C.S. Lewis’s famous inspirational work on the nature of love. C.S. Lewis’s famous work on the nature of love divides love into four categories: Affection, Friendship, Eros and Charity. The first three are loves which come naturally to the human race. Charity, however, the Gift-love of God, is divine in its source and expression, and without the sweetening grace of this supernatural love, the natural loves become distorted and even dangerous.

The world's most famous detective returns in this ingenious, stylish, and altogether delicious mystery from the author of the instant bestseller The Monogram Murders ("I was thrilled" -- Gillian Flynn). "What I intend to say to you will come as a shock..." With these words, Lady Athelinda Playford -- one of the world's most beloved children's authors -- springs a surprise on the lawyer entrusted with her will. As guests arrive for a party at her Irish mansion, Lady Playford has decided to cut off her two children without a penny . . . and leave her vast fortune to someone else: an invalid who has only weeks to live. Among Lady Playford's visitors are two strangers: the famous Belgian detective Hercule Poirot, and Inspector Edward Catchpool of Scotland Yard. Neither knows why he has been invited -- until Poirot begins to wonder if Lady Playford expects a murder. But why does she seem so determined to provoke a killer? And why -- when the crime is committed despite Poirot's best efforts to stop it -- does the identity of the victim make no sense at all? Addictive, ferociously clever, and packed with clues, wit, and murder, Closed Casket is a triumph from the author whose work is "as tricky as anything written by Agatha Christie" (Alexander McCall Smith, The New York Times Book Review).

An exotic holiday for Miss Marple is ruined when a retired major is killed…

Agatha Christie’s ingenious murder mystery, reissued with a striking new cover designed to appeal to the latest generation of Agatha Christie fans and book lovers. Beautiful Caroline Crale was convicted of poisoning her husband, yet there were five other suspects: Philip Blake (the stockbroker) who went to market; Meredith Blake (the amateur herbalist) who stayed at home; Elsa Greer (the three-time divorcee) who had roast beef; Cecilia Williams (the devoted governess) who had none; and Angela Warren (the disfigured sister) who cried ‘wee wee wee’ all the way home. It is sixteen years later, but Hercule Poirot just can’t get that nursery rhyme out of his mind…

Agatha Christie’s audacious mystery thriller, reissued with a striking cover designed to appeal to the latest generation of Agatha Christie fans and book lovers.

Agatha Christie’s famous murder mystery, reissued with a striking new cover designed to appeal to the latest generation of Agatha Christie fans and book lovers. Poirot had been present when Jane bragged of her plan to ‘get rid of’ her estranged husband. Now the monstrous man was dead. And yet the great Belgian detective couldn’t help feeling that he was being taken for a ride. After all, how could Jane have stabbed Lord Edgware to death in his library at exactly the same time she was seen dining with friends? And what could be her motive now that the aristocrat had finally granted her a divorce?

An archaeologist’s wife is murdered on the shores of the River Tigris in Iraq… It was clear to Amy Leatheran that something sinister was going on at the Hassanieh dig in Iraq; something associated with the presence of ‘Lovely Louise’, wife of celebrated archaeologist Dr Leidner. In a few days’ time Hercule Poirot was due to drop in at the excavation site. But with Louise suffering from terrifying hallucinations, and tension within the group becoming almost unbearable, Poirot might just be too late…

Sauté your way through more than 100 hands-on recipes designed to prepare any server administrator to work with Windows Server 2016 About This Book Get the first book on the market to unleash the power of Windows Server 2016, which improves the lives of thousands of enterprise users Be the first to leverage the advent of Containers and Nano Server on Windows Server 2016, which utilizes the resources efficiently and increases productivity. This practical, recipe-based approach helps you to delivering global-scale cloud services into your infrastructure using Windows Server 2016 Who This Book Is For This book is for system administrators and IT professionals with experience in Windows Server 2012 R2 environments who are looking to acquire the skills and knowledge necessary to manage and maintain the core infrastructure required for a Windows Server 2016 environment. What You Will Learn Build the infrastructure required for a successful Windows network Navigate the new Server 2016 interface efficiently Implement solid networking and security practices into your Windows Server environment Design your own PKI and start issuing certificates today Explore the brand-new Nano Server functionality Enable nested virtualization on Hyper-V and Server Connect your remote laptops back to the corporate network using Microsoft's own remote access technologies, including DirectAccess Provide a centralized point for users to access applications and data by configuring Remote Desktop Services Compose optimal Group Policies Facilitate task automation with PowerShell 5.0 *ing In Detail This hands-on Cookbook is stuffed full of practical recipes that will help you handle the essential administrative tasks in Windows Server 2016. You’ll start by familiarizing yourself with the look and feel of Windows Server 2016, and will then learn how to navigate through some daily tasks using the graphical interface. You will see how to compose optimal Group Policies and facilitate task automation with PowerShell 5.0 *ing. We will also take a look at the functions available to provide remote network access to your traveling users, and explore the much anticipated Nano Server and Hyper-V built-in integration support that is brand new in Windows Server 2016. By the end of this book, you will know how to take your Windows Server 2016-powered server and turn it into any common infrastructure role that might be required in your company. Style and approach The book follows a recipe-based approach that starts with an introduction and the installation of Windows Server 2016, then dives into the powerful features, and then ends with the concept of security.

Gain the insights and techniques you need to give life to your own custom characters, machines, and scenes in Blender 3D About This Book Learn how to establish the basic shape of a character on the basis of templates, and take it to completion using the tools available in Blender Develop realistic and awesome machines for your 3D projects and animation films Discover advanced techniques by adding fur to a character, creating a grass field, and fine-tuning a shot with post-processing effects to enhance your creations Who This Book Is For This learning path is for those who know the basics of Blender and have hands-on experience with the software. We will directly dive into creating characters first. If you wish to use Blender to create games, animated films, and architecture simulations, this learning path will benefit you. What You Will Learn Use your sculpting skills to carve the character features from the mesh Find the best possible flow for your edge-loops to enhance the character features and to get the best possible range of deformation Mix both the Blender Internal and Cycles rendering engines in order to render materials as quickly as possible Know when and where to use various types of geometry—something that saves time in one instance will pose significant problems in another Create a 3D robot toy model from start to finish using the basic modeling tools of Blender Make a full alien character using the skin mesh modifier and the sculpting tools with an artistic approach Use re-topology techniques to create a clean 3D version of the previously sculpted alien Model a full haunted house and its environment using more advanced modeling tools and techniques such as the Array Modifier, Instance duplication, and Curves In Detail Blender 3D is one of the top 3D animation software available. As the Blender software grows more powerful and popular, there is a demand to take your modeling skills to the next level. This learning path is divided into three modules that will take you on this incredible journey of creating games. The first module will take you on a journey to understand the workflow normally used to create characters, from the modeling to the rendering stages, using the tools of the last official release of Blender exclusively. You will be making production-quality 3D models and characters quickly and efficiently, which will be ready to be added to your very own animated feature or game. The second module will help you develop a comprehensive skill set that covers the key aspects of mechanical modeling. You will create many types of projects, including a pistol, spacecraft, robot, and a racer. By the end of this module, you will have mastered a workflow that you will be able to apply to your own creations. The final module will help you to create many types of projects using a step-by-step approach. Each project in this module will give you more practice and increase your knowledge of the Blender tools and game engine. This learning path combines some of the best that Packt has to offer in one complete, curated package. It includes content from the following Packt products: Blender 3D Cookbook, Second Edition by Enrico Valenza Blender 3D Incredible Machines, Second Edition by Christopher Kuhn Blender 3D By Example by Romain Caudron and Pierre-Armand Nicq Style and approach This easy-to-follow course will teach you how to create complex 3D characters, create incredible machines, and put them together to create a 3D scene. Each topic is explained sequentially in the process of creating various models, and includes detailed explanations of the basic and advanced features.

Learn how to create mobile and full-stack web applications in JavaScript by getting a deeper insight into Meteor About This Book This step-by-step tutorial will show you how to build fast, complex web applications Over 65 hands-on recipes help you build and deploy elegant web applications Optimize your web application for production use Who This Book Is For If you are a web developer who is familiar with Meteor and has basic knowledge of web development, and you now want to explore new paradigms of single-page, real-time applications, this course is perfectly suited for you. What You Will Learn Secure your site with Meteor best practices Create reactive templates that update themselves when data changes Add routing to a single-page application and make it appear like a real website Make your own Meteor packages and see how to make them public Rapidly build robust, responsive user interfaces Publish your own reusable custom packages Optimize your site for load speed with advanced publishers and subscribers Master the intricacies of front-end development using Jeet, Bootstrap, CSS animations, and more Leverage the aggregation framework to produce results with big data Optimize your site for search engine visibility In Detail Meteor is best JavaScript development platform and is packed with collections of libraries and packages bound together in a tidy way to take care of everything from development to production, making your web development easier. This course follows a learning path divided into three modules. Each module is a mini course in its own right, taking your knowledge to a new level as you progress. The first module takes you from the installation of Meteor to building a fully working web blog (including back end) to create and edit posts. Your path will begin with the basic concepts and folder structure of a Meteor project, learning how Meteor templates work to test packages, and seeing the application itself. The second module is a cookbook that starts with simple recipes designed for quick reference, and culminating advanced recipes that walk you through building and deploying a complete application. The cookbook covers all the major areas of Meteor development, including lesser-known and undocumented features too. With all the important concepts covered in the previous modules, the third module will get you equipped with simple solutions to boost your development skills. You’ll learn about mapping of real-world data and optimizing it, how to optimize and secure web applications and how to deploy and maintain it without breaking its features. Throughout the module, you will put your skills into practice and build an online shop from scratch. This Learning Path combines some of the best that Packt has to offer in one complete, curated package. It includes content from the following Packt products: Building Single-page Web Apps with Meteor, Fabian Vogelsteller Meteor Cookbook, Isaac Strack Meteor Design Patterns, Marcelo Reyna Style and approach This practical handbook has a step-by-step approach to help you improve your developer skills and efficiently built web applications using Meteor.

60 practical recipes that help you gain expertise with Docker networking and understand the underlying constructs that make it all work About This Book Enhance your Docker networking skills and protect your organization using advanced networking functions Learn how to use third party tools to extend Docker networking This practical and recipe-based book demonstrates the different ways in which you can network containers leveraging the Docker engine. Who This Book Is For The book is for system administrators as well as developers who are well versed with the concepts of Docker and have basic knowledge of Docker networking. You should also have sound knowledge of networking in general. What You Will Learn Configure Linux networking primitives used by Docker networking Build and deploy user-defined Docker networks Examine the different options for resolving and linking containers Implement custom networks for Docker to consume Discover third-party networking plugins such as Weave and Flannel Work through solutions to secure Docker containers and networks Observe methodologies for troubleshooting container networks Explore advanced and experimental Docker networking features In Detail Networking functionality in Docker has changed considerably since its first release, evolving to offer a rich set of built-in networking features, as well as an extensible plugin model allowing for a wide variety of networking functionality. This book explores Docker networking capabilities from end to end. Begin by examining the building blocks used by Docker to implement fundamental containing networking before learning how to consume built-in networking constructs as well as custom networks you create on your own. Next, explore common third-party networking plugins, including detailed information on how these plugins inter-operate with the Docker engine. Consider available options for securing container networks, as well as a process for troubleshooting container connectivity. Finally, examine advanced Docker networking functions and their relevant use cases, tying together everything you need to succeed with your own projects. Style and approach This practical recipe-based book will take readers to next level of Docker networking. It covers relevant use cases and the advanced features of Docker

Build exhilarating gaming experiences using a wide range of game elements in Unity 5.x About This Book Achieve your goals in a fun-filled way by creating gamification projects from scratch Leverage the Unity 5.X toolkit to create stunning and appealing projects Make your transition towards a pro project manager/ developer by learning tricks and techniques Who This Book Is For If you are a project manager, game developer, or programmer who wants to create successful end-to-end gamification projects from scratch, then this is the book for you. You do not need any previous experience of working with Unity 5.X. All the details required to make the most of gamifying your projects are provided in the book. What You Will Learn Assess your learners’ abilities by setting up challenges and quests Implement the game elements that relate to the project into Unity Publish your own task management application to better engage readers Improve your design using methods of playtesting and iteration Issue OpenBadges to recognize achievements and set up an online database to store your users achievements. In Detail Are you looking at implementing gamification techniques for your business and wondering where to get a complete rundown of all the tricks and techniquesWell, you have come to the right place! This book will start right from the basics such as gameplay elements and their functionalities before gradually moving onto creating your first gamification project from scratch. You’ll be given the tools and shown how to perform various techniques for creating gamified applications in different contexts. Finally, you will implement various game elements into Unity, publish your own task management application, and get to know the best practices and approaches when designing gamified experiences. Style and approach This book takes a real-world case studies approach, moving ahead in a step-by-step tutorial manner. You will create your own project from scratch, and the practical examples will help you create a successful gamification project.

Fast-track your development skills to build powerful Odoo 10 business applications About This Book Get the most up-to-date guide on Odoo 10 and learn how to build excellent business applications with Odoo This example-rich, easy-to-follow guide enables you to build apps appropriate to your business needs Create solid business applications with the help of this precise, to-the-point guide Who This Book Is For This book caters to developers who are familiar with Python and MVC design and now want to build effective business applications using Odoo. What You Will Learn Install Odoo from source code and use all the basic techniques to setup and manage your Odoo server instances Create your first Odoo application Add Odoo's social and messaging features to your own modules Get to know the essentials of Models and Views Understand and use the server API to add business logic Use Qweb to create custom Reports Extend Odoo CMS features to create your own website controllers and pages Leverage Odoo Workflows on your applications Write module automated tests and debugging techniques Deploy your Odoo applications for production use In Detail Odoo is one of the fastest growing open source, business application development software products available. With announcement of Odoo 10, there are many new features added to Odoo and the face of business applications developed with Odoo has changed. This book will not only teach you how to build and customize business applications with Odoo, but it also covers all the new features that Odoo has to offer. This book is the latest resource on developing and customizing Odoo 10 applications. It comes packed with much more and refined content than its predecessor. It will start with building business applications from scratch and will cover topics such as module extensions, inheritance, working with data, user interfaces, and so on. The book also covers the latest features of Odoo 10, in addition to front end development, testing and debugging techniques. The book will also talk about Odoo Community and Odoo Enterprise. Style and approach This book follows a step-by-step practical approach where you will learn new concepts with every progressing chapter and create apps for business development.

Create powerful, effective visualizations to help analyze your data with Tableau 10 by your side About This Book Cook your favorite Tableau 10 business intelligence recipe with the help of this easy-to-follow book Build beautiful, interactive dashboards and visualizations in Tableau 10 that help you make informed decisions This rich collection of independent recipes cover everything needed to become an advanced Tableau user and get an edge over other Tableau users Who This Book Is For This book is targeted to business, data, and analytics professionals who want to build rich interactive visualizations using Tableau. Familiarity with previous versions of Tableau would be helpful, but is not necessary. What You Will Learn Become familiar with the Tableau interface Build basic to more advanced charts with step-by-step recipes Use filters, calculated fields, parameters, and actions to add interactivity to charts and dashboards Prepare and transform data for analysis using Tableau’s built-in tools and functions Create effective and compelling dashboards and story points Leverage Tableau’s mapping capabilities to visualize location and shape data Integrate analytics and forecasting to enhance data analysis Get to know tips and tricks to work more quickly and effectively in Tableau Increase your confidence and competence in creating rich, interactive visualizations in Tableau In Detail Tableau is a software tool that can speed up data analysis through its rich visualization capabilities, and help uncover insights for better and smarter decision making. This book is for the business, technology, data and analytics professionals who use and analyze data and data-driven approaches to support business operations and strategic initiatives in their organizations. This book provides easy-to-follow recipes to get the reader up and running with Tableau 10, and covers basic to advanced use cases and scenarios. The book starts with building basic charts in Tableau and moves on to building more complex charts by incorporating different Tableau features and interactivity components. There is an entire chapter dedicated to dashboard techniques and best practices. A number of recipes specifically for geospatial visualization, analytics, and data preparation are also covered. By the end of this book, you’ll have gained confidence and competence to analyze and communicate data and insights more efficiently and effectively by creating compelling interactive charts, dashboards, and stories in Tableau. Style and approach This book is a collection of independent recipes that cover a wide range of options for data visualization on offer with Tableau. With the help of the recipes in this book, you can explore Tableau and pick the business intelligence solution that’s best suited for your needs.

Learn how to apply functional F# design patterns to a huge range of programming challenges, and discover a smart route to building better applications About This Book This book provides a path if you are coming from imperative and object-oriented paradigms It will take you to an intermediate level of functional programming in very practical manner to write enterprise-quality idiomatic F# code Tackle complex computing problems with simple code by fully embracing the functional-first F# paradigm Packed full of practical coding examples to help you master F# programming and author optimal code Who This Book Is For This book is for .NET developers, web programmers, C# developers, and F# developers. So, if you have basic experience in F# programming and developing performance-critical applications, then this book is for you. What You Will Learn Acquire the practical knowledge to use the main functional design patterns Realign some imperative and object-oriented principles under the functional approach Develop your confidence in building and combining first-order and higher-order functions Learn to use core language pattern matching effectively Make use of native F# algebraic data types in place of custom-built classes Recognize and measure the difference in resource consumption between sequences and materialized data collections Navigate and use F# Core libraries with ease by seeing patterns behind specific library functions Master writing generic polymorphic code In Detail Following design patterns is a well-known approach to writing better programs that captures and reuses high-level abstractions that are common in many applications. This book will encourage you to develop an idiomatic F# coding skillset by fully embracing the functional-first F# paradigm. It will also help you harness this powerful instrument to write succinct, bug-free, and cross-platform code. F# 4.0 Design Patterns will start off by helping you develop a functional way of thinking. We will show you how beneficial the functional-first paradigm is and how to use it to get the optimum results. The book will help you acquire the practical knowledge of the main functional design patterns, the relationship of which with the traditional Gang of Four set is not straightforward. We will take you through pattern matching, immutable data types, and sequences in F#. We will also uncover advanced functional patterns, look at polymorphic functions, typical data crunching techniques, adjusting code through augmentation, and generalization. Lastly, we will take a look at the advanced techniques to equip you with everything you need to write flawless code. Style and approach This book will teach you how to write F# code in an idiomatic functional-first manner, thereby improving the productivity of F# programmers. This book is ideal for an F# programmer who wants using F# in functional-first way.

The Sunday Times Number 1 Bestseller ‘A fabulous story, superbly told … cannot be bettered’ Max Hastings ‘Some battles change nothing. Waterloo changed almost everything.’ On the 18th June 1815 the armies of France, Britain and Prussia descended upon a quiet valley south of Brussels. In the previous three days the French army had beaten the British at Quatre-Bras and the Prussians at Ligny. The Allies were in retreat. The blood-soaked battle of Waterloo would become a landmark in European history, to be examined over and again, not least because until the evening of the 18th, the French army was close to prevailing on the battlefield. Now, brought to life by the celebrated novelist Bernard Cornwell, this is the chronicle of the four days leading up to the actual battle and a thrilling hour-by-hour account of that fateful day. In his first work of non-fiction, Cornwell combines his storytelling skills with a meticulously researched history to give a riveting account of every dramatic moment, from Napoleon’s escape from Elba to the smoke and gore of the battlefields. Through letters and diaries he also sheds new light on the private thoughts of Napoleon and the Duke of Wellington, as well as the ordinary officers and soldiers. Published to coincide with the bicentenary in 2015, Waterloo is a tense and gripping story of heroism and tragedy – and of the final battle that determined the fate of Europe.

Build key business relationships Collins Small Talk gives you the confidence to start a conversation and transition into bigger conversation topics so that you are able to build relationships, develop business partnerships and be successful in business. Learn the language to: ? Meet people for the first time ? Greet people in subsequent meetings ? Show and receive hospitality ? Deal with remote communication ? End a conversation The book includes information on best practice and key phrases for students to refer to and practise saying out loud using online audio. Online audio also includes good and bad examples of authentic recordings of small talk for learners to listen to and assess. Suitable for students whose level of English is Intermediate / CEF level B1 and higher. Small Talk is part of Collins’ English for Business range of materials to help business people who need to use English frequently in their work. It is designed for people who are about to or already work for a foreign or multinational company, deal with overseas customers or travel for business. Other titles in the Collins English for Business range: Reading ? Writing ? Listening ? Speaking ? Key Business Skills ? Business Grammar & Practice ? Business Vocabulary in Practice ? Effective International Business Communication

The fascinating third companion novel to THE GIVER which inspired the dystopian genre and is soon to be a major motion picture starring Jeff Bridges, Katie Holmes and Taylor Swift.

*Winner of the Irish Popular Fiction Book of the Year* A thoughtful, captivating and ultimately uplifting novel from this uniquely talented author Jasmine loves two things: her sister and her work. And when her work is taken away she has no idea who she is. Matt loves two things: his family and the booze. Without them, he hits rock bottom. One New Year’s Eve, two people’s paths collide. Both have time on their hands; both are at a crossroads. But as the year unfolds, through moonlit nights and suburban days, an unlikely friendship slowly starts to blossom. Sometimes you have to stop still in order to move on… Original and poignant, The Year I Met You will make you laugh, cry and celebrate life.

A personal and powerful essay from Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, the bestselling author of Americanah and Half of a Yellow Sun, based on her 2013 TEDx Talk of the same name.

Ex-slave. Philosopher. Chosen one. Taita has risen from nothing to become the most trusted man at the Pharaoh’s side. Only he can plot a mission that will return Egypt to its former glory. Only he can muster the force that can break the back of Egypt’s greatest enemy. On the banks of the Nile, a hero will rise. Across the lush plains of Egypt, Taita, a freed eunuch slave, wears his authority lightly. Not only is he the close advisor to the Pharaoh, but he is guardian to Pharaoh Tamose’s two teenage sisters, the young beauties Tehuti and Bekatha. But the kingdom is not at peace. They have been fighting Southern Egypt’s constant and historic enemy, the Hyksos people in the north, since time began. To finally crush them, Pharaoh must turn to his most trusted friend. Taita, philosopher, poet and expert strategist, has a plan that will see Egypt destroy the Hyksos army and form a coveted alliance with Crete in one move. This plan will take him, his expedition commander Zaras, and their mighty warriors on a perilous journey up the Nile, through Arabia to the magical city of Babylon, then across the open seas to Crete. The many dangers will cost lives and time, and they will meet battle and betrayal head on. But Taita must not forget his two charges, the spirited young princesses, whose attraction to the very warriors who lead the fight threatens Taita’s meticulous plan and the future of Egypt itself.