In a remote Manchurian town in the 1930s, a sixteen-year-old girl is more concerned with intimations of her own womanhood than the escalating hostilities between her countrymen and their Japanese occupiers. While still a schoolgirl in braids, she takes her first lover, a dissident student. The more she understands of adult life, however, the more d...more
Here is the thing about questions: they expose more about the inquirer than they do about the one being queried. If you pay attention, the questions a woman asks will point directly to some of her deepest longings and also reveal some of what she desires most from a man. With this book as a guide, we hope that men and women can move beyond the ques...more
An accomplished professor of physics and mathematics unravels the complexities of superstring theory for the average reader in a lucid and entertaining account, using analogies from everyday life to explain the elegant underlying principles of the universe. Reissue. (A NOVA mini-series, airing on PBS in January/February 2003, hosted by Brian Greene...more
Is the universe actually a giant quantum computer? According to Seth Lloyd, the answer is yes. All interactions between particles in the universe, Lloyd explains, convey not only energy but also information–in other words, particles not only collide, they compute. What is the entire universe computing, ultimately? “Its own dynamical evolution,â...more
What on earth is Bill Bryson doing writing a book of popular science--A Short History of Almost Everything? Largely, it appears, because this inquisitive, much-travelled writer realised, while flying over the Pacific, that he was entirely ignorant of the processes that created, populated and continue to maintain the vast body of water beneath him. ...more
One of the English language’s most skilled and beloved writers guides us all toward precise, mistake-free usage.As usual Bill Bryson says it best: “English is a dazzlingly idiosyncratic tongue, full of quirks and irregularities that often seem willfully at odds with logic and common sense. This is a language where ‘cleave’ can mean to cut i...more
The first edition of Programming Pearls was one of the most influential books I read early in my career, and many of the insights I first encountered in that book stayed with me long after I read it. Jon has done a wonderful job of updating the material. I am very impressed at how fresh the new examples seem." -Steve McConnell When programmers ...more
The novel begins after the events of STAR TREK VI: THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. Spock's mother, Amanda Grayson, is dying and Spock returns to the planet Vulcan where he and Sarek enjoy a rare moment of rapprochement. But just as his wife's illness grows worse, duty calls Sarek away--once again sowing the seeds of conflict between father and son. Yet ...more