The Accidental Countryside


Book Description

'A superb naturalist and writer.' CHRIS PACKHAM 'From Stone Age remains to modern day skyscrapers, Stephen Moss takes us on an exhilarating journey through place and time, providing a fascinating insight into nature's relationship with environments created by man.' DR MYA-ROSE CRAIG (BIRDGIRL) Welcome to The Accidental Countryside. This is the fascinating and remarkably empowering story of our influence upon the landscape and wildlife of these crowded islands, and of how wildlife has co-opted its most unlikely corners - even when we least expected it. From the seabirds sheltering in the prehistoric stone structures of Shetland to the peat diggings in Somerset teeming with life, and from the rare insects hidden in Belfast's docklands to the falcons that make London's Shard their home, Stephen Moss reveals the unexpected oases which foster the crucial links in the chain that bind the natural world together.




The Accidental Engagement


Book Description

An American playboy’s PR crisis leads to a fake engagement and a peculiar love triangle in Italy in this contemporary romance series debut. Oops . . . It started as a regular night for New York City restaurant hostess Ivy Sinclair, until a rowdy customer turned out to be world famous playboy Jack Everett. Thanks to the paparazzi, now the world thinks they’re a couple—which couldn’t be farther from the truth. But when a brooding, sexy businessman offers her a simply irresistible proposition . . . Uh oh . . . Just when cutthroat venture capitalist Daniel Gladwell thought he’d never close the deal with an Italian conglomerate, a simple mistake becomes the perfect opportunity. All he has to do is convince Ivy to pretend to be Jack’s fiancée while on a business trip to Italy to offset Jack’s bad boy reputation. As long as Daniel doesn’t sabotage the plan by claiming the tempting waitress for himself . . . Oh yes! It was supposed to be a business only arrangement. But in the magic of the Tuscan countryside, neither Ivy nor Daniel can fight the attraction building between them. In the world’s most romantic setting, the line between business and pleasure is one that begs to be crossed . . .




The Accidental Empire


Book Description

The untold story, based on groundbreaking original research, of the actions and inactions that created the Israeli settlements in the occupied territories After Israeli troops defeated the armies of Egypt, Syria, and Jordan in June 1967, the Jewish state seemed to have reached the pinnacle of success. But far from being a happy ending, the Six-Day War proved to be the opening act of a complex political drama, in which the central issue became: Should Jews build settlements in the territories taken in that war? The Accidental Empire is Gershom Gorenberg's masterful and gripping account of the strange birth of the settler movement, which was the child of both Labor Party socialism and religious extremism. It is a dramatic story featuring the giants of Israeli history—Moshe Dayan, Golda Meir, Levi Eshkol, Yigal Allon—as well as more contemporary figures like Ariel Sharon, Yitzhak Rabin, and Shimon Peres. Gorenberg also shows how the Johnson, Nixon, and Ford administrations turned a blind eye to what was happening in the territories, and reveals their strategic reasons for doing so. Drawing on newly opened archives and extensive interviews, Gorenberg reconstructs what the top officials knew and when they knew it, while weaving in the dramatic first-person accounts of the settlers themselves. Fast-moving and penetrating, The Accidental Empire casts the entire enterprise in a new and controversial light, calling into question much of what we think we know about this issue that continues to haunt the Middle East.




Accidental Journey


Book Description

During the early years of World War II, the author—a German Jew from a privileged background—was suddenly catapulted from his idyllic student elite life at Cambridge into a turbulent seven-year odyssey in an internment camp.




The Unofficial Countryside


Book Description

During the early 1970s Richard Mabey explored crumbling city docks and overgrown bomb-sites, navigated inner city canals and car parks, and discovered there was scarcely a nook in our urban landscape incapable of supporting life. The Unofficial Countryside is a timely reminder of how nature flourishes against the odds, surviving in the most obscure and surprising places. First published 1973 by William Collins Sons & Co.




Death in the English Countryside


Book Description

Even quaint and cozy English villages have a dark side . . . Location scout and Jane Austen aficionado, Kate Sharp, is thrilled when the company she works for lands the job of finding locations for a new film adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, but then her boss fails to return from a scouting trip to England. Kate travels to England to salvage the company’s reputation. Things go from bad to worse when Kate arrives in Nether Woodsmoor, a quaint village of golden stone cottages and rolling green hills, only to find no trace of her boss. Even the rumpled, easygoing local scout they consulted, Alex, doesn’t know where he might be. Increasingly worried about her boss and with an antsy director waiting for updates about the preproduction details, Kate embarks on a search that includes a pub-crawl and cozy cottages as well as stately country manors. But with no sign of her boss, she begins to suspect that the picturesque village and beautiful countryside may not be as idyllic as they seem. Death in the English Countryside is the first installment of the popular Murder on Location cozy mystery series from USA Today bestseller Sara Rosett. MURDER ON LOCATION SERIES: Book One - Death in the English Countryside Book Two - Death in an English Cottage Book Three - Death in a Stately Home Book Four - Death in an Elegant City Book Five - Menace at the Christmas Market (Novella) Book Six - Death in an English Garden Book Seven - Death at an English Wedding Have you read Sara Rosett’s other mystery series? If you like historical mysteries with lady detectives, check out the HIGH SOCIETY LADY DETECTIVE mystery series. If you like travel with your mystery, check out the ON THE RUN INTERNATIONAL MYSTERIES.




An Illustrated Country Year


Book Description

"A charming and informative anthology of nature through the year." -- cover, p. [4].




Adventure Lit Their Star


Book Description




Aster and the Accidental Magic


Book Description

A fun, action-packed fantasy adventure about a girl, her dog, and magic gone wrong! Quiet . . . birds . . . nature. . . . That's what Aster expects when her parents move their whole family to the middle of nowhere. It's just her (status: super-bored), her mom and dad (status: busy with science), her brother (status: has other plans), and . . . . . . magic? In her new home, Aster meets a mysterious old woman with a herd of dogs who gives her a canine companion of her own. But when she and her dog Buzz are adventuring in the forest, they run into a trickster spirit who gives Aster three wishes. After wishing for the ability to understand and talk to her dog, she becomes only able to talk in dog language . . . and the trouble she gets into is just starting. Maybe the middle of nowhere will be more interesting than Aster thought. "Crisp, vibrant artwork." -The AV Club




The Accidental Empress


Book Description

*NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * Discover the “captivating, absorbing, and beautifully told” (Kathleen Grissom) love story of Sisi, the Austro-Hungarian empress and wife of Emperor Franz Joseph—perfect for fans of the Netflix series The Empress! The year is 1853, and the Habsburgs are Europe’s most powerful ruling family. With his empire stretching from Austria to Russia, from Germany to Italy, Emperor Franz Joseph is young, rich, and ready to marry. Fifteen-year-old Elisabeth, “Sisi,” Duchess of Bavaria, travels to the Habsburg Court with her older sister, who is betrothed to the young emperor. But shortly after her arrival at court, Sisi finds herself in an unexpected dilemma: she has inadvertently fallen for and won the heart of her sister’s groom. Franz Joseph reneges on his earlier proposal and declares his intention to marry Sisi instead. Thrust onto the throne of Europe’s most treacherous imperial court, Sisi upsets political and familial loyalties in her quest to win, and keep, the love of her emperor, her people, and of the world. With Pataki’s rich period detail and cast of complex, bewitching characters, The Accidental Empress offers “another absolutely compelling story” (Mary Higgins Clark) with this glimpse into one of history’s most intriguing royal families, shedding new light on the glittering Hapsburg Empire and its most mesmerizing, most beloved “Fairy Queen.”