Urban City

Through 10 unique cities, from the founding of ancient capitals to buzzing modern megacities, Paul Strathern explores how urban centres lead civilisation forward, enjoying a moment of glory before passing on the baton. We journey back to discover Babylonian mathematics, Athenian theatre and intellectual debate, and Roman construction that has lasted millennia. We see Constantinople evolve into Istanbul, revolutionary sparks fly in Enlightenment Paris, and the railways, canals and ships that built Imperial London.

People move to New York looking for magic and nothing will convince them it isn't there. Charles Thomas Tester hustles to put food on the table, keep the roof over his father's head, from Harlem to Flushing Meadows to Red Hook. He knows what magic a suit can cast, the invisibility a guitar case...

Become a shifter. Build my pride. Be the leader these people need. I’ve always known I was different. There’s a beast inside me, clawing to get free—and it finally breaks loose when I return to Thornveil City, a magic-soaked metropolis crawling with shifters.

'Loved every page and it ended far too fast!' Reader review ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Don't miss this laugh-out-loud romcom from bestseller Portia MacIntosh, perfect for fans of forced proximity and opposites attract romance. Ruby Wood is perfectly happy playing the dating game – until she has a red-hot...

Times are truly desperate within Averalaan's hundred holdings, and Jewel MArkess and her den are finding it hard to survive. Then suddenly their mentor, Rath, orders them to avoid the ancient Undercity beneath Averlaan's streets, cutting them off from their main source of income. Yet Rath himself refuses to heed the warnings of Jewel's seer dreams. Instead, he allies with the mages of the Order of Knowledge in a secret war against demonic foes, knowing he'll be targeted for death - or worse.

When biologist Hanna Bjørgaas spots a fairy cup lichen in Antarctica, she is surprised to recognize it from her own backyard in Oslo. When she returns home, she embarks on a journey into urban nature, visiting city parks, cemeteries, and concrete rooftops to investigate the species that live in urban spaces. Along the way, she meets corvids, songbirds, ants, pigeons, bats, sparrows, fungi, and linden trees—and the experts who study their surprising abilities to survive, and thrive, in the city.

Following on the success of his first two story collections, ghost-walk guide and host of the Ghosts ‘N Bears Podcast Ian Gibbs returns to Calgary, the city of his childhood, to reckon with his earliest experiences of the supernatural, corroborate some of the city’s better known hauntings—think Heritage Park, Fort Calgary, and the Stampede Grandstand—and uncover many more. These thirty stories range from heritage homes and official historic sites, to strip malls and suburban basements.

John Taylor is the name. I work the Nightside. Only in that dark heart of London where it's always three A.M., where human and inhuman can feed their darkest desires, do I feel at home. Probably because I was born there. What I do is find things - people, objects - and in this case, the truth about the origins of the Nightside. That's what Lady Luck has hired me to investigate. But the more I dig, the more I discover, not about the Nightside but about the great question in my life: exactly who - and what - was my long-vanished mother.

A strange creature attacked Romeo last night. A huge beast unlike anything anyone has ever seen in Philly before—an alien monster with natural armor, organic high-tech weaponry, and poison dripping from its limbs. My intuition is screaming at me. It's telling me the monster is not here for Romeo. It's here for me.

Amanda Hocking, the New York Times bestselling author of The Kanin Chronicles, returns to the magical world of the Trylle Trilogy with The Lost City, the first novel in The Omte Origins—and the final story arc in her beloved series. The storm and the orphan Twenty years ago, a woman sought...

Chess Putnam has a lot on her plate. Mangled human corpses have started to show up on the streets of Downside, and Chess’ bosses at the Church of Real Truth have ordered her to team up with the ultra-powerful Black Squad agency to crack the grisly case.

An updated version of The Cricket in Times Square, the timeless children's classic featuring a business-savvy mouse, a kind alley cat, and a talented country cricket, featuring a new afterword and revisions by YA author Stacey Lee. Tucker is a streetwise city mouse. He thought he'd seen it all...

My preordained mate left me, heartbroken and alone. Not only am I feeling these strange emotions, but my world crumbles around me as corruption and attacks threaten to destroy Shadow City. The fury of Hell continues to grow as more of their plans unravel. When my mate reappears, I can’t help but fear it could be a ploy…once more. Whatever happens, I can't allow him to use me again, even if my heart screams for me to forgive him. Because my decisions don't only affect me…they could endanger the entire world.

No city stirs the imagination more than Venice. From the richly ornamented palaces emerging from the waters of the Grand Canal to the dazzling sites of Piazza San Marco, visitors and residents alike sense they are entering, as fourteenth-century poet Petrarch remarked, “another world.” During the Middle Ages and Renaissance, Venice was celebrated as a model republic in an age of monarchs. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, it became famous for its freewheeling lifestyle characterized by courtesans, casinos, and Carnival.

How did the preaching of a peasant carpenter from Galilee spark a movement that would grow to include over two billion followers? Who listened to this "good news," and who ignored it? Where did Christianity spread, and how? Based on quantitative data and the latest scholarship, preeminent scholar and journalist Rodney Stark presents new and startling information about the rise of the early church, overturning many prevailing views of how Christianity grew through time to become the largest religion in the world.

America is an urban nation. More than two thirds of us live on the three percent of land that contains our cities. Yet cities get a bad rap: they're dirty, poor, unhealthy, crime ridden, expensive, environmentally unfriendly. Or are they? As Edward Glaeser proves in this myth-shattering book, cities are actually the healthiest, greenest, and richest (in cultural and economic terms) places to live.

City of Big Shoulders links key events in Chicago's development, from its marshy origins in the 1600's to today's robust metropolis. Robert G. Spinney presents Chicago in terms of the people whose lives made the city - from the tycoons and the politicians, to the hundreds of thousands of immigrants from all over the world. In this revised and updated second edition that brings Chicago's story into the 21st century, Spinney sweeps his historian's gaze across the colorful and dramatic panorama of the city's explosive past.

Half of all 7,000-plus human languages may disappear over the next century, and when they're gone, it will be forever. Ross Perlin, a linguist and codirector of the Manhattan-based non-profit Endangered Language Alliance, is racing against time to map little-known languages across the most linguistically diverse city in history: contemporary New York.

Milly Grove, home of Kenneth 'Uno' Mills, has been run by his family for over a century. Commissioner by day and gangsta by night, he's the man in his city. Although he may hold a position in office, don't be fooled by the tailored suits. Disrespecting him will cost you your life. When the current mayor is exposed for misconduct, Uno steps in to make sure the position continues to be held by the Mills bloodline. His decision to run for Mayor leaves the family at odds. Once he receives the keys to the city, blood ties will be severed, lives will be lost, and new bonds will be forged.

I had been hidden away with my powers cloaked by those desperate to protect me. But now that my true identity has been revealed, a vile enemy is desperate to capture me. I need Cyrus, my fated mate, now more than ever. His support makes me stronger, and I need that strength as I uncover more about my hidden heritage. Danger is closing in as my adversaries grow intent on killing Cyrus and handing me over to the prince of Hell. I'll have to harness my emerging powers and prepare for war. My days as a pawn are over, and I will fight to protect those I hold dear...even to my last breath.