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      • Trusted Partner
        Humanities & Social Sciences
        April 2022

        Chinese religion in contemporary Singapore, Malaysia and Taiwan

        The cult of the Two Grand Elders

        by Fabian Graham

        In Singapore and Malaysia, the inversion of Chinese Underworld traditions has meant that Underworld demons are now amongst the most commonly venerated deities in statue form, channelled through their spirit mediums, tang-ki. The Chinese Underworld and its sub-hells are populated by a bureaucracy drawn from the Buddhist, Taoist and vernacular pantheons. Under the watchful eye of Hell's 'enforcers', the lower echelons of demon soldiers impose post-mortal punishments on the souls of the recently deceased for moral transgressions committed during their prior incarnations. Chinese religion in contemporary Singapore, Malaysia and Taiwan offers an ethnography of contemporary Chinese Underworld traditions, where night-time cemetery rituals assist the souls of the dead, exorcised spirits are imprisoned in Guinness bottles, and malicious foetus ghosts are enlisted to strengthen a temple's spirit army. Understanding the religious divergences between Singapore and Malaysia (and their counterparts in Taiwan) through an analysis of socio-political and historical events, Fabian Graham challenges common assumptions about the nature and scope of Chinese vernacular religious beliefs and practices. Graham's innovative approach to alterity allows the reader to listen to first-person dialogues between the author and channelled Underworld deities. Through its alternative methodological and narrative stance, the book intervenes in debates on the interrelation between sociocultural and spiritual worlds, and promotes the destigmatisation of spirit possession and discarnate phenomena in the future study of mystical and religious traditions.

      • Trusted Partner
        Adventure
        April 2024

        I love you…

        by Julien Tănase

        The book "I Love You..." is part of the trilogy..., "I love you, till death..." and "I love you, as long as my heart beats”, autobiographical love novels which include chapters from life in a couple of the writer Julien Tănase and his wife, Magdi, with whom he has been in a relationship for 30 years, all against the background of the events that Romania has gone through in recent decades, after the Revolution of '89. A trilogy about the endurance over time of a young couple in love, who have gone through events that are out of touch with reality in Romania where sleeping with a gun under the pillow, the fear of having their child kidnapped, and even the "wars" waged against the corruption of magistrates, politicians and the information systems of a civil society gripped by the widespread corruption in Romania, including the lawsuit invented by the DNA (National Anticorruption Directorate) to stop his work as a journalist and finally won by the writer, makes the autobiography of writer Julien Tănase a fascinating one that leaves you with a bitter taste in your mouth and a big question mark; ... "such things have happened and continue to happen in Romania"?... The writer Julien Tănase: "A friend in the Italian Police told me, and I quote him: "... if you had done in Italy what you did for your country, today a street would bear your name! But you had been dead!"

      • Trusted Partner
        November 2017

        The Secret of La Rosa

        by Donald Willerton

        It was just a short cross-country ski outing over the Christmas break for Mogi Franklin and his sister, Jennifer–until they find themselves suddenly caught in a vicious blizzard. Near collapse, they ski into a mysterious valley with an ancient hacienda, a busy Spanish family, and a village with no electricity, no plumbing, no cars, no phones, and definitely no Walmart.A vacation that began a few days earlier helping his Granddad clean and decorate for a huge family celebration had now become a mind-boggling mystery. And young Mogi's anguish trying to come to terms with his grandmother's death from cancer the previous Christmas turns to fear and danger when he is accused of stealing a religious icon the town prizes above all others–and which holds the key to solving an ancient legend of missing Spanish gold.It's the latest book of the exciting Mogi Franklin Mysteries–shadowy figures, secret societies, a town like no other. Is this all reality or illusion? Mogi must find the answers, even as he struggles with the memory of his grandmother's death and the mysteries of faith it brought him which he now must answer as well.

      • Trusted Partner
        October 2020

        Tropical Deception

        by David Robinson

        With some $200 million sunk into a real estate development on Kauai, the investment partners have a lot to lose if Peter Roosevelt succeeds in stopping the project for the sake of preserving Hawaii's rich and exotic environment. When Roosevelt is found dead in his home, his neighbor, Wayne Takei, is quickly arrested―and becomes the latest, and possibly the most difficult, challenge for Honolulu's top criminal defense attorney, Pancho McMartin.The obstacles to proving Takei's innocence are daunting. His gun was the murder weapon. He has no alibi. And his affair with Roosevelt's wife provides ample motive. Lies and deception quickly plague the proceedings as Pancho and his team wade through a slew of suspicious characters, all of whom have alibis. Suspense is high as time is running out for Pancho to save his client from a lifetime in prison.This is David Myles Robinson's fourth novel in the increasingly popular Pancho McMartin legal thriller series.

      • Trusted Partner
        September 2022

        Lust

        Fuckability, orgasm gap and #metoo

        by Henriette Hell

        Lust, a mortal sin? These times are over. In today's public perception, it is more likely for a boring sex life to be categorised as that. In statistical terms, people have never had as little sex with each other as they do today. And yet tips for a good sex life are to be found on every (digital) corner. Sex has mutated into a lifestyle product, and terms like 'fuckability' and 'MILF' trip lightly off our tongues. Henriette Hell takes a closer look at the thing about sex. She traces the history and genesis of 'sexual liberation', and sheds light on the 'cheating gene' and the #metoo debate. The author asks (and answers) the question of whether sex is becoming more and more antisocial and what actually still turns us on today. In doing so, she focuses on the former mortal sin of lust, which is inseparably linked to the systematic suppression of female lust (and its liberation).

      • Trusted Partner
        Medicine
        April 2018

        Bovine Tuberculosis

        by Mark Chambers, Stephen Gordon, Francisco Olea-Popelka, Paul Barrow

        This book is contemporary, topical and global in its approach, and provides an essential, comprehensive treatise on bovine tuberculosis and the bacterium that causes it, Mycobacterium bovis. Bovine tuberculosis remains a major cause of economic loss in cattle industries worldwide, exacerbated in some countries by the presence of a substantial wildlife reservoir. It is a major zoonosis, causing human infection through consumption of unpasteurised milk or by close contact with infected animals. Following a systematic approach, expert international authors cover epidemiology and the global situation; microbial virulence and pathogenesis; host responses to the pathogen; and diagnosis and control of the disease. Aimed at researchers and practising veterinarians, this book is essential for those needing comprehensive information on the pathogen and disease, and offers a summary of key information learned from human tuberculosis research. It will be useful to those studying the infection and for those responsible for controlling the disease.

      • Trusted Partner
        Children's & YA

        Really Great, Heros! (2). What on Earth are we Doing Here?

        by Rüdiger Bertram/ Heribert Schulmeyer

        Juli can’t wait for the holidays. His cousin Jenny and he can once more go to her uncle’s Superhero Hotel. Maybe the next superhero adventure will be awaiting them there? Indeed it is: the evil Snakeman has created an army of mutated giant rabbits, whose underground tunnels threaten one city after another with complete collapse. And as the real superheroes are still lazing around at the swimming pool, and Bruce suddenly has to go and defend the world against an alien invasion, it’s once more left to Juli and Jenny to prevent this disaster! Armed with nothing more than a cheap pair of X-ray laser glasses with which they can see through walls, doors and even people’s clothes (villains in underpants – not a pretty sight!). And while Juli is still asking “What on earth are we doing here?” he and Jenny find themselves in the middle of a crazy adventure that takes them all round the world – across the desert, through London, and on to Paris! Can Juli and Jenny stop the evil villain and his giant rabbits in time?

      • Trusted Partner
        Humanities & Social Sciences
        2021

        Ukrainian Worlds of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Stories about History

        by Natalya Starchenko

        The vision of the Ukrainian history dominant in the Russian Empire and in the Soviet Union focused exclusively on the heroic Cossacks and disenfranchised peasants. There was no room in it for the local elites: the Ukrainian aristocracy (szlachta) of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. As the result of this biased perspective, Ukrainians to this day know very little about the life of those people. This book invites the readers to take a closer look at the Ukrainian aristocracy. This introduction is done in a somewhat unusual form, through true anecdotes from the life of aristocracy gleaned from court records and other sources from the time. We get glimpses of the elites not only in their best garbs but also in their well-worn home clothes. The book brings together 105 brief chapters that describe how these people saw themselves, how they fought and made peace, how they fell in love and got married, how unwavering they were in the defense of their rights in court. Last not least, these essays explore whether the Ukrainian elites were mere extras and viewers in history or its active makers, resolute and strong in their insistence on defending and expanding their rights and freedoms.

      • Trusted Partner
        Children's & YA

        Changeling

        by Kotryna Zylė

        Changeling is a rebellious novel about creativity, youth and the raging intensity of teenage emotional life. The gripping story plunges the reader into the depths of a mystical town, a haunting and haunted place, where boundaries between the real and the otherworldly become dangerously blurred. A strange and electrifying tale of teenage disenchantment, Changeling is a work of stunning emotional force that captures the twisted complexities of family relationships and friendships, first love, and the quest for self-definition. Guided by short introductions to Baltic mythology, readers will find themselves in an urban landscape steeped in pagan and post-Soviet history.

      • Trusted Partner
        Crime & mystery
        2019

        The Great Prussia Hotel

        by Bohdan Kolomiychuk

        It’s 1905 in Europe. Russia is losing the war with Japan and is now concentrating its forces in the West. Specifically, hundreds of Russian entrepreneurs head to Austria-Hungary and Prussia to establish business relationships, agents of the Russian Okhranka secret police and members of Russia’s criminal underworld disguised among them. Meanwhile, in the Austrian city of Lviv, the career of Criminal Police Commissar Adam Wistowicz advances. He’s one of the best investigators in Halychyna (Galicia), whose reputation is well known even in the empire’s capital, Vienna. Wistowicz’s ex-wife Anna Kalisch, an actress of the Berlin Shauspielhaus, unexpectedly finds herself in the middle of the ruthless whirlpool. In despair, she sends the commissar a telegram, begging for help. Between two fires, in foreign Prussia, Wistowicz takes on the most dangerous case of his life. He finds himself in the Royal Opera House, among communists in a German pub, in the luxury Great Prussia Hotel in Posen, then one on one with a maniac in the middle of an empty square… Teetering at knifepoint between life and death, winning crazy amounts of money and subsequently losing it, and confronting a powerful enemy with only intelligence and adroitness, the commissar from faraway Halychyna brilliantly brings the case to a close… and proves victorious.

      • Trusted Partner
        Humanities & Social Sciences
        July 2015

        Corporate and white-collar crime in Ireland

        A new architecture of regulatory enforcement

        by Joe McGrath, Rob Kitchin

        This book explores the emergence of a new architecture of corporate enforcement in Ireland. It is demonstrated that the State has transitioned from one contradictory model of corporate enforcement to another. Traditionally, the State invoked its most powerful weapon of state censure, the criminal law, but was remarkably lenient in practice because the law was not enforced. The contemporary model is much more reliant on cooperative measures and civil orders, but also contains remarkably punitive and instrumental measures to surmount the difficulties of proving guilt in criminal cases. Though corporate and financial regulation has become an area of significant interest for academics, researchers and those with an interest in corporate affairs, this sudden surge of interest lacks a tradition of scholarship or any deep empirical and contextual analysis in Ireland. This book provides that foundation. It is likely to stimulate an extensive conversation on corporate regulation and governance in Ireland. It is also likely to provide a platform for researchers further afield with an interest in comparative study with Ireland. ;

      • Trusted Partner
        Humanities & Social Sciences
        March 2017

        Britain in China

        by Robert Bickers

        This is a study of Britain's presence in China both at its peak, and during its inter-war dissolution in the face of assertive Chinese nationalism and declining British diplomatic support. Using archival materials from China and records in Britain and the United States, the author paints a portrait of the traders, missionaries, businessmen, diplomats and settlers who constituted "Britain-in-China", challenging our understanding of British imperialism there. Bickers argues that the British presence in China was dominated by urban settlers whose primary allegiance lay not with any grand imperial design, but with their own communities and precarious livelihoods. This brought them into conflict not only with the Chinese population, but with the British imperial government. The book also analyzes the formation and maintenance of settler identities, and then investigates how the British state and its allies brought an end to the reign of freelance, settler imperialism on the China coast. At the same time, other British sectors, missionary and business, renegotiated their own relationship with their Chinese markets and the Chinese state and distanced themselves from the settler British.

      • Trusted Partner
        Children's & YA
        August 2020

        Cryptos

        by Poznanski, Ursula

        Where do we go when Nowhere is the only destination left?   Kerrybrook is Jana‘s favourite virtual escape. An idyllic fishing village with beautiful nature and, every now and then, a breeze of fresh air from the nearby sea. Jana, is this world‘s designer and person in power, she’s satisfied with her masterpiece. Best job so far. Until one day, a dead body is found, in both, ’Virtual Reality‘ and the real world. In times of climate change, VR is the only safe place for humankind. That‘s why Jana needs to solve the crime, she’s responsible for stopping the destruction.   • CliFi Thriller (Climate Fiction): Climate change & virtual reality • For fans of Black Mirror (Netflix) • All age readers • Strong, female protagonist • Highly relevant topic   WHITE RAVENS recommendation (2021):   "In the not too distant future, the world is an inhospitable place: droughts, storms, floods. That’s why world designers construct »alternative realities«, such as landscapes populated by dinosaurs, life at court in the Middle Ages, and surfing and chilling out on a beach. People can switch between these worlds at will and, when they die there, they are not truly dead; instead, they merely return to the »real world« – same as at night when they sleep. Then they are reunited with their body, which is lying inside a capsule.   In »Cryptos«, Ursula Poznanski pulls out all the stops of storytelling: She embeds numerous references to human and intellectual history in an action-packed and extremely suspenseful thriller plot. In the process, she raises central existential and ontological questions that result from the interplay between the real and the virtual worlds. This complex dystopian novel is narrated in such an enjoyable way that readers will hardly notice their brains going into overdrive as they devour it."

      • Trusted Partner
        Business, Economics & Law
        January 2009

        Understanding criminal law

        by Stephen Buckley, Caroline Buckley

        A complete understanding of criminal law is essential to pass the A2 in law, and this book provides that - for the first time linking all the elements of criminal law together to form a coherent whole. Written by two practising teachers, the book is accessible and user-friendly, featuring summary boxes and tables, clear introductions and references to key cases, as well as study skills and sample examination questions. The book provides a complete overview of criminal law and skilfully links all the elements together. It stresses the practical application of modern criminal law as it is currently used in the English judicial system and establishes the key roles of prosecution, the Crown Prosecution Service, the defence and the judiciary. It goes on to examine how the prosecution build up a case, looking in depth at the offences of murder and manslaughter and how they interrelate, and examining theft, assault and regulatory offences in detail, before looking at the role and nature of the defence. A vitally important final chapter concentrates on study skills relevant to criminal law, including note-taking, file organisation, essay and problem questions, revision strategy and the use of legal sources.

      • Trusted Partner
        Fiction
        October 2018

        Chio-Chio-San, Your Gaze

        by Andrii Liubka

        A drunk judge kills a young woman in a car accident and escapes punishment without much effort. But the woman's husband is not one of those who can be bribed to stay silent or intimidated into oblivion. He would rather lose everything but find out the name of the culprit. A psychological thriller about Ukraine before the war, where bribes measured the value of human life, and murderers stood in the front rows at church services. But why is Puccini able to burn the souls of both antagonists with the look of Madame Butterfly? And is the division between good and evil so clear-cut in this novel? The reader will not find the answer to the last question until the end.

      • Trusted Partner
        Nature, the natural world (Children's/YA)
        March 2020

        Earth Takes a Break

        by House, Emily

        From children's book author Emily House comes a wonderful story that re-connects us with our planet. A modern fable inspired by recent events, Earth Takes a Break is a touching picture book jam-packed with fun illustrations and woven together with a message of hope. When Earth feels unwell, she goes to the doctor to ask for help. What the doctor prescribes seems impossible to Earth, until she wakes the next day to find a surprising change!

      • Trusted Partner
        Children's & YA
        January 2022

        Alf the Cat-Detective

        by Yulita Ran (Author), Maria Rudyk (Illustrator)

        Alf is great at finding things and the whole family adores him. One day, Alf gets a very important mission – to find a little boy! The girl Sophie comes to the cat-detective begging to help her to find her younger brother. They are looking for the little boy everywhere: sand-pit, playhouse and even near the road! But the little boy just vanished into the air! Luckily, Alf knows someone that can give him a hint of where the boy can be. And what good news! Alf and Sophie in the end find the boy safe and sound! Truly Alf proved once again that he is the best cat-detective ever!   From 3 to 6 years, 1673 words Rightsholders:  hanna.bulhakova@ranok-school.com

      • Trusted Partner
        Humanities & Social Sciences
        September 2024

        Gender and punishment in Ireland

        by Lynsey Black

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