Higher Worlds

The Persian Empire was the world's first hyperpower, with territory stretching from Central Asia to Northeastern Africa and from Southeastern Europe to the Indus Valley. It was the dominant geopolitical force from the later sixth century to its conquest by Alexander in the 330s BCE. Much of the empire's territory was conquered by its founder, Cyrus the Great, who reigned from 559-530 BCE.

Over the course of the last half dozen years, China's supreme leader Xi Jinping has made extraordinary changes which have profound implications not only for the Chinese people but nations throughout the world. Given how swiftly and fundamentally China's relations with the rest of the world are changing under Xi's rule, it is imperative that we know what Xi Jinping Thought is, how it evolved, and why it is so important.

Our public lands are the places we go for relief from modern society and to know ourselves better. They are also the economic basis for one of our nations strongest economic pillars: the outdoor recreation industry. Every day, we face severe news reports of the state of climate change. All the while our current Supreme Court is rolling back clean air standards as the former administration did their best to dismantle our clean water laws and weaken protections on our treasured public lands.

Published in more than two dozen countries, How to Change the World has become a bible for the field of social entrepreneurship. It tells the stories of people building innovative and pattern-changing solutions to social and economic problems.

When Robert Zubrin published his classic book The Case for Mars a quarter century ago, setting foot on the Red Planet seemed a fantasy. Today, manned exploration is certain, and as Zubrin affirms in The New World on Mars, so too is colonization.

Building on her critically acclaimed novel The Last Days of California and her biting collection Always Happy Hour, Miller slyly transports listeners to her unapologetic corner of the South - this time, Biloxi, Mississippi, home to 63-year-old Louis McDonald, Jr. His wife of 37 years left him, his father has passed - and he has impulsively retired from his job in anticipation of an inheritance check that may not come. One day, he stops at a house advertising free dogs and meets overweight mixed-breed Layla.

In the wake of the September 11 attacks and the US-led invasion of Iraq, Suzy Hansen, who grew up in an insular conservative town in New Jersey, was enjoying early success as a journalist for a high-profile New York newspaper. Increasingly, though, the disconnect between the chaos of world events and the response at home took on pressing urgency for her. Seeking to understand the Muslim world that had been reduced to scaremongering headlines, she moved to Istanbul.

Lyndsay Faye - international best seller, translated into 15 languages, and a two-time Edgar Award nominee - first appeared on the literary scene with Dust and Shadow, her now-classic novel pitting Sherlock Holmes against Jack the Ripper, and later produced The Whole Art of Detection, her widely acclaimed collection of traditional Watsonian tales. Now Faye is back with Observations by Gaslight, a thrilling volume of both new and previously published short stories and novellas narrated by those who knew the Great Detective.

On the night in 1964 that Muhammad Ali (then known as Cassius Clay) stepped into the ring with Sonny Liston, he was widely regarded as an irritating freak who danced and talked way too much. Six rounds later Ali was not only the new world heavyweight boxing champion: He was "a new kind of black man" who would shortly transform America's racial politics, its popular culture, and its notions of heroism. No one has captured Ali—and the era that he exhilarated and sometimes infuriated—with greater vibrancy, drama, and astuteness than David Remnick.

It's 1979, and a group of former SS officers are devising a plan to seize power in West Germany. XPD is a brilliant novel constructed around a supposition that Churchill secretly met with Hitler in 1940 to discuss terms of a British surrender.

The heritage of the Gryphon will choose its own. The time of choice is now. The urge within him is overwhelming, and Kerovan - he of the cloven hooves and amber eyes - is driven toward the mountains - toward the dark. With him goes the Lady Joisan, who carries with her secrets unknown to Kerovan.

David Bodanis demystifies the world's most famous equation, explaining its science and bringing it to life. He makes clear the astonishing array of discoveries and consequences it made possible and its impact on our daily lives. At last, the masses can understand that Einstein did nothing less than open the door to the inner structure of the universe.

A detailed look into ancient advanced technology, science, and medicine - some of which has yet to be reproduced today.

I've dreamed of him for most of my life. Ever since I was a little boy, I've had the same dream; I save a lion from monsters. I've traveled around the world looking for my lion because I knew it wasn't merely a dream; it was a prophecy. But what I didn't know was how literal that prophecy was or how much that lion would come to mean to me. That he would be brave, powerful, honorable, and beautiful enough to make the Gods weep. I didn't know how drastically he would change me. And most of all, I didn't know that those changes would be so great and shocking that they'd threaten to destroy ...

In "Border Wars," the ninth thrilling installment of the "Crystals of Memory" series, young Anders Brolly, a magical prodigy on the brink of his fifteenth birthday, embarks on a perilous journey that will test his powers and resolve. Accompanied by the esteemed Great One of Barquea, Depak Sona, his apprentices, and the Heir to Barquea, Prince Naveed, Anders must venture to the borders of three lands where mysterious attacks by the Natech threaten the peace and safety of innocent people. As they travel through treacherous territories, they encounter a host of incredible beings, including ...

Trapped on an alternate Earth, the combined crews of a crashed Russian spaceship, a British expeditionary force and a group of strays from the future must work together to survive, escape and discover what led them to this point. All are from parallel universes where small changes in history led to different realities, and the tensions between the groups are rising.

Flake, the legendary keyboardist for the German band Rammstein, takes listeners on a journey of what it is to be a touring musician. The excitement, the boredom, the moments that will be remembered and those that are forgotten. It's the World's Birthday Today is a strange and moody book about life on the road.

The Nameless Baron is gravely displeased. Viktor had once heard that time healed all wounds. Whoever had come up with that saying had clearly never gotten into a physical altercation with a werewolf, but at least Adelstrad's least favourite executioner still has most of his limbs. That said, while his witch problems may have been solved, battle has finally joined in the Adelstradian countryside as Nordling warbands meet Adelstradian fighting men in the field and blood flows like wine. Viktor finds himself in a more precarious position than ever before, caught between the rapidly forming ...

It's Holy Week in the small town of Las Penas, New Mexico, and 33-year-old unemployed Amadeo Padilla has been given the part of Jesus in the Good Friday procession. He is preparing feverishly for this role when his 15-year-old daughter, Angel, shows up pregnant on his doorstep and disrupts his plans for personal redemption. With weeks to go until her due date, tough, ebullient Angel has fled her mother's house, setting her life on a startling new path.

Amazons - fierce warrior women dwelling on the fringes of the known world - were the mythic archenemies of the ancient Greeks. Heracles and Achilles displayed their valor in duels with Amazon queens, and the Athenians reveled in their victory over a powerful Amazon army. In historical times, Cyrus of Persia, Alexander the Great, and the Roman general Pompey tangled with Amazons.