Robert has come back from a horrible ordeal in a strange parallel world. Now he can’t stop thinking about the people he left behind to face a winter that most won’t survive. When Robert sees a chance to save his friend Lorn, he is desperate to succeed. But is he prepared for the realities of her world? Meanwhile, Lorn struggles to lead the little band of survivors, even as she feels herself drawn to a secret tunnel where an unknown menace lurks. Seamlessly blending fantasy with a hard-hitting survival tale, Gillian Cross has created a completely original psychological thriller.

A debut novel that retells the history of twentieth-century Germany through the experiences of three ordinary Germans. Helmut: A boy born with a physical deformity finds work as a photographer’s assistant during the 1930s and captures on film the changing temper of Berlin, the city he loves. But his acute photographic eye never provides him with the power to understand the significance of what he sees through his camera. . . . Lore: In the weeks following Germany’s surrender, a teenage girl whose parents are both in Allied captivity takes her younger siblings on a terrifying, illegal journey through the four zones of occupation in search of her grandmother. . . . Micha: Many years after the war, a young man trying to discover why the Russians imprisoned his grandfather for nine years after the war meets resistance at every turn; the only person who agrees, reluctantly, to help him is compromised by his own past. The Dark Room evokes the experiences of the individual with astonishing emotional depth and psychological authenticity. With dazzling originality and to profound effect, Rachel Seiffert has re-envisioned and illuminated signal moments of the twentieth century in all their drama and complexity.

An inquiry into what it is about our experiences and cultures that brings out the differences and reveals the similarities in us as humans beings, in the vein of Malcolm Gladwell and Daniel Kahneman. Jacob Burak is on a quest to answer the question “are we as human beings, who are separated by different cultures and experiences, similar or different?” Through the lens of behavioural studies, we see how, while our approaches differ and often conflict, we all strive for similar things: love, acceptance, power and understanding. How to Find a Black Cat in a Dark Room offers the latest scientific studies of human behaviour alongside accessible anecdotes to examine the universal human experiences of comparing ourselves to others, the need to belong, the urge to achieve and the anxiety and uncertainty of life itself. More importantly, Burak shows us how, in understanding these behavioural patterns, we learn that we are actually more alike than we are different; that our rivals often make us stronger; and that being trusting can help us live longer. With his inquisitive nature, logical thinking and engaging style, Burak examines whether it is destiny or personality that controls our lives, through intriguing subjects such as: • What are the ten rules for happiness that are entirely under our control? • Why do smart people make stupid mistakes? • What distinguishes bureaucrats and entrepreneurs? • What are the psychological differences between liberals and conservatives? • In what circumstances is it right to surrender our privacy? • Does it pay to trust people?

From many to few -- Beyond Uncle Tom -- Race doesn't matter -- Black power through conservative principles -- Like crabs in a barrel -- Whither the Republican Party.

Seventeen Years in the Black Room is about the transition from segregation to integration for a small-town Texas Black school teacher, Susie Sansom-Piper, in the late 1960’s. As the last Principal to close the segregated school, this memoir begins with a look at the segregated black community during her childhood (after 1921), and outlines the challenges she faced both in the integrated school and within the black community. This is a story of resilience, tragedy, and triumph over adversity, as she manages to balance the demands of her household, parents, and two small children, while maintaining the decorum and back-bone needed to survive as a Black educator. This book provides an inside look at her teaching post integration, and how integration of schoolteachers and students impacted the African American family units and the community. This is a real-world look at the challenges and obstacles placed on African Americans in the workplace from the soul of a survivor.

During the 1920s Herbert O. Yardley was chief of the first peacetime cryptanalytic organization in the United States, the ancestor of today's National Security Agency. Funded by the U.S. Army and the Department of State and working out of New York, his small and highly secret unit succeeded in breaking the diplomatic codes of several nations, including Japan. The decrypts played a critical role in U.S. diplomacy. Despite its extraordinary successes, the Black Chamber, as it came to known, was disbanded in 1929. President Hoover's new Secretary of State Henry L. Stimson refused to continue its funding with the now-famous comment, "Gentlemen do not read other people's mail." In 1931 a disappointed Yardley caused a sensation when he published this book and revealed to the world exactly what his agency had done with the secret and illegal cooperation of nearly the entire American cable industry. These revelations and Yardley's right to publish them set into motion a conflict that continues to this day: the right to freedom of expression versus national security. In addition to offering an exposé on post-World War I cryptology, the book is filled with exciting stories and personalities.

Like his subject, Napoleon, author Jean-Paul Kauffmann has experienced captivity, as a three-year hostage in Beirut. He brings his insider's knowledge to this moving account of the most famous French soldier's last years in seclusion on a tropical island. After his defeat at Waterloo in 1815, Napoleon was exiled and imprisoned by the British on the island of St. Helena. He became increasingly withdrawn, surviving on a diet of memories that he recounted to the few people around him. But the book -- part history, part travelogue -- portrays the leader as a prisoner also of his mind, poisoned by nostalgia for his triumphs and grief over his defeats. "A haunting, unforgettable book....Kauffmann captures the desolate atmosphere of Napoleon's last home with evocative precision." -- Boston Globe