Blogger Zelda Alpizar must choose between following orders or saving two security guards being used as human data storage devices.

Living in the Theater of the Absurd: Chronic Illness presents a unique look at adapting to chronic illness. With an active imagination, an outrageous sense of humor, and personal experience with chronic illnesses, the author provides an alternative to living as a victim. The first half of the book presents a new perspective and examples of thriving with specific chronic conditions. The second half of the book addresses issues that are common in all chronic illnesses. Household chores, clutter, family life, friendships, thought life, and more are addressed with both humor and solutions. This book empowers the reader to go beyond diagnosis and create a new lifestyle.

Grometstein explains modern physics with enthusiasm, wit and insight. As he presents the usual milestones in the history of modern physics, his central focus is the historical debate regarding the nature of light: is it a particle or is it a wave? This book will be read by generations of students in physical science who seek a well written discussion of these important issues. Grometstein includes material which is quite recent, thus making the present volume particularly useful.

Many love a good quiz and fantasize about winning Millionaire. But even if it’s only the local pub quiz evening, don’t we often wish that we could do better? This book aims to improve your ability by presenting typical quiz information in a concise and easy-to-learn format.

Many love a good quiz and fantasize about winning Millionaire. But even if it’s only the local pub quiz evening, don’t we often wish that we could do better? This book aims to improve your ability by presenting typical quiz information in a concise and easy-to-learn format.

“This novel pops— Cosmopolitan, sexy, and funny.” —Percival Everett, author of The Trees The White Lotus meets The Talented Mr. Ripley in this high-spirited novel of a stolen Vermeer, a Polish transplant in LA, and the charismatic couple who seduce her into a misguided international heist One bright Los Angeles day, a young Polish émigré named Viva is driving along the freeway when she’s flagged down by a dazzling, disheveled woman in green chiffon. The woman is Bobby Sleeper, a fellow Eastern European and an erstwhile art gallerist with a mysterious background and even more mysterious filmmaker husband. Within days the couple hire Viva as their assistant, then enlist her as an accomplice in an improbable scheme involving a long-lost Vermeer masterwork, a multi-million-dollar reward, and several shadowy ex-husbands. As Bobby and her husband weave her ever more tightly into their web, Viva is swept up in an escapade that’s one part art heist, one part love triangle, and one part education of a felon. Entranced by their lifestyle, alarmed by their ramshackle scam, Viva realizes she’s out of her depth—and that only luck, cunning, and her own hustler’s instinct can save her from disaster. Careening from the canyons of LA to the canals of Venice, The Lady Waiting is a page-turning caper, a cavalcade of twenty-first-century sins—rapacious capitalism, shameless fraud, and atrocious behavior—and a showcase for three of the biggest and most unforgettable characters in recent fiction.

“This feels like an Ian McEwan novel. Served on a bed of Cheever. I can’t offer higher praise than that. But written by a woman. Which is even better.”— Elizabeth Gilbert Spanning the course of a single summer, Private Means is acclaimed memoirist Cree LeFavour’s sumptuous fiction debut—a sharply observed comedy of manners and a moving meditation on marriage, money, and loss. A deliciously compulsive first novel from New York Times Editor’s Choice author of Lights On, Rats Out, Cree LeFavour’s Private Means captures the very essence of summer in a sharply observed, moving meditation on marriage, money, and loss. It's Memorial Day weekend and Alice’s beloved dog Maebelle has been lost. Alice stays in New York, desperate to find her dog, while her husband Peter drives north to stay with friends in the Berkshires. Relieved to be alone, Alice isn&apost sure if she should remain married to Peter but she’s built a life with him. For his part, Peter is pleased to have time alone—he’s tired of the lost dog drama, of Alice’s coolness, of New York. A psychiatrist, he ponders his patients and one, particularly attractive, woman in particular. As the summer unfolds, tensions rise as Alice and Peter struggle with infidelity, loneliness, and loss. Escaping the heat of New York City to visit wealthy friends in the Hamptons, on Cape Cod, and in the Berkshires, each continues to play his or her part in the life they’ve chosen together. By the time Labor Day rolls around, a summer that began with isolation has transformed into something else entirely. Matching keen observations on human behavior with wry prose, Private Means, with its sexy, page-turning plot, will draw fans of Nora Ephron and Meg Wolitzer. At once dark, funny, sad, and suspenseful, LeFavour’s debut is a rare find: a tart literary indulgence with depth and intelligence.

“What Bear has done...is create a world that is all too plausible, one wracked by environmental devastation and political chaos...she conducts a tour of this society’s darker corners, offering an unnerving peek into a future humankind would be wise to avoid.” —Science Fiction Weekly From Elizabeth Bear, 2005 John W. Campbell Best New Writer Award winner and author of the critically acclaimed and wildly popular Jenny Casey Trilogy: Hammered, Scardown, and Worldwired, comes The Chains That You Refuse, a collection of dazzling short fiction featuring twenty-one genre-bending stories and one poem, including the exhilarating and previously uncollected Jenny Casey origin story “Gone to Flowers.” These scintillating and surprising tales, many never before collected or published, are drawn from inspirations as varied as Norse legends, Lovecraftian horrors, and the American murder ballad “Stagger Lee,” and showcase Elizabeth Bear’s remarkable and imaginative storytelling talents. Whether set in a distant mythic kingdom, in modern-day Las Vegas, or in the far-future sunken city of New Orleans, Bear’s enthusiastic narratives blur the lines between traditional speculative fiction, fantasy, horror, and fable with unflinching grace and wide-eyed wonder. Whether you are already a fan of Elizabeth Bear or not, The Chains That You Refuse demonstrates, beyond a doubt, why David Brin called Elizabeth Bear “a talent to watch.”

An extraordinary and challenging synthesis of ideas uniting Quantum Theory, and the theories of Computation, Knowledge and Evolution, Deutsch's extraordinary book explores the deep connections between these strands which reveal the fabric of realityin which human actions and ideas play essential roles.