In April 1860, Dr. Ryder Cole returns home from his studies, sure of his abilities and on fire to serve his country and preserve the Union. A panther attack threatens to cut his life short until a young woman with a rifle and a sure-shot eye appears out of the mist. Then she disappears, returning as Tom Boyde, his comrade throughout America’s Civil War, and as Diana, met in a Washington D.C. whore house. The seven Aprils from 1860 to 1866 tell their tale of love and war, sex and friendship. And the price of crossing gender lines.
The Newbery Award-winning author of Up a Road Slowly presents the unforgettable story of Jethro Creighton—a brave boy who comes of age during the turbulent years of the Civil War. In 1861, America is on the cusp of war, and young Jethro Creighton is just nine-years-old. His brother, Tom, and his cousin, Eb, are both of fighting age. As Jethro's family is pulled into the conflict between the North and the South, loyalties are divided, dreams are threatened, and their bonds are put to the test in this heart-wrenching, coming of age story. “Drawing from family records and from stories told by her grandfather, the author has, in an uncommonly fine narrative, created living characters and vividly reconstructed a crucial period of history.”—Booklist
From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Anathem, Reamde, and Cryptonomicon comes an exciting and thought-provoking science fiction epic—a grand story of annihilation and survival spanning five thousand years. What would happen if the world were ending? A catastrophic event renders the earth a ticking time bomb. In a feverish race against the inevitable, nations around the globe band together to devise an ambitious plan to ensure the survival of humanity far beyond our atmosphere, in outer space. But the complexities and unpredictability of human nature coupled with unforeseen challenges and dangers threaten the intrepid pioneers, until only a handful of survivors remain . . . Five thousand years later, their progeny—seven distinct races now three billion strong—embark on yet another audacious journey into the unknown . . . to an alien world utterly transformed by cataclysm and time: Earth. A writer of dazzling genius and imaginative vision, Neal Stephenson combines science, philosophy, technology, psychology, and literature in a magnificent work of speculative fiction that offers a portrait of a future that is both extraordinary and eerily recognizable. As he did in Anathem, Cryptonomicon, the Baroque Cycle, and Reamde, Stephenson explores some of our biggest ideas and perplexing challenges in a breathtaking saga that is daring, engrossing, and altogether brilliant.
Simple text describes what it can be like to commit the seven deadly sins, such as greed being followed by an empty feeling, and to live seven virtues, such as knowing that God will make things better when one has hope.
This all-new, in-continuity Wonder Comics sensation explodes as all the secrets of these heroesÑRobin, Superboy, Wonder Girl, Jinny Hex, Teen Lantern, Amethyst and ImpulseÑare revealed! Young Justice forms once againÑjust in time to battle the great Dark Opal and stop his plans for an invasion of Earth that could destroy humanity. ItÕs a big, bold new chapter into the future of the DC Universe!
Data is getting bigger and more complex by the day, and so are your choices in handling it. Explore some of the most cutting-edge databases available - from a traditional relational database to newer NoSQL approaches - and make informed decisions about challenging data storage problems. This is the only comprehensive guide to the world of NoSQL databases, with in-depth practical and conceptual introductions to seven different technologies: Redis, Neo4J, CouchDB, MongoDB, HBase, Postgres, and DynamoDB. This second edition includes a new chapter on DynamoDB and updated content for each chapter. While relational databases such as MySQL remain as relevant as ever, the alternative, NoSQL paradigm has opened up new horizons in performance and scalability and changed the way we approach data-centric problems. This book presents the essential concepts behind each database alongside hands-on examples that make each technology come alive. With each database, tackle a real-world problem that highlights the concepts and features that make it shine. Along the way, explore five database models - relational, key/value, columnar, document, and graph - from the perspective of challenges faced by real applications. Learn how MongoDB and CouchDB are strikingly different, make your applications faster with Redis and more connected with Neo4J, build a cluster of HBase servers using cloud services such as Amazon's Elastic MapReduce, and more. This new edition brings a brand new chapter on DynamoDB, updated code samples and exercises, and a more up-to-date account of each database's feature set. Whether you're a programmer building the next big thing, a data scientist seeking solutions to thorny problems, or a technology enthusiast venturing into new territory, you will find something to inspire you in this book. What You Need: You'll need a *nix shell (Mac OS or Linux preferred, Windows users will need Cygwin), Java 6 (or greater), and Ruby 1.8.7 (or greater). Each chapter will list the downloads required for that database.
