Three unforgettable life-affirming journeys from the nation’s favourite storyteller to capture your heart. ‘Alone on a Wide Wide Sea’: How far would you go to find yourself? When orphaned Arthur Hobhouse is shipped to Australia after WWII he loses his sister, his country and everything he knows. Now, at the end of his life, Arthur has built a special boat for his daughter Allie, whose love of the sea is as strong and as vital as her father's. Now Allie has a boat that will take her to England solo, across the world's roughest seas, in search of her father's long-lost sister… Will the threads of Arthur's life finally come together? ‘Running Wild’: An epic and heart-rending jungle adventure. For Will and his mother, going to Indonesia isn't just a holiday. It's an escape. But when Will is riding an elephant called Oona moments before the tsunami comes crashing in, it’s up to Oona to get them away as fast as possible. But she doesn’t stop. With nothing on his back but a shirt and nothing to sustain him but a bottle of water, Will must learn to survive deep in the jungle. Luckily, though, he's not completely alone… He's got Oona. ‘Dear Olly’: A moving story of a brother, a sister and… a swallow and how all are in some way victims of the horrors of landmines. Three separate stories are woven into one powerful and moving novel whose central theme exposes the horrors of war and of landmines, but also the endurance of the human spirit.

"Can it still be hurricane season? Must be, because here come Serge A. Storms and his perpetually stoned bro, Coleman, in Tim Dorsey’s gonzo crime caper.” –New York Times Book ReviewThe “compulsively irreverent and shockingly funny” (Boston Globe) Tim Dorsey returns with an insanely entertaining tale in which the inimitable Serge A. Storms sees dead people and investigates a creepy urban myth that may be all too real.Though another devastating hurricane is raking Florida, its awesome power can’t stop the Sunshine State’s most loyal son, Serge A. Storms, from his latest scenic road trip: a cemetery tour. With his best bro Colman riding shotgun, Serge hits the highway in his ’69 gold Plymouth Satellite, putting pedal to the metal on a grand tour of the past. Beginning in Key West, the sunshine boys’ odyssey includes a forgotten mass grave in Palm Beach county holding the remains of African Americans killed by the Great Hurricane of 1928, and the resting place of one world-famous television dolphin (RIP Flipper) from the 1960s.But one deadland—a haunted old sugar field—holds more than just the bones of those who’ve passed. For years, local children have whispered about a boogeyman hiding among the stalks. Could it be the same maniac known as Naked Florida man who’s been raising hell all over the place? There are few things Serge loves more than solving a good mystery and bestowing justice on miscreants who sully his beloved home’s good name. With his partner bong boy, Florida’s psycho superhero will find the truth in this hilariously violent delight—packed with history, lore, and plenty of motel antics—from the insanely ingenious Tim Dorsey.

From the author of the number-one international bestseller The History of Bees, a captivating story of the power of nature and the human spirit that explores the threat of a devastating worldwide drought, witnessed through the lives of a father, a daughter, and a woman who will risk her life to save the future.In 2019, seventy-year-old Signe sets sail alone on a hazardous voyage across the ocean in a sailboat. On board, a cargo that can change lives. Signe is haunted by memories of the love of her life, whom she’ll meet again soon. In 2041, David and his young daughter, Lou, flee from a drought-stricken Southern Europe that has been ravaged by thirst and war. Separated from the rest of their family and desperate to find them, they discover an ancient sailboat in a dried-out garden, miles away from the nearest shore. Signe’s sailboat. As David and Lou discover Signe’s personal effects, her long ago journey becomes inexorably linked to their own. An evocative tale of the search for love and connection, The End of the Ocean is a profoundly moving father daughter story of survival and a clarion call for climate action.

In their irresistible novel, Hot Property, Michele, Samantha, and Sabrina Kleier—the stars of HGTV’s hit real estate reality show Selling New York—bring readers past the doormen and into the glitz, gilding, and gossip of Manhattan society.Elizabeth Chase and her daughters, Kate and Isabel, are the leading ladies of New York City real estate. At Chase Residential, their family-run firm, they spend their days walking the city’s highest society through the most luxurious properties in the most fashionable neighborhoods. Though the town houses have marble floors and the co-ops park views, life behind closed doors isn’t always as glamorous as it seems. From the enigmatic Countess who just won’t make an offer to the billionaire mogul seeking more than an apartment from his lovely realtor, from backstabbing brokers to cutthroat bidding wars, the Chases’ work keeps them on their toes. But life is about to become even more complicated. Just as Isabel and her boyfriend decide to take the next step, Kate finds herself with a broken heart and an uncertain future. And when Chase Resi?dential’s very existence is threatened by a terrible betrayal, the family comes together to save the business that is at the center of each of their lives. Hot Property gives readers a peek inside the white-glove-protected doors of New York’s most exclusive enclaves—from the Upper East Side to Tribeca and back up to Central Park—while telling a story of family, loyalty, and all the other things money can’t buy.

For the first time, read the entire Soldier Son trilogy as one ebook … at a special price!In Book One, Shaman's Crossing, Nevare Burvelle was destined from birth to be a soldier. The second son of a newly anointed nobleman, he must endure the rigors of military training at the elite King's Cavella Academy—and survive the hatred, cruelty, and derision of his aristocratic classmates—before joining the King of Gernia's brutal campaign of territorial expansion. And it continues in the next two novels, Forest Mage and Renegade's Magic.

The crisp, honeycomb texture of waffles and the golden delicacy of pancakes are the perfect base for a host of delectable tastes. In The Best of Waffles & Pancakes, Jane Stacey has gathered a delicious assortment of recipes for just about every occasion. Incorporating whole grains, nuts, fresh fruits, and vegetables, she serves up favorites such as German Apple Pancake, Buttermilk Waffles, and Sourdough Pancakes, as well as inspired new lunch and dinner creations -- Cheddar & Onion Waffles with Chutney, Sweet Corn Cakes. Desserts couldn't be more tempting, from Belgian Waffles with Strawberries & Cream to Caramel-Pecan Waffles to Chocolate Crepes. Regional and ethnic influences are represented as well in such flavorful and hearty recipes as Blue Corn Pancakes, Potato Pancakes with Roasted Garlic, and Wild Rice & Smoked Cheddar Pancakes.With more than 45 inspired recipes and full-color photographs, The Best of Waffles & Pancakes is proof that these two wonderful foods are much more than simple breakfast fare.

Relentless and ominous, the drumbeat echoes across the land: Social Security is on the verge of bankruptcy. These repeated warnings have become a dismal article of faith for the millions of Americans who pay Social Security taxes and expect to collect benefits someday. But they are flatly untrue. Social Security today is on a stronger financial footing than it has been for decades. The Plot Against Social Security will explain who is really behind the efforts to reform this system and will show that the most frequently proposed fix increased privatization will damage it beyond repair by undermining retirement security for generations to come. Award-winning journalist Michael Hiltzik also offers a clear set of remedies for those few elements of Social Security that do need repair proposals that will shore up the most efficient social insurance program in America's history, rather than destroying it in the name of reform.

JFK is in the Oval Office. "Love Me Do" is climbing the charts. And in West Berlin, a wealthy ex-black marketeer, the Dane, is offering a stolen spy satellite for sale. Nothing unusual there, except the asking price: half a billion dollars. Too much for any satellite—unless it's Hitler's legendary, long-lost Project Archangel.Archangel, it's rumored, is a device capable of shifting the balance of the Cold War. To find it, Mallory and Morse fly to the Monaco Grand Prix and infiltrate the Dane's entourage: a pair of lovely and vicious blonde twins, a ravishing Polish giantess with a taste for movie magazines, and an American ex-mercenary with quiet eyes and hands like stone. The Dane is both a perfect host and a savage killer, and has already done one of the Consultancy's agents to death. But their greatest peril may come from the long-buried passions of the icily beautiful Laura Morse. . . .

"How Do We Ever Speak with One Voice Again in Our Divided and Angry Country?" It is amazing how one America is isolated from the "other" America. The red/blue state divisions run so deep that it is possible to live without any interaction ideological or otherwise with those who hold different opinions than oneself. We are a people alienated, from ourselves and from our government. The authors, an odd mix across the Blue/Red divide one a founder of the modern evangelical movement, the other a liberal Jewish former Clinton aide hold an extended conversation across many months, several states, and two countries sometimes contentious, sometimes funny, exploring the idea of how unlikely pairings and thus, the entire country can come together. They argue that we're entering a new era in history, and now is the time to rise up to it; to make ourselves able to tackle the enormous problems in our laps; to, in effect, move mountains.

Set in Grahamstown, South Africa, during the 1990s at the height of political unrest and opposition to apartheid, this is the bittersweet story of two people whose lives intertwine with-out them knowing each other-one a heavy-drinking white man and the other the young daughter of a black activist.Reuben Cohen van Tonder's battle with unresolved grief and his search for hidden peace and Vita Mbuli's innocent resolve to remove the bad luck that has troubled her family for generations climax together in a wondrous resolution of personal and national triumph. In this captivating and heartfelt novel, Patricia Schonstein captures the harsh and brutal realities of South Africa's past with its raw and sore racism, interlacing them with enchantment, tenderness, forgiveness . . . and hope.

Slaphappy is reporter Thomas Hackett's penetrating look at the world of professional wrestling, for those who love the spectacle and for the sport's skeptics and the uninitiated. Through interviews with wrestlers, promoters, and fans, Hackett explores the full range of issues that swirl around wrestling culture -- fame, masculinity, violence, aggression, performance, and play. Among the lessons of professional wrestling is that deceit is a fundamental fact of American life. And yet, paradoxically, the one thing wrestling isn't is dishonest. Although wrestlers play pretend, wrestling itself doesn't pretend to be anything other than what it is -- fantastically absurd, a very American kind of madness. Celebrity-obsessed, pathologically narcissistic, murderously competitive, it both epitomizes and parodies the delusional egoism at the heart of the culture.More than that, wrestling provides its fans and performers a medium for thinking about "getting over" in America today. This spectacle of excess may be the apotheosis of American imbecility, but it is also defiant, hopeful, liberating, and unifying -- a throwback to the raucous pleasures of early theater. Fans aren't detached connoisseurs, looking satirically down on life, concealing their anxieties in the cold comforts of irony. They are total participants in a carnival of their own making, shouting epithets, throwing chairs, expatiating their worries in a crowd's triumphant foolishness.It is, Slaphappy concludes, all the stuff of human culture. Where does fantasy end and reality beginWhere does the performance stop and life take overWriting with affection and discernment, Hackett gets deep into the culture, discovering that the make-believe competition of wrestling is indeed "real" for millions of young men -- real in the sense that something real and important is at stake: their worth as men.

Why do we see pigeons as lowly urban pests and how did they become such common city dwellersCourtney Humphries traces the natural history of the pigeon, recounting how these shy birds that once made their homes on the sparse cliffs of sea coasts came to dominate our urban public spaces. While detailing this evolution, Humphries introduces us to synanthropy: The concept that animals can become dependent on humans without ceasing to be wild; they can adapt to the cityscape as if it were a field or a forest.Superdove simultaneously explores the pigeon's cultural transformation, from its life in the dovecotes of ancient Egypt to its service in the trenches of World War I, to its feats within the pigeon-racing societies of today. While the dove is traditionally recognized as a symbol of peace, the pigeon has long inspired a different sort of fetishistic devotion from breeders, eaters, and artists and from those who recognized and exploited the pigeon's astounding abilities. Because of their fecundity, pigeons were symbols of fertility associated with Aphrodite, while their keen ability to find their way home made them ideal messengers and even pilots. Their usefulness largely forgotten, today's pigeons have become as ubiquitous and reviled as rats. But Superdove reveals something more surprising: By using pigeons for our own purposes, we humans have changed their evolution. And in doing so, we have helped make pigeons the ideal city dwellers they are today. In the tradition of Rats, the book that made its namesake rodents famous, Superdove is the fascinating story of the pigeon's journey from the wild to the city the home they'll never leave.

Since its creation in 1982, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial has become the most visited National Park Services site. Each year, 4.5 million people come to the Wall. Many of them leave letters or other special objects. Every night, park rangers collect and inventory these mementos now numbering well over 90,000 and put them into government storage.Michael Sofarelli, the son of a Vietnam War veteran, has combed through the archives searching for the most gripping letters and objects: a mother awaiting word of her missing son, a former comrade recounting a battle story, a pair of well-worn ballet slippers, and a collection of cigars. These items are not only a tribute to the fallen soldiers; they pay tribute as well to the families and friends who waited at home and the comrades who have never forgotten their brothers. They tell the story of a war that is still being fought by many who served and a conflict that changed the lives of many Americans forever.

A Bird in the House is a series of eight interconnected short stories narrated by Vanessa MacLeod as she matures from a child at age ten into a young woman at age twenty. Wise for her years, Vanessa reveals much about the adult world in which she lives."e;Vanessa rebels against the dominance of age; she watches [her grandfather] imitate her aunt Edna; and her rage at times is such that she would gladly kick him. It takes great skill to keep this story within the expanding horizon of this young girl and yet make it so revealing of the adult world."e;-Atlantic"e;A Bird in the House achieves the breadth of scope which we usually associate with the novel (and thereby is as psychologically valid as a good novel), and at the same time uses the techniques of the short story form to reveal the different aspects of the young Vanessa."e; -Kent Thompson, The Fiddlehead"e;I am haunted by the women in Laurence's novels as if they really were alive-and not as women I've known, but as women I've been."e;-Joan Larkin, Ms. Magazine"e;Not since . . . To Kill a Mockingbird has there been a novel like this. It should not be missed by anyone who has a child or was a child."e;-Pittsburgh Post-GazetteOne of Canada's most accomplished writers, Margaret Laurence (1926-87) was the recipient of many awards including Canada's prestigious Governor General's Literary Award on two separate occasions, once for The Diviners.

Seeds have a mirrored life, the original in nature and another reflected in literature and the imagination. The Welsh proverb simultaneously expresses both the biological potential of seeds and their metaphorical power. The American philosopher and early conservationist Henry David Thoreau, who was fascinated by seeds and inspired by them, wrote, “I have great faith in a seed. Convince me that you have a seed there, and I am prepared to expect wonders.” Who cannot wonder that the largest organism on this planet, the giant redwood Sequoiadendron giganteum nicknamed “General Sherman,” which weighs roughly the equivalent of a fleet of six Boeing 747400 Jumbo Jets, germinated more than two thousand years ago from a seed weighing only a six-thousandth of a gram?

The Stone Angel, The Diviners, and A Bird in the House are three of the five books in Margaret Laurence's renowned "e;Manawaka series,"e; named for the small Canadian prairie town in which they take place. Each of these books is narrated by a strong woman growing up in the town and struggling with physical and emotional isolation.In The Stone Angel, Hagar Shipley, age ninety, tells the story of her life, and in doing so tries to come to terms with how the very qualities which sustained her have deprived her of joy. Mingling past and present, she maintains pride in the face of senility, while recalling the life she led as a rebellious young bride, and later as a grieving mother. Laurence gives us in Hagar a woman who is funny, infuriating, and heartbreakingly poignant."e;This is a revelation, not impersonation. The effect of such skilled use of language is to lead the reader towards the self-recognition that Hagar misses."e;-Robertson Davies, New York Times"e;It is [Laurence's] admirable achievement to strike, with an equally sure touch, the peculiar note and the universal; she gives us a portrait of a remarkable character and at the same time the picture of old age itself, with the pain, the weariness, the terror, the impotent angers and physical mishaps, the realization that others are waiting and wishing for an end."e;-Honor Tracy, The New Republic"e;Miss Laurence is the best fiction writer in the Dominion and one of the best in the hemisphere."e;-Atlantic"e;[Laurence] demonstrates in The Stone Angel that she has a true novelist's gift for catching a character in mid-passion and life at full flood. . . . As [Hagar Shipley] daydreams and chatters and lurches through the novel, she traces one of the most convincing-and the most touching-portraits of an unregenerate sinner declining into senility since Sara Monday went to her reward in Joyce Cary's The Horse's Mouth."e;-Time"e;Laurence's triumph is in her evocation of Hagar at ninety. . . . We sympathize with her in her resistance to being moved to a nursing home, in her preposterous flight, in her impatience in the hospital. Battered, depleted, suffering, she rages with her last breath against the dying of the light. The Stone Angel is a fine novel, admirably written and sustained by unfailing insight."e;-Granville Hicks, Saturday Review"e;The Stone Angel is a good book because Mrs. Laurence avoids sentimentality and condescension; Hagar Shipley is still passionately involved in the puzzle of her own nature. . . . Laurence's imaginative tact is strikingly at work, for surely this is what it feels like to be old."e;-Paul Pickrel, Harper's

From the author of the bestselling Silent Night comes a close look at the embattled holiday season of 1864, when Major General W. T. Sherman gave President Lincoln the city of Savannah and paved the way for the end of the Civil War. General Sherman's Christmas opens on Thanksgiving Day 1864. Sherman was relentlessly pushing his troops nearly three hundred miles across Georgia in his "March to the Sea," to reach Savannah just days before Christmas. His methodical encroachment of the city from all sides eventually convinced Confederate general W. J. Hardee, who had refused a demand for surrender of his troops, to slip away in darkness across an improvised causeway and escape to South Carolina. In freezing rain and through terrifying fog, equipment-burdened soldiers crossed a hastily built pontoon bridge spanning the mile-wide Savannah River. Three days before Christmas, the mayor, Richard Arnold, surrendered the city, now populated mostly by women, children, and the slaves who had not fled. General Sherman then telegraphed to Abraham Lincoln, "I beg to present you as a Christmas gift the city of Savannah with 150 heavy guns plenty of ammunition also about 25.000 bales of cotton."The fight for Savannah took place as its inhabitants were anxiously preparing for Christmas. Weintraub explores how Christmas was traditionally fated in the South and what remained of the holiday to celebrate during the waning last full year of the war. Illustrated with striking period prints, General Sherman's Christmas captures the voices of soldiers and civilians on both sides of the conflict, as they neared the end of a long war.

A beloved classic for dog lovers of all ages With a new foreword by Ann PatchettIn the 1930s, Lucy Dawson's friendly, sympathetic portraits of dogs were so popular with readers of American and British magazines that she agreed to gather them together in a book, Dogs As I See Them.The volume you now hold in your hands brings this highly collectible book back in print, replicating the original 1937 edition to a T, including all of Dawson's irresistible graphite and pastel drawings and handwritten notes printed on thick sketchbook paper. Along with Dawson's illustrations are her own amusing stories about the conduct of each of her subjects as they posed for her. Her charming reminiscences interpret the character and mood of each dog, and make us friends at once with each and every one in this gallery of endearing portraits. Dogs As I See Them is a remarkable collection dog lovers of all generations will take to their hearts.With 85 full-color and black-and-white illustrations

Superspy Anna Resnikov is back in Alex Dryden's latest, masterful international thriller—The Blind SpyRussia has never accepted Ukraine's independence and now the Patrioti—Putin, his elder statesmen, and seasoned generals dedicated to rebuilding their fallen empire—are using the KGB's controversial elite and clandestine forces of Department S to destabilize the young democratic nation and bring it back under Russian control.But Cougar, the powerful private intelligence company that overshadows even the CIA in its reach, learns of Russia's plans and strikes at the heart of its plot with its own lethal weapon—the gorgeous ex–KGB colonel Anna Resnikov. More than a gifted spy and expert killer, Anna lost the love of her life and the father of her child at the hands of her former countrymen. Her defection to Cougar has made her the most wanted woman in Russia, but she'll risk any danger to herself for the chance to destroy the evil that rules her homeland. And on the ground in Ukraine, she meets a formidable foe, a mysterious KGB spy whose aims are suspiciously unclear but whose power is unmistakably deadly.New York Times bestselling author James Grippando raves, "Alex Dryden...can please everyone from fans of old le Carré to students of current affairs." The Blind Spy is another killer cocktail of page-turning suspense, high-octane action, and riveting intrigue that will hold you captive from beginning to end.

In 1919, the Boston Red Sox traded Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees to finance a Broadway show. In 1968, NBC turned off the Jets-Raiders game with only seconds left to show the made-for-TV movie Heidi. In 1994, Tonya Harding decided the best way to win Olympic gold was by taking out Nancy Kerrigan's kneecap. In all of these situations, and many, many more, there is just one question fans can ask: What were they thinking?!In these pages, sportswriter and fellow fan Kyle Garlett recounts the top sports blunders that made you tear out your hair, beat your chest in agony, and yell at the TV until your neighbors called the cops. Whether it's boneheaded coaches, idiotic general managers, or temporarily insane players, every fan has seen his team go from the brink of victory to total defeat for no logical reason. Whether it's baseball, football, golf, hockey, or any other sport, you'll discover what really happened during these painful moments and why they ended up the unbelievable way they did.

Thanks to its exquisite pictorial material, this book familiarizes the reader with the logic and golden rules of art. It enables an understanding, on the one hand, of the keys to appreciating the works of the great masters, and on the other, of how to apply these rules to the practice of one's own creative activities.The work begins with a number of basic explanations on how to represent and interrelate the different parts of the human body. The introduction is followed by chapters on the various possibilities for representing male and female nudes, and mythological and biblical figures, dressed and contextualized. Finally it looks at quadruped animals and birds.