A Brief History Of Time

A Brief History of Time
by Stephen Hawking

In the years since its publication in 1988, Stephen Hawking's A Brief History Of Time has established itself as a landmark volume in scientific writing. It has become an international publishing phenomenon, translated into forty languages and selling over nine million copies. The book was on the cutting edge of what was then known about the nature of the universe, but since that time there have been extraordinary advances in the technology of macrocosmic worlds. These observations have confirmed many of Professor Hawkin's theoretical predictions in the first edition of his book, including the recent discoveries of the Cosmic Background Explorer satellite (COBE), which probed back in time to within 300,000 years of the fabric of space-time that he had projected.

Eager to bring to his original text the new knowledge revealed by these many observations, as well as his recent research, for this expanded edition Professor Hawking has prepared a new introduction to the book, written an entirely new chapter on the fascinating subject of wormholes and time travel, and updated the original chapters.

In addition, to heighten understanding of complex concepts that readers may have found difficult to grasp despite the clarity and wit of Professor Hawking's writing, this edition is enhanced throughout with more than 240 full-color illustrations, including satellite images, photographs made made possible by spectacular technological advance such as the Hubble Space Telescope, and computer generated images of three and four-dimensional realities. Detailed captions clarify these illustrations, enable readers to experience the vastnessof intergalactic space, the nature of black holes, and the microcosmic world of particle physics in which matters and antimatter collide.

A classic work that now brings to the reader the latest understanding of cosmology, A Brief History Of Time is the story of the ongoing search for t he tantalizing secrets at the heart of time and space.

God Is Not Great

God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything
by Christopher Hitchens

Christopher Hitchens, described in the London Observer as "one of the most prolific, as well as brilliant, journalists of our time "takes on his biggest subject yet--the increasingly dangerous role of religion in the world.
With his unique brand of erudition and wit, Hitchens describes the ways in which religion is man-made. "God did not make us," he says. "We made God." He explains the ways in which religion is immoral: We damage our children by indoctrinating them. It is a cause of sexual repression, violence, and ignorance. It is a distortion of our origins and the cosmos. In the place of religion, Hitchens offers the promise of a new enlightenment through science and reason, a realm in which hope and wonder can be found through a strand of DNA or a gaze through the Hubble Telescope. As Hitchens sees it, you needn't get the blues once you discover the heavens are empty.

Economic Literacy

Economic Literacy: What Everyone Needs to Know About Money & Markets
by Jacob De Rooy

Gross domestic product, business cycles, Consumer Price Index, prime rate: terms we read in the newspapers, but possibly don't fully comprehend. With humor, clarity, and a deft touch for simplifying complex ideas, Jacob De Rooy explains the basic concepts of economics in language anyone can understand. Written in accessible question-and-answer format, and divided into 26 concise articles, the book can be used in two ways: read straight through as a short course in economics, or dipped into as a reference work. Throughout the text, anecdotal examples illustrate economic ideas in real-life terms.

The Canterbury Tales

The Canterbury Tales
by Geoffrey Chaucer

Pilgrims on their way to worship at the shrine of Saint Thomas à Becket in Canterbury stop at the Tabard Inn. Representing a cross-section of medieval English society, the group includes a knight and his squire, a prioress, a friar, a miller, and a wife. To amuse themselves on their journey, they agree that each willtell a tale. These stories—by turns bawdy, hilarious, scurrilous, romantic, heroic, and moving—reveal a great deal about the tellers and the world they live in, which, despite the distance of six hundred years, seems remarkably like our own. Indeed, the structure of The Canterbury Tales and the sophisticated, intricate interplay between the stories, their narrators, and the general narrator (himself a complex comic character) give the book its strikingly modern flavor.

Often called the first book of poetry written in English, Chaucer’s masterpiece is also the first anthology of English short fiction, one that will resonate with readers for as long as folly and courage, deceit and generosity, love and jealousy remain part of the human personality.

The Federalist Papers

The Federalist Papers
by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay

The Federalist Papers brilliantly defend what was in their day a revolutionary charter--the Constitution of the United States. The Federalist Papers explain the complexities of a constitutional government its political structure and sprinciples based on the inherent rights of man. Scholars have long regarded this work as a milestone in political science and a classic of American political theory.