Mysterious (mistie - ries), a. f. L. mysterium Mysteryi ] ous. Cf. F. mysterieux.] 1. Full of or fraught with mystery; wrapt in mystery; hidden from human knowledge or understanding; impossible or difficult to explain, solve, or discover; of obscure origin, nature, or purpose. It is known as one of[...]

Rising in the mountains of the Tibetan border, the symbolic heart of China pierces 3,900 miles of rugged country before debouching into the oily swells of the East China Sea. Connecting China's heartland cities with the volatile coastal giant, Shanghai, it has also historically connected China to th[...]

In this magnificently illustrated cultural history--the tie-in to the pbs and bbc series The Story of the Jews--simon schama details the story of the jewish people, tracing their experience across three millennia, from their beginnings as an ancient tribal people to the opening of the new world in 1[...]

In 1793, a canal digger named William Smith made a startling discovery. He found that by tracing the placement of fossils, which he uncovered in his excavations, one could follow layers of rocks as they dipped and rose and fell--clear across England and, indeed, clear across the world--making it pos[...]

From the best-selling author of The Professor and the Madman, The Map That Changed the World, and Krakatoa comes a truly wonderful celebration of the English language and of its unrivaled treasure house, the Oxford English Dictionary.
Writing with marvelous brio, Winchester first serves up a lig[...]

Hacker extraordinaire, Kevin Mitnick delivers the explosive encore to his bestselling "The Art of Deception". Kevin Mitnick, the world's most celebrated hacker, now devotes his life to helping businesses and governments combat data thieves, cybervandals, and other malicious computer intruders. In hi[...]

Roger Bushell was 'Big X', mastermind of the mass breakout from Stalag Luft III in March 1944, immortalised in the Hollywood film The Great Escape. Very little was known about Bushell until 2011, when his family donated his private papers - a treasure trove of letters, photographs and diaries - to t[...]

(Book). "My dad and I decided to make an electric guitar. I designed an instrument from scratch, with the intention that it would have a capability beyond anything that was out there, more tunable, with a greater range of pitches and sounds, with a better tremolo, and with a capability of feeding ba[...]

Cartography enthusiasts rejoice: the bestselling author of the "Just My Type "reveals the fascinating relationship between man and map.
Simon Garfield's "Just My Type "illuminated the world of fonts and made everyone take a stand on Comic Sans and care about kerning. Now Garfield takes on a subj[...]

Shares the stories of Big Bang theorists who fought against establishment beliefs about an eternal and unchanging universe to investigate the universe's origins, and then continues with a comprehensive and anecdotal explanation of the Big Bang Theory. By the author of Fermat's Enigma and The Code Bo[...]