In Atkinson's third novel to feature ex-cop turned PI Jackson Brodie, unrelated characters and plot lines collide with momentous results. On a country road, six-year-old Joanna Mason is the only survivor of a knife attack that leaves her mother and two siblings dead. Thirty years later, after boarding the wrong train in Yorkshire, Brodie is almost killed when the train crashes. He's saved by 16-year-old Regina Reggie Chase, the nanny of Dr. Joanna...

When his ex-wife asks him to investigate a sudden crime wave in the Mid-West, Harry Duncan quickly finds himself in conflict with a violent syndicate that targets both him and his ex. When a crime wave hits several small midwestern towns, the U.S. Attorney for the region calls on Harry Duncan to investigate. An ex-cop known for his unorthodox methods, Duncan is reluctant to go up against a widespread criminal organization, but the attorney in question...

After completing the final version of his general theory of relativity in November 1915, Albert Einstein wrote a book about relativity for a popular audience. This new edition of Einstein's book features an authoritative English translation of the text along with an introduction and a reading companion that examines the evolution of Einstein's thinking and casts his ideas in a broader present-day context. A special chapter explores the history of...

"Physicists will tell you that four forces control the universe. Of these, gravity may the most obvious, but it is also the most mysterious. Newton managed to predict the force of gravity but couldn't explain how it worked at a distance. Einstein picked up on the simple premise that gravity and acceleration are interchangeable to devise his mind-bending general relativity, showing how matter warps space and time. Not only did this explain how gravity...

If you had to pick five people to sum up your life, who would they be? If you were to raise a glass to each of them, what would you say? And what would you learn about yourself, when all is said? At the bar of a grand hotel in a small Irish town sits 84-year-old Maurice Hannigan. He's alone, as usual, though tonight is anything but. Pull up a stool and charge your glass, because Maurice is finally ready to tell his story. Over the course of this evening,...

"For a real bargain, while you're making a living, you should make also a life." --Aaron Bronson In 1920, in small-town America, the ubiquitous dry goods store--suits and coats, shoes and hats, work clothes and school clothes, yard goods and notions--was usually owned by Jews and often referred to as "the Jew store." That's how Stella Suberman's father's store, Bronson's Low-Priced Store, in Concordia, Tennessee, was known locally. The Bronsons...

An account of the century of experimentation that confirmed Einstein's theory of relativity, bringing to life the science and scientists at the origins of relativity, the development of radio telescopes, the discovery of black holes and quasars, and the still unresolved place of gravity in quantum theory. Albert Einstein did nothing of note on May 29, 1919, yet that is when he became immortal. On that day, astronomer Arthur Eddington and his team...

After a customer is poisoned to death, Robbie Jordan, the owner of Pans 'N Pancakes, must serve up the real killer to save her business from the competition.

Dr. Faraday, the son of a maid, has built a life of quiet respectability as a doctor. One dusty postwar summer in his home of rural Warwickshire, he is called to a patient at Hundreds Hall. Home to the Ayres family for more than two centuries, the Georgian house, once grand and handsome, is now in decline. But are the Ayreses haunted by something more ominous than a dying way of life? (Bestseller)

How does language work? How do we learn to speak? Why do languages change? Why do they have so many quirks? What does language reveal about the mind? Steven Pinker explores the mysteries of language in this original and hugely entertaining book. Pinker uses a deceptively simple phenomenon--regular and irregular verbs--to illuminate an astonishing array of topics: the history of languages, what we can learn from children's grammatical mistakes, the...