The Freedom Writers Diary is a powerful and unforgettable example of how hard work, courage, and the spirit of determination can change lives. This book presents the inspiring story of an idealistic young English teacher, Erin Gruwell, and her remarkable students at Wilson High School in Long Beach, California.

Confronted with a classroom of "unteachable, at-risk" students, Erin Gruwell discovered a note containing an ugly racial caricature. She used this moment to teach her students about the Holocaust, only to be met with uncomprehending looks. Determined to make a difference, she revamped her curriculum, using treasured books like Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl and Zlata’s Diary: A Child’s Life in Sarajevo to combat intolerance and misunderstanding.

Through their journey, the students began to see parallels in these books to their own lives, recording their thoughts and feelings in diaries. They named themselves the "Freedom Writers," paying homage to the civil rights activists "The Freedom Riders." Their efforts led to significant recognition and educational success, with all 150 Freedom Writers graduating from high school and attending college.

Featuring entries from the students’ diaries and narrative text by Erin Gruwell, this book remains a vital read for anyone who believes in second chances and the transformative power of education.

In a rural Kentucky river town, "Old Jack" Beechum, a retired farmer, sees his life again through the shades of one burnished day in September 1952. Bringing the earthiness of America's past to mind, The Memory of Old Jack conveys the truth and integrity of the land and the people who live from it.

Through the eyes of one man can be seen the values Americans strive to recapture as we arrive at the next century.

"There is nothing imaginary about Junger's book; it is all terrifyingly, awesomely real." —Los Angeles Times

It was the storm of the century, boasting waves over one hundred feet high—a tempest created by so rare a combination of factors that meteorologists deemed it "the perfect storm." In a book that has become a classic, Sebastian Junger explores the history of the fishing industry, the science of storms, and the candid accounts of the people whose lives the storm touched. The Perfect Storm is a real-life thriller that makes us feel like we've been caught, helpless, in the grip of a force of nature beyond our understanding or control. Winner of the American Library Association's 1998 Alex Award.

Tom Wolfe's The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test ushered in an era of New Journalism. An American classic that defined a generation. An astonishing book and an unflinching portrait of Ken Kesey, his Merry Pranksters, LSD, and the 1960s.

After stumbling across a haunted go board, Hikaru Shindo discovers that the spirit of a master player named Fujiwara-no-Sai has taken up residence in his consciousness. Sai awakens in Hikaru an untapped genius for the game, and soon the schoolboy is chasing his own dream--defeating the famed go prodigy Akira Toya!

Akira is beginning a new school year at Kaio Middle School. With his daunting reputation as the Toya Meijin's son, Akira finds he must prove himself to more than a few mean and jealous classmates. And with the help of upperclassman Yuri Hidaka, Akira finds the confidence to persevere in his hunt to beat Hikaru. Meanwhile, Hikaru is having a hard enough time just trying to find a third teammate to play in the Haze Middle School Go Club. A possible teammate arrives in the form of Yuki Mitani--but will he join their club or continue to swindle old timers for their pocket change?

The Seven Storey Mountain is one of the most famous books ever written about a man's search for faith and peace. It tells of the growing restlessness of a brilliant and passionate young man, who at the age of twenty-six, takes vows in one of the most demanding Catholic orders—the Trappist monks.

At the Abbey of Gethsemani, "the four walls of my new freedom," Thomas Merton struggles to withdraw from the world, but only after he has fully immersed himself in it. At the abbey, he wrote this extraordinary testament, a unique spiritual autobiography that has been recognized as one of the most influential religious works of our time.

Translated into more than twenty languages, it has touched millions of lives.

El tema de esta obra surgió a raíz de una noticia aparecida en prensa: dos amantes se fugan en la víspera de la boda de la mujer con otro hombre. García Lorca convierte la realidad en poesía. En su obra hay ansias de libertad, andalucismo, simbolismo y muerte, pero por encima de todo, poesía dramática.

Bodas de sangre es, pues, una obra teatral donde las desgarradas pasiones de sus protagonistas se desatan ante la atenta mirada de la luna, personificación hermosa y terrible de la muerte.

Hiroshima-born Sadako is lively and athletic—the star of her school's running team. And then the dizzy spells start. Soon, gravely ill with leukemia, the "atom bomb disease," Sadako faces her future with spirit and bravery.

Recalling a Japanese legend, Sadako sets to work folding paper cranes. For the legend holds that if a sick person folds one thousand cranes, the gods will grant her wish and make her healthy again.

Based on a true story, Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes celebrates the extraordinary courage that made one young woman a heroine in Japan.

Set in a working-class Brooklyn neighborhood in 1947, this poignant tale revolves around two of the most endearing characters in recent fiction: an 11-year-old Irish Catholic boy named Michael Devlin and Rabbi Judah Hirsch, a refugee from Prague.

In this unlikely friendship, Michael and Rabbi Hirsch find a connection that transcends their cultural and religious differences. The rabbi opens a window to ancient learning and lore that rival anything in Captain Marvel, while Michael illuminates the everyday mysteries of America, including the strange language of baseball.

But like their hero Jackie Robinson, neither can entirely escape from the swirling prejudices of the time. Terrorized by a local gang of anti-Semitic Irish toughs, Michael and the rabbi are caught in an escalating spiral of hate for which there's only one way out—a miracle.

Deeply affecting and wonderfully evocative of old New York, Snow in August is a brilliant fable for our time and all time—a testament to the power of friendship and understanding.

This collection spans Lovecraft’s literary career, and charts the development of his ‘cosmicist’ philosophy; the belief that behind the veil of our blinkered everyday lives lies another reality, too terrible for the human mind to comprehend. In stories written in the gothic tradition, narrators recount their descent into madness and despair. Through their investigations into the unexplained, they tug at the thin threads that separate our world from another of indescribable horror. “Great God! I never dreamed of THIS!” screams occultist Harley Warren in ‘The Statement of Randolph Carter’, as he begs his companion to bury him alive. Another early piece, ‘The Outsider’ – a tragic and emotive evocation of loneliness and desolation – follows a man’s escape from his castle in a desperate search for human contact, but the loathsome truth he discovers destroys his mind.

In later tales, such as the iconic ‘The Call of Cthulhu’ and ‘The Whisperer in Darkness’, Lovecraft reaches into the cosmos, bridging the divide between horror and science fiction. The extra-terrestrial ‘gods’ and cursed histories that would emerge from these stories now form the cornerstones of Lovecraft’s unique mythology: the Cthulhu Mythos. This fictional universe, built in large part by his friend and most ardent supporter August Derleth, has in the years since been reimagined in myriad forms, and continues to act as a haunted playground for countless illustrators, fans and authors.

This edition, based on its sister limited edition, marries Lovecraft’s best-known fiction with two modern masters of the macabre, the acclaimed artist Dan Hillier and author Alan Moore. In his beautifully crafted new preface, Moore finds Lovecraft at once at odds with and integral to the time in which he lived: ‘the improbable embodiment of an estranged world in transition’. Yet, despite his prejudices and parochialisms, he ‘possessed a voice and a perspective both unique in modern literature’.

Hillier’s six mesmerising, portal-like illustrations embrace the alien realities that lurk among the gambrel roofs of Lovecraft’s landscapes. By splicing Victorian portraits and lithographs with cosmic and Lovecraftian symbolism, each piece – like the stories themselves – pulls apart the familiar to reveal what lies beneath.

The edition itself shimmers with Lovecraft’s ‘unknown colours’, bound in purple and greens akin to both the ocean depths and mysteries from outer space. The cover is embossed with a mystical design by Hillier, while a monstrous eye stares blankly from the slipcase.

Content:

• Dagon
• The Statement of Randolph Carter
• Facts Concerning the Late Arthur Jermyn and His Family
• Celephaïs
• Nyarlathotep
• The Picture in the House
• The Outsider
• Herbert West -- Reanimator
• The Hound
• The Rats in the Walls
• The Festival
• He
• Cool Air
• The Call of Cthulhu
• The Colour Out of Space
• The Whisperer in Darkness
• The Shadow Over Innsmouth
• The Haunter of the Dark

Harry Potter Trilogy is a magical collection of the first three books in the beloved series by J.K. Rowling. This box set includes hard cover editions of:

• Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
• Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
• Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

Each book is housed in a beautifully designed slip case, making it a perfect gift for fans and new readers alike. Dive into the enchanting world of Hogwarts, where magic, friendship, and bravery come to life.

A marine archaeologist and a salvager join forces to search for a legendary treasure in this novel that takes readers to the depths of the Caribbean and the heights of passion and suspense.

Tate Beaumont has a passion for treasure-hunting. Over the years, she and her father have uncovered many fabulous riches, but one treasure has always eluded them: Angelique’s Curse—a jeweled amulet heavy with history, dark with legend, and tainted with blood.

In order to find this precious artifact, the Beaumonts reluctantly form a partnership with salvagers Buck and Matthew Lassiter. As the Beaumonts and Lassiters pool their resources to locate Angelique’s Curse, the Caribbean waters darken with shadowy deceptions and hidden threats. Their partnership is placed in jeopardy when Matthew refuses to share information—including the truth behind his father’s mysterious death.

For now, Tate and Matthew continue their uneasy alliance—until danger and desire begin to rise to the surface…

For decades, the Magistrate has been a loyal servant of the Empire, running the affairs of a tiny frontier settlement and ignoring the impending war with the barbarians. When interrogation experts arrive, however, he witnesses the Empire's cruel and unjust treatment of prisoners of war.

Jolted into sympathy for their victims, he commits a quixotic act of rebellion that brands him an enemy of the state. J. M. Coetzee's novel is a startling allegory of the war between oppressor and oppressed. The Magistrate is not simply a man living through a crisis of conscience in an obscure place in remote times; his situation is that of all men living in unbearable complicity with regimes that ignore justice and decency.

Finally, the long awaited tale of Martin, the Warrior mouse of Redwall. As a child, Martin was brought to the stronghold of Badrang the Tyrant, forced into enslavement behind its massive walls. But he was strong. He was brave. And mere escape was not his plan as long as his father’s sword rested in Badrang’s ruthless fist…

The Grail Brotherhood has built the most powerful, sophisticated simulation network imaginable. At the same time, they have manipulated and injured the minds of thousands of children.

This proclamation from the mysterious Mr. Sellars confirmed what Renie Sulaweyo had feared to be true when she first broke into the Otherland network in a desperate search for the cause of her brother Stephen's deathlike coma. Now Renie, the Bushman !Xabbu, and their companions find themselves navigating a treacherous and ever-changing course—from a strangely unfinished land to a seemingly endless labyrinthine House—pursuing a sociopathic killer who has stolen one of their group.

To Renie's despair, she is no closer to uncovering the secrets which could help save Stephen's life, and now it appears that something may be very wrong with the Otherland network itself.

As Paul Jonas, Orlando, Renie, and the rest strive to reach Priam's Walls, in the heart of Troy, they know that their quest is running perilously short of time. For the Grail Brotherhood has finally set the date for the Ceremony when they will make their bid for immortality, and thereby seal the fate of Earth's children forever.

But before Renie and her allies can hope to stop the Brotherhood, they must first solve the mysteries of Otherland itself, and confront its darkest secret—an entity known only as the Other.

T.J. Newton is an extraterrestrial who arrives on Earth with a desperate mission of mercy. In his quest to save his home planet, he discovers a world filled with loneliness and despair, leading to a tragic end.

Newton, an alien disguised as a human, lands in Kentucky and begins to patent advanced technology from his planet, Anthea. His goal is to amass the wealth needed to build a spaceship to rescue the last survivors of his devastated world.

However, instead of finding the help he seeks, Newton encounters self-destruction and succumbs to human afflictions like alcoholism, abandoning his mission. This poignant tale explores the human condition and the existential loneliness that resides within us all.

Eckhart Tolle's message is simple: living in the now is the truest path to happiness and enlightenment. And while this message may not seem stunningly original or fresh, Tolle's clear writing, supportive voice, and enthusiasm make this an excellent manual for anyone who's ever wondered what exactly "living in the now" means. Foremost, Tolle is a world-class teacher, able to explain complicated concepts in concrete language. More importantly, within a chapter of reading this book, readers are already holding the world in a different container--more conscious of how thoughts and emotions get in the way of their ability to live in genuine peace and happiness.

Tolle packs a lot of information and inspirational ideas into The Power of Now. Topics include the source of Chi, enlightened relationships, creative use of the mind, impermanence and the cycle of life. Thankfully, he's added markers that symbolise "break time". This is when readers should close the book and mull over what they just read. As a result, The Power of Now reads like the highly acclaimed A Course in Miracles--a spiritual guidebook that has the potential to inspire just as many study groups and change just as many lives for the better.

The Voyage of the Narwhal is a captivating novel that draws on the experiences and discoveries of real expeditions to the Arctic. Set in the mid-nineteenth century, it captures the romance and peril of Arctic exploration.

Erasmus Darwin Wells is a naturalist aboard The Narwhal as it sails from the Delaware River to the Arctic with the goal of discovering the fate of the expedition of John Franklin, a real historical venture. The expedition is led by Zeke Voorhees, a childhood and family friend of Wells. As the journey unfolds, Wells embarks on an inner journey as a rift develops between himself and Voorhees.

Upon the Narwhal's arrival in Arctic waters, Voorhees begins the search for the lost expedition by exploring Arctic bays, sounds, and coastlines. As the Arctic winter approaches, the ship becomes barricaded by ice, and the challenge shifts to surviving the harsh winter. The men must not only endure the physical environment but also keep alive their spirit and determination to survive.

When spring and summer arrive and the ice begins to thaw, Voorhees treks inland alone, leaving Wells in charge of the Narwhal. When Voorhees fails to return, the crew persuades Wells to leave before winter sets in again. They retrofit a whale boat to navigate the frozen land towards open waters.

This novel is a vivid exploration of adventure, survival, and the intricate dynamics of human relationships amidst the unforgiving Arctic landscape.

The war between two groups of Hungarian boys living in Budapest. One with Hungarian national colours (red, white, green) is defending the square from redshirts (from Garibaldi's redshirts), who want to occupy the square.

Hearts in Atlantis is a classic collection of five deeply resonant and disturbing interconnected stories from #1 New York Times bestselling author Stephen King. Innocence, experience, truth, deceit, loss, and recovery are at the core of these five interconnected, sequential tales—each deeply rooted in the 1960s, and each scarred by the Vietnam War, which continues to cast its shadow over American lives, politics, and culture.

In Part One, “Low Men in Yellow Coats,” eleven-year-old Bobby Garfield discovers a world of predatory malice in his own neighborhood. He also discovers that adults are sometimes not rescuers but at the heart of the terror. In the title story, a bunch of college kids get hooked on a card game, discover the possibility of protest, and confront their own collective heart of darkness, where laughter may be no more than the thinly disguised cry of the beast. In “Blind Willie” and “Why We’re in Vietnam,” two men who grew up with Bobby in suburban Connecticut try to fill the emptiness of the post-Vietnam era in an America which sometimes seems as hollow—and as haunted—as their own lives. And in “Heavenly Shades of Night Are Falling,” this remarkable book’s denouement, Bobby returns to his hometown where one final secret, the hope of redemption, and his heart’s desire may await him.

Full of danger and suspense, full of heart, this spellbinding fiction will take some readers to a place they have never been...and others to a place they have never been able to completely forget. Nearly twenty years after its first publication, Hearts in Atlantis is powerful and astonishingly current.

Vivian Gandillon relishes the change, the sweet, fierce ache that carries her from girl to wolf. At sixteen, she is beautiful and strong, and all the young wolves are on her tail. But Vivian still grieves for her dead father; her pack remains leaderless and in disarray, and she feels lost in the suburbs of Maryland. She longs for a normal life. But what is normal for a werewolf?

Then Vivian falls in love with a human, a meat-boy. Aiden is kind and gentle, a welcome relief from the squabbling pack. He’s fascinated by magic, and Vivian longs to reveal herself to him. Surely he would understand her and delight in the wonder of her dual nature, not fear her as an ordinary human would.

Vivian’s divided loyalties are strained further when a brutal murder threatens to expose the pack. Moving between two worlds, she does not seem to belong in either. What is she really—human or beast? Which tastes sweeter—blood or chocolate?

It's 1936, in Flint, Michigan. Times may be hard, and ten-year-old Bud may be a motherless boy on the run, but Bud's got a few things going for him:

• He has his own suitcase full of special things.
• He's the author of Bud Caldwell's Rules and Things for Having a Funner Life and Making a Better Liar Out of Yourself.
• His momma never told him who his father was, but she left a clue: flyers advertising Herman E. Calloway and his famous band, the Dusky Devastators of the Depression!

Bud's got an idea that those flyers will lead him to his father. Once he decides to hit the road and find this mystery man, nothing can stop him—not hunger, not fear, not vampires, not even Herman E. Calloway himself.

Join Bud on this unforgettable journey filled with laughter, adventure, and the soulful sounds of jazz.

Helen Ross is a 29-year-old biologist, sent into a hostile place to protect the wolves from those who seek to destroy them. She struggles for survival and for self-esteem, embarking on a love affair with the 18-year-old son of her most powerful opponent, the brutal and charismatic rancher, Buck Calder.

A pack of wolves makes a sudden savage return to the Rocky Mountain ranching town of Hope, Montana, where a century earlier they were slaughtered by the thousands. Biologist Helen Ross has come to Hope from the East, fleeing a life in shambles, determined to save the wolves from those who seek to destroy them. But an ancient hatred awaits her in Hope, a hatred that will tear a family and ultimately the community apart.

And soon Helen is at the center of the storm, by loving the wrong man, by defying the wrong man... by daring to lead a town out of the violent darkness of its past.

Ray Bradbury's second short story collection is back in print, offering chilling encounters with funhouse mirrors, parasitic accident-watchers, and strange poker chips. Both sides of Bradbury's vaunted childhood nostalgia are on display, in the celebratory "Uncle Einar," and haunting "The Lake," the latter a fine elegy to childhood loss.

This edition features a new introduction by Bradbury, an invaluable essay on writing, wherein the author tells of his "Theater of Morning Voices," and, by inference, encourages you to listen to the same murmurings in yourself.

The October Country is many places: a picturesque Mexican village where death is a tourist attraction; a city beneath the city where drowned lovers are silently reunited; a carnival midway where a tiny man's most cherished fantasy can be fulfilled night after night. The October Country's inhabitants live, dream, work, die—and sometimes live again—discovering, often too late, the high price of citizenship.

Here a glass jar can hold memories and nightmares; a woman's newborn child can plot murder; and a man's skeleton can war against him. Here there is no escaping the dark stranger who lives upstairs...or the reaper who wields the world. Each of these stories is a wonder, imagined by an acclaimed tale-teller writing from a place of shadows. But there is astonishing beauty in these shadows, born from a prose that enchants and enthralls.

The brilliant new saga is born...

Rhapsody is a woman, a Singer of some talent, who is swept up into events of world-shattering import. On the run from an old romantic interest who won't take no for an answer, Rhapsody literally bumps into a couple of shady characters: half-breeds who come to her rescue in the nick of time. Only the rescue turns into an abduction, and Rhapsody soon finds herself dragged along on an epic voyage, one that spans centuries and ranges across a wonder-filled fantasy world—a world so real you can hear the sweet music of Rhapsody's aubade and smell the smoldering forges deep within the Cauldron.

Will Barrett is a twenty-five-year-old wanderer from the South, living in New York City, detached from his roots and with no plans for the future. But everything changes when he purchases a telescope, setting off a romance that will alter the course of his life forever.

Will's journey takes him from the bustling streets of New York to the heart of the Mississippi Delta, where he becomes entangled with the eccentric Vaught family. His unexpected role as caretaker for the family's ailing son, Jamie, challenges him to confront his personal demons.

Amidst these challenges, Will discovers a profound love for Jamie's sister, Kitty, and forges a deepening relationship with the Vaught family. Through these connections, he learns the true meaning of home and belonging.

A professor invites a colleague from the art department to his home to view a painting he has kept secret for decades in Susan Vreeland's powerful historical novel, Girl in Hyacinth Blue. The professor swears it's a Vermeer — but why exactly has he kept it hidden so long?

The reasons unfold in a gripping sequence of stories that trace ownership of the work back to Amsterdam during World War II and still further to the moment of the painting's inception.

This luminous story explores the life and many owners of an imaginary Vermeer painting, a tale that is as breathtaking as any Vermeer painting itself. As the painting moves through each owner's hands, what was long hidden quietly surfaces, illuminating poignant moments in human lives.

Vreeland’s characters remind us, through their love of the mysterious painting, how beauty transforms and why we reach for it, what lasts, and what in our lives is singular and unforgettable.

Going After Cacciato captures the peculiar mixture of horror and hallucination that marked the Vietnam War. In a blend of reality and fantasy, this novel tells the story of a young soldier who one day lays down his rifle and sets off on a quixotic journey from the jungles of Indochina to the streets of Paris. Ultimately it's about the forces of fear and heroism that do battle in the hearts of us all.

Keeping the Moon by Sarah Dessen is an uplifting tale of friendship, self-discovery, and the power of transformation. When Colie spends the summer at the beach, she doesn't have high expectations. Yet, she didn't anticipate meeting Morgan and Isabel.

Through these new friendships, Colie learns about the true essence of connection and starts to see her own potential. This journey may even lead her to her first experience of love, showcasing that it's never too late for personal growth or to find where you truly belong.

A heartwarming story, Keeping the Moon captures the special feeling of discovering oneself and the undeniable strength of friendship. It's a down-to-earth Cinderella story that reminds readers to never underestimate the power of opening up and letting others in.

Dr. Tom More has created a unique invention: a stethoscope of the human spirit. With this remarkable device, he embarks on an unforgettable odyssey to cure mankind's spiritual flu.

This novel confronts the value of life and its susceptibility to chance and ruin. Set amid the decadence and polarization of a future American society, it is a journey through the complexities of the human psyche, highlighting both its potential and its pitfalls.

Otherland. In many ways, it is humankind's most stunning achievement: a private, multidimensional universe built over two generations by the greatest minds of the twenty-first century. But this most exclusive of places is also one of the world's best-kept secrets, created and controlled by an organization made up of the world's most powerful and ruthless individuals, a private cartel known—to those who know of their existence at all—as The Grail Brotherhood.

Though their purpose in creating Otherland is still a mystery, it may not remain so for long. For they have exacted a terrible price from humanity in the process, and even their highly organized global conspiracy cannot hide the nature of their crimes forever.

And now, a small band of adventurers has penetrated the veil of secrecy that prevents the uninitiated from entering Otherland. But having broken into the amazing worlds within worlds that make up this universe, they are trapped, unable to escape back to their own flesh-and-blood bodies in the real world.

As dangers and circumstances split their party into small, widely scattered groups, their only hope of reuniting lies in returning again and again to the River that flows—in one form or another—through all the worlds.

But the odds seem to be completely against them as they—and the one outsider with whom they might join forces—become hopelessly lost in realms where an Ice Age tribe's fears can only be quenched in blood... where insects are as large and deadly as dinosaurs... where they are caught in the war between a man made of straw and one made of tin... where cartoon ads take on a life of their own... where humans strive to survive in the aftermath of an alien invasion... and where one among their party is actually The Grail Brotherhood's most terrifying weapon—a sociopathic killer who has never failed and whose current mission is to make certain that not even one member of this little invasion force lives long enough to reveal the truth about Otherland to the people of Earth...

With her gift of weaving silk thread and creating light, Sandry is brought to the Winding Circle community. There she meets Briar, a former thief who has a way with plants; Daja, an outcast gifted at metalcraft; and Tris, whose connection with the weather unsettles everyone, including herself. At Winding Circle, the four misfits are taught how to use their magic - and to trust one another. But then disaster strikes their new home. Can Sandry weave together four kinds of magical power and save herself, her friends, and the one place where they've ever been accepted?

On a hilltop north of Seattle, overlooking the glorious vista of Puget Sound and the white-capped Olympics, stands Rosary Heights, the motherhouse of the Sisters of Saint Dominic of the Holy Cross. The story begins here, with a catastrophic storm that shifts the ground beneath the motherhouse and threatens to send it crashing into the waters below. In a single act of nature, a moment of truth, the order is forced to rethink its place in the world and its purpose.

With Rosary Heights as the backdrop, Catherine Whitney takes a personal journey inside the order that ran the school she attended as a child, the order that, for a short time, she contemplated entering herself. Her quest is to come to terms with what it means to be called to the religious life. What is the secret these women hold that makes them--no matter how diverse--perform common rituals, celebrate the same Mass, and serve the same God?

In The Calling, we meet several valiant women who struggle with the practicalities of the world around them as well as the complicating issues of the life of a nun. Each woman's story is compelling. Together, they form a dramatic human chronicle that is fascinating and revealing--a chronicle of a community that has existed for centuries but is still evolving and whose anxieties and joys are utterly relevant to all of us, regardless of our beliefs.

The Fortress is a captivating novel set in 18th century Sarajevo under Ottoman rule. The story follows a soldier named Ahmet Shabo who returns from the wars in Russia, carrying the heavy burden of losing nearly his entire unit, either to battle or suicide.

A Muslim by faith, he marries a Christian girl whose love and support become his anchor as he navigates a society steeped in political intrigue and cultural tension. His journey through personal and societal challenges leads him to dabble in politics, culminating in a daring raid to rescue a friend from jail.

This novel offers a profound reflection on the human condition and the resilience of the spirit amidst adversity.

Penn Cage, a recently widowed prosecutor from Houston, returns to his hometown of Natchez, Mississippi, seeking solace and peace. But what he finds is a town steeped in old secrets and older money.

When Penn discovers that his father is being blackmailed, he reopens a notorious murder case that has haunted the town for decades. This quest for truth pits him against the FBI and a powerful group intent on protecting their tainted legacy.

As Penn delves deeper into the mystery, he is joined by Caitlin Masters, a young newspaper publisher, on a dangerous journey to uncover one of the darkest chapters in American history. Together, they face threats from all sides, but Penn's most perilous journey is into his own past and the unresolved emotions linked to a woman he lost twenty years ago.

This gripping thriller is a tale of suspense, exploring themes of justice, family loyalty, and the enduring power of love and redemption.

Earthquake damage leaves Winding Circle vulnerable to pirate attack, so everyone - including the young mages-in-training Tris, Briar, Daja, and Sandry - is working to strengthen the community's defenses. When Tris's cousin Aymery comes to visit, he advises the "weather witch" to return to the family that exiled her, but she doesn't wish to leave her friends to face the threat without her.

As the onslaught begins, two things become terribly clear: The pirates have a powerful new weapon, and they have an accomplice within Winding Circle. But the attackers have failed to reckon with the fury of a young mage betrayed once too often and her very stubborn, very loyal friends.

When Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain was first published in 1979, it hit the New York Times bestseller list within two weeks and stayed there for more than a year. In 1989, when Dr. Betty Edwards revised the book, it went straight to the Times list again. Now Dr. Edwards celebrates the twentieth anniversary of her classic book with a second revised edition.

Over the last decade, Dr. Edwards has refined her material through teaching hundreds of workshops and seminars. Truly The New Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain, this edition includes:

• the very latest developments in brain research
• new material on using drawing techniques in the corporate world and in education
• instruction on self-expression through drawing
• an updated section on using color
• and detailed information on using the five basic skills of drawing for problem solving

Haroun and the Sea of Stories is Salman Rushdie's classic fantasy novel set in an exotic Eastern landscape populated by magicians and fantastic talking animals. This captivating work of fantasy shares the imaginative space with The Lord of the Rings, The Alchemist, and The Wizard of Oz. In this adventure, Haroun sets out to restore the poisoned source of the sea of stories. Along his journey, he encounters numerous foes, all intent on draining the sea of all its storytelling powers.

The Satyricon is the most celebrated work of fiction to have survived from the ancient world. It is often described as the first realistic novel and the father of the picaresque genre.

The narrative follows a pair of literature scholars as they wander through the cities of the southern Mediterranean. Along their journey, they encounter a series of vivid characters: a teacher in higher education, a libidinous priest, a vulgar freedman turned millionaire, a manic poet, a superstitious sea-captain, and a femme fatale. Each character is wickedly satirized, offering a vibrant depiction of Roman society's underbelly.

Petronius masterfully blends humor and critique, crafting a story that is both entertaining and insightful. This new translation by P.G. Walsh captures the original's gaiety, accompanied by an introduction and notes that illuminate the text's rich literary in-jokes and allusions.

"She was a brazen hussy.""She wasn't. And she was pretty, wasn't she?""I didn't look ... And tell your girls, my son, that when they're running after you, they're not to come and ask your mother for you - tell them that - brazen baggages you meet at dancing classes"

The marriage of Gertrude and Walter Morel has become a battleground. Repelled by her uneducated and sometimes violent husband, delicate Gertrude devotes her life to her children, especially to her sons, William and Paul - determined they will not follow their father into working down the coal mines. But conflict is evitable when Paul seeks to escape his mother's suffocating grasp through relationships with women his own age. Set in Lawrence's native Nottinghamshire, Sons and Lovers is a highly autobiographical and compelling portrayal of childhood, adolescence and the clash of generations.

Miles Vorkosigan has a problem: unrequited love for the beautiful widow Ekaterin Vorsoisson, who is violently allergic to marriage after her first exposure. If a frontal assault won't do, Miles thinks, try subterfuge. He has a cunning plan...

Lord Mark Vorkosigan, Miles' brother, also has a problem: his love has just become unrequited again. But he has a cunning plan...

Lord Ivan Vorpatril, Miles' cousin, has a problem: unrequited love in general. But he too has a cunning plan...

A complex story unfolds as the various members of Miles' family attempt to find their one true love and a measure of destiny. This all happens against a backdrop of domestic political squabbles and an earnest attempt at capitalist enterprise.

She had read about stalkers, but they belonged in a different, faraway world. She had no idea who it could be, who would want to harm her. She was trying desperately not to panic, but lately her sleep had been filled with nightmares, and she had awakened each morning with a feeling of impending doom.

Thus begins Sidney Sheldon's chilling new novel, Tell Me Your Dreams. Three beautiful young women are suspected of committing a series of brutal murders. The police make an arrest that leads to one of the most bizarre murder trials of the century. Based on actual events, Sheldon's novel races from London to Rome to the city of Quebec to San Francisco, with a climax that will leave the reader stunned.

The great Irish humorist and writer Flann O'Brien, aka Brian O'Nolan, aka Myles na Gopaleen, also wrote a newspaper column called "Cruiskeen Lawn". The Best of Myles collects the best and funniest, covering such subjects as plumbers, the justice system, and improbable inventions.

A Small Death in Lisbon is a complex literary thriller that intertwines two gripping narratives set in different eras. The story masterfully shifts between 1941 Germany and 1999 Lisbon, offering a rich tapestry of historical intrigue and modern-day mystery.

In 1941, Klaus Felsen, an industrialist, is coerced by the SS high command to travel to Lisbon to oversee the smuggling of wolfram, a critical element for Hitler's blitzkrieg. Neutral Portugal becomes a battleground of clandestine operations, where business trumps alliances.

Fast forward to 1999, where the brutal murder of a young woman, Catarina Oliveira, on a Lisbon beach draws in Inspector Ze Coelho, a widower with a daughter. As Coelho delves into the case, he uncovers layers of personal and historical secrets, connecting past sins with present-day consequences.

This novel paints a vivid portrait of Lisbon's transformation post-1974 revolution and the lingering scars from World War II, seen through the eyes of both Germans and Portuguese. The narrative is leisurely yet compelling, leading to an extraordinary climax as the two timelines converge.

Something has gone wrong. A group of American bombers armed with nuclear weapons is streaking past the fail-safe point, beyond recall, and no one knows why. Their destination—Moscow.

In a bomb shelter beneath the White House, the calm young president turns to his Russian translator and says, "I think we are ready to talk to Premier Kruschchev." Not far away, in the War Room at the Pentagon, the secretary of defense and his aides watch with growing anxiety as the luminous blips crawl across a huge screen map. High over the Bering Strait in a large Vindicator bomber, a colonel stares in disbelief at the attack code number on his fail-safe box and wonders if it could possibly be a mistake.

First published in 1962, when America was still reeling from the Cuban missile crisis, Fail-Safe reflects the apocalyptic attitude that pervaded society during the height of the Cold War, when disaster could have struck at any moment. As more countries develop nuclear capabilities and the potential for new enemies lurks on the horizon, Fail-Safe and its powerful issues continue to respond.

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban finds Harry, along with his best friends, Ron and Hermione, embarking on his third year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. After a summer with the Dursleys, Harry is eager to return to school. However, the mood at Hogwarts is grim. An escaped mass murderer is on the run, and the foreboding prison guards of Azkaban have been summoned to ensure the safety of the school.

The atmosphere is tense, and danger lurks around every corner, but Harry is determined to uncover the truth and confront the very wizard responsible for his parents' demise.

To Have and Have Not is the dramatic, brutal story of Harry Morgan, an honest boat owner who is forced into running contraband between Cuba and Key West as a means of keeping his crumbling family financially afloat. His adventures lead him into the world of the wealthy and dissipated yachtsmen who swarm the region, and involve him in a strange and unlikely love affair.

In this harshly realistic, yet oddly tender and wise novel, Hemingway perceptively delineates the personal struggles of both the "haves" and the "have nots" and creates one of the most subtle and moving portraits of a love affair in his oeuvre. In turn funny and tragic, lively and poetic, remarkable in its emotional impact, To Have and Have Not takes literary high adventure to a new level. As the Times Literary Supplement observed, "Hemingway's gift for dialogue, for effective understatement, and for communicating such emotions the tough allow themselves, has never been more conspicuous."