My father, George, was a chartered accountant. It follows immediately that he was a great wit and storyteller. I especially loved to hear him tell the story of Larry and Bill, who, in a moment of extreme intoxication, made a pact that the first of them to die would contact the other. But was the falling pickaxe really a sign from beyond the grave?Our family doctor, Dr Ranjab Nabla, lived close by. His eccentricity knew almost no bounds: he had to be endured to be believed....

Clare had a secret. Clare had many secrets. The only words she ever spoke were to call Lily. But who was Lily? And who was Clare, and what had happened to her?

Daniel’s ready to talk. And his friends Krystina and Jeremy are ready to help. But is it too late? Set in separate but simultaneous lunch periods at two different high schools, the teenagers are faced with acknowledging what drove them apart. At his new school, Daniel speaks to the Gay-Straight Alliance about the bullying and depression that forced him to move. He looks back fondly at the bond he formed with Krystina and Jeremy in history class and the trauma he faced from anonymous text m...

The Flawed is a gripping work of speculative fiction that explores the fragile balance between peace, power, and moral responsibility. Set in the Solar Complex, a world that has enjoyed years of hard-won stability, the story begins when a mysterious glowing orb appears, signaling the arrival of a new and unknown enemy. As strange visitors emerge and long-buried threats resurface, leaders Dar, Jenny, and their allies are forced to confront dangers that challenge not only their defenses but ...

Written for an audience of students, general readers, and economists alike, this Element is a primer on the field of the economics of conflict and peace. It offers a reasonably comprehensive, systematic, and detailed overview - even if in broad strokes - of the field's orthodox and heterodox history of thought and current theories and evidence. The authors view this Element as a baseline account on which to build a future, separate and more fully developed, work on the economics of peace, ...

Countries that spend scarce resources to import arms from abroad often require arms sellers to 'reinvest' part or all of the proceeds back into the arms-importing country. These so-called 'arms trade offsets' are therefore thought to enhance domestic economic development. But does this process actually succeed? This book examines the theory and policy applications of arms trade offsets and looks at more than a dozen case studies drawn from across Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Americas. The...

As the Sages, Gurus, and Master Teachers of the past have known, all permanent outside change must start from the inside, that special place where you really know yourself. You are more powerful than you think, you have magic!This book and the practice within can help facilitate this beautiful inner change. You will be able to do this with little effort, and with no more than your desire to grow and be a more beautiful, loving, and accepting person.You will find your relati...

Christianity Today Book Award winnerThe scholarly quest for the historical Jesus has a distinguished pedigree in modern Western religious and historical scholarship, with names such as Strauss, Schweitzer and Bultmann highlighting the story. Since the early 1990s, when the Jesus quest was reawakened for a third run, numerous significant books have emerged. And the public's attention has been regularly arrested by media coverage, with the J...

Although there is often opposition to individual wars, most people continue to believe that the arms industry is necessary in some form: to safeguard our security, provide jobs and stimulate the economy. Not only conservatives, but many progressives and liberals, support it for these reasons.Indefensible puts forward a devastating challenge to this conventional wisdom, which has normalised the existence of the most savage weapons of mass destruction ever known. It is the e...

Civilization was born eight thousand years ago, between the floodplains of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, when migrants from the surrounding mountains and deserts began to create increasingly sophisticated urban societies. In the cities that they built, half of human history took place.In Babylon, Paul Kriwaczek tells the story of Mesopotamia from the earliest settlements seven thousand years ago to the eclipse of Babylon in the sixth century BCE. Bringing the people of ...

A collection of forty crime and thriller short stories, with all profits from the sale of this book to be donated to Hospice UK and Sophie's Appeal.Do you think you know darkness? Think again. Bloodhound Books presents Dark Minds—a collection of stories by authors who have come together to produce an anthology that will lure, tantalise and shock its readers. What took place "By the Water?" What goes on behind "A Stranger's Eyes?" And what is so special about "Slow R...

Put values—and value—over volume with a professional services subscription modelProfessional firms are built on relationships. But you wouldn't know it by observing their predominant business model — a model centered on selling transactions and inputs, not outcomes that deepen and strengthen relationships.Time’s Up! offers you a guide to building a more valuable firm, one where relationships and lifetime customer value are at the center of how you ...