这本《从零开始学日语，这本就够》满足了初学者的所有要求。不仅封面大方美观，内容更是丰富多彩。从基础的“五十音图”入门，到日常生活、青春校园、职场风云、诗歌、歌词等，几乎涵盖了所有你能想到的，以及你若是有机会去日本旅游生活或是工作能够用到的所有方面。

Master the art of getting the maximum out of your machine data using Splunk About This Book A practical and comprehensive guide to the advanced functions of Splunk,, including the new features of Splunk 6.3 Develop and manage your own Splunk apps for greater insight from your machine data Full coverage of high-level Splunk techniques including advanced searches, manipulations, and visualization Who This Book Is For This book is for Splunk developers looking to learn advanced strategies to deal with big data from an enterprise architectural perspective. It is expected that readers have a basic understanding and knowledge of using Splunk Enterprise. What You Will Learn Find out how to develop and manage apps in Splunk Work with important search commands to perform data analytics on uploaded data Create visualizations in Splunk Explore tweaking Splunk Integrate Splunk with any pre-existing application to perform data crunching efficiently and in real time Make your big data speak with analytics and visualizations using Splunk Use SDK and Enterprise integration with tools such as R and Tableau In Detail Master the power of Splunk and learn the advanced strategies to get the most out of your machine data with this practical advanced guide. Make sense of the hidden data of your organization – the insight of your servers, devices, logs, traffic and clouds. Advanced Splunk shows you how. Dive deep into Splunk to find the most efficient solution to your data problems. Create the robust Splunk solutions you need to make informed decisions in big data machine analytics. From visualizations to enterprise integration, this well-organized high level guide has everything you need for Splunk mastery. Start with a complete overview of all the new features and advantages of the latest version of Splunk and the Splunk Environment. Go hands on with uploading data, search commands for basic and advanced analytics, advanced visualization techniques, and dashboard customizing. Discover how to tweak Splunk to your needs, and get a complete on Enterprise Integration of Splunk with various analytics and visualization tools. Finally, discover how to set up and use all the new features of the latest version of Splunk. Style and approach This book follows a step by step approach. Every new concept is built on top of its previous chapter, and it is full of examples and practical scenarios to help the reader experiment as they read.

Master the art of building dynamic, modern web applications with React About This Book Learn the hot new frontend web framework from Facebook – ReactJS, an easy way of developing the V in MVC and a better approach to software engineering in JavaScript A fast-paced guide to designing and building scalable and maintainable web apps with React.js Learn all the new ES6 features and be among the most prominent JavaScript developers who can write efficient JS programs as per the latest standards Master the art of building modern web applications using React Learn to build modern native iOS and Android applications using JavaScript and the incredible power of React Who This Book Is For This course is for web developers that want to unlock high performance dynamism in the applications that they create. If you want a comprehensive journey into one of the most important JavaScript frameworks around today, dive into this course. What You Will Learn Take control of the front end with reactive JavaScript programming Discover what ReactJS offers your development - before mastering it Create React elements with properties and children Use JSX to speed up your React development process Test your React components with the Jest test framework Learn the latest syntax of ES6 Execute ES6 in a non-supported ES6 environment Learn the principles of object-oriented programming Create a complete single-page application Use an application design plan to write smarter, more meaningful code Learn how to use animations to give extra style to your application Get to grips with the React Native environment Write your own custom native UI components Integrate native modules in Objective-C and Java that interact with JavaScript In Detail ReactJS has helped to transform the web as we know it. Designed by Facebook to help developers build rapid, responsive UI that can deal with data-intensive usage, it’s an essential component in any web developer’s skillset. This ReactJS course, in five connected modules, provides you with a fast, engaging and practical route into ReactJS—so you can build powerful, elegant, and modern web applications. Beginning with the Reactive Programming with JavaScript module, you will learn how to take advantage of a reactive and functional programming paradigm to rethink how you approach your JavaScript code. It’s built to help you understand the concepts, relevant and applicable for any frontend developer. You’ll then dive a little deeper into ReactJS. The second module gives you a rapid look through the fundamentals of ReactJS, showing you how to build a basic application and demonstrating how to implement the Flux architecture. In the third module you will get to grips with ES6—this will make you a more fluent JavaScript developer, giving you control over ReactJS. You can put your old JavaScript hacks aside and instead explore how to create ES6 custom iterators. In the final two modules you’ll learn how to fully master ReactJS, exploring its wider ecosystem of tools that have helped to make it one of the most important tools in web development today. Ending with insights and guidance on React Native, the tool built for today’s demand for native, intuitive user experiences and interfaces, with this course you can be confident in building dynamic and modern apps with React. Style and approach Consisting of five separate modules, journey from the fundamentals of reactive programming to the exciting possibilities of React Native. Each module builds on each other, helping you to incrementally develop your skills and knowledge.

Master the art of making Docker more extensible, composable, and modular by leveraging plugins and other supporting tools About This Book Get the first book on the market that shows you how to extend the capabilities of Docker using plugins and third-party tools Master the skills of creating various plugins and integrating great tools in order to enhance the functionalities of Docker A practical and learning guide that ensures your investment in Docker becomes more valuable Who This Book Is For This book is for developers and sys admins who are well versed Docker and have knowledge on basic programming languages. If you can’t wait to extend Docker and customize it to meet your requirements, this is the book for you! What You Will Learn Find out about Docker plugins and the problems they solve Gain insights into creating your own plugin Use Docker tools to extend the basic functionality of the core Docker engine Get to grips with the installation and configuration of third-party tools available to use with Docker plugins Install, configure, and use a scheduling service to manage the containers in your environment Enhance your day-to-day Docker usage through security, troubleshooting, and best practices In Detail With Docker, it is possible to get a lot of apps running on the same old servers, making it very easy to package and ship programs. The ability to extend Docker using plugins and load third-party plugins is incredible, and organizations can massively benefit from it. In this book, you will read about what first and third party tools are available to extend the functionality of your existing Docker installation and how to approach your next Docker infrastructure deployment. We will show you how to work with Docker plugins, install it, and cover its lifecycle. We also cover network and volume plugins, and you will find out how to build your own plugin. You’ll discover how to integrate it with Puppet, Ansible, Jenkins, Flocker, Rancher, Packer, and more with third-party plugins. Then, you’ll see how to use Schedulers such as Kubernetes and Amazon ECS. Finally, we’ll delve into security, troubleshooting, and best practices when extending Docker. By the end of this book, you will learn how to extend Docker and customize it based on your business requirements with the help of various tools and plugins. Style and approach An easy to follow guide with plenty of hands-on practical examples which can be executed both on your local machine or externally hosted services.

Create a fascinating 3D printing-ready puzzle in no time! About This Book Learn how to design a 3D printable model from an existing physical object Rekindle your mathematical mind to design perfectly interlocking complex pieces of a puzzle Personalize the puzzle’s design with a photo or shape of your own choice Who This Book Is For The book is meant for fairly advanced 3D printing designers who know their way around Blender, and know how to print out basic shapes. What You Will Learn Design, manipulate, and export 3D models for 3D printing with Blender Master the art from creating meshes, scaling, subdivision, and adding detail with the Boolean modifier to sculpting a custom shape Cut a model into small pieces and learn to design complex interlocking joints In Detail Jigsaw puzzles derive their name from when they were cut from wood sheets using a hand-woodworking tool called a jig saw back in the 1760s. Have you ever wondered how a model idea for a jigsaw puzzle is articulated, and how it was made with these traditional toolsThrough this book, you will master the techniques of designing simple to complex puzzles models for 3D printing. We will quickly introduce you to some simple and effective principles of designing 3D printed objects using Blender. Through the course of the book, you'll explore various robust sculpting methods supported by Blender that allow you to edit objects with actions such as bends or curves, similar to drawing or building up a clay structure of different shapes and sizes. Finally, when the model is sculpted, you'll learn some methods to cut the model and carve out multiple pieces of perfectly-fitting edges of different geometries to complete the puzzle. Style and approach This practical guide explores the union of 3D printing techniques and working with Blender to create intuitive puzzle designs. With a step-by-step approach, you'll learn to use Blender’s shape editing tools to make a basic puzzle shape and combine that with the sculpted model to create the final piece for 3D printing.

Create fast, scalable, and high performance applications with C#, ASP.NET Core 1.0, and MVC 6 About This Book Learn the importance of measuring, profiling, and locating the most impactful problems Discover the common areas you might encounter performance problems and areas you don’t need to worry about Understand the differences between development workstations and production infrastructure and how these can amplify problems Design workflows that run asynchronously and are resilient to transient performance issues Who This Book Is For This book is for ASP.NET and C# developers who have experience with the MVC framework for web application development and are looking to deploy applications that will perform well in live production environments. These could be virtual machines or hosted by a cloud service provider such as AWS or Azure. What You Will Learn Why performance matters and when it should be considered Use different tools to measure performance Spot common performance issues, their root causes, and how to easily mitigate them Improve performance at the network level and I/O level, and how to optimize the application as a whole Work with caching and message queuing tools, including patterns and strategies Discover the dark side of performance improvement and find out how to manage complexity Monitor performance as part of continuous integration and regression testing Assess and solve performance issues with other advanced technologies In Detail ASP.NET Core is the new, open source, and cross-platform, web-application framework from Microsoft. It's a stripped down version of ASP.NET that's lightweight and fast. This book will show you how to make your web apps deliver high performance when using it. We'll address many performance improvement techniques from both a general web standpoint and from a C#, ASP.NET Core, and .NET Core perspective. This includes delving into the latest frameworks and demonstrating software design patterns that improve performance. We will highlight common performance pitfalls, which can often occur unnoticed on developer workstations, along with strategies to detect and resolve these issues early. By understanding and addressing challenges upfront, you can avoid nasty surprises when it comes to deployment time. We will introduce performance improvements along with the trade-offs that they entail. We will strike a balance between premature optimization and inefficient code by taking a scientific- and evidence-based approach. We'll remain pragmatic by focusing on the big problems. By reading this book, you'll learn what problems can occur when web applications are deployed at scale and know how to avoid or mitigate these issues. You'll gain experience of how to write high-performance applications without having to learn about issues the hard way. You'll see what's new in ASP.NET Core, why it's been rebuilt from the ground up, and what this means for performance. You will understand how you can now develop on and deploy to Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux using cross-platform tools, such as Visual Studio Code. Style and approach Starting with a drill down into the nuts and bolts of various performance parameters, you will get an understanding of the ASP.NET MVC 6 framework with the help of rich code-based examples that will equip you to build highly scalable and optimized applications.

Get to grips with 3D printing and learn to model designs using Blender About This Book From the author who brought you the first practical look at 3D printing with 3D Printing Blueprints Get a comprehensive coverage of the prototyping techniques you need to know to start printing your own 3D designs Rekindle your mathematical genius to design personalized objects for complex puzzles Who This Book Is For If you’re new to the world of 3D printing, this is the book for you. Some basic knowledge of Blender and geometry would be helpful, but is not necessary. What You Will Learn Get to know about the different types of 3D printers and their limitations See how Y, H, and T shapes illustrate different ideas of successful 3D design for home 3D printers Set up and configure Blender to model a file for 3D printing Understand material characteristics, printing specifications, tolerances, and design tips Work through the techniques of editing complex meshes, smoothing, combining shapes, and exporting them into STL files for printing Break down complex geometries into multiple simple shapes and model them in layers using Blender Design, manipulate, and export 3D models for 3D printing with Blender Master the art of creating meshes, scaling, subdivision, and adding detail with the Boolean modifier as well as sculpting a custom shape Cut a model into small pieces and understand how to design complex interlocking joints that form a part of a jigsaw puzzle In Detail 3D printing has revolutionized the way that global industries conceptualize and design products for mass consumption. Considered as the next “trillion-dollar” business, every industry is in the race to equip its personnel with techniques to prototype and simplify complex manufacturing process. This book will take you through some simple to complex and effective principles of designing 3D printed objects using Blender. There is a comprehensive coverage of projects such as a 3D print-ready octopus pencil holder, which will teach you how to add basic geometric shapes, and use techniques such as extruding and subdividing to transform these shapes into complex meshes. Furthermore, you’ll learn to use various techniques to derive measurements for an object, model these objects using Blender, organize the parts into layers, and later combine them to create the desired object with the help of a 3D printable SD card holder ring design project. The final project will help you master the techniques of designing simple to complex puzzles models for 3D printing. Through the course of the book, we'll explore various robust sculpting methods supported by Blender to create objects. You’ll move, rotate, and scale the object, and manipulate the view. You’ll edit objects with actions such as bends or curves, similar to drawing or building up a clay structure of different shapes and sizes. By the end of the book, you will have gained thorough practical hands-on experience to be able to create a real-world 3D printable object of your choice. Style and approach This is a hands-on guide to the world of 3D printing. With the help of simple to complex projects, you'll learn various techniques to design 3D printable objects using Blender.

Advance your skills in efficient data analysis and data processing using the powerful tools of Scala, Spark, and Hadoop About This Book This is a primer on functional-programming-style techniques to help you efficiently process and analyze all of your data Get acquainted with the best and newest tools available such as Scala, Spark, Parquet and MLlib for machine learning Learn the best practices to incorporate new Big Data machine learning in your data-driven enterprise to gain future scalability and maintainability Who This Book Is For Mastering Scala Machine Learning is intended for enthusiasts who want to plunge into the new pool of emerging techniques for machine learning. Some familiarity with standard statistical techniques is required. What You Will Learn Sharpen your functional programming skills in Scala using REPL Apply standard and advanced machine learning techniques using Scala Get acquainted with Big Data technologies and grasp why we need a functional approach to Big Data Discover new data structures, algorithms, approaches, and habits that will allow you to work effectively with large amounts of data Understand the principles of supervised and unsupervised learning in machine learning Work with unstructured data and serialize it using Kryo, Protobuf, Avro, and AvroParquet Construct reliable and robust data pipelines and manage data in a data-driven enterprise Implement scalable model monitoring and alerts with Scala In Detail Since the advent of object-oriented programming, new technologies related to Big Data are constantly popping up on the market. One such technology is Scala, which is considered to be a successor to Java in the area of Big Data by many, like Java was to C/C++ in the area of distributed programing. This book aims to take your knowledge to next level and help you impart that knowledge to build advanced applications such as social media mining, intelligent news portals, and more. After a quick refresher on functional programming concepts using REPL, you will see some practical examples of setting up the development environment and tinkering with data. We will then explore working with Spark and MLlib using k-means and decision trees. Most of the data that we produce today is unstructured and raw, and you will learn to tackle this type of data with advanced topics such as regression, classification, integration, and working with graph algorithms. Finally, you will discover at how to use Scala to perform complex concept analysis, to monitor model performance, and to build a model repository. By the end of this book, you will have gained expertise in performing Scala machine learning and will be able to build complex machine learning projects using Scala. Style and approach This hands-on guide dives straight into implementing Scala for machine learning without delving much into mathematical proofs or validations. There are ample code examples and tricks that will help you sail through using the standard techniques and libraries. This book provides practical examples from the field on how to correctly tackle data analysis problems, particularly for modern Big Data datasets.

Become an expert at using Python for advanced statistical analysis of data using real-world examples About This Book Clean, format, and explore data using graphical and numerical summaries Leverage the IPython environment to efficiently analyze data with Python Packed with easy-to-follow examples to develop advanced computational skills for the analysis of complex data Who This Book Is For If you are a competent Python developer who wants to take your data analysis skills to the next level by solving complex problems, then this advanced guide is for you. Familiarity with the basics of applying Python libraries to data sets is assumed. What You Will Learn Read, sort, and map various data into Python and Pandas Recognise patterns so you can understand and explore data Use statistical models to discover patterns in data Review classical statistical inference using Python, Pandas, and SciPy Detect similarities and differences in data with clustering Clean your data to make it useful Work in Jupyter Notebook to produce publication ready figures to be included in reports In Detail Python, a multi-paradigm programming language, has become the language of choice for data scientists for data analysis, visualization, and machine learning. Ever imagined how to become an expert at effectively approaching data analysis problems, solving them, and extracting all of the available information from your dataWell, look no further, this is the book you want! Through this comprehensive guide, you will explore data and present results and conclusions from statistical analysis in a meaningful way. You’ll be able to quickly and accurately perform the hands-on sorting, reduction, and subsequent analysis, and fully appreciate how data analysis methods can support business decision-making. You’ll start off by learning about the tools available for data analysis in Python and will then explore the statistical models that are used to identify patterns in data. Gradually, you’ll move on to review statistical inference using Python, Pandas, and SciPy. After that, we’ll focus on performing regression using computational tools and you’ll get to understand the problem of identifying clusters in data in an algorithmic way. Finally, we delve into advanced techniques to quantify cause and effect using Bayesian methods and you’ll discover how to use Python’s tools for supervised machine learning. Style and approach This book takes a step-by-step approach to reading, processing, and analyzing data in Python using various methods and tools. Rich in examples, each topic connects to real-world examples and retrieves data directly online where possible. With this book, you are given the knowledge and tools to explore any data on your own, encouraging a curiosity befitting all data scientists.

Harness actionable insights from your data with computational statistics and simulations using R About This Book Learn five different simulation techniques (Monte Carlo, Discrete Event Simulation, System Dynamics, Agent-Based Modeling, and Resampling) in-depth using real-world case studies A unique book that teaches you the essential and fundamental concepts in statistical modeling and simulation Who This Book Is For This book is for users who are familiar with computational methods. If you want to learn about the advanced features of R, including the computer-intense Monte-Carlo methods as well as computational tools for statistical simulation, then this book is for you. Good knowledge of R programming is assumed/required. What You Will Learn The book aims to explore advanced R features to simulate data to extract insights from your data. Get to know the advanced features of R including high-performance computing and advanced data manipulation See random number simulation used to simulate distributions, data sets, and populations Simulate close-to-reality populations as the basis for agent-based micro-, model- and design-based simulations Applications to design statistical solutions with R for solving scientific and real world problems Comprehensive coverage of several R statistical packages like boot, simPop, VIM, data.table, dplyr, parallel, StatDA, simecol, simecolModels, deSolve and many more. In Detail Data Science with R aims to teach you how to begin performing data science tasks by taking advantage of Rs powerful ecosystem of packages. R being the most widely used programming language when used with data science can be a powerful combination to solve complexities involved with varied data sets in the real world. The book will provide a computational and methodological framework for statistical simulation to the users. Through this book, you will get in grips with the software environment R. After getting to know the background of popular methods in the area of computational statistics, you will see some applications in R to better understand the methods as well as gaining experience of working with real-world data and real-world problems. This book helps uncover the large-scale patterns in complex systems where interdependencies and variation are critical. An effective simulation is driven by data generating processes that accurately reflect real physical populations. You will learn how to plan and structure a simulation project to aid in the decision-making process as well as the presentation of results. By the end of this book, you reader will get in touch with the software environment R. After getting background on popular methods in the area, you will see applications in R to better understand the methods as well as to gain experience when working on real-world data and real-world problems. Style and approach This book takes a practical, hands-on approach to explain the statistical computing methods, gives advice on the usage of these methods, and provides computational tools to help you solve common problems in statistical simulation and computer-intense methods.

Arm yourself to make the most of the versatile, powerful Ubuntu Server with over 100 hands-on recipes About This Book Master the skills to setup secure and scalable web services with popular tools like Apache, Nginx, MySQL and HAProxy Set up your own cloud with Open Stack and quickly deploy applications with Docker or LXD Packed with clear, step-by-step recipes to let you protect you valuable data with your own chat servers, code hosting and collaboration tools. Who This Book Is For Ubuntu Server Cookbook is for system administrators or software developers with a basic understanding of the Linux operating system who want to set up their own servers. You are not required to have in-depth knowledge or hands-on experience with Ubuntu, but you should know the basics commands for directory navigation, file management, and the file editing tool. An understanding of computer networks is advisable What You Will Learn Set up high performance, scalable, and fault-tolerant back ends with web and database servers Facilitate team communication with a real-time chat service and collaboration tools Quickly deploy your applications to their own containers and scale your infrastructure as and when needed Find out how to set up your own cloud infrastructure for your internal use or rent it to the public Ensure quick and easy access for your users while also securing your infrastructure from intruders Set up a high performance private network with a personal VPN server and centralized authentication system Swiftly start a content streaming service Set up network storage for private data and source code and say good bye to costly and unreliable cloud services In Detail Ubuntu is one of the most secure operating systems and defines the highest level of security as compared other operating system. Ubuntu server is a popular Linux distribution and the first choice when deploying a Linux server. It can be used with a $35 Raspberry Pi to top-notch, thousand-dollar-per-month cloud hardware. Built with lists that there are 4 million + websites built using Ubuntu. With its easy-to-use package management tools and availability of well-known packages, we can quickly set up our own services such as web servers and database servers using Ubuntu. This book will help you develop the skills required to set up high performance and secure services with open source tools. Starting from user management and an in-depth look at networking, we then move on to cover the installation and management of web servers and database servers, as well as load balancing various services. You will quickly learn to set up your own cloud and minimize costs and efforts with application containers. Next, you will get to grips with setting up a secure real-time communication system. Finally, we’ll explore source code hosting and various collaboration tools. By the end of this book, you will be able to make the most of Ubuntu’s advanced functionalities. Style and approach This easy-to-follow guide contains a series of step-by-step recipes ranging from simple to complex. Each topic will start with basic introduction to each technology followed by a detailed step-by-step installation guide and then a detailed explanation of the approach taken during installation and the various advanced options available.

Unlock the potential of evergreen browsers and increase the efficiency of your ASP.NET applications by learning how to write JavaScript About This Book Boost your skillset and start bringing JavaScript into your web development projects Leverage your existing ASP.NET knowledge to develop dynamic and responsive SPAs Learn effective design patterns for sustainable, and scalable web development Who This Book Is For This book is for ASP.NET developers that want to bring JavaScript into their skillset to build applications that are truly dynamic and responsive. It's for developers who are focused on developing for users who want to deliver a great end product and a fantastic experience. What You Will Learn Get to grips with the basic to advanced concepts of JavaScript Learn how to use JavaScript on server side using Node.js Develop web applications in ASP.NET using JavaScript Get to know with industry-wide best practices and design patterns that provide maintainability and scalability Build an ASP.NET application using Angular 2 with TypeScript and Web API Explore WinJS and see how to use mobile capabilities from web applications Use JavaScript to develop scalable ASP.NET applications See how to test and debug JavaScript In Detail If you want to improve responsiveness or the UX in your ASP.NET applications, JavaScript can be a life saver. In an age where server-side operations have shifted to the client, being able to handle JavaScript with confidence and fluency is vital for ASP.NET developers. There’s no point trying to fight it, so start learning with this book. Make sure your projects exceed user expectations. Begin by getting stuck into the basics of JavaScript, and explore the language in the context of ASP.NET Core. You’ll then find out how to put the principles into practice, as you learn how to develop a basic ASP.NET application using Angular 2 and TypeScript. You’ll also develop essential skills required to develop responsive apps, with a little help from AJAX, ensuring that you’re building projects that can be easily accessed across different devices. With guidance on Node.js and some neat techniques to test and debug a range of JavaScript libraries in Visual Studio, you’ll soon be well on your way to combining JavaScript with ASP.NET in a way that’s capable of meeting the challenges of modern web development head-on. Style and approach This book will build the skillset of every .NET developer, so they can build stronger and more responsive web apps with confidence.

"If you want an emotional romantic adventure to nineteenth century frontier America this is for you." Jane Hunt Reviews For fans of Diana Palmer and Linda Lael Miller comes a new novella in The Men of Fir Mountain series. As sheriff of Silver Creek, Matthew Marston's job is to look after his town. But when he fails to protect the most important person in his life, Claire, from an attack, Matt feels as though he will never be able to forgive himself. Her husband-to-be's newly found overprotectiveness drives the headstrong Claire from his arms. She can't see a future with a man who won't allow her to follow her dreams. In a small town where everybody knows your name and your business, it's impossible for the pair to stay apart, especially as Claire finds that she can't completely turn her back on the lawman that she loves.

Scotland Yard Chief Superintendent John Coffin investigates a spate of killings at the notoriously evil No.22 Church Row. But he suspects there’s more to it than just a haunted house…From one of the most universally praised English crime writers, perfect for fans of Agatha Christie.

24 themed chapters. Each with 10 numbered paragraphs. Each paragraph with precisely 120 words. The sum of a life. In his beautiful and haunting new book, Charles Lambert explores the fragmentary nature of memory, how the piecing together of short recollections can reveal a greater narrative. Through chapters tackling elemental themes such as Sex, Death, and Money, Lambert assembles the narrator’s moving life story. Executed with all the grace and finesse of his previous acclaimed work, this is an incredible artistic achievement, breathtaking in its simplicity yet awe-inspiring in its scope. With cover and text design by the renowned designer Vaughan Oliver, With a Zero at its Heart is as beautiful to look at as it is to read.

The third book in the monstrously funny and action-packed Darkmouth series. It’s going to be legendary. The adventures of the most unfortunate Legend Hunter ever to don fighting armour and pick up a desiccator continue… Finn's been through so much, he'll now be allowed do what he wants with the rest of his life, right? Wrong. Whether he likes it or not, he's going to be made a proper Legend Hunter. But then suddenly people start disappearing, Legends are appearing where they shouldn't, Broonie's complaining, and an attack so big is coming that Finn has the weight of the world on his shoulders. The weight of two worlds, actually…

The second book in the monstrously funny and action-packed new series: Darkmouth. It’s going to be legendary. The adventures of the most unfortunate Legend Hunter ever to don fighting armour and pick up a Dessicator continue… On a list of things Finn never thought he'd wish for, a gateway bursting open in Darkmouth was right up there. But that's about his only hope for finding his missing father. He's searched for a map, he's followed Steve into dead ends, but found nothing. And he's still got homework to do. But soon Finn and Emmie must face bizarre Legends, a ravenous world and a face from the past as they go where no Legend Hunter has gone before. Or, at least, where no legend Hunter has gone before and returned with their limbs in the correct order.

A monstrously funny debut from the new star of middle-grade adventure. THEY’RE COMING! Legends (also known as terrifying, human-eating monsters) have invaded the town of Darkmouth and aim to conquer the world. But don’t panic! The last remaining Legend Hunter - Finn - will protect us. Finn: twelve-years-old, loves animals, not a natural fighter, but tries really, really hard, and we all know good intentions are the best weapons against a hungry Minotaur, right? On second thoughts, panic. PANIC NOW!

A revealing and witty new examination of how Agatha Christie became the world’s most successful and popular female playwright, including details of never-before-published *s and stories. Published in celebration of Agatha Christie's 125th birthday, Curtain Up! is an essential purchase for Agatha Christie fans worldwide. Everyone knows that The Mousetrap is the world’s longest-running play, but this first ever book dedicated to Agatha Christie as a playwright tells how Christie prevailed against the male-dominated establishment to be the only woman to have three plays in the West End at the same time and became the most popular and successful female playwright in the world. Author and theatre producer Julius Green has been given unprecedented access to archives in the UK and USA and has uncovered unpublished and unperformed plays, as well as previously unknown facts and correspondence. Agatha Christie was a skilful and accomplished stage writer, and this long-awaited book is a fascinating, funny and revealing tale that theatregoers and Agatha Christie fans won't want to miss.

A heartbreaking tale of love and loss in a time of war, perfect for fans of Katie Flynn and Annie Groves. Jenny O’Leary is devastated one morning in 1940 when she receives a telegram giving her the dreadful news that one of her brothers has been killed in action. Grief threatens to engulf her, but as an ARP warden, tending to Birmingham’s injured after the nightly raids, she is well-used to the suffering that thousands are enduring every day. Linda Prosser is just twelve years old and desperately close to her mother and two tiny brothers. As the bombs drop around them one fateful night, Linda takes a risk which has disastrous consequences. Terrified, and buried beneath a mass of debris after her home takes a direct hit, it is Jenny who crawls through the wreckage of the house to rescue her. So begins a friendship which is last through the years. But when Linda falls in love with a man that Jenny despises, she is faced with sacrificing her future happiness for the friend who has given her everything…

A heartrending tale of love and tragedy during The Birmingham Blitz. Perfect for fans of Katie Flynn and Annie Groves. For Kathy O’Malley, life has not been easy with her husband, Barry, out of work and with two children to feed. Then when war breaks out in 1939, many of the local men enlist, including Barry, leaving the women to cope as best they can. The years that follow are full of hardship: rationing, nightly air raids and endless shifts working at the local munitions factory all take their toll on Kathy who longs to feel the strong arms of her husband around her once more. When she meets Doug, a handsome American GI, she is drawn immediately drawn to him but determined to honour her marriage vows. But after she receives a telegram informing that her husband is missing, presumed dead, she makes a decision that will have consequences, not just for herself, but for the lives of all those she loves too…