"The consequences of crossing the Indus once to settle a government in Afghanistan will be a perennial march into that country."--The Duke of Wellington, 1838 "There is nothing more to be dreaded or guarded against in our endeavor to re-establish the Afghan monarchy than the overweening confidence with which Europeans are too often accustomed to regard the excellence of their own institutions and the anxiety that they display to introduce them in new and untried soils."--Claude Wade, January 1839. Convinced in 1839 that Britain's invaluable empire in India was threatened by Russia, Persia, and Afghan tribes, the British government ordered its Army of the Indus into Afghanistan to oust from power the independent-minded king Dost Mohammed and install in Kabul the unpopular puppet ruler Shah Shuja. Expecting a quick campaign, the British found themselves trapped by unforeseen circumstances; eventually the tribes united and the seemingly omnipotent army was slaughtered in 1842 as it desperately retreated through the mountain passes from Kabul to Jalalabad. Only one man survived. Diana Preston vividly recounts the drama of this First Afghan War, the opening salvo in the strategic rivalry between Britain and Russia for supremacy in Central Asia. As insightful about geography as she is about political and military miscalculation, Preston draws on rarely documented letters and diaries to bring alive long lost characters--Lord Auckland, the weak British Governor-General in India; his impetuous aide William McNaghten; the prescient adventurer-envoy Alexander Burnes, whose sage advice was steadfastly ignored. A model of compelling narrative history, The First Afghan War is a cautionary tale that resonates loudly today.

An account of the mid-19th-century war in Afghanistan documents how the British government sought to protect regional interests by attempting to install a puppet ruler only to be defeated by united Afghanistan tribes, in a volume that profiles key contributors and discusses how the war set the stage for subsequent hostilities.

Joe Abercrombie’s Best Served Cold meets George R. R. Martin’s A Game of Thrones in the final novel in Richard K. Morgan’s epic A Land Fit for Heroes trilogy, which burst onto the fantasy scene with The Steel Remains and The Cold Commands. Ringil Eskiath, a reluctant hero viewed as a corrupt degenerate by the very people who demand his help, has traveled far in search of the Illwrack Changeling, a deathless human sorcerer-warrior raised by the bloodthirsty Aldrain, former rulers of the world. Separated from his companions—Egar the Dragonbane and Archeth—Ringil risks his soul to master a deadly magic that alone can challenge the might of the Changeling. While Archeth and the Dragonbane embark on a trail of blood and tears that ends up exposing long-buried secrets, Ringil finds himself tested as never before, with his life and all existence hanging in the balance. Praise for The Dark Defiles “A finale that displays all the purposefully hard edges and grim magnificence that made the first two volumes stand out.”—Kirkus Reviews “Morgan brings his mammoth A Land Fit for Heroes fantasy trilogy to a rousing conclusion. . . . Expect surprises and suspense, along with the usual derring-do and entertaining characters.”—Booklist Praise for Richard K. Morgan and his acclaimed series, A Land Fit for Heroes “Bold, brutal, and making no compromises—Richard K. Morgan doesn’t so much twist the clichés of fantasy as take an axe to them. Then set fire to them.”—Joe Abercrombie “Morgan has taken traditional sword and sorcery tropes and given them a hard, contemporary kick. The anitithesis of the cosy fairytale, this one is for big boys.”—The Times (London) “A crisp stylist who demonstrates equal facility with action scenes and angst.”—The New York Times Book Review “A full-immersion experience, uncompromising and bleakly magnificent.”—Kirkus Reviews

Declan Forrester is arrogant, selfish, and insanely sexy. He was the very first boy I ever loved. Then fame and fortune turned him into a man I no longer recognized. I tried to give him everything he needed, and in return... he broke my heart. Now he's back, and he wants to make things right. What started as love turned to hate. I told myself I'd never fall for him again, but he's determined to prove me wrong. He wants to win me. He wants to own me. He wants to defile me. And if I'm not careful... I just might let him.

What happens when you're married to the right man and the wrong one comes along? Grace, the tower of fidelity, is shaken from her comfort zone by the one man who can rock her foundations – and it isn't her husband. Paul is devoted and charmingly fraught with vulnerabilities. He's a sensitive husband and he's about to get trampled. Survival will take courage he doesn't have. Reed is the one man who can change everything for both Paul and Grace. Foul-mouthed and arrogant, he takes what he wants… and he wants Grace. Grace is going to ask to be defiled. She's going to beg for it. On her knees, she will finally show a crack in her façade, right in front of her husband. This is far outside Grace's comfort zone. This is far beyond Paul's ability to understand. Reed is going to force both to make elemental changes in how they view the world. When the wrong man comes along, marriage is a mere formality. A dark romance that is all too possible. 126 Standard Paperback pages of sexy menage naughtiness.

Something happened to love--eros, physical love--when mankind fell. The beauty was marred. The joy was tinged with sadness. Eros was defiled. Today the results of the Fall are evident in premartial sex, extramartial sex, masturbation, homosexuality, and various forms of twisted sex. John White speaks with understanding and compassion about each of these sexual sins. He concludes with a telling chapter of how local churches can be communities for dealing with sexual sin in a context of love and forgiveness.

Chris: I was asked by my friend about being a third in their bedroom. Heck yeah? How can a guy turn down such an offer? The beautiful Maureen? No way was I going to pass up an opportunity to dip into that. I didn't count on anything other than having a good time – after all, I don't think she liked me. I didn't count on strange emotional attachments. I didn't count on the crushing moments I was away from her. Maureen: He has always ignored me. Was I going to be doing the right thing? Keenan wants me to be his hotwife, but am I really cut out for it? This trip to Nevada to see his friend was going to be a big test that I was certain I'd fail. I wasn't ready for the different side I saw to my husband's brooding friend.

The last of Edmund Wilson's posthumously published journals turned out to be one of his major books, The Sixties: the Last Journal, 1960–1972--a personal history that is also brilliant social comedy and an anatomy of the times. Wilson catches the flavor of an international elite -- Stravinsky, Auden, Andre Malraux, and Isaiah Berlin -- as well as the New York literati and the Kennedy White House, but he never strays too far from the common life, whether noting the routines of his normal neighbors or the struggle of his own aging. "Candor and intelligence come through on every page--in this always absorbing journal by perhaps the last great man of American letters." - Kirkus Reviews

WARNING: This book contains some dark, dirty and dangerous situations before ending in a jaw-dropping cliffhanger. The debauchery will continue in the second book in the series, Redeemed. I’m going to hell, and my angel’s about to lose her wings. For years I’ve left a path of death and destruction wherever I go. I promise myself that after one last job I’ll have the money I desperately need to quit taking lives. That’s how I find myself back in my hometown of Lexington. So beautiful and innocent, I unknowingly end up saving the life of the one girl I was supposed to keep silent…the one girl I was supposed to end. She’s my fallen angel sent from above. I can’t resist staining her pure white wings with my darkness when I use her. Defile her. Deceive her. The two of us were both ruined by our pasts when they intersected. Pasts that we’re still trying to escape with the hounds of hell on our heels. Fate brought us together. Now, I’ll do anything to protect my angel from the demons that haunt her. I won’t stop until I slay the devil himself to keep her safe, the man who ruined both of our lives. The only problem is, my silent angel is keeping secrets from me – the biggest of which is that I’m not the only one who wants to exploit her.

Spanning fifty years, Before the Fall-Out tells the full story of how an exhilarating quest to unravel the secrets of the material world produced the knowledge of how to destroy it.And of how a scientific adventure shared openly between nuclear physicists from many different nations transmuted into a secretive wartime race for the ultimate weapon of mass destruction - the atom bomb. As much as on the science, Before the Fall-Out focuses on the 'human chain reaction' - the intertwined lives of the many scientists of many nations whose compulsive curiosity led, however unwittingly, ultimately to Hiroshima. In her page-turning account Diana Preston reveals how individuals responded to events - from Allied scientists debating the morality of deploying the bomb, to Japanese civilians who became its first victims, and to a German chemist working on the Nazi bomb project while concealing a Jewish pianist in his Berlin apartment. Diana Preston draws on fresh material including interviews with the last living scientist to have worked with Marie Curie, the only senior scientist to have walked out on the Manhattan Project on moral grounds, and the German scientist who accompanied Werner Heisenberg on his controversial wartime visit to Niels Bohr in Copenhagen. A Manhattan Project scientist said that the only secret of the bomb was that it could be made: once this was known, any nation could replicate it. Before the Fall-Out helps us make better sense of our own, dangerous world and of the threats and moral dilemmas that face our society today.