Random House, Inc.

Many of us take it as a given that the Great Depression — the consequences of which reverberated for decades, crippling the future of an entire generation and setting the stage for WWII — resulted from a confluence of inexorable forces beyond any one person or government's control. In fact, as erudite economist Liaquat Ahamed explains, it was the decisions taken by a small number of central bankers that were the primary cause of the economic meltdown. In Lords of Finance, we meet the neurotic and enigmatic Montagu Norman of the Bank of England; the xenophobic and suspicious Emile Moreau of the Banque de France; the arrogant yet brilliant Hjalmar Schacht of the Reichsbank; and, the dynamic Benjamin Strong of the New York Federal Reserve Bank. These four men were as prominent in their time as Alan Greenspan, Hank Paulson and Mervyn King are today, but their names were lost to history, their story untold, until now. Harnessing a keen sense of history and the narrative skills of the novelist, Liaquat Ahamed tells their story in vivid and gripping detail. As yet another period of economic turmoil makes headlines today, the Great Depression and the year 1929 remain the benchmark for true financial mayhem. Offering a new understanding of the origins and global nature of financial crises, Lords of Finance is a timely and arresting reminder that individuals — their ambitions, limitations and human nature — lie at the very heart of global catastrophe.

Sapphire Jones doesn't believe in relationships anymore — not since she caught her husband in bed with another woman. Now Sapphire only sees men on her terms which is why her current lover is younger than her, good looking, doesn't place any emotional demands on her so far, fingers crossed and is great in bed. What more does a girl need? Sapphire puts all her passion into running her own business — a high end lingerie and hen weekend company. She is doing well and life seems pretty good until she meets a very handsome, charming businessman who seems more than a match for Sapphire. Then things go badly wrong at the hen party she has planned for a soap star and tabloid darling. The evening is one that everyone will be talking about for all the wrong reasons and Sapphire faces front page headlines all of her own... Suddenly her business is in jeopardy, her well-controlled private life is falling apart, and in the middle of all this Sapphire realises that she is not immune to love after all, but has she left it too late?

From New York Times bestselling author Mary Balogh come two classic tales of love turned dangerous, set amid the splendor of Regency England--a time rife with passion, betrayal, and intrigue. DARK ANGEL: Jennifer Winwood has been engaged for five years to a man she hardly knows but believes to be honorable and good: Lord Lionel Kersey. Suddenly, she becomes the quarry of London's most notorious womanizer, Gabriel Fisher, the Earl of Thornhill. Jennifer has no idea that she is just a pawn in the long-simmering feud between these two headstrong, irresistible men — or that she will become a prize more valuable than revenge. LORD CAREW'S BRIDE: Jennifer's cousin Samantha Newman is smarting after she too is toyed with by Lord Kersey. In the midst of her heartbreak, she seeks solace from her new friend, the disabled gardener Hartley Wade. If only she knew that Hartley is secretly Lord Carew, and that he hides more than extraordinary wealth: a passionate secret held deep in his heart that only her love can reveal.

El nuevo bestseller de la reina del suspense. En su nuevo y apasionante thriller, Mary Higgins Clark explora la batalla legal sobre la inocencia o culpabilidad de un hombre acusado de matar a su mujer, sobre el trasfondo de un poco conocido fenomeno medico donde el receptor de un transplante de corazon percibe las emociones y recuerdos del donante. La joven abogada Emily Wallace se enfrenta al caso mas importante de su carrera. Hace dos anos la popular actriz Natalie Raines fue asesinada en su propia casa y su ex marido, Gregg Aldrich, ha sido desde entonces el principal sospechoso. A pesar de haberse dedicado en cuerpo y alma a la preparacion del caso contra Aldrich, Emily pasa por constantes momentos de duda cuando comienza el juicio. Por un lado, simpatiza con la madre de la asesinada, pero tambien, desde el primer momento, con Gregg. De donde provienen esas dudas? Y esos sentimientos tan contradictorios? Emily tiene una corazonada y no dejara de investigar, aunque el juez haya dictado sentencia y aunque ponga su propia vida en peligro.

Kyle McAvoy possesses an outstanding legal mind. Good-looking and affable, he has a glittering future. He also has a dark secret that could destroy his dreams, his career, even his life. One night that secret catches up with him. The men who accost Kyle have a compromising video they’ll use to ruin him–unless he does exactly what they say. What they offer Kyle is something any ambitious young lawyer would kill for: a job in Manhattan as an associate at the world’s largest law firm. If Kyle accepts, he’ll be on the fast track to partnership and a fortune. But there’s a catch. Kyle won’t be working for the firm but against it in a dispute between two powerful defense contractors worth billions. Now Kyle is caught between the criminal forces manipulating him, the FBI, and his own law firm–in a malignant conspiracy not even Kyle with all his intellect, cunning, and bravery may be able to escape alive.

In this innovative guide, master art instructor William Maughan demonstrates how to create a realistic human likeness by using the classic and highly accurate modeling technique of chiaroscuro (Italian for “light and dark”) developed by Leonardo da Vinci during the High Renaissance. Maughan first introduces readers to the basics of this centuries-old technique, showing how to analyze form, light, and shadow; use dark pencil, white pencil, and toned paper to create a full range of values; use the elements of design to enhance a likeness; and capture a sitter’s gestures and proportions. He then demonstrates, step by step, how to draw each facial feature, develop visual awareness, and render the head in color with soft pastels.

On his way home from a remote Pacific island, Dr Saunders travels with two strangers: the treacherous Captain Nichols, and Fred, a handsome Australian with a shadowy past. Driven to shelter from a storm on the island of Banda, the trio meet good-natured Erik Christessen and his fiancee, the cool and beautiful Louise.

Do the folk stories about leprechauns match our ideas about them today? Are there other fairies in Irish tradition? What are the origins of these stories? Why do people believe in leprecahuns and fairies? Find out the answers to these questions and more in Magic Tree House Research Guide #21: Leprechauns and Irish Folklore, Jack and Annie's guide to the wee folk of Ireland.

Mr Magnolia has only one boot. He has an old trumpet that goes rooty-toot. And two lovely sisters who play on the flute. But Mr Magnolia has only one boot. In this wittily rhyming picture book, Mr Magnolia has a full and happy life except for one serious omission — a boot. But one day, he receives a mysterious parcel, and at last Mr Magnolia can splash in the puddles with everyone else!

'R' is a zombie. He has no name, no memories, and no pulse, but he has dreams. He is a little different from his fellow Dead. Amongst the ruins of an abandoned city, R meets a girl. Her name is Julie and she is the opposite of everything he knows — warm and bright and very much alive, she is a blast of colour in a dreary grey landscape.

A few months after Alex Cross hunted a vicious killer named The Tiger halfway around the world, he began to think seriously about a book he had been wanting to write for years. It is a story his grandmother had told him — a story that has always stayed with him — about what took place in the early part of the Twentieth Century in Mississippi, during the time that Theodore Roosevelt was President. It is a story that Alex Cross believes helps illuminate why so many black people are angry, hurt, and lost, even today. At it's heart is Ben Corbett, a smart and courageous lawyer handed a mission by the President which will take him back to his hometown and into the heart of a series of murders and violent attacks, where the Klu Klux Klan play their part and where a community is being torn apart. Alex Cross has dealt with some terrifying cases in the past but this is a part of history that he wants to tell the world.

Hitting shelves just before Lee Child's wildly anticipated new hardcover, comes the mass market paperback of the #1 Reacher thriller that's leaving everyone breathless. Child ratchets up the tension minute by minute, leading up to the most talked-about cliff-hanger in suspense today.

After conducting exclusive interviews with more than 100 current and former Secret Service agents, bestselling author and award-winning reporter Kessler reveals their secrets for the first time.

It is Manhattan, Thanksgiving Eve, 1945. The war is over, and Eric Smythe's party was in full swing. All his clever Greenwich Village friends were there. So too, was his sister, Sara — an independent, canny young woman, starting to make her way in the big city. And then in walked a gatecrasher, Jack Malone — U.S Army journalist just back from a defeated Germany, and a man whose world-view did not tally with that of Eric and his friends. This chance meeting between Sara and Jack — and the choices they both made in the wake of it — would eventually have profound consequences, both for themselves and for those closest to them. And the effect of their actions would reverberate within their families for decades afterwards. Set amidst the dynamic optimism of postwar New York and the subsequent nightmare of the McCarthy witch-hunts, The Pursuit of Happiness is a great tragic love story; a tale of divided loyalties, decisive moral choices and the random workings of destiny.

Enriched by maps and hundreds of photographs, the companion volume to the forthcoming PBS series, «The War» is the story of World War II captured in the hearts, minds, words, and deeds of those who made history at its most essential level: on the battlefields and on the homefront.

An illustrated book discussing the basic technical considerations as they apply to outdoor close-up nature photography. Information covers exposure, equipment, composition and necessary equipment applications which include: extension with tubes and bellows, macro lenses, tele-converters, flash and lighting. The reasons are given for the impracticability of the studio situation for close-up nature photography. John Shaw is author of «The Nature Photographer's Complete Guide to Professional Field Techniques».

Es una soleada mañana de otoño en la pequeña ciudad de Chester’s Mill, Claudette Sanders disfruta de su clase de vuelo y Dale Barbara, hace autostop en las afueras. Ninguno de los dos llegará a su destino. De la nada ha caído sobre la ciudad una barrera invisible como una burbuja cristalina inquebrantable. Al descender, ha cortado por la mitad a una marmota y ha amputado la mano a un jardinero. El avión que pilotaba Claudette ha chocado contra la cúpula y se ha precipitado al suelo envuelto en llamas. Dale Barbara, veterano de la guerra de Irak, debe regresar ahora a Chester’s Mill, el lugar que tanto deseaba abandonar. El ejército pone a Dale al cargo de la situación pero Big Jim Rennie, el hombre que tiene un pie en todos los negocios sucios de la ciudad, no está de acuerdo; la cúpula podría ser la respuesta a sus plegarias. A medida que la comida, la electricidad y el agua escasean, los niños comienzan a tener premoniciones escalofriantes. El tiempo se acaba para aquellos que viven bajo la cúpula. ¿Podrán averiguar qué ha creado tan terrorífica prisión antes de que sea demasiado tarde?

I have a meanness inside me, real as an organ. Libby Day was seven when her mother and two sisters were murdered in The Satan Sacrifice of Kinnakee, Kansas. As her family lay dying, little Libby fled their tiny farmhouse into the freezing January snow. She lost some fingers and toes, but she survived-and famously testified that her fifteen-year-old brother, Ben, was the killer. Twenty-five years later, Ben sits in prison, and troubled Libby lives off the dregs of a trust created by well-wishers who've long forgotten her. The Kill Club is a macabre secret society obsessed with notorious crimes. When they locate Libby and pump her for details-proof they hope may free Ben-Libby hatches a plan to profit off her tragic history. For a fee, she'll reconnect with the players from that night and report her findings to the club... and maybe she'll admit her testimony wasn't so solid after all. As Libby's search takes her from shabby Missouri strip clubs to abandoned Oklahoma tourist towns, the narrative flashes back to January 2, 1985. The events of that day are relayed through the eyes of Libby's doomed family members-including Ben, a loner whose rage over his shiftless father and their failing farm have driven him into a disturbing friendship with the new girl in town. Piece by piece, the unimaginable truth emerges, and Libby finds herself right back where she started-on the run from a killer.

MacKayla Lane lies naked on the cold stone floor of a church, at the mercy of the erotic Fae master she once swore to kill. Far from home, unable to control her sexual hungers, MacKayla is now fully under the Lord Master's spell... In New York Times bestselling author Karen Marie Moning's stunning new novel, the walls between human and Fae worlds have come crashing down. And as Mac fights for survival on Dublin's battle-scarred streets, she will embark on the darkest — and most erotically charged — adventure of her life. He has stolen her past, but MacKayla will never allow her sister's murderer to take her future. Yet even the uniquely gifted sidhe — seer is no match for the Lord Master, who has unleashed an insatiable sexual craving that consumes Mac's every thought — and thrusts her into the seductive realm of two very dangerous men, both of whom she desires but dares not trust. As the enigmatic Jericho Barrons and the sensual Fae prince V'lane vie for her body and soul, as cryptic entries from her sister's diary mysteriously appear and the power of the Dark Book weaves its annihilating path through the city, Mac's greatest enemy delivers a final challenge... It's an invitation Mac cannot refuse, one that sends her racing home to Georgia, where an even darker threat awaits. With her parents missing and the lives of her loved ones under siege, Mac is about to come face-to-face with a soul-shattering truth — about herself and her sister, about Jericho Barrons... and about the world she thought she knew.

De uno de los autores más queridos de todos los tiempos llega una irresistible aventura de piratas de capa y espada en el Nuevo Mundo — una clásica historia de tesoros y traiciones. El Caribe, 1665. Jamaica es una pequeña colonia inglesa que intenta escapar del dominio del gran imperio español. Port Royal, su capital, es un pueblo salvaje de bares y burdeles. Desprovisto de los lujos de Londres, la vida aquí puede terminar rápidamente por enfermedad o por una daga en la espalda. Pero para el capitán Charles Hunter, es una vida que también puede conducir a la riqueza — y el oro en manos de los españoles es oro disponible. El rumor en el puerto es que el galeón de tesoros español El Trinidad se ha detenido en un puerto español cercano mientras espera reparaciones. Completamente fortificado, el inexpugnable puerto está guardado por Cazalla, un temible comandante, favorito del mismo rey Felipe IV. Con el respaldo de un poderoso aliado, Hunter reúne un equipo de matones para piratear el galeón y apropiarse del oro español. El ataque es digno de las más sangrientas leyendas de la isla, y Hunter perderá más de un hombre antes de llegar a la costa, donde la densa selva y la fuerza de la infantería española se interponen entre él y el tesoro.

Henry Wilt, Tom Sharpe's beleaguered hero, returns again for another hilarious dose of quickfire farce. Stuck in a job he doesn't want — but can't afford to lose — as nominal Head of the Communications Department at Fenland University, Wilt is still subject to the whims of The Powers That Be, both in and outside of work. The demands of his snobbish wife Eva, and the stupendous school fees of his despicable quadruplet daughters, cause him the biggest headaches... apart from the hangovers, that is. When Eva signs him up for a summer job, teaching the gun-toting idiot son of a lusty local aristocrat, Wilt is not amused. But, as circumstances unravel and the summer goes on, Wilt sees that the situation could be put to his financial advantage, as well as giving Eva some headaches of her own. With Tom Sharpe's famous dark humour in full evidence, and an explosive plot which takes its readers to places they never realised they wanted to visit, The Wilt Inheritance is another instant classic from the British master of farce.

This is the definitive guide on creating encaustic art, an ancient medium that is increasingly popular with contemporary fine artists. It features step-by-step techniques with easy-to-understand instructions and detailed illustrations. It includes tips and techniques gleaned from more than 60 professional artists working with the medium internationally. This is the definitive guide on creating encaustic art, an ancient medium that is increasingly popular with contemporary fine artists. Encaustic Art serves as the complete resource for artists working with encaustic wax. The book includes techniques for incorporating drawing, transfer, collage, assemblage, photography media with encaustic, as well as techniques for creating wax sculptures, encaustic prints and monotypes and installation art. It features step-by-step techniques with easy-to-understand instructions and detailed illustrations, gorgeous examples of encaustic works of art, plus tips and techniques gleaned from interviews and studio visits with more than 60 professional artists working with the medium internationally.

Take a giraffe with a magic neck, a pelican with a retractable beak and a very agile monkey, and what do you have? The world's finest Ladderless Window-Cleaning Company, of course! Add in their friend Billy, the Duke and Duchess of Hampshire and the Cobra, the cleverest and most dangerous cat-burglar in the world, and you have all the ingredients for a deliciously funny tale — all in the pursuit of walnuts, salmon and the pink and purple flowers of the tinkle-tinkle tree, not to mention the Grand Opening of The Grubber...

Luther and Nora Krank are fed up with the chaos of Christmas. The endless shopping lists, the frenzied dashes through the mall, the hassle of decorating the tree... where has all the joy gone? This year, celebrating seems like too much effort. With their only child off in Peru, they decide that just this once, they'll skip the holidays. They spend their Christmas budget on a Caribbean cruise set to sail on December 25, and happily settle in for a restful holiday season free of rooftop snowmen and festive parties. But the Kranks soon learn that their vacation from Christmas isn't much of a vacation at all, and that skipping the holidays has consequences they didn't bargain for... A modern Christmas classic, Skipping Christmas is a charming and hilarious look at the mayhem and madness that have become ingrained in our holiday tradition.