Percival's Planet: A Novel

A novel of ambition and obsession centered on the race to discover Pluto in 1930, pitting an untrained Kansas farm boy against the greatest minds of Harvard at the run-down Lowell Observatory in Arizona 
In 1928, the boy who will discover Pluto, Clyde Tombaugh, is on the family farm, grinding a lens for his own telescope under the immense Kansas sky. In Flagstaff, Arizona, the staff of Lowell Observatory is about to resume the late Percival Lowell's interrupted search for Planet X. Meanwhile, the immensely rich heir to a chemical fortune has decided to go west to hunt for dinosaurs and in Cambridge, Massachussetts, the most beautiful girl in America is going slowly insane while her ex-heavyweight champion boyfriend stands by helplessly, desperate to do anything to keep her. Inspired by the true story of Tombaugh and set in the last gin-soaked months of the flapper era, Percival's Planet tells the story of the intertwining lives of half a dozen dreamers, schemers, and madmen. Following Tombaugh's unlikely path from son of a farmer to discoverer of a planet, the novel touches on insanity, mathematics, music, astrophysics, boxing, dinosaur hunting, shipwrecks―and what happens when the greatest romance of your life is also the source of your life's greatest sorrow.

Literature & Fiction

Byers,Michael

United States

St. Martin's: Griffin

A novel inspired by the true story of the farmboy Clyde Tombaugh and his discovery of the ninth planet, set in the last, vibrant, gin-soaked months of the flapper era. It's 1928 and Clyde Tombaugh, the boy who will discover Pluto, is out in the farmyard grinding the lens for his own telescope under the immense Kansas sky. A thousand miles away in Flagstaff, Arizona, the staff of Lowell Observatory are preparing to resume the long-interrupted search for Planet X. Meanwhile, the rich heir to a chemical fortune has decided to come west to hunt for dinosaurs and for God. And in Cambridge, a beautiful Mary is slipping into insanity while her heavyweight-champion boyfriend looks on certain he is about to lose her and determined to keep her at any cost. Following Tombaugh's unlikely path, The Unfixed Stars touches on madness, mathematics, music, astrophysics, heavyweight boxing, dinosaur hunting, shipwrecks and what happens when the greatest romance of your life becomes the source of your life's greatest sorrow.

The Unfixed Stars

Picador

This dazzling debut collection from a Seattle native features stories evocatively set along the Northwest coast, stories of quiet but astonishing lives. Here are ferry workers, carpenters, park rangers, living alongside crab factories, cranberry bogs, the misty ocean. Here are people puzzled by the processes of growing up, leaving home, parenting, aging. Here are people who realize there are second chances, that from illness can come hope, that from family can come a greater sense of self. Psychologically complex and glowing with warmth, these rich stories recall Tobias Wolff and Raymond Carver. A MARINER PAPERBACK ORIGINAL.

The Coast of Good Intentions

Mariner Books

A medical researcher specializing in a rare congenital disease that causes children to age drastically, Dr. Henry Moss is confronted with a difficult choice involving his personal and medical ethics when he meets a family whose three-year-old son, Giles, is stricken with the disease but whose teenage brother tests positive for the ailment but exhibits no symptoms. A first novel.

Long for This World

Houghton, Mifflin Company

Custom, Power and the Power of Rules: International Relations and Customary International Law

This book sets out to explain the most foundational aspect of international law in international relations terms. By doing so it goes straight to the central problem of international law--that although legally speaking all States are equal, socially speaking they clearly are not. As such it is an ambitious and controversial book that will be of interest to all international relations scholars and students and practitioners of international law.

Foreign & International Law

Cambridge University Press

A wise and richly symphonic first novel, Long for This World is a thoroughly contemporary family drama that hinges on a riveting medical dilemma. Dr. Henry Moss is a dedicated geneticist who stumbles upon a possible cure for a disease that causes rapid aging and early death in children. Although his discovery may hold the key to eternal youth, exploiting it is an ethical minefield. Henry must make a painful choice: he can save the life of a critically ill boy he has grown to love — at the cost of his career — or he can sell his findings for a fortune to match the wealth of his dot-com-rich Seattle neighbors. Henry turns to his family for support, and in their intimately detailed lives unfolds a story of unforgettable characters grappling with their own demons.

Long For This World: A Novel

Michael Byers’s award-winning collection The Coast of Good Intentions tells graceful tales of achingly unresolved lives on the Pacific Northwest coast. Byers captures the lives of ferry workers, carpenters, park rangers, and adolescents leaving home, against a backdrop of crab factories, cranberry bogs, the fog-shrouded shore, and the Seattle skyline. A poignant collection, these stories are “richly peopled with compelling characters whose wisdom and experiences span the generations” (San Jose Mercury News).

The Coast Of Good Intentions: Stories

International law governing the use of military force has been the subject of intense public debate. Under what conditions is it appropriate, or necessary, for a country to use force when diplomacy has failed? Michael Byers, a widely known world expert on international law, weighs these issues in War Law . Byers examines the history of armed conflict and international law through a series of case studies of past conflicts, ranging from the 1837 Caroline Incident to the abuse of detainees by U.S. forces at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. Byers explores the legal controversies that surrounded the 1999 and 2001 interventions in Kosovo and Afghanistan and the 2003 war in Iraq; the development of international humanitarian law from the 1859 Battle of Solferino to the present; and the role of war crimes tribunals and the International Criminal Court. He also considers the unique influence of the United States in the evolution of this extremely controversial area of international law. War Law is neither a textbook nor a treatise, but a fascinating account of a highly controversial topic that is necessary reading for fans of military history and general readers alike.

War Law: Understanding International Law and Armed Conflict

GROVE PRESS

International law governing the use of military force has been the subject of intense public debate. Under what conditions is it appropriate, or necessary, for a country to use force when diplomacy has failed? Michael Byers, a widely known world expert on international law, weighs these issues in War Law. Byers examines the history of armed conflict and international law through a series of case studies of past conflicts, ranging from the 1837 Caroline Incident to the abuse of detainees by U.S. forces at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. Byers explores the legal controversies that surrounded the 1999 and 2001 interventions in Kosovo and Afghanistan and the 2003 war in Iraq; the development of international humanitarian law from the 1859 Battle of Solferino to the present; and the role of war crimes tribunals and the International Criminal Court. He also considers the unique influence of the United States in the evolution of this extremely controversial area of international law. War Law is neither a textbook nor a treatise, but a fascinating account of a highly controversial topic that is necessary reading for fans of military history and general readers alike.

History

Military

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Byers,Michael. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Byers,Michael

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Byers,Michael. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Percival's Planet: A Novel

The Unfixed Stars

The Coast of Good Intentions

Long for This World

Custom, Power and the Power of Rules: International Relations and Customary International Law

Custom, Power and the Power of Rules: International Relations and Customary International Law

Long For This World: A Novel

The Coast Of Good Intentions: Stories

War Law: Understanding International Law and Armed Conflict

War Law: Understanding International Law and Armed Conflict