一个男人言简意赅描写了自己的人生，长大之前他英俊、应有尽有、从不寂寞，堪称上帝的宠儿，长大之后他丑陋、贫穷、虚伪，过着谎话连篇和庸俗不堪的生活，他是怎样毁了自己的一生呢？
成功和失败、幸福和悲哀，一段有如过山车般的人生。
成功的标准是什么？怎样的人生又应该被定义为“失败”呢？
一则简练而深刻的人生寓言。

Exiled to the Shadows for centuries, a man more than mortal awakens in an Earth hospital with no memory of his past—and is surrounded by enemies who hunger for his destruction. For Corwin is of the blood—the rightful successor to the throne of the real world. But to rule, he must conquer impossible realities and demonic assassins... and survive the ruthless machinations of the most insidious malevolence imaginable: his own family.

Lk mos people I lived for a long time with my mother and<br > ~her liked to watch the wrestling， my mother liked<br > My<br > father<br > tow~stle;it didn t matter what. She was n he wh e corner and<br > that was that.<br > She hung out the largest sheets on the windiest days. She<br > ~n ed the Mormons to knock on the door. At election time in a<br > Labour mill town she put a picture of the Conservative<br > candidate in ~he window.<br > She had never heard of mixed fedings. There were friends and<br > th~re were enemms.<br > Enemies were: The Devil (in his many forms)<br > Next Door<br > Sex (in its many forms)<br > Slugs<br > Friends were: God<br > Our dog<br > Auntie Madgc<br > The Novels of Charlotte Bront6<br > Slug pellets<br > and me， at first. [ had been brought in to join her in a tag match<br > against the Rest of the World. She had a mysterious attitude<br > !owards the begetting of children it wasn t that she couldn t do<br > it+ mo~ that she didn t want to do it She was very bitter about<br > th， Virgin+ Mary getting there firs So he did the next best thing<br > anm arranged fo a oundling That was me<br > We had no Wise Men becau e she didn t believe the e we e any<br > tcannozrecallatimewhen lddno know hat l was special.<br > wL+ men， but we had sheep One of my earl est memori<br >~ ，+ ~ng on . t es is me<br >!~ Sactfi asheepatEase wh le she told me the oyo he<br > SLlclaa..，~ Lamb. We had it on Sundays with potato<br > +hol~d~I d s h day of the<br > mah g~k; we had a tad g t h h tmposmg<br > ~ura)ly w~dListefaedBt~kt~e kghth indue. ~ut ohn<br > 3<br >

13 Elements you will find in the first Emily the Strange novel: 1. Mystery 2. A beautiful golem 3. Souped-up slingshots 4. Four black cats 5. Amnesia 6. Calamity Poker 7. Angry ponies 8. A shady truant officer 9. Top-13 lists 10. A sandstorm generator 11. DoppelgÄngers 12. A secret mission 13. Earwigs

When literature student Anastasia Steele goes to interview young entrepreneur Christian Grey, she encounters a man who is beautiful, brilliant, and intimidating. The unworldly, innocent Ana is startled to realize she wants this man and, despite his enigmatic reserve, finds she is desperate to get close to him. Unable to resist Ana’s quiet beauty, wit, and independent spirit, Grey admits he wants her, too—but on his own terms.
Shocked yet thrilled by Grey’s singular erotic tastes, Ana hesitates. For all the trappings of success—his multinational businesses, his vast wealth, his loving family—Grey is a man tormented by demons and consumed by the need to control. When the couple embarks on a daring, passionately physical affair, Ana discovers Christian Grey’s secrets and explores her own dark desires.
Erotic, amusing, and deeply moving, the Fifty Shades Trilogy is a tale that will obsess you, possess you, and stay with you forever.
This book is intended for mature audiences.

Transcending ethnic, linguistic, and religious boundaries, early empires shaped thousands of years of world history. Yet despite the global prominence of empire, individual cases are often studied in isolation. This series seeks to change the terms of the debate by promoting cross-cultural, comparative, and transdisciplinary perspectives on imperial state formation prior to the European colonial expansion.

Two thousand years ago, up to one-half of the human species was contained within two political systems, the Roman empire in western Eurasia (centered on the Mediterranean Sea) and the Han empire in eastern Eurasia (centered on the great North China Plain). Both empires were broadly comparable in terms of size and population, and even largely coextensive in chronological terms (221 BCE to 220 CE for the Qin/Han empire, c. 200 BCE to 395 CE for the unified Roman empire). At the most basic level of resolution, the circumstances of their creation are not very different. In the East, the Shang and Western Zhou periods created a shared cultural framework for the Warring States, with the gradual consolidation of numerous small polities into a handful of large kingdoms which were finally united by the westernmost marcher state of Qin. In the Mediterranean, we can observe comparable political fragmentation and gradual expansion of a unifying civilization, Greek in this case, followed by the
gradual formation of a handful of major warring states (the Hellenistic kingdoms in the east, Rome-Italy, Syracuse and Carthage in the west), and likewise eventual unification by the westernmost marcher state, the Roman-led Italian confederation. Subsequent destabilization occurred again in strikingly similar both empires came to be divided into two halves, one that contained the original core but was more exposed to the main barbarian periphery (the west in the Roman case, the north in China), and a traditionalist half in the east (Rome) and south (China).

These processes of initial convergence and subsequent divergence in Eurasian state formation have never been the object of systematic comparative analysis. This volume, which brings together experts in the history of the ancient Mediterranean and early China, makes a first step in this direction, by presenting a series of comparative case studies on clearly defined aspects of state formation in early eastern and western Eurasia, focusing on the process of initial developmental convergence. It includes a general introduction that makes the case for a comparative approach; a broad sketch of the character of state formation in western and eastern Eurasia during the final millennium of antiquity; and six thematically connected case studies of particularly salient aspects of this process.

Extensively field-tested and fine-tuned over many years, and designed specifically for a one-year course, JC McKeown's Classical Latin: An Introductory Course offers a thorough, fascinating, and playful grounding in Latin that combines the traditional grammatical method with the reading approach.
In addition to grammar, paradigms, and readings, each chapter includes a variety of extraordinarily well-crafted exercises that reinforce the grammar and morphology while encouraging the joy of linguistic and cultural discovery.

"Aspects of Roman History 82BC--AD14" examines the political and military history of Rome and its empire in the Ciceronian and Augustan ages. It is an indispensable introduction to this central period of Roman History for all students of Roman history, from pre-university to undergraduate level. This is the first book since H.H. Scullard's "From the Gracchi to Nero", published two generations ago, to offer a full introductory account of one of the most compelling and vital periods in the history of Europe. "Aspects of Roman History 82BC--AD14": brings to life the great figures of Pompey, Caesar, Antony, Cleopatra and Augustus, and explores how power was gained, used and abused; covers the lives of women and slaves, the running of the empire and the lives of provincials, and religion, culture and propaganda; offers both a survey of the main topics and a detailed narrative through the close examination of sources; and, introduces students to the problems of interpreting evidence, and helps develop the knowledge and skills needed to further the study of ancient history.

Ancient Greek Religion provides an introduction to the fundamental beliefs, practices, and major deities of Greek religion. Focuses on Athens in the classical period Includes detailed discussion of Greek gods and heroes, myth and cult, and vivid descriptions of Greek religion as it was practiced Ancient texts are presented in boxes to promote thought and discussion, and abundant illustrations help readers visualize the rich and varied religious life of ancient Greece Revised edition includes additional boxed texts and bibliography, an 8-page color plate section, a new discussion of the nature of Greek “piety,” and a new chapter on Greek Religion and Greek Culture

Over the past two decades, no field of scientific inquiry has had a more striking impact across a wide array of disciplines–from biology to physics, computing to meteorology–than that known as chaos and complexity, the study of complex systems. Now astrophysicist John Gribbin draws on his expertise to explore, in prose that communicates not only the wonder but the substance of cutting-edge science, the principles behind chaos and complexity. He reveals the remarkable ways these two revolutionary theories have been applied over the last twenty years to explain all sorts of phenomena–from weather patterns to mass extinctions.
Grounding these paradigm-shifting ideas in their historical context, Gribbin also traces their development from Newton to Darwin to Lorenz, Prigogine, and Lovelock, demonstrating how–far from overturning all that has gone before–chaos and complexity are the triumphant extensions of simple scientific laws. Ultimately, Gribbin illustrates how chaos and complexity permeate the universe on every scale, governing the evolution of life and galaxies alike.

Since humans first looked towards the heavens, they have attempted to predict and explain the motions of the sun, moon, and planets. This book describes the theories of planetary motion that have been developed through the ages, from the homocentric spheres of Eudoxus to Einstein's general theory of relativity. It emphasizes the interaction between progress in astronomy and in mathematics, demonstrating how the two have been inextricably linked since Babylonian times.

Accounting for the enormous and amazing development cosmology has made in the past ten years, this long awaited second edition of Malcolm Longair's highly appreciated textbook has been extensively and thoroughly updated.It tells the story of modern astrophysical cosmology from the perspective of one of its most important and fundamental problems a " how did the galaxies come about? Longair uses this approach to introduce the whole of what may be called "classical cosmology." Moreover he describes how the study of the origin of galaxies and larger-scale structures in the Universe has provided us with unique and direct information about the physics of the very early Universe.The material is presented in an informal pedagogical manner. This includes a comprehensive introduction to relativistic astrophysics needed for the clarification of cosmological ideas.

Here are ten examples of the different kinds of mysteries scientists have yet to crack, some plausible theories and a few less likely ones. Find out why these questions, and others like them, remain, and when- or indeed whether- we might get some answers. Take a tour of how some of the big gaps in our knowledge are being probed and how much there is still to know.

John Robbins, the man who started the "food revolution" with the ground-breaking Diet for a New America, boldly posits that, collectively, our personal diet can save ourselves and the world. His latest book presents compelling new information regarding the fields of nutrition, heart disease and cancer, agribusiness, and bioengineering. It discusses the latest discoveries about the relationships between diet and longevity, aging, and vitality. Armed with powerful statistics, fascinating viewpoints, and incisive exposes, Robbins argues for adopting a vegetarian diet for personal well-being as well as for the well-being of the planet.

This textbook has its origins in a course that I began developing at Union College
in the mid-1980s to teach physics to life science students in a way that would interest
them and show the connections of fundamental physics to modern biology and
medicine. From my own research experiences and interests in biophysics, I know
that almost all areas of modern life sciences integrally involve physics in both
experimental techniques and in basic understanding of process or function.
However, I and many colleagues with whom I have spoken have been unhappy over
the years with published attempts to direct a textbook to this audience. Most such
texts are watered down engineering physics books with occasional added sections
on related biology topics that are easy to skip over or assign students to read on
their own.
As I set out to write this textbook, I had certain definite goals in mind. I wanted
to write a book that was truly directed at life science students, one that integrated
modern biology, biophysics, and medical techniques into the presentation of the material.
Believing in the less is more credo, I chose to omit certain standard topics that are
usually included in texts for this audience, while expanding on topics that have more
relevance to the life and biomedical sciences. From my experience teaching to these
students, I also wanted a book that would be shorter and could be fully covered in a
two-semester course. Although students at Union College and comparable institutions
taking this introductory course have all had some calculus, only algebra and trigonometry
are used in the main body of the text. At this level, I believe that calculus adds little
to the understanding of the material and can detract from focusing on the basic
physical ideas. However, I have sprinkled in optional boxed calculations that do use
some calculus where I felt they truly added to the discussion (averaging less than one
box per chapter). These “sidebars” can be omitted without any loss of continuity.
The order of topics for this text follows a more or less traditional sequence. An
exception to this is the presentation of one-dimensional mechanics through forces
and energy before introducing vectors and generalizing to motion in more than one
dimension. This allows students to focus on the physics concepts of kinematics,
forces, and energy without being distracted by the ideas of vector analysis.
Beyond the order of topics, the presentation of material is unique in that, wherever
possible, themes from biology or medicine are used to present the physics material. The
material speaks to life science students. Rather than optional sections at the end of occasional
chapters, life science themes are plentiful and integral to the text. The role of these
topics here is more fundamental, as can be gleaned from a list of some examples.