for answers, but a meddlesome group of retirees. Can Jo and the Martini Club find a way to work together, as they uncover one of the deadliest scandals their small town has ever seen?

A complete epic fantasy collection from bestselling author Danielle L. Jensen, this Bridge Kingdom box set includes The Bridge Kingdom, The Traitor Queen, The Inadequate Heir, The Endless War and The Twisted Sister. Packed with romance, betrayal and high-stakes political intrigue, this sweeping saga delivers fierce heroines, dangerous alliances and unforgettable enemies-to-lovers tension.