Short stories. Funny and tragic.

China is one of the world's most rapidly changing cultural and economic landscapes which is being transformed from the inside by a new generation of savvy and inspired individuals. Zha collects nuanced and sharply etched profiles of these movers and shakers, capturing both the concrete detail and the epic dimension of life in the world's fastest growing economy through a vivid cast of characters. Deeply engaging, lucid and poignant, Zha's insightful insider-outsider portraits offer a view of China that few have seen outside of the country.

With the schism between Kraljica Allesandra and her son Jan threatening to tear apart the realm, they are forced to work together to fight the Numetodo sect and the army of Tehuantin, so that their people can survive.

The sensational new psychological thriller from the bestselling author of Before I Go To Sleep . . . She loves her husband. She's obsessed by a stranger. She's a devoted mother. She's prepared to lose everything. She knows what she's doing. She's out of control. She's innocent. She's guilty as sin. She's living two lives. She might lose both . . .

Julie Walters has been described as the nation's most popular actress and comedienne. She has been delighting us on screen and on stage for over 25 years and we have taken her to our hearts. Now she tells us her own story, in her own words. She was born in fifties Birmingham, daughter of an austere Irish Catholic mother. She was sent to school in a convent and from a young age always wanted to be an actress but to appease her mother she first went into nursing. This didn't last for long though and she soon went to join the Everyman Theatre in Liverpool. West End success followed, and she quickly replicated her success on film, earning an Academy Award nomination for her role opposite Michael Caine in Educating Rita. Julie's collaborations with her close friend Victoria Wood have given us, among others, the unforgettable character 'Mrs Overall' in Acorn Antiques and Petula in 'dinnerladies', and she's recently charmed a new generation of fans playing Mrs Weasley in the Harry Potter films and alongside Meryl Streep in 'Mamma Mia!', as well as co-starring with Helen Mirren in Calendar Girls. The winner of countless awards, Julie has continued to be in some of Britain's best TV drama and was awarded a CBE for her services to the theatre. A natural writer with an instinctive sense of timing, Julie's memoirs are warm, moving, painfully felt, fiercely intelligent - and totally entertaining.

PRAISE FOR A Killing on Wall Street "Derrick Niederman brings special qualities to his novel: He is funny, smart, and imparts to A Killing on Wall Street a wicked, jaundiced eye and an insider's ability to both educate and amuse." -John Spooner investment advisor and bestselling author of Confessions of a Stockbroker "Derrick Niederman's A Killing on Wall Street is at the same time an absorbing whodunit and a textbook for Investment Finance 101, written with witty dialogue, and not without puns, anagrams, and one or two references that escaped this reader who remembers 1929." -Charles P. Kindleberger Ford International Professor of Economics, MIT Emeritus; author of Manias, Panics and Crashes: A History of Financial Crises "A Killing on Wall Street grabs you from page one and won't let you go until the final word. Intrigue, insight, and passion combine for a rocketship read. If Derrick Niederman were a stock, I'd be buying." -Keith Ablow author of Denial and Projection

De relatie van een meisje en later jonge vrouw met haar moeder wordt ernstig verstoord doordat de laatste zwaar depressief is.

This collection of 22 essays analyses the Russian military in its social, political, economic, cultural and ideological contexts from 1450 to 1917.The essays are synthetic, and often based on new archival research.

This study of the Athenian strategia is concerned with identifying the locus of military authority in the Athenian polis. This volume is important reading for anyone who is interested in ancient military history or the question of sovereignty in Athens.

The papers in this volume are contributed by leading historians, art historians and archaeologists and focus on 5 key themes: the evolution of settlement patterns in the Byzantine empire; the impact of barbarian elites in Spain, Gaul, Italy and Pannonia; the role of the Church in the definition of new links between town and territories; the situation in culturally homogenous territories such as Constantinople and the minor Langbard polities; the situation in economically defined territories. Contributions include papers by Gian Pietro Brogiolo, Pablo C. Diaz, Michel Fixot, Gisela Ripoll and Javier Arce, Sauro Gelichi, Wolfram Brandes and John Haldon, Nancy Gauthier, Gisella Cantino Wataghin, Ross Balzaretti, Martina Caroli, Neil Christie, Bryan Ward-Perkins and John Mitchell.

This book, mainly based on primary sources from various countries, provides fascinating new insights into the origin and development of the Admiralty and maritime policy in the Low Countries before the Dutch Revolt, including government interference with maritime strategy, warfare, privateering, prize law, commerce, and fishery.

At the beginning of Mesopotamia s Early Dynastic period, the political landscape was dominated by temple administrators, but by the end of the period, rulers whose titles we translate as king assumed control. This book argues that the ritual process of mourning, burying, and venerating dead elites contributed to this change. Part one introduces the rationale for seeing rituals as a means of giving material form to ideology and, hence, structuring overall power relations. Part two presents archaeological and textual evidence for the death rituals. Part three interprets symbolic objects found in the Royal Cemetery of Ur, showing they reflect ideological doctrines promoting the office of kingship. This book will be particularly useful for scholars of Mesopotamian archaeology and history.

An examination of how the Netherlands combined espionage, deterrence, diplomacy, and economic policy to avoid World War I.

Author Philip Reynolds examines how marriage acquired a specifically Christian identity in the Latin West during the first millennium after Christ. Beginning with Jesus, everything the Christians did, including getting married, began a process of differentiation. Reynolds offers three themes for theological reflection and interpretation: Jesus teaching, Paul s Letter to the Ephesians, and Paul s justification of marriage as a solution to the problem of sexual desire. Reynolds insights into the Christianization of marriage make this a valuable book at both the scholarly and the practical level.

"Soviet Russia and Tibet" surveys for the first time the entire history of religious and political relations between Russia and Tibet, from the 17th to the late 20th century, focusing on Soviet attempts to win Lhasa over in the 1920s. This is the first investigation into the little-known Bolshevik foreign ministry's strenuous efforts to win Lhasa over to the Soviet cause in the 1920s. Examining the history of relations between Russia (tsarist, Soviet and post-Soviet) and Tibet from the 17th century to the 1990s, the author puts at the core of his narrative the previously unknown story of clandestine negotiations between the Soviet government and the 13th Dalai Lama, forming part of Moscow's bitter struggle against British imperialism in Asia. The book provides insight into Soviet secret diplomacy and draws important conclusions relating to the history of Anglo-Russian competition for Tibet and Tibet's status prior to 1951.

This is a study of war between Sung China and Kitan Liao, the treaty at Shan-yuan in 1005 that ended it, and the forms and textures of peaceful diplomatic contact between the two states that prevailed for the rest of the eleventh century."

This comparative history of the parallel development of Catholic political parties in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Belgium and The Netherlands contributes to the debate over Germany's "Sonderweg" or "special path" by showing that this aspects of Germany's history was not unique but similar to that of neighbors.