Four gorgeous brothers, one small town, and the women who drive them wild.Presley McDaniel lives her life from moment to moment.Making permanent decisions means obligation, and that would force her to stop being the family disappointment. Waitress, fitness instructor, dog walker ... you name the hourly job and she's probably held the position.But when her grandmother can no longer run her book shop in Fawn Hill, a town so small it barely has its own zip code, Presley steps up to help.The move from bustling city to green pastures may be exactly what she needs to sort out her life. But she didn't ask for that happy ending to include a gorgeous veterinarian with an all-American smile and a penchant for snuggling puppies. The good doctor is reliable, responsible, and just the kind of man Presley has always avoided.Love and commitment are predictable.So why, the moment she lays eyes on him, are they all she wants?Keaton Nash has never questioned his steady path.His brothers may tease him about settling into his father's passed-down role of small town veterinarian, but Keaton has never minded his rural roots. And after tragedy struck two years ago, he has a duty as the eldest Nash man to look after his family.What he doesn't need is the sexy, flighty stranger who shows up in town and gets his broken heart beating again. Presley McDaniel is a distraction, a red-headed temptation that is the definition of a bad idea.He's barely recovered from the love who left him to chase bigger dreams, and this woman is bound to do the same.Except for the first time ever, he wants to abandon stability.She makes him want to be reckless.

The Hindu-Arabic numeral system (1, 2, 3,…) is one of mankind's greatest achievements and one of its most commonly used inventions. How did it originate? Those who have written about the numeral system have hypothesized that it originated in India; however, there is little evidence to support this claim.This book provides considerable evidence to show that the Hindu-Arabic numeral system, despite its commonly accepted name, has its origins in the Chinese rod numeral system. This system was widely used in China from antiquity till the 16th century. It was used by officials, astronomers, traders and others to perform addition, subtraction, multiplication, division and other arithmetic operations, and also used by mathematicians to develop arithmetic and algebra. Based on this system, numerous mathematical treatises were written.Sun Zi suanjing (The Mathematical Classic of Sun Zi), written around 400 AD, is the earliest existing work to have a description of the rod numerals and their operations. With this treatise as a central reference, the first part of the book discusses the development of arithmetic and the beginnings of algebra in ancient China and, on the basis of this knowledge, advances the thesis that the Hindu-Arabic numeral system has its origins in the rod numeral system. Part Two gives a complete translation of Sun Zi suanjing.In this revised edition, Lam Lay Yong has included an edited text of her plenary lecture entitled “Ancient Chinese Mathematics and Its Influence on World Mathematics”, which was delivered at the International Congress of Mathematicians, Beijing 2002, after she received the prestigious Kenneth O. May Medal conferred by the International Commission on the History of Mathematics. This should serve as a useful and easy-to-comprehend introduction to the book.

Critically examines the agency and history of long-silenced coolie women and their role in colonial economy and transnational movements.