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It's Lydstock time again, the most anticipated music festival of the year. Max Effort, chilled ex-chef turned vanlifer, is already there, and when Min arrives to spend the whole weekend with him and Anxious the Jack Russell Terrier, he's as happy as any ex-husband could be. As the first night gets underway, and Uncle Ernie "Elbows" Effort's ska punk band The Skankin' Skeletons headline instead of their arch-rivals The Third Skatallion, things get spicier than a habanero vindaloo.

Burned-out chef Max Effort-he still hates his parents for the name-is slowly settling into van life. Used to swanky kitchens and state-of-the-art equipment, he's even mastered cooking outside without the flame blowing out. One-pot cooking or bust was Max's promise to himself, but the joys of letting his dinner simmer for hours on lazy summer days are soon on the back-burner when murder rears its ugly head once more.

Viennese ideas saturate the modern world. From California architecture to Hollywood Westerns, modern advertising to shopping malls, orgasms to gender confirmation surgery, nuclear fission to fitted kitchens—every aspect of our history, science, and culture is in some way shaped by Vienna. Richard Cockett gives us the entirety of an extraordinary story of how one city made the modern world—and how we all remain inescapably Viennese.

The names of few medieval monarchs and their queens are better known than Eleanor of Aquitaine, uniquely queen of France and queen of England, and her second husband Henry II. Although academically labeled "medieval," their era was the violent transition from the Dark Ages, when countries' borders were defined with fire and sword. If princes fought for their succession to crowns, the princesses were traded—usually by their mothers—to strangers for political power without the bloodshed.

Anxious the Jack Russell Terrier has a poorly paw. Burned-out chef and van life convert Max Effort will do anything for his best friend, even if that means a visit to the vets and the inevitable whining. Stopping in Harlech on the Welsh coast means they can get the little guy sorted out and take in the sights, too, even if Anxious is less than keen on visiting the doctor!

Max Effort never thought he'd find himself at The Dead Crow's sixth annual pickled onion festival, but serendipity is a peculiar thing, so here he stood. He didn't care, because his two best friends-Min his ex-wife, and Anxious the Terrier-were with him so life was sweet. When the pub's chef goes missing, Max reluctantly agrees to step in and save the day. Having vowed never to enter a commercial kitchen again, he soon regrets the decision, especially when the chef is found dead in a broom closet with a jar of pickled onions.

Burned-out chef, and a bit of a hippy at heart if he's honest, Max Effort has had enough. He's packed in his job at a swanky Michelin three-star restaurant, grown his hair, berated his parents yet again for giving him such a "go get 'em" name, accepted he's never going to get his ex-wife back, and he's hitting the road.

A group of unlikely heroes are all that stand in the way of humanity's demise as the zombie apocalypse engulfs the kingdom in this high fantasy adventure set in the world of Zombicide: Black Plague.

This book teaches you how to invoke angelic allies for hundreds of goals, from better protection and well-being to greater mindfulness and creativity.

Big Pharma is more interested in profit than health. This was made clear as governments rushed to produce vaccines during the Covid pandemic. Behind the much-trumpeted scientific breakthroughs, major companies found new ways of gouging billions from governments in the West while abandoning the Global South. But this is only the latest episode in a long history of financializing medicine—from Purdue's rapacious marketing of highly addictive OxyContin through Martin Shkreli's hiking the price of a lifesaving drug to the 4.5 million South Africans needlessly deprived of HIV/AIDS medication.

When I'm honorably discharged from the British Army on medical grounds following a brutal tour in Afghanistan, I use my skills as a combat medic to continue to save lives as a paramedic. I'm confident there's no situation I can't handle . . . until I'm teamed up with chirpy Grace Newton. She's everything I'm not—young, idealistic, and brimming with sunshine. Everything about her rubs me the right way, stirring wants and desires I thought were long dead. She should be off-limits—after all, I'm her mentor and work colleague. But one kiss has me wanting Grace's healing hands all to myself.

For more than a millennium, the Byzantine Empire presided over the juncture between East and West, as well as the transition from the classical to the modern world. Rather than recounting the standard chronology of emperors and battles, leading Byzantium scholar Jonathan Harris focuses on a succession of archetypal figures, families, places, and events.

5,000 years ago in ancient Mesopotamia during a terrible drought, Jomar and Zefa's father must send his children away to the city of Ur because he can no longer feed them. At fourteen, Jomar is old enough to apprentice with Sidah, a master goldsmith for the temple of the moongod, but there is no place for Zefa in Sidah's household. Zefa, a talented but untrained musician, is forced to play her music and sing for alms on the streets of Ur.

Renowned author Kristoffer Hughes presents a beginner guide to Druidry that covers what it is, where it comes from, and why it's an important and fulfilling spirituality. Hughes shares not only the nuts and bolts of how to be a practicing Druid, but also Druidry's deep roots in history, its evolution into modern times, and ethical and environmental considerations.

The Black Plague's terrible toll never ends, unleashing a new wave of zombies with disastrous consequences. Low on hope, Knight Alaric von Mertz and his companions flee their crumbling sanctuary, and soon come under the unlikely wing of murderous pirates. There, they learn of a legendary artifact called Mournshroud that could destroy swathes of the undead, but to claim it they must defeat an evil sorceress on an isolated island. Guarded by a dragon! A knight's honor demands he defend his kingdom, no matter the cost.

Philosophy, art, democracy, language, even computers—the glories of Greek civilization have shaped our world even more profoundly than we realize. Pericles and the Parthenon may be familiar, but what of Epaminondas, the Theban general who saved the Greek world from Spartan tyranny? Alexander the Great's fame has rolled down the centuries, but the golden Hellenistic Age that followed is largely forgotten. "Byzantine" conjures decadence and deadly intrigue, yet the thousand-year empire that ruled from Constantinople and saved Europe twice from invasion was, in fact, Greek.

To date, more than a million insect species have been described, with probably at least another 5-8 million species waiting in the wings for a name. Insects are a fascinatingly diverse and beautiful spectrum of animals. They range in size from the tiny parasitic wasp, measuring a mere 139µm, to the aptly named Titan beetle, which can reach lengths of up to 17cm. They can be found on all continents of the world, from the Sahara Desert to the frozen wastes of Antarctica. While no insects live beneath the waves, the intrepid sea skaters skim the surface of some of the world's oceans.

A cunning and sadistic serial killer known as Minotaur has already murdered and mutilated twelve women. When novelist David Knight comes home, he is shattered to find that his wife is the latest victim. But why has Minotaur taken David's young son? And what is the significance of the maze drawn in blood at every crime scene?

Archangel Uriel is hell bent on revenge on the demon prince Vladek. To get into the prince's impenetrable fortress, he'll have to fight in the pits of the underworld. And he'll need the help of the last person he can trust—the demon witch Nadya. There is no way Nadya, who spends her days taking care of others, expected to find Uriel on her doorstep. He seems no happier about being there than she does. But helping him means evening the scales against her backstabbing sister, and she'll do whatever it takes to make that bitch pay.

Towards the middle of the third century BC, the Hellenistic kingdoms were near their peak. In terms of population, economy, and military power, each was vastly superior to Rome, not to mention in fields such as medicine, architecture, science, philosophy, and literature. But over the next two and a half centuries, Rome would eventually conquer these kingdoms while adopting so much of Hellenistic culture that the resultant hybrid is known as "Graeco-Roman." In Greece Against Rome, Philip Matyszak relates this epic tale from the Hellenistic perspective.