In Trade and Romance, Michael Murrin examines the complex relations between the expansion of trade in Asia and the production of heroic romance in Europe from the second half of the thirteenth century through the late seventeenth century. He shows how these tales of romance, ostensibly meant for the aristocracy, were important to the growing mercantile class as a way to gauge their own experiences in traveling to and trading in these exotic locales. Murrin also looks at the role that growing knowledge of geography played in the writing of the creative literature of the period, tracking how accurate, or inaccurate, these writers were in depicting far-flung destinations, from Iran and the Caspian Sea all the way to the Pacific. With reference to an impressive range of major works in several languages—including the works of Marco Polo, Geoffrey Chaucer, Matteo Maria Boiardo, Luís de Camões, Fernão Mendes Pinto, Edmund Spenser, John Milton, and more—Murrin tracks numerous accounts by traders and merchants through the literature, first on the Silk Road, beginning in the mid-thirteenth century; then on the water route to India, Japan, and China via the Cape of Good Hope; and, finally, the overland route through Siberia to Beijing. All of these routes, originally used to exchange commodities, quickly became paths to knowledge as well, enabling information to pass, if sometimes vaguely and intermittently, between Europe and the Far East. These new tales of distant shores fired the imagination of Europe and made their way, with surprising accuracy, as Murrin shows, into the poetry of the period.

Can you pinpoint a time in your life where you realized you are completely and utterly screwed?I can. I got the dreaded phone call, the one every baseball player hopes and prays never comes. I was traded. Yeah, that phone call.Traded from my long time team of over ten years. And not just to any team, but my childhood rivals; the Chicago Rebels. Completely and utterly screwed, right? Wrong. The trade was the least of my concerns.I met a girl. Natalie. Man, she's perfect.I swore I would never get involved with anyone during the season. Too complicated. But can you believe I have zero restraint when it comes to this girl? I couldn't get her out of my head and the more I talked to her, the more I realized I needed her in my life. So what's the problem? Why am I screwed? Because, Natalie, the girl I can't stop crushing on, yeah . . . she's married. At least, that's what I was told . . .

Tina Chen just wants a degree and a job, so her parents never have to worry about making rent again. She has no time for Blake Reynolds, the sexy billionaire who stands to inherit Cyclone Systems. But when he makes an off-hand comment about what it means to be poor, she loses her cool and tells him he couldn’t last a month living her life. To her shock, Blake offers her a trade: She’ll get his income, his house, his car. In exchange, he’ll work her hours and send money home to her family. No expectations; no future obligations. But before long, they’re trading not just lives, but secrets, kisses, and heated nights together. No expectations might break Tina’s heart...but Blake’s secrets could ruin her life. Trade Me is the first book in the Cyclone series.

With a brilliant comic voice as well as Jane Austen's penchant for social satire, Candace Bushnell, who with Sex and the City changed forever how we view New York City, female friendships, and the love of a good pair of Manolos, now brings us a sharply observant, keenly funny, wildly entertaining latter day comedy of manners. Modern-day heroine Janey Wilcox is a lingerie model whose reach often exceeds her grasp, and whose new-found success has gone to her head. As we follow Janey's adventures, Bushnell draws us into a seemingly glamorous world of $100,000 cars, hunky polo players and media moguls, Fifth Avenue apartments, and relationships whose hidden agendas are detectable only by the socially astute. But just as Janey enters this world of too much money and too few morals, unseen forces conspire to bring her down, forcing her to reexamine her values about love and friendship--and how far she's really willing to go to realize her dreams.

Cara thought she was living the fairy tale life. After all, she is engaged to the man of her dreams, who just happens to be the prince of an island nation in the Mediterranean. But when he publicly cheats on her, her life is turned upside down and she doesn't want to come back to reality. Then Eric, her ex-fianc�e's brother and a playboy prince himself, offers her the chance to run away from it all. Because he fell for her first. And he's going to prove to her that she fell for the wrong prince.

Entering into an arranged marriage with an aspiring merchant in 1787 Bristol, Frances Scott is discouraged by her slavery-dependent lifestyle and unexpectedly falls for African slave and former Yoruba priest Mehuru. By the author of The Other Boleyn Girl. Reprint. 75,000 first printing.