In The Wisdom of the Shire , Noble Smith sheds a light on the life-changing ideas tucked away inside the classic works of J. R. R. Tolkien and his most beloved creation—the stouthearted Hobbits.How can simple pleasures such as gardening, taking long walks, and eating delicious meals with friends make you significantly happier? Why is the act of giving presents on your birthday instead of getting them such a revolutionary idea? What should you do w...

The action-packed finale of the trilogy set during the epic war that tore apart ancient Greece from the award-winning author of Spartans at the Gates.Nikias of Plataea has survived battle, shipwreck, and torture. But now the young warrior must face his greatest challenge: leading the people of his city-state on a desperate exodus to Athens while being hunted down by the largest Spartan expeditionary force in history.From the burning forests of the le...

The Peloponnesian War has begun. An army of merciless Spartan invaders have arrived at the gates of Plataea, bent on obliterating the independent city-state and its inhabitants. Plataea's oldest allies, the Athenians, are spread too thin in their own campaigns to send help. Cut off and alone, the Plataeans have dug in behind their high walls for the coming attack, while the tyrannical Spartans prepare to lay siege.On a rugged mountain road, a young Plataean warrior named Nikias ride...

In 431 B.C., Ancient Greece experienced its own "Pearl Harbor"—a treacherous sneak attack that would mark the start of the bloody war between the democracy of Athens and the tyranny of Sparta. Caught between these superpowers, the independent city-state of Plataea became the arena where their battle for control of all of Greece would begin.In Plataea, the young Greek warrior Nikias dreams of glory in the Olympic games as he trains for the pankration—the no-holds-barred ulti...

In the ancient Greek city-state of Plataea, teenage warriors trained in the ways of the battlefield long before they reached the age of eighteen. They also trained in the vicious, no-holds-barred form of unarmed combat called pankration. Similar to today's Ultimate Fighting and MMA (Mixed Martial Arts), this extreme style of man-on-man battle was featured in the original Olympic games.And sometimes, those pankration techniques were used not just for glory on the battlefield or in t...

Coinciding with the release of the first of Peter Jackson's Hobbit trilogy, his follow-up to the huge Lord of the Rings success, The Wisdom of the Shire is a practical and fun guide - for Tolkien fans everywhere - showing us how to apply the wisdom of The Hobbit to our everyday lives.Hobbits are those small but brave little people, whose courage, integrity and loyalty allow them to triumph against odds that might appear overwhelming to the rest o...

The charmingly eccentric Otto Draxinger appears to be your typical pipe-smoking Oxford professor, doing his best to preserve his sanity while his beloved former students are being slaughtered at the Western Front. But the American expatriate has diagnosed himself with the newly coined term “schizophrenia.” And he believes the nightmarish waking visions he’s been experiencing are caused by the psychological trauma of the catastrophe that is The Great War.But after a chance encounter...

Neddy Smith's life story, smuggled out of Long Bay prison, created a sensation on publication. He wrote that:- Detective Sergeant Roger Rogerson and other NSW police gave him a rare 'green light' to rob, bash, deal drugs, whatever... without fear of arrest.- He robbed payrolls, dealt heroin and took full advantage- He was the star witness at ICAC hearings into police corruption that changed policing in NSWAnd he wrote it like he was telling it in a pub - immedi...

Brought to you by Penguin.Why is the Berlin Brandenburg Airport ten years behind schedule and nearly four billion euros over budget? And what possessed Kenya's government to spend a whopping $35 million on a chain link fence just six miles long?In this hilarious, fascinating and insightful expose, industry insider Peter Smith reveals the massive blunders and dodgy dealings taking place around the world as private companies and public sector...

A twisted tale of love lost, alluring demons, idiotic servants, beautiful ladies, magicians, spells, pirates, and duels, Stolen from Gypsies has been called a comedic tour de force comparable to Shakespeare. The unusual hero is British nobleman Ambrogio Smythe, a rich but comical hypochondriac. Obsessed by childhood memories of Gypsies, the frail but determined Ambrogio leaves his ancestral estate in Warwickshire and makes his way to Italy during the Napoleonic Wars. Happily maroo...

'If Gossip Girl and Made in Chelsea had a baby, it would be this book.' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐'How many loves do you get in a lifetime?'She is a beautiful, affluent, self-involved and mildly neurotic London socialite.He is Britain's most photographed bad-boy who broke her heart.Magnolia Parks and BJ Ballentine are meant to be, and everyone knows it.She dates other people to keep hi...

This handbook highlights innovative and affect-driven feminist dialogues that inspire social work practice, education, and research across the globe. The editors have gathered the many (at times silenced) feminist voices and their allies together in this book which reflects current and contested feminist landscapes through 52 chapters from leading feminist social work scholars from the many branches and movements of feminist thought and practice. The breadth and width of this collection en...