While ruling for ages, Aria Governess Supreme has kept a tight rein on her subjects, eliminating free will through brain-computer interface and hippocampus manipulation. Aria commands life or the disposal of it without fear of retribution or affliction of conscience. When a nuclear holocaust destroys the world she created, her disaffected scout, Cliff, gazes over the barren land seemingly devoid of life and wonders what is next in his journey to survive. Even with the employment of Aria’s scientific prowess, one subject remains untamed. Emery, both a hindrance and a marvel to the Governess Supreme, has tested the bounds of Aria’s resolve at every point in her life. Despite the brain-computer interface and governing control, Emery has managed to lean on the teachings of her Grand Nanny for guidance, fight the restraints placed upon her, and ultimately find her way through life. Now as she wanders the desert afraid and alone, Emery vacillates between her memories and her harsh new reality. But when her path ultimately crosses with Cliff’s, everything is about to change. In this post-apocalyptic tale set in the remnants of a destroyed United States, an untamed subject and a defiant scout attempt to survive in a world run by governors desperate to exert absolute power.

As a five year old girl in her native Costa Rica - a country which, in the early 20th century, had neither a medical school nor a tradition of higher education for women - Anita Figueredo decided to become a doctor. She was supported in this quest by her courageous mother, and thus begins a spirited, lifelong adventure in service that includes a nearly 40 year friendship with Mother Teresa. In this compelling and affectionate memoir, one of the nine children of a pioneering woman surgeon searches for the secrets of her mother's extraordinary impact on her community, which extended from "home to...hospital, school, church and town, and eventually across international borders to the regions of desperation."

"UNPUTDOWNABLE" - Tehelka Keeping the peace in a time of chaos Uttar Pradesh in the aftermath of the Babri Masjid demolition was a state on edge. When Aloke Lal took over as the Deputy Inspector General of Kanpur, the congratulations came with a warning-to move with caution as Kanpur was then the most volatile city in north India. In Murder in the Bylanes, Lal recounts his time policing a city on the brink of riots, particularly after the violent killing of the prominent local politician and slumlord Munna Sonkar aka 'Kala Bachcha'. Seen as both a bulwark for Hindus against Muslims and a saviour of several of his Muslim tenants, he was a study in contradiction, and his murder was seen as the last straw by both communities. Murder in the Bylanes is a gripping account of how a demoralised and broken police force, reduced to being a bystander in pockets where criminals controlled localities, was asked to maintain order. It is also a reminder of how communal disharmony can tear apart our social fabric.

Winner of the 2015 Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Current Interest. "I can’t imagine a more important book for our time." —Sebastian Junger The world is blowing up. Every day a new blaze seems to ignite: the bloody implosion of Iraq and Syria; the East-West standoff in Ukraine; abducted schoolgirls in Nigeria. Is there some thread tying these frightening international security crises together? In a riveting account that weaves history with fast-moving reportage and insider accounts from the Afghanistan war, Sarah Chayes identifies the unexpected link: corruption. Since the late 1990s, corruption has reached such an extent that some governments resemble glorified criminal gangs, bent solely on their own enrichment. These kleptocrats drive indignant populations to extremes—ranging from revolution to militant puritanical religion. Chayes plunges readers into some of the most venal environments on earth and examines what emerges: Afghans returning to the Taliban, Egyptians overthrowing the Mubarak government (but also redesigning Al-Qaeda), and Nigerians embracing both radical evangelical Christianity and the Islamist terror group Boko Haram. In many such places, rigid moral codes are put forth as an antidote to the collapse of public integrity. The pattern, moreover, pervades history. Through deep archival research, Chayes reveals that canonical political thinkers such as John Locke and Machiavelli, as well as the great medieval Islamic statesman Nizam al-Mulk, all named corruption as a threat to the realm. In a thrilling argument connecting the Protestant Reformation to the Arab Spring, Thieves of State presents a powerful new way to understand global extremism. And it makes a compelling case that we must confront corruption, for it is a cause—not a result—of global instability.

After the death of Marion Morrison, known as John Wayne, in 1979, President Jimmy Carter said that Wayne "was bigger than life. In an age of few heroes, he was the genuine article. But he was more than a hero; he was a symbol of many of the qualities that made America great." The first section of this study concentrates on Wayne's style of work and sphere of action as an actor: The man who works for a living and is concerned with his audience and the constraints of his immediate environment. The second section examines the artist: the man who lives in his art, who disappears into his character as an archetype of human fears and desires. Analyses of films that have made Wayne a hero are presented in the third section. A comprehensive filmography and numerous photographs are included.

In 1984 – a politically charged time in northern India – Aloke Lal, a young officer, is posted to Barabanki in Uttar Pradesh, as the chief of police. In the small, backward district, known for little other than its opium production and smuggling rackets, Lal finds himself in the middle of a well-entrenched web of crime run by a dangerous drug mafia whose seemingly endless supply of black money appears to have bought out local politicians and district officials and influenced higher rungs of power. Determined to annihilate the opium chain, Lal sets out on a path that sees him make unlikely allies and deadly enemies as he is led from the red-light districts of Lucknow to midnight highway interceptions and perilous raids that shake up the Barabanki cartel. But do such actions against powerful criminal organizations ever come without consequences? And what political games are being played in the corridors of power even as this upright officer tries to ride the gathering storm of an enraged underworld? The Barabanki Narcos is the thrilling true story behind the largest-ever opium bust in history – the methodical build-up to the operation, the deadly aftermath and the ensuing events that would leave a lasting impact on north Indian politics – narrated by the man who led the action at the centre of it all.