Picador The Map of Knowledge. How Classical Ideas Were Lost and Found. A History in Seven Cities Moller Violet

An Artist’s Insights on Art Appreciation • Written by a practicing artist, this book decodes and maps the basic elements of visual art, leading the reader to a greater understanding and appreciation. Not an art history lesson per se, this illustrated guide is rather a tool kit to make the study of art and a visit to the museum truly rewarding. An entertaining and informative read, The Joy of Art offers the reader • A working art vocabulary to help you identify and explain what you’re looking at • Answers to many of the questions you may have about visual art in general • A summary of the basic criteria to consider when looking at art • Highlights of the primary art genres and an introduction to the artists who pursued them • Many visual examples of aesthetic considerations and practices • Interesting facts about your favorite artists and clues to why they made the choices they did • A few games to test your new skills • The Joy of Art contains 150 color photographs and many interesting insights from an artist-author who takes readers behind the curtain and into the studio to uncover what actually goes into making a work of art

The Scent of the Night is the sixth comic detective novel in the Inspector Montalbano series by Andrea Camilleri • Montalbano learned how hard it was to put on a wetsuit while in a dinghy speeding over a sea that wasn't exactly calm. Mimi, at the helm, looked tense and worried • "Getting seasick?" the inspector asked him at one point • "No. Just sick of myself." • "Why?" • "Because every now and then I realize what a stupid shit I am to go along with some of your brilliant ideas." • When an angry octogenarian holds a terrified and lovelorn secretary at gunpoint, Inspector Montalbano is reluctantly drawn into the case. The secretary's boss, a financial advisor, has vanished along with several billion lire entrusted to him by the good citizens of Vigata

The Pyramid of Mud is the twenty-second Montalbano mystery from Italy's finest crime writer, Andrea Camilleri • It's been raining for days in Vigata, and the persistent downpours have led to violent floods overwhelming the Inspector's beloved hometown, sweeping across the land and leaving only a sea of mud behind. It is on one of these endless grey days that a man - a Mr Giuglu Nicotra - is found dead, his body discovered in a large sewage tunnel, half naked and with a bullet in his back • The investigation is slow and slippery to start with, but when Montalbano realizes that every clue he uncovers and every person he interviews is leading to the same place - the world of public spending and, with it, the Mafia - the case begins to pick up pace

The Dance of the Seagull is the fifteenth darkly humorous adventure starring Inspector Montalbano from bestselling author Andrea Camilleri • Inspector Montalbano is awake at dawn, sitting on his porch, when his attention is caught by a seagull which falls from the sky, performing a strange dance, before lying down to die. Montalbano is perplexed by what he has witnessed and the scene hangs over him like an omen • About to depart for a holiday with his girlfriend Livia, Montalbano makes a quick trip to the police station to tie up loose ends. But when his dear colleague Fazio is discovered missing - and it transpires that the policeman has been involved in his own secret investigations - Montalbano instead launches a desperate search for his lost friend, as time begins to run out… • Navigating a shadowy maze of smuggling, blackmail and the darkest murder, and moving from the docks of Vigata to its deep, dry wells where the mafia hide their terrible crimes, Inspector Montalbano must have his wits about him to unravel this tangled mystery

The Year of the Runaways tells of the bold dreams and daily struggles of an unlikely family thrown together by circumstance. Thirteen young men live in a house in Sheffield, each in flight from India and in desperate search of a new life. Tarlochan, a former rickshaw driver, will say nothing about his past in Bihar; and Avtar has a secret that binds him to protect the choatic Randeep. Randeep, in turn, has a visa-wife in a flat on the other side of town: a clever, devout woman whose cupboards are full of her husband's clothes, in case the immigration men surprise her with a call. Sweeping between India and England, and between childhood and the present day, Sunjeev Sahota's generous, unforgettable novel is - as with Rohinton Mistry's A Fine Balance - a story of dignity in the face of adversity and the ultimate triumph of the human spirit

The sequel to Jessie Burton's million-copy bestseller The Miniaturist, The House of Fortune returns to the mysterious Brandt family in 18th-century Amsterdam for a story of fate and fortune • 'Elegant, atmospheric, compelling. I absolutely loved it' - Marian Keyes • 'A book of beauty and insight... awe-inspiring. Burton is a master storyteller' - Elizabeth Day • In the golden city of Amsterdam, in 1705, Thea Brandt is turning eighteen, and she is ready to welcome adulthood with open arms. At the city's theatre, Walter, the love of her life, awaits her, but at home in the house on the Herengracht, all is not well - her father Otto and Aunt Nella argue endlessly, and the Brandt family are selling their furniture in order to eat. On Thea's birthday, also the day that her mother Marin died, the secrets from the past begin to overwhelm the present

The Cook of the Halcyon is the penultimate novel in the Inspector Montalbano mystery series from the master of Sicilian crime, Andrea Camilleri • Moments later the all-white schooner, which looked like a hospital ship, began to pass ever so slowly before him, as if wanting to show itself off in all its beauty. The name on the prow said: Halcyon • Two deaths - the suicide of a recently fired worker and the murder of an unscrupulous businessman - lead Inspector Montalbano to the Halcyon, a mysterious ship that visits Vigata's port each day. With very few crewmen, no passengers, and a stern large enough to land a helicopter, it piques the Inspector's interest straight away • In the midst of this, a rare trip to Genoa to visit Livia ends with the Vigata police department in disarray, and Inspector Montalbano's position as the head of the commissariat in jeopardy

In the tradition of Conrad's Heart of Darkness, an immensely powerful historical novel about the first encounters between Danish colonists and Greenlanders in the early eighteenth century, of brutal clashes between priests and pagans and the forces that drive each individual towards darkness or light • 1728: The Danish King Fredrik IV sends a governor to Greenland to establish a colony, in the hopes of exploiting the country's allegedly vast natural resources. A few merchants, a barber-surgeon, two trainee priests, a blacksmith, some carpenters and soldiers and a dozen hastily married couples go with him • The missionary priest Hans Egede has already been in Greenland for several years when the new colonists arrive. He has established a mission there, but the converts are few

The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh is a moving story of hope and forgiveness, and an international bestseller • The Victorians used flowers to express emotions: honeysuckle for devotion, azaleas for passion, and red roses for love. For Victoria Jones, flowers and their meanings are her only connection to the world - although for her, they are most useful in expressing feelings such as grief, mistrust and solitude • After a childhood in the foster care system, Victoria - now eighteen - has nowhere to go, and sleeps in a public park, where she plants a small garden of her own. When her talent is discovered by a local florist, she discovers her gift for helping others through the flowers she chooses for them. But it takes a meeting with a mysterious vendor at the flower market for her to realize what's been missing in her own life

The Voice of the Violin by Andrea Camilleri is the fourth novel in the wryly humorous Inspector Montalbano series • The commissioner kept looking at him with an expression that combined contempt and commiseration, apparently discerning unmistakable signs of senile dementia in the inspector • "I'm going to speak very frankly, Montalbano. I don't have a very high opinion of you." • "Nor I of you," the inspector replied bluntly • Montalbano's gruesome discovery of a naked young woman suffocated in her bed immediately sets him on a search for her killer. Among the suspects are her aging husband, a famous doctor; a shy admirer, now disappeared; an antiques-dealing lover from Bologna; and the victim's friend Anna, whose charms Montalbano cannot help but appreciate

The Patience of the Spider is the eighth novel in Andrea Camilleri's wryly humorous Inspector Montalbano series • Chief Inspector Montalbano is on enforced sick leave. But when a local girl goes mysteriously missing, the whole community takes an interest in the case. Why are the kidnappers so sure that the girl's impoverished father and dying mother will be able to find a fortune? The ever-inquisitive Montalbano steps in, to get to the heart of the matter in his own inimitable style

Danielle Evans is widely acclaimed for her blisteringly smart voice and X-ray insights into complex human relationships. With The Office of Historical Corrections, Evans zooms in on particular moments and relationships in her characters’ lives in a way that allows them to speak to larger issues of race, culture, and history • We meet Black and multi-racial characters who are experiencing the universal confusions of lust and love, and getting walloped by grief – all while exploring how history haunts us, personally and collectively. Ultimately, she provokes us to think about the truths of American history – about who gets to tell them, and the cost of setting the record straight • In ‘Boys Go to Jupiter’ a white college student tries to reinvent herself after a photo of her in a Confederate-flag bikini goes viral