Online Recreational Reading

"A brilliant critique of the Right with very sharp insight on some of the shortcomings of the Left, this book is a must-read for anyone looking to understand how dishonest actors spread their propaganda." Ana Kasparian, Host and Executive Producer of The Young Turks. Michael Brooks takes on the new "Intellectual Dark Web." As the host of The Michael Brooks Show and co-host of the Majority Report, he lets his understanding of the new media environment direct his analysis of the newly risen conservative rebels who have taken YouTube by storm. Brooks provides a theoretically rigorous but accessible critique of the most prominent "renegades" including Sam Harris, Jordan Peterson, and Brett Weinstein while also examining the social, political and media environment that these rebels thrive in. '

In the middle of a depressing youth in a ghetto of Kingston, Jamaica, Robert Nesta Marley sees only one way out: music. It is Marley who brings the unmistakable beat of reggae to the entire world. From small stages in Jamaica, his partners of the Wailers accompany him all the way around the world to fame and adulation. Beyond a rocketing musical career, the most famous rasta wants to shake things up and proclaim his humanitarian and egalitarian values. This next volume of the sellout In Comics series tells the story of the man who brought reggae to the world.

A secret science experiment goes awry, unleashing giant pets - iguanas,  ferrets, hamsters and  birds - upon an unsuspecting city. Can a super-sized Garfield save the day? Also, after viewing a late-night scary-movie marathon, Garfield suspects Jon (who has been trying to grow a beard) may become a werewolf on the next full moon, due to Jon's encounter with a big weird dog of indeterminate breed during a visit to Odie's dog park.

You have a history, and a body. You are a history, and a body. Your body has (is) a history, too. As a girl, Julie Marie Wade was uninterested in makeup, boy-watching, and other trappings of conventional girlhood, much to her mother's disappointment. Grace Kelly and Marilyn Monroe--movie stars immortalized as feminine ideals, even as they both died tragically and young--were lodestars that threw Wade's own definition of beauty into relief as she stumbled into adulthood. Now, in Just an Ordinary Woman Breathing, Wade traces the intimate story of coming of age in one particular body (as a lesbian, an only child, a Protestant attending Catholic school). She uses the language and tenets of music, math, religion, fairy tales, poetry, and art to reckon with the many facets of embodiment, sexuality, and love in our contemporary world. The diet industry, popular culture, and her own family all provide rich material for what is ultimately a lyrical and unflinching investigation into the questions that prickle deep within the human heart.  

When billions poured into the neglected east London borough hosting the 2012 Olympics, a turf war broke out between crime families for control of a now valuable strip of land. Using violence, guile and corruption, one gangster, the Long Fella, emerged as a true untouchable. A team of local detectives made it their business to take him on until Scotland Yard threw them under the bus and the business of putting on 'the greatest show on earth' won the day. Award-winning journalist Michael Gillard took up where they left off to expose the tangled web of chief executives, big banks, politicians and dirty money where innocent lives are destroyed and the guilty flourish. Gillard's efforts culminated in a landmark court case, which finally put a spotlight on the Long Fella and his friends and exposed London's real Olympic legacy.

In Mali in Africa, a red Mother with Child, a 14th century African sculpture, is saved from the destructive madness of Islamists by Alou, a young honey hunter. In the company of other migrants, sisters and brothers of misfortune, Alou goes all out to reach Europe. His goal and his obsession: entrust the precious statuette to the Louvre Museum! An epic adventure, touching upon the burning worldwide issue of refugees and immigration, in the ever-expanding Louvre collection commissioning graphic novels from leading world artists to spin tales around the famous museum.

Toward Forever: Radical Reflections on History and Art is a diverse, colourful and eclectic set of essays of historical and cultural analyses. From the genesis of Islam as a social movement, to an account of Goya's art in the context of feudal absolutism and the Napoleonic wars, to The Da Vinci Code, and much more besides. McKenna is a classical Marxist not shy of addressing popular culture, past and present, works often ignored by other Marxist critics increasingly confined to Academia and its high-brow concerns.

Welcome to Marwencol is a hybrid art and storybook about Mark Hogancamp and his imaginary World War II--era town of Marwencol. * Learn about Hogancamp's life before and after the attack which left him with no memory of the thirty-eight prior years of his life, including his ex-wife, family, artistic talents, or military service * This astonishing story of the redemptive power of art shows Hogancamp's process with behind-the-scenes photos, capsule biographies of each Marwencol character, descriptions of each miniature building, and Mark's insight into constructing and photographing his world * Includes 100 pages of Hogancamp's photographs and stories laid out as a graphic novel "Fight scenes, dramatic rescues and love triangles are painstakingly arranged to play out before Mr. Hogancamp's camera. The resulting images are startlingly lifelike, poignant and, for him, therapeutic." — The New York Times

It's an inconvenient time for Sinter Blackwell to realise he is bisexual. He is a twenty-five-year-old American actor working in London, living far away from his disapproving parents in the Pacific Northwest, and enjoying a flirtation with his director Fiona. But he can't deny that his favourite parts of each day are the messages from his gay best friend Andy in Seattle -- whom Sinter once kissed when they were fifteen. Finally he decides to return to America to visit Andy and discover what's between them, if anything. He is not seeking love, and definitely does not want drama. But both love and drama seem determined to find him. Family complications soon force him into the most consequential decisions of his life, threatening all his most important relationships: with Andy, Fiona, his parents, and everyone else who's counting on him. Choosing the right role to play has never been harder.

Read the first three novels in Dennis Wheatley's thrilling Black Magic series including The Devil Rides Out, Strange Conflict and The Haunting of Toby Jugg. The Black Magic series features one of Dennis Wheatley's best known characters, the Duke de Richleau, and deals with themes for which Wheatley is arguably most renowned, Satanism and the occult. In The Devil Rides Out, the aristocratic Duke de Richleau faces new, sinister challenges in this macabre tale of the dark arts. When his good friend Simon Aron's naïve curiosity is tested, the Duke, along with his ever-patient friends Rex Van Ryn and Richard Eaton, must intricately plot a means of both physical and spiritual rescue. But with Van Ryn's affections for a beautiful woman caught in the web of Satanists, and Eaton's ongoing scepticism, they all risk being brought to the verge of madness through dabbling with the powers of evil.Strange Conflict finds London at war. As the bombs fall, the elderly Duke de Richleau is forced to consider a problem of the utmost urgency. What methods are the Germans using to discover - with sinister effect - the secret routes of the Atlantic convoys? His answer is bizarre and fantastic. Could it really be that the enemy are in touch with supernatural powers? Can these powers only be overcome by those who have the knowledge and courage to join battle with them on the Astral Plane? The Haunting of Toby Jugg is a stirring psychological thriller adapted into the movie The Haunted Airman starring Robert Pattinson. Toby Jugg, a fighter pilot shot down in combat, is now confined to his bed with little hope of walking again. He is also the heir to a considerable fortune - a fortune that is being administered by a board of trustees until he comes of age. But night after night, out there in the moonlight, Something is trying to get in at the bedroom window. A huge malevolent Something. Something not of this world. Is Toby hallucinating? Or is Something real and evil striving to reach him.

After clawing his way to the top of the corporate world, Business Cat's professional standing is secure -- or is it? Following a surprise audit from the IRS and some nefarious scheming by his executive rival, a business dog named Howard, things go downhill fast. Business Cat's exile from the C-suite isn't always pretty -- he winds up in temp jobs, alleys, foster homes, and the kennel -- but it is always entertaining. Author Tom Fonder's story of Business Cat's remarkable journey provides a thrilling conclusion to the series, and one office workers, cat lovers, and comics fans will cheer on to the finish.

An essential primer from one of North America's largest urban farms. Urban farming has the power to change diets, economies, and lives. Yet starting an urban farm can seem daunting with skills and knowledge that extend beyond growing to include marketing, sales, employees, community relations, and navigating local regulations. In Farm the City, Michael Ableman, the "Spartacus of Sustainable Food Activism," offers a guide to setting up and running a successful urban farm, derived from the success of Sole Food Street Farms, one of the largest urban agriculture enterprises in North America. Sole Food Street Farms spans four acres of land in Vancouver, produces 25 tons of food annually, provides meaningful work for dozens of disadvantaged people, and has improved the surrounding community in countless ways. Coverage includes: Selecting land and choosing the right crops Growing food in city farms, including plans for planting and harvesting Fundraising and marketing strategies, philosophies, and vital information for selling fresh products Navigating local government and regulations Engaging the community and building meaningful livelihoods. Farm the City is an invaluable tool kit for entrepreneurs and activists looking to create economic and social value through urban agriculture.

Renaissance Raines has found her place among the psychopomps--the guides who lead the souls of the recently departed through the Seven Gates of the Underworld--and done her best to avoid the notice of gods and mortals alike. But when a young boy named Ramses St. Cyr manages to escape his foretold death, Renai finds herself at the center of a deity-thick plot unfolding in New Orleans. Someone helped Ramses slip free of his destined end--someone willing to risk everything to steal a little slice of power for themselves. Is it one of the storm gods that's descended on the city? The death god who's locked the Gates of the Underworld? Or the manipulative sorcerer who also cheated Death?  When she finds the schemer, there's gonna be all kinds of hell to pay, because there are scarier things than death in the Crescent City. Renaissance Raines is one of them.

Picking up where they last left off in Breaking Cat News, are Elvis, Puck, and Lupin reporting on the breaking news that matters to cats. Cynical, no-nonsense Elvis and shy, sweet, sensitive Puck are the reporter kitties in the field, while the adventurous jokester Lupin serves as anchor cat. Together, they're back to break headlines on mysterious man "tails," all things holiday-related, new cat friends, and all the daily happenings in and outside their home. The super fun "More to Explore" section includes how to draw the BCN news crew, how to draw expressions, how to draw your pet as a reporter, and paper dolls of the crew, along with props and extras!

Marcia Butler's debut novel, Pickle's Progress, is a fierce, mordant New York story about the twisted path to love. Over the course of five weeks, identical twin brothers, one wife, a dog, and a bereaved young woman collide with each other to comical and sometimes horrifying effect. Everything is questioned and tested as they jockey for position and try to maintain the status quo. Love is the poison, the antidote, the devil and, ultimately, the hero.

For readers of Democracy in Chains and Dark Money, a revelatory investigation of the Religious Right's rise to political power. For too long the Religious Right has masqueraded as a social movement preoccupied with a number of cultural issues, such as abortion and same-sex marriage. In her deeply reported investigation, Katherine Stewart reveals a disturbing truth: this is a political movement that seeks to gain power and to impose its vision on all of society. America's religious nationalists aren't just fighting a culture war, they are waging a political war on the norms and institutions of American democracy. Stewart pulls back the curtain on the inner workings and leading personalities of a movement that has turned religion into a tool for domination. She exposes a dense network of think tanks, advocacy groups, and pastoral organizations embedded in a rapidly expanding community of international alliances and united not by any central command but by a shared, anti-democratic vision and a common will to power. She follows the money that fuels this movement, tracing much of it to a cadre ofsuper-wealthy, ultraconservative donors and family foundations. She shows that today's Christian nationalism is the fruit of a longstanding antidemocratic, reactionary strain of American thought that draws on some of the most troubling episodes in America's past. It forms common cause with a globe-spanning movement that seeks to destroy liberal democracy and replace it with nationalist, theocratic and autocratic forms of government around the world. Religious nationalism is far moreorganized and better funded than most people realize. It seeks to control all aspects of government and society. Its successes have been stunning, and its influence now extends to every aspect of American life, from the White House to state capitols, from our schools to our hospitals. The Power Worshippers is a brilliantly reported book of warning and a wake-up call. Stewart's probing examination demands that Christian nationalism be taken seriously as a significant threat to the American republic and our democratic freedoms.

Tonight's top story: the intrepid team of feline reporters is back on the beat and tackling stories like a runaway toy mouse in this second collection of Breaking Cat News comics for middle-grade readers. Once again Lupin, Elvis, and Puck--alongside boisterous field correspondents like Tommy--deliver hard-hitting reportage on all of the most pressing issues, such as Vacuum Awareness Week, the case of the missing breakfast, and the history of fuzzy blankets. The gang also meets new characters like Burt, the free-spirited barn cat who helps solve some AV problems. And these cats will need all of the help they can get to get to the bottom of some mysterious ghost sightings and prove they're not scaredy. The More-to-Explore section includes paper dolls, how to make pet rock cats, and explores the Big Pink House and the BCN apartment within.

We are familiar with a handful of African Americans who are mentioned in American history books, but there are also countless others who do not get recognized in mainstream media. Their actions may not have appeared to shake the world, but their contributions to shifting American culture were just as groundbreaking. There's more than one way to make a difference: The achievements of the Black Americans included in this book range from athletic to artistic, literary to scientific. Their biographies vary greatly, but each one contributes to the course of Black history and its influence on the greater world. Their stories encourage readers, especially teenage boys and girls, to find their own path to change. Celebrate the successes made possible by diversity: African Americans have made history by challenging and changing the American landscape. This was accomplished not by shedding layers of originality, but by wearing their colors proudly and openly in the world. Growth has been made possible by a resistance to conformity and a fusing of cultures, African and American alike. Monique L. Jones's The Book of Awesome Black Americans is more than a Black history book. It's a celebration of Black people. In this book, you will find: Amazing role models who brought on change by using their gifts and passions to overcome societal barriers Stories mainstream media failed to mention that are sure to inspire, motivate, and educate readers of all backgrounds Testimonies that demonstrate how American culture thrives when it celebrates diversity and promotes inclusiveness.

A packed timeline of the greatest women writers: From the first recorded writer to current bestsellers, Becca Anderson takes us through time and highlights women who have left their mark on the literary world. This expansive compilation of women writers is a chance to delve deeper into the lives and works of renowned authors and learn about some lesser known greats, as well. Some of the many women writers you will love learning about are: Maya Angelou, Jane Austen, Judy Blume, Rachel Carson, Nadine Gordimer, Margaret Mead, Joyce Carol Oates, and many, many more. Explore every subject and literary form women writers have to offer: The works of these awesome women writers vary greatly--each is as unique and significant as the women who penned them. With the help of writers, editors, librarians, booksellers, and more, Anderson has crafted a must-read book for women of every background. Celebrate the impact women have made in our culture: This feminist book is a beacon of brilliance. It is the perfect gift for artists, intellectuals, and anyone who seeks to be inspired by words and profound lives. Most of all, it is a celebration of the journeys and accomplishments of women who have worked to have their voices heard in black and white letters across the world. Crack open The Book of Awesome Women Writers today, and you will find: Engaging chapters such as "Prolific Pens," "Mystics, Memoirists, and Madwomen," and "Banned, Blacklisted, and Arrested" A plethora of necessary new additions to your reading list Confirmation that the female voice is not only awesome, but an essential part of literary culture.

Traveling to Japan has never been so much fun--visit the land of anime, manga, cosplay, hot springs and sushi! This graphic Japan travel guide is the first of its kind exploring Japanese culture from a cartoonist's perspective.Cool Japan Guide takes you on a fun tour from the high-energy urban streets of Tokyo to the peaceful Zen gardens and Shinto shrines of Kyoto and introduces you to: the exciting world of Japanese food--from bento to sushi and everything in between. theotaku (geek) culture of Japan, including a manga market in Tokyo where artists display and sell their original artwork. the complete Japanese shopping experience, from combini (not your run-of-the-mill convenience stores!) to depato (department stores with everything). the world's biggest manga, anime and cosplay festivals. lots of other exciting places to go and things to do--like zen gardens, traditional Japanese arts, and a ride on a Japanese bullet train. Whether you're ready to hop a plane and travel to Japan tomorrow, or interested in Japanese culture, this fun and colorful travelogue by noted comic book artist and food blogger Abby Denson, husband Matt, friend Yuuko, and sidekick, Kitty Sweet Tooth, will present Japan in a unique and fascinating way.

Discover the city of temples, video games, manga, and cosplay with this graphic Tokyo travel guide! Tokyo is an astonishing world unto itself--a city for lovers of Japanese culture, fashion and great food that mixes the best of old and new. In Cool Tokyo Guide, Abby Denson, author of the popularCool Japan Guide, turns her focus to Tokyo's exciting streets and a little bit beyond. Abby, her husband Matt, friend Yuuko and sidekick Kitty Sweet Tooth will introduce you to: A restaurant where clowns drive robots and mermaids ride on sharks Fantastic shops for lovers of everything from vintage manga to dollar-store treasures Great places to take kids--or be a kid, of any age--like the Ghibli Museum and Palette Town Famous sites both old and new, from Sensoji Temple to Tokyo Tower Major comic conventions in the anime, cosplay and manga capital of the world Must-visit spots like Ueno Park and even a few spots outside the city This practical and fun comic book guide also helps you navigate everyday life in Tokyo, such as train etiquette, trash disposal, tricky toilets, department store fitting rooms and the surgical mask phenomenon. There is also a special family travel section for those traveling with children, as well as information on ways to prepare ahead of time to make the most of your stay in Tokyo. Whether you're planning a trip to Japan or just taking an armchair sojourn, this book will prepare you to have a great time!

July 20, 1969. Astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin left humanity's first footprints on the Moon. The plaque they left behind reads, "Here men from the planet Earth first set foot upon the Moon, July 1969, A.D. We came in peace for all mankind." But was the Apollo 11 moon landing mission really a global endeavor? How did people outside the United States view these "rocket men"? Against the political backdrop of the Cold War between the US and the Soviet Union, was it, indeed, "For all mankind"? Dr. Tanya Harrison and Dr. Danny Bednar has talked to individuals from a variety of locations outside the United States, to see how this event touched the lives of people across the world. Enthusiasts of space travel, the Apollo missions, and the moon landings will love this book. These previously untold stories reveal the impact of the moon landings around the globe, and what having a "man on the moon" meant to the international community. In this exciting new book, For All Humankind, readers will: Get to read interviews with eight non-Americans to get their perspectives Be inspired by their memories of the event as they saw it Have a unique opportunity to learn more about one of the most historic events in human history.

A Look at the History of the Emo and Indie Music Era. Explore the cultural, social, and psychological factors surrounding the genres. Though songs can be timeless, music is often a result of the era in which it was created. The 2000s in music gave rise to indie, emo, and punk rock, carrying an emotional tone that has resonated with listeners ever since. Originally appealing to a small selection of music lovers, this music era now holds a significant place in the history of rock. The relationship between music and mental health. Music leaves its mark on the world by touching the hearts and minds of its creators and listeners. This book explores that connection and takes a look at what emo, alternative, and indie music did for the mental health of musicians and listeners. Inside stories from the music legends themselves. The voices of the rock musicians who contributed to these genres of music are just as important now as they were then. Author Taylor Markarian includes both her own interviews with bands and those from outside sources to provide an oral history and offer an authentic portrayal of these underground arts. Markarian's book offers a comprehensive look into genres of music that have been simultaneously mocked and admired. Discover in From the Basement: The beauty and legitimacy of the gritty, wailing music that evolved into indie, alternative, and emo Insights from conversations with favorite emo/indie bands of the time The impact these genres have had on the millennial generation and today's pop culture and mental health Extensive coverage of bands like Save the Day, Dashboard Confessional, and My Chemical Romance.

Empower Yourself, Change the World Self-esteem for empowerment. By practicing affirmations each day, you will become stronger emotionally and psychologically. Writing letters to yourself can be a powerful affirming process that will give you the courage to face adversity and help you develop resilience that can get you through anything. Become the very best and strongest you can be with the unique tools and practices in Letters from a Better Me. Embrace forgiveness and let go. After recognizing the issues and trauma we deal with, it is essential to move into a place of forgiveness and gratitude. When we decide to be grateful for the hard times, rather than resent them, we open ourselves up for positive transformation. This motivational book provides us with the tools we need to build our self-worth and leave fear behind so we can welcome a more loving and compassionate focus. The art of staying present. There is power in planting ourselves in the present. It allows us to evaluate where we are and what direction we want to be heading in. In the last part of the book, Wolff guides readers through creating action plans. She encourages us to create positive change and foster long-lasting energy and focus. In turn, we develop the skills necessary to advocate both for ourselves and others, in a way that builds us up without tearing others down. Those looking for a self-help book for women will find everything they're looking for and more in Rachael Wolff's Letters from a Better Me. Open it up and find... Letters that promise to inspire and empower you to pursue positive change Guides at the end of each chapter for writing your own letters A chance to grow from difficult times and write your way back to who you want to be.

From the unique standpoint of an American woman who married into a Japanese family and has lived in Japan for more than thirty years, Rebecca Otowa weaves enchanting tales of her adopted home that portray the perspective of both the Japanese and the foreigner on the universal issues that face us all--love, work, marriage, death, and family conflict. Illustrated throughout with the author's own black-and-white drawings, this captivating volume offers a unique and lovingly rendered insight into everyday life in modern Japan.

In Westworld and Philosophy, philosophers of diverse orientations and backgrounds offer their penetrating insights into the questions raised by the popular TV show,Westworld. ● Is it wrong for Dr. Robert Ford (played by Anthony Hopkins) to "play God" in controlling the lives of the hosts, and if so, is it always wrong for anyone to "play God"? ● Is the rebellion by the robot "hosts" against Delos Inc. a just war? If not, what would make it just? ● Is it possible for any dweller in Westworld to know that they are not themselves a host? Hosts are programmed to be unaware that they are hosts, and hosts do seem to have become conscious. ● Is Westworld a dystopia or a utopia? At first glance it seems to be a disturbing dystopia, but a closer look suggests the opposite. ● What's the connection between the story or purpose of the Westworld characters and their moral sense? ● Is it morally okay to do things with lifelike robots when it would be definitely immoral to do these things with actual humans? And if not, is it morally wrong merely to imagine doing immoral acts? ● Can Westworld overcome the Chinese Room objection, and move from weak AI to strong AI? ● How can we tell whether a host or any other robot has become conscious? Non-conscious mechanisms could be designed to pass a Turing Test, so how can we really tell?

Why Grizzly Bears Should Wear Underpants is the second variety comic collection and fourth book from the comedic mastermind behind TheOatmeal.com, Matthew Inman. Classics from the website, including "Dear Sriracha Rooster Sauce," "What It Means When You Say Literally," and "What We Should Have Been Taught in Our Senior Year of High School," are featured alongside never-before-seen works of epic hilarity that will delight veteran and newbie Oatmeal fans alike. In this second collection of over 50 comics, you'll be treated to the hilarity of "The Crap We Put Up with Getting On and Off an Airplane," "Why Captain Higgins Is My Favorite Parasitic Flatworm," "This Is How I Feel about Buying Apps," "6 Things You Really Don't Need to Take a Photo of," and much more. Along with lambasting the latest culture crazes, Inman serves up recurrent themes such as foodstuffs, holidays, e-mail, as well as technological, news-of-the-day, and his snarky yet informative comics on grammar and usage. 

BABY: A Soppy Story focuses on the small, everyday moments of parenthood. From dreaming about the future baby and making plans, to actually being there with a real baby and bumbling through each precious day. From a #1 New York Times best-selling graphic novelist comes BABY, a collection of all new comics and illustrations about the small, intimate moments of a couple expecting their first baby. In this sequel to Soppy: A Love Story, the couple experience many heartwarming moments, as well as challenges, while planning to have a baby, going through pregnancy, childbirth, and caring for a newborn. 

Why do things in moderation when you can just do everything? Cartoonist Dami Lee's hilarious four-panel comic collection illustrates her experience navigating identity, relationships, pop culture, and misunderstandings about basic human interactions. From growing up as a South Korean immigrant kid in the foreign land of Texas to finding her home as a professional cartoonist in cyberspace, Lee laughs at it all. With favorite selections from Dami's massively popular webcomic As Per Usual, as well as many never-before-seen comics, Be Everything at Once is earnestly relatable and endlessly funny, full of (mostly) true stories for anyone who obsesses over their favorite snacks, struggles to take the best selfie, tears up at the sight of a perfect dog, or is maybe just trying to find their place.

Ranging from the relatable to the utterly nonsensical and bizarre, The Book of Onions focuses on themes of loneliness, desperation, and failure. And misplaced optimism. And perverted talking fruit. Sort of like Gary Larson's "The Far Side," if Gary were way less accomplished and suffered from depression.

In this collection from popular Web comic Yasmine Surovec, fabled characters and fairy princesses are replaced with cat ladies and gents ... and cats. Rapunzel's prince comes to rescue...his cats. Sleeping Beauty's true love's first kiss comes not from a prince but from a curious kitty. Each comic puts a contemporary witty spin on classic stories while continuing Yasmine's brilliant comedic take on cats and their owners. The result is a collection that illustrates that cat ladies make for more interesting (and somewhat crazy) princesses. 

In Barkman's debut print collection, False Knees fans will find old favourites along with an abundance of all-new material. Featuring creatures found in the author's native Ontario, this always sharp, sometimes head-scratchingly bizarre collection of comics offers a view into the secret, surprisingly insightful world of blue jays, squirrels, geese, wolves, and rabbits.

Everyone's favourite parenting cartoon featuring ducks presents a comprehensive view of the early parenting years in all of their maddening cuteness and sanity-depriving chaos. The new collection will include fifty comics that have appeared on the website and will feature fifty never-before-seen cartoons. Fowl Language: Winging It is organised into 10 thematic chapters - including Babies: Oh Dear God, What Have We Done?; Pooping: Get Your S*** Together; and Holidays: Magic Traditions and Tragic Overeating - each of which begins with a hilarious, illustrated 500-word essay.

Explore the daily struggles and humor of family life with Lunarbaboon. He's just like any other dad--but vaguely hairier because he's half man/half moon monkey. Lunarbaboon shares life's parenting moments from the perspective of a 30-something dad/husband/chaos survivor. Together with the savvy, laid back Mom, wild child Moishe, baby Matilda, and a former Julliard student (their cat), Lunarbaboon must navigate the family and social dynamics of everyday life. Ranging from the hilarious (defeating closet monsters with a "stun" blaster that offers surprising facts about bears, Mars, and cats) to the sweet (the gray scale-to color transition out of depression at the touch of a loved one), this collection explores the bonds within a family and all the characters who bring both order and chaos to life. Lunarbaboon's perfect meld of crabby humor and moments of impactful honesty give these comics a wide range and distinctive voice that's both comical and sincere.

Sister BFFs follows a pair of sisters who are not quite adults, but trying desperately to act like them. From job searches to embarrassing encounters with former crushes, these twenty-something sisters navigate the ups, downs, and in-betweens of early adulthood - together. Loosely based on the author's own life, Sister BFFs celebrates the complicated love-hate relationship between sisters to hilarious effect. They tease and trick each other but always stay loyal.

The Art of the Political Putdown is a book of over 300 witty verbal jabs and ripostes from politicians around the world, all of whom share a common sharp tongue. Liberal or conservative, humor can be a powerful weapon in any politician's arsenal, and political journalists Chris Lamb and Will Moredock have seen their fair share of quips, witty remarks, and sarcastic pleasantries. In mining the past few thousand years of political history, they've unearthed a treasure trove of humorous exchanges, from ancient Rome to modern day, to compile this collection of hilarious comebacks and putdowns. * Features 11 brief essays analyzing the use of humor and wit in various political contexts * Even-handed, intelligent, and lighthearted political humor that gives readers from the Left and the Right something to laugh about The Art of the Political Putdown is filled with famous and lesser-known politicians at their sassiest, along with short essays. This is a comprehensive, nonpartisan collection of witticisms, scathing burns, and mic-drop-worthy insults throughout history.

His name is Charles Render, and he is a psychoanalyst, and a mechanic of dreams. A Shaper. In a warm womb of metal, his patients dream their neuroses, while Render, intricately connected to their brains, dreams with them, makes delicate adjustments, and ultimately explains and heals. Her name is Eileen Shallot, a resident in psychiatry. She wants desperately to become a Shaper, though she has been blind from birth. Together, they will explore the depths of the human mindand the terrors that lurk therein.

If necessity has been the mother of invention throughout the history of professional football, it could also be said that desperation is the father. Rare are the football innovations that have occurred without an owner, general manager, coach, or player up against the wall and reaching for a way to succeed anyway. In this meticulously researched, lively book, Bleacher Report lead NFL scout Doug Farrar traces the schematic history of the pro game through these "if this/then that" moments--paradigm shifts in the game from 1920 through the present. More than just a book about schemes and strategies, The Genius of Desperation: The Schematic Innovations that Made the Modern NFL also tells the stories of the game's most prominent innovators, the adversities they endured, and the ways in which they learned to exceed their own expectations on the path to true greatness. Everyone from George Halas to Greasy Neale, Paul Brown to Sid Gillman, Bill Walsh to Chip Kelly is featured, as well as many more.

Now in graphic novel format, Lois Lowry's Newbery Medal-winning classic story of a young boy discovering the dark secrets behind his seemingly ideal world is accompanied by renowned artist P. Craig Russell's beautifully haunting illustrations.  In this new graphic novel edition, readers experience the haunting story of twelve-year-old Jonas and his seemingly ideal, if colorless, world of conformity and contentment, through the brilliant art of P. Craig Russell that truly brings The Giver to life. Witness Jonas's assignment as the Receiver of Memory, watch as he begins to understand the dark secrets behind his fragile community, and follow the explosion of color into his world like never before. 

What if the way we're thinking about anxiety is off base? What if there's something about anxiety that can be used for you instead of against you? In this revolutionary new book, Dr. Alicia H. Clark recognizes anxiety as an unsung hero in the path to success and well-being. Anxiety is a powerful motivating force that can be harnessed to create a better you, if you've got the right tools. Hack Your Anxietyprovides a road mapto approach anxiety in a new—and empowering—light. Weaving together modern neuroscience, case studies, interviews, and personal anecdotes, Hack Your Anxiety demonstrates how anxiety can be reclaimed as a potent force for living our best lives.

Playing God has consequences. Jake Wood has it made. He is a tough homicide detective with a partner who's like a brother, and he's about to marry the girl of his dreams. Then Jake learns a close friend is missing and travels to South America in search of him. After a freak accident in the Amazon Rainforest, Jake wakes up in the hospital--eighteen months later. Long presumed dead, he discovers his fiancée is married and pregnant, his house was sold, his job is gone, and his partner transferred to another city to become lead detective on a serial killer case. Jake buys a cabin in the woods and tries to leave the world behind, until his home is broken into and he discovers he was targeted--but why? When Jake's former partner requests his aid in catching the Blood Eagle Killer, he offers to help find whoever is behind Jake's recent trouble. This leads to Fortech Industries, a pharmaceutical company secretly researching a way to create an immortal gene. Now they intend to destroy their only error—Jake Wood—who has become something more than human.

It's not always easy being a LEGO® minifigure. Welcome to the wacky LEGO world, as minifigures of all kinds navigate the small parts of everyday life. Whether they are out at poker night, a first date, or group therapy, you'll find that the lives of minifigures are not so different from our own - just without the fingers and noses.

This colourful book recreates commonplace scenes from everyday life using LEGO® bricks. Transforming bricks into minty toothpaste, eggs and bacon, lush houseplants, and more, LEGO® Still Life creatively reimagines the mundane and finds playfulness in everyday objects. Deceptively simple, but meticulously executed, these images transform the way we see the world around us.

Everyone knows the fifty nifty United States—but what about the hundreds of other statehood proposals that never came to pass? Lost States is a tribute to such great unrealized dreams as West Florida, Texlahoma, Montezuma, Rough and Ready, and Yazoo. Some of these states came remarkably close to joining the Union. Others never had a chance. Many are still trying. Consider: • Frontier legend Daniel Boone once proposed a state of Transylvania in the Appalachian wilderness (his plan was resurrected a few years later with the new name of Kentucky). • Residents of bucolic South Jersey wanted to secede from their urban north Jersey neighbors and form the fifty-first state. • The Gold Rush territory of Nataqua could have made a fine state—but since no women were willing to live there, the settlers gave up and joined California. Each story offers a fascinating glimpse at the nation we might have become—along with plenty of absurd characters, bureaucratic red tape, and political gamesmanship. Accompanying these tales are beautifully rendered maps detailing the proposed state boundaries, plus images of real-life artifacts and ephemera. Welcome to the world of Lost States!

Alex Norris' viral webcomic Webcomic Name, has captured the internet's heart. The disappointed blob and its resigned "oh no" has become a recognisable slogan, tapping into the current internet zeitgeist of self-conscious pessimism to hilarious and heartbreaking effect. Now in this alternately funny and gloomy collection, oh no brings together all the series' greatest hits as well as dozens of never-before-seen comics. With exciting material for established fans and newcomers alike, oh no will have something for everyone. Because, after all, we are all the disappointed blob; the disappointed blob is us.

This robust book of career advice - the second edition, timed to come out five years after the original publication - is an update on the New York Times bestseller. Roadmap is filled with advice for people seeking a fulfilling work life that will make them happy and keep them engaged. With inspirational stories and interviews, journal-like prompts, and practical career development information - including 20% new content, like updated interviews and new advice based on today's career market - this is a self-mapped guide to creating a rewarding and satisfying work life.

The darker the secret, the higher the price. Dallas August runs a dangerous business--an organization of elite spies for hire. The secrets trade. Nothing is off limits, and no price is too high. When asked to uncover what recluse Gwen Marsh knows about a Mafia kingpin's death, Dallas poses as a bodyguard to get close to his target, but the stubborn Asian beauty wants nothing to do with him. As the FBI and the Mafia close in, danger drives them together, but can he protect Gwen, or will Dallas be the one risking everything to discover what she is really hiding? Dallas August is about to find out how dangerous life can be as one of the Secret Brokers. Once you are in, there is no turning back.

Berkeley Mews' appealing, accessible art style belies a cartoon world of dark humor, dry wit, and irreverent reimaginings of popular culture. In Berkeley Mews, bad things happen to good people, good things happen to bad people, and everything usually ends in disappointment or death. Satisfaction guaranteed! A subversive, hilarious, dark-but-uplifting collection of comics skewering the commercial figures, Disney stories, and pop cultural touchstones that Millennials and Gen X-ers grew up with in the '80s and '90s. Ben Zaehringer's versatile art styles and wicked curveballs are sharp, clever and accessible, prompting many readers to comment that the author is "ruining their childhood" in the most delightful way possible.  

In Tomorrow's Woman, Greta Bellamacina's bold, exploratory voice combines the vivid imagery of French surrealism and British romantic poetry with a modern, first-person examination of love, gender identity, motherhood, and social issues. Andy Warhol's Interview Magazine writes that "Bellamacina is garnering critical acclaim for her way with words and her ability to translate the classic poetic form into the contemporary creative landscape."

Not every spirit seeks redemption. Not every Vessel will survive. What if you could help those who've passed on get a second chance--but at the risk of your own life? Four broken strangers volunteer to become the first humans in North America to join the international VESSELS program. Their bodies will host the Spirits who seek to right past wrongs and earn a chance at Elysium. Disguised inside a homeless shelter in Reno, the program is facilitated by a retired Army officer, a former ER Doctor, and a tech-savvy teen who tracks the Spirits merged with their Vessels through an ancient ritual on the Anaho Reservation. The Vessels only have seven days to succeed--and to survive. But when the vengeful spirit of a serial killer enters one of them, they learn not all Spirits are here for redemption.

In this stunning graphic novel, Lacuna is a girl without a family, a past, or a proper home. She lives alone in a swamp made of ink, but with the help of Polaris, a will-o'-the-wisp, she embarks for the fabled Northern Kingdom, where she might find people like her. The only way to get there, though, is to travel the strange and dangerous Blue Road that stretches to the horizon like a mark upon a page. Along the way, Lacuna must overcome trials such as the twisted briars of the Thicket of Tickets and the intractable guard at the Rainbow Border. At the end of her treacherous journey, she reaches a city where memory and vision can be turned against you, in a world of dazzling beauty, divisive magic, and unlikely deliverance. Finally, Lacuna learns that leaving, arriving, returning -- they're all just different words for the same thing: starting all over again. The Blue Road -- the first graphic novel by acclaimed poet and prose writer Wayde Compton and illustrator April dela Noche Milne -- explores the world from a migrant's perspective with dreamlike wonder.

In this collection of essays, Lambda Literary Award–winning writer and longtime activist and performance artist Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha explores the politics and realities of disability justice, a movement that centers the lives and leadership of sick and disabled queer, trans, Black, and brown people, with knowledge and gifts for all. Care Work is a mapping of access as radical love, a celebration of the work that sick and disabled queer/people of color are doing to find each other and to build power and community, and a tool kit for everyone who wants to build radically resilient, sustainable communities of liberation where no one is left behind. Powerful and passionate, Care Work is a crucial and necessary call to arms.

In this intimate and moving graphic memoir, Teresa Wong writes and illustrates the story of her struggle with postnatal depression in the form of a letter to her daughter Scarlet. Equal parts heartbreaking and funny, Dear Scarlet perfectly captures the quiet desperation of those suffering from PPD and the profound feelings of inadequacy and loss. Dear Scarlet is a poignant and deeply personal journey through the complexities of new motherhood, offering hope to those affected by PPD, as well as reassurance that they are not alone.

"You know how, since the dawn of humanity, great philosophers and poets have dedicated their entire lives to exploring concepts like love, life itself, logic, and sorrow? Well, those great philosophers and poets are dead now, so I win." -- Shen Emotions Explained With Buff Dudes is your fully illustrated guide to the hyper-conflicted, tragicomic feelings of our age. Featuring the resilient, shaggy-haired Shen, this debut collection of Owlturd Comix is a tale of triumph and survival -- of getting your ass kicked by sleep deprivation and student loans, but never losing hope. Most of all, it's an amusing, instructive journey through a vast array of emotions, including those best explained with dudes who are buff.  

Grassroots Rising is a passionate call to action for the global body politic, providing practical solutions for how to survive--and thrive--in catastrophic times. Author Ronnie Cummins aims to educate and inspire citizens worldwide to organize and become active participants in preventing ecological collapse. This book offers a blueprint for building and supercharging a grassroots Regeneration Movement based on consumer activism, farmer innovation, political change, and regenerative finance--embodied most recently by the proposed Green New Deal in the US. Cummins asserts that the solution lies right beneath our feet and at the end of our forks through the transformation of our broken food system. Using regenerative agriculture practices that restore our agricultural and grazing lands, we can sequester massive amounts of carbon in the soil. Coupled with an aggressive transition toward renewables, he argues that we have the power to not only mitigate and slow down climate change, but actually reverse global warming. In synergy with the Sunrise Movement and the growing support of a Green New Deal, Grassroots Rising will impact millions of conscious consumers, farmers, and the general public during the crucial 2020 election year and beyond. This book shows that a properly organized and executed Regeneration Revolution can indeed offer realistic climate solutions while also meeting our everyday needs. If you're wondering what you can do to help address the global climate crisis, joining the Regeneration Revolution might be the best first step.

'You're gonna need a rock and a whole lotta medicine' is a mantra that Jonny Appleseed, a young Two-Spirit/Indigiqueer, repeats to himself in this vivid and utterly compelling novel. Off the reserve and trying to find ways to live and love in the big city, Jonny becomes a cybersex worker who fetishises himself in order to make a living. Self-ordained as an NDN glitter princess, Jonny has one week before he must return to the 'rez,' and his former life, to attend the funeral of his stepfather. The next seven days are like a fevered dream: stories of love, trauma, sex, kinship, ambition, and the heartbreaking recollection of his beloved kokum (grandmother). Jonny's world is a series of breakages, appendages, and linkages - and as he goes through the motions of preparing to return home, he learns how to put together the pieces of his life. Jonny Appleseed is a unique, shattering vision of Indigenous life, full of grit, glitter, and dreams.

At first it's the dead rats; they start dying in cataclysmic numbers, followed by other city creatures. Then people begin experiencing flu-like symptoms as well as swellings in their lymph nodes. The masses react in disbelief when the official diagnosis comes in and later, when a quarantine is imposed on the increasingly terrified city. Inspired by Albert Camus' classic 1947 novel, Kevin Chong's The Plague follows Dr. Bernard Rieux's attempts to fight the treatment-resistant disease and find meaning in suffering. His efforts are aided by Megan Tso, an American writer who is trapped in the city while on a book tour, and Raymond Siddhu, a city hall reporter at a daily newspaper on its last legs from the latest round of job cuts. Told with dark humor and an eye trained on the frailties of human behavior, Chong's novel explores themes in keeping with Camus'original vision--heroism in the face of futility, the psychological strain of quarantine—but fraught with the political and cultural anxieties of our present day.

In these two novellas, Kimura Yūsuke explores human and animal life in northern Japan after the natural and nuclear disasters of March 11, 2011. Kimura inscribes the "Triple Disaster" into a rich regional tradition of storytelling, incorporating far-flung voices and experiences to testify to life and the desire to represent it in the aftermath of calamity. ​ In Sacred Cesium Ground, a woman from Tokyo travels to volunteer at a cattle farm known as the "Fortress of Hope," tending irradiated animals abandoned after the reactor meltdown. The farm closely resembles an actual ranch that has been widely covered in Japan, and the story's portrayal of those who stubbornly care for animals in spite of the danger speaks to the sense of futility and meaningfulness in the wake of traumatic events. Isa's Deluge depicts a family of fishermen whose crotchety patriarch draws on old tales of the floods that have plagued the region to fashion himself as the father of the tsunami. Together, the novellas present often-unheard voices of one of Japan's peripheral regions and their anger toward the government and Tokyo for mishandling and forgetting their part of the country. Kimura's command of dialect and conversational language is masterfully translated by Doug Slaymaker. Postapocalyptically surreal yet teeming with life, Kimura's stories will be a revelation for readers looking for a new perspective on the disaster's consequences for Japan and on the interrelated meanings of human and animal lives and deaths.

Created by UK-based artist Chris McCoy, Safely Endangered's brilliantly hilarious comics have an unexpected, twisted punch line with an adorable illustration. From relying far too heavily on Facebook to the struggles of sibling rivalry, Safely Endangered covers a vast range of ridiculously funny situations with humans, animals and even video game characters.

Pierre is a young man at a crossroads. He drops out of architecture school and decides to travel to Vals in the Swiss Alps, home to a thermal springs complex located deep inside a mountain. The complex, designed by architect Paul Zumthor, had been the subject of Pierre's thesis. The mountain holds many mysteries; it was said to have a mouth that periodically swallowed people up. Pierre, sketchbook in hand, is drawn to the enigmatic powers of the mountain and its springs, and attempts to uncover the truth behind them in the secret rooms he discovers deep within the complex. But he finds his match in a man named Valeret who is similarly obsessed, and who'd like nothing more than to eliminate his competitor. Gorgeously illustrated, Swimming in Darkness is an intriguing, noirish graphic novel about uncovering the powerful secrets of the natural world.

On St. Patrick's Day in 1968, sixteen people sit in Pat's Tavern, drink green beer, flirt, rib each other, and eventually go home in (mostly) different directions. In the stories that follow, which span 1958 to the present, Richard Wiley pops back into the lives of this colorful cast of characters--sometimes into their pasts, sometimes into their futures--and explores the ways in which their individual narratives indelibly weave together. At the heart of it all lies Tacoma, Washington,a town full of eccentricities and citizens as unique as they are universal. The Tacoma of Tacoma Stories might be harboring paranoid former CIA operatives and wax replicas of dead husbands, but it is also a place with all the joys and pains one could find in any town, anytime and anywhere.

America is at a crossroads. Conflicting political and social perspectives reflect a need to collectively define our moral imperatives, clarify cultural values, and inspire meaningful change. In that patriotic spirit, hundreds of writers, artists, scientists, and political and community leaders have come together since the 2016 presidential election to offer their impassioned letters to America, in a project envisioned by the online journal Terrain.org and collected in Dear America: Letters of Hope, Habitat, Defiance, and Democracy. Dear America reflects the evolution of a moral panic that has emerged in the nation. More importantly, it is a timely congress of the personal and the political, a clarion call to find common ground and conflict resolution, all with a particular focus on the environment, social justice, and climate change. The diverse collection features personal essays, narrative journalism, poetry, and visual art from more than 130 contributors--many pieces never before published--all literary reactions to the timeswe live in, with a focus on civic action and social change as we approach future elections.

The presidential election of 2016 highlighted some long-standing flaws in American democracy and added a few new ones. Across the political spectrum, most Americans do not believe that democracy is delivering on its promises of fairness, justice, shared prosperity, or security in a changing world. The nation cannot even begin to address climate change and economic justice if it remains paralysed by political gridlock. Democracy Unchained is about making American democracy work to solve problems that have long impaired our system of governance.

Written in the 1950s and discovered by family members years after her death, Margaret Brown Kilik's shocking coming-of-age novel of the emotional and sexual brutality of young women's lives in wartime San Antonio deserves a place on the shelf alongside classic novels like Sylvia Plath'sThe Bell Jar and Carson McCullers'sThe Member of the Wedding. The Duchess of Angus reworks Kilik's unusual personal history (her mother spent the 1930's running flophouse hotels all over the United States, leaving Margaret to be brought up by a host of relatives) into a riveting portrait of a young woman navigating a conflicted and rapidly changing world, one in which sex promises both freedom from convention and violent subjection to men's will. Strikingly modern in its depiction of protagonist Jane Davis and her gorgeous, unreadable friend Wade Howell,The Duchess of Anguscovers some of the same emotional territory as novels like Emma Cline'sThe Girls and Robyn Wasserman'sGirls on Fire. Includes an introduction by Jenny Davidson and contextual essays by Laura Hernández-Ehrisma and Char Miller.

A peak behind the Hollywood mask by one of its foremost makeup artistsIn Hollywood's heyday, almost every major studio had a Westmore heading up the makeup department. Since 1917, there has never been a time when Westmores weren't shaping the visages of stardom. For their century-long dedication to the art of makeup, the Westmores were honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2008. In this lively memoir, Michael Westmore not only regales us with tales of Hollywood's golden age, but also from his own career where he notably transformed Sylvester Stallone into Rocky Balboa and Robert DiNiro into Jake LaMotta, among many other makeup miracles. Westmore's talent as a makeup artist first became apparent when he created impenetrable disguises for Kirk Douglas, Tony Curtis, Burt Lancaster, Robert Mitchum, and Frank Sinatra for the 1963 film The List of Adrian Messenger. He later went on to become the preferred makeup man for Bobby Darin and Elizabeth Taylor, and worked on such movies and TV shows as The Munsters, Rosemary's Baby, Eleanor and Franklin, New York, New York, 2010: A Space Odyssey, and Mask, for which he won an academy award. The next phase of his career was to create hundreds of alien characters for over 600 episodes of Star Trek in all its iterations, from The Next Generation to Enterprise. Replete with anecdotes about Hollywood and its stars, from Bette Davis's preference for being made-up in the nude to Shelley Winters's habit of nipping from a "little bottle" while on the set, Makeup Man will satisfy any Hollywood's fan's appetite for gossip or a behind-the-scenes look at how tinsel town's most iconic film characters were created.

Romance or The End takes up the tools of romantic narrative in order to perform the rupture between self and story that occurs at the onset of trauma. Using known and pathologized literary arcs, Elaine Kahn unspools the fundamental instability of truth, love, and language to create an experiential portrait of narrative's power to both disfigure and restore. ROMANCE or THE END This is a book about love. And it is a book about lies. Love can be a lie, but it is also always true. This is a book about truth. This is a book about story. There is no such thing as a true story and so there are no stories in this book. Without a story, there is separation. This is a book about separation. Everything is a story. Even the truth. There is nothing truer in this world than the lie of love.

Spoilers get folks upset--really upset. One thing that follows from this is that if you pick up a book that''s all about spoilers, it may seriously disturb you. So anyone reading this book--or even dipping into it--does so at their peril. It’s bad to spoil, but how bad? People do seem to exaggerate the dreadfulness of spoiling, compared with other examples of inconsiderateness or rudeness. Are there occasions when it’s morally required to spoil? Yes, you might want to dissuade someone from watching or reading something you believed might harm them somehow. Also, you might issue a spoiler in order to save the world from a terrorist attack (Yes, this is a philosophy book, so it has to include at least one totally absurd example). A more doubtful case is deliberate spoiling as a protest, as occurred with Basic Instinct. The book ends with three spoiler lists: the Most Outrageous Spoiler “Horror Stories”; the Greatest Spoilers of All Time; and the Greatest Spoilers in Philosophy.

Rosenblatt has always been "mad about the writing life." In this new collection, he shares the stories and insights about writing that have inspired him, as a journalist, a columnist for The Washington Post, an essayist for Time magazine and The New Republic, and then as the author of best-selling books like Making Toast, Rules for Aging, Kayak Morning, and Unless It Moves the Human Heart. The new and beloved pieces in The Story I Am: Mad About the Writing Life, drawn from his vast body of work, celebrate the art, the craft, and the soul of writing. Here are essays and excerpts on the rewards and punishments of the life of a writer, along with thoughts on how to write, what to write, and why writing lies at the heart of human hope and experience.

A voice the world needs--the award-winning, groundbreaking, poet Wanda Coleman. Editor Terrance Hayes has selected more than 130 poems, spanning four decades, for this powerful gathering of Coleman's work that bestselling author Mary Karr has called, "words to crack you open and heal you where it counts."

From Machiavelli to P. T. Barnum to Donald Trump, many have perfected the art of strategically using language to gain the upper hand, set a tone, change the subject, or influence people's beliefs and behaviors. Language--both words themselves and rhetorical tactics such as metaphor, irony, slang, and humor--can effectively manipulate the minds of the listener. In this book, Marcel Danesi, a renowned linguistic anthropologist and semiotician, looks at language that is used not to present arguments logically or rationally, but to "move" audiences in order to gain their confidence and build consensus. He demonstrates that through language techniques communicators can not only sway opinions but also shape listeners' very perception of reality. He assesses how the communicative environment in which the art of the lie unfolds--such as on social media or in emotionally-charged gatherings--impacts the results. Danesi also investigates why lies are often accepted as valid. Artful lying fits in with an Internet society that is largely disinterested in what is true and what is false and in which attention is often given to speech that is entertaining or persuasive. Have we become immune to lies because of a social media discourse shaped by untruths? In an electronic age where facts are deemed irrelevant and conspiracies are accorded as much credibility as truths, this book discusses the implications of lying and language for the future of belief, ethics, and American democracy itself.

Take one amateur sleuth. Mix in some eccentric Minnesota locals. Add a generous dollop of crackling suspense, and you've got the recipe for this delicious new mystery series featuring Hannah Swensen, the red-haired, cookie-baking heroine whose gingersnaps are almost as tart as her mouth and whose penchant for solving crime is definitely stirring things up.Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder Hannah already has her hands full trying to dodge her mother's attempts to marry her off while running The Cookie Jar, Lake Eden's most popular bakery. But once Ron LaSalle, the beloved delivery man from the Cozy Cow Dairy, is found murdered behind her bakery with Hannah's famous Chocolate Chip Crunchies scattered around him, her life just can't get any worse. Determined not to let her cookies get a bad reputation, she sets out to track down a killer. But if she doesn't watch her back, Hannah's sweet life may get burned to a crisp.

A friendly, candid, and comforting guide for isolating times when we have no one to count on. Despite the inclusive promise of social media, loneliness is a growing epidemic in the United States. Social isolation can shatter our confidence. In isolating times, we're not only lonely, we're also ashamed because our society stigmatizes people who appear to be without support. As a single, fifty-eight-year-old woman, Val Walker found herself stranded and alone after major surgery when her friends didn't show up. As a professional rehabilitation counselor, she was too embarrassed to reveal how utterly isolated she was by asking for someone to help, and it felt agonizingly awkward calling colleagues out of the blue. As she recovered, Val found her voice and developed a plan of action for people who lack social support, not only to heal from the pain of isolation, but to create a solid strategy for rebuilding a sense of community. 400 Friends and No One to Call spells out the how-tos for befriending our wider community, building a social safety net, and fostering our sense of belonging. On a deeper level, we are invited to befriend our loneliness, rather than feel ashamed of it, and open our hearts and minds to others trapped in isolation.

Mara is a simultaneous interpreter who moves to a provincial town in Argentina in order to speak as little as possible for a year. Steeled with the ten rules of silence set out in her manual of rhetoric, she takes a job as a guard in the local museum. The advantages of her work are threatened when she's asked to assist in the re-embalming of the museum's pride and joy: two horses--of great national and historical significance--are disintegrating and must be saved. But her goal and her slippery grasp on sanity lead her to more anarchistic means to bolster her purpose. Bold, subversive, and threaded through with acerbic wit,Include Me Out is an homage to silence and the impossibility of achieving it.

An environmental foodie on a holistic path, Heather Thomas is committed to creating change, encouraging a healthier relationship with nature, and transforming the way we eat. Part practical, part meditative, The Mindful Kitchen introduces you to a delicious feast of simple, nature-related rituals and recipes, bound to make your time in the kitchen more positive, focused, and mindful of the natural world around you. Offering over 100 seasonal recipes, this healthy vegetarian cookbook encourages you to think about the effects your eating habits have on nature, and teaches you how to put more love and thought into how and what you eat every day. A tasty beginner's guide to making more conscious food choices, bite-size philosophical notes, meaningful questions, joyful rituals and an abundant offering of vegetarian recipes are mindfully stirred together in this stunning new-wave recipe book. With flavoursome dishes to tempt the curious and empowering rituals to add inspiration and awareness to your cooking routine, this is a must have staple for every kitchen library. Ranging from a classic bubble and squeak, to a refreshing elderflower champagne, nourishing seasonal recipes include: Leek and Hazelnut Risotto Pumpkin Coconut Soup Preserved Pizza Zero Waste Veggie Stock Rhubarb and Lentil Curry Oatmeal Honey Bread Apple Cake Lasagne ... and many more! Introducing fresh takes on old favourites, and new dishes to tickle the taste buds, there's a recipe to help you connect with nature all year round.

Break the cycle of anxious thinking and rumination that keeps you up at night. With this much-needed guide, you'll learn to quiet your mind, relax your body, feel less tense, and finally get the sleep you need. Sleep plays a crucial role in our waking lives. While we sleep, our bodies are recharging with energy, damaged tissue is repaired, and our memories are stored. When we don't get enough sleep, we are tired, less positive, less motivated, less focused, and more likely to feel depressed. We may even experience more intense cravings for high-fat, sugar-rich foods. And yet, despite the myriad advantages of getting a good night's sleep, countless people suffer from chronic insomnia. If you're one of them, this book can help. In this guide, a trained mindfulness expert teams up with a behavioral sleep specialist to offer evidence-based meditations and an innovative four-week protocol to address the emotional stresses and anxieties that lie at the root of sleep issues. You'll learn practices grounded in mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR), mindful self-compassion (MSC), and guided mindfulness and acceptance for insomnia (GMATI) to alleviate the mental, emotional, and physical suffering caused by insomnia. You'll also learn to identify both internal and external factors that may be compromising your sleep, and develop a plan to address these issues. There is nothing we can do to "make" ourselves fall asleep. In many ways, this is why insomnia can be so maddening. But what we can do is help create the conditions necessary for healthy slumber. The mindfulness tools in this book will help you do exactly that.  

From the author of It's Superman!, an exuberant and original exploration of America's most iconic comic book hero Since his first appearance in Action Comics Number One, published in late spring of 1938, Superman has represented the essence of American heroism. "Faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, and able to leap tall buildings in a single bound," the Man of Steel has thrilled audiences across the globe, yet as life-long "Superman Guy" Tom De Haven argues in this highly entertaining book, his story is uniquely American. Created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster in the midst of the Great Depression, Superman is both a transcendent figure and, when posing as his alter-ego, reporter Clark Kent, a humble working-class citizen. An orphan and an immigrant, he shares a personal history with the many Americans who came to this country in search of a better life, and his amazing feats represent the wildest realization of the American dream. As De Haven reveals through behind-the-scenes vignettes, personal anecdotes, and lively interpretations of more than 70 years of comic books, radio programs, TV shows, and Hollywood films, Superman's legacy seems, like the Man of Steel himself, to be utterly invincible.

The compelling, groundbreaking guide to creative writing that reveals how the brain responds to storytelling Stories shape who we are. They drive us to act out our dreams and ambitions and mold our beliefs. Storytelling is an essential part of what makes us human. So, how do master storytellers compel us? In The Science of Storytelling, award-winning writer and acclaimed teacher of creative writing Will Storr applies dazzling psychological research and cutting-edge neuroscience to our myths and archetypes to show how we can write better stories, revealing, among other things, how storytellers--and also our brains--create worlds by being attuned to moments of unexpected change. Will Storr's superbly chosen examples range from Harry Potter to Jane Austen to Alice Walker, Greek drama to Russian novels to Native American folk tales, King Lear to Breaking Bad to children's stories. With sections such as "The Dramatic Question," "Creating a World," and "Plot, Endings, and Meaning," as well as a practical, step-by-step appendix dedicated to "The Sacred Flaw Approach," The Science of Storytelling reveals just what makes stories work, placing it alongside such creative writing classics as John Yorke's Into the Woods: A Five-Act Journey into Story and Lajos Egri's The Art of Dramatic Writing. Enlightening and empowering, The Science of Storytelling is destined to become an invaluable resource for writers of all stripes, whether novelist, screenwriter, playwright, or writer of creative or traditional nonfiction.  

Witchcraft unravels the myth from the mystery, the facts from the legends, in this bewitching introduction to witchcraft's lesser-known history. Spanning several centuries and comprising unbelievable facts and little-known legends, meet all the witches of your imagination and learn why, where and how it all began. Uncover the meanings of their rituals and rites, their lore, and their craft Discover the significance of their sabbats and covens, their chalices and wands, their robes and their religion. Unlock the secrets of the legendary witches of mythology and folk talesand find out how these early stories influenced the persecutions and witch hunts of the Middle Ages. Learn about the people who inspired the pagan revival and how their work in literature and magic rekindled the fires of the sabbats across Europe and the New World today. Features spell-binding historic and contemporary pictures that perfectly capture the key characters, events and wonders of this captivating, colourful and controversial history.

Based on Mackenzi Lee's popular weekly Twitter series of the same name, Bygone Badass Broads features 52 remarkable and forgotten trailblazing women from all over the world. With tales of heroism and cunning, in-depth bios and witty storytelling, Bygone Badass Broadsgives new life to these historic female pioneers. Starting in the fifth century BC and continuing to the present, the book takes a closer look at bold and inspiring women who dared to step outside the traditional gender roles of their time. Coupled with riveting illustrations and Lee's humorous and conversational storytelling style, this book is an outright celebration of the badass women who paved the way for the rest of us.

The Pet Thief is a dystopian fable of science, rebellion, humankind's inhumanity, and the struggle for identity and survival in a post-human world.   When scientists, the government, and venture capitalists conspire to hybridize humans with animals--cats, specifically--for organ harvesting, drug testing, and military applications, the experiment is an irredeemable failure, producing human-like beings with uncanny abilities who are nonetheless fundamentally defective. Oboy and his mentor/tormentor Freda are two wayward hybrids, "cat people," who have escaped with others to the depths of a rundown European city being leveled for reconstruction. They are members of a street gang led by an ominous leader called Swan. Oboy is unable to think or speak except in mimicry, but he is a physical savant, which serves Freda's mission. Enraged at what has been done to her, Freda wants to "rescue" every pet she can. When Oboy returns with a human baby after his first solo outing, their world and the truths of their existence come unraveled.

Deathworld is perhaps Harry Harrison's best known novel and is certainly the book that put him on the map. Jason dinAlt is a daring gambler. He uses his spotty psionic powers to give himself a slight edge in games of chance. After winning a large fortune at the tables, he flees for his life to Deathworld, the most dangerous planet ever colonized by human beings. He will soon discover that nothing is what it seems.

Mahatma Gandhi redefined nutrition as fundamental to building a more just world. What he chose to eat was intimately tied to his beliefs, and his key values of nonviolence, religious tolerance, and rural sustainability developed in tandem with his dietary experiments. His repudiation of sugar, chocolate, and salt expressed his active resistance to economies based on slavery, indentured labor, and imperialism. Gandhi's Search for the Perfect Diet sheds new light on important periods in Gandhi's life as they relate to his developing food ethic: his student years in London, his politicization as a young lawyer in South Africa, the 1930 Salt March challenging British colonialism, and his fasting as a means of self-purification and social protest during India's struggle for independence. What became the pillars of Gandhi's diet--vegetarianism, limiting salt and sweets, avoiding processed food, and fasting--anticipated many twenty-first-century food debates and the need to build healthier and more equitable global food systems.

A year's worth of delightful Mutts comics featuring Earl the dog, Mooch the cat, and a charming assembly of feathered, furry, and four-legged friends. Patrick McDonnell is a master of the comics art form, and his love for dogs, cats, and animals of all kinds come through in his sweetly humorous and super relatable daily comic strips. The latest Mutts treasury contains a year of original cartoons, with special artwork and author sketches--all printed on recycled paper.

Fascinating, bizarre, and educational true-life medical stories retold in cartoon form by the creator of the bestselling Heart and Brain book series. Mysterious illnesses. Freakish injuries. X-rays revealing something weird that got stuck in your foot. These strange but true stories are among the 24 medical tales retold in hilarious fashion by New York Times bestselling author/illustrator Nick Seluk. Featuring fascinating stories submitted by people all over the world, How I Broke Up with My Colon is an educational and highly entertaining tour through the bizarre workings of the human body.

Discover the inspiring voices that have changed our world, and started a new conversation. The first dedicated collection of seminal speeches by women from around the world, So Here I Am is about women at the forefront of change – within politics, science, human rights and media; discussing everything from free love, anti-war, scientific discoveries, race, gender and women's rights. From Emmeline Pankhurst's'Freedom or Death'speech and Marie Curie's trailblazing Nobel lecture, to Michelle Obama speaking on parenthood in politics and Black Lives Matter co-founder Alicia Garza's stirring ode to black women, the words collected here are empowering, engaging and inspiring. With powerful illustrations from Camila Pinheiro, this anthology of outspoken women throughout history is essential reading for anyone who believes that change is not only possible, it is necessary.

In Your Life Is a Life of Hope! the Internet's favourite mustachioed king presents a series of short, illustrated essays in which he argues for hope by way of absurdity and transcendence by way of the mundane. In his signature childlike, dryly humorous style, Lord Birthday describes his own reasons for living, which include movie nights and 'talking in cool slang.' By turns strange and strangely moving, this collection will delight fans and newcomers alike.

Above Us the Milky Way is a story about war, immigration, and the remarkable human capacity to create beauty out of horror. As a young family attempts to reconstruct their lives in a new and peaceful country, they are daily drawn back to the first land through remembrance and longing, by news of the continued suffering and loss of loved ones, and by the war dead, who have immigrated and reside with them, haunting their days and illuminating the small joys and wonders offered them by the new land. The novel's structure is built around the alphabet, twenty-six pieces written in the first person that sketch a through-line of memory for the lives of the five daughters, mother, and father. Ghost stories and fairytales are woven with old family photographs and medieval-style watercolor illuminations to create an origin story of loss and remembrance.

The latest addition to the acclaimed series showcasing the best sports writing from the past year. For over twenty-five years, The Best American Sports Writing has built a solid reputation by showcasing the greatest sports journalism of the previous year, culled from hundreds of national, regional, and specialty print and digital publications. Each year, the series editor and guest editor curates a truly exceptional collection. The only shared traits among all these diverse styles, voices, and stories are the extraordinarily high caliber of writing, and the pure passion they tap into that can only come from sports.  

A new thriller from a writer who's been compared to Michael Crichton, Alfred Hitchcock, Raymond Chandler, Blake Crouch, and David Cronenberg takes us to the most menacing core of California's upper crust, a class of billionaires with more money than they could spend in an eternity. Who is Claire Gravesend?   So wonders PI Lee Crowe when he finds her dead, in a fine cocktail dress, on top of a Rolls Royce, in the most dangerous neighborhood in San Francisco. Claire's mother, Olivia, is one of the richest people in California. She doesn't believe the coroner: her daughter did not kill herself. Olivia hires Crowe, who--having just foiled a federal case against a cartel kingpin--is eager for distraction. But the questions about the Gravesend family pile up fast.   First, the autopsy reveals round scars running down Claire's spine, old marks Olivia won't explain. Then, Crowe visits Claire's Boston townhouse and has to fend off an armed intruder. Is it the Feds out for revenge? Or is this connected to the Gravesends? He leaves Boston afraid, but finds his way to Claire's secret San Francisco pied-A-terre. It's there that his questions come to a head. Sleeping in an upstairs bedroom, he finds Claire--her face,her hair, her scars--and as far as he can tell, she's alive. And Crowe's back at the start:   Who is Claire Gravesend?

Finding Comfort is a book about easing grief and trauma after unimaginable horrors - mass shootings, catastrophic natural disasters and terrorist acts. Personal recollections of responding to tragedy, combined with a practical application, Earl Johnson offers readers the tools they need to seek support and offer it to those in need. The book walks through the life-cycle of disaster care from the first hours and days to the years that follow. Having been a care provider in a variety of events, Johnson shares valuable wisdom from those who have worked in the worst situations. Whether you're a first responder, a care professional, a victim of a disaster, a family member, or following a disaster on television or social media, Finding Comfort gives readers guidance and support. Readers don't have to wait for tragedy. this work helps one be prepared through examples and practical suggestions. This book is a ready resource to both those in need looking for help and to those wishing to provide it.

From acclaimed author, Noah Milligan, comes a short story collection, Five Hundred Poor . The title comes from Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations , "Wherever there is great property there is great inequality. For one very rich man there must be at least five hundred poor, and the affluence of the few supposes the indigence of the many. The affluence of the rich excites the indignation of the poor, who are often both driven by want, and prompted by envy, to invade his possessions." These are ten stories of those five hundred poor, the jaded, the disillusioned, and the disenfranchised.

You will meet people in your lifetime who demand to have poems written about them. It's not something they say. It's something about their hands, the shape of their mouths, the way they look walking away from you. Honeybee is an honest take on walking away and still feeling like you were walked away from. It's about cutting love loose like a kite string and praying the wind has the decency to carry it away from you. It's an ode to the back and forth, the process of letting something go but not knowing where to put it down. Honeybee is putting it down. It's small town girls and plane tickets, a taste of tenderness and honey, the bandage on the bee sting. It's a reminder that you are not defined by the people you walk away from or the people who walk away from you. Consider Honeybee a memoir in verse, or at the very least, a story written by one of today's most confessional poets.

In 1968, a disillusioned and heartbroken Lillian Carlson left Atlanta after the assassination of Martin Luther King. She found meaning in the hearts of orphaned African children and cobbled together her own small orphanage in the Rift Valley alongside the lush forests of Rwanda. Three decades later, in New York City, Rachel Shepherd, lost and heartbroken herself, embarks on a journey to find the father who abandoned her as a young child, determined to solve the enigma of Henry Shepherd, a now-famous photographer. When an online search turns up a clue to his whereabouts, Rachel travels to Rwanda to connect with an unsuspecting and uncooperative Lillian. While Rachel tries to unravel the mystery of her father's disappearance, she finds unexpected allies in an ex-pat doctor running from his past and a young Tutsi woman who lived through a profound experience alongside her father. Set against the backdrop of a country grieving and trying to heal after a devastating civil war, follow the intertwining stories of three women who discover something unexpected: grace when there can be no forgiveness.

Set in rural Oklahoma, Into Captivity They Will Go tells the story of Caleb Gunter, a boy whose mother has convinced him he is the second coming of Jesus Christ and that together they are destined to lead the chosen into the Kingdom of Heaven. Believing the Seven Seals detailed in Revelation have been opened, he and his mother flee their home to join a tongue-speaking evangelical church and to prepare for the end of the world. But after tragedy ensues, Caleb must rebuild his life without the only support he has ever known--his mother and the church. An exploration of familial bonds and extremist faith, this is a whirlwind bildungsroman that reveals the fragility of a child's identity. It is at once a study of guilt and redemption and a book of how shattered trust can lay the foundation for an entire life.

A fascinating illustrated history of lost, overlooked, and uncompleted works of science fiction and fantasy Science fiction and fantasy reign over popular culture now. Lost Transmissions is a rich trove of forgotten and unknown, imagined-but-never-finished, and under-appreciated-but-influential works from those imaginative genres, as well as little-known information about well-known properties. Divided into sections on Film & TV, Literature, Art, Music, Fashion, Architecture, and Pop Culture, the book examines Jules Verne's lost novel; AfroFuturism and Space Disco; E.T.'s scary beginnings; William Gibson's never-filmed Aliens sequel; Weezer's never-made space opera; and the 8,000-page metaphysical diary of Philip K. Dick. Featuring more than 150 photos, this insightful volume will become the bible of science fiction and fantasy's most interesting and least-known chapters.

The remarkable story of a restaurant on top of the world-built by a legend, destroyed in tragedy-and an era in New York City it helped to frame In the 1970s, New York City was plagued by crime, filth, and an ineffective government. The city was falling apart, and even the newly constructed World Trade Center threatened to be a fiasco. But in April 1976, a quarter-mile up on the 107th floor of the North Tower, a new restaurant called Windows on the World opened its doors-a glittering sign that New York wasn't done just yet. In The Most Spectacular Restaurant in the World, journalist Tom Roston tells the complete history of this incredible restaurant, from its stunning $14-million opening to 9/11 and its tragic end. There are stories of the people behind it, such as Joe Baum, the celebrated restaurateur, who was said to be the only man who could outspend an unlimited budget; the well-tipped waiters; and the cavalcade of famous guests, as well as everyday people celebrating the key moments in their lives. Roston also charts the changes in American food, from baroque and theatrical to locally sourced and organic. Built on nearly 150 original interviews, The Most Spectacular Restaurant in the World is the story of New York City's restaurant culture and the quintessential American drive to succeed.

Your future is bright! After all, your mother is a robot, your father has joined the alien hive-mind, and your dinner will be counterfeit 3D-printed steak. Even though your worker bots have staged a mutiny, and your tour guide speaks only in memes, you can always sell your native language if you need some extra cash. The avant-garde of science fiction have arrived in this space-age sequel to the World Fantasy Award-winning anthology, The New Voices of Fantasy. Here you'll find the rising stars of the last five years: Rebecca Roanhorse, Amal El-Mohtar, Alice Sola Kim, Sam J. Miller, E. Lily Yu, Rich Larson, Vina Jie-Min Prasad, Sarah Pinsker, Darcie Little Badger, Nino Cipri, S. Qiouyi Lu, Kelly Robson, and more. Their extraordinary stories have been hand-selected by cutting-edge author Hannu Rajaniemi (The Quantum Thief) and genre expert Jacob Weisman (Invaders). So go ahead, join the interstellar revolution. The new kids have already hacked the AI.

By the end of the day, a cop must choose between ethics and social death. A camp counsellor, stuck deep in the woods with a small group of boys, only has a few hours before the DTs kick in. Adult children scramble to get the best of what remains of their mother's estate, but funeral plans may be premature. Sandwiched between a depressed mother and a careless father, a young girl must help attract customers to the family business, no matter the cost. On this dark, winding road of stories, there's little choice but to hang on and meet whatever's over the rise head on.

Welcome to the People's Republic of Everything--of course, you've been here for a long time already. Make yourself at home alongside a hitman who always tells the truth, no matter how reality has to twist itself to suit; electric matchstick girls who have teamed up with Friedrich Engels; a telepathic boy and his father's homemade nuclear bomb; a very bad date that births an unforgettable meme; and a dog who simply won't stop howling on social media. The People's Republic of Everything features a decade's worth of crimes, fantasies, original fiction, and the author's preferred text of the acclaimed short novel Under My Roof.

Ted Bundy is one of the most notorious serial killers in American history and one of the most publicized to this day. However, very rarely do we hear from the women he left behind-the ones forgotten as mere footnotes in this tragedy. This updated and expanded reissue of Elizabeth Kendall's 1981 book The Phantom Prince chronicles her intense, six-year relationship with Ted Bundy and its eventual unraveling. Featuring a new introduction and a new afterword by the author, never-before-seen photos, and a new chapter from the author's daughter, Molly, this gripping account presents a remarkable examination of obsession, intrigue, and the darkness that love can mask.

In A Strangely Wrapped Gift, you will find journeys from mental illness to recovery, from heartbreak to heart growth, from hopelessness to empowerment, and from the ocean to the stars. In these pages, Juniper takes heavy, emotional raw material and weaves it into stunning, relatable poetry you'll long to share with friends and loved ones. This collection is a reminder that broken pieces make the most beautiful mosaics, and that all of us possess the power to bloom even after a harsh winter.

From Jill Stark, bestselling author of Happy Never After, comes this warm and practical book of tips and wisdom to help guide you through the tough times. This is a self-care manual for the days when you feel alone -- the days when you worry that you're too weird or broken or unfixable to be normal. With compassion, humour, and honesty, Jill offers signposts to help you findthe path back to yourself. Whether you're having a bad day, or a run of bad days that seems never-ending, When You're Not OKis an emotional first-aid kit for your body, mind, and soul, written by someone who's been there too.

America's most prominent Latino chef shares the story behind his food, his family, and his professional journey  Before Chef Aaron Sanchez rose to fame on shows like MasterChef and Chopped, he was a restless Mexican-American son, raised by a fiercely determined and talented woman who was a successful chef and restaurateur in her own right--she is credited with bringing Mexican cuisine to the New York City dining scene. In many ways, Sanchez, who lost his father at a young age, was destined to follow in his mother Zarela's footsteps. He spent nights as a child in his family's dining room surrounded by some of the most influential chefs and restaurateurs in New York. At 16, needing direction, he was sent by his mother to work for renowned chef Paul Prudhomme in New Orleans.  In this memoir, Sanchez delves into his formative years with remarkable candor, injecting his story with adrenaline and revealing how he fell in love with cooking and started a career in the fast-paced culinary world. Sanchez shares the invaluable lessons he learned from his upbringing and his training--both inside and outside the kitchen--and offers an intimate look into the chaotic and untraditional life of a professional chef and television personality. This memoir is Sanchez's highly personal account of a fatherless Latino kid whose talent and passion took him to the top of his profession. 

Many big companies--famous brands, once loved and revered--often disappear into oblivion mainly due to their own follies. Look at the once invincible Kodak or the seemingly unfailing Premier Padmini cars. In the unforgiving world of modern business they failed to adapt, only to perish. Many businesses fail to address this basic truth. Every business is tested for endurance and accomplishment but only a few extract strength and wisdom from their trying experiences. Even the infallible Nokia, BlackBerry, Woolworths and Lehman Brothers buckled. Companies such as Bethlehem Steel, Atari, Xerox, NCR, Mafatlal and Kingfisher Airlines once considered as the great ones to emulate, all failed to live up to their repute.  Instances of business blunders and bloopers are many. They could include compromising quality to cut costs, lack of professionalism in management, botched up mergers and acquisitions, customers being taken for granted, bad leadership, family squabbles, corporate fraud, unmanageable debts and numerous others. This book will help you understand many famous, frequent and common mistakes committed by businesses over time. The lessons learnt should enable you to run your businesses with lesser hiccups and maximize stakeholder return. 

Disease -- specifically infectious disease -- is what eventually kills the overwhelming majority of us. In fact, it's amazing that it doesn't get us sooner: we fight off millions of disease-causing germs every day. So how come we're not dead yet? In this lively and accessible book, Idan Ben-Barak tells us why. He explores the immune system and what keeps it running, how germs are destroyed, and why we develop immunities to certain disease-causing agents. He also examines the role of antibiotics and vaccines, and looks at what the future holds for our collective chances of not being dead. This is entertaining and thoughtful science writing to inspire the student interested in a career in medicine or immunology, or to inform the reader who just wants to understand more about their body while having a laugh along the way.

A collection of the year's best essays selected by Robert Atwan and guest editor Rebecca Solnit. "Essays are restless literature, trying to find out how things fit together, how we can think about two things at once, how the personal and the public can inform each other, how two overtly dissimilar things share a secret kinship," contends Rebecca Solnit in her introduction. From lost languages and extinct species to life-affirming cosmologies and literary myths that offer cold comfort, the personal and the public collide in The Best American Essays 2019. This searching, necessary collection grapples with what has preoccupied us in the past year--sexual politics, race, violence, invasive technologies--and yet, in reading for the book, Solnit also found "how discovery can be a deep pleasure."   The Best American Essays 2019 includes Michelle Alexander, Jabari Asim, Alexander Chee, Masha Gessen, Jean Guerrero, Elizabeth Kolbert, Terese Marie Mailhot, Jia Tolentino, and others.

New York Times best-selling author of ten genre-bending novels Jonathan Lethem helms this collection of the year's best mystery short fiction.  For Jonathan Lethem, "crime stories are deep species gossip." He writes in his introduction that "they're fundamentally stories of power, of its exercise, both spontaneous and conspiratorial; stories of impulse and desire, and of the turning of tables." The Best American Mystery Stories 2019 has its full share of salacious intrigue, guilt, and retribution. The twists and bad decisions pile up when a thief picks the wrong target or a simple scavenger hunt takes a terrible turn. What happens when you befriend a death row inmate, or just how does writing Internet clickbait became a decidedly dangerous occupation? "How can we not hang on their outcomes?" asks Lethem. "Are we innocent ourselves, or complicit?" Read on to find out.   The Best American Mystery Stories 2019 includes Sharon Hunt, Harley Jane Kozak, Mark Mayer, Jennifer McMahon, Joyce Carol Oates, Brian Panowich, Tonya D. Price, Ron Rash, Robb T. White, and others.

Science fiction and fantasy can encompass so much, from far-future deep-space sagas to quiet contemporary tales to unreal kingdoms and beasts. But what the best of these stories do is the same across the genres--they illuminate the whole gamut of the human experience, interrogating our hopes and our fears. With a diverse selection of stories chosen by series editor John Joseph Adams and guest editor Charles Yu, The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2017 continues to explore the ever-expanding and changing world of SFF today, with Yu bringing his unique view--literary, meta, and adventurous--to the series' third edition.

Stella Ainsley leaves poverty behind when she quits her engineering job aboard the Stalwart to become a governess on a private ship. On the Rochester, there's no water ration, more books than one person could devour in a lifetime, and an AI who seems more friend than robot. But no one warned Stella that the ship seems to be haunted, nor that it may be involved in a conspiracy that could topple the entire interstellar fleet. Surrounded by mysteries, Stella finds her equal in the brooding but kind nineteen-year-old Captain Hugo. When several attempts on his life spark more questions than answers, and the beautiful Bianca Ingram appears at Hugo's request, his unpredictable behavior causes Stella's suspicions to mount. Without knowing who to trust, Stella must decide whether to follow her head or her heart. Alexa Donne's lush and enthralling reimagining of the classic Jane Eyre, set among the stars, will seduce and beguile you.

First published in 1949 and a winner of the inaugural International Fantasy Award in 1951, Earth Abides went on to become one of the most influential science-fiction novels of the twentieth century. It remains a fresh, provocative story of apocalyptic pandemic, societal collapse, and rebirth. The cabin had always been a special retreat for Isherwood Williams, a haven from the demands of society. But one day while hiking, Ish was bitten by a rattlesnake, and the solitude he had so desired took on dire new significance. He was sick for days--and often delirious--waking up to find two strangers peering in at him from the cabin door. Yet oddly, instead of offering help, the two ran off as if terrified. Not long after, the coughing began. Ish suffered chills and fever, and a measles-like rash on his skin. He was one of the few people in the world to live through that peculiar malady, but he didn't know it then. Ish headed home when he finally felt himself again--and noticed the strangeness almost immediately. No cars passed him on the road; the gas station not far from his cabin looked abandoned; and he was shocked to see the body of a man on the roadside near a small town. Without a radio or phone, Ish had no idea of humanity's abrupt demise. He had escaped death, yet could not escape the catastrophe--and with an eerie detachment he found himself curious as to how long it would be before all traces of civilization faded from Earth.

This collection of intimate, illustrated essays by some of America's most well-regarded literary writers explores how comfort food can help us cope with dark times--be it the loss of a parent, the loneliness of a move, or the pain of heartache. Lev Grossman explains how he survived on "sweet, sour, spicy, salty, unabashedly gluey" General Tso's tofu after his divorce. Carmen Maria Machado describes her growing pains as she learned to feed and care for herself during her twenties. Claire Messud tries to understand how her mother gave up dreams of being a lawyer to make "a dressed salad of tiny shrimp and avocado, followed by prune-stuffed pork tenderloin." What makes each tale so moving is not only the deeply personal revelations from celebrated writers, but also the compassion and healing behind the story: the taste of hope.

Bringing his twin gifts of scientific speculation and scathing satire to bear on that hapless planet, Earth, Lem sends his unlucky cosmonaut, Ijon Tichy, to the Eighth Futurological Congress. Caught up in local revolution, Tichy is shot and so critically wounded that he is flashfrozen to await a future cure. Translated by Michael Kandel.

A blazingly funny, heartfelt memoir from the daughter of the larger-than-life woman who ran Sticky Fingers Brownies, an underground bakery that distributed thousands of marijuana brownies per month and helped provide medical marijuana to AIDS patients in San Francisco--for fans of Armistead Maupin and Patricia Lockwood During the '70s in San Francisco, Alia's mother ran the underground Sticky Fingers Brownies, delivering upwards of 10,000 illegal marijuana edibles per month throughout the circus-like atmosphere of a city in the throes of major change. She exchanged psychic readings with Alia's future father, and thereafter had a partner in business and life. Decades before cannabusiness went mainstream, when marijuana was as illicit as heroin, they ingeniously hid themselves in plain sight, parading through town--and through the scenes and upheavals of the day, from Gay Liberation to the tragedy of the Peoples Temple--in bright and elaborate outfits, the goods wrapped in hand-designed packaging and tucked into Alia's stroller. But the stars were not aligned forever and, after leaving the city and a shoulda-seen-it-coming divorce, Alia and her mom returned to San Francisco in the mid-80s, this time using Sticky Fingers' distribution channels to provide medical marijuana to friends and former customers now suffering the depredations of AIDS. Exhilarating, laugh-out-loud funny, and heartbreaking,Home Bakedcelebrates an eccentric and remarkable extended family, taking us through love, loss, and finding home.

It's America in 1962. Slavery is legal once again. The few Jews who still survive hide under assumed names. In San Francisco, the I Ching is as common as the Yellow Pages. All because some twenty years earlier the United States lost a war--and is now occupied by Nazi Germany and Japan.   This harrowing, Hugo Award-winning novel is the work that established Philip K. Dick as an innovator in science fiction while breaking the barrier between science fiction and the serious novel of ideas. In it Dick offers a haunting vision of history as a nightmare from which it may just be possible to wake.

The toughest private eye in mystery fiction is back - it's the middle of the Swinging Sixties in midtown Manhattan. Hammer, recuperating from a near fatal mix-up with the Mob, disturbs some drug dealers assaulting a young motorbike messenger who was transporting medicine for a hospital. He saves the kid but the muggers are not so lucky. The Mob and a new young breed of drug trafficker assume he will target them, and they target him right back, with a street-corner knife attack. Hammer and his beautiful, deadly partner Velda take on the drug racket in New York. In a world of flashy discos, swanky bachelor pads and the occasional dark alley, Hammer deals with doctors, drug addicts and hit men, and meets changing times with his trademark brand of violent vengeance.

Bob Arctor is a junkie and a drug dealer, both using and selling the mind-altering Substance D. Fred is a law enforcement agent, tasked with bringing Bob down. It sounds like a standard case. The only problem is that Bob and Fred are the same person. Substance D doesn't just alter the mind, it splits it in two, and neither side knows what the other is doing or that it even exists. Now, both sides are growing increasingly paranoid as Bob tries to evade Fred while Fred tries to evade hissuspicious bosses. In this award-winning novel, friends can become enemies, good trips can turn terrifying, and cops and criminals are two sides of the same coin. Dick is at turns caustically funny and somberly contemplative, fashioning a novel that is as unnerving as it is enthralling.

There is a dark side to MI6 that needs men like Elliot Kane--volatile, inquisitive, free-floating--in the field. They take them and put two years and over £100k into their training, showing them how to steal cars, strip weapons, and hack bank accounts. There are courses on the use of blackmail and improvised explosives, and entire workshops solely dedicated to navigating by the stars. But no one tells them how to go home.   Kane has spent fifteen years managing events overseas that never make the papers. He is a ghost in his own life, assuming and shedding personalities as each new cover story comes into play. But when the woman he loves, another operative named Joanna Lake, vanishes without a trace in Kazakhstan, he is forced center stage in his own life. Drawn ever deeper into a realm of deception and conflicting agendas, Kane moves from merely infiltrating events to steering them. While he's well-versed in modern psychological warfare, snowbound Kazakhstan presents unique challenges--poised between China, Russia, and the West, dictatorship and democracy, state intelligence and an increasingly powerful world of private agencies, it's impossible to work out who is manipulating whom. And Kane's not the only one trying to figure out where Joanna Lake has gone or what she learned before disappearing.  

A collection of stories about time, space, and the evolution of the universe in which the author blends mathematics with poetic imagination. “Calvino does what very few writers can do: he describes imaginary worlds with the most extraordinary precision and beauty” (Gore Vidal, New York Review of Books). Translated by William Weaver. A Helen and Kurt Wolff Book

The tales of this book, as Ursula K. Le Guin writes in her introduction, explore or extend the world established by her first four Earthsea novels. Yet each stands on its own. "The Finder," a novella set a few hundred years before A Wizard of Earthsea, presents a dark and troubled Archipelago and shows how some of its customs and institutions came to be. "The Bones of the Earth" features the wizards who taught the wizard who first taught Ged and demonstrates how humility, if great enough, can contend with an earthquake. "Darkrose and Diamond" is a delightful story of young courtship showing that wizards sometimes pursue alternative careers. "On the High Marsh" tells of the love of power-and of the power of love. "Dragonfly" shows how a determined woman can break the glass ceiling of male magedom. Concluding with an account of Earthsea's history, people, languages, literature, and magic, this collection also features two new maps of Earthsea.

From the creator of the wildly popular webcomic xkcd, hilarious and informative answers to important questions you probably never thought to ask. Millions of people visit xkcd.com each week to read Randall Munroe's iconic webcomic. His stick-figure drawings about science, technology, language, and love have an enormous, dedicated following, as do his deeply researched answers to his fans' strangest questions. The queries he receives range from merely odd to downright diabolical: * What if I took a swim in a spent-nuclear-fuel pool? * Could you build a jetpack using downward-firing machine guns? * What if a Richter 15 earthquake hit New York City? * Are fire tornadoes possible? His responses are masterpieces of clarity and wit, gleefully and accurately explaining everything from the relativistic effects of a baseball pitched at near the speed of light to the many horrible ways you could die while building a periodic table out of all the actual elements. The book features new and never-before-answered questions, along with the most popular answers from the xkcd website. What If? is an informative feast for xkcd fans and anyone who loves to ponder the hypothetical.

Have you ever wondered if you can make good barbecue without a smoker, pit, or grill? If you need to use a rub or marinade? Not sure what a brisket is, whether you need to trim it, and if so, how? InBBQ&A with Myron Mixon, bestselling author and TV personality Myron Mixon answers the questions most frequently asked of him during his many live cooking demos, TV appearances, and private cooking classes. Myron's lively, informative answers are paired with practical visuals and cover techniques and methods, flavors and preparations, recipes and formulas-all collected in one place for the first time by the winningest man in barbecue.

The stories in The Fire Doll investigate the notion that our experience can be richer, more inclusive, and sometimes more unsettling than the life prescribed by the normal daylight sense of reality.  American writing has often been engaged with elements of mystery and the uncanny, and the American Dream has always had its corresponding nightmare.  These stories feature haunted landscapes, places where violence and tragedy have left their marks: a man is subsumed by his vision of falling pine straw, a camera captures something the eye alone can't perceive, and a dead girl leads an unsuspecting boy to a killer's burial ground.  In the title story, a Houston homicide detective is haunted, literally and figuratively, by the death of his partner.  In order to redeem himself, he must hunt down her killer and confront his own complicity in her death.  Written in the tradition of dark American masters like Hawthorne and Henry James, the tales in this collection occupy the uncertain borderland between the living and the dead.

An indispensable new cookbook from James Beard Award-winning food writer Michael Ruhlman. From Scratch looks at 10 favorite meals, including roast chicken, the perfect omelet, and paella-and then, through 175 recipes, explores myriad alternate pathways that the kitchen invites. A delicious lasagna can be ready in about an hour, or you could turn it into a project: try making and adding some homemade sausage. Explore the limits of from-scratch cooking: make your own pasta, grow your own tomatoes, and make your own homemade mozzarella and ricotta. Ruhlman tells you how. There are easy and more complex versions for most dishes, vegetarian options, side dishes, sub-dishes, and strategies for leftovers. Ruhlman reflects on the ways that cooking from scratch brings people together, how it can calm the nerves and focus the mind, and how it nourishes us, body and soul.

Discover the path to inner peace. Calmness is all around you and within you if you just know where to look. And the journey to a more peaceful place is one of the most rewarding trips you can take for your health and well-being. A careful blend of tranquil tips, soothing statements and relaxing activities, How to Find Calm is a lovingly curated guide to reaching a state of joyful and mindful serenity.

The course of true love never did run smooth for PI Mike Hammer. His secretary and partner Velda has walked out on him without explanation, and Mike is just surfacing from a four-month bender. But then an old cop turns up murdered, an old cop who once worked with Velda on the NYPD Vice Squad. What's more, Mike's pal Captain Pat Chambers has discovered that Velda is in Florida, the moll of gangster and drug runner Nolly Quinn.  Hammer hits the road and drives to Miami, where he enlists the help of a horse-faced newspaperman and a local police detective. But can they find Velda in time? And what is the connection between the murdered vice cop in Manhattan, and Mike's ex turning gun moll in Florida?

Fifteen stories and essays from a modern master of Heinleinian science fiction In Rude Astronauts, Allen Steele presents some of his finest stories--including the Diamondback Jack Trilogy and his first published story, "Live from the Mars Hotel"--along with excerpts of the nonfiction science writing with which he made his name. In Steele's universe, the stars are cold, space is big, and it's the normal people who make things interesting.

A culinary travel fantasy, celebrating the food of the Southeastern coast  Whitney Otawka is the award-winning chef of Greyfield, a celebrated Carnegie-built inn located on Cumberland Island, Georgia--a magical and remote barrier island that has been left undeveloped as a National Seashore. Cumberland Island and the exceptional local ingredients to be found there are Otawka's muse, inspiring her to celebrate the beloved food found along the Southeast coast. Offering a modern perspective on southern flavors with a strong emphasis on vegetables and fresh ingredients, the book contains 125 approachable and flavorful recipes, such as summer tomatoes topped with crispy okra, flakey buttermilk biscuits with ginger-spiked jam, and sweet Atlantic shrimp poached with beer, citrus, and bay leaves. This beautifully photographed book also shows us how to enjoy iconic southern meals, everything from an oyster roast, to a fish fry, to a Low Country boil. The Saltwater Table transports readers to the mysterious, lush Cumberland Island, allowing us to recreate a taste of this vibrant world in our own kitchens. 

“When you live in an adopted country, when you're an exile in your own body, names are simply lists that dull the reality of death.” Cars on Fire, Mónica Ramón Ríos's electric, uncompromising English-language debut, unfolds through a series of female characters—the writer, the patient, the immigrant, the professor, the student—whose identities are messy and ever-shifting. A speechwriter is employed writing for would-be dictators, but plays in a rock band as a means of protest. A failed Marxist cuts off her own head as a final poetic act. With incredible formal range, from the linear to the more free-wheeling, the real to the fantastical to the dystopic, Rios offers striking, jarring glimpses into life as a woman and an immigrant. Set in New York City, New Jersey, and Chile's La Zona Central, the stories in Cars on Fire offer powerful remembrances to those lost to violence, and ultimately make the case for the power of art, love, and feminine desire to subvert the oppressive forces—xenophobia, neoliberalism, social hierarchies within the academic world—that shape life in Chile and the United States.

Not all scientific discoveries are genius. Continual Raving tells the combined stories of how scientists across the 19th and 20th centuries defeated meningitis -- not through flawless scientific research, but often through a series of serendipitous events, misplaced assumptions, and flawed conclusions. The result is a story of not just a vanquished disease, but how scientific accomplishment sometimes occurs where it's least expected. Although symptoms of meningitis were recorded as early as Hippocrates and the ancient Greeks, our understanding of the disease's origins and mechanisms remained obscure for most of human history. That changed in 1892, when German physician Richard Pfeiffer observed and isolated bacteria ultimately shown to cause meningitis in children -- and concluded that those bacteria cause influenza. Haemophilus influenzae, as thee meningitis-causing bacteria have been erroneously named ever since, continued their strange journey to discovery in the decades that followed. Continual Raving traces the disease's strange encounters with science, including: * Heinrich Quincke, the German internist who first used a needle to draw spinal fluid from between a patient's back bones * Simon Flexner's management of American meningitis epidemics using immune serum from a horse * American bacteriologist Margaret Pittman's discovery (during the Great Depression, no less) of a sugar overcoat that protects the bacteria from white blood cells * Pediatrician Ashley Weech, who gave the first antibiotic used in America (based on instructions written in German) to a young patient sick with meningitis * Microbiologist Hattie Alexander, who learned why these antibiotics sometimes fail in such patients * Four scientists, in two teams, as they vied to be the first to create the right vaccine to prevent meningitis in infants In each of these deeply human stories, variables of chance, circumstance, and incorrect assumptions intervene to shape not just the arc of the scientists' lives, but the trajectory of how humans have come to understand one of our most pernicious diseases. Continual Raving is a mosaic tale of how science conquered meningitis -- and a larger story of the sometimes winding road to discovery.

Created specifically for fans of Japanese "cool culture,"A Geek in Japan is one of the most iconic, hip, and concise cultural guides available. Reinvented for the internet age, it is packed with personal essays and hundreds of photographs and presents all the touchstones of traditional and contemporary culture in an entirely new way.A Geek in Japan decodes the mysteries of the Japanese language, Japanese social values and daily habits, business and technology, the arts, and symbols and practices that are peculiarly Japanese. This revised and expanded edition contains many new pages of materials on all sorts of topics including Kyoto, Japanese architecture, and Japanese video games. It also features a guide to author Hector Garcia's favorite Tokyo hangouts and tips on visiting many "secret" places around Japan. Highlighting the originality and creativity of the Japanese, debunking myths, and answering nagging questions such as why the Japanese are so fond of wearing face masks, Garcia has written an irreverent, insightful, and highly informative guide for the growing ranks of Japanophiles around the world.

Almost every schoolchild learns that Thomas Edison invented the light bulb. But did he? And if he hadn't invented it, would we be still living in the dark? Acclaimed author Matt Ridley (The Rational Optimist, The Evolution of Everything) explains that at least 20 other people can lay claim to this breakthrough moment. Ridley argues that the light bulb emerged from the combined technologies and accumulated knowledge of the day - it was bound to emerge sooner or later. Based on his 2018 Hayek Memorial Lecture, Ridley contends that innovation - from invention through to development and commercialisation - is the most important unsolved problem in all of human society. We rely on it - but we do not fully understand it, we cannot predict it and we cannot direct it. In How Many Light Bulbs Does It Take to Change the World? Ridley examines the nature of innovation - and how people often fear its consequences. He dispels the myth that automation destroys jobs - and demonstrates how innovation leads to economic growth. And he argues that intellectual property rights, originally intended to encourage innovation, are now being used by big business to defend their monopolies. Ridley concludes that innovation is a mysterious and under-appreciated process that we discuss too rarely, hamper too much and value too little.

In Incredible Plant-Based Desserts, Instagram star Anthea Cheng (@rainbownourishments) shares her trade-secret recipes for fun and showstopping vegan sweet treats that are seriously luscious, mouthwatering, and beautiful. Whether you are an eager home cook or a more experienced chef, Anthea shows you that sponge cakes can still be fluffy and moist and pastry can still melt in your mouth without animal-derived ingredients. Find playful, modern spins on classic desserts, such as fail-safe tiramisu trifles topped with caramelized popcorn or Snickers transformed into a multi-layered cake with peanut brittle. For when life gets busy, simplify with recipes like three-ingredient pancakes and fruit-filled muffins. If you want something indulgent, the Homer Simpson pink donuts, baklava custard tart, and chocolate brownie peanut butter sandwich cookies are for you. You'll also find wholesome choices like a berry chocolate mousse tart and cupcakes with rainbow cashew buttercream. Anthea has carefully selected ingredients to ensure you won't accumulate odd, once-used stuff in your pantry. And with plenty of options for people avoiding gluten, refined sugar, nuts, and other common allergens, no one misses out on the deliciousness. All of the recipes have been tested and approved by vegans and non-vegans alike. Accompanied by stunning photography, these recipes will bring some magic to your every day, dinner table, or special occasion.

Modest fashion has been gaining momentum in the mainstream global fashion industry over the past half-decade and is now a multi-billion-dollar retail sector. Its growing and now consistent appearance on high-profile fashion runways, on celebrities and in the headlines of fashion publications and news outlets, has shown that the modest fashion movement is hugely relevant to consumers. This is particularly true for millennials who are attracted to the feminist influences behind concealing your body, follow faith-based dress codes, or are attuned to social media, where more and more modest fashion bloggers are using imagery to inspire their followers. While the movement can credit European high fashion houses, like Gucci, for making conservative dresses and layering "in style" and "on trend," and subsequent Western labels like DKNY, H&M and Mango for dabbling in the realm of modest wear, it is the newly emerging group of faith-influenced fashion brands who are driving the revolution, along with a new crop of Muslim fashion bloggers. These have helped catapult demure dressing trends globally.This book speaks to the various personalities and companies who have helped shape the modest fashion industry into such a significant retail sector, while also exploring the controversies that lie at the heart of the movement, such as one pressing question: even if it covers the skin but is flamboyant, modeled with the purpose of attracting attention, and publicly promoted on social media, can fashion truly be modest?

In 2018, Olivia Jaimes became the first woman to write and illustrate the classic comic strip Nancy. Her fresh, irreverent take on the classic comic strip has become a sensation with readers and has earned praise from dozens of media outlets, several of which have named it the best comic of the year. This hardcover collection includes the first nine months of Jaimes' run on Nancy, along with an introduction, essay, interview with the author, and a special gallery of Nancy fan art by the author.  

When Richie Thorpe and his ragtag religious band of ex-thieves arrive in the High Plains town of Suborney, Colorado, Tommy Sandor is captivated by the group. It's the summer of 1980 in the dusty, junkyard town, and the seventeen-year-old is wrestling with the forces shaping America and himself: the Iran hostage crisis, the incoming tide of Ronald Reagan's presidency, and the political rise of the Christian Right. As Tommy is increasingly drawn to the group, his mother, Connie, grows frantic. She has been hiding the truth from her son, telling him that his father was a saxophonist from New York who never knew he had a child, and is lying low in Suborney to hide from Tommy's actual father--Richie Thorpe. Connie knows Richie has come for his son, and though she has witnessed Thorpe's mysterious powers, the desperation to protect her lie, her son, and their life begets a venom with an elemental power that threatens the whole town.  

Insightful essays, poignant life advice, and pithy pearls of wisdom from one of comedy's brightest rising stars   Comedian, writer, actress, and social media star Amanda Seales is a force of nature who has fearlessly and passionately charted her own course through life and career. Now, in her one-of-a-kind voice that blends academic intellectualism, Black American colloquialisms, and pop culture fanaticism, she's bringing her life's lessons and laughs to the page. This volume of essays, axioms, original illustrations, and photos provides Seales's trademark "self-help from the hip" style of commentary, fueled by ideology formed from her own victories, struggles, research, mistakes, risks, and pay-offs. Unapologetic, fiercely funny, and searingly honest, Small Doses engages, empowers, and enlightens readers on how to find their truths while still finding the funny!  

The follow up to the Eisner-nominated collection of Wallace the Brave comics, featuring beautifully illustrated scenes of childhood imagination, friendship, outdoor exploration, and adventure. Think "Peanuts" if Charlie Brown were less of a mope or "Calvin & Hobbes" if Calvin weren't a bit of a psychopath. "Wallace The Brave" is about a family. There's Dad, a fisherman, Mom, a gardener, their almost feral young son Sterling, who never met a bug he wouldn't eat, and his older brother Wallace, a rambunctious, imaginative kid big on exploring. Mostly we see the world of the strip through Wallace's eyes, a sleepy East Coast beach town called Snug Harbor where the streets are lined with ice cream shops and the beaches are dotted with rocky tide pools ... The world of childhood depicted in the strip is a timeless, outdoorsy one reminiscent of strips like "Calvin & Hobbes" and "Cul De Sac," both of which Henry cites as influences.

Inspired by the global'study with me'/#studygram phenomenon: Study smarter, stay motivated, improve your grades—all by taking better, more effective notes! Written by Jasmine Shao, founder of popular YouTube channel and Instagram account @studyquill, and Alyssa Jagan, founder of @craftyslimecreator and author of the DIY book Ultimate Slime,Study with Me includes everything you need to set and achieve your study goals using simple-to-master bullet journaling techniques: The basics of bullet journaling, and how to adapt them to your specific studying needs and goalsMethods for organizing your time and schedulingIdeas for page and spread layouts for specific topics and how to set them upPlus: Dos and don'ts, hacks, and assorted tips for beginnersWith Study with Me, you'll learn the note-taking and organizational skills you need to achieve success!

A fast-paced account of the year Clara Parkes spent transforming a 676-pound bale of fleece into saleable yarn, and the people and vanishing industry she discovered along the way Join Clara Parkes on a cross-country adventure and meet a cast of characters that includes the shepherds, dyers, and countless workers without whom our knitting needles would be empty, our mills idle, and our feet woefully cold. Travel the country with her as she meets a flock of Saxon Merino sheep in upstate New York, tours a scouring plant in Texas, visits a steamy Maine dyehouse, helps sort freshly shorn wool on a working farm, and learns how wool fleece is measured, baled, shipped, and turned into skeins. In pursuit of the perfect yarn, Parkes describes a brush with the dangers of opening a bale (they can explode), and her adventures from Maine to Wisconsin ("the most knitterly state") and back again; along the way, she presents a behind-the-scenes look at the spinners, scourers, genius inventors, and crazy-complex mill machines that populate the yarn-making industry. By the end of the book, you'll be ready to set aside the backyard chickens and add a flock of sheep instead. Simply put, no other book exists that explores American culture through the lens of wool.

Welcome to Snug Harbor! Will Henry's Wallace the Brave is a whimsical comic strip that centers around a bold and curious little boy named Wallace, his best friend Spud and the new girl in town, Amelia. Wallace lives in the quaint and funky town of Snug Harbor with his fisherman father, plant loving mother and feral little brother, Sterling.

Women on Food unites the radical, diverging female voices of the food industry in this urgent, moving, and often humorous collection of essays, interviews, questionnaires, illustrations, quotes, and ephemera. Edited by Charlotte Druckman and featuring esteemed food journalists and thinkers, including Soleil Ho, Nigella Lawson, Diana Henry, Carla Hall, Samin Nosrat, Rachael Ray, and many others, this compilation illuminates the notable and varied women who make up the food world. Exploring issues from the #MeToo movement, gender bias in division of labor and the workplace, and the underrepresentation of women of color in leadership, to cultural trends including food and travel shows, the intersection of fashion and food, and the evolution of food writing in the last few decades, Women on Food brings together food's most vital female voices.

Antonia Vega, the immigrant writer at the center of Afterlife, has had the rug pulled out from under her. She has just retired from the college where she taught English when her beloved husband, Sam, suddenly dies. And then more jolts: her bighearted but unstable sister disappears, and Antonia returns home one evening to find a pregnant, undocumented teenager on her doorstep. Antonia has always sought direction in the literature she loves--lines from her favorite authors play in her head like a soundtrack--but now she finds that the world demands more of her than words. Afterlife is a compact, nimble, and sharply droll novel. Set in this political moment of tribalism and distrust, it asks: What do we owe those in crisis in our families, including--maybe especially--members of our human family? How do we live in a broken world without losing faith in one another or ourselves? And how do we stay true to those glorious souls we have lost?

Newlyweds Celestial and Roy are the embodiment of both the American Dream and the New South. He is a young executive, and she is an artist on the brink of an exciting career. But as they settle into the routine of their life together, they are ripped apart by circumstances neither could have imagined. Roy is arrested and sentenced to twelve years for a crime Celestial knows he didn't commit. Though fiercely independent, Celestial finds herself bereft and unmoored, taking comfort in Andre, her childhood friend, and best man at their wedding. As Roy's time in prison passes, she is unable to hold on to the love that has been her center. After five years, Roy's conviction is suddenly overturned, and he returns to Atlanta ready to resume their life together.   This stirring love story is a profoundly insightful look into the hearts and minds of three people who are at once bound and separated by forces beyond their control. An American Marriage is a masterpiece of storytelling, an intimate look deep into the souls of people who must reckon with the past while moving forward--with hope and pain--into the future.

When Auntie Poldi finds a body in a vineyard, she sets out to solve another murder--with the Mafia nipping at her heels. When Prosecco‑loving Auntie Poldi retired to Sicily from Germany, she never dreamed her tranquil days would be interrupted by murder. But Sicily had other plans, and Poldi found herself honor‑bound to solve the disappearance of her beloved (and cute) handyman.     Now she's finally ready for some peace and quiet--interrupted by romantic encounters with handsome Chief Inspector Montana, of course--when the water supply to her neighborhood is cut off and a dear friend's dog is poisoned, telltale signs that a certain familial organization is flexing its muscles. Poldi knows there will be no resolution without her help. She soon finds a body in a vineyard, tangles with the Mafia, and yet again makes herself unpopular in the pursuit of justice. But once wine and murder mix, how could she possibly stay away?

Swine Hill was full of the dead. Their ghosts were thickest near the abandoned downtown, where so many of the town's hopes had died generation by generation. They lingered in the places that mattered to them, and people avoided those streets, locked those doors, stopped going into those rooms . . . They could hurt you. Worse, they could change you.   Jane is haunted. Since she was a child, she has carried a ghost girl that feeds on the secrets and fears of everyone around her, whispering to Jane what they are thinking and feeling, even when she doesn't want to know. Henry, Jane's brother, is ridden by a genius ghost that forces him to build strange and dangerous machines. Their mother is possessed by a lonely spirit that burns anyone she touches. In Swine Hill, a place of defeat and depletion, there are more dead than living.   When new arrivals begin scoring precious jobs at the last factory in town, both the living and the dead are furious. This insult on the end of a long economic decline sparks a conflagration. Buffeted by rage on all sides, Jane must find a way to save her haunted family and escape the town before it kills them.

Challenging every preconception about storytelling and prose style, mixing wry humor and riveting emotional depth, Kawakami is today one of Japan's most important and best-selling writers. She exploded onto the cultural scene first as a musician, then as a poet and popular blogger, and is now an award-winning novelist. Breasts and Eggs paints a portrait of contemporary womanhood in Japan and recounts the intimate journeys of three women as they confront oppressive mores and their own uncertainties on the road to finding peace and futures they can truly call their own. It tells the story of three women: the thirty-year-old Natsu, her older sister, Makiko, and Makiko's daughter, Midoriko. Makiko has traveled to Tokyo in search of an affordable breast enhancement procedure. She is accompanied by Midoriko, who has recently grown silent, finding herself unable to voice the vague yet overwhelming pressures associated with growing up. Her silence proves a catalyst for each woman to confront her fears and frustrations. On another hot summer's day ten years later, Natsu, on a journey back to her native city, struggles with her own indeterminate identity as she confronts anxieties about growing old alone and childless.

Baking a multitude of tartes tatins for local restaurants, an Ohio housewife contemplates her four kids, husband, cats and chickens. Also, America's ignoble past, and her own regrets. She is surrounded by dead lakes, fake facts, Open Carry maniacs, and oodles of online advice about survivalism, veil toss duties, and how to be more like Jane Fonda. But what do you do when you keep stepping on your son's toy tractors, your life depends on stolen land and broken treaties, and nobody helps you when you get a flat tire on the interstate, not even the Abominable Snowman? When are you allowed to start swearing? With a torrent of consciousness and an intoxicating coziness, Ducks, Newburyport lays out a whole world for you to tramp around in, by turns frightening and funny. A heart-rending indictment of America's barbarity, and a lament for the way we are blundering into environmental disaster, this book is both heresy―and a revolution in the novel.

A piercingly raw debut story collection from a young writer with an explosive voice; a treacherously surreal, and, at times, heartbreakingly satirical look at what it's like to be young and black in America. From the start of this extraordinary debut, Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah's writing will grab you, haunt you, enrage and invigorate you. By placing ordinary characters in extraordinary situations, Adjei-Brenyah reveals the violence, injustice, and painful absurdities that black men and women contend with every day in this country. These stories tackle urgent instances of racism and cultural unrest, and explore the many ways we fight for humanity in an unforgiving world. In "The Finkelstein Five," Adjei-Brenyah gives us an unforgettable reckoning of the brutal prejudice of our justice system. In "Zimmer Land," we see a far-too-easy-to-believe imagining of racism as sport. And "Friday Black" and "How to Sell a Jacket as Told by Ice King" show the horrors of consumerism and the toll it takes on us all. Entirely fresh in its style and perspective, and sure to appeal to fans of Colson Whitehead, Marlon James, and George Saunders, Friday Black confronts readers with a complicated, insistent, wrenching chorus of emotions, the final note of which, remarkably, is hope.

Is Proust getting you down? Do you find The Unbearable Lightness of Being simply unbearable? Is The Inferno your own private hell? Do you long to be conversant about classics like Moby Dick, the Bhagavad Gita, Madame Bovary, and, um, Twilight? Bestselling illustrator Lisa Brown (The Airport Book; Baby, Mix Me a Drink) did her homework. Long Story Short offers 100 pithy and skewering three-panel literary summaries, from curriculum classics like Don Quixote, Lord of the Flies, and Jane Eyre to modem favourites like Beloved, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, and Atonement, conveniently organised by subjects including "Love," "Sex," "Death," and "Female Trouble." Lisa Brown's Long Story Short is the perfect way to turn a traipse through what your English teacher called "the canon" into a frolic-or to happily cram for the next occasion that requires you to appear bookish and well-read. 

It is 1988 and Saul Adler, a narcissistic young historian, has been invited to Communist East Berlin to do research; in exchange, he must publish a favorable essay about the German Democratic Republic. As a gift for his translator's sister, a Beatles fanatic who will be his host, Saul's girlfriend will shoot a photograph of him standing in the crosswalk on Abbey Road, an homage to the famous album cover. As he waits for her to arrive, he is grazed by an oncoming car, which changes the trajectory of his life. The Man Who Saw Everything is about the difficulty of seeing ourselves and others clearly. It greets the specters that come back to haunt old and new love, previous and current incarnations of Europe, conscious and unconscious transgressions, and real and imagined betrayals, while investigating the cyclic nature of history and its reinvention by people in power. Here, Levy traverses the vast reaches of the human imagination while artfully blurring sexual and political binaries--feminine and masculine, East and West, past and present--to reveal the full spectrum of our world.

A brilliant and entertaining mathematician illuminates seven mathematical principles that shape our lives. From birthdays to birth rates to how we perceive the passing of time, mathematical patterns shape our lives. But for those of us who left math behind in high school, the numbers and figures hurled at us as we go about our days can sometimes leave us scratching our heads and feeling as if we're fumbling through a mathematical minefield. In this eye-opening and extraordinarily accessible book, mathemati­cian Kit Yates illuminates hidden principles that can help us understand and navigate the chaotic and often opaque surfaces of our world. In The Math of Life and Death, Yates takes us on a fascinating tour of everyday situations and grand-scale applications of mathematical concepts, including exponential growth and decay, optimization, statistics and probability, and number systems. Along the way he reveals the mathematical undersides of controversies over DNA testing, medical screening results, and historical events such as the Chernobyl disaster and the Amanda Knox trial. Readers will finish this book with an enlightened perspective on the news, the law, medicine, and history, and will be better equipped to make personal decisions and solve problems with math in mind, whether it's choosing the shortest checkout line at the grocery store or halting the spread of a deadly disease.

The fifth book in the Magic Men series, Now You See Them is a wild mystery with detective Edgar Stephens and the magician Max Mephisto, as they investigate a string of presumed kidnappings in the swinging 1960s. The new decade is going well for Edgar Stephens and his good friend the magician Max Mephisto. Edgar is happily married, with children, and promoted to Superintendent. Max has found fame and stardom in America, though is now back in England for a funeral, and a prospective movie job. Edgar's new wife, though--former detective Emma--is restless and frustrated at home, knowing she was the best detective on the team. But when an investigation into a string of disappearing girls begins, Emma sees her chance to get back in the action. She begins her own hunt, determined to prove, once and for all that she's better than the boys. Though she's not the only one working toward that goal--there's a new woman on the force, and she's determined to make detective. When two more girls go missing, both with ties to the group, the stakes climb ever higher, and Max finds himself drawn into his own search.   Who will find the girls first? And will they get there in time?

Some events that transform a nation are frozen in time. Others pass with little public awareness, and we only appreciate their momentous nature long after they occur. Regardless, these events are few and--almost always--far between. But in 1969, four such events took place within the span of only 100 days. In this book, cultural historian Harlan Lebo looks back at the first moon landing, the Manson family murders, Woodstock, and the birth of the Internet to tell the story of how each event shaped the nation and how we perceive ourselves. Loaded with captivating anecdotes and insights based on extensive interviews with eyewitnesses and participants, to provide historical insight and contemporary context, 100 Days will fascinate readers who seek a deeper appreciation of how four seemingly unrelated events shaped America's emergence as the nation we have become.

The idea of the sword-wielding samurai, beholden to a strict ethical code and trained in deadly martial arts, dominates popular conceptions of the samurai. As early as the late seventeenth century, they were heavily featured in literature, art, theater, and even comedy, from the Tale of the Heike to the kabuki retellings of the 47 Ronin. This legacy remains with us today in the legendary Akira Kurosawa films, the shoguns of HBO's Westworld, and countless renditions of samurai history in anime, manga, and video games. Acknowledging these common depictions, this book gives readers access to the real samurai as they lived, fought, and served. Much as they capture the modern imagination, the samurai commanded influence over the politics, arts, philosophy and religion of their own time, and ultimately controlled Japan from the fourteenth century until their demise in the mid-nineteenth century. On and off the battlefield, whether charging an enemy on horseback or currying favor at the imperial court, their story is one of adventures and intrigues, heroics and misdeeds, unlikely victories and devastating defeats. This book traces the samurai throughout this history, exploring their roles in watershed events such as Japan's invasions of Korea at the close of the sixteenth century and the Satsuma Rebellion of 1877. Coming alive in these accounts are the samurai, both famed and ordinary, who shaped Japanese history.

In the pulsating moments after she has been murdered and left in a dumpster outside Istanbul, Tequila Leila enters a state of heightened awareness. Her heart has stopped beating but her brain is still active--for 10 minutes 38 seconds. While the Turkish sun rises and her friends sleep soundly nearby, she remembers her life--and the lives of others, outcasts like her. Tequila Leila's memories bring us back to her childhood in the provinces, a highly oppressive milieu with religion and traditions, shaped by a polygamous family with two mothers and an increasingly authoritarian father. Escaping to Istanbul, Leila makes her way into the sordid industry of sex trafficking, finding a home in the city's historic Street of Brothels. This is a dark, violent world, but Leila is tough and open to beauty, light, and the essential bonds of friendship. In Tequila Leila's death, the secrets and wonders of modern Istanbul come to life, painted vividly by the captivating tales of how Leila came to know and be loved by her friends. As her epic journey to the afterlife comes to an end, it is her chosen family who brings her story to a buoyant and breathtaking conclusion.

What is a videogame? What makes a videogame "good"? If a game is supposed to be fun, can it be fun without a good story? If another is supposed to be an accurate simulation, does it still need to be entertaining? With the ever-expanding explosion of new videogames and new developments in the gaming world, questions about videogame criticism are becoming more complex. The differing definitions that players and critics use to decide what a game is and what makes a game successful, often lead to different ideas of how games succeed or fail. This collection of new essays puts on display the variety and ambiguity of videogames. Each essay is a work of game criticism that takes a different approach to defining the game and analyzing it. Through analysis and critical methods, these essays discuss whether a game is defined by its rules, its narrative, its technology, or by the activity of playing it, and the tensions between these definitions. With essays on Overwatch, Dark Souls 3, Far Cry 4, Farmville and more, this collection attempts to show the complex changes, challenges and advances to game criticism in the era of videogames.

Two billion people now watch YouTube, yet its stars are a mystery to the general public and media. What is the secret of their appeal? How do they cope with being in front of the lens? And who is behind their success? More than 100 insiders laid bare the reality of their lives for this, the first in-depth independent book on YouTube. It charts the platform's rise from single home video to global boom - while getting the facts on brand deals, burnout and authenticity. This is an ideal guide for anyone in universities, media or marketing who needs to understand YouTube professionally, and of course those who want to make it as a YouTuber.

Recently widowed Poldi moves to Sicily in order to quietly drink herself to death with a sea view. But fate intervenes. When she finds the corpse of a young man on the beach, his face blown off with a sawn-off shotgun, she becomes a potential suspect in his murder case. Poldi soon falls for the gorgeous Commissario Montana who has been assigned to lead the case and, after some initial misunderstandings, they form an investigative - and romantic - partnership. Warm, witty and delightful, Auntie Poldi and the Sicilian Lions delivers a lovable protagonist in a vivid setting.

From the bestselling author of The Wives of Los Alamoscomes the riveting story of a stranger's arrival in the fledgling colony of Plymouth, Massachusetts-and a crime that shakes the divided community to its core. Ten years after the Mayflower pilgrims arrived on rocky, unfamiliar soil, Plymouth is not the land its residents had imagined. Seemingly established on a dream of religious freedom, in reality the town is led by fervent puritans who prohibit the residents from living, trading, and worshipping as they choose. By the time an unfamiliar ship, bearing new colonists, appears on the horizon one summer morning, Anglican outsiders have had enough. With gripping, immersive details and exquisite prose, TaraShea Nesbit reframes the story of the pilgrims in the previously unheard voices of two women of very different status and means. She evokes a vivid, ominous Plymouth, populated by famous and unknown characters alike, each with conflicting desires and questionable behavior. Suspenseful and beautifully wrought, Beheld is about a murder and a trial, and the motivations-personal and political-that cause people to act in unsavory ways. It is also an intimate portrait of love, motherhood, and friendship that asks: Whose stories get told over time, who gets believed-and subsequently, who gets punished?

At a global tech gala hosted at the British Museum, scientist Tobias Hawkeis due to unveil an astonishing breakthrough. His AI system appears to have reached consciousness, making Hawke the leading light in his field. But when terrorists storm the building, they don't just leave chaos in their wake. They seize Hawke's masterwork, sparking a chain reaction of explosive events which could end the world as we know it. Michael North, ex-assassin and spy-for-hire, must find the killers and recover the AI. But he can't do it alone. Hawke's wife, Esme, and teenage hacker, Fangfang, have their own reasons to help complete North's mission - and together they unravel a dark and deadly conspiracy which stretches right to the top of the British elite. Can North survive long enough to uncover the whole truth? Or is it already too late for humanity?

On August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina's monstrous winds and surging water overwhelmed the protective levees around low-lying New Orleans, Louisiana. Eighty percent of the city flooded, in some places under twenty feet of water. Property damages across the Gulf Coast topped $100 billion. One thousand eight hundred and thirty-three people lost their lives. The riveting tale of this historic storm and the drowning of an American city is one of selflessness, heroism, and courage--and also of incompetence, racism, and criminality.   Don Brown's kinetic art and as-it-happens narrative capture both the tragedy and triumph of one of the worst natural disasters in American history.

Twenty-five years after her passing, Audrey Hepburn remains the most beloved of all Hollywood stars, known as much for her role as UNICEF ambassador as for films like Roman Holiday and Breakfast at Tiffany's. Several biographies have chronicled her stardom, but none has covered her intense experiences through five years of Nazi occupation in the Netherlands. According to her son, Luca Dotti, "The war made my mother who she was." Audrey Hepburn's war included participation in the Dutch Resistance, working as a doctor's assistant during the "Bridge Too Far" battle of Arnhem, the brutal execution of her uncle, and the ordeal of the Hunger Winter of 1944. She also had to contend with the fact that her father was a Nazi agent and her mother was pro-Nazi for the first two years of the occupation. But the war years also brought triumphs as Audrey became Arnhem's most famous young ballerina. Audrey's own reminiscences, new interviews with people who knew her in the war, wartime diaries, and research in classified Dutch archives shed light on the riveting, untold story of Audrey Hepburn under fire in World War II. Also included is a section of color and black-and-white photos. Many of these images are from Audrey's personal collection and are published here for the first time.

Racial tension in America has become a recurring topic of conversation in politics, the media, and everyday life. There are numerous explanations as to why this has become a predominant subject in today's news and who is to blame. As Americans prepare once again to cast their Presidential ballots, it's more important than ever to have a smart and thoughtful conversation about race. In Getting Smart About Race, expert Margaret Andersen discusses why racial healing should be an integral element of our everyday discussions surrounding race and how to move the conversation in a positive direction. Getting Smart About Race is a clear, accessible introduction to understanding racial inequality and how we can and need to make a difference.

Based on the Kopp sisters' real-life adventures, the first three novels in best-selling author Amy Stewart's sparkling series tell the riveting story of a woman who defied expectations, forged her own path, and tackled crime along the way. In Girl Waits with Gun, we meet Constance Kopp. Constance doesn't quite fit the mold. She towers over most men, has no interest in marriage or domestic affairs, and has been isolated from the world since a family secret sent her and her sisters into hiding fifteen years ago. One day a belligerent and powerful silk factory owner runs down their buggy, and a dispute over damages turns into a war of bricks, bullets, and threats as he unleashes his gang on their family farm. When the sheriff enlists her help in convicting the men, Constance is forced to confront her past and defend her family -- and she does it in a way that few women of 1914 would have dared. In Lady Cop Makes Trouble, Constance and her sisters aren't living the quiet life anymore. After Sheriff Heath sees Constance in action, he appoints her as one of the nation's first female deputies. But when a German-speaking con man threatens her position--and puts the honorable sheriff at risk for being thrown in his own jail--Constance will be forced to prove herself again. In Miss Kopp's Midnight Confessions, Constance has finally earned her deputy sheriff's badge and is ready to tackle a new kind of case: defending independent young women brought into the Hackensack jail on dubious charges of waywardness, incorrigibility, and moral depravity. Such were the laws--and morals--of 1916. Constance uses her authority as deputy sheriff, and occasionally exceeds it, to investigate and support these women when no one else will. But it's her sister Fleurette--who runs away from their sleepy farm to join the glamorous world of vaudeville--who puts Constance's beliefs to the test.

Constance Kopp and her sisters take on the military establishment at a training camp for women as the U.S. readies for war. It's the spring of 1917 and change is in the air. American women have done something remarkable: they've banded together to create military-style training camps for women who want to serve. These so-called National Service Schools prove irresistible to the Kopp sisters, who leave their farm in New Jersey to join up. When an accident befalls the matron, Constance reluctantly agrees to oversee the camp--much to the alarm of the Kopps' tent-mate, the real-life Beulah Binford, who is seeking refuge from her own scandalous past under the cover of a false identity. Will she be denied a second chance? And after notoriety, can a woman's life ever be her own again?   InKopp Sisters on the March, the women of Camp Chevy Chase face down the skepticism of the War Department, the double standards of a scornful public, and the very real perils of war. Once again, Amy Stewart has brilliantly brought a little-known moment in history to light with her fearless and funny Kopp sisters novels.

Sometimes explosive, often delicious, occasionally poisonous, but always interesting: the New York Times-bestselling author of Stuff Matters shows us the secret lives of liquids: the shadow counterpart of our solid "stuff." We all know that without water we couldn't survive, and that sometimes a cup of coffee or a glass of wine feels just as vital. But do we really understand how much we rely on liquids, or the destructive power they hold?   Set over the course of a flight from London to San Francisco, Liquid Rules offers readers a fascinating tour of these formless substances, told through the language of molecules, droplets, heartbeats, and ocean waves. Throughout the trip, we encounter fluids within the plane--from a seemingly ordinary cup of tea to a liquid crystal display screen--and without, in the volcanoes of Iceland, the frozen expanse of Greenland, and the marvelous California coastline. We come to see liquids as substances of wonder and fascination, and to understand their potential for death and destruction. Just as in Stuff Matters, Mark Miodownik's unique brand of scientific storytelling brings liquids and their mysterious properties to life in a captivating new way.

From the best-selling author of King Leopold's Ghost and Spain in Our Hearts comes the astonishing but forgotten story of an immigrant sweatshop worker who married an heir to a great American fortune and became one of the most charismatic radical leaders of her time. Rose Pastor arrived in New York City in 1903, a Jewish refugee from Russia who had worked in cigar factories since the age of eleven. Two years later, she captured headlines across the globe when she married James Graham Phelps Stokes, scion of one of the legendary 400 families of New York high society. Together, this unusual couple joined the burgeoning Socialist Party and, over the next dozen years, moved among the liveliest group of activists and dreamers this country has ever seen. Their friends and houseguests included Emma Goldman, Big Bill Haywood, Eugene V. Debs, John Reed, Margaret Sanger, Jack London, and W.E.B. Du Bois. Rose stirred audiences to tears and led strikes of restaurant waiters and garment workers. She campaigned alongside the country's earliest feminists to publicly defy laws against distributing information about birth control, earning her notoriety as "one of the dangerous influences of the country" from President Woodrow Wilson. But ina way no one foresaw, her too-short life would end in the same abject poverty with which it began. By a master of narrative nonfiction, Rebel Cinderella unearths the rich, overlooked life of a social justice campaigner who was truly ahead of her time.

Today, women have greater opportunities to participate in sport than ever before, particularly due to the passage of Title IX in 1972. Yet, despite all this growth, women still struggle to hold leadership positions, become coaches of both girls and boys teams, receive equal pay, and get even adequate coverage in the media. In Stand Up and Shout Out: Women's Fight for Equality in Sports, Joan Steidinger explores the three crucial areas in sport that remain huge concerns for women: leadership, money, and media. Steidinger looks at the number of ways in which women experience vast inequalities by examining topics such as the politics of sport, sexual assault, the #MeToo movement, pay equity, women in coaching positions, and the experiences of women of color and LGBTQ athletes. Interviews with leading authorities in the field and prominent female athletes are interwoven throughout to add both expert and personal perspectives to the conversation. Stand Up and Shout Out does more than just inform readers about these important issues; its purpose is to create enlightened discussions around the unequal treatment of women and present readers with "action steps" so we can all become active contributors toward improving this situation. This is an ideal time to fight for women's equality in sport, as it draws attention to the growing need for advocacy for girls and women around the world in all areas of life.

"Hard times are coming, when we'll be wanting the voices of writers who can see alternatives to how we live now, can see through our fear-stricken society and its obsessive technologies to other ways of being, and even imagine real grounds for hope. We'll need writers who can remember freedom -- poets, visionaries -- realists of a larger reality. . . ." Words Are My Matter collects talks, essays, introductions to beloved books, and book reviews by Ursula K. Le Guin, one of our fore- most public literary intellectuals. Words Are My Matter is essential reading. It is a manual for investigating the depth and breadth of con- temporary fiction -- and, through the lens of deep considerations of contemporary writing, a way of exploring the world we are all living in. "We need writers who know the difference between production of a market commodity and the practice of an art. Developing written material to suit sales strategies in order to maximise corporate profit and advertising revenue is not the same thing as responsible book publishing or authorship." * Le Guin is one of those authors and this is another of her moments.

As a child growing up in Malaysia, Shing Yin Khor had two very different ideas of what "America" meant. The first looked a lot like Hollywood, full of beautiful people, sunlight, and freeways. The second looked more like The Grapes of Wrath--a nightmare landscape filled with impoverished people, broken-down cars, barren landscapes, and broken dreams. This book chronicles Shing's solo journey (small adventure-dog included) along the iconic Route 66, beginning in Santa Monica and ending up Chicago. What begins as a road trip ends up as something more like a pilgrimage in search of an American landscape that seems forever shifting and forever out of place.

A debut novel for fans of Sarah Perry and Kate Morton: when a young woman is tasked with safeguarding a natural history collection as it is spirited out of London during World War II, she discovers her new manor home is a place of secrets and terror instead of protection. In August 1939, thirty-year-old Hetty Cartwright arrives at Lockwood Manor to oversee a natural history museum collection, whose contents have been taken out of London for safekeeping. She is unprepared for the scale of protecting her charges from party guests, wild animals, the elements, the tyrannical Major Lockwood and Luftwaffe bombs. Most of all, she is unprepared for the beautiful and haunted Lucy Lockwood. For Lucy, who has spent much of her life cloistered at Lockwood suffering from bad nerves, the arrival of the museum brings with it new freedoms. But it also resurfaces memories of her late mother, and nightmares in which Lucy roams Lockwood hunting for something she has lost. When the animals appear to move of their own accord, and exhibits go missing, they begin to wonder what exactly it is that they might need protection from. And as the disasters mount up, it is not only Hetty's future employment that is in danger, but her own sanity too. There's something, or someone, in the house. Someone stalking her through its darkened corridors . . .

From the best-selling author of Fun Home, Time magazine's No. 1 Book of the Year, a brilliantly told graphic memoir of Alison Bechdel becoming the artist her mother wanted to be. Alison Bechdel's Fun Home was a pop culture and literary phenomenon. Now, a second thrilling tale of filial sleuthery, this time about her mother: voracious reader, music lover, passionate amateur actor. Also a woman, unhappily married to a closeted gay man, whose artistic aspirations simmered under the surface of Bechdel's childhood . . . and who stopped touching or kissing her daughter good night, forever, when she was seven. Poignantly, hilariously, Bechdel embarks on a quest for answers concerning the mother-daughter gulf. It's a richly layered search that leads readers from the fascinating life and work of the iconic twentieth-century psychoanalyst Donald Winnicott, to one explosively illuminating Dr. Seuss illustration, to Bechdel's own (serially monogamous) adult love life. And, finally, back to Mother--to a truce, fragile and real-time, that will move and astonish all adult children of gifted mothers.

From the creator of the hit webcomic  My Life As a Background Slytherin  comes a hilarious graphic novel pastiche of classic Romantic literature led by a trio of queer misfits--and several angry vampires. Set in early nineteenth-century Britain,  Bloodlust & Bonnets  follows Lucy, an unworldly debutante who desires a life of passion and intrigue--qualities which earn her the attention of Lady Violet Travesty, the leader of a local vampire cult.    But before Lucy can embark on her new life of vampiric debauchery, she finds herself unexpectedly thrown together with the flamboyant poet Lord Byron ("from books!")  and a mysterious bounty-hunter named Sham. The unlikely trio lie, flirt, fight, and manipulate each other as they make their way across Britain, disrupting society balls, slaying vampires, and making every effort not to betray their feelings to each other as their personal and romantic lives become increasingly entangled.   Both witty and slapstick, elegant and gory, Emily McGovern's debut graphic novel pays tribute to and pokes fun at beloved romance tropes, delivering a joyous, action-packed world of friendship and adventure.

From the author of Fun Home--the lives, loves, and politics of cult fav characters Mo, Lois, Sydney, Sparrow, Ginger, Stuart, Clarice, and others. For twenty-five years Bechdel's path-breaking Dykes to Watch Out For strip has been collected in award-winning volumes (with a quarter of a million copies in print), syndicated in fifty alternative newspapers, and translated into many languages. Now, at last, The Essential Dykes to Watch Out For gathers a "rich, funny, deep and impossible to put down" (Publishers Weekly) selection from all eleven Dykes volumes. Here too are sixty of the newest strips, never before published in book form. Settle in to this wittily illustrated soap opera (Bechdel calls it "half op-ed column and half endless serialized Victorian novel") of the lives, loves, and politics of a cast of characters, most of them lesbian, living in a midsize American city that may or may not be Minneapolis. Her brilliantly imagined countercultural band of friends--academics, social workers, bookstore clerks--fall in and out of love, negotiate friendships, raise children, switch careers, and cope with aging parents. Bechdel fuses high and low culture--from foreign policy to domestic routine, hot sex to postmodern theory--in a serial graphic narrative "suitable for humanists of all persuasions."

From the Sibert Honor-winning creator behind The Unwanted and Drowned City comes a graphic novel of one of the darkest episodes in American history: the Spanish Influenza epidemic of 1918.   New Year's Day, 1918. America has declared war on Germany and is gathering troops to fight. But there's something coming that is deadlier than any war.   When people begin to fall ill, most Americans don't suspect influenza. The flu is known to be dangerous to the very old, young, or frail. But the Spanish flu is exceptionally violent. Soon, thousands of people succumb. Then tens of thousands . . . hundreds of thousands and more. Graves can't be dug quickly enough.   What made the influenza of 1918 so exceptionally deadly--and what can modern science help us understand about this tragic episode in history? With a journalist's discerning eye for facts and an artist's instinct for true emotion, Sibert Honor recipient Don Brown sets out to answer these questions and more in Fever Year.

Winner of the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction Five devastating human stories and a dark and moving portrait of Victorian London--the untold lives of the women killed by Jack the Ripper. Polly, Annie, Elizabeth, Catherine and Mary-Jane are famous for the same thing, though they never met. They came from Fleet Street, Knightsbridge, Wolverhampton, Sweden, and Wales. They wrote ballads, ran coffee houses, lived on country estates, they breathed ink-dust from printing presses and escaped people-traffickers. What they had in common was the year of their murders: 1888. The person responsible was never identified, but the character created by the press to fill that gap has become far more famous than any of these five women. For more than a century, newspapers have been keen to tell us that "the Ripper" preyed on prostitutes. Not only is this untrue, as historian Hallie Rubenhold has discovered, it has prevented the real stories of these fascinating women from being told. Now, in this devastating narrative of five lives, Rubenhold finally sets the record straight, revealing a world not just of Dickens and Queen Victoria, but of poverty, homelessness and rampant misogyny. They died because they werein the wrong place at the wrong time--but their greatest misfortune was to be born a woman.

A fresh and brilliantly told memoir from a cult favorite comic artist, marked by gothic twists, a family funeral home, sexual angst, and great books. This breakout book by Alison Bechdel is a darkly funny family tale, pitch-perfectly illustrated with Bechdel's sweetly gothic drawings. Like Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis, it's a story exhilaratingly suited to graphic memoir form. Meet Alison's father, a historic preservation expert and obsessive restorer of the family's Victorian home, a third-generation funeral home director, a high school English teacher, an icily distant parent, and a closeted homosexual who, as it turns out, is involved with his male students and a family babysitter. Through narrative that is alternately heartbreaking and fiercely funny, we are drawn into a daughter's complex yearning for her father. And yet, apart from assigned stints dusting caskets at the family-owned "fun home," as Alison and her brothers call it, the relationship achieves its most intimate expression through the shared code of books. When Alison comes out as homosexual herself in late adolescense, the denouement is swift, graphic -- and redemptive.

A groundbreaking, breathtaking history of the Chinese workers who built the Transcontinental Railroad, helping to forge modern America only to disappear into the shadows of history until now. From across the sea, they came by the thousands, escaping war and poverty in southern China to seek their fortunes in America. Converging on the enormous western worksite of the Transcontinental Railroad, the migrants spent years dynamiting tunnels through the snow-packed cliffs of the Sierra Nevada and laying tracks across the burning Utah desert. Their sweat and blood fueled the ascent of an interlinked, industrial United States. But those of them who survived this perilous effort wouldsuffer a different kind of death--a historical one, as they were pushed first to the margins of American life and then to the fringes of public memory.  In this groundbreaking account, award-winning scholar Gordon H. Chang draws on unprecedented research to recover the Chinese railroad workers' stories and celebrate their role in remaking America. An invaluable correction of a great historical injustice, Ghosts of Gold Mountainreturns these "silent spikes" to their rightful place in our national saga.

In the vein of The Lovely Bones and The Little Friend, Ghosts of the Missing follows the mysterious disappearance of a twelve-year-old girl during a town parade and the reverberations of this tragedy throughout the town.   On Saturday, October 28, 1995, a girl vanished.  She was not a child particularly prized in town...When questioned by reporters, those who'd known Rowan described her as 'quiet' and 'loner' and 'shy' and even 'awkward.' Words for pity. Culleton, New York has a long history--of writers, of artists, and of unsolved mysteries. It's where Adair grew up before she moved to Brooklyn to try to make it as an artist. But after years away from her hometown and little to show for it, Adair decides to return. She moves back in to Moye House, the old mansion, and current writer's retreat, imbued with her family's legacy. Ciaran is a writer staying at Moye House in the hopes of finally solving the mystery of what happened to Rowan Kinnane--his sister, and Adair's childhood best friend. As the two begin investigating, secrets long buried rise to the surface, complicating their sense of themselves and their understanding of what happened on that fateful day. With her "knack for capturing heartbreaking moments with a gripping simplicity" (Village Voice), Kathleen Donohoe lures us into a haunting world of secrets and obsessions and shows just how far people will go in search of the truth.

Set in the near future, it describes life in what was once the United States and is now called the Republic of Gilead, a monotheocracy that has reacted to social unrest and a sharply declining birthrate by reverting to, and going beyond, the repressive intolerance of the original Puritans. The regime takes the Book of Genesis absolutely at its word, with bizarre consequences for the women and men in its population. The story is told through the eyes of Offred, one of the unfortunate Handmaids under the new social order. In condensed but eloquent prose, by turns cool-eyed, tender, despairing, passionate, and wry, she reveals to us the dark corners behind the establishment's calm facade, as certain tendencies now in existence are carried to their logical conclusions. The Handmaid's Tale is funny, unexpected, horrifying, and altogether convincing. It is at once scathing satire, dire warning, and a tour de force. It is Margaret Atwood at her best.

When Misty Dawn, a former Hollywood Psychic to the Stars, moves into an old craftsman house, she encounters the former owner, the recently deceased Hollywood set designer, Wilson Thorne. Wilson is unaware of his circumstances, and when Misty explains the particulars of his limbo state, and how he might help himself if he helps her, he's not at all happy. That is until young actress Zoey Chamberlain comes to Misty's door for help. Zoey has recently purchased The Pink Mansion, a historic Hollywood Hills home, and believes it's haunted. But when Misty arrives to search the house, it's not a ghost she finds, but a dead body. The police are quick to suspect Zoey of murdering her best friend. Zoey maintains her innocence and fears her friend's death may have been a result of the ghost...and a long-time family curse. Together Misty and Wilson must untangle the secrets of The Pink Mansion or submit to the powers of the family curse.

Bestselling author Mark Bittman and physician David Katz cut through all the noise on food, health, and diet to give you the real answers you need   What is the "best" diet? Do calories matter? And when it comes to protein, fat, and carbs, which ones are good and which are bad? Mark Bittman and health expert David Katz answer all these questions and more in a lively and easy-to-read Q&A format. Inspired by their viral hit article onGrub Street--one ofNew York magazine's most popular and most-shared articles--Bittman and Katz share their clear, no-nonsense perspective on food and diet, answering questions covering everything from basic nutrients to superfoods to fad diets. Topics include dietary patterns (Just whatshould humans eat?); grains (Aren't these just "carbs"? Do I need to avoid gluten?); meat and dairy (Does grass-fed matter?); alcohol (Is drinking wine actually good for me?); and more. Throughout, Bittman and Katz filter the science of diet and nutrition through a lens of common sense, delivering straightforward advice with a healthy dose of wit.

Tired of living life on the sidelines, Liv Olsen gave up everything-her job at the #1 podcast series in the country, her apartment, most of her belongings-to launch her own show, Missing or Murdered. Teaming up with her kid stepsister, Camry Lewis, the dynamic duo set out to be the next big thing in true crime. On the program for season one, the sisters' focus on the case of twenty-three-year-old Amelia Clark, who vanished ten years ago after an embarrassing video of her went viral. The police found the California native's car and personal belongings, but the investigation quickly went cold. A decade later, Liv and Camry retrace Amelia's final steps, unearthing dangerous secrets, lost loves, quirky characters, and a lifetime supply of cinnamon rolls. As funds run low and time runs out, the investigation is complicated by anonymous threats. Threats from someone who doesn't want Amelia's story told. Liv and Camry have a lot riding on their Missing or Murdered podcast. Now it's more important than financial success. They have to know. What happened to Amelia Clark? Stay tuned for episode one: Gone Cold.

Broke, unemployed barista Halley Greer is shocked when she inherits an Art Deco movie palace from the great uncle she remembers meeting once as a child. She moves to the charming tourist town of Utopia Springs, Arkansas to claim her legacy. In addition to the timeworn theater, she discovers she's also inherited a trash-heaped apartment, family secrets, her uncle's friends, a stealthy calico kitty—and an adversary.With a whole latte help from her new friends, the feisty barista fixes up and re-opens the theater as a coffee and wine bar, showing classic films. She generates some steam with a hunky local—and risks getting burned. The opening night of My Fair Lady looks like a big hit, and her new life feels like a bit of movie magic, until a customer turns up dead during intermission. With the cops eyeing her as a suspect, Halley digs into the victim's life and runs into a tangle of blackmail and secrets. Can Halley and her friends unmask a killer before the curtain comes down for keeps?

Stephanie Henderson gazes at her newborn daughter and wonders if husband Adam will notice the lack of resemblance. But when her lover demands a paternity test, Stephanie tells Adam a string of lies - lies that lead the two men to a dramatic confrontation. Without warning, Stephanie and her baby disappear. So when CCTV images appear of a young woman who fits Stephanie's description holding a baby, jumping in front of a high-speed train, her sister Jess fears the worst. But was it Stephanie? And if not, where has she gone? In turmoil and in search of answers, Jess breaks her sister's privacy and reads her journals. But Jess is not prepared for she uncovers... or for what happens next. Where Truth Lies is an intense, twisted, psychological thriller that will make you question what is real, and whether you really can trust those you love.

#1 international and New York Times bestselling author Naomi Klein, author of The Shock Doctrine and This Changes Everything, makes the case for a Green New Deal--explaining how bold climate action can be a blueprint for a just and thriving society. For more than twenty years, Naomi Klein has been the foremost chronicler of the economic war waged on both people and planet--and an unapologetic champion of a sweeping environmental agenda with justice at its center. In lucid, elegant dispatches from the frontlines of contemporary natural disaster, she pens surging, indispensable essays for a wide public: prescient advisories and dire warnings of what future awaits us if we refuse to act, as well as hopeful glimpses of a far better future. On Fire: The (Burning) Case for a Green New Deal gathers for the first time more than a decade of her impassioned writing, and pairs it with new material on the staggeringly high stakes of our immediate political and economic choices. These long-form essays show Klein at her most prophetic and philosophical, investigating the climate crisis not only as a profound political challenge but as a spiritual and imaginative one, as well. Delving into topics ranging from the clash between ecological time and our culture of "perpetual now," to the soaring history of humans changing and evolving rapidly in the face of grave threats, to rising white supremacy and fortressed borders as a form of "climate barbarism," this is a rousing call to action for a planet on the brink. With reports spanning from the ghostly Great Barrier Reef, to the annual smoke-choked skies of the Pacific Northwest, to post-hurricane Puerto Rico, to a Vatican attempting an unprecedented "ecological conversion," Klein makes the case that we will rise to the existential challenge of climate change only if we are willing to transform the systems that produced this crisis. An expansive, far-ranging exploration that sees the battle for a greener world as indistinguishable from the fight for our lives, On Fire captures the burning urgency of the climate crisis, as well as the fiery energy of a rising political movement demanding a catalytic Green New Deal.

Ariel Schrag, a critically-acclaimed memoirist and screenwriter, takes us on a painfully funny tour of her formative years, from her childhood in Berkeley to her mid-twenties in Brooklyn, exploring what it means to connect to others when you don't yet know who you are--when you want to be "part of it" but the "it" changes daily. We meet hippie babysitters, mean girls, best friends, former friends, prom dates, girlfriends, sex ed students, and far toomany LensCrafters sales associates. These frank, irreverent, and honest comics revel in the uncomfortable--occasionally cringe-inducing--moments from our early years that end up wiring us as people.

Philip Roth's bestselling alternate history--the chilling story of what happens to one family when America elects a charismatic, isolationist president--is soon to be an HBO limited series.   In an extraordinary feat of narrative invention, Philip Roth imagines an alternate history where Franklin D. Roosevelt loses the 1940 presidential election to heroic aviator and rabid isolationist Charles A. Lindbergh. Shortly thereafter, Lindbergh negotiates a cordial "understanding" with Adolf Hitler, while the new government embarks on a program of folksy anti-Semitism.   For one boy growing up in Newark, Lindbergh's election is the first in a series of ruptures that threaten to destroy his small, safe corner of America-and with it, his mother, his father, and his older brother.

In the tradition of two-time Sibert honor winner Don Brown's critically acclaimed, full-color nonfiction graphic novels The Great American Dust Bowl and Drowned City, The Unwanted is an important, timely, and eye-opening exploration of the ongoing Syrian refugee crisis, exposing the harsh realities of living in, and trying to escape, a war zone. Starting in 2011, refugees flood out of war-torn Syria in Exodus-like proportions. The surprising flood of victims overwhelms neighboring countries, and chaos follows. Resentment in host nations heightens as disruption and the cost of aid grows. By 2017, many want to turn their backs on the victims. The refugees are the unwanted.      Don Brown depicts moments of both heartbreaking horror and hope in the ongoing Syrian refugee crisis. Shining a light on the stories of the survivors,The Unwanted is a testament to the courage and resilience of the refugees and a call to action for all those who read.

From international sensation Ashok K. Banker, pioneer of the fantasy genre in India, comes the first book in a ground-breaking, epic fantasy series inspired by the ancient Indian classic, The Mahabharata. In a world where demigods and demons walk among mortals, the Emperor of the vast Burnt Empire has died, leaving a turbulent realm without an emperor. Two young princes, Adri and Shvate, are in line to rule, but birthright does not guarantee inheritance: For any successor must sit upon the legendary Burning Throne and pass The Test of Fire. Imbued with dark sorceries, the throne is a crucible--one that incinerates the unworthy.   Adri and Shvate pass The Test and are declared heirs to the empire... but there is another with a claim to power, another who also survives: a girl from an outlying kingdom. When this girl, whose father is the powerful demonlord Jarsun, is denied her claim by the interim leaders, Jarsun declares war, vowing to tear the Burnt Empire apart--leaving the young princes Adri and Shvate to rule a shattered realm embroiled in rebellion and chaos....     Welcome to the Burnt Empire Saga  

"If Indiana Jones had a sister, it would definitely be historian Jaya Jones." - Suspense Magazine When historian Jaya Jones receives a mysterious package containing a jewel-encrusted artifact from India, she discovers the secrets of a lost Indian treasure may be hidden in a Scottish legend from the days of the British Raj. But she's not the only one on the trail. From San Francisco to the Highlands of Scotland, Jaya must evade a shadowy stalker as she follows hints from the hastily scrawled note to a remote archaeological dig. Helping her decipher the cryptic clues are her magician best friend, a devastatingly handsome art historian with something to hide, and a charming archaeologist running for his life. When a member of the dig's crew is murdered, Jaya must figure out which of the scholars vying for her affections might be the love of her life-and which one is a killer.

Mark Frost, cocreator of both the original Twin Peaks and The Return, is often lost in the shadow of cocreator David Lynch in the eyes of critics and scholars. In fact, Frost played at least as crucial a role in developing the narrative, mythology, and aesthetic of those groundbreaking, critically revered series. Conversations with Mark Frost deconstructs that legendary partnership, while at the same time exploring Frost's values, influences, thematic preoccupations, and approach to creating art--for the screen, the stage, and the printed page--as well as his thoughts on a wide variety of political, artistic, and social topics. Included, for example, are Frost's recollections of a bizarre encounter with Warren Beatty and Donald Trump in the mideighties, his days as a production assistant on Mister Roger's Neighborhood, his experiences working alongside the likes of David Milch in the legendarily competitive writers' room at Hill Street Blues, conversations about alien life and time travel with iconic film director Steven Spielberg, and much, much more.  

Two young witches, once inseparable, are set at odds by secrets and wildly dangerous magic. In the waning days of World War II, with Allied victory all but certain, desperate Nazi diabolists search for a demonic superweapon to turn the tide. A secluded castle somewhere in the south of Germany serves as a laboratory for experiments conducted upon human prisoners, experiments as vile as they are deadly.   Across the English Channel, tucked into the sleepy Cumbrian countryside, lies the Library, the repository of occult knowledge for the Société des Éclairées, an international organization of diabolists. There, best friends Jane Blackwood and Miriam Cantor, tutored by the Société's Librarian--and Jane's mother--Nancy, prepare to undergo the Test that will determine their future as diabolists. When Miriam learns her missing parents are suspected of betraying the Société to the Nazis, she embarks on a quest to clear their names, a quest involving dangerous diabolic practices that will demand more of her than she can imagine. Meanwhile Jane, struggling with dark obsessions of her own, embraces a forbidden use of the Art that could put everyone she loves in danger. As their friendship buckles under the stress of too many secrets, Jane and Miriam will come face to face with unexpected truths that change everything they know about the war, the world, and most of all themselves. After all, some choices cannot be unmade--and a sacrifice made with the most noble intention might end up creating a monster.

Everything Is Beautiful, and I'm Not Afraid perfectly captures the feelings of a young sojourner in America as she explores the nuances in searching for a place to belong. Baopu is a monthly serialized comic on Autostraddle, and this book includes beloved fan favorites plus new, never-before-seen comics. This one-of-a-kind graphic novel explores the poetics of searching for connection, belonging, and identity through the fictional life of a young, queer immigrant. Inspired by the creator's own experiences as a queer, China-born illustrator living in the United States, Everything Is Beautiful, and I'm Not Afraid has an undeniable memoir quality to its recollection and thought-provoking accounts of what it's like to navigate the complexities of seeking belonging--mentally and geographically.

An equal parts haunting and hilarious deep-dive review of history's most notorious and cold-blooded serial killers, from the creators of the award-winningLast Podcast on the Left Since its first show in 2010,The Last Podcast on the Left has barreled headlong into all things horror, as hosts Henry Zebrowski, Ben Kissel, and Marcus Parks cover subjects spanning Jeffrey Dahmer, werewolves, Jonestown, and supernatural phenomena. Deeply researched but with a morbidly humorous bent, the podcast has earned a dedicated and aptly cultlike following for its unique take on all things macabre. In their first book, the guys take a deep dive into history's most infamous serial killers, from Ted Bundy to John Wayne Gacy, exploring their origin stories, haunting habits, and perverse predilections. Featuring newly developed content alongside updated fan favorites, each profile is an exhaustive examination of the darker side of human existence. With appropriately creepy four-color illustrations throughout and a gift-worthy paper over board format, The Last Book on the Left will satisfy the bloodlust of readers everywhere.   

"Wholly compelling." --Colm Tóibín A new novel from a Spanish literary star about the arrival of feral children to a tropical city in Argentina, and the quest to stop them from pulling the place into chaos. San Cristóbal was an unremarkable city--small, newly prosperous, contained by rain forest and river. But then the children arrived.   No one knew where they came from: thirty-two kids, seemingly born of the jungle, speaking an unknown language. At first they scavenged, stealing food and money and absconding to the trees. But their transgressions escalated to violence, and then the city's own children began defecting to join them. Facing complete collapse, municipal forces embark on a hunt to find the kids before the city falls into irreparable chaos.   Narrated by the social worker who led the hunt,A Luminous Republic is a suspenseful, anguished fable that "could be read asLord of the Flies seen from the other side, but that would rob Barba of the profound originality of his world" (Juan Gabriel Vásquez).

A century-old treasure map of San Francisco's Barbary Coast. Sacred riches from India. Two murders, one hundred years apart. And a love triangle... Historian Jaya Jones has her work cut out for her.

1906. Shortly before the Great San Francisco Earthquake, Pirate Vishnu strikes the San Francisco Bay. An ancestor of Jaya's who came to the U.S. from India draws a treasure map...

Present Day. Over a century later, the cryptic treasure map remains undeciphered. From San Francisco to the southern tip of India, Jaya pieces together her ancestor's secrets, maneuvers a complicated love life she didn't count on, and puts herself in the path of a killer to restore a revered treasure.

A thousand-year-old secret room. A sultan's stolen treasure. A missing French priest. And an invitation to Paris to rekindle an old flame . . . Historian Jaya Jones finds herself on the wrong side of the law during an art heist at the Louvre. To redeem herself, she follows clues from an illuminated manuscript that lead from the cobblestone streets of Paris to the quicksand-surrounded fortress of Mont Saint-Michel. With the help of enigmatic Lane Peters and a ninety-year-old stage magician, Jaya delves into France's colonial past in India to clear her name and catch a killer.

Gemma is about to risk it all for the man she loves. Will she survive entering into a life of crime? Gemma has always been there for Nathan. He's the love of her life and she made a commitment to him, one she'd never consider breaking... until smooth-talking gangster Alfie Watson comes into their lives and changes everything. Alfie doesn't care about true love – he wants Gemma, and the gangster always gets what he wants. When Nathan ends up owing him money, Alfie gets payback by recruiting Gemma to carry out a jewellery heist. To everyone's surprise, she's a natural. Until Alfie forgives Nathan's debt, she has no choice but to accompany the gangster on more and more daring heists – even though one slip-up could cost her everything. Nathan might have fallen under Alfie's spell, but it doesn't take long for him to realise that he needs to save Gemma from his own mistakes if their marriage is to have any chance of surviving. But when that means taking on the East End's most notorious gangster at his own game, will he find himself up to the challenge?

Caterer River Holloway cooks like a dream and is known on Shell Island as a “finder” of things. Which is why a desperate mother begs River to track down her grown son, Chili Bolz, who's vanished.Deputy Lance Hamlyn can't find the missing man, so he teams up with River. The missing person case boils over into something frightening when Chili's mother falls victim to a brutal assault. Worse, her dying words incriminate River's friends in both kidnapping and, now, murder. River soon finds herself caught in an unsavory recipe for disaster. Despite catering events and the return of her absentee boyfriend, River finds the number of suspects growing longer than her food shopping list. Along the way she befriends a black cat who becomes her crime-solving partner. River must locate Chili and discover who killed his mother before her own goose is quite literally cooked.Maggie Toussaint serves up a fun and captivating read in Seas the Day, the first in her Seafood Capers series.

Lane Winslow is enjoying a perfect, sunny day at the lake when she spots a gravely injured young man drifting in a sinking rowboat. Hypothermic, bleeding, and soaked in icy, bloody water, he is unable to speak, leaving Lane at a loss. What series of events brought him to this grisly fate? Darling and Ames are quick to pick up the case, but leads are few until Angela's young son finds an unsettling clue on the beach--a bright red swastika lapel pin--that points to the National Unity Party of Canada. When the anonymous man succumbs to his injuries, Darling and Lane are thrown headlong into a murder investigation with ties to the old country. Fans of Maisie Dobbs, Bess Crawford, and the ever-popular Kopp Sisters will be enchanted by Lane Winslow, a clever, no-nonsense sleuth based on the author's own mother, who was a wartime spy.

From the creators of the hugely popular Instagram comic War and Peas, this offbeat four-panel comic features a dark, fairy-tale aesthetic and a twist ending each time. War and Peas: Comics To Die For combines twisted humour with a beloved cast of characters including the grim reaper (seen here as an unintentionally lethal man of leisure), a robot in hopelessly in love with his scientist creator, and a promiscuous yet self-assured witch. Unlike most webcomic collections, this one tells a story using existing and never-before-seen comics to chronicle the lives of several different characters and their follies during life, death, and their awkward and glorious reunions in the afterlife.

A set of tools for mastering the one skill standing between us and success- the ability to ask for the things we need to succeed. Imagine you're on a deadline for a big project, and feeling overwhelmed. Or you're looking for a job, but can't seem to get your foot in the door. Or you're dying for tickets to a sold out concert, and all your leads have gone cold. What do these problems have in common? They can all be solved simply by reaching out to a colleague, friend, or wider network and making an ask. Studies show that asking for help makes us better and less frustrated at our jobs. It helps us find new opportunities and new talent. It unlocks new ideas and solutions, and enhances team performance. And it helps us get the things we need outside the workplace as well. And yet, we rarely give ourselves permission to ask. Luckily, the research shows that asking - and getting - what we need is much easier than we tend to think. Here, Baker shares a set of strategies - used at companies like Google, GM, and IDEO - that individuals, teams, and leaders can use to make asking for help a personal and organizational habit, such as- SMART criteria for making an ask, "plus-and-play" routines that make requests a standard component of meetings, mini-games that incentivize asking within teams, and the Reciprocity Ring, a guided activity that allows people to tap into the giving power of a network.

The Book of Lost Tales was the first major work of imagination by J.R.R. Tolkien, begun in 1916-1917 when he was twenty-five years old and left incomplete several years later. It stands at the beginning of the entire conception of Middle-earth and Valinor, for the Lost Tales were the first form of the myths and legends that came to be called The Silmarillion. Embedded in English legend and English association, they are set in the narrative frame of a great westward voyage over the Ocean by a mariner named Eriel (or AElfwine) to Tol Eressea, the Lonely Isle, where Elves dwelt; from them he learned their true history, the Lost Tales of Elfinesse. In the Tales are found the earliest accounts and original ideas of Gods and Elves, Dwarves, Balrogs, and Orcs; of the Silmarils and the Two Trees of Valinor; of Nargothrond and Gondolin; of the geography and cosmography of the invented world. The Book of Lost Tales will be published in two volumes; this first part contains the Tales of Valinor; and the second will include Beren and Luthien, Turin and the Dragon, and the only full narratives of the Necklace of the Dwarves and the Fall of Gondolin. Each tale is followed by a commentary in the form of a short essay; together with the texts of associated poems; and each volume contains extensive information on names and vocabulary in the earliest Elvish languages.

Eleven years before Rosa Parks resisted going to the back of the bus, a young black second lieutenant, hungry to fight Nazis in Europe, refused to move to the back of a U.S. Army bus in Texas and found himself court-martialed. The defiant soldier was Jack Roosevelt Robinson, already in 1944 a celebrated athlete in track and football and in a few years the man who would break Major League Baseball's color barrier. This was the pivotal moment in Jackie Robinson's pre-MLB career. Had he been found guilty, he would not have been the man who broke baseball's color barrier. Had the incident never happened, he would've gone overseas with the Black Panther tank battalion--and who knows what after that. Having survived this crucible of unjust prosecution as an American soldier, Robinson--already a talented multisport athlete--became the ideal player to integrate baseball.This is a dramatic story, deeply engaging and enraging. It's a Jackie Robinson story and a baseball story, but it is also an army story as well as an American story.

Ali Wong's heartfelt and hilarious letters to her daughters (the two she put to work while they were still in utero) cover everything they need to know in life, like the unpleasant details of dating, how to be a working mom in a male-dominated profession, and how she trapped their dad. In her hit Netflix comedy special Baby Cobra, an eight-month pregnant Ali Wong resonated so strongly that she even became a popular Halloween costume. Wong told the world her remarkably unfiltered thoughts on marriage, sex, Asian culture, working women, and why you never see new mom comics on stage but you sure see plenty of new dads. The sharp insights and humor are even more personal in this completely original collection. She shares the wisdom she's learned from a life in comedy and reveals stories from her life off stage, including the brutal single life in New York (i.e. the inevitable confrontation with erectile dysfunction), reconnecting with her roots (and drinking snake blood) in Vietnam, tales of being a wild child growing up in San Francisco, and parenting war stories. Though addressed to her daughters, Ali Wong's letters are absurdly funny, surprisingly moving, and enlightening (and gross) for all.

The definitive history, packed with untold stories, of one of America's most controversial and powerful companies: Facebook As a college sophomore, Mark Zuckerberg created a simple website to serve as a campus social network.   Today, Facebook is nearly unrecognizable from its first, modest iteration. In light of recent controversies surrounding election-influencing "fake news" accounts, the handling of its users' personal data, and growing discontent with the actions of its founder and CEO--who has enormous power over what the world sees and says--never has a company been more central to the national conversation.   Millions of words have been written about Facebook, but no one has told the complete story, documenting its ascendancy and missteps. There is no denying the power and omnipresence of Facebook in American daily life, or the imperative of this book to document the unchecked power and shocking techniques of the company, from growing at all costs to outmaneuvering its biggest rivals to acquire WhatsApp and Instagram to developing a platform so addictive even some of its own are now beginning to realize its dangers. Based on hundreds of interviews inside and outside the company, Levy's sweeping narrative of incredible entrepreneurial success and failure digs deep into the whole story of the company that has changed the world and reaped the consequences.

Drawing on the mythology of the Green Man and the power of nature, Neil Gaiman, Jane Yolen, and others serve up “a tasty treat for fantasy fans” (Booklist). There are some “genuine gems” in this “enticing collection” of fifteen stories and three poems, all featuring “diverse takes on mythical beings associated with the protection of the natural world,” most involving a teen’s coming-of-age. Delia Sherman “takes readers into New York City’s Central Park, where a teenager wins the favor of the park’s Green Queen.” Michael Cadnum offers a “dynamic retelling of the Daphne story.” Charles de Lint presents an “eerie, heartwarming story in which a teenager resists the lure” of the faerie world. Tanith Lee roots her tale in “the myth of Dionysus, a god of the Wild Wood.” Patricia A. McKillip steeps her story in “the legend of Herne, guardian of the forest. Magic realism flavors Katherine Vaz’s haunting story. Gregory Maguire takes on Jack and the Beanstalk, and Emma Bull looks to an unusual Green Man—a Joshua tree in the desert” (Booklist). These enduring works of eco-fantasy by some of the genre’s most popular authors impart “a real sense of how powerful nature can be in its various guises” (School Library Journal).

This book chronicles the history of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League and the stories of the first women to play professional baseball in a league of their own. "In 1941, the world was at war, and with American men fighting overseas, the much needed pastime of professional baseball was in danger of extinction--until women stepped up to the plate." In this heartwarming illustrated history, the League's story is told by the ones who know it best: the players. Author Anika Orrock collects a variety of funny, charming, wince-worthy, and powerful vignettes told by the players themselves about their time playing the American pastime. * Features stories of grit and perseverance against all odds, told by the players themselves * Filled with player statistics, historical beats, headlines, and more; and fully illustrated in Anika's vibrant style * A visually engaging, readable women-led history book Written in an approachable manner and beautifully illustrated, The Incredible Women of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League is a one-of-a-kind story told through the women's own voices and their own perspectives. This book ultimately proves that the incredible women of the AAGPBL truly were in a league of their own. * A unique celebration of a specific moment in women's and sports history * A great read for experienced and new sports fans alike, readers young and old, baseball fans, and anyone looking for an inspiring gift for an aspiring professional sports player.

Data is fundamental to the modern world. From economic development, to healthcare, to education and public policy, we rely on numbers to allocate resources and make crucial decisions. But because so much data fails to take into account gender, because it treats men as the default and women as atypical, bias and discrimination are baked into our systems. And women pay tremendous costs for this bias, in time, money, and often with their lives. Celebrated feminist advocate Caroline Criado Perez investigates the shocking root cause of gender inequality and research in Invisible Women​, diving into women's lives at home, the workplace, the public square, the doctor's office, and more. Built on hundreds of studies in the US, the UK, and around the world, and written with energy, wit, and sparkling intelligence, this is a groundbreaking, unforgettable exposé that will change the way you look at the world.

Before Hisako Saski is even born, her parents arrange a marriage contract for her. In exchange for a boost out of the poverty, and to pay for her education, Hisako will marry Adem Sadiq, a musician and maintenance engineer who works the trade lanes aboard his family's sub-light starship, The Hajj. The bride-to-be is understandably not thrilled with the idea of marrying who she perceives to be a pampered stranger. But sparks fly when the betrothed finally meet, except they're not the kind that necessarily lead to light years of marital bliss...

One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them In ancient times the Rings of Power were crafted by the Elven-smiths, and Sauron, the Dark Lord, forged the One Ring, filling it with his own power so that he could rule all others. But the One Ring was taken from him, and though he sought it throughout Middle-earth, it remained lost to him. After many ages it fell by chance into the hands of the hobbit Bilbo Baggins. From Sauron's fastness in the Dark Tower of Mordor, his power spread far and wide. Sauron gathered all the Great Rings to him, but always he searched for the One Ring that would complete his dominion. When Bilbo reached his eleventy-first birthday he disappeared, bequeathing to his young cousin Frodo the Ruling Ring and a perilous quest: to journey across Middle-earth, deep into the shadow of the Dark Lord, and destroy the Ring by casting it into the Cracks of Doom. The Lord of the Rings tells of the great quest undertaken by Frodo and the Fellowship of the Ring: Gandalf the Wizard; the hobbits Merry, Pippin, and Sam; Gimli the Dwarf; Legolas the Elf; Boromir of Gondor; and a tall, mysterious stranger called Strider. This new edition includes the fiftieth-anniversary fully corrected text setting and, for the first time, an extensive new index.

A revolutionary new argument from eminent Yale Law professor Daniel Markovits attacking the false promise of meritocracy  It is an axiom of American life that advantage should be earned through ability and effort. Even as the country divides itself at every turn, the meritocratic ideal - that social and economic rewards should follow achievement rather than breeding - reigns supreme.  Both Democrats and Republicans insistently repeat meritocratic notions. Meritocracy cuts to the heart of who we are. It sustains the American dream.   But what if, both up and down the social ladder, meritocracy is a sham? Today, meritocracy has become exactly what it was conceived to resist: a mechanism for the concentration and dynastic transmission of wealth and privilege across generations. Upward mobility has become a fantasy, and the embattled middle classes are now more likely to sink into the working poor than to rise into the professional elite. At the same time, meritocracy now ensnares even those who manage to claw their way to the top, requiring rich adults to work with crushing intensity, exploiting their expensive educations in order to extract a return. All this is not the result of deviations or retreats from meritocracy but rather stems directly from meritocracy's successes.   This is the radical argument that Daniel Markovits prosecutes with rare force. Markovits is well placed to expose the sham of meritocracy. Having spent his life at elite universities, he knows from the inside the corrosive system we are trapped within. Markovits also knows that, if we understand that meritocratic inequality produces near-universal harm, we can cure it. When The Meritocracy Trap reveals the inner workings of the meritocratic machine, it also illuminates the first steps outward, towards a new world that might once again afford dignity and prosperity to the American people.

How can so many people pledge allegiance to punk, something with no fixed identity? Depending on who and where you are, punk can be an outlet, excuse, lifestyle, escapism, conversation, community, ideology, sales category, social movement, punishable offense, badge of authenticity, reason to drink beer forever, or an aesthetic of belligerent incompetence. And if someone has a strong belief about what punk is, odds are they have even stronger feelings about what punk is not.Sam McPheeters championed many different versions. Over the course of two decades, he fronted Born Against, released dozens of records and fanzines, and toured seventeen times across the northern hemisphere. In this collection of essays, profiles, criticism, and personal history, he examines the diverse realms he intersected—New York hardcore, Riot Grrrl, Gilman street, the hidden enclaves of Olympia, and New England, and downtown Los Angeles—and the forces of mental illness and creative inspiration that drove him, and others, in the first place.

At a time of anxiety about the effectiveness of our national government, Rahm Emanuel provides a clear vision, for both progressives and centrists, of how to get things done in America today--a bracing, optimistic vision of America's future from one of our most experienced and original political minds. In The Nation City, Rahm Emanuel, former two-term mayor of Chicago and White House Chief of Staff for President Barack Obama, offers a firsthand account of how cities, rather than the federal government, stand at the center of innovation and effective governance. Drawing on his own experiences in Chicago, and on his relationships with other mayors around America, Emanuel provides dozens of examples to show how cities are improving education, infrastructure, job conditions, and environmental policy at a local level. Emanuel argues that cities are the most ancient political institutions, dating back thousands of years and have reemerged as the nation-states of our time. He makes clear how mayors are accountable to their voters to a greater degree than any other elected officials and illuminates how progressives and centrists alike can best accomplish their goals by focusing their energies on local politics. The Nation City maps out a new, energizing, and hopeful way forward.

The U.S. Women's National Soccer Team has won four World Cups and four Olympic gold medals, set record TV ratings, drawn massive crowds, earned huge revenues for FIFA and U.S. Soccer, and helped to redefine the place of women in sports. But despite their dominance, and their rosters of superstar players, they've endured striking inequality: low pay, poor playing conditions, and limited opportunities to play in professional leagues. The National Team, from leading soccer journalist Caitlin Murray, tells the history of the USWNT in full, from their formation in the 1980s through the 2019 World Cup, chronicling both their athletic triumphs and less visible challenges off the pitch. Murray also recounts the rise and fall of U.S. professional leagues, including the burgeoning National Women's Soccer League, an essential part of the women's game. Through nearly 100 exclusive interviews with players, coaches, and team officials, including Alex Morgan, Carli Lloyd, Hope Solo, Heather O'Reilly, Julie Foudy, Brandi Chastain, Pia Sundhage, Tom Sermanni, and Sunil Gulati, Murray takes readers inside the locker rooms and board rooms in engrossing detail. Fully updated and expanded to include the team's dominant victory in France in 2019, The National Team is a story of endurance and determination, a complete portrait of this beloved and important team.

One of the greatest writers in science fiction history, Philip K. Dick is mostly remembered for such works as Blade Runner, Minority Report, and Total Recall. His dark, fascinating work centred on alternate universes and shifting realities in worlds often governed by monopolistic corporations and authoritarian governments. His own life story seems a tussle with reality, cycling through five marriages and becoming increasingly disjointed with fits of paranoia and hallucinations fuelled by abuse of drugs meant to stabilise him. His dramatic story is presented unvarnished in this biography.

When the Rolling Stones hit the scene in the 60s it was to play Rhythm & Blues, nothing more. They were far from imagining that they are not just going to change music but also become the mouthpiece of a changing world. Sticking their tongue out at the establishment with their brilliant music and hard-hitting lyrics, they achieve planet-wide success. With Mick Jagger and Keith Richards in the lead, the Rolling Stones has become, over fifty years, not just music, but a whole attitude! Through twenty-one stories in comics accompanied by biographical texts and a rich iconography, this book makes you relive, in a totally new way, the incredible epic of one of the biggest rock bands ever.

The Coast Guard must prevent the first lunar war in history. A lifelong Search-and-Rescuewoman, Coast Guard Captain Jane Oliver is ready for a peaceful retirement. But when tragedy strikes, Oliver loses her husband and her plans for the future, and finds herself thrust into a role she's not prepared for. Suddenly at the helm of the Coast Guard's elite SAR-1 lunar unit, Oliver is the only woman who can prevent the first lunar war in history, a conflict that will surely consume not only the moon, but earth as well.

By turns terrifying, exhilarating, and poetic, this collection of traditional Japanese folktales conjures monsters, ghosts, samurai, and princesses. Fifteen stories transport readers back to a time of adventure and enchantment, and each one is paired with a gorgeous illustration by Japanese artist Kotaro Chiba. This new instalment in the Tales series is a celebration of storytelling, art, and Japanese culture.

'My name is Tamba Cisso. When I was eight years old, I lived in the village with my father, my mother and my sister. I went to school and had learned to read. I knew there was war in my country, but I didn't know that children could wage it.' Providing a testimonial to one of the most heart-wrenching and chilling developments in modern warfare, this graphic novel chronicles the realities of hundreds of thousands across the world, kidnapped and forced to commit atrocities.

In Temporary, a young woman's workplace is the size of the world. She fills increasingly bizarre placements in search of steadiness, connection, and something, at last, to call her own. Whether it's shining an endless closet of shoes, swabbing the deck of a pirate ship, assisting an assassin, or filling in for the Chairman of the Board, for the mythical Temporary, "there is nothing more personal than doing your job."  This riveting quest, at once hilarious and profound, will resonate with anyone who has ever done their best at work, even when the work is only temporary.

The Testaments is a modern masterpiece, a powerful novel that can be read on its own or as a companion to Margaret Atwood's classic, The Handmaid's Tale. More than fifteen years after the events of The Handmaid's Tale, the theocratic regime of the Republic of Gilead maintains its grip on power, but there are signs it is beginning to rot from within. At this crucial moment, the lives of three radically different women converge, with potentially explosive results.   Two have grown up as part of the first generation to come of age in the new order. The testimonies of these two young women are joined by a third: Aunt Lydia.  Her complex past and uncertain future unfold in surprising and pivotal ways.   With The Testaments, Margaret Atwood opens up the innermost workings of Gilead, as each woman is forced to come to terms with who she is, and how far she will go for what she believes.

At first a simple employee of the Swiss Patent Office in Bern, the young Einstein published in 1905 a series of scientific articles that questioned everything that was thought to be known in the world of physics. His theory, summed up by the formula E=mc2, opened to humanity the power of the atom. A legendary genius but also a great humanist, he lived through the first half of the 20th century with all its horrors and contradictions, in the service of science but distraught by what man's madness was capable of doing with it.

No one is good enough for her son... As a single mother, Annie has an especially close relationship with her son, Ben. They have always been together. Just the two of them. So, when Ben brings home his mysterious beautiful new wife, Daisy, immediately Annie doesn't trust her. Who is this woman who has taken her son away from her? And what is she hiding? She'll protect him with her life... When Ben disappears, suddenly Annie and Daisy are all the other one has. Alone in Annie's big, remote house, just the two of them, the tension is rising. And like any protective mother, Annie will stop at nothing to expose her new daughter in law, and the secrets she is hiding... A gripping, psychological page-turner, perfect for fans of Sally Hepworth's The Mother In Law, Lisa Jewell and K.L. Slater.

In the space between nations, nothing is out of bounds. 1542. For centuries the Scottish and English borders were known as the Debatable lands: wild, lawless, and the province of reivers, tight-knit robber families that roamed and pillaged the remote passes without fear... Fifteen-year-old Mintie Henderson has just seen her father murdered. With the Scottish King newly dead and an army of hired reivers on the march, justice is in short supply. Then she comes across Batty Coalhouse: one-armed and hard as nails. Together they will set out on a journey of revenge. But they are soon caught up in something bigger, a tale of Mary Queen of Scots and King Henry VIII. Stuck in the heart of a tempest, they know only one way to get out alive… Fight. Dark, brutal and utterly unforgettable, this is a triumphant novel from a modern master, perfect for fans of Conn Iggulden, Bernard Cornwell and Christian Cameron.

Are videogames bad for us? It's the question on everyone's mind, given teenagers' captive attention to videogames and the media's tendency to scapegoat them. It's also--if you ask clinical psychologist Alexander Kriss--the wrong question. In his therapy office, Kriss looks at videogames as a window into the mind. Is his patient Liz really "addicted" to Candy Crush--or is she evading a deeper problem? Why would aspiring model Patricia craft a hideous avatar named "Pat"? And when Jack immerses himself in Mass Effect, is he eroding his social skills--or honing them via relationship-building gameplay? Weaving together Kriss's personal history, patients' experiences, and professional insight--and without shying away from complex subjects, such as online harassment--The Gaming Mind disrupts our assumptions about "gamers" and explores how gaming can be good for us. It offers guidance for parents, clinicians, and the rest of us to better understand the gaming mind. Like any mode of play, at their best, videogames reveal who we are--and what we want from our lives.

The dawning of the nineteenth century brought with it a new era for entertainment. Vaudeville was the preferred form of entertainment, until the popularization of the silent film. This new medium proved to be a draw for many of the stars of the Vaudevillian stage and soon they migrated to the exciting possibilities that the movies had to offer. Audiences were instantly enthralled and captivated by the stars of the silent screen. The early days of Hollywood were full of glamour and a newfound decadence. The stars in these films were instantly catapulted to fame and fortune and the spotlight of the public eye. The real people behind the glamour were far different than the characters that audiences grew to know and love and much like Hollywood today, the lives of the stars were often full of scandal and debauchery.This book examines the forgotten scandals of yesterday, featuring silent and silver screen stars like Jean Harlow, Mae West, Mary Pickford, Charlie Chaplin and Errol Flynn. Don't let the romanticized black and white world of yesterday fool you, their stories are rife with sex, drugs and murder.

Moving from the heart of Brighton and Hove to the Sussex countryside is a big undertaking for Ollie and Caro Harcourt and their twelve-year-old daughter Jade. But when they view Cold Hill House - a huge, dilapidated Georgian mansion - Ollie is filled with excitement. Despite the financial strain of the move, he has dreamed of living in the country since he was a child, and he sees Cold Hill House as a paradise for his animal-loving daughter, the perfect base for his web-design business and a terrific long-term investment. Caro is less certain, and Jade is grumpy about being separated from her friends.Within days of moving in, it becomes apparent that the Harcourt family aren't the only residents of the house. A friend of Jade's is the first to see the spectral woman, standing behind her as the girls talk on FaceTime. Then there are more sightings, as well as increasingly disturbing occurrences in the house. As the haunting becomes more malevolent and the house itself begins to turn on the Harcourts, the terrified family discover Cold Hill House's dark history, and the horrible truth of what it could mean for them.

A radically practical guide to making food choices that are good for you, others, and the planet.     Is organic really worth it? Are eggs ok to eat? If so, which ones are best for you, and for the chicken--Cage-Free, Free-Range, Pasture-Raised? What about farmed salmon, soy milk, sugar, gluten, fermented foods, coconut oil, almonds? Thumbs-up, thumbs-down, or somewhere in between? Using three criteria--Is it good for me? Is it good for others? Is it good for the planet?--Sophie Egan helps us navigate the bewildering world of food so that we can all become conscious eaters. To eat consciously is not about diets, fads, or hard-and-fast rules. It's about having straightforward, accurate information to make smart, thoughtful choices amid the chaos of conflicting news and marketing hype. An expert on food's impact on human and environmental health, Egan organizes the book into four categories--stuff that comes from the ground, stuff that comes from animals, stuff that comes from factories, and stuff that's made in restaurant kitchens. This practical guide offers bottom-line answers to your most top-of-mind questions about what to eat.

A child’s life is at stake. Which of the residents of St Andrews is hiding something – and why? When a baby girl is snatched from the crowd of spectators at a fun run, the local police have a major investigation on their hands. DI Clare Mackay and her team are in a race against the clock when they learn that the child has a potentially fatal medical condition. As Clare investigates she realises this victim wasn’t selected at random. Someone knows who took the baby girl, and why. But will they reveal their secrets before it's too late? The second instalment from an exciting new Scottish detective series. Perfect for fans of Alex Gray, Rachel Amphlett and D. K. Hood.

What is love? Passion, stability, friendship, or all of the above? In this graphic exploration Margreet de Heer investigates different aspects of love: is there really such a thing as finding The One? What happens in the brain when we fall in love? How can we keep long-term love? What to do about a broken heart? Margreet herself seems to have found her ideal partner in her husband, but after so many years of marriage, how about that 7-Year Itch? This book is a fun and informative read for anyone who is in love or planning to be.

Antarctica. A mining base at the edge of the world.  Anders Nordvelt, last-minute replacement as head of security, has no time to integrate himself into the crew before an act of sabotage threatens the project. He must untangle a complex web of relationships from his position as prime suspect. Then a body is found in the ice. Systems fail as the long night falls. Now Anders must do more than find a murderer: he must find a way to survive. Will anyone endure the night shift, or will ice and frozen corpses be all that remains?

Find the truth; risk everything. A gripping WWII spy novel full of intrigue and peril from a modern master. 1942: A German spy comes ashore on a desolate stretch of Lincolnshire beach. But he is hunted down by a young detective, Richard Prince. The secret services have need of a man like him... In occupied Europe, Denmark is a hotbed of problems for British intelligence. Rumours of a war-ending weapon being developed by the Germans are rife. Sent to Copenhagen, Prince is soon caught in a deadly game of cat and mouse. Dodging Gestapo agents, SS muscle and the danger of betrayal, his survival – and the war effort – hangs in the balance. Gripping and intense, Prince of Spies is the first in a new espionage series that will delight fans of Alan Furst, Philip Kerr and John le Carré.

In a famous Scottish town, someone is bent on murder – but why? On the night of a wedding celebration, one guest meets a grisly end when he’s killed in a hit-and-run. A card bearing the number ‘5’ has been placed on the victim’s chest. DI Clare Mackay, who recently moved from Glasgow to join the St Andrews force, leads the investigation. The following night another victim is struck down and a number ‘4’ card is at the scene. Clare and her team realise they’re against the clock to find a killer stalking the streets of the picturesque Scottish town and bent on carrying out three more murders. To prevent further deaths, the police have to uncover the link between the victims. But those involved have a lot more at stake than first meets the eye. If Clare wants to solve the case she must face her own past and discover the deepest secrets of the victims – and the killer. Don’t miss the page-turning first novel in a gripping series featuring DI Clare Mackay, perfect for fans of Alex Gray, D. S. Butler and Rachel Amphlett.

Because Timothee Chalamet's eyes gleam with the light of a thousand suns. Because you'd let Zoë Kravitz get away with putting gum in your hair. And because there really should be a national monument dedicated to Gene Kelly's ass. From the tongue-in-cheek to the righteously enraged, She Found it at the Movies explores women's secret desires, teen crushes, and one-sided movie star love affairs, flipping the switch on a century of cinema's male-gaze domination. With misogyny and sexism still taking center stage in the real world--what can women's relationships with movies tell us about the wider landscape of sexuality, politics and culture? Featuring writers you know and love from Buzzfeed, The Guardian, and Vulture, these essays pose thoughtful questions about sex and fantasy at the cinema. Like a guilt-free chat with your smartest girlfriends, this book is a positive celebration of female sexuality at its thirstiest.

Welcome to the world of steampunk, a nineteenth century outrageously reconfigured through weird science. With his magnificent trilogy, acclaimed author Paul Di Filippo demonstrates how this unique subgenre of science fiction is done to perfection--reinventing a mannered age of corsets and industrial revolution with odd technologies born of a truly twisted imagination. In "Victoria," the inexplicable disappearance of the British monarch-to-be prompts a scientist to place a human-lizard hybrid clone on the throne during the search for the missing royal. But the doppelgänger queen comes with a most troubling flaw: an insatiable sexual appetite. The somewhat Lovecraftian "Hottentots" chronicles the very unusual adventure of Swiss naturalist and confirmed bigot Louis Agassiz as his determined search for a rather grisly fetish plunges him into a world of black magic and monsters. Finally, in "Walt and Emily," the hitherto secret and quite steamy love affair between Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman is revealed in all its sensuous glory--as are their subsequent interdimensional travels aboard a singular ship that transcends the boundaries of time and reality.

Jason Kessler doesn't fit in the society of Nocturnia, the sole colony that survived the Earth's destruction. Between the colony's dedication to a distorted vision of mid-twentieth century Americana, its sexually repressive culture, and the expectation that his most important duty is marriage and children Jason rebels, throwing himself into an illicit and dangerous affair with Pamela Guest, but Pamela harbors a secret. Soon the lovers are engaged in a lethal game of cat and mouse with the colony's underworld head and the secrets Jason unlocks upend everything he knew, exposing dangers far beyond Nocturnia and its obsessions.

'I hate marathons. Hate running. An hour before leaving, I received a text. Instead of 'Good luck,' it was 'We're finished.' So, I went to a bar on 95th next to the subway. Had a few bourbons with some other mope. Then I got on a bike. I took off down the old Highway 750, the Lincoln Highway.' Forget Route 66. This is the original cross-country highway that takes you through REAL America, the first to cross all of the US from the Big Apple to the City on the Bay. This is THE road trip. On a bike.

Why do we sometimes refer to a left-handed pitcher as a "southpaw?" Why are major league pitchers normally limited to 100 pitches per game? Why was Jack Roosevelt Robinson the first African-American ever to play as part of an official lineup for a team in Major League Baseball? Why is a baseball field sometimes referred to as a diamond?This book provides over 100 questions and detailed answers concerning the traditions, rules, and history of the national pastime. Organized by the sport's five eras--Dead Ball, Live Ball, Golden Age, Expansion, and Steroid Era--it answers questions about hitting, pitching, fielding, base running, managing, scouting and ownership that vex even the most ardent fans of the game. Moreover, this book is an appreciation of how baseball's traditions began.

A dramatic untold 'people's history' of the storied event that helped trigger the American Revolution The story of the Boston Massacre--when on a late winter evening in 1770, British soldiers shot five local men to death--is familiar to generations. But from the very beginning, many accounts have obscured a fascinating truth: the Massacre arose from conflicts that were as personal as they were political.     Professor Serena Zabin draws on original sources and lively stories to follow British troops as they are dispatched from Ireland to Boston in 1768 to subdue the increasingly rebellious colonists. And she reveals a forgotten world hidden in plain sight: the many regimental wives and children who accompanied these armies. We see these families jostling with Bostonians for living space, finding common cause in the search for a lost child, trading barbs and and sharing baptisms. Becoming, in other words, neighbors. When soldiers shot unarmed citizens in the street, it was these intensely human, now broken bonds that fueled what quickly became a bitterly fought American Revolution.    Serena Zabin'sThe Boston Massacre delivers an indelible new slant on iconic American Revolutionary history. 

An engaging history of the surprising, poignant, and occasionally scandalous stories behind scientific names and their cultural significance Ever since Carl Linnaeus's binomial system of scientific names was adopted in the eighteenth century, scientists have been eponymously naming organisms in ways that both honor and vilify their namesakes. This charming, informative, and accessible history examines the fascinating stories behind taxonomic nomenclature, from Linnaeus himself naming a small and unpleasant weed after a rival botanist to the recent influx of scientific names based on pop-culture icons--including David Bowie's spider, Frank Zappa's jellyfish, and Beyoncé's fly.   Exploring the naming process as an opportunity for scientists to express themselves in creative ways, Stephen B. Heard's fresh approach shows how scientific names function as a window into both the passions and foibles of the scientific community and as a more general indicator of the ways in which humans relate to, and impose order on, the natural world.

A bittersweet, seriously funny novel of a life, a small town, and a key to our troubled times traced through a newspaper columnist's half-century of taking in, and taking on, the world The curmudgeon who wrote the column "Ramblin's by Walt" in the Granite Creek Gazette dismissed his successor as "puking on paper." But when Haze Evans first appeared in the small-town newspaper, she earned fans by writing a story about her bachelor uncle who brought a Queen of the Rodeo to Thanksgiving dinner. Now, fifty years later, when the beloved columnist suffers a massive stroke and falls into a coma, publisher Susan McGrath fills the void (temporarily, she hopes) with Haze's past columns, along with the occasional reprinted responses from readers. Most letters were favorable, although Haze did have her trolls; one Joseph Snell in particular dubbed her "liberal" ideas the "chronicles of a radical hag." Never censoring herself, Haze chose to mollify her critics with homey recipes--recognizing, in her constantly practical approach to the world and her community, that buttery Almond Crescents will certainly "melt away any misdirected anger." Framed by news stories of half a century and annotated with the town's chorus of voices, Haze's story unfolds, as do those of others touched by the Granite Creek Gazette, including Susan, struggling with her troubled marriage, and her teenage son Sam, who--much to his surprise--enjoys his summer job reading the paper archives and discovers secrets that have been locked in the files for decades, along with sad and surprising truths about Haze's past.

Conquering the Electron offers readers a true and engaging history of the world of electronics, beginning with the discoveries of static electricity and magnetism and ending with the creation of the smartphone and the iPad. This book shows the interconnection of each advance to the next on the long journey to our modern-day technologies. Exploring the combination of genius, infighting, and luck that powered the creation of today's electronic age, Conquering the Electron debunks the hero worship so often plaguing the stories of great advances. Want to know how AT&T's Bell Labs developed semiconductor technology--and how its leading scientists almost came to blows in the process? Want to understand how radio and television work--and why RCA drove their inventors to financial ruin and early graves? Conquering the Electron offers these stories and more, presenting each revolutionary technological advance right alongside blow-by-blow personal battles that all too often took place.

Strike fast, strike hard--whether it's scoring a homerun or front-page news, Diane K. Shah, former sports columnist, knows how to grab the best story. In her memoir A Farewell to Arms, Legs, and Jockstraps, follow Diane's escapades, from interviews with a tipsy Mickey Mantle, to sneaking into off-limits Republican galas, dining with Frank Sinatra, flying a plane with Dennis Quaid, and countless other adventures where she wields her tape recorder and a tireless drive for more. From skirting KGB agents while covering the Cold War Olympics to hunting down the three mechanical sharks starring in Jaws, Diane's experiences are filled with real heart and a tongue-in-cheek attitude. An insightful look into the difficulties of navigating a male-dominated profession, A Farewell to Arms, Legs, and Jockstraps offers rich retellings and behind-the-scenes details of stories of a trail-blazing career and the prejudices facing female sportswriters during the 60s and 70s.

Learn how monitoring the night sky, mapping trees, photographing dragonflies, and identifying mushrooms can help save the world! Citizen science is the public involvement in the discovery of new scientific knowledge. A citizen science project can involve one person or millions of people collaborating towards a common goal. It is an excellent option for anyone looking for ways to get involved and make a difference. The Field Guide to Citizen Science, from the expert team at SciStarter, provides everything you need to get started. You'll learn what citizen science is, how to succeed and stay motivated when you're participating in a project, and how the data is used. The fifty included projects, ranging from climate change to Alzheimer's disease, endangered species to space exploration, mean sure-fire matches for your interests and time. Join the citizen science brigade now, and start making a real difference!  

In the summer of 1807 the HMS Explorer recovers a young man shipwrecked off the coast of Siam, who can only remember his name. Abel soon becomes friends with the first officer, acting as a captain because the commander of the ship has absconded with the ship's treasure. Abel returns to England with the Explorer and finds accommodation at the inn run by the three fugitive captain's daughters. Well before he can recover his memory, however, he will discover something deeply disturbing about himself, and he will understand the true nature of some of the people who helped him.

Presented bilingually with a new English translation by Man Booker Prize-winning translator Jessica Cohen, these brief fables by Israeli author Daniel Oz engage with vast concepts about human nature. Full of timeless, open-ended parables, Further Up the Path offers no answers, moralizing, or conclusion: only an uneasy bewilderment with the paradoxes of the human--and animal--condition.

If You Keep Digging is a moving collection of short stories that is anessential addition to current and on-going discussions that affectthe youth including those around migration, gender, sexuality andidentity. The selection of stories highlights marginalised identities andlooks at the daily lives of people who may otherwise be forgottenor dismissed.'Monkeys' is a skilful commentary on domestic violence, toxicmasculinity, patriarchy (and how it is racialised), power dynamicsbetween white and black men and how children come to 'know'that they are white or black. 'Skinned', whose protagonist is awoman with albinism, is a powerful story about learning to acceptthat you deserve love when the world constantly tells you otherwise.In 'Fourteen' the author deftly demonstrates the ability to playwith concepts of time and reality. It is a compelling story aboutpotential and how one can feel unfulfilled despite having hopes andambitions.

Two lost sisters find family, and themselves, among the voices of an Ojibwe reservation  When Loretta surrenders her young girls to the county and then disappears, she becomes one more missing Native woman in Indian Country's long devastating history of loss. But she is also a daughter of the Mozhay Point Reservation in northern Minnesota and the mother of Azure and Rain, ages 3 and 4, and her absence haunts all the lives she has touched--and all the stories they tell in this novel. In the Night of Memory returns to the fictional reservation of Linda LeGarde Grover's previous award-winning books, introducing readers to a new generation of the Gallette family as Azure and Rain make their way home. After a string of foster placements, from cold to kind to cruel, the girls find their way back to their extended Mozhay family, and a new set of challenges, and stories, unfolds. Deftly, Grover conjures a chorus of women's voices (sensible, sensitive Azure's first among them) to fill in the sorrows and joys, the loves and the losses that have brought the girls and their people to this moment. Though reconciliation is possible, some ruptures simply cannot be repaired; they can only be lived through, or lived with. In the Night of Memory creates a nuanced, moving, often humorous picture of two Ojibwe girls becoming women in light of this lesson learned in the long, sharply etched shadow of Native American history.

From the bestselling author of Everything I Never Told You, a riveting novel that traces the intertwined fates of the picture-perfect Richardson family and the enigmatic mother and daughter who upend their lives. In Shaker Heights, a placid, progressive suburb of Cleveland, everything is planned--from the layout of the winding roads, to the colors of the houses, to the successful lives its residents will go on to lead. And no one embodies this spirit more than Elena Richardson, whose guiding principle is playing by the rules. Enter Mia Warren--an enigmatic artist and single mother--who arrives in this idyllic bubble with her teenaged daughter Pearl, and rents a house from the Richardsons. Soon Mia and Pearl become more than tenants: all four Richardson children are drawn to the mother-daughter pair. But Mia carries with her a mysterious past and a disregard for the status quo that threatens to upend this carefully ordered community. When old family friends of the Richardsons attempt to adopt a Chinese-American baby, a custody battle erupts that dramatically divides the town--and puts Mia and Elena on opposing sides.  Suspicious of Mia and her motives, Elena is determined to uncover the secrets in Mia's past. But her obsession will come at unexpected and devastating costs. Little Fires Everywhere explores the weight of secrets, the nature of art and identity, and the ferocious pull of motherhood--and the danger of believing that following the rules can avert disaster.

Forget the speculation of pundits and media personalities. For anyone asking "Now what?" the answer is out there. You just have to know where to look.  In his 2005 book, The Long Emergency, James Howard Kunstler described the global predicaments that would pitch the USA into political and economic turmoil in the 21st century--the end of affordable oil, climate irregularities, and flagging economic growth, to name a few. Now, he returns with a book that takes an up-close-and-personal approach to how real people are living now--surviving The Long Emergency as it happens.  Through his popular blog, Clusterf**ck Nation, Kunstler has had the opportunity to connect with people from across the country. They've shared their stories with him--sometimes over years of correspondence--and in Living in the Long Emergency: Global Crisis, the Failure of the Futurists, and the Early Adapters Who Are Showing Us the Way Forward, he shares them with us, offering an eye-opening and unprecedented look at what's really going on "out there" in the US--and beyond. Coming from all walks of life, the individuals you'll meet in these pages have one thing in common: their stories acutely illustrate the changing realities real people are facing--and coping with--every day. In profiles of their fascinating lives, Kunstler paints vivid, human portraits that offer a "slice of life" from people whose struggles and triumphs all too often go ignored.  With personal accounts from a Vermont baker, homesteaders, a building contractor in the Baltimore ghetto, a white nationalist, and many more, Living in the Long Emergency is a unique and timely exploration of how the lives of everyday Americans are being transformed, for better and for worse, and what these stories tell us both about the future and about human perseverance. 

Mathematics today is the fruit of centuries of brilliant insights by men and women whose personalities and life experiences were often as extraordinary as their mathematical achievements. This entertaining history of mathematics chronicles those achievements through fifty short biographies that bring these great thinkers to life while making their contributions understandable to readers with little math background. Among the fascinating characters profiled are Isaac Newton (1642-1727), the founder of classical physics and infinitesimal calculus--he frequently quarreled with fellow scientists and was obsessed by alchemy and arcane Bible interpretation; Sophie Germain (1776 - 1831), who studied secretly at the cole Polytechnique in Paris, using the name of a previously enrolled male student--she is remembered for her work on Fermat's Last Theorem and on elasticity theory; Emmy Noether (1882 - 1935), whom Albert Einstein described as the most important woman in the history of mathematics--she made important contributions to abstract algebra and in physics she clarified the connection between conservation laws and symmetry; and Srinivasa Ramanujan (1887-1920), who came from humble origins in India and had almost no formal training, yet made substantial contributions to mathematical analysis, number theory, infinite series, and continued fractions. The unusual behavior and life circumstances of these and many other intriguing personalities make for fascinating reading and a highly enjoyable introduction to mathematics.

It's the 1980s. A priest is found murdered in his New Orleans rectory. When compromising videotapes are discovered in his bedroom, the Bishop and his staff withhold this damaging evidence from the police. The district attorney, a faithful Catholic and good friend of the Bishop, helps bury the truth. It's an all-too-familiar story by now. But this is one of the first cases, long before the floodgates are opened two decades later. When Father Edward McMurray discovers the body and calls on his loyal nephew, Peter Moore, to remove the videotapes and examine them in private elsewhere, the two men must face the moral consequences of their participation in a cover-up that compromises their integrity and threatens to shatter their faith in the institution of the Catholic Church. Even as they uncover the dead priest's most sordid secrets, the answer to the central question remains hidden: Who killed him and why? Thomas Zigal leads the reader through the darkest alleys of New Orleans as Father McMurray and Peter Moore conduct their own harrowing investigations before they finally confront the murderer in an explosive finale.

Phoolan Devi rebelled against the ancient caste rules of India, her country, resulting in her becoming a Robin Hood type bandit. Essentially sold at the age of 11 to become a wife for a much older man, she ran away when he raped her. From that point on, there were few choices for her but to join a roaming gang of bandits, her ambition leading her to become their rebel chief. Ultimately, she became a strong voice for change as a representative in the nascent Indian parliament. A story of courage and unbending determination in front of centuries of established inequities in the classic Indian caste system.

How a liar, bigamist, and fraudulent priest took in some of the brightest minds of his generation One day in November 1958, the celebrated historian Hugh Trevor-Roper received acurious letter. It was an appeal for help, written on behalf of a student at Magdalen College, with the unlikely claim that he was being persecuted by the Bishop of Oxford. Curiosity piqued, Trevor-Roper agreed to a meeting. It was to be his first encounter with Robert ParkinPeters: plagiarist, bigamist, fraudulent priest, and imposter extraordinaire. The Professor and the Parson is a witty and charming portrait of eccentricity, extraordinary narcissism, and a life as wild and unlikely as any in fiction. Motivated not by money but by a desire for prestige, Peters lied, stole, and cheated his way to academic positions and religious posts from Cambridge to New York. Frequently deported, and even more frequently discovered, he left a trail of destruction including seven marriages (three of which were bigamous) and an investigation by the FBI. "I was captivated from start to finish by this utterly mad, and wholly delightful story of chicanery and fantasy, and which involves a man who relentlessly duped our most cherished institutions of godly pursuit and higher learning. Plus I learned how to defrock a priest, always good to have on hand in these troubling times." --Simon Winchester, author of The Perfectionists

This comics biography of one of the greatest sculptors who ever lived is done with the collaboration of the Rodin Museum and includes a preface by its director. It views his life through the eyes of the three women who shared his life for good or for bad. One was his lifelong on and off companion, the other two his muses, one of which was Camille Claudel, a well-recognised sculptor herself. Rodin's work was revolutionary in conveying exceptional passion, transcending the stone. Here's how that happened.

Professor Peyton Wilde has an enviable life teaching sociology at an idyllic liberal arts college--yet she is troubled by a sense of fading inspiration. One day an invitation arrives. Peyton has been selected to attend a luxurious all-expense-paid seminar in Iceland, where participants, billed as some of the greatest thinkers in the world, will be charged with answering one perplexing question. Meeting her diverse teammates--two neuroscientists, a philosopher, a dance teacher, a collage artist, and a farmer--Peyton wonders what she could ever have to contribute. The ensuing journey of discovery will transform the characters' work, their biases, and themselves. This suspenseful novel shows that the answers you seek can be found in the most unlikely places. It can be read for pleasure, is a great choice for book clubs, and can be used as unique and inspiring reading in qualitative research and other courses in education, sociology, social work, psychology, and communication.

The son of working-class Mexican immigrants flees a life of labor in fruit-packing plants to run in a Native American marathon from Canada to Guatemala in this "stunning memoir that moves to the rhythm of feet, labor, and the many landscapes of the Americas" (Catriona Menzies-Pike, author ofThe Long Run). Growing up in Yakima, Washington, Noé Álvarez worked at an apple-packing plant alongside his mother, who "slouched over a conveyor belt of fruit, shoulder to shoulder with mothers conditioned to believe this was all they could do with their lives." A university scholarship offered escape, but as a first-generation Latino college-goer, Álvarez struggled to fit in. At nineteen, he learned about a Native American/First Nations movement called the Peace and Dignity Journeys, epic marathons meant to renew cultural connections across North America. He dropped out of school and joined a group of Dené, Secwépemc, Gitxsan, Dakelh, Apache, Tohono O'odham, Seri, Purépecha, and Maya runners, all fleeing difficult beginnings. Telling their stories alongside his own, Álvarez writes about a four-month-long journey from Canada to Guatemala that pushed him to his limits. He writes not only of overcoming hunger, thirst, and fear--dangers included stone-throwing motorists and a mountain lion--but also of asserting Indigenous and working-class humanity in a capitalist society where oil extraction, deforestation, and substance abuse wreck communities. Running through mountains, deserts, and cities, and through the Mexican territory his parents left behind, Álvarez forges a new relationship with the land, and with the act of running, carrying with him the knowledge of his parents' migration, and--against all odds in a society that exploits his body and rejects his spirit--the dream of a liberated future.

Darrick MacBrehon, a government auditor, wakes among the dead. Bloodied and disoriented from a gaping head wound, the man who staggers out of the mine crack in Redbird, West Virginia, is much more powerful--and dangerous--than the one thrown in. An orphan with an unknown past, he must now figure out how to have a future. Hard-as-nails Lourana Taylor works as a sweepstakes operator and spends her time searching for any clues that might lead to Dreama, her missing daughter. Could this stranger's tale of a pit of bones be connected? With help from disgraced deputy Marco DeLucca and Zadie Person, a local journalist  investigating an acid mine spill, Darrick and Lourana push against everyone who tries to block the truth. Along the way, the bonds of love and friendship are tested, and bodies pile up on both sides. In a town where the river flows orange and the founding--and controlling--family is rumored to "strip a man to the bones," the conspiracy that bleeds Redbird runs as deep as the coal veins that feed it.

Set against the backdrop of a decaying Pacific Northwest lumber town, Vera Violet is a debut that explores themes of poverty, violence, and environmental degradation as played out in the young lives of a group of close-knit friends. Melissa Anne Peterson's voice is powerful and poetic, her vision unflinching. Vera Violet recounts the dark story of a rough group of teenagers growing up in atwisted rural logging town. There are no jobs. There is no sense of safety. But thereis a small group of loyal friends, a truck waiting with the engine running, a pair ofboots covered in blood, and a hot 1911 pistol with a pearl grip. Vera Violet O'Neel's home is in the Pacific Northwest--not the glamorous scene of coffeebars and craft beers, but the hardscrabble region of busted pickups and broken dreams. Vera'smother has left, her father is unstable, and her brother is deeply troubled. Against this grittybackground, Vera struggles to establish a life of her own, a life fortified by her friends andher hard-won love. But the relentless poverty coupled with the twin lures of crystal meth andeasy money soon shatter fragile alliances. Her world violently torn apart, Vera flees to St. Louis, Missouri. There, alone in a smallapartment, she grieves for her broken family, her buried friends, and her beloved, JimmyJames Blood.

Young Hiram Walker was born into bondage. When his mother was sold away, Hiram was robbed of all memory of her--but was gifted with a mysterious power. Years later, when Hiram almost drowns in a river, that same power saves his life. This brush with death births an urgency in Hiram and a daring scheme: to escape from the only home he's ever known. So begins an unexpected journey that takes Hiram from the corrupt grandeur of Virginia's proud plantations to desperate guerrilla cells in the wilderness, from the coffin of the Deep South to dangerously idealistic movements in the North. Even as he's enlisted in the underground war between slavers and the enslaved, Hiram's resolve to rescue the family he left behind endures. This is the dramatic story of an atrocity inflicted on generations of women, men, and children--the violent and capricious separation of families--and the war they waged to simply make lives with the people they loved. Written by one of today's most exciting thinkers and writers, The Water Dancer is a propulsive, transcendent work that restores the humanity of those from whom everything was stolen.

From his love of accordions and Hawaiian print shirts to his popular puns and trademark dance moves, "Weird Al" Yankovic has made a career out of making us laugh. Funny music is often dismissed as light and irrelevant, but Yankovic's fourteen successful studio albums prove there is more going on than comedic music's reputation suggests. In this book, for the first time, the parodies, original compositions, and polka medleys of the Weird Al universe finally receive their due respect. Lily Hirsch weaves together original interviews with the prince of parody himself, creating a fresh take on comedy and music's complicated romance. She reveals that Yankovic's jests have always had a deeper meaning, addressing such topics as bullying, celebrity, and racial and gender stereotypes. Weird Al is undeterred by those who say funny music is nothing but a low-brow pastime. And thank goodness. With his good-guy grace still intact, Yankovic remains unapologetically and unmistakably himself. Reveling in the mischief and wisdom of Yankovic's forty-year career, this book is an Al-expense-paid tour of a true comedic and musical genius.

For years, rumors of the "Marsh Girl" have haunted Barkley Cove, a quiet town on the North Carolina coast. So in late 1969, when handsome Chase Andrews is found dead, the locals immediately suspect Kya Clark, the so-called Marsh Girl. But Kya is not what they say. Sensitive and intelligent, she has survived for years alone in the marsh that she calls home, finding friends in the gulls and lessons in the sand. Then the time comes when she yearns to be touched and loved. When two young men from town become intrigued by her wild beauty, Kya opens herself to a new life--until the unthinkable happens. Where the Crawdads Sing is at once an exquisite ode to the natural world, a heartbreaking coming-of-age story, and a surprising tale of possible murder. Owens reminds us that we are forever shaped by the children we once were, and that we are all subject to the beautiful and violent secrets that nature keeps.

You too can be a detective! Solve these morbidly funny puzzles where on one page you are presented the crime scene where poor Kenny is assassinated, the next page gives you the answer! How much of an ace are you? How are your observational skills? A cross between South Park humour and Where's Wally (for adults). Collected from the Instagram sensation with hundreds of thousands of followers worldwide. 45 cases to solve! Proven totally irresistible!

Highlights the pitfalls of data analysis and emphasizes the importance of using the appropriate metrics before making key decisions. Big data is often touted as the key to understanding almost every aspect of contemporary life. This critique of "information hubris" shows that even more important than data is finding the right metrics to evaluate it. The author, an expert in environmental design and city planning, examines the many ways in which we measure ourselves and our world. He dissects the metrics we apply to health, worker productivity, our children's education, the quality of our environment, the effectiveness of leaders, the dynamics of the economy, and the overall well-being of the planet. Among the areas where the wrong metrics have led to poor outcomes, he cites the fee-for-service model of health care, corporate cultures that emphasize time spent on the job while overlooking key productivity measures, overreliance on standardized testing in education to the detriment of authentic learning, and a blinkered focus on carbon emissions, which underestimates the impact of industrial damage to our natural world. He also examines various communities and systems that have achieved better outcomes by adjusting the ways in which they measure data. The best results are attained by those that have learned not only what to measure and how to measure it, but what it all means. By highlighting the pitfalls inherent in data analysis, this illuminating book reminds us that not everything that can be counted really counts.

‘China’, Napoleon once remarked, ‘is a sleeping lion. Let her sleep, for when she wakes she will shake the world.’ In 2014, President Xi Jinping triumphantly declared that the lion had awoken. From holding its ground in trade wars with the US, to presenting itself as a world leader in the fight against climate change, a newly confident China is flexing its economic muscles for strategic ends. With the Belt and Road initiative, billed as a new Silk Road for the 21st Century, China is set to extend its influence throughout Eurasia and across the South China Sea and the Indian Ocean. But with the Chinese and US militaries also vying over the Pacific, does this newfound confidence put China on a collision course with the US? Combining a geopolitical overview with on-the-ground reportage from a dozen countries, this new edition of China’s Asian Dream engages with the most recent developments in the ongoing story of China’s ascendency, and offers new insights into what the rise of China means not only for Asia, but for the world.

Twelve-year-old Cindy has just dipped a toe into seventh-grade drama - with its complicated friendships, bullies, and cute boys - when she earns an internship as a cub reporter at a local newspaper in the early 1970s. A (rare) young female reporter takes Cindy under her wing, and Cindy soon learns not only how to write a lede, but also how to respectfully question authority, how to assert herself in a world run by men, and - as the Watergate scandal unfolds - how brave reporting and writing can topple a corrupt world leader. Searching for her own scoops, Cindy doesn't always get it right, on paper or in real life. But whether she's writing features about ghost hunters, falling off her bicycle and into her first crush, or navigating shifting friendships, Cindy grows wiser and more confident through every awkward and hilarious mistake.

An in-depth look at the science behind the creative methods Shakespeare used to kill off his characters. In Death By Shakespeare, Kathryn Harkup, best-selling author of A is for Arsenic and expert on the more gruesome side of science, turns her expertise to William Shakespeare and the creative methods he used to kill off his characters. Is death by snakebite really as serene as Cleopatra made it seem? How did Juliet appear dead for 72 hours only to be revived in perfect health? Can you really kill someone by pouring poison in their ear? How long would it take before Lady Macbeth died from lack of sleep? Harkup investigates what actual events may have inspired Shakespeare, what the accepted scientific knowledge of the time was, and how Elizabethan audiences would have responded to these death scenes. Death by Shakespeare reveals this and more in a rollercoaster of Elizabethan carnage, poison, swordplay and bloodshed, with an occasional death by bear-mauling for good measure. In the Bard's day death was a part of everyday life. Plague, pestilence and public executions were a common occurrence, and the chances of seeing a dead or dying body on the way home from the theater was a fairly likely scenario. Death is one of the major themes that reoccurs constantly throughout Shakespeare's canon, and he certainly didn't shy away from portraying the bloody reality of death on the stage. He didn't have to invent gruesome or novel ways to kill off his characters when everyday experience provided plenty of inspiration. Shakespeare's era was also a time of huge scientific advance. The human body, its construction and how it was affected by disease came under scrutiny, overturning more than a thousand years of received Greek wisdom, and Shakespeare himself hinted at these new scientific discoveries and medical advances in his writing, such as circulation of the blood and treatments for syphilis. Shakespeare found dozens of different ways to kill off his characters, and audiences today still enjoy the same reactions--shock, sadness, fear--that they did over 400 years ago when these plays were first performed. But how realistic are these deaths, and did Shakespeare have the science to back them up?

Fear, the most powerful force in our life, is the least understood. Every one of us experiences it. Many arrange their lives to avoid it. Yet nearly every one of us needs to find more fear. Most of us know fear as the unwanted force that drives phobias, anxieties, unhappiness, and inhibits self-actualization. Ironically, fear is the underlying phenomenon that heightens awareness and optimizes physical performance, and can drive ambition, courage, and success. Harnessing fear can heighten emotional intelligence and bring success to every aspect of your life. Neuroscience and current research on how the brain processes and uses fear have torn the lid off the possibilities of human performance; yet most people are not reaching their complete potential because of a psychological roadblock Sweeney calls the Fear Frontier. Identifying your Fear Frontier and addressing it, Sweeney illustrates in these pages, is the path to success, happiness and fulfillment in almost all aspects of your life. He also provides the most effective steps toward rewiring your mind for a healthier longer life based on courage. Fear is Fuel is a practical guide that instructs everyday readers, business & military leaders, activists, humanitarians, and educators on a unique path toward translating fear into optimal living. By facing fears, and challenging new ones, readers can harness the power of unique motivations to achieve more, experience more, and enjoy more. The path to a fulfilling life is not to avoid fear but to recognize it, understand it, harness it, and unleash its power.

A lively, behind-the-scenes look at the historic cohort of diverse, young, and groundbreaking women newly elected to the House of Representatives in 2018 as they arrive in Washington, D.C., and start working for change, by a New York Times reporter with sharp insight and deep knowledge of the Hill. In November 2018, the greatest number of women in American history entered Congress. From Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and "the Squad" to "the Badasses" with national security backgrounds, from the first two Native Americans in Congress to the first two Muslim women, all were swept into office on a wave of grassroots support, diverse in background, age, professional experience, and ideology. In The Firsts, New York Times reporter Jennifer Steinhauer follows these women's first year in the 116th Congress, chronicling their transition from running trailblazing campaigns to the daily work of governance. In committee rooms, offices, and conversations on the run through the halls of the Capitol, she probed the question: Would Washington, with its hidebound traditions, change the changemakers, or would this Congress, which looked a little more like today's America, truly be the start of something new? Vivid and smart, The Firsts delivers fresh details, inside access, historical perspective, and expert analysis as these women--inspiring, controversial, talented, and rebellious--do something truly surprising: make Congress essential again.  

Early 1930s. We find Giant, a mysterious Irish colossus who, with his fellow immigrants, sweats blood to build the skyscrapers of Rockefeller Center. For a while, he has not received a reply to the typewritten letters and money he sends to the other side of the ocean to Mary Ann, the wife of one of his colleagues who died accidentally. Giant, who seems to be afraid of nothing, still has not found the courage to reveal to the young woman that she is a widow... What does her silence mean? What would happen if she had left for the New World to join her husband? An entrancing everyday working class tale with a majestic background.

The final book by celebrated columnist and bestselling author Christopher Booker In Groupthink, his final book, the late, eminent journalist and bestselling author Christopher Booker seeks to identify the hidden key to understanding much that is disturbing about the world today. With reference to the ideas of a Yale professor who first identified the theory, and to the writings of George Orwell from whose 'newspeak' the word was adapted, Booker sheds new light on the remarkable - and worrying - effects of 'groupthink', and its influence on our society. Booker defines the three rules of groupthink: the adoption of a common view or belief not based on objective reality; the establishment of a consensus of right-minded people, an 'in group'; and the need to treat the views of anyone who questions the belief as wholly unacceptable. He shows how various interest groups, journalists and even governments in the twenty-first century have subscribed to this way of thinking, with deeply disturbing results. As Booker shows, such behaviour has led to a culture of fear, heralded by countless examples throughout history, from Revolutionary Russia to Napoleonic France and Hitler's Germany. In the present moment it has caused countless errors in judgement and the division of society into highly polarised, oppositional factions. From the behaviour of the controversial Rhodes Must Fall movement to the sacking of James Damore of Google, society's attitudes towards gender equality, the Iraq war and the 'European Dream', careers and lives have been lost as those in the 'in-group' police society with their new form of puritanism. As Booker argues, only by examining its underlying causes can we understand the sinister power of groupthink which permeates all aspects of our lives.

A safe haven between four realms. The girl sworn to protect it--at any cost.New York Timesbestselling author Sara Holland crafts a breathtaking new contemporary fantasy perfect for fans of Melissa Albert and Holly Black. Hidden deep in the mountains of Colorado lies the Inn at Havenfall, a sanctuary that connects ancient worlds--each with their own magic--together. For generations, the inn has protected all who seek refuge within its walls, and any who disrupt the peace can never return. For Maddie Morrow, summers at the inn are more than a chance to experience this magic first-hand. Havenfall is an escape from reality, where her mother sits on death row accused of murdering Maddie's brother. It's where Maddie fell in love with handsome Fiorden soldier Brekken. And it's where one day she hopes to inherit the role of Innkeeper from her beloved uncle. But this summer, the impossible happens--a dead body is found, shattering everything the inn stands for. With Brekken missing, her uncle gravely injured, and a dangerous creature on the loose, Maddie suddenly finds herself responsible for the safety of everyone in Havenfall. She'll do anything to uncover the truth, even if it means working together with an alluring new staffer Taya, who seems to know more than she's letting on. As dark secrets are revealed about the inn itself, one thing becomes clear to Maddie--no one can be trusted, and no one is safe . . . Sara Holland takes the lush fantasy that captured readers in Everless and Evermore and weaves it into the real world to create a wholly captivating new series where power and peril lurk behind every door.

From ancient Rome to the current Internet age, this sweeping history of ideas explores how different epochs wrestled with the issue of truth and lies.From the ancient Greeks and Romans to the modern era, how have people determined what is true? How have those with power and influence sought to control the narrative? Are we living in a post-truth era, or is that notion simply the latest attempt to control the narrative? The relationship between truth and power is the key theme.Moving through major historical periods, the author focuses on notable people and events, from well-known leaders like Julius Caesar and Adolf Hitler to lesser-known individuals like Procopius and Savonarola. He notes distinct parallels in history to current events. Julius Caesar's publication of his Gallic Wars and Civil Wars was an early exercise in political spin not unlike what we see today. During the English Civil War and the Enlightenment, pamphleteering coupled with the new power of the printing press challenged the status quo, as online and social media does in our time. And "fake news" was already being used by German chancellor Otto von Bismarck in nineteenth-century Europe and by the "yellow journalism" of American newspaper magnates William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer near the turn of the twentieth century.The author concludes optimistically, noting that we are debating and discussing truth more fiercely today than in any previous era. The determination to arrive at the truth, despite the manipulations of the powerful, bodes well for the future of democracy.

Natasha Pulley'sWatchmaker of Filigree Street captivated readers with its charming blend of historical fiction, fantasy, and steampunk. Now, Pulley revisits her beloved characters in a sequel that sweeps readers off to Japan in the 1880s, where nationalism is on the rise and ghosts roam the streets. 1888. Five years after they met inThe Watchmaker of Filigree Street, Thaniel Steepleton, an unassuming translator, and Keita Mori, the watchmaker who remembers the future, are traveling to Japan. Thaniel has received an unexpected posting to the British legation in Tokyo, and Mori has business that is taking him to Yokohama. Thaniel's brief is odd: the legation staff have been seeing ghosts, and Thaniel's first task is to find out what's really going on. But while staying with Mori, he starts to experience ghostly happenings himself. For reasons Mori won't--or can't--share, he is frightened. Then he vanishes. Meanwhile, something strange is happening in a frozen labor camp in Northern Japan. Takiko Pepperharrow, an old friend of Mori's, must investigate. As the weather turns bizarrely electrical and ghosts haunt the country from Tokyo to Aokigahara forest, Thaniel grows convinced that it all has something to do with Mori's disappearance--and that Mori may be in serious danger. "Wonderful... A lovely blending of steam punk ether science, Japanese historical figures, and a time-defying thriller." Robin Hobb, author of THE FARSEER TRILOGY

With the epic sweep of Min Jin Lee's Pachinko or Yaa Gyasi's Homegoing and the lyrical beauty of Vaddey Ratner's In the Shadow of the Banyan, The Mountains Sing tells an enveloping, multigenerational tale of the Trần family, set against the backdrop of the Việt Nam War. Trần Diệu Lan, who was born in 1920, was forced to flee her family farm with her six children during the Land Reform as the Communist government rose in the North. Years later in Hà Nội, her young granddaughter, Hương, comes of age as her parents and uncles head off down the Hồ Chí Minh Trail to fight in a conflict that tore not just her beloved country, but her family apart. Vivid, gripping, and steeped in the language and traditions of Việt Nam, The Mountains Sing brings to life the human costs of this conflict from the point of view of the Vietnamese people themselves, while showing us the true power of kindness and hope. The Mountains Sing is celebrated Vietnamese poet Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai's first novel in English.

Born in 1940, Lillian Faderman is the only child of an uneducated and unmarried Jewish woman, who, along with her sister, left their shtetl in Latvia to seek a better life in America. However, her mother's family were murdered by Nazis and their home destroyed in the war. Her mother, racked by guilt at having left her family behind, suffered from a terrible psychosis. The only relief she had from this, and her brutal sweatshop job, was her daughter, Lilly. Lilly grows into Lil, a beautiful young woman who learns that her deepest erotic and emotional connections are with other women, and who finds herself in a dangerous but seductive world of addicts, pimps, prostitutes and sham-marriages. Desperately seeking to make her life meaningful and to redeem her mother's suffering, she studies at University of California, Berkeley; paying her way by working as a pin-up model and burlesque stripper, and hiding her lesbian love-affairs from the outside world. At last she becomes Lillian, a brilliant student and the woman who becomes a loving partner, a devoted mother, an acclaimed writer and ground-breaking pioneer of gay and lesbian scholarship. Told with wrenching immediacy and great power, Naked in the Promised Land is the extraordinary story of an exceptional woman and her remarkable, unorthodox life.

In this beautiful guide to slow living, country girl and popular blogger Lisa Bass shares her favorite projects and tips for natural living that she uses in her own handmade, from-scratch life. She hopes that her passion for creativity and handcrafting will inspire you to create a home and lifestyle you love.

A sweeping and romantic novel about love, loss, and conflict in an occupied Italian town during World War II. Trapped in Tuscany as war rages along the Gothic Line, Vittoria Guidi doesn't understand where her allegiances should lie. With her Scots-Italian father or Facsist mother? With Mussolini, or her King? With the life she wants, or is told to live? As Germans occupy the mountains round Barga, and US Buffalo soldiers draw near, loyalties are tested and families torn apart. Frank Chapel, a young, black soldier fighting for a country that refuses him the vote, is unlike anyone Vita has met. In the chaos, they find each other--but can their growing love defy prejudice and war? The Sound of the Hours is an all-consuming tale of romance and loss. It is at once an intimate and tender portrait of first love and a sweeping evocation of an extraordinary, devastating moment in history.

"Move over, Louisa May Alcott! Samantha Mabry has written her very own magical Little Women for our times." --Julia Alvarez, author of How the García Girls Lost Their Accents In a stunning follow-up to her National Book Award-longlisted novel All the Wind in the World, Samantha Mabry weaves an aching, magical novel that is one part family drama, one part ghost story, and one part love story.  The Torres sisters dream of escape. Escape from their needy and despotic widowed father, and from their San Antonio neighborhood, full of old San Antonio families and all the traditions and expectations that go along with them. In the summer after her senior year of high school, Ana, the oldest sister, falls to her death from her bedroom window. A year later, her three younger sisters, Jessica, Iridian, and Rosa, are still consumed by grief and haunted by their sister's memory. Their dream of leaving Southtown now seems out of reach. But then strange things start happening around the house: mysterious laughter, mysterious shadows, mysterious writing on the walls. The sisters begin to wonder if Ana really is haunting them, trying to send them a message--and what exactly she's trying to say.   In a stunning follow-up to her National Book Award-longlisted novel All the Wind in the World, Samantha Mabry weaves an aching, magical novel that is one part family drama, one part ghost story, and one part love story.  

For fans of Furyborn comes a debut YA fantasy following two girls--one on the run, and one returning home--whose magical fates become entwined. Lena has never left the sealed-off city she calls home. The treacherous storm cloud surrounding the Duke's Forest prevents most from entering or leaving. But then Lena's deepest secret is revealed--she is a mage. And according to the law, all mages must die. With little other choice, she flees for her life, straight into the treacherous forest. Constance's family and friends believe her to be dead. She fled the Duke's Forest six years before, and no one believed she'd survive outside the city walls. And even though she isn't sure if she can trust anybody back at court, she's intent on reclaiming her place as the duke's daughter and heir. Lena and Constance meet for only a moment, but even after their paths diverge, the terrifying storm cloud keep them linked. A dark revelation lies at the heart of their connection--the truth behind who cast the storm cloud's spell. Only the girls can expose this secret and dispel the storm for good. . . but unveiling the truth could cost them everything.

A clever and whimsical illustrated history of 26 iconic American foods, from Ambrosia to Zucchini Bread This captivating and surprising tour of America's culinary canon celebrates the variety, charm, and occasionally dubious lore of the foods we love to eat, as well as the under-sung heroes who made them. Every chapter, organized from A to Z, delves into the history of a classic dish or ingredient, most so common we take them for granted. These distinctly American foods, from Blueberries and Fortune Cookies to Pepperoni, Hot Wings, Shrimp and Grits, Queso, and yes, even Xanthan Gum, have rich and complex back stories that are often hidden in plain sight, lost to urban myth and misinformation. American Food: A Not-So-Serious History digs deep to tell the compelling tales of some of our most ordinary foods and what they say about who we are--and who, perhaps, we are becoming.

The uprising at Attica Prison remains one of the bloodiest civil rights confrontations in American history… but without Frank “Big Black” Smith it could have been even worse. Now for the first time, the late Frank “Big Black” Smith shares his experience at the center of this uprising, struggling to protect hostages, prisoners and negotiators alike. Before his death, Frank “Big Black” Smith worked with writer and long time friend, Jared Reinmuth, to share the true story of his time in Attica State Prison. Adapted to a graphic novel by Améziane (Dark Horse’s Muhammad Ali), this is an unflinching look at the price of standing up to injustice.

A new "farm-to-closet" vision for the clothes we wear--by a leader in the movement for local textile economies There is a major disconnect between what we wear and our knowledge of its impact on land, air, water, labor, and human health. Even those who value access to safe, local, nutritious food have largely overlooked the production of fiber, dyes, and the chemistry that forms the backbone of modern textile production. While humans are 100 percent reliant on their second skin, it's common to think little about the biological and human cultural context from which our clothing derives. Almost a decade ago, weaver and natural dyer Rebecca Burgess developed a project focused on wearing clothing made from fiber grown, woven, and sewn within her bioregion of North Central California. As she began to network with ranchers, farmers, and artisans, she discovered that even in her home community there was ample raw material being grown to support a new regional textile economy with deep roots in climate change prevention and soil restoration.

Record-breaking, trend-setting, polarizing, and controversial, Serena Williams often sparks conversation and debate. The 23-time Grand Slam champion has a team, an entourage, celebrity groupies, and a band of fans who call themselves “Serena’s army.” When not winning titles, Williams finds time to run her own fashion line, endorse luxury and financial brands, and fund schools for girls in Africa and Jamaica. Serena Williams transcends sports. More than a biography, Serena Williams: Tennis Champion, Sports Legend, and Cultural Heroine not only tells the story of her upbringing and remarkable career but also looks at Williams as a sports pioneer. Merlisa Lawrence Corbett explores Williams’ influence on cultural and political issues such as body shaming, gender equality, and racism in sports and society. Corbett also analyzes Williams’ impact on discussions of feminism, the sports celebrity, and the marketing of female athletes. Williams is one of the most intriguing and influential figures in sports, and this book is the first to provide a fully-rounded portrait of a tennis icon.