Penguin Directorate S: The C.I.A. and America's Secret Wars in Afganistan and Pakistan, 2001-2016 Coll Steve

The Yellow House: Van Gogh, Gauguin and Nine Turbulent Weeks in Arles is art critic Martin Gayford's account of the tumultuous nine weeks in which the famous nineteenth century artists Vincent van Gogh and Paul Gauguin shared a house in the small French town of Arles • Two artistic giants. One small house • From October to December 1888 a pair of at the time largely unknown artists lived under one roof in the French provincial town of Arles. Paul Gauguin and Vincent Van Gogh ate, drank, talked, argued, slept and painted in one of the most intense and astonishing creative outpourings in history. Yet as the weeks passed Van Gogh buckles under the strain, fought with his companion and committed an act of violence on himself that prompted Gauguin to flee without saying goodbye to his friend

The Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition was perhaps the most ambitious, elaborate and confident of all the British attempts to master the South Pole. Like the others it ended in disaster, with the Endeavour first trapped and then crushed to pieces in the ice and its crew trapped in the Antarctic, seemingly doomed to a slow and horrible death. In the face of extraordinary odds, Shackleton, the expedition's leader, decided on the only course that might just save them: a 700 nautical mile voyage in a small boat across the ferocious Southern Ocean in the forelorn hope of reaching the only human habitation within range: a small whaling station on the rugged, ice-sheeted island of South Georgia • South tells the story both of the whole astonishing expedition and of Shackleton's journey to rescue his men - one of the greatest feats of navigation ever recorded

In both time and space, the cosmos is astoundingly vast, and yet is governed by simple, elegant, universal mathematical laws • On this cosmic timeline, our human era is spectacular but fleeting. Someday, we know, we will all die. And, we know, so too will the universe itself • "Until the End of Time" is Brian Greene's breathtaking new exploration of the cosmos and our quest to understand it. Greene takes us on a journey across time, from our most refined understanding of the universe's beginning, to the closest science can take us to the very end. He explores how life and mind emerged from the initial chaos, and how our minds, in coming to understand their own impermanence, seek in different ways to give meaning to experience: in story, myth, religion, creative expression, science, the quest for truth, and our longing for the timeless, or eternal

In Fish, Fishing and the Meaning of Life Jeremy Paxman creates the perfect literary catch for fellow angling enthusiasts in this rich and varied anthology • Each chapter is introduced by Paxman's own sharp, humorous observations and features both contemporary and historical writing about fishing in prose and verse, covering everything from tench tickling to piranha attacks. Some pieces are well known favourites, others are obscure, every one is a delight • Jeremy Paxman is a journalist, best known for his work presenting Newsnight and University Challenge. His books include Empire, On Royalty, The English and The Political Animal. He lives in Oxfordshire

The brand-new official Minecraft novel is an epic battle for survival! When humans enter the End, a pair of endermen must decide which side they're really on • For as long as they can remember, the twin endermen Fin and Mo have lived in the mysterious land of the End. On the outskirts of the great enderman city of Telos, they explore ancient ruins under the watchful gaze of the mighty ender dragon. They have everything they need in the end ship they call home, and know everything there is to know about their world-or so they think until the strangers from another dimension arrive • The invaders are called humans, and they've come to steal artifacts and slay the ender dragon. Fin and Mo are ready to protect their home from the trespassers, but when they come face-to-face with the humans, they discover that they aren't as prepared for battle as they'd thought

The arrival of two newcomers in the quiet village of Mellstock arouses a bitter feud and leaves a convoluted love affair in its wake. While the Reverend Maybold creates a furore among the village's musicians with his decision to abolish the church's traditional 'string choir' and replace it with a modern mechanical organ, the new schoolteacher, Fancy Day, causes an upheaval of a more romantic nature, winning the hearts of three very different men - a local farmer, a church musician and Maybold himself. Under the Greenwood Tree follows the ensuing maze of intrigue and passion with gentle humour and sympathy, deftly evoking the richness of village life, yet tinged with melancholy for a rural world that Hardy saw fast disappearing

The first novel which appeared in Georges Simenon's famous Maigret series, in a gripping new translation by David Bellos • Not that he looked like a cartoon policeman. He didn't have a moustache and he didn't wear heavy boots. His clothes were well cut and made of fairly light worsted. He shaved every day and looked after his hands • But his frame was proletarian. He was a big, bony man. His firm muscles filled out his jacket and quickly pulled all his trousers out of shape • He had a way of imposing himself just by standing there. His assertive presence had often irked many of his own colleagues • In Simenon's first novel featuring Maigret, the laconic detective is taken from grimy bars to luxury hotels as he traces the true identity of Pietr the Latvian

Знаменитая "История Латинской Америки" от Эдвина Уилльямсона, полностью обновленная до 2009 года, рассказывает о ее бурной истории от Колумба до Чавеса. Начиная с испанских и португальских завоеваний Нового Света, она охватывает столетия потрясений, революций и модернизации вплоть до наших дней, подробно рассматривая Аргентину, Мексику, Бразилию, Чили и Кубу, и дает обзор культурных событий, которые сделали Латинскую Америку источником восхищения для всего мира • Книга на английском языке • Now fully updated to 2009, this acclaimed history of Latin America tells its turbulent story from Columbus to Chavez. Beginning with the Spanish and Portugese conquests of the New World, it takes in centuries of upheaval, revolution and modernization up to the present day, looking in detail at Argentina, Mexico, Brazil, Chile and Cuba, and gives an overview of the cultural developments that have made Latin America a source of fascination for the world

A Kurt Austin NUMA files adventure, The Pharaoh's Secret is a gripping, action-packed and suspense-filled tale that delves into the mysteries of Ancient Egypt and is set in and beside the sparkling Mediterranean Sea • A deadly poison • On the Mediterranean island of Lampedusa a mysterious ship runs aground, explodes and releases a poisonous black mist. As the island's inhabitants fall where they stand, someone sends a distress call • A rescue mission • Kurt Austin and the NUMA team are diving for antiquities when they pick up the call. As the only vessel for hundreds of miles, they attempt to rescue survivors. But something is very wrong about this incident • A secret conspiracy • Tasked with finding who might be responsible, Kurt uncovers a secretive organization that is using the knowledge and power of the Ancient Egyptians to destabilize northern Africa

Three hundred years ago no one knew the true shape of the world • It wasn't a sphere - but did it bulge at the equator or was it pointed at the poles? Until we found out no map could ever be truly accurate. So a team of scientists was sent to South America - to measure one full degree of latitude • But South America was a land of erupting volcanoes, sodden rainforests, earthquakes, deadly diseases, tropical storms and violent unrest. And the misfit scientists had an unfortunate tendency to squander funds, fight duels, stumble into mutinies or die horribly • The tale of their ten-year odyssey of exploration, discovery, flirtations with failure and ultimate triumph becomes in Nicholas Crane's hands the greatest scientific adventure story ever told

'Sync' is a story of a dazzling kind of order in the universe, the harmony that comes from cycles in sync. The tendency to sychronize is one of the most far- reaching drives in all of nature. It extends from people to planets, from animals to atoms. In 'Sync' professor Steven Strogatz considers a range of applications - human sleep and circadian rhythms, menstrual synchrony, insect outbreaks, superconductors, lasers, secret codes, heart arrhythmias and fads - connecting all trhough an exploration of the same mathematical theme: self-organisation, or the spontaneous emergence of order out of chaos. Focused enough to present a coherent world unto themselves, Strogatz's chosen topics touch on several of the hottest directions in contemporary science

From Cnut to D-Day, the history and science of the unceasing tide is explored for the first time • Half of the world's population lives in coastal regions lapped by tidal waters. Yet how little most of us know about the tide - a key force on our planet that has altered the course of history and will transform our future • Our ability to predict and understand the tide depends on centuries of science, from the observations of Aristotle and the theories of Newton to today's supercomputer calculations. This story is punctuated here by notable tidal episodes in history, from Caesar's thwarted invasion of Britain to the catastrophic flooding of Venice, and interwoven with a rich folklore that continues to inspire art and literature today • With Aldersey-Williams as our guide to the most feared and celebrated tidal features on the planet, from the original maelstrom in Scandinavia to the world's highest tides in Nova Scotia to the crumbling coast of East Anglia, the importance of the tide, and the way it has shaped - and will continue to shape - our civilization, becomes startlingly clear