You thought you knew the story of the The Three Little Pigs… You thought wrong.

In this hysterical and clever fractured fairy tale picture book that twists point of view and perspective, young readers will finally hear the other side of the story of The Three Little Pigs.

When left to take care of himself, a young boy becomes involved with a community of intelligent lizards who tell him of a little-known invasion from outer space.

Things Victor loves: pizza with anchovies, grape soda, B movies aired at midnight, the evening news. With his parents off at a resort and his older sister shirking her babysitting duties, Victor has plenty of time to indulge himself and to try a few things he’s been curious about.

Exploring the nearby city of Hogboro, he runs into a curious character known as the Chicken Man (a reference to his companion, an intelligent hen named Claudia who lives under his hat). The Chicken Man speaks brilliant nonsense, but he seems to be hip to the lizard musicians (real lizards, not men in lizard suits) who’ve begun appearing on Victor’s television after the broadcast of the late-late movie.

Are the lizards from outer space? From “other space”? Together Victor and the Chicken Man, guided by the able Claudia, journey to the lizards’ floating island, a strange and fantastic place that operates with an inspired logic of its own.

Double the fun! Bounty hunter Stephanie Plum is still learning the ropes at her cousin Vinnie's bail bond office. When she sets out on the trail of Kenny Mancuso—a suspiciously wealthy, working-class Trenton boy who has just shot his best friend—the stakes are higher than ever. That Mancuso is distantly related to vice cop Joe Morelli—who is trying to beat Stephanie to the punch—only makes the hunt more thrilling...

Taking pointers from her bounty hunter pal, Ranger, and using her pistol-packing Grandma Mazur as a decoy, Stephanie is soon closing in on her mark. But Morelli and his libido are worthy foes. And a more sinister kind of enemy has made his first move... and his next move might be Stephanie's last.

The Restaurant at the End of the Universe is the second book in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy comedy science fiction series by Douglas Adams, and serves as a sequel. The narrative continues the adventures of Arthur Dent and his companions as they navigate through space powered by pure improbability, all while seeking a place to dine. Among the characters are Ford Prefect, a long-time friend and contributor to the Guide; Zaphod Beeblebrox, the eccentric two-headed ex-president of the galaxy; Tricia McMilan, who has adapted to her interstellar surroundings under the name Trillian; and Marvin, the perpetually depressed robot.

The story is filled with wit, unexpected twists, and a vivid imagination that has cemented it as a favorite among fans of the genre. The titular Milliways, known as the Restaurant at the End of the Universe, serves as one of the key settings, offering a dining experience that is literally out of this world.

"Thirty years ago my older brother, who was ten years old at the time, was trying to get a report on birds written that he'd had three months to write. It was due the next day. We were out at our family cabin in Bolinas, and he was at the kitchen table close to tears, surrounded by binder paper and pencils and unopened books on birds, immobilized by the hugeness of the task ahead. Then my father sat down beside him, put his arm around my brother's shoulder, and said, 'Bird by bird, buddy. Just take it bird by bird.'"

With this basic instruction always in mind, Anne Lamott returns to offer us a new gift: a step-by-step guide on how to write and on how to manage the writer's life. From "Getting Started," with "Short Assignments," through "Shitty First Drafts," "Character," "Plot," "Dialogue." all the way from "False Starts" to "How Do You Know When You're Done?" Lamott encourages, instructs, and inspires. She discusses "Writers Block," "Writing Groups," and "Publication." Bracingly honest, she is also one of the funniest people alive.

If you have ever wondered what it takes to be a writer, what it means to be a writer, what the contents of your school lunches said about what your parents were really like, this book is for you. From faith, love, and grace to pain, jealousy, and fear, Lamott insists that you keep your eyes open, and then shows you how to survive. And always, from the life of the artist she turns to the art of life.

Many moons ago, the magic of Calvin and Hobbes first appeared on the funny pages and the world was introduced to a wondrous pair of friends -- a boy and his tiger, who brought new life to the comics page. To celebrate the tenth anniversary of this distinguished partnership, Bill Watterson prepared this special book, sharing his thoughts on cartooning and creating Calvin and Hobbes, illustrated throughout with favorite black-and-white and color cartoons.

Independence Day is a visionary account of American life and the long-awaited sequel to one of the most celebrated novels of the past decade. This novel reveals a man and our country with unflinching comedy and the specter of hope and permanence. Richard Ford evokes these themes with keen intelligence, perfect emotional pitch, and a voice invested with absolute authority.

Frank Bascombe is no longer a sportswriter, yet he's still living in Haddam, New Jersey, selling real estate. He's still divorced, though his ex-wife has remarried and moved to Connecticut with their children. Frank is happy enough in his work and is pursuing various civic and entrepreneurial sidelines. He has high hopes for this Fourth of July weekend: a search for a house for clients relocating to Vermont, a rendezvous on the Jersey shore with his girlfriend, and a trip to Connecticut to pick up his troubled teenage son for a tour of sports halls of fame.

Frank's Independence Day turns out not as planned, and this decent, bewildered, and profoundly observant man is wrenched out of his private refuge. Independence Day captures the mystery of life in all its conflicted glory with grand humor, intense compassion, and transfixing power.

Although the Nextwave of barbarian warriors was invading Xanth, Mare Imbrium discovered that ever since she had gained the half soul, the night mare had begun to mishandle her job of delivering bad dreams.

Exiled to the day world with a message for King Trent, Mare met the relentless, unforgiving Horseman. For the night mare, it began to be all a horrible nightmare!

Mare Imbrium is exiled by the Night Stallion to the day world with a message for King Trent of Xanth: "Beware the Horseman!" She had no idea of its meaning until she met the Horseman, and no one else understood until it was too late.

Winterdance: The Fine Madness of Running the Iditarod is an exhilarating tale of endurance and adventure. Join Gary Paulsen and his team of dogs as they face the brutal challenges of the Iditarod race. This gripping story immerses you in a world where snowstorms, frostbite, and dogfights are just the beginning.

Experience the thrill of moose attacks, the struggle against sleeplessness, and the surreal nature of hallucinations as Paulsen pushes himself and his dogs to their limits. This journey is filled with moments of humor, unexpected camaraderie, and the relentless push to go on.

Winterdance is not just a story about a race; it's a testament to the bond between humans and animals, and the sheer willpower required to survive in the harshest conditions.

Roddy Doyle’s witty, exuberant novel about a young boy trying to make sense of his changing world is a captivating tale of childhood and discovery. It is 1968. Patrick Clarke is ten. He loves Geronimo, the Three Stooges, and the smell of his hot water bottle. He can't stand his little brother Sinbad. His best friend is Kevin, and their names are all over Barrytown, written with sticks in wet cement. They play football, lepers, and jumping to the bottom of the sea.

But why didn't anyone help him when Charles Leavy had been going to kill him? Why do his ma and da argue so much, but act like everything is fine? Paddy sees everything, but he understands less and less. Hilarious and poignant, Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha charts the triumphs, indignities, and bewilderment of a young boy and his world, a place full of warmth, cruelty, confusion and love.

El caballero de la armadura oxidada trata de una fantasía adulta que simboliza nuestra ascensión por la montaña de la vida. Nos sentimos reflejados en el viaje del caballero, que está plagado de esperanzas y desesperanzas, de ilusiones y desilusiones, de risas y lágrimas.

Las profundas enseñanzas contenidas en la historia son impartidas con un toque de humor muy sutil. El caballero de la armadura oxidada es mucho más que un libro: es una experiencia que expande nuestra mente, que nos llega al corazón y alimenta nuestra alma.

El libro nos enseña, de una forma muy amena, que debemos liberarnos de las barreras que nos impiden conocernos y amarnos a nosotros mismos para poder ser capaces de dar y recibir amor.

Who would have thought that Winnie-the-Pooh and Piglet, A.A. Milne's beloved storybook characters, would cause such a stir demonstrating the fundamentals of Taoist philosophy?

A perfect gift for any occasion, these two phenomenal paperback bestsellers are available for the first time in an elegantly packaged boxed set.

Illustrated throughout.

Swami and Friends is the first novel set in the fictional Indian town of Malgudi, where ten-year-old Swaminathan's excitement about his country's initial stirrings for independence competes with his ardor for cricket and all other things British.

Offering rare insight into the complexities of Indian middle-class society, R. K. Narayan traces life in Malgudi. The story provides a universal vision of childhood, early love, and grief, set against the backdrop of pre-partition India.

This semi-autobiographical novel captures the ordinary tensions of maturing, heightened by the particular circumstances of the time, and presents a delightful exploration of youth and young adulthood.

"Assume the cow is a sphere." So begins this lively, irreverent, and informative look at everything from the physics of boiling water to cutting-edge research at the observable limits of the universe.

Rich with anecdotes and accessible examples, Fear of Physics nimbly ranges over the tools and thought behind the world of modern physics, taking the mystery out of what is essentially a very human intellectual endeavour.

Homicidal Psycho Jungle Cat chronicles the multifarious adventures of this wild child and his faithful, but skeptical, friend. If the best cartoons compel readers to identify themselves within the funny frames, then all who enjoy Calvin and Hobbes are creative, imaginative, and ... bad, bad, bad!

Calvin, the irascible little boy with the stuffed tiger who comes to life, are a pair bound for trouble. Boring school lessons become occasions for death-defying alien air battles, speeding snow sled descents elicit philosophical discussions on the meaning of life, and Hobbe's natural inclination to pounce on his little friend wreaks havoc on Calvin's sense of security.

Calvin's the kid we all wish we'd been. Sassy, imaginative, far more verbal than his parents can manage, Calvin is the quintessential bad boy -- and the boy we love to see. He terrorizes little Susie, offers "Candid Opinions" from a neighborhood stand, and questions his parents' authority. "What assurance do I have that your parenting isn't screwing me up?" he demands.

Calvin and Hobbes manages to say what needs to be said about childhood and life: "Eww, mud," says Calvin. "Look at this gooshy, dirty, slimy, thick, wet mud ... Bleecch ... Talk about a kid magnet!"

The Fan Man is a comic novel published in 1974 by the American writer William Kotzwinkle. It is told in the first-person by the narrator, Horse Badorties, a down-at-the-heels hippie living a life of drug-fueled befuddlement in New York City c. 1970. The book is written in a colorful, vernacular "hippie-speak" and tells the story of the main character's hapless attempts to put together a benefit concert featuring his own hand-picked choir of 15-year-old girls.

Horse is a somewhat tragic, though historically humorous, character with echoes of other famous characters in popular culture such as Reverend Jim Ignatowski of Taxi fame. In his inability to follow anything through to completion he displays symptoms of attention-deficit disorder though this could equally be drug-induced. His defining characteristic is his joy in renting or commandeering apartments which he fills with street-scavenged junk articles until full to bursting he moves on to his next "pad". The name "fan man" is a reference to another of his traits; the collecting of fans of all shapes and sizes.

Other children get given xylophones. Susan just had to ask her grandfather to take his vest off. Yes. There's a Death in the family.

It's hard to grow up normally when Grandfather rides a white horse and wields a scythe – especially when you have to take over the family business, and everyone mistakes you for the Tooth Fairy.

And especially when you have to face the new and addictive music that has entered Discworld.

It's lawless. It changes people.

It's called Music With Rocks In.

It's got a beat and you can dance to it, but...

It's alive.

And it won't fade away.

Nobody's Fool by Richard Russo is a slyly funny and moving novel that follows the unexpected operation of grace in a deadbeat town in upstate New York—and in the life of one of its unluckiest citizens, Sully, who has been doing the wrong thing triumphantly for fifty years.

Divorced from his own wife and carrying on halfheartedly with another man's, saddled with a bum knee and friends who make enemies redundant, Sully now has one new problem to cope with: a long-estranged son who is in imminent danger of following in his father's footsteps.

With its sly and uproarious humor and a heart that embraces humanity's follies as well as its triumphs, Nobody's Fool is storytelling at its most generous.

Three of a Kind

Betsy and Tacy are best friends. Then Tib moves into the neighborhood and the three of them start to play together. The grown-ups think they will quarrel, but they don't. Sometimes they quarrel with Betsy's and Tacy's bossy big sisters, but they never quarrel among themselves.

They are not as good as they might be. They cook up awful messes in the kitchen, throw mud on each other and pretend to be beggars, and cut off each other's hair. But Betsy, Tacy, and Tib always manage to have a good time.

Ever since their first publication in the 1940s, the Betsy-Tacy stories have been loved by each generation of young readers.

Probably the most popular book in the history of the Far East, this classic sixteenth-century novel is a combination of picaresque novel and folk epic that mixes satire, allegory, and history into a rollicking adventure.

It is the story of the roguish Monkey and his encounters with major and minor spirits, gods, demigods, demons, ogres, monsters, and fairies.

This translation, by the distinguished scholar Arthur Waley, is the first accurate English version; it makes available to the Western reader a faithful reproduction of the spirit and meaning of the original.

What if a woman who knows nothing about sports inherits a professional football team? The Windy City definitely isn't ready for Phoebe Somerville, the outrageous, curvaceous New York knockout who's taking over their hometown team. And Phoebe is definitely not prepared for the Stars' head coach Dan Calebow, a sexist jock taskmaster with a one-track mind.

Calebow is everything Phoebe abhors. And the sexy boss is everything Dan despises - a meddling bimbo who doesn't know a pigskin from a pitcher's mound. So why is he drawn to the shameless sexpot like a heat-seeking missile? And why does the coach's good ol' boy charm leave cosmopolitan Phoebe feeling awkward, tongue-tied...and ready to fight?

The mismatched pair spark fireworks of all sorts in this sexy, heartwarming, and hilarious story of two stubborn people who believe in playing for keeps.

Toda Mafalda es un compendio completo de las tiras cómicas de Mafalda, desde la primera hasta la última. Este libro incluye obras inéditas y especiales como Al fin solos, Y digo yo, y muchas más.

Disfruta de:

• Mafalda inédita
• Al fin solos
• Y digo yo
• ¿A dónde vamos a parar?
• Mafaldas (casi) privadas
• Mafaldas públicas
• Mafaldas ineditísimas

Este libro es toda, pero toda toda Mafalda, hasta el cierre de esta edición.

The Calculus Affair is a thrilling adventure featuring Tintin, the Captain, and Snowy as they embark on a daring mission to rescue Dr. Calculus.
He has been kidnapped by the Bordurians, and it's up to our heroes to save him.

Join them in this exciting journey full of mystery, humor, and classic comic thrills!

Zounds! Spaceman Spiff, Stupendous Man, the ferocious tiger Hobbes, and the rest of Calvin's riotous imagination are all included in The Days Are Just Packed.

Calvin, the self-proclaimed "Boy of Destiny," continues to save the universe with his alter egos, Spaceman Spiff and Stupendous Man, at least until Miss Wormwood or his mother bring him back to reality.

Susie, Calvin's nemesis and love interest, remains Calvin's favorite target. And when he's not recovering from a ferocious tiger attack, Calvin creates hideous snowmen, plays a moral cat-and-mouse game with Santa, conducts his infamous Dad polls, and combats the monsters under his bed.

The Pleasantries of the Incredible Mulla Nasrudin takes us to the heart of the mysterious mentor, Mulla Nasrudin. Through skillful retellings of hundreds of stories and sayings, Idries Shah brings the timeless wit and charm of this legendary figure to life.

From high-level physics reports to psychology textbooks, Nasrudin's tales illustrate phenomena and illuminate the workings of the mind in ways no straightforward explanation can. His stories have spanned cultures, appearing in literature and oral traditions from the Middle East to Greece, Russia, France, and even China.

According to legend, Nasrudin was chosen as a schoolboy to carry the message of how to escape the crude system of thought that ensnares man. His humor slips through the cracks of rigid thinking habits, offering both laughter and psychological insight.

Acclaimed as humorous masterpieces and collections of some of the world's finest jokes, Nasrudin's antics also serve as teaching exercises, helping to recognize states of mind. For centuries, these stories have been studied in Sufi circles for their hidden wisdom.

The Elephant Vanishes is a collection that showcases the imaginative genius of Haruki Murakami, an international literary icon. These stories blend the mundane with the extraordinary, creating a world where the surreal becomes the new normal.

A man witnesses the inexplicable disappearance of his favorite elephant, newlyweds find themselves driven by insatiable hunger to rob a McDonald's, and a young woman becomes the object of affection for a peculiar green monster. Each story takes the reader on a journey across the boundaries of reality, returning with remarkable treasures.

By turns haunting and hilarious, this collection includes the story Barn Burning, which inspired the major motion picture Burning.

Once a columnist for an Italian literary magazine, Eco now shares his acute and highly entertaining sense of the absurd in modern life. These essays explore diverse topics including militarism, computerese, cowboy and Indian movies, art criticism, librarians, and semiotics, among many others—including himself.

Eco's witty and irreverent style makes these essays a delightful read, providing insightful commentary on the quirks of contemporary culture. Whether discussing Western films or the intricacies of bureaucracy, Eco's observations are both profound and playful.

The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales is a unique collection that takes a playful jab at the traditional fairy tale format. With its unconventional page arrangement and eclectic, frenetic mix of text and pictures, the book is a spoof on the art of book design as well as the art of the fairy tale itself.

The individual tales, such as The Really Ugly Duckling and Little Red Running Shorts, offer a fresh and humorous take on the classic stories we all know and love. Extracted for telling aloud, these tales promise great success and laughter. This masterpiece comes from the team that brought you The True Story of the Three Little Pigs.

One of Faulkner's comic masterpieces, The Reivers is a picaresque that tells of three unlikely car thieves from rural Mississippi.

Eleven-year-old Lucius Priest is persuaded by Boon Hogganbeck, one of his family's retainers, to steal his grandfather's car and make a trip to Memphis. The Priests' black coachman, Ned McCaslin, stows away, and the three of them are off on a heroic odyssey, for which they are all ill-equipped, that ends at Miss Reba's bordello in Memphis.

From there, a series of wild misadventures ensues—involving horse smuggling, trainmen, sheriffs' deputies, and jail.

Moscow to the End of the Line is a classic of Russian humor and social commentary. The story follows a fired cable fitter who embarks on a binge and hops a train to Petushki, where his most beloved of trollops awaits.

Throughout the journey, he delivers a magnificent monologue to angels, fellow passengers, and the world at large. His musings cover a range of topics including alcohol, politics, society, philosophy, the pains of love, and, of course, more alcohol.

They're back: Calvin, the six-year-old dirty tricksmeister and master of indignation and his warm, cuddly philosopher sidekick, Hobbes. A tiger whose idea of adventure is to lie on his back by the fire and have his stomach rubbed. In six short years, this unlikely duo has captured the hearts, the minds, and, most of all, the funny bones of America.

This treasury collection contains a never-before-published full-color section, as well as the cartoons appearing in The Revenge of the Baby-Sat and Scientific Progress Goes "Boink." All Sunday cartoons are presented full-page and full-color.

It's every parrothead's dream: to leave behind the rat race of the workaday world and start life all over again amidst the cool breezes, sun-drenched colors, and rum-laced drinks of a tropical paradise.

It's the story of Norman Paperman, a New York City press agent who, facing the onset of middle age, runs away to a Caribbean island to reinvent himself as a hotel keeper. (Hilarity and disaster — of a sort peculiar to the tropics — ensue.)

It's the novel in which the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of such acclaimed and bestselling novels as The Caine Mutiny and War and Remembrance draws on his own experience (Wouk and his family lived for seven years on an island in the sun) to tell a story at once brilliantly comic and deeply moving.

A freak accident renders an ordinary stock analyst invisible. Though invisibility has its pitfalls, he is able to eavesdrop his way into amassing a fortune in this side-splitting, tear-jerking mixture of fantasy and nightmare.

Calvin and Hobbes are back! The energetic six-year-old and his sidekick tiger endure all the trials of youth and continue to endear themselves to millions of loyal readers in this latest collection of their shenanigans.

With the help of his faithful stuffed tiger companion and his alter egos—Spaceman Spiff, Stupendous Man, and Tracer Bullet—Calvin continues to navigate the tricky waters of youth.

This latest assembly of Calvin and Hobbes' adventures has never been collected in book form before.

Meet the World's Funniest Kindergartner—Junie B. Jones!

Remember when it was scary to go to school? In the first Junie B. Jones book, it's Junie B.'s first day and she doesn't know anything. She's so scared of the school bus and the meanies on it that when it's time to go home, she doesn't.

Join Junie B. as she navigates the ups and downs of her first day at school with humor and honesty. Her adventures are sure to bring laughter and joy to young readers, making this a delightful read for anyone who remembers the jitters of a new school year.

The dazzling and exuberant moral stories of Rabelais (c.1471-1553) expose human follies with their mischievous and often obscene humour, while intertwining the realistic with carnivalesque fantasy to make us look afresh at the world.

Gargantua depicts a young giant, reduced to laughable insanity by an education at the hands of paternal ignorance, old crones, and syphilitic professors, who is rescued and turned into a cultured Christian knight.

In Pantagruel and its three sequels, Rabelais parodied tall tales of chivalry and satirized the law, theology, and academia to portray the bookish son of Gargantua who becomes a Renaissance Socrates, divinely guided in his wisdom, and his idiotic, self-loving companion Panurge.

After being run out of Boneville, the three Bone cousins, Fone Bone, Phoney Bone, and Smiley Bone, are separated and lost in a vast uncharted desert. One by one, they find their way into a deep, forested valley filled with wonderful and terrifying creatures...

Humor, mystery, and adventure are spun together in this action-packed, side-splitting saga. Everyone who has ever left home for the first time only to find that the world outside is strange and overwhelming will love Bone.

Karim Amir lives with his English mother and Indian father in the routine comfort of suburban London, enduring his teenage years with good humor, always on the lookout for adventure and sexual possibilities.

Life gets more interesting, however, when his father becomes the Buddha of Suburbia, beguiling a circle of would-be mystics. And when the Buddha falls in love with one of his disciples, the beautiful and brazen Eva, Karim is introduced to a world of renegade theater directors, punk rock stars, fancy parties, and all the sex a young man could desire.

A love story for at least two generations, a high-spirited comedy of sexual manners and social turmoil, The Buddha of Suburbia is one of the most enchanting, provocative, and original books to appear in years.

An American graphic novel first! The complete 1300 page epic from start to finish in one deluxe trade paperback.

Three modern cartoon cousins get lost in a pre-technological valley, spending a year there making new friends and out-running dangerous enemies. After being run out of Boneville, the three Bone cousins, Fone Bone, Phoney Bone, and Smiley Bone are separated and lost in a vast uncharted desert. One by one they find their way into a deep forested valley filled with wonderful and terrifying creatures. It will be the longest -- but funniest -- year of their lives.

In this collection, Calvin and his tiger-striped sidekick, Hobbes, are hilarious whether the two are simply lounging around philosophizing about the future of mankind or plotting their latest money-making scheme.

Chock-full of the familiar adventures of Spaceman Spiff, findings of Dad's popularity poll, and time travel to the Jurassic Age, Scientific Progress Goes "Boink" is guaranteed to set scientific inquiry back an eon—and advance the reading pleasure of all Calvin and Hobbes fans.

The praise and popularity of Calvin and Hobbes continue to escalate as the hottest comic strip around reaches its fifth birthday. With keen insight, Bill Watterson depicts life through the eyes of a child, and the limits of our imaginations are challenged as we accompany Calvin and Hobbes while they stir up trouble, travel through time, transmogrify themselves—and just have fun in everything they do.

This collection of Calvin and Hobbes cartoons includes adventures where Calvin crashes his parents' car, goes on a family camping trip, and shares fun-filled moments with his stuffed tiger, Hobbes.

De vrolijke oude koning van het goede land Katoren is overleden zonder een opvolger te hebben. Zes zure ministers regeren het land en beweren al 17 jaar dat ze een nieuwe koning zoeken, maar er gebeurt niets. Dan komt de 17-jarige Stach de ministers vragen wat je moet doen om koning te worden. De ministers geven Stach zeven bijna onuitvoerbare opdrachten, waarop al velen voor hem hun kracht beproefd hebben. Maar Stach is niet bang. Hij is slim en weet met gezond verstand alle opdrachten uit te voeren, waardoor hij Katoren weer tot een leefbaar land maakt.

The Authoritative Calvin and Hobbes: A Calvin and Hobbes Treasury is a captivating collection of Calvin and Hobbes cartoons. This treasury includes fan favorites such as Yukon Ho! and Weirdos From Another Planet, along with a story that has not been in print before, making it a must-have for enthusiasts and new readers alike.

Bill Watterson, the creative genius behind these beloved characters, was honored with the 1986 Reuben Award as Outstanding Cartoonist of the Year, showcasing his remarkable talent and contribution to the world of comics.

Louis, the yard teacher, starts off 30 tales of unusual students. Comic sketches precede every chapter.

Todd brings a cute adorable plastic puppy who bites back when Joy steals it. Cafeteria Mrs. Mush serves Mushroom Surprise that changes Ron. When Paul falls out the window, Leslie offers her pigtails to pull him back. On the 19th floor, invisible Allison finds Miss Zarves' class.

With dazzling wit and astonishing insight, Bill Bryson—the acclaimed author of The Lost Continent—brilliantly explores the remarkable history, eccentricities, resilience and sheer fun of the English language.

From the first descent of the larynx into the throat (why you can talk but your dog can't), to the fine lost art of swearing, Bryson tells the fascinating, often uproarious story of an inadequate, second-rate tongue of peasants that developed into one of the world's largest growth industries.

What if the Second Coming didn’t quite come off as advertised? What if “the Corpse” on display in that funky roadside zoo is really who they say it is—what does that portend for the future of western civilization? And what if a young clairvoyant named Amanda reestablishes the flea circus as popular entertainment and fertility worship as the principal religious form of our high-tech age? Another Roadside Attraction answers those questions and a lot more.

It tells us, for example, what the sixties were truly all about, not by reporting on the psychedelic decade but by recreating it, from the inside out. In the process, this stunningly original seriocomic thriller is fully capable of simultaneously eating a literary hot dog and eroding the borders of the mind.

Welcome to the fabled Gold Coast, that stretch on the North Shore of Long Island that once held the greatest concentration of wealth and power in America. Here two men are destined for an explosive collision:

John Sutter, a Wall Street lawyer, holds fast to a fading aristocratic legacy, while Frank Bellarosa, the Mafia don, seizes his piece of the staid and unprepared Gold Coast like a latter-day barbarian chief. He draws Sutter and his regally beautiful wife, Susan, into his violent world.

Told from Sutter's sardonic and often hilarious point of view, and laced with sexual passion and suspense, The Gold Coast is Nelson DeMille's captivating story of friendship and seduction, love and betrayal.

This breathtaking, reverberating survey of human nature finds Kundera still attempting to work out the meaning of life, without losing his acute sense of humour. It is one of those great unclassifiable masterpieces that appear once every twenty years or so.

It will make you cleverer, maybe even a better lover. Not many novels can do that. - Nicholas Lezard, GQ