Mashable

Learn how to code while you write programs that effortlessly perform useful feats of automation! The second edition of this international fan favorite includes a brand-new chapter on input validation, Gmail and Google Sheets automations, tips for updating CSV files, and more. If you've ever spent hours renaming files or updating spreadsheet cells, you know how tedious tasks like these can be. But what if you could have your computer do them for you? Automate the Boring Stuff with Python, 2nd Edition teaches even the technically uninclined how to write programs that do in minutes what would take hours to do by hand—no prior coding experience required! This new, fully revised edition of Al Sweigart’s bestselling Pythonic classic, Automate the Boring Stuff with Python, covers all the basics of Python 3 while exploring its rich library of modules for performing specific tasks, like scraping data off the Web, filling out forms, renaming files, organizing folders, sending email responses, and merging, splitting, or encrypting PDFs. There’s also a brand-new chapter on input validation, tutorials on automating Gmail and Google Sheets, tips on automatically updating CSV files, and other recent feats of automations that improve your efficiency. Detailed, step-by-step instructions walk you through each program, allowing you to create useful tools as you build out your programming skills, and updated practice projects at the end of each chapter challenge you to improve those programs and use your newfound skills to automate similar tasks. Boring tasks no longer have to take to get through—and neither does learning Python!

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER A fast-paced narrative that discovers a surprising perspective on World War II: Nazi Germany’s all-consuming reliance on drugs The Nazi regime preached an ideology of physical, mental, and moral purity. But as Norman Ohler reveals in this gripping new history, the Third Reich was saturated with drugs. On the eve of World War II, Germany was a pharmaceutical powerhouse, and companies such as Merck and Bayer cooked up cocaine, opiates, and, most of all, methamphetamines, to be consumed by everyone from factory workers to housewives to millions of German soldiers. In fact, troops regularly took rations of a form of crystal meth—the elevated energy and feelings of invincibility associated with the high even help to explain certain German military victories. Drugs seeped all the way up to the Nazi high command and, especially, to Hitler himself. Over the course of the war, Hitler became increasingly dependent on injections of a cocktail of drugs—including a form of heroin—administered by his personal doctor. While drugs alone cannot explain the Nazis’ toxic racial theories or the events of World War II, Ohler’s investigation makes an overwhelming case that, if drugs are not taken into account, our understanding of the Third Reich is fundamentally incomplete. Carefully researched and rivetingly readable, Blitzed throws surprising light on a history that, until now, has remained in the shadows.

See the Grishaverse come to life on screen with the Netflix series, Shadow and Bone -- Season 2 streaming now! Trace the roots of Grisha power and discover this deliciously atmospheric, fully-illustrated collection of Grishaverse fairy tales filled with betrayals, revenge, sacrifice, and love. Enter the Grishaverse... Love speaks in flowers. Truth requires thorns. Travel to a world of dark bargains struck by moonlight, of haunted towns and hungry woods, of talking beasts and gingerbread golems, where a young mermaid's voice can summon deadly storms and where a river might do a lovestruck boy's bidding but only for a terrible price. Perfect for new readers and dedicated fans, the tales in The Language of Thorns will transport you to lands both familiar and strange―to a fully realized world of dangerous magic that millions have visited through the novels of the Grishaverse. This collection of six stories includes three brand-new tales, each of them lavishly illustrated and culminating in stunning full-spread illustrations as rich in detail as the stories themselves. A New York Times Bestseller This title has Common Core connections. "Lushly designed and wonderfully rendered...Bardugo doesn’t twist familiar tales so much as rip them open." ―Booklist, starred review "Strong writing, compelling stories, and gorgeous illustrations make this collection a must-have." ―School Library Journal, starred review "Beautiful imagery conceived from precise, beautiful prose; beautiful cover image and interior illustrations that creep across each page toward a beautiful consummation; beautiful lands inhabited by beautiful hearts." ―VOYA, starred review "Elegantly crafted...stylishly intricate illustrations...all fans of the darker side of folktales and folktale-like stories will find the stories satisfyingly full of pain, danger, and vengeance." ―The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, starred review "Gorgeously otherworldly...Any lover of retellings or original fairy tales will enjoy." ―Kirkus Reviews “Gorgeous, cruel and almost wistful windows onto the dreamscapes and hard lessons of [Bardugo’s] alternate universe…fairy tales with all the darkness intact.” ―NPR Book Review "Those who seem innocent are shown to be guilty, one-dimensional characters become more complicated, and mothers who once were absent are given presence and power.” ―Mashable "This new collection will intrigue, awe, frighten, and inspire both stalwart fans and new readers looking for a heady spoonful of fantasy.” ―Hypable "This nightmare-inducing collection is short but powerful, each tale as brilliant and absorbing as the one before... brilliant storytelling.” ―Romantic Times "Marvelous tales, as full of twists and delights and strangeness as anything found in the Grimm Brothers. Leigh Bardugo is a master." ―Kelly Link, author of Get in Trouble Read all the books in the Grishaverse! The Shadow and Bone Trilogy (previously published as The Grisha Trilogy) Shadow and Bone Siege and Storm Ruin and Rising The Six of Crows Duology Six of Crows Crooked Kingdom The King of Scars Duology King of Scars Rule of Wolves The Language of Thorns: Midnight Tales and Dangerous Magic The Severed Moon: A Year-Long Journal of Magic The Lives of Saints Demon in the Wood Graphic Novel Praise for the Grishaverse “A master of fantasy.” ―The Huffington Post “Utterly, extremely bewitching.” ―The Guardian “This is what fantasy is for.” ―The New York Times Book Review “A world that feels real enough to have its own passport stamp.” ―NPR “The darker it gets for the good guys, the better.” ―Entertainment Weekly “Sultry, sweeping and picturesque. . . . Impossible to put down.” ―USA Today “There’s a level of emotional and historical sophistication within Bardugo’s original epic fantasy that sets it apart.” ―Vanity Fair “Unlike anything I’ve ever read.” ―Veronica Roth, bestselling author of Divergent “Bardugo crafts a first-rate adventure, a poignant romance, and an intriguing mystery!” ―Rick Riordan, bestselling author of the Percy Jackson series