Henri Charrière, called "Papillon," for the butterfly tattoo on his chest, was convicted in Paris in 1931 of a murder he did not commit. Sentenced to life imprisonment in the penal colony of French Guiana, he became obsessed with one goal: escape. After planning and executing a series of treacherous yet failed attempts over many years, he was eventually sent to the notorious prison, Devil's Island, a place from which no one had ever escaped . . . until Papillon. His flight to freedom remains one of the most incredible feats of human cunning, will, and endurance ever undertaken. Charrière's astonishing autobiography, Papillon, was published in France to instant acclaim in 1968, more than twenty years after his final escape. Since then, it has become a treasured classic -- the gripping, shocking, ultimately uplifting odyssey of an innocent man who would not be defeated.

In the middle years of the ninth century, the fierce Danes stormed onto British soil, hungry for spoils and conquest. Kingdom after kingdom fell to the ruthless invaders until but one realm remained.And suddenly the fate of all England—and the course of history—depended upon one man, one king.New York Times bestselling author Bernard Cornwell’s The Last Kingdom is a rousing epic adventure of courage, treachery, duty, devotion, majesty, love, and battle as seen through the eyes of a young warrior who straddled two worlds.“Historical novels stand or fall on detail, and Mr. Cornwell writes as if he has been to ninth-century Wessex and back.”—WALL STREET JOURNAL

Sugar =Chronic Inflammation + Trauma =Nerve Damage, Pain, and DysfunctionDo you suffer from ailments your doctors can't seem to diagnose or help—mysterious rashes, unpredictable digestive problems, debilitating headaches, mood and energy swings, constant tirednessIf so, nerve compression is likely the cause.What Grain Brain did for wheat, leading peripheral nerve surgeon Dr. Richard Jacoby now does for sugar, exposing the shocking truth that a diet high in sugar, processed carbohydrates, and wheat can compress and damage the peripheral nerves of the body, and lead to pain, numbness, and tingling in the hands and feet, as well as a host of related conditions, from migraines, autism, and ALS to gallbladder disease and diabetes.Over the years, Dr. Richard Jacoby has treated thousands of patients with peripheral neuropathy. Now he shares his insights and tells the story of how he connected the dots to determine how sugar is the common denominator of many chronic diseases.Practical and accessible, Sugar Crush breaks down our dangerous addiction to sweets, offering a unique, holistic understanding of the toll sugar and carbs take on the body, and demonstrating how dietary changes can help nerves regain their normal function dramatically.Whether you have diabetes or prediabetes, or are even just concerned about your health, Sugar Crush is the essential guide to knowing the dangers of nerve compression. Complete with dietary advice, the latest thinking on ways to prevent and reverse neuropathy, and a quiz to help you assess your nerve damage, this book will give you the tools you need to quit sugar, calm your nerves, and reclaim well-being.

The first book to chronicle the rise of Robert M. Parker, Jr., the world's most influential and controversial wine critic, who, over the last twenty–five years, has dominated the international wine world and embodied the triumph of American taste.This is the story of how an American lawyer raised on Coca–Cola caused a revolution in the way wines around the globe are made, sold, and talked about.To his legions of fans, Parker is a cross between Julia Child and Ralph Nader –– part enthusiastic sensualist and part consumer crusader. To his many enemies, he is a self–appointed wine judge bent on reducing the meaning of wine to a two–digit number. The man who now rules the world of wine has been the focus of both adulation and death threats. He rose to his pinnacle of power by means of the traditional American virtues of hard work, determination, and integrity –– coupled with an unshakeable ego and a maniacal obsession with a beverage that aspires to a seductive art form: fine wine.Parker's influential bimonthly newsletter, The Wine Advocate, with more than 45,000 subscribers across the United States and in more than thirty–seven countries, exerts the single most significant influence on consumers' wine–buying habits and trends in America, Europe, and the Far East, and impacts the way wine is being made in every wine–producing country in the world, from France to Australia. Parker has been profiled in countless magazines and newspapers around the world and most of his dozen books have been best sellers in the United States and abroad. Yet, despite the world's attention and unending acclaim, Robert Parker stands at the center of a heated controversy. Is he a passionate lover of wine who, more than anyone else, is responsible for its vastly improved quality, or is he, as others claim, waging a war against centuries of tradition and in the process killing the soul of wine?The Emperor of Wine tackles the myriad questions that swirl about Parker and reveals how he became both worshipped and despised, revered as an infallible palate by some and blamed by others for remaking the world's wine industry into a single global market, causing prices to skyrocket, and single–handedly reshaping the taste of wine to his own preference.Elin McCoy met Robert Parker in 1981 when she was his first magazine editor, and she has followed his extraordinary rise ever since. In telling Parker's story, McCoy gives readers an unmatched, authoritative insider's view of the eccentric personalities, bitter feuds, controversies, passions, payoffs, and secrets of the wine world, explaining how wine reputations are made, how and why wine critics agree and disagree, and tracking the startling ways wines are judged, promoted, made, and sold today. This fascinating portrait of a modern–day cultural colossus shows how a world that once was the province of gentlemen's clubs and the pastime of stuffed shirts turned into a sensual hobby for the middle class, creating a luxury industry bent on making money on a worldwide scale –– and how one man has revolutionized the way the world thinks about wine.

Charlie Asher is a pretty normal guy with a normal life, married to a bright and pretty woman who actually loves him for his normalcy. They're even about to have their first child. Yes, Charlie's doing okay—until people start dropping dead around him, and everywhere he goes a dark presence whispers to him from under the streets. Charlie Asher, it seems, has been recruited for a new position: as Death.It's a dirty job. But, hey! Somebody's gotta do it.

A Life-Changing Medical BreakthroughClean is an M.D.'s program designed to be easily incorporated into our busy schedule while providing all the practical tools necessary to support and rejuvenate our bodies. The effect is transformative: nagging health problems will suddenly disappear, extra weight will drop away, and for the first time in our lives, we will experience what it truly means to feel healthy.Expanded Edition Includes:New Introduction ? New Recipes ? How to Become Clean for Life

Sapphire lives in two worlds. On land she walks the rocky shores of the Cornwall coast—but under the sea she can swim like a seal by the side of her Mer friend Faro. Now both of Sapphy's worlds are threatened. In the profound depths of the ocean, where the Mer cannot go, a monster called the Kraken is stirring. He has the power to sweep Ingo away and shake the land from its foundation. Because of her mixed blood, Sapphire can enter the Deep. With a great whale as her guide, she will journey to a place so far from the sun, no light can find it—and confront an evil that's even darker.

There's plenty of conventional wisdom on health and fitness—but how much of it is scientifically soundThe truth is: less than you'd think.In Which Comes First, Cardio or Weights, physicist and award-winning journalist Alex Hutchinson tackles dozens of commonly held beliefs and looks at just what research science has—and has not—proven to be true:Should I exercise when I'm sick Do I get the same workout from the elliptical machine that I get from running What role does my brain play in fatigue Will running ruin my knees To lose weight, is it better to eat less or exercise more How should I adapt my workout routine as I get older Does it matter what I'm thinking about when I train Will drinking coffee help or hinder my performance Should I have sex the night before a competitionThis myth-busting book covers the full spectrum of exercise science and offers the latest in research from around the globe, as well as helpful diagrams and plenty of practical tips on using proven science to improve fitness, reach weight loss goals, and achieve better competition results.

Mr. and Mrs. Fang called it art. Their children called it mischief.Performance artists Caleb and Camille Fang dedicated themselves to making great art. But when an artist’s work lies in subverting normality, it can be difficult to raise well-adjusted children. Just ask Buster and Annie Fang. For as long as they can remember, they starred (unwillingly) in their parents’ madcap pieces. But now that they are grown up, the chaos of their childhood has made it difficult to cope with life outside the fishbowl of their parents’ strange world.When the lives they’ve built come crashing down, brother and sister have nowhere to go but home, where they discover that Caleb and Camille are planning one last performance–their magnum opus–whether the kids agree to participate or not. Soon, ambition breeds conflict, bringing the Fangs to face the difficult decision about what’s ultimately more important: their family or their art.Filled with Kevin Wilson’s endless creativity, vibrant prose, sharp humor, and keen sense of the complex performances that unfold in the relationships of people who love one another, The Family Fang is a masterfully executed tale that is as bizarre as it is touching.

Magazine journalist McKenna Jordan is chasing the latest urban folktale—the story of an unidentified woman who heroically pulled a teenage boy from the subway tracks seconds before the arrival of an oncoming train. When McKenna locates a video snippet that purportedly captures the incident, she thinks she has an edge on the competition scrambling to identify the mystery heroine. McKenna is shocked to discover that the woman in the video bears a strong resemblance to Susan Hauptmann, a close friend—and a classmate of her husband's at West Point—who vanished without a trace ten years earlier. The NYPD concluded that the nomadic Susan—forced by her father into an early military life, floundering as an adult for a fixed identity—simply started over again somewhere else.But McKenna has always believed that the truth went deeper than the police investigation ever reached and sees Susan's resurfacing as a sign that she wants to be found. What might have been a short-lived Metro story sends the former prosecutor turned reporter on a twisting search that leads across New York City—and to dark secrets buried dangerously close to home. . . .

Life's a beach . . . and then you're undeadin this must-have collection, five of today's hottest writers—Libba Bray (A Great and Terrible Beauty), Cassandra Clare (City of Bones), Claudia Gray (Evernight), Maureen Johnson (13 Little Blue Envelopes), and Sarah Mlynowski (Bras & Broomsticks)—tell supernatural tales of vacations gone awry. Lost luggage is only mildly unpleasant compared to bunking with a witch who holds a grudge. And a sunburn might be embarrassing and painful, but it doesn't last as long as a curse. Of course, even in the most hellish of situations, love can thrive. . . . From light and funny to dark and creepy, these stories have something for everyone. You definitely won't want to leave this collection at home!

A moving, exciting, and heartfelt American saga inspired by the author's own family memoirs, these words belong to Sarah Prine, a woman of spirit and fire who forges a full and remarkable existence in a harsh, unfamiliar frontier. Scrupulously recording her steps down the path Providence has set her upon—from child to determined young adult to loving mother—she shares the turbulent events, both joyous and tragic, that molded her, and recalls the enduring love with cavalry officer Captain Jack Elliot that gave her strength and purpose.Rich in authentic everyday details and alive with truly unforgettable characters, These Is My Words brilliantly brings a vanished world to breathtaking life again.

A crime caper in the tradition of Elmore Leonard and Carl Hiaasen, this fast and funny debut is the story of "Shake" Bouchon, fresh out of prison and ready for life on the straight and narrow—well, maybe after *one* last job. . . .When Charles "Shake" Bouchon, professional wheel man, walks out of prison after a three-year stretch for grand theft auto, he's got only two problems: he's too nice a guy for the life he's led and not nice enough for any other.So he says yes when he's asked to run a simple errand for his former boss and lover, Alexandra Ilandryan, the formidable pakhan of the Armenian mob in Los Angeles. All Shake has to do is deliver a package to Las Vegas and pick up a briefcase.Only the package turns out to be a wholesome young housewife named Gina whose husband has run afoul of Dick Moby, aka "The Whale," an unpleasant four-hundred-pound Vegas strip-club owner. Shake hates to think what's going to happen to Gina when he delivers her to The Whale, so in a move that's as noble as it is boneheaded, he decides to set her free.Now Shake and Gina are on the run to Panama, hoping to unload the very valuable—and highly unusual—contents of The Whale's briefcase. Shake could end up a rich man, but first he'll have to outmaneuver two angry crime bosses, a murderous Armenian thug plagued by erectile superfunction, a former pro football player who blames Shake for his romantic woes, and a billionaire swindler with a flair for the theatrical. Not to mention, and not the least, Shake will need to survive his own heart, since he's going to discover that wholesome housewife Gina is even more intriguing, and a lot more complicated, than he ever imagined.Full of blindsided double-crosses and hard shots to the head, Gutshot Straight is a tale of love, luck, and larceny against the odds.

From the author of Hideous Kinky comes a charming, surprising, and utterly irresistible tale of adolescent love and self-discovery.When seventeen-year-old Lara accepts her father's invitation to accom?pany him to a Tuscan villa for the summer, she's both thrilled and nervous for the exotic holiday. To her delight, she soon discovers that the villa's closest neighbors are the glamorous Willoughbys, the teenaged brood of a British millionaire. Caught up in their torrential thirst for amusement—and snared by Kip Willoughby's dark, flirtatious eyes—Lara sets off on a summer adven?ture full of danger, first love, and untold consequen?ces that will irrevocably change her life.

Greg Rich has traveled through time, become one of the legendary Musketeers, and—most recently— prevented the Spanish army from attacking Paris. He should feel invincible. Instead, he and his friends languish in prison, having stumbled into a trap set by Milady and the Prince of Condé.But Greg didn't come to the seventeenth century to sit in a jail cell and await execution. He, Aramis, Athos, and Porthos are Musketeers, and King Louis is in immediate danger of being overthrown by the scheming prince. Faster than they can say "All for one, and one for all," the boys plot to break out of prison, defend Louis, and return Greg and his parents to the twenty-first century.Amid narrow escapes, flying arrows, and fiery explosions, the Musketeers battle to save the king— and history itself. Because if the past changes, what happens to Greg's future?

It Worked for Me is filled with vivid experiences and lessons learned that have shaped the legendary public service career of the four-star general and former Secretary of State Colin Powell. At its heart are Powell's "Thirteen Rules" notes he gathered over the years and that now form the basis of his leadership presentations given throughout the world. Powell's short but sweet rules among them, "Get mad, then get over it" and "Share credit" are illustrated by revealing personal stories that introduce and expand upon his principles for effective leadership: conviction, hard work, and, above all, respect for others. In work and in life, Powell writes, "it's about how we touch and are touched by the people we meet. It's all about the people." A natural storyteller, Powell offers warm and engaging parables with wise advice on succeeding in the workplace and beyond. "Trust your people," he counsels as he delegates presidential briefing responsibilities to two junior State Department desk officers. "Do your best someone is watching," he advises those just starting out, recalling his own teenage summer job mopping floors in a soda-bottling factory. Powell combines the insights he has gained serving in the top ranks of the military and in four presidential administrations with the lessons he's learned from his immigrant-family upbringing in the Bronx, his training in the ROTC, and his growth as an Army officer. The result is a powerful portrait of a leader who is reflective, self-effacing, and grateful for the contributions of everyone he works with. Colin Powell's It Worked for Me is bound to inspire, move, and surprise readers. Thoughtful and revealing, it is a brilliant and original blueprint for leadership.

In the past . . . On a blisteringly hot August afternoon in Crystal Palace, once home to the tragically destroyed Great Exhibition, a solitary thirteen-year-old boy meets his next-door neighbor, a recently widowed young teacher hoping to make a new start in the tight-knit South London community. Drawn together by loneliness, the unlikely pair forms a deep connection that ends in a shattering act of betrayal. In the present . . . On a cold January morning in London, Detective Inspector Gemma James is back on the job now that her husband, Detective Superintendent Duncan Kincaid, is at home to care for their three-year-old foster daughter. Assigned to lead a Murder Investigation Team in South London, she assisted by her trusted colleague, newly promoted Detective Sergeant Melody Talbot. Their first case: a crime scene at a seedy hotel in Crystal Palace. The victim: a well-respected barrister, found naked, trussed, and apparently strangled. Is it an unsavory accident or murderIn either case, he was not alone, and Gemma team must find his companion a search that takes them into unexpected corners and forces them to contemplate unsettling truths about the weaknesses and passions that lead to murder. Ultimately, they will begin to question everything they think they know about their world and those they trust most.

A thoroughly revised and updated edition of Thomas C. Foster classic guide a lively and entertaining introduction to literature and literary basics, including symbols, themes, and contexts that shows you how to make your everyday reading experience more rewarding and enjoyable. While many books can be enjoyed for their basic stories, there are often deeper literary meanings interwoven in these texts. How to Read Literature Like a Professor helps us to discover those hidden truths by looking at literature with the eyes and the literary codes of the ultimate professional reader: the college professor. What does it mean when a literary hero travels along a dusty roadWhen he hands a drink to his companionWhen he drenched in a sudden rain showerRanging from major themes to literary models, narrative devices, and form, Thomas C. Foster provides us with a broad overview of literature a world where a road leads to a quest, a shared meal may signify a communion, and rain, whether cleansing or destructive, is never just a shower and shows us how to make our reading experience more enriching, satisfying, and fun. This revised edition includes new chapters, a new preface, and a new epilogue, and incorporates updated teaching points that Foster has developed over the past decade.

The classic collection by one of the greatest essayists of our time.

Newly revised, featuring the most up-to-date research, effective strategies, and real-life stories The spirited child often called "difficult" or "strong-willed" possesses traits we value in adults yet find challenging in children. Research shows that spirited kids are wired to be "more" by temperament, they are more intense, sensitive, perceptive, persistent, and uncomfortable with change than the average child. In this revised edition of the award-winning classic, voted one of the top twenty books for parents, Kurcinka provides vivid examples and a refreshingly positive viewpoint. Raising Your Spirited Child will help you: understand your child'sand your own temperamental traits discover the power of positive rather than negative labels cope with the tantrums and power struggles when they do occur plan for success with a simple four-step program develop strategies for handling mealtimes, sibling rivalry, bedtimes, holidays, and school, among other situations

Hear the stories of the great warriors as they've never been told before! Cats of the Clans is chock-full of visual treats and captivating details, including full-color illustrations and in-depth biographies of important cats from fierce Clan leaders to wise medicine cats to the most mischievous kits, as well as loners, rogues, and kittypets. This collectible guide is a great introduction to the Warriors series for new fans and is indispensable for those already hooked!