This audiobook is narrated by a digital voice.In a galaxy forged by the ancient Alcaniz, shadows spread. Alcan, the ruling AI, torments and pursues. Alongside Emily Brish and Torch, Micheal Carver is guided, helped to discover his father's legacy. Paths cut through abandoned worlds, sentient libraries, and deadly battles. Micheal soon learns his true nature: he was created, not born—an amalgam built to defy Kambyses, a malevolent Alcaniz puppeteer.Alcaniz: Winter's Code...

Lean production, which has radically benefited traditional manufacturing, can greatly improve the software industry with similar methods and results. This transformation is possible because the same overarching principles that apply in other industries work equally well in software development. The software industry follows the same industrial concepts of production as those applied in manufacturing; however, the software industry perceives itself as being fundamentally different and has l...

Prompted by centuries of warfare, political oppression, natural disasters, and economic collapses, exile has had an enormous impact not only on individuals who have undergone transplantation from one culture to another but also on the host societies they have joined and those worlds they have left behind. Written by prominent literary critics, creative authors, and artists, the essays gathered within Exile in Global Literature and Culture: Homes Found and Lost meditate upon the pa...

Giving Voice to Exile in Literature: The Burdens and Privileges of Inheritance aims to provide undergraduate, graduate and professional readers with a nuanced understanding of how the unique status of exile, issues of displacement, complexities of cultural identity formation, the state of in-betweenness (liminality), and alienation shape fundamental human experiences. Its contributors, prominent artists, literary critics, social scientists, medical professionals, students of exile...

The funniest book of the year from an incredibly exciting new voice in children’s fiction!Are you sitting comfortably? Are you fantasising about bamboo? Do you have black and white fur? Are you huge and cute and cuddly-looking? Well, put this book down, because you are a panda, and this is not a book for pandas.This is a story about a girl called Scarlet. She’s nine years old, just like you, if you’re nine. If you’re not nine, then she’s more l...

In the second novel in the charming Southern Ladies mystery series, the spry, sleuthing Ducote sisters attend a wedding and uncover an unhappily ever after . . .An’gel and Dickce Ducote tend to stay put in Athena, Mississippi, but a wedding is a good reason to say a temporary farewell to Charlie Harris's cat Diesel and go visit relatives. But while their stay in Louisiana is scorching hot, the atmosphere at the wedding is downright cold, with bride-to-be Sondra Del...

This personal history chronicles the triumph and loss of a 1960s initiative to recruit minority students to Columbia University's School of Architecture.At the intersection of US educational, architectural, and urban history, When Ivory Towers Were Black tells the story of how an unparalleled cohort of ethnic minority students overcame institutional roadblocks to earn degrees in architecture from Columbia University. Its narrative begins with a protest mov...

The New York Times bestselling author of the Cat in the Stacks mysteries is back with more of those sleuthing Southern belles, the Ducote sisters . . .An'gel and Dickce Ducote, busy with plans for the Athena Garden Club's spring tour of grand old homes, are having trouble getting the other club members to help. The rest of the group is all a-flutter now that dashing and still-eligible Hadley Partridge is back to restore his family mansion. But the idle cha...

New York Times bestselling author Miranda James returns to Athena, Mississippi, with the first Southern Ladies mystery featuring Miss An'gel and Miss Dickce Ducote, two snoopy sisters who are always ready to lend a helping hand.With the Mississippi sun beating down, An'gel and Dickce are taking a break to cool off and pet sit their friend Charlie Harris's cat, Diesel, when their former sorority sister, Rosabelle Sultan, shows up at their door unexpectedly,...

The Five Classics, a foundational text within the Confucian canon, comprises essential works that shaped Chinese thought and cultural values. These texts'—including the Yijing (Book of Changes), Shijing (Book of Songs), Shangshu (Book of Documents), Liji (Book of Rites), and Chunqiu (Spring and Autumn Annals)'—demonstrate a distinctive literary style characterized by aphorisms, poetry, and historical narrative. Set against the backdrop of the tumultuous Spring and Autumn period, these clas...

From the New York Times bestselling coauthors, a charming romantic fantasyMercedes Lackey is the New York Times bestselling author of the Valdemar series and romantic fantasies like Beauty and the Werewolf and The Fairy Godmother. Now these New York Times and USA Today bestselling collaborators bring romance to the fore with The House of the Four Winds.The rulers of tiny, impoverished Swansgaard have twelve daug...

The 'Spring and Autumn Annals,' attributed to Confucius, is a seminal historical text chronicling the state of Lu from 722 to 481 BCE. Using a terse and elegant literary style, the work encapsulates significant events, political intrigues, and moral lessons distilled into brief entries. This narrative format not only serves as a historical record but also reflects Confucian ideals, emphasizing virtue, justice, and the moral responsibilities of rulers, thus establishing a foundational text ...