On Halloween night, thirteen-year-old Ruby disappears in the company of a masked figure. She is never seen again. The only witness is Nell Montague who is just seven years old. Twenty-three years later, Nell is trapped in an abusive relationship and still suffering from vivid nightmares of what she saw. When tragedy strikes she escapes and attempts to put her past behind her. Then, thirteen-year-old Emily disappears. Haunted by increasingly disturbing visions and helped by a reluctant psychic, Nell must unravel the mystery of what really happened that night, because to save Emily she must first find Ruby. But to do so she will question everything she thought she knew about her own childhood and soon discovers that nightmares don't always end when you wake up.
It is the summer of 1965. Annie Cradock, the only child of exacting parents who run the village school, is an imaginative girl with a head full of the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. Annie whiles away the school holiday with her friends: Ollie the rag-and-bone man (and more importantly his dog); the beautiful piano-playing Mrs Clitheroe who turns Beethoven into boogie-woogie (and like Annie sees music in colour); and Annie's best friend Babette - streetwise, loyal, and Annie's one solid link with common sense. But everything changes when the village is rocked by a series of murders and the girls know something they've no intention of telling the police.In the present day, adult Annie is a successful singing coach in a stifling marriage. Her ambitious American husband, impatient with his quirky wife, is taking a job in New York - but is she staying with him? As Annie struggles with her future, she first has to come to terms with the bizarre events of 1965.
"Goodbye Ruby Akhtar" is the true story of a modern day avatar, who happens to be the reincarnation of an ancient Israelite Queen, who ancient legend suggests made it all the way to Ireland. The Book of Tephi, Queen of Tara and Gibralter prophesied that she would return to Ireland one day to restore justice to the land, and bring peace to the world. Based on personal testimony, the recounting of dreams from early childhood and the opinion of spiritualists, Ruby Akhtar is the reincarnation of the ancient Israelite Queen. The promise made long ago has been fulfilled. Queen Teia Tephi has returned.Fate intervened to bring Ruby to Ireland as a young girl of 12, very much against her will. She is now accepting of her destiny and reconciled to her fate. She knows why she is here and intends to make the best of the soul contract she has been given.Born to a Jewish family in Pakistan, Ruby was married off to a 33-year-old paedophile. Wedding her under false pretences, and vowing to rescue her from a life of third world poverty and limited prospects, he spirited her off to a land that was not "her country, her culture, her people." Ruby was abducted to Northern Ireland, where she suffered repeated acts of sexual abuse over a three year period at the hands of her husband the paedophile ring to which he was attached. She finally managed to escape confinement by jumping from the second floor of the house where she was imprisoned. Fleeing for her life and badly injured from the fall, she somehow managed to hobble several miles to the nearest police station. The officer in charge then acted as her champion, taking her under wing and getting her passport back for her. This is just the beginning of her journey. Her journey's end was sharing her story with the United Nations, and bringing her campaign of justice for young victims to the world.
This book will provide you with all of the tools you need to be a professional Ruby developer. Starting with the core principles, such as syntax and best practices, and up to advanced topics like metaprogramming and big data analysis. About This Book • Provides the core skills required to become a Ruby programmer • Covers how to use the most popular Ruby Gem libraries • Includes details on regular expressions Who This Book Is For This is a complete course written from the ground up for beginners wanting to gain a solid understanding of the Ruby language. It starts at the beginning with how to install Ruby and work with it on multiple machines, so simply have a computer that's connected to the Internet and you'll be ready. What You Will Learn • Learn how to use Ruby code effectively, picking the right tool for the job and not duplicating built-in functionality • Gain best software development practices, and how to identify and fix common errors • Absorb core programming skills, such as variables, strings, loops, conditionals, and much more • Explore object-oriented programming and learn to create modular, reusable code that you can use across projects • Build 10 practical Ruby programs as you work through the book on topics such as big data analysis and solving Euler equations In Detail Ruby is a powerful, general-purpose programming language that can be applied to any task. Whether you are an experienced developer who wants to learn a new language or you are new to programming, this book is your comprehensive Ruby coding guide. Starting with the foundational principles, such as syntax, and scaling up to advanced topics such as big data analysis, this book will give you all of the tools you need to be a professional Ruby developer. A few of the key topics are: object-oriented programming, built-in Ruby methods, core programming skills, and an introduction to the Ruby on Rails and Sinatra web frameworks. You will also build 10 practical Ruby programs. Created by an experienced Ruby developer, this book has been written to ensure it focuses on the skills you will need to be a professional Ruby developer. After you have read this book, you will be ready to start building real-world Ruby projects. Style and approach This is a comprehensive course for learning the Ruby programming language that works methodically through everything that you need to know. It begins with the basics of the language and then works through some complete projects to apply your skills and ensure that you have fully absorbed them and can use them in the real world.
Help Ruby learn his farm animals with this personalised board book. With personalisation on each page to capture the engagement of the child on every spread.
What would you do if your daughter was missing? Where would you look? Where would you go to find her? Special Agent Diane Greer of the FBI has already been working on missing profiles for six months. She has no leads. She has no clues, just another missing woman on the first of every month. Without a fingerprint of trace will there ever be closure? Will they ever live to tell their story or will the remains of ashes be enough to help the FBI put the pieces back together?
Elevate your Ruby skills to an advanced level by deepening your understanding of the design principles, best practices, and trade-offs involved in implementation approaches to future-proof your Ruby applications Key Features Learn Ruby web application design principles and strategies for databases, security, and testing from a Ruby committer Understand the design principles behind polished Ruby code and trade-offs between implementation approaches Use metaprogramming and DSLs to reduce the amount of code needed without decreasing maintainability Book DescriptionAnyone striving to become an expert Ruby programmer needs to be able to write maintainable applications. Polished Ruby Programming will help you get better at designing scalable and robust Ruby programs, so that no matter how big the codebase grows, maintaining it will be a breeze. This book takes you on a journey through implementation approaches for many common programming situations, the trade-offs inherent in each approach, and why you may choose to use different approaches in different situations. You'll start by refreshing Ruby fundamentals, such as correctly using core classes, class and method design, variable usage, error handling, and code formatting. Then you'll move on to higher-level programming principles, such as library design, use of metaprogramming and domain-specific languages, and refactoring. Finally, you'll learn principles specific to web application development, such as how to choose a database and web framework, and how to use advanced security features. By the end of this Ruby programming book, you’ll be a well rounded web developer with a deep understanding of Ruby. While most code examples and principles discussed in the book apply to all Ruby versions, some examples and principles are specific to Ruby 3.0, the latest release at the time of publication.What you will learn Use Ruby s core classes and design custom classes effectively Explore the principles behind variable usage and method argument choice Implement advanced error handling approaches such as exponential backoff Design extensible libraries and plugin systems in Ruby Use metaprogramming and DSLs to avoid code redundancy Implement different approaches to testing and understand their trade-offs Discover design patterns, refactoring, and optimization with Ruby Explore database design principles and advanced web app security Who this book is forThis book is for Ruby programmers who are comfortable in coding with Ruby but want to advance their skills by mastering the deeper principles and best practices behind writing maintainable, scalable, optimized, and well-structured Ruby code. This book won’t teach you the basics of Ruby – you’ll need intermediate knowledge and practical experience before you can dive in.
It is for everyone who cares about education in an uncertain world and explains how teachers, parents and grandparents can cultivate confidence, curiosity, collaboration, communication, creativity, commitment and craftsmanship in children, at the same time as helping them to do well in public examinations. Educating Ruby: what our children really need to learn shows, unequivocally, that schools can get the right results in the right way, so that the Rubys of tomorrow will emerge from their time at school able to talk with honest pleasure and reflective optimism about their schooling. Featuring the views of schoolchildren, parents, educators and employers and drawing on Guy Claxton and Bill Lucas' years of experience in education, including their work with Building Learning Power and the Expansive Education Network, this powerful new book is sure to provoke thinking and debate. Just as Willy Russell's Educating Rita helped us rethink university, the authors of Educating Ruby invite fresh scrutiny of our schools.
Baby Ruby won't stop crying. Dad gives her a bath, Mum gives her a feed, Nana takes her for a drive and Grandad walks her around the garden. But Ruby keeps on bawling. At last her brother Theo has a go and sings her a special song he makes up. The whole family are so tired after all of this, they fall asleep - all except Ruby.
When Bridget receives a box containing a chess piece and a ruby ring her life, along with the lives of her family, changes. A large sum of money to to three appropriate recipients presents logistical and ethical questions. how absolute is the authority of the lavv when lives of vulnerable victims are at stake? Should compassion be allowed to the force of the low? Oliver is a solicitor facing a crisis in his own life in which he questions his ingrained adherence to the law, when challenged by the dilemma of an innocent teenager. For Bridget, the inner world of the Spirit illumines and energizes the material world from the vibrational level, she has come to believe of a higher dimension. The matters, but there is a higher spiritual reality' which judges differently, What is the validity' of a spirituality in which the frame of reference does rot embrace the grim realities of human existence?
Richard Rothman never knew his grandfather, who left behind a wife and young daughter to fight-and die-in the Spanish Civil War. What drove a young, idealistic New Yorker with everything to live for to leave it all behind? This lucid investigation into a family history will explore the social idealism and selfless passions that drew the author's grandfather into the Communist Party and, in 1937, onto the bloody front lines in Spain. But his search will also reveal the darker truths behind treasured family lore, as Rothman discovers how fervent idealism blinded not only his grandfather, but also other family members to ugly realities of the movement to which they devoted their lives.Written with compassion and insight, Finding Ruby takes the reader on a journey from the trenches in the Spanish Civil War to the courtrooms of the segregated South in the epic case of the Scottsboro Boys, which helped launch the Civil Rights movement.This deeply personal story sheds light on not only one family, but an entire swathe of American history.
When Saxon finds a girl with no memory on the outskirts of the Nevertyre community, his family take her in and nurse her back to health. He is wary of this stranger but compelled to learn more about her. He soon realises the danger they all face.When Kerina wakes she must fight to make sense of her situation, but she is haunted by images of her past. She is the key to the future, she just doesn't know it yet.To find answers, Kerina and Saxon must work together. They set off on a quest of self-discovery. Along the way they meet allies and enemies, and uncover truths too difficult to accept. Both must leave the past behind and find a way toward their future.Kerina and Saxon. Two different stories. Two separate lives. One connected future.
This anthology of fiction, memoir, and creative nonfiction, as well as lyrical and heartfelt poetry, from published authors, emerging and beginner writers from The Society of Women Writers WA offers you a potpourri enjoyable reading.
Ruby is the fastest growing and most exciting dynamic language out there. If you need to get working programs delivered fast, you should add Ruby to your toolbox. This book is the only complete reference for both Ruby 1.9 and Ruby 2.0, the very latest version of Ruby. 2013 marks the 20th anniversary of the Ruby language. We're proud that throughout its history, we've continued to cover the latest version of Ruby. Would you like to go from first idea to working code much, much faster? Do you currently spend more time satisfying the compiler instead of your clients or end users? Are you frustrated with demanding languages that seem to get in your way, instead of getting the work done? Are you using Rails, and want to dig deeper into the underlying Ruby language? If so, then we've got a language and book for you! Ruby is a fully object-oriented language, much like the classic object-oriented language, Smalltalk. Like Smalltalk, it is dynamically typed (as opposed to Java or C++), but unlike Smalltalk, Ruby features the same conveniences found in modern scripting languages such as Perl and Python. The combination of the power of a pure object-oriented language with the convenience of a scripting language makes Ruby a favorite tool of intelligent, forward-thinking programmers. The Pickaxe contains four major sections: * An acclaimed tutorial on using Ruby. * The definitive reference to the language. * Complete documentation of all built-in classes, modules, and methods. * Complete descriptions of all 97 standard libraries. This is the reference manual for Ruby, including a description of all the standard library modules, a complete reference to all built-in classes and modules (including all the new and changed methods introduced by Ruby 1.9, 1.9.2, 1.9.3, and 2.0). It also includes all the new and changed syntax and semantics introduced since Ruby 1.8. Learn about the new parameter passing rules, local variable scoping in blocks, fibers, and the new block declaration syntax, among other exciting new features. About Ruby 2.0 Ruby 2.0 is a minor update to Ruby 1.9, unlike the more major updates from Ruby 1.8 to Ruby 1.9. The major language changes in Ruby 2.0 are the addition of keyword arguments and the change to use UTF-8 as the default source file encoding. There are a number of additions to the standard library, including: * @Enumerator::Lazy@, which adds support for lazy access to potentially infinite lists. * Refinements allow you to encapsulate changes to third-party classes, and scope their application to individual source files, preventing your changes from polluting the global application. You'll also find that Ruby 2 is faster, and has memory management improvements that make it more server-friendly. All told, there are over 110 sections of the book that have been flagged and cross-linked to indicate 2.0 content. What You Need * This book assumes you have a basic understanding of object-oriented programming. * In general, Ruby programmers tend to favor the the command line for running their code, and they tend to use text editors rather than IDEs.
