This Element examines the tombstone for Andrew of Perugia (d. 1332?), the sole surviving object from the 14C Franciscan mission in China. The narrative begins in Zayton, where diverse groups brought to this maritime entrepot old antagonisms and new alliances. The discovery of Andrew's tombstone and that of other Christian monuments over the centuries, demonstrate how various Christian churches interacted with their host society from the eighth through the fourteenth centuries. Relying to t...

Deputy Mattie Cobb is in a dark place and has withdrawn from Cole Walker and his family to work on issues from her past. When she and her K-9 partner, Robo, get called to track a missing junior high student, they find the girl dead on Smoker’s Hill behind the high school, and Mattie must head to the Walker home to break the bad news. But that’s only the start of trouble in Timber Creek because soon another girl goes missing—and this time it’s one of Cole’s daughters.Knowing that ea...

Two brutal murders, a menacing band of poachers, and a fearsome creature on the loose in the mountains plunge Mattie Cobb and her K-9 partner Robo into a sinister vortex.An explosion outside a community dance sends Mattie Cobb and Cole Walker reeling into the night, where they discover a burning van and beside it the body of outfitter Nate Fletcher. But the explosion didn’t kill Nate—it was two gunshots to the heart.The investigation leads them to the home of rancher Doyle ...

A candid, rollicking literary travelogue from a pioneering New Yorker writer, an intrepid heroine who documented China in the years before World War IIDeemed scandalous at the time of its publication in 1944, Emily Hahn’s now classic memoir of her years in China remains remarkable for her insights into a tumultuous period and her frankness about her personal exploits. A proud feminist and fearless traveler, she set out for China in 1935 and stayed through ...

While the United States stumbles, an award-winning foreign correspondent chronicles China’s dramatic moves to become the world’s dominant power.As the second-largest economy, China is now extending its influence across the globe. Joanna Chiu has spent a decade tracking China’s propulsive rise, from the complicity of democratic nations, to a new colonialism coming from its multibillion-dollar “New Silk Road” initiative, to its growing sway on foreign countries and m...

The next thrilling installment in the Timber Creek K-9 MysteriesWhen Deputy Ken Brody’s sweetheart goes missing in the mountains outside Timber Creek, Mattie Cobb and her K-9 partner Robo are called to search. But it’s mid-October and a dark snow storm is brewing over the high country. And they’re already too late. By the time they find her body, the storm has broken and the snow is coming down hard.While Brody hikes down to bring back the forensics team and veterinarian Co...

"A Chinatown Christmas" refers to the saying that you can always find a restaurant open on Christmas day in Chinatown when all the other restaurants are closed.Billionaire Jake Austin, has spent the last five years working through Christmas as he built his start up to a billion-dollar corporation. Every year, he's spent Christmas Day eating at the Chen Family Cuisine Restaurant, located in his local Chinatown down the street from his house. It was the only...

"A Chinatown Christmas" refers to the saying that you can always find a restaurant open on Christmas day in Chinatown when all the other restaurants are closed.Billionaire Jake Austin, has spent the last five years working through Christmas as he built his start up to a billion-dollar corporation. Every year, he's spent Christmas Day eating at the Chen Family Cuisine Restaurant, located in his local Chinatown down the street from his house. It was the only...

On a rugged Colorado mountain ridge, Mattie Cobb and her police dog partner Robo make a grisly discovery―and become the targets of a ruthless killer.Colorado’s Redstone Ridge is a place of extraordinary beauty, but this rugged mountain wilderness harbors a horrifying secret. When a charred body is discovered in a shallow grave on the ridge, officer Mattie Cobb and her K-9 partner Robo are called in to spearhead the investigation. But this is no ordinary crime―and it soon b...

When a young girl is found dead in the mountains outside Timber Creek, lifelong resident Officer Mattie Cobb and her partner, K-9 police dog Robo, are assigned to the case that has rocked the small Colorado town.With the help of Cole Walker, a local veterinarian and single father, Mattie and Robo must track down the truth before it claims another victim. But the more Mattie investigates, the more she realizes how many secrets her town holds. And the key may be Cole’s daughter, who ...

In the early twentieth century, few women in China were to prove so important to the rise of Chinese nationalism and liberation from tradition as the three extraordinary Soong Sisters: Eling, Chingling, and Mayling. As told with wit and verve by Emily Hahn, a remarkable woman in her own right, the biography of the Soong Sisters tells the story of China through both world wars. It also chronicles the changes to Shanghai as they relate to a very eccentric family that had the courage to speak...

Brought to you by Penguin.A fast-paced, action-adventure thriller for readers of The Martian.ONE SMALL STEP. ONE FATAL MISTAKE.On the barren plains of the Kazakh Steppe, Alyssa Wright stands on the brink of the most ambitious space flight in history: a one-way mission to Mars. But when disaster strikes, she begins to uncover a conspiracy that threatens her life - and the lives of everyone on board.I...