Learn how to develop web applications that deploy cross-platform and are optimized for high performance using ASP.NET Core 2 About This Book ? Master high-level web app performance improvement techniques using ASP.NET Core 2.0 ? Find the right balance between premature optimization and inefficient code ? Design workflows that run asynchronously and are resilient to transient performance issues Who This Book Is For This book is aimed for readers who can build a web application and have some experience with ASP.NET or some other web application framework (such as Ruby on Rails or Django). They can be people who are happy learning details independently but who struggle to discover the topics that they should be researching. The reader should be interested in improving the performance of their web app and in learning about ASP.NET Core and modern C#. What You Will Learn ? Understand ASP.NET Core 2 and how it differs from its predecessor ? Address performance issues at the early stages of development ? Set up development environments on Windows, Mac, and Linux ? Measure, profile and find the most significant problems ? Identify the differences between development workstations and production infrastructures, and how these can exacerbate problems ? Boost the performance of your application but with an eye to how it affects complexity and maintenance ? Explore a few cutting-edge techniques such as advanced hashing and custom transports In Detail The ASP.NET Core 2 framework is used to develop high-performance and cross-platform web applications. It is built on .NET Core 2 and includes significantly more framework APIs than version 1. This book addresses high-level performance improvement techniques. It starts by showing you how to locate and measure problems and then shows you how to solve some of the most common ones. Next, it shows you how to get started with ASP.NET Core 2 on Windows, Mac, Linux, and with Docker containers. The book illustrates what problems can occur as latency increases when deploying to a cloud infrastructure. It also shows you how to optimize C# code and choose the best data structures for the job. It covers new features in C# 6 and 7, along with parallel programming and distributed architectures. By the end of this book, you will be fixing latency issues and optimizing performance problems, but you will also know how this affects the complexity and maintenance of your application. Finally, we will explore a few highly advanced techniques for further optimization. Style and approach A step-by-step practical guide filled with real-world use cases and examples

Learn to implement DevOps using Docker & Kubernetes. About This Book ? Learning DevOps, container, and Kubernetes within one book. ? Leverage Kubernetes as a platform to deploy, scale, and run containers efficiently. ? A practical guide towards container management and orchestration Who This Book Is For This book is targeted for anyone, who wants to learn containerization and clustering in a practical way using Kubernetes. No prerequisite skills required, however, essential DevOps skill and public/private Cloud knowledge will accelerate the reading speed. If you’re advanced readers, you can also get a deeper understanding of all the tools and technique described in the book. What You Will Learn ? Learn fundamental and advanced DevOps skills and tools ? Get a comprehensive understanding for container ? Learn how to move your application to container world ? Learn how to manipulate your application by Kubernetes ? Learn how to work with Kubernetes in popular public cloud ? Improve time to market with Kubernetes and Continuous Delivery ? Learn how to monitor, log, and troubleshoot your application with Kubernetes In Detail Containerization is said to be the best way to implement DevOps. Google developed Kubernetes, which orchestrates containers efficiently and is considered the frontrunner in container orchestration. Kubernetes is an orchestrator that creates and manages your containers on clusters of servers. This book will guide you from simply deploying a container to administrate a Kubernetes cluster, and then you will learn how to do monitoring, logging, and continuous deployment in DevOps. The initial stages of the book will introduce the fundamental DevOps and the concept of containers. It will move on to how to containerize applications and deploy them into. The book will then introduce networks in Kubernetes. We then move on to advanced DevOps skills such as monitoring, logging, and continuous deployment in Kubernetes. It will proceed to introduce permission control for Kubernetes resources via attribute-based access control and role-based access control. The final stage of the book will cover deploying and managing your container clusters on the popular public cloud Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud Platform. At the end of the book, other orchestration frameworks, such as Docker Swarm mode, Amazon ECS, and Apache Mesos will be discussed. Style and approach Readers will be taken through fundamental DevOps skills and Kubernetes concept and administration with detailed examples. It introduces comprehensive DevOps topics, including microservices, automation tools, containers, monitoring, logging, continuous delivery, and popular public cloud environments. At each step readers will learn how to leverage Kubernetes in their everyday lives and transform their original delivery pipeline for fast and efficient delivery.

Learn how to confidently install, configure, secure, and fully utilize your ArcGIS Enterprise system. About This Book ? Install and configure the components of ArcGIS Enterprise to meet your organization's requirements ? Administer all aspects of ArcGIS Enterprise through user interfaces and APIs ? Optimize and Secure ArcGIS Enterprise to make it run efficiently and effectively Who This Book Is For This book will be geared toward senior GIS analysts, GIS managers, GIS administrators, DBAs, GIS architects, and GIS engineers that need to install, configure, and administer ArcGIS Enterprise 10.5.1. What You Will Learn ? Effectively install and configure ArcGIS Enterprise, including the Enterprise geodatabase, ArcGIS Server, and Portal for ArcGIS ? Incorporate different methodologies to manage and publish services ? Utilize the security methods available in ArcGIS Enterprise ? Use Python and Python libraries from Esri to automate administrative tasks ? Identify the common pitfalls and errors to get your system back up and running quickly from an outage In Detail ArcGIS Enterprise, the next evolution of the ArcGIS Server product line, is a full-featured mapping and analytics platform. It includes a powerful GIS web services server and a dedicated Web GIS infrastructure for organizing and sharing your work. You will learn how to first install ArcGIS Enterprise to then plan, design, and finally publish and consume GIS services. You will install and configure an Enterprise geodatabase and learn how to administer ArcGIS Server, Portal, and Data Store through user interfaces, the REST API, and Python *s. This book starts off by explaining how ArcGIS Enterprise 10.5.1 is different from earlier versions of ArcGIS Server and covers the installation of all the components required for ArcGIS Enterprise. We then move on to geodatabase administration and content publication, where you will learn how to use ArcGIS Server Manager to view the server logs, stop and start services, publish services, define users and roles for security, and perform other administrative tasks. You will also learn how to apply security mechanisms on ArcGIS Enterprise and safely expose services to the public in a secure manner. Finally, you’ll use the RESTful administrator API to automate server management tasks using the Python *ing language. You’ll learn all the best practices and troubleshooting methods to streamline the management of all the interconnected parts of ArcGIS Enterprise. Style and approach The book takes a pragmatic approach, starting with installation & configuration of ArcGIS Enterprise to finally building a robust GIS web infrastructure for your organization.

Over 60 recipes to install, configure, and manage your IIS 10.0 About This Book ? Provide a secure, easy-to-manage extensible platform for hosting your websites ? Leverage IIS 10.0 in order to deploy web site in seconds ? Integrate Windows and Nano Server 2016 and automate it with PowerShell ? Recipes to Manage and monitor your IIS 10.0 Who This Book Is For If you are an administrator or web developer with a basic (or no) knowledge of Microsoft IIS and want to set up your own web server, then this is the book for you. What You Will Learn ? Integrate IIS 10.0 on Windows server 2016 ? Host multiple websites and Wildcard Host on IIS 10.0 ? Deploy and administrate IIS 10.0 on Nano Server. ? IIS administration with Powershell. ? Manage and troubleshoot IIS 10.0 In Detail This book will start with customizing your IIS 10 to various platforms/OS and tune it according to your business requirements. Moving on, we will focus on the functionalities of core fundamentals and perform practical scenarios in order to maximize the use of a reliable web server. Going further we will be covering topics like IIS 10 architecture, IIS modules,hosting web server platforms, virtual directories along with web site deployment, ports, enhanced security. We will also cover new features of IIS 10 like integration with Windows Server 2016 and Nano Server, HTTP/2, PowerShell 5 cmdlets etc . Towards the end, we will cover troubleshooting & diagnostic techniques of IIS 10. By the end of this book you will be well versed with maximizing the reliability of your webserver and will have immense knowledge in using IIS 10 effectively Style and approach A set of exciting recipes on using Microsoft IIS 10.0 effectively..

Maximize your administration skills effectively and efficiently About This Book ? Implement cost-effective virtualization solutions for your organization with actionable recipes ? Explore the concepts of VMM with real-world use cases ? Use the latest features with VMM 2016 such as Cluster OS Rolling Upgrade, Guarded Fabric and Storage Spaces Direct Who This Book Is For If you are a solutions architect, technical consultant, administrator, or any other virtualization enthusiast who needs to use Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager in a real-world environment, then this is the book for you. What You Will Learn ? Plan and design a VMM architecture for real-world deployment ? Configure fabric resources, including compute, networking, and storage ? Create and manage Storage Spaces Direct clusters in VMM ? Configure Guarded Fabric with Shielded VMs ? Create and deploy virtual machine templates and multi-tier services ? Manage Hyper-V and VMware environments from VMM ? Enhance monitoring and management capabilities ? Upgrade to VMM 2016 from previous versions In Detail Virtual Machine Manager (VMM) 2016 is part of the System Center suite to configure and manage datacenters and offers a unified management experience on-premises and Azure cloud. This book will be your best companion for day-to-day virtualization needs within your organization, as it takes you through a series of recipes to simplify and plan a highly scalable and available virtual infrastructure. You will learn the deployment tips, techniques, and solutions designed to show users how to improve VMM 2016 in a real-world scenario. The chapters are divided in a way that will allow you to implement the VMM 2016 and additional solutions required to effectively manage and monitor your fabrics and clouds. We will cover the most important new features in VMM 2016 across networking, storage, and compute, including brand new Guarded Fabric, Shielded VMs and Storage Spaces Direct. The recipes in the book provide step-by-step instructions giving you the simplest way to dive into VMM fabric concepts, private cloud, and integration with external solutions such as VMware, Operations Manager, and the Windows Azure Pack. By the end of this book, you will be armed with the knowledge you require to start designing and implementing virtual infrastructures in VMM 2016. Style and approach This book follows a recipe-based approach similar to our previous two successful editions, covering the practical application of the major features in VMM 2016.

Implement solutions by leveraging the power of the GO standard library and reducing dependency on external crates About This Book ? Develop high quality, fast and portable applications by leveraging the power of Go Standard Library. ? Practical recipes that will help you work with the standard library algorithms to boost your productivity as a Go developer. ? Compose your own algorithms without forfeiting the simplicity and elegance of the Standard Library. Who This Book Is For This book is for Go developers who would like to explore the power of Golang and learn how to use the Go standard library for various functionalities. The book assumes basic Go programming knowledge. What You Will Learn ? Access environmental variables ? Execute and work with child processes ? Manipulate strings by performing operations such as search, concatenate, and so on ? Parse and format the output of date/time information ? Operate on complex numbers and effective conversions between different number formats and bases ? Work with standard input and output ? Handle filesystem operations and file permissions ? Create TCP and HTTP servers, and access those servers with a client ? Utilize synchronization primitives ? Test your code In Detail Google's Golang will be the next talk of the town, with amazing features and a powerful library. This book will gear you up for using golang by taking you through recipes that will teach you how to leverage the standard library to implement a particular solution. This will enable Go developers to take advantage of using a rock-solid standard library instead of third-party frameworks. The book begins by exploring the functionalities available for interaction between the environment and the operating system. We will explore common string operations, date/time manipulations, and numerical problems. We'll then move on to working with the database, accessing the filesystem, and performing I/O operations. From a networking perspective, we will touch on client and server-side solutions. The basics of concurrency are also covered, before we wrap up with a few tips and tricks. By the end of the book, you will have a good overview of the features of the Golang standard library and what you can achieve with them. Ultimately, you will be proficient in implementing solutions with powerful standard libraries. Style and approach Solution based approach showcasing the power of Go standard library for easy practical implementations.

Learn to implement ASP.NET Core features to build effective software that can be scaled and maintained easily About This Book ? Practical solutions to recurring issues in the web development world ? Recipes on the latest features of ASP.Net Core 2.0 ? Coverage of Bootstrap, Angular, and JavaScript lets you supercharge your frontend Who This Book Is For This book is written for the ASP.NET developer who wants to deliver professional-standard software, quickly and efficiently. It's filled with hands-on recipes, practical advice, and guidance to help developers with every aspect of the ASP.NET development cycle. Whether you've just started out or are a seasoned pro, the Asp.Net Core 2.0 Cookbook is written for you. What You Will Learn ? Build ASP.Net Core 2.0 applications using HTTP services with WebApi ? Learn to unit-test, load test, and perform test applications using client-side and server-side frameworks ? Debug, monitor and troubleshoot ASP.Net Core 2.0 applications using popular tools ? Reuse components with NuGet and create modular components with middleware ? Create applications using client-side technologies such as HTML5, JavaScript, jQuery, and Angular ? Build responsive and dynamic UIs for your MVC apps using Bootstrap ? Leverage tools like Karma, Jasmine, QUnit, xUnit, Selenium, Microsoft Fakes, and Visual Studio 2017 Enterprise In Detail The ASP.NET Core 2.0 Framework has been designed to meet all the needs of today’s web developers. It provides better control, support for test-driven development, and cleaner code. Moreover, it’s lightweight and allows you to run apps on Windows, OSX and Linux, making it the most popular web framework with modern day developers. This book takes a unique approach to web development, using real-world examples to guide you through problems with ASP.NET Core 2.0 web applications. It covers Visual Studio 2017- and ASP.NET Core 2.0-specifc changes and provides general MVC development recipes. It explores setting up .NET Core, Visual Studio 2017, Node.js modules, and NuGet. Next, it shows you how to work with Inversion of Control data pattern and caching. We explore everyday ASP.NET Core MVC 2.0 patterns and go beyond it into troubleshooting. Finally, we lead you through migrating, hosting, and deploying your code. By the end of the book, you’ll not only have explored every aspect of ASP.NET Core MVC 2.0, you’ll also have a reference you can keep coming back to whenever you need to get the job done. Style and approach Asp.Net Core 2.0 has been redesigned to meet the needs of today's web developers. Open-source, cross-platform, and fully integrated with the most powerful front-end frameworks, it still has all the benefits of ease and speed of development that have made it one of the most popular web frameworks in production today. Asp.Net Core 2.0 Development Cookbook takes a unique approach to web development. Based around the tasks that you will be using every day when making websites, it will guide you through all the common problems you'll face when developing web applications.

Use Unity 2017 to create fun and unbelievable AI entities in your games with A*, Fuzzy logic and NavMesh About This Book ? Explore the brand-new Unity 2017 features that makes implementing Artificial Intelligence in your game easier than ever ? Use fuzzy logic concepts in your AI decision-making to make your characters more engaging ? Build exciting and richer games by mastering advanced Artificial Intelligence concepts such as Neural Networks Who This Book Is For This book is intended for Unity developers with a basic understanding of C# and the Unity editor. Whether you're looking to build your first game or are looking to expand your knowledge as a game programmer, you will find plenty of exciting information and examples of game AI in terms of concepts and implementation. What You Will Learn ? Understand the basic terminology and concepts in game AI ? Explore advanced AI Concepts such as Neural Networks ? Implement a basic finite state machine using state machine behaviors in Unity 2017 ? Create sensory systems for your AI and couple it with a Finite State Machine ? Wok with Unity 2017's built-in NavMesh features in your game ? Build believable and highly-efficient artificial flocks and crowds ? Create a basic behavior tree to drive a character's actions In Detail Unity 2017 provides game and app developers with a variety of tools to implement Artificial Intelligence. Leveraging these tools via Unity's API or built-in features allows limitless possibilities when it comes to creating your game's worlds and characters. This third edition with Unity will help you break down Artificial Intelligence into simple concepts to give you a fundamental understanding of the topic to build upon. Using a variety of examples, the book then takes those concepts and walks you through actual implementations designed to highlight key concepts, and features related to game AI in Unity 5. Further on you will learn to distinguish the state machine pattern and implement one of your own. This is followed by learning how to implement a basic sensory system for your AI agent and coupling it with a Finite State Machine (FSM). Next you'll learn how to use Unity's built-in NavMesh feature and implement your own A* pathfinding system. You will then learn how to implement simple flocks and crowd's dynamics, key AI concepts. Moving on, you will learn how to implement a behavior tree through a game-focused example. Lastly, you'll combine fuzzy logic concepts with state machines and apply all the concepts in the book to build a simple tank game. Style and approach A self-explanatory practical guide with a series of tips and tricks on creating AI games with ease.

The Fourth Edition of the industry-acclaimed OpenStack Cloud Computing Cookbook, from four recognized experts, updated to the latest OpenStack build including Cinder, Nova, and Neutron. About This Book ? Over 100 recipes created by a team of OpenStack experts ? Updated to work with the latest OpenStack builds, with recipes covering the installation and use of OpenStack with Ansible ? It covers topics such as Keystone, Glance, Neutron, Nova, Cinder, and more, plus recipes for OpenStack storage, networking, and orchestrating workloads ? Test drive OpenStack using the accompanying Vagrant environment Who This Book Is For This book is written for cloud system engineers, system administrators, and technical architects who are moving from a virtualized environment to cloud environments. This book assumes that you are familiar with cloud computing platforms, and have knowledge of virtualization, networking, and managing Linux environments. What You Will Learn ? Understand, install, configure, and manage a complete OpenStack Cloud platform using OpenStack-Ansible ? Configure networks, routers, load balancers, and more with Neutron ? Use Keystone to setup domains, roles, groups and user access ? Learn how to use Swift and setup container access control lists ? Gain hands-on experience and familiarity with Horizon, the OpenStack Dashboard user interface ? Automate complete solutions with our recipes on Heat, the OpenStack Orchestration service as well as using Ansible to orchestrate application workloads ? Follow practical advice and examples to run OpenStack in production In Detail This is the fourth edition of the industry-acclaimed OpenStack Cloud Computing Cookbook, created by four recognized OpenStack experts. It has now been updated to work with the latest OpenStack builds, using tools and processes based on their collective and vast OpenStack experience. OpenStack Open Source Cloud software is one of the most used cloud infrastructures to support a wide variety of use cases, from software development to big data analysis. It is developed by a thriving community of individual developers from around the globe and backed by most of the leading players in the cloud space today. We make it simple to implement, massively scalable, and able to store a large pool of data and networking resources. OpenStack has a strong ecosystem that helps you provision your cloud storage needs. Add OpenStack's enterprise features to reduce the cost of your business. This book will begin by showing you the steps to build up an OpenStack private cloud environment using Ansible. You'll then discover the uses of cloud services such as the identity service, image service, and compute service. You'll dive into Neutron, the OpenStack Networking service, and get your hands dirty with configuring networks, routers, load balancers, and more. You’ll then gather more expert knowledge on OpenStack cloud computing by managing your cloud's security and migration. After that, we delve into OpenStack Object storage and you’ll see how to manage servers and work with objects, cluster, and storage functionalities. Finally, you will learn about OpenStack dashboard, Ansible, Keystone, and other interesting topics. Style and approach Clear, step-by-step instructions coupled with practical and applicable recipes that will enable you to use and implement the latest features of OpenStack. The authors provide all the context you need around each recipe so that you can make it part of your own OpenStack solutions.

Learn to confidently setup and create app, lenses, dashboards using Salesforce Einstein Analytics. About This Book ? Explore Einstein analytics on desktop as well as mobile platforms ? Turn data into smarter sales with Einstein Analytics for Sales ? Visualize your data with preloaded as well as customized dashboards Who This Book Is For This book is for data scientists, business users, developers who want to explore business data using the Salesforce Einstein Analytics. Knowledge of the Salesforce platform is required. What You Will Learn ? Create app, lenses, and dashboards using Einstein. ? Visualize data utilizing all the widgets available with Einstein. ? Understand Einstein for Sales, Service, and Marketing separately. ? Use Data monitoring tools to monitor data flow and system jobs. ? Abstract machine learning constructs and make predictions on events In Detail Salesforce Einstein analytics aka Wave Analytics is a cloud-based platform which connects data from the multiple sources and explores it to uncover insights. It empowers sales reps, marketers, and analysts with the insights to make customer interactions smarter, without building mathematical models. You will learn to create app, lenses, dashboards and share dashboards with other users. This book starts off with explaining you fundamental concepts like lenses, step, measures and sets you up with Einstein Analytics platform. We then move on to creating an app and here you will learn to create datasets, dashboards and different ways to import data into Analytics. Moving on we look at Einstein for sales, services, and marketing individually. Here you will learn to manage your pipeline, understand important business drivers and visualize trends. You will also learn features related to data monitoring tools and embedding dashboards with lightning, visualforce page and mobile devices. Further, you will learn advanced features pertaining to recent advancements in Einstein which include machine learning constructs and getting predictions for events. By the end of this book, you will become proficient in the Einstein analytics, getting insights faster and understanding your customer in a better way. Style and approach The book takes a pragmatic approach showing you installation of Salesforce Einstein Analytics, predictive analysis and applications of AI.

Bringing together three favourite novels about Paddington, the beloved, classic bear from Darkest Peru. Book 1 - A Bear Called Paddington: Paddington Bear travels all the way from Darkest Peru and meets the Brown family on Paddington station for the first time. Since then the Browns’ lives have never been quite the same… for ordinary things become quite extraordinary when a bear called Paddington is around. Book 2 - More About Paddington: Whether he is attempting home decorating, detective work or photography, Paddington always causes his own special brand of chaos! Book 3 - Paddington Helps Out Somehow, trouble comes naturally to Paddington. What other bear could catch a fish in his hat, or cause havoc in the Browns’ kitchen just trying to be helpful? Paddington Bear has been delighting adults and children alike with his earnest good intentions and humorous misadventures for over fifty years.

Jason and Whit Fireson, the notorious, bank-robbing duo known as the Firefly Brothers, wake to find themselves lying on cooling boards in a police morgue. Riddled with bullet wounds, the reality is inescapable: they've been killed. But they're alive. It is August of 1934, in the midst of the Great Depression but in the waning months of the great Crime Wave, during which the newly-created FBI killed such famous outlaws as John Dillinger, Baby Face Nelson, and Pretty Boy Floyd. Across the nation, men are out of work and families are starving, and Americans are stunned and frightened by the collapse of their country's foundations. The Firesons' lovers Darcy and Veronica struggle between grief and an unyielding belief that Jason and Whit have survived, while their stunned mother and straight-arrow third brother desperately try to support their family and evade police spies. And through it all the Firefly Brothers themselves race to find the women they love, and make sense of a world that has come unmoored. Complete with kidnappings and gangsters, heiresses and speakeasies, The Many Deaths of the Firefly Brothers combines the stark realism of a troubled time with all the myth-making magic of the American Dream itself. It is an imaginative and breathless story about being hopelessly outgunned – and tells a tale of danger, redemption, and love that transcends death.

Deadly Seven is a combination of monologues and ‘light’ script engagement of a psychologist with her seven clients, who each represent a deadly sin. Once the psychologist realises she lacks control over each of her clients’ lives, she decides to put an end to their madness. All characters represent an obsession which ultimately destroys them; leading to their deaths.

"Reportajele din aceast? carte vorbesc despre aspecte din istoria recent?, cum ar fi migra?ia, corup?ia, via?a ?n penitenciare sau problemele minorit??ilor, ?nchiderea spitalelor sau stresul care schimb? vie?i, crizele din s?n?tate, pove?ti ale unor oameni obi?nui?i, care fac lucruri speciale. Reg?sim, ?ns?, ?i pove?ti de demult, cum e cazul reportajelor despre lupt?torii anticomuni?ti din mun?i, despre tezaurul de la Pietroasele sau istoriile din satele s?se?ti. Reportajele surprind realit??i dintr-o Rom?nie aflat? ?n continu? schimbare, cu enorme discrepan?e. Sunt ca o fotografie a realit??ii. Cine le cite?te afl? cum se tr?ia sau cum se tr?ie?te ?n anumite locuri. Cum se schimb? sau de ce nu se schimb? lucrurile ?i mentalit??ile. Cartea cuprinde 30 de reportaje publicate ?n revista Dilema veche, dar ?i adapt?ri dup? reportaje sau documentare radio difuzate la Europa FM ?i Radio Rom?nia Actualit??i. Reportajul e un gen mai rar ?nt?lnit ast?zi ?n presa din Rom?nia. Dar asta nu se ?nt?mpl? din cauza lipsei de interes a publicului, ci din pricina lipsei de bani ?i de investi?ii ?ntr-o pres? de calitate. De fiecare dat? c?nd totu?i apar reportaje bine f?cute, se constat? c? publicul le urm?re?te cu interes, tot a?a cum urm?re?te reportajele ?i documentarele oferite de televiziunile str?ine. Asta fiindc? oamenii au nevoie de pove?ti. Un reportaj bine f?cut este de fapt o poveste adev?rat?. P?n? la urm?, ?i aceast? carte este o carte cu pove?ti adev?rate." (Liliana Nicolae)

A classic recipe book which excludes ingredients harmful to those suffering from candida, M.E., and allergy sufferers.

Claire and her mother are running out of time, but they don't know it. Not yet. Claire is wrapped up with the difficulties of her bourgeoning adulthood—boys, school, friends, identity; Claire's mother, a single mom, is rushed off her feet both at work and at home. They rarely find themselves in the same room at the same time, and it often seems that the only thing they can count on are notes to each other on the refrigerator door. When home is threatened by a crisis, their relationship experiences a momentous change. Forced to reevaluate the delicate balance between their personal lives and their bond as mother and daughter, Claire and her mother find new love and devotion for one another deeper than anything they had ever imagined. Heartfelt, touching, and unforgettable, Life on the Refrigerator Door is a glimpse into the lives of mothers and daughters everywhere. In this deeply touching novel told through a series of notes written from a loving mother and her devoted fifteen-year-old daughter, debut author Alice Kuipers deftly captures the impenetrable fabric that connects mothers and daughters throughout the world. Moving and rich with emotion, Life on the Refrigerator Door delivers universal lessons about love in a wonderfully simple and poignant narrative.

A bewitching comic fantasy by a master of the supernaturalCat doesn't mind living in the shadow of his sister, Gwendolen, the most promising young witch ever seen on Coven Street. But trouble starts brewing the moment the two orphans are summoned to live in Chrestomanci Castle. Frustrated that the witches of the castle refuse to acknowledge her talents, Gwendolen conjures up a scheme that could throw whole worlds out of whack.

His father and uncles are enchanters, his mother a powerful sorceress, yet nothing seems magical about Christopher Chant except his dreams. Night after night, he climbs through the formless Place Between and visits marvelous lands he calls the Almost Anywheres. Then Christopher discovers that he can bring real, solid things back from his dreams. Others begin to recognize the extent of his powers, and they issue an order that turns Christopher's life upside down: Go to Chrestomanci Castle to train to be the controller of all the world's magic.The Lives of Christopher Chant is the adventure-filled story of the boyhood of Chretomanci, the famous magician who also appears in Charmed Life, Witch Week, and The Magicians of Caprona.

‘One of the best stories I’ve read in a long time!’ Stacey Rebecca (NetGalley reviewer) The Cotswolds Cookery Club was originally published as a three-part serial. This is the complete story in one package. The Cotswolds Cookery Club is opening its doors! Connie has had enough. Enough of the city, enough of her job – and most importantly, enough of her cheating boyfriend! Finally free to chase her dreams, Connie sets up her very own Cotswolds Cookery Club – a place to share scrumptious recipes and, more importantly, a lot of wine… Trish always dreamed of living in a little chocolate box village – but she never expected to be starting over at forty. Could joining the Cookery Club be the perfect distraction from her stroppy teenage daughter and her ex-husband’s new girlfriend? Kate spends her life juggling her three young children and running the busy Cotswolds veterinary practice. It’s time to take charge of the disparate ingredients of her life and transform them into the perfect pot-au-feu! But with three delicious men turning up the heat, perhaps the sleepy Cotswolds village has a few surprises in store… Fans of Milly Johnson, Caroline Roberts and Jill Mansell will love this heartwarming read!

This treasury of all-new true miracle stories from the bestselling authors of Christmas Miracles, The Magic of Christmas Miracles, and Mothers' Miracles offers the real-life wonder their readers have come to love. Some highlights:A disk jockey's selection of music has an astounding unintended effect a comatose Polish woman begins to softly sing along with a song from her childhood.While body surfing, a man is slammed by a wave and hears his neck snap. Unable to move, he begins to swallow water to hasten death. Instead, he feels himself lifted from the water, gliding safely to shore.A school janitor befriends a student, only to learn that she is the daughter of his long-lost son and his very own granddaughter.A Gift of Miracles, like its predecessors, will remind readers and their families that in the midst of our hectic and sometimes frightening world, magic, mystery, and miracles happen. And that if we look hard enough in the corners of our own lives, we, too, can find miracles.

Lee Mandel’s historical novel Moryak revolves around the story of Lieutenant Stephen Morrison, a naval officer sent by President Theodore Roosevelt on a top-secret mission in 1905. Morrison’s assignment is to work with British agent Sidney Reilly to kidnap Tsar Nicholas II and remove him from Russia before he can sabotage the upcoming Portsmouth Peace conference. The mission goes awry and Morrison is captured and sentenced to death. Through a quirk of fate, he is instead sent to the infamous Russian prison on Solovetsky Island. He soon catches the attention of the Bolshevik prisoners and their growing interactions come to have devastating effects on the evolving revolution in Russia, as well as the Allied war effort as the world descends into the chaos of World War I. As events unfold and secrets are unveiled in an uncanny political intrigue, Moryak in fact tells the life story of one man’s struggle for acceptance, him finding his place and finding himself.