In America, when people reach the legal drinking age, few have ever received any real education or preparation about how to do so safely. This is like handing a new driver the keys to the car along with their license-without any practice or permit. Safe Drinking Academy fills the information gap to give readers the facts about alcohol, ideally before they decide whether or not to drink.Despite a legal drinking age of 21, people between the ages of 12 and 20 are respons...

An early spring morning . . . a young man fi shing in arock-pool at the edge of the sea and exulting in his catch. . . a voice calling suddenly to him . . . the voice of a youngwoman who is slowly walking out from the waves . . .I beg you, let it free again.Th is is the setting for Th e Day of the Mermaid, a storyof the awakened love of that young man for the maidenwho appears before him, recounted when he is old andlooking back upon...

The biggest regret of Michael Healy-Rae's life was a time he didn't talk when somebody needed him the most. After that, he vowed to never stop talking, listening and trying to really hear what people were saying.In his first book, which is neither political nor a memoir, Michael celebrates the power of talk to forge real human connections and sustain us. In a collection of true stories that are sometimes humorous, sometimes poignant and sometimes heartbreaking, he follows in the tradition ...

In his first book, Time to Talk, Michael Healy-Rae established himself as part of the great tradition of Kerry storytellers with his chronicles of life in rural Ireland. Now, in his second book, his superior storytelling skills come to the fore once again as he shares more stories of what he's witnessed and heard in the heart of the country.From his Kerry childhood to musings on rural Ireland today, A Listening Ear brings readers back to the countryside and charac...

The first three volumes of The Best Horror of the Year have been widely praised for their quality, variety, and comprehensiveness. Editor Ellen Datlow has now explored the entirety of the diverse horror market, distilling it into the fourth anthology in the series and providing an overview of the year in terror.Fear is the oldest human emotion, the most primal. We like to think we're civilized. We tell ourselves we're not afraid. And every year, we skim our fingers across ...

When a strange coded message arrives at 221B Baker Street, sent by a member of Professor Moriarty’s criminal organization, Sherlock Holmes soon deciphers it and finds a warning: someone is about to be murdered. A visit from a Scotland Yard inspector confirms that one John Douglas has been mysteriously killed in Sussex. Even Sherlock Holmes, well accustomed to the bizarre, finds the elements of this case unusual. John Douglas lived at Birlstone Manor House, built on the ruins of a castle su...

Berlin, early 1948. The city, still occupied by the four Allied powers, still largely in ruins, has become the cockpit of a new Cold War, and as spring unfolds its German inhabitants live in fear of the Soviets enforcing a Western withdrawal. Here, as elsewhere in Europe, the legacies of the War have become entangled in the new Soviet-American conflict, creating a world of bizarre and fleeting loyalties, a paradise for spies. John Russell works for both Stalin's NKVD and the newly created ...

At fourteen the unworldly, idealistic Jack Easy leaves the luxury of his father's estate in England and sails into a world of action and adventure aboard the sloop of war HMS Harpy. At first Jack finds it hard to stomach the discipline of naval life and, with his mischievous sense of humor, is always getting himself into scrapes. But soon he is bravely taming a band of mutinous seamen, outwitting a wily and murderous Sicilian nobleman, and breathing the smell of gunpowder and raw ...

'Sicily is the key to everything' Johann Wolfgang von GoetheA colourful and lavishly illustrated history (fifty years in the making) of the Mediterranean's largest and most turbulent island from much-loved historian John Julius Norwich'I discovered Sicily almost by mistake . . .We drove as far as Naples, then put the car on the night ferry to Palermo. There was a degree of excitement in the early hours when we passed Stromboli, emitting a rich glow every half-minute or so l...

Lonely Planet's local travel experts reveal all you need to know to plan the trip of a lifetime to New York City.Discover New York City's most popular experiences and best kept secrets - neighbourhood by neighbourhood - from exploring Central Park's 843 acres to taking a kayaking or stand-up paddleboarding class on the Hudson, and devouring world cuisine in the East Village.Build a trip to remember...

In this book, Emrys Westacott examines why, for more than two millennia, so many philosophers and people with a reputation for wisdom have been advocating frugality and simple living as the key to the good life. He also looks at why most people have ignored them, but argues that, in a world facing environmental crisis, it may finally be time to listen to the advocates of a simpler way of life.The Wisdom of Frugality explores what simplicity means, why it's supposed to make...

Half the world's population speaks a language that has evolved from a single, prehistoric mother tongue. First spoken in Stone Age times, on the steppes of central Eurasia 6,500 years ago, this mother tongue spread from the shores of the Black Sea across almost all of Europe and much of Asia. It is the genetic basis of everything we speak and write today—the DNA of language.Written in Stone combines detective work, mythology, ancient history, archaeology, the roots of soci...