'A delight and a triumph ... A thing of beauty ... Truly, truly magical' Mark Dolan, talkRADIO Expert science writer Giles Sparrow guides you through 21 stars you can see in the night sky and what they can teach us about our universe. On a clear evening, if you look up you can see thousands of stars shining in the dark sky, each with a story of their own. Taking 21 stars (and three imposters, that cheekily aren't technically stars), expert science writer Giles Sparrow offers a complete introduction to what is happening up in the night sky. Sparrow draws 'star maps' to help you easily identify the celestial bodies and then explains (for anyone not an astronomer themselves) what this particular pinprick of light can tell us about the birth, life and death of our universe. From red giants, quasars and supernovae to black holes, multiple stars and even our own Sun, this fascinating book tells the intriguing, inspiring and sometimes incredible story of how we came to unravel the mysteries of the cosmos, and what we learnt along the way. So look up at the sky and marvel at its wonders with this exciting new book.

Previously published as A History of the Universe in 21 Stars. 'REVISED AND UPDATED ___ 'A wonderful book about the science, history and mythology of 21 stars (and 3 impostors).' Dr David Whitehouse Look up on a clear evening, and you'll see thousands of stars shining in the night sky, each telling a story of their own. With star maps to help easily identify key celestial bodies, astronomer Giles Sparrow takes 21 stars (and three impostors) to look at what each pinprick of light can tell us about the birth, life and death of our universe. From red giants to supernovae and from stellar cities to our own Sun, The History of Our Universe in 21 Stars shows how the lights we see in the sky can help us unravel the mysteries of the cosmos. 'Beautifully written and extremely accessible ... It's extremely difficult to put down! Gemma Lavender

The Three Impostors; or, The Transmutations is an episodic horror novel by British writer Arthur Machen, first published in 1895 in The Bodley Head's Keynote Series. It was revived in paperback by Ballantine Books as the forty-eighth volume of the Ballantine Adult Fantasy series in June 1972. The novel comprises several weird tales and culminates in a final denouement of deadly horror, connected with a secret society devoted to debauched pagan rites. The three impostors of the title are members of this society who weave a web of deception in the streets of London-relating the aforementioned weird tales in the process-as they search for a missing Roman coin commemorating an infamous orgy by the Emperor Tiberius and close in on their prey: "the young man with spectacles". (wikipedia.org)

Return to the stunning world of IMPOSTORS in this new book by global bestselling author Scott Westerfeld. When the world sees Frey, they think they see her twin sister Rafi. Frey was raised to be Rafi's double, and now she's taken on the role . . . without anyone else knowing. Her goal? To destroy the forces that created her. But with the world watching and a rebellion rising, Frey is forced into a detour. Suddenly she is stranded on her own in Paz, a city where many of the citizens attempt to regulate their emotions through an interface on their arms. Paz is an easy place to get lost . . . and also an easy place to lose yourself. As the city comes under a catastrophic attack, Frey must leave the shadows and enter the chaos of warfare - because there is no other way for her to find her missing sister and have her revenge against her murderous father.

IT'S TIME TO COME OUT OF HIDING Frey has spent her life in a family of deceivers, a stand-in for her sister, manipulated at her father's command. Free from them at last, she is finding her own voice -- and using it to question everything her family stood for. Tally was once the most famous rebel in the world. But for over a decade, she's kept to the shadows, allowing her myth to grow even as she receded. Now she sees that the revolution she led has not created a stable world. Freedom, she observes, has a way of destroying things. As the world is propelled further into conflict and conspiracy, Frey and Tally join forces to put a check on the people in power, while still trying to understand their own power and where it belongs. With Youngbloods, master storyteller Scott Westerfeld decisively brings back his most iconic character and merges his Impostors and Uglies series into a breathtaking tale of rivalry, rebellion, and repercussion.

In Search of Stardust is the first comprehensive popular science book about micrometeorites. It's illustrated with 1,500 previously unpublished images from high-resolution color microscopes and scanning electron microscopes.

Frey and Rafi are inseparable . . . two edges of the same knife. But Frey's very existence is a secret. In Impostors, master storyteller Scott Westerfeld returns with a new series set in the world of his mega-bestselling Uglies, a world full of twist and turns, rebellion and intrigue, where any wrong step could be Frey's last

This “delightfully whimsical novel riffs on the premise that ordinary lives stubbornly resist the tidy order that a fiction narrative might impose on them” (Publishers Weekly). Can a story save your life? Meg Carpenter is broke. Her novel is years overdue. Her cell phone is out of minutes. And her moody boyfriend’s only contribution to the household is his sour attitude. So she jumps at the chance to review a pseudoscientific book that promises life everlasting. But who wants to live forever? Consulting cosmology and physics, tarot cards, koans (and riddles and jokes), new-age theories of everything, narrative theory, Nietzsche, Baudrillard, and knitting patterns, Meg wends her way through Our Tragic Universe, asking this and many other questions. Does she believe in fairies? In magic? Is she a superbeing? Is she living a storyless story? And what’s the connection between her off-hand suggestion to push a car into a river, a ship in a bottle, a mysterious beast loose on the moor, and the controversial author of The Science of Living Forever? Smart, entrancing, and boiling over with Thomas’s trademark big ideas, Our Tragic Universe is a book about how relationships are created and destroyed, how we can rewrite our futures (if not our histories), and how stories just might save our lives.

Did you know that stars are seasonal? That Orion is one of the brightest constellations? That a single day on Venus is longer than an entire year on Venus? Space has captivated mankind since the beginning of time. Fifty years ago, Neil Armstrong became the first man to step on the moon and since then our knowledge of astronomy has continued to expand. With so many mysteries yet to be solved, science journalist Abigail Beall takes readers on an astonishing journey though the landscape of space. In The Art of Urban Astronomy, you will be guided through the seasons and learn about the brightest stars and constellations, the myths and legends of astronomy and how to identify star clusters and galaxies with just your eyes or a pair of binoculars. For urban dwellers wrapped up in the rush and bustle of the city, it can be calming and truly valuable to take the time simply to stop, look and reconnect with nature. Packed full of seasonal star charts, constellation charts and fascinating facts, this is the perfect guide for those who have looked up at the night sky and don't know where to begin. After reading this book, you'll never look up in the same way again.

For most of human history, we have had a close relationship with the stars. Once they shaped our religious beliefs, power structures, scientific advances and even our biology. But over the last few centuries we have separated ourselves from the universe that surrounds us. And it comes at a cost. The Human Cosmos is a tour of this history: from the Hall of the Bulls in Lascaux to Tahitian sailors navigating by the stars; from medieval monks grappling with the nature of time to Einstein realising that space and time are the same. It shows we need to rediscover the universe we inhabit, its effect on our health, and its potential for inspiration and revelation.