St. Martin's Griffin – serie

Though his monarchy was toppled in 1979 and he died in 1980, Mohammad-Reza Shah Pahlevi, the last Shah of Iran, remains relevant today. He was a social reformer, a romantic egomaniac, and a deeply conflicted man and leader. Here, internationally respected author Abbas Milani gives us the definitive biography, more than ten years in the making, of the monarch who shaped Iran's modern age and with it the contemporary politics of the Middle East. The Shah's was a life filled with contradiction - he built schools, increased equality for women, and greatly reduced the power of the Shia clergy. He made Iran a global power and nationalized his country's many natural resources. But he was deeply conflicted and insecure in his powerful role. Intolerant of political dissent, he was eventually overthrown by the very people whose loyalty he so desperately sought. This comprehensive and gripping account shows us how Iran went from politically moderate monarchy to totalitarian Islamic republic. Milani reveals the complex and sweeping road that would bring the United States and Iran to where they are today.

Fossils plants allow us to touch the lost worlds from billions of years of evolutionary backstory. Each petrified leaf and root shows us that dinosaurs, sabre-toothed cats, and even humans would not exist without the evolutionary efforts of their leafy counterparts. It has been the constant growth of plants that have allowed so many of our favourite, fascinating prehistoric creatures to evolve, oxygenating the atmosphere, coaxing animals onto land, and forming the forests that shaped our ancestors’ anatomy. It is impossible to understand our history without them. Or our future.Using the same scientifically-informed narrative technique that readers loved in the award-winning The Last Days of the Dinosaurs, in When the Earth Was Green, Riley Black brings readers back in time to prehistoric seas, swamps, forests, and savannas where critical moments in plant evolution unfolded. Each chapter stars plants and animals alike, underscoring how the interactions between species have helped shape the world we call home. As the chapters move upwards in time, Black guides readers along the burgeoning trunk of the Tree of Life, stopping to appreciate branches of an evolutionary story that links the world we know with one we can only just perceive now through the silent stone, from ancient roots to the present.

In a sleepy German village, Allina Gottlieb's life is idyllic: she works at the bookshop with her uncle, makes strudel with her aunt, and spends the weekends with her friends and fiancé. But it's 1939, and on one fateful night, her life changes forever.The Sunflower House is a meticulously-researched debut historical novel set at Hochland Home, part of the notorious Lebensborn Program in Nazi Germany - a real-life Handmaid’s Tale. Women of “pure” blood resided there for the sole purpose of perpetuating the Aryan population, giving birth to hundreds of babies who were then raised - and neglected - in this state-run baby factory.With her life on the line, Allina is forced to work as a nurse in Hochland Home. Her Jewish identity must remain a secret in order for her to survive, but when she discovers the neglect occurring within the home, she is determined not only to save herself, but also the children in her care.The Sunflower House is as much a story of one woman’s determination to resist and survive, as it is a love story. When Allina meets Karl, a high-ranking SS officer with secrets of his own, the two must decide how much they are willing to share with each other - and how much they can stand to risk. The threads of this poignant and heartrending novel weave a tale of loss and love, friendship and betrayal, and the secrets we bury in order to save ourselves.

Doreen MacKinnon is doomed to die of a broken heart - if she can’t break the centuries old curse placed on her family.Three hundred years ago, Ambrose MacDonald, a powerful male witch, fell in love with a MacKinnon. And when the MacKinnon witches forbade him from seeing his love, by secretly hiding her away, he retaliated by cursing the family and its future generations to never find love. But it wasn’t without a cost. Now, Ambrose is imprisoned by those same witches, trapped in a tempest and doomed to outlive everyone he has ever loved.But Doreen isn’t like the other MacKinnon witches. As the 13th generation of the MacKinnon line, Doreen is one of the most powerful witches in centuries… and one of the loneliest. So when she discovers where Ambrose has been trapped, she releases him to help her break the curse, once and for all. Ambrose agrees to help, but with his own motive: vengeance. He plans to use her as bait to enact his revenge on her family.Together, they enter a series of trials, which take them to a castle in Scotland, off a cliff, and into a world beyond their wildest dreams. As they work together, sparks start to fly, but soon Doreen must choose how far she is willing to go to break the curse, and what she's willing to sacrifice.Paige Crutcher's A Circle of Uncommon Witches is a story of adventure, romance, and destiny, that asks: is true love worth the cost?

In his runaway bestseller NEVER BE LIED TO AGAIN, Dr David Lieberman broke new ground with his insights on the way people communicate. Now he revolutionises interpersonal relationships with GET ANYONE TO DO ANYTHING, another phenomenal New York Times bestseller. Lieberman is a master at exploring the human psyche. With this intriguing, provocative book, he explains how to read people, how to avoid being manipulated and how to get the upper hand in every situation.

A startling, thought-provoking novel about love, connection, and loss from The New York Times bestselling author of The Abstinence Teacher and Little Children

The first book to tackle the unique social struggles of elementary-aged girls.

In "Fear: Understanding and Accepting the Insecurities of Life", Osho takes the reader step by step over the range of what makes human beings afraid - from the reflexive "fight or flight" response to physical danger to the rational and irrational fears of the mind and its psychology. Only by bringing the light of understanding into fear's dark corners, he says, airing out closets and opening windows, and looking under the bed to see if a monster is really living there, can we begin to venture outside the boundaries of our comfort zone and learn to live with, and even enjoy, the fundamental insecurity of being alive. "Fear" ends with a series of meditation experiments designed to help readers experience a new relationship with fear and to begin to see fears not as stumbling blocks, but as stepping stones to greater self-awareness and trust.

On June 5, 2002, fourteen-year-old Elizabeth Smart, the daughter of a close-knit Mormon family, was taken from her home in the middle of the night by religious fanatic, Brian David Mitchell and his wife, Wanda Barzee. She was kept chained, dressed in disguise, repeatedly raped, and told she and her family would be killed if she tried to escape. After her rescue on March 12, 2003, she rejoined her family and worked to pick up the pieces of her life. In My Story she tells, for the first time, of the constant fear she endured every hour, her courageous determination to maintain hope, and how she convinced her captors to return to Utah, where she was rescued minutes after arriving. Smart explains how her faith helped her stay sane in the midst of a nightmare and how she found the strength to confront her captors at their trial and see that justice was served. In the years after her rescue, Smart transformed from victim to advocate, traveling the country and working to educate, inspire and foster change. She has created a foundation to help prevent crimes against children and is a frequent public speaker.In 2012, she married Matthew Gilmour, whom she met doing mission work in Paris for her church. Elizabeth is writing a new chapter for the trade paperback edition that will explore how she readjusted to life after the kidnapping, how she learned to cope, and how telling her story has changed her.

From The New York Times bestselling author Paula Brackston comes an enchanting tale of love and magic that weaves a modern day heroine together with the ancient Celtic past