The roguish charlatan Astarion will free himself from a centuries-long fate of servitude or die (a second time) trying—in this decadently dark fantasy adventure by award-winning author T. Kingfisher.You're too pretty to die.Astarion Ancunin was supposed to be a magistrate, not a vampire spawn. He was supposed to serve the law, not the vicious vampire lord Cazador Szarr. And he was supposed to drink fine wine, not rat blood. Alas—the city of Baldur's Gate ca...

Why did Italian culture come to occupy such privileged status and interest among the societies of East-Central Europe during the period 1300–1600? In 1300, East-Central Europe regarded Italy not necessarily as an undisputed center of cultural emulation but drew from a much wider range of models centered in France, Germany, and even Kievan Rus’. Two centuries later the same region was saturated with Italianate forms – architecture, humanism, diplomacy, commerce, and print – that rivaled the...

Plastic Circularity: Data Development, Flow Analysis, and Value Chain Coordination presents a comprehensive framework for tackling the challenge of plastic waste through a circular economy approach. The book explores innovative methodologies for modeling plastic material flows, evaluating sustainability metrics and enhancing stakeholder participation across the value chain. This essential resource covers critical topics such as lifecycle impact assessments, data building, and stakeholder d...

A comprehensive synthesis of the thought of Whitehead and Merleau-Ponty.Whitehead and Merleau-Ponty sets out to answer a simple question: "What kind of phenomenologist is Merleau-Ponty?" While debates regarding the status of Merleau-Ponty's phenomenology typically fall along transcendental or existential lines, author Andrew Kirkpatrick shows how Merleau-Ponty's thought fails to fit neatly within either category. Drawing on Whitehead's process metaphysics,...

Cometa Minor is a 94-track album / novel:It is an American exploration of virtue, brutality, and the humanistic ideals necessary to the survival of a democratic republic.Vold Book’s Cometa Minor is a novel set to original music by the author. It is the third and final evolution of the briefly published Stara Detente (2026) and Oceans of Curtains (2025). The project first came into focus in 2018, though it is the culmination of a life spen...

What is mental health? While it is an increasingly important and oft-discussed topic, the nature of mental health remains unclear. In The Minds We Want, John T. Maier argues that mental health is best defined as psychological well-being, and that the standards for psychological well-being are subjective. Since people have vastly different wants and values, mental health differs greatly from person to person---a monk and a parent of young children have radically different inner liv...

The inspiring story of the Apollo 8 astronauts and their message of peace on earth from the edge of the universe.On one silent, starry night, Christmas Eve 1968, as wars raged across continents, three astronauts—Frank Borman, Jim Lovell, and William Anders—became the first humans to orbit the Moon. From their tiny capsule they watched “earthrise,” our luminous blue planet rising above the gray lunar surface in a breathtaking vision that forever changed how we see ourselves....

*** TIME, Most Anticipated Books of 2026 ***THE WIRE MEETS COLSON WHITEHEAD IN THIS AUDACIOUS, DARKLY FUNNY AND DAZZLINGLY LITERARY CRIME MASTERPIECE'Endlessly entertaining'Attica Locke, author of Bluebird, Bluebird'Spellbinding and profanely funny'Publishers Weekly'Johnson asks big questions about identity, corruption and American id...

An anthology about pirates and the open seas.Stories included:Alongside the Coasts of Sumatra by Sergio PalumboCaptain Bs By Pyle HazardLa Conquista by Rob NesbitIn the Name of Free Enterprise by HL DowlessOf Squalls and Sailors by John ToresPirates and Mutiny by Laura NelsonRiders to the Sea by Prabir Kumar RathSail Away by Mariah LyndeThe Salt Cartographer by Ky-oh RangiPoetry By:Dr. Thomas S....

A Landmark Digital Collection of Four Foundational WorksThe African American Classics Library brings together four of the most important works in American literature and history, offering a powerful and unified reading experience. Frederick Douglass, Harriet Jacobs, Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Du Bois each provide a distinct perspective on the long struggle for freedom, education, identity and equality. Combined, their voices form an essential record o...

From Doctor Who to Tip Toe, Queer as Folk to Coronation Street, Britain’s foremost television writer and showrunner takes us behind the scenes of some of the nation’s most beloved programmes.This is the story of my life in TV.My life is my material. There is sadness in everyone's life. Everyone's got someone who's died. Everyone's sat in a hospital waiting room. Everyone's had a heartbreak. Every single person in the world...

The rise and fall of the Voting Rights Act, from the triumph of its passage in 1965 to its evisceration by the Supreme Court in their 2013 decision in Shelby County v. HolderThe Voting Rights Act of 1965 finally made good on the promise of the Fifteenth Amendment, which nearly a century before had granted Black Americans the right to vote. The Voting Rights Act was the crowning achievement of the Civil Rights Movement, which had battled for years against v...