A dark, queer YA fantasy that's perfect for fans of the Three Dark Crowns series. After Emanuela Ragno kills the one person in Occhia who can create water, she must find a way to save her city from dying of thirst. Emanuela Ragno always gets what she wants. With her daring mind and socialite schemes, she refuses to be the demure young lady everyone wants her to be. In her most ambitious move yet, she's about to marry Alessandro Morandi, her childhood best friend and the heir to the wealthiest house in Occhia. Emanuela doesn't care that she and her groom are both gay, because she doesn't want a love match. She wants power, and through Ale, she'll have it all. But Emanuela has a secret that could shatter her plans. In the city of Occhia, the only source of water is the watercrea, a mysterious being who uses magic to make water from blood. When their first bruise-like omen appears on their skin, all Occhians must surrender themselves to the watercrea to be drained of life. Everyone throughout history has given themselves up for the greater good. Everyone except Emanuela. She's kept the tiny omen on her hip out of sight for years. When the watercrea exposes Emanuela during her wedding ceremony and takes her to be sacrificed, Emanuela fights back ... and kills her. Now Occhia has no one to make their water and no idea how to get more. In a race against time, Emanuela and Ale must travel through the mysterious, blood-red veil that surrounds their city to uncover the secrets of the watercrea's magic and find a way to save their people -- no matter what it takes.

From the dawn of time, ruby and sapphire have both attracted and fascinated humans in ways that few other items could.While objects of desire are found throughout the natural world, physical beauty is too often ephemeral. From the allure of a man, woman, flower or butterfly, through the fleeting moments of a sunset, there is little that lasts and practically nothing that can be passed down to our descendants. The exception is precious stones. Not only are they the most durable creations of mother nature, but their visual splendor is truly eternal.In this companion to his 2013 book, Ruby & Sapphire--A Collector's Guide, Richard Hughes examines these gems from the gemological standpoint, delving into these gems not just from the aesthetic, but also from the scientific point of view.The product of nearly 40 years of firsthand experience, it covers every aspect of the subject from A-Z. History, sources, prices, quality analysis, synthetics and treatments, everything is here. Ruby & Sapphire--A Gemologist's Guide represents the most comprehensive book ever written on a single precious stone. With over 1000 photos, maps and illustrations and 3500 references, it is nothing less than a tour-de-force of gemological scholarship.

The Definitive Refactoring Guide, Fully Revamped for Ruby With refactoring, programmers can transform even the most chaotic software into well-designed systems that are far easier to evolve and maintain. What’s more, they can do it one step at a time, through a series of simple, proven steps. Now, there’s an authoritative and extensively updated version of Martin Fowler’s classic refactoring book that utilizes Ruby examples and idioms throughout–not code adapted from Java or any other environment. The authors introduce a detailed catalog of more than 70 proven Ruby refactorings, with specific guidance on when to apply each of them, step-by-step instructions for using them, and example code illustrating how they work. Many of the authors’ refactorings use powerful Ruby-specific features, and all code samples are available for download. Leveraging Fowler’s original concepts, the authors show how to perform refactoring in a controlled, efficient, incremental manner, so you methodically improve your code’s structure without introducing new bugs. Whatever your role in writing or maintaining Ruby code, this book will be an indispensable resource. This book will help you Understand the core principles of refactoring and the reasons for doing it Recognize “bad smells” in your Ruby code Rework bad designs into well-designed code, one step at a time Build tests to make sure your refactorings work properly Understand the challenges of refactoring and how they can be overcome Compose methods to package code properly Move features between objects to place responsibilities where they fit best Organize data to make it easier to work with Simplify conditional expressions and make more effective use of polymorphism Create interfaces that are easier to understand and use Generalize more effectively Perform larger refactorings that transform entire software systems and may take months or years Successfully refactor Ruby on Rails code

From highly respected microbiologist Ben-Barak and Frost, the creator of the YouTube sensation Dumb Ways to Die, comes an ingenious, interactive book about the germs that occupy real estate on all of our bodies. Full color.

The Complete Guide to Writing More Maintainable, Manageable, Pleasing, and Powerful Ruby Applications Ruby's widely admired ease of use has a downside: Too many Ruby and Rails applications have been created without concern for their long-term maintenance or evolution. The Web is awash in Ruby code that is now virtually impossible to change or extend. This text helps you solve that problem by using powerful real-world object-oriented design techniques, which it thoroughly explains using simple and practical Ruby examples. This book focuses squarely on object-oriented Ruby application design. Practical Object-Oriented Design in Ruby will guide you to superior outcomes, whatever your previous Ruby experience. Novice Ruby programmers will find specific rules to live by; intermediate Ruby programmers will find valuable principles they can flexibly interpret and apply; and advanced Ruby programmers will find a common language they can use to lead development and guide their colleagues. This guide will help you Understand how object-oriented programming can help you craft Ruby code that is easier to maintain and upgrade Decide what belongs in a single Ruby class Avoid entangling objects that should be kept separate Define flexible interfaces among objects Reduce programming overhead costs with duck typing Successfully apply inheritance Build objects via composition Design cost-effective tests Solve common problems associated with poorly designed Ruby code

Don’t miss Elizabeth Wein’s stunning new novel, Stateless Before Verity . . . there was Julie. When fifteen-year-old Julia Beaufort-Stuart wakes up in the hospital, she knows the lazy summer break she'd imagined won't be exactly what she anticipated. And once she returns to her grandfather's estate, a bit banged up but alive, she begins to realize that her injury might not have been an accident. One of her family's employees is missing, and he disappeared on the very same day she landed in the hospital. Desperate to figure out what happened, she befriends Euan McEwen, the Scottish Traveler boy who found her when she was injured, and his standoffish sister, Ellen. As Julie grows closer to this family, she witnesses firsthand some of the prejudices they've grown used to-a stark contrast to her own upbringing-and finds herself exploring thrilling new experiences that have nothing to do with a missing-person investigation. Her memory of that day returns to her in pieces, and when a body is discovered, her new friends are caught in the crosshairs of long-held biases about Travelers. Julie must get to the bottom of the mystery in order to keep them from being framed for the crime. This exhilarating coming-of-age story, a prequel to the Printz Honor Book Code Name Verity, returns to a beloved character just before she first takes flight.

"Whatever you want to do with text, Ruby is up to the job. Most information in the world is in text format, and you need to make sense of the data hiding within. You want to do this efficiently, avoiding labor-intensive, manual work. Text Processing with Ruby takes a practical approach to working with text. First, Aquire: Explore Ruby's core and standard library, and extract text into your Ruby programs. Process delimited files and web pages, and write utilities. Second, Transform: Use regular expressions, write a parser, and use Natural Language Processing techniques. Finally, Load: Write the transformed text and data to standard output, files, and other processes. Serialize text into JSON, XML, and CVS, and use ERB to create more complex formats. You'll soon be able to tackle even the most enormous and entangled text with ease."--Back cover.