A timeless novel of a straitlaced village's awakening to joy and sensuality - every page offers a description of chocolate to melt in the mouths of chocoholics, francophiles, armchair gourmets, cookbook readers, and lovers of passion everywhere.

Illuminating Peter Mayle's South of France with a touch of Laura Esquivel's magic realism, Chocolat is a timeless novel of a straitlaced village's awakening to joy and sensuality. In tiny Lansquenet, where nothing much has changed in a hundred years, beautiful newcomer Vianne Rocher and her exquisite chocolate shop arrive and instantly begin to play havoc with Lenten vows. Each box of luscious bonbons comes with a free gift: Vianne's uncanny perception of its buyer's private discontents and a clever, caring cure for them. Is she a witch? Soon the parish no longer cares, as it abandons itself to temptation, happiness, and a dramatic face-off between Easter solemnity and the pagan gaiety of a chocolate festival. Chocolat's every page offers a description of chocolate to melt in the mouths of chocoholics, francophiles, armchair gourmets, cookbook readers, and lovers of passion everywhere. It's a must for anyone who craves an escapist read, and is a bewitching gift for any holiday.

The purpose of this critique of pure speculative reason consists in the attempt to change the old procedure of metaphysics and to bring about a complete revolution. Kant's Critique of Pure Reason (1781) is the central text of modern philosophy. It presents a profound and challenging investigation into the nature of human reason, its knowledge and its illusions. Reason, Kant argues, is the seat of certain concepts that precede experience and make it possible, but we are not therefore entitled to draw conclusions about the natural world from these concepts. The Critique brings together the two opposing schools of philosophy: rationalism, which grounds all our knowledge in reason, and empiricism, which traces all our knowledge to experience. Kant's transcendental idealism indicates a third way that goes far beyond these alternatives.

Thirteen tales are unspun from the deeply familiar and woven anew into a collection of fairy tales that wind back through time. Acclaimed Irish author Emma Donoghue reveals heroines young and old in unexpected alliances—sometimes treacherous, sometimes erotic, but always courageous.

Told with luminous voices that shimmer with sensuality and truth, these age-old characters shed their antiquated cloaks to travel a seductive new landscape, radiantly transformed.

Cinderella forsakes the handsome prince and runs off with the fairy godmother; Beauty discovers the Beast behind the mask is not so very different from the face she sees in the mirror; Snow White is awakened from slumber by the bittersweet fruit of an unnamed desire.

Acclaimed writer Emma Donoghue spins new tales out of old in a magical web of thirteen interconnected stories about power and transformation and choosing one's own path in the world. In these fairy tales, women young and old tell their own stories of love and hate, honor and revenge, passion and deception.

Using the intricate patterns and oral rhythms of traditional fairy tales, Emma Donoghue wraps age-old characters in a dazzling new skin.

In a city blasted by years of force and fury, but momentarily stilled by a cease-fire, two unlikely friends search for that most human of needs: love. But of course, a night of lust will do.

Jake Jackson and Chuckie Lurgan—one Catholic, one Protestant—navigate their sectarian city and their nonsectarian friendship with wit and style. Chuckie, an unemployed dreamer, stumbles into bliss with a beautiful American who lives in Belfast. Jake, a repo man with the soul of a poet, can only manage a hilarious war of insults with a spitfire Republican whose Irish name, properly pronounced, sounds like someone choking.

Brilliant, exuberant, and bitingly funny, Eureka Street introduces us to one of the finest young writers to emerge from Ireland in years.

A moving, exciting, and heartfelt American saga inspired by the author's own family memoirs, "These Is My Words" belongs to Sarah Prine, a woman of spirit and fire who forges a full and remarkable existence in a harsh, unfamiliar frontier. Scrupulously recording her steps down the path Providence has set her upon--from child to determined young adult to loving mother--she shares the turbulent events, both joyous and tragic, that molded her and recalls the enduring love with cavalry officer Captain Jack Elliot that gave her strength and purpose.

Rich in authentic everyday details and alive with truly unforgettable characters, "These Is My Words" brilliantly brings a vanished world to breathtaking life again.

The Modern Library’s fifth volume of In Search of Lost Time contains both The Captive (1923) and The Fugitive (1925). In The Captive, Proust’s narrator describes living in his mother’s Paris apartment with his lover, Albertine, and subsequently falling out of love with her. In The Fugitive, the narrator loses Albertine forever.

Rich with irony, The Captive and The Fugitive inspire meditations on desire, sexual love, music, and the art of introspection.

For this authoritative English-language edition, D. J. Enright has revised the late Terence Kilmartin’s acclaimed reworking of C. K. Scott Moncrieff’s translation to take into account the new definitive French editions of Á la recherché du temps perdu.

After thousands of years searching, humans stand on the verge of first contact with an alien race. Two human groups: the Qeng Ho, a culture of free traders, and the Emergents, a ruthless society based on the technological enslavement of minds. The group that opens trade with the aliens will reap unimaginable riches. But first, both groups must wait at the aliens' very doorstep for their strange star to relight and for their planet to reawaken, as it does every two hundred and fifty years....

Then, following terrible treachery, the Qeng Ho must fight for their freedom and for the lives of the unsuspecting innocents on the planet below, while the aliens themselves play a role unsuspected by the Qeng Ho and Emergents alike. More than just a great science fiction adventure, A Deepness in the Sky is a universal drama of courage, self-discovery, and the redemptive power of love.

André Gide later deemed it the greatest of all French novels, and Henry James judged it to be a masterpiece. Now, in a major literary event, Pulitzer Prize-winning poet and distinguished translator Richard Howard presents a new rendition of Stendhal's epic tale of romance, adventure, and court intrigue set in early nineteenth-century Italy.

The Charterhouse of Parma chronicles the exploits of Fabrizio del Dongo, an ardent young aristocrat who joins Napoleon's army just before the Battle of Waterloo. Yet perhaps the novel's most unforgettable characters are the hero's beautiful aunt, the alluring Duchess of Sanseverina, and her lover, Count Mosca, who plot to further Fabrizio's political career at the treacherous court of Parma in a sweeping story that illuminates an entire epoch of European history.

"Stendhal has written The Prince up to date, the novel that Machiavelli would write if he were living banished from Italy in the nineteenth century," noted Balzac in his famous review of The Charterhouse of Parma. "One sees perfection in every detail. . . . It is a masterpiece." This edition includes original illustrations by Robert Andrew Parker and Notes and a Translator's Afterword by Richard Howard.

Douglas Hofstadter's book is concerned directly with the nature of "maps" or links between formal systems. However, according to Hofstadter, the formal system that underlies all mental activity transcends the system that supports it. If life can grow out of the formal chemical substrate of the cell, if consciousness can emerge out of a formal system of firing neurons, then so too will computers attain human intelligence.

Gödel, Escher, Bach is a wonderful exploration of fascinating ideas at the heart of cognitive science: meaning, reduction, recursion, and much more.

The Struggle is the terrifying story of two vampire brothers and the beautiful girl torn between them:

Damon: determined to make Elena his queen of darkness, he'd kill his own brother to possess her.

Stefan: desperate for the power to destroy Damon, he succumbs to his thirst for human blood.

Elena: irresistibly drawn to both brothers, her choice will decide their fate.

A Child's Garden of Verses is a delightful collection of poetry by the renowned poet and storyteller Robert Louis Stevenson. This charming anthology offers a nostalgic glimpse into the joys and wonders of childhood. With its playful verses and vivid imagery, it captures the essence of youthful imagination and adventure.

Stevenson's poems transport readers to a world where sailing boats glide down rivers, lamplighters illuminate the night, and foreign lands beckon in the daydreams of children. Each poem is a window into the whimsical world of a child's mind, where every experience is an exploration and every moment is filled with wonder.

Tasha Tudor's exquisite watercolor illustrations accompany these timeless verses, evoking a simpler time in the past. Her artwork beautifully complements the themes of the poems, celebrating the innocence of childhood and the beauty of nature.

This handsome gift edition of A Child's Garden of Verses is a treasure that will be cherished by families for generations, offering a timeless journey into the heart of childhood.

The third addition to the beloved Redwall series takes place during the summer of the Golden Plain. Preparation for a great feast are underway at Redwall Abbey, and the young mouse Mattimeo is contributing his share of the labors.

But Mattimeo is the son of Matthias, the guardian of Redwall Abbey, and it is this fact that makes him the target of a fiendish kidnapping plot contrived by the vicious fox, Slagar the Cruel.

When Matthias and his brave followers abandon their homes and face enslavement for the return of their children, the captive Mattimeo stands to prove his worth—and an unexpected hero is born.

Jim Hawkins has a bad attitude. What's more, he enjoys having a bad attitude about everything—especially about church. Garth Plimpton is a fanatic. He's spent so much time studying the scriptures and thick books on archaeology that he can't carry on a normal conversation with other kids. That's why they consider him a nerd.

Through an unusual chain of events, these two opposites become fast friends. It all began when Garth told Jim a simple truth: "They really existed once, you know." "Who?" Jim asked. "Nephites," Garth replied. "Every character in the Book of Mormon ate, slept, died, was buried . . ."

That statement, taken for granted before, would soon echo deeply in the two boys' minds—because they were on the trail of a chilling secret.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower is a young adult coming-of-age novel by American writer Stephen Chbosky. Set in the early 1990s, the novel follows Charlie, an introverted observing teenager, through his freshman year of high school in a Pittsburgh suburb. The novel details Charlie's unconventional style of thinking as he navigates between the worlds of adolescence and adulthood, and attempts to deal with poignant questions spurred by his interactions with both his friends and family.

The story is presented in a series of letters that Charlie writes to an unnamed friend, and these documents chronicle his trials, tribulations, and triumphs as he goes through his first year of high school. Charlie's journey is one of self-discovery and growth, and the book deftly explores themes of mental health, romance, and the intense emotions associated with the teenage years. Through Charlie's experiences, the reader is drawn into the tumultuous world of first dates, family dramas, and new friendships, as well as the more serious issues of sex, drugs, and personal loss.

It was a dark and stormy night when Mary Crane glimpsed the unlit neon sign announcing the vacancy at the Bates motel. Exhausted, lost, and at the end of her rope, she was eager for a hot shower and a bed for the night. Her room was musty but clean and the plumbing worked. Norman Bates, the manager, seemed nice, if a little odd.

Orlando Furioso is a brilliantly crafted epic poem by Ludovico Ariosto. It serves as a witty parody of the chivalric legends surrounding Charlemagne and the Saracen invasion of France. This unabridged prose translation captures the entire narrative and the subtle meanings behind it.

In a kaleidoscope of scenes and emotions, three principal stories unfold: the love of Orlando for Angelica; the war between the Franks and the Saracens; and the love of Ruggiero, a Saracen, for Bradamant, a Christian. Enlivening and unifying the work is the vibrant personality of Ariosto himself, who teases his readers and offers casual asides about his contemporaries.

Despite its serious purpose and sophisticated design, Orlando Furioso displays Ariosto's remarkable sense of the absurd, making it a fitting monument to the court society of the Italian Renaissance.

South of the Border, West of the Sun is the beguiling story of a past rekindled, and one of Haruki Murakami's most touching novels. Hajime has arrived at middle age with a loving family and an enviable career, yet he feels incomplete. When a childhood friend, now a beautiful woman, shows up with a secret from which she is unable to escape, the fault lines of doubt in Hajime's quotidian existence begin to give way. Rich, mysterious, and quietly dazzling, in South of the Border, West of the Sun the simple arc of one man's life becomes the exquisite literary terrain of Murakami's remarkable genius.

The Tesseract is an intricately woven, suspenseful novel of psychological and political intrigue. Set in the Philippines, it follows the interlocking fates of three sets of characters:

• Gangsters in a chase through the streets of Manila.
• A middle-class mother putting her children to bed in the suburbs while reminiscing about her first love.
• A couple of street kids and the wealthy psychiatrist studying their dreams.

Written by the author of The Beach, Alex Garland demonstrates his extraordinary talents as a novelist, creating a Chinese puzzle of a novel about three intersecting lives that are intertwined in unexpected ways.

Tortured and brilliant private detective Charlie Parker stars in this thriller by New York Times bestselling author John Connolly. Former NYPD detective Charlie "Bird" Parker is on the verge of madness, tortured by the unsolved slayings of his wife and young daughter. He is a man consumed by guilt, regret, and the desire for revenge. When his former partner asks him to track down a missing girl, Parker finds himself drawn into a world beyond his imagining: a world where thirty-year-old killings remain shrouded in fear and lies, a world where the ghosts of the dead torment the living, a world haunted by the murderer responsible for the deaths in his family—a serial killer who uses the human body to create works of art and takes faces as his prize.

But the search awakens buried instincts in Parker: instincts for survival, for compassion, for love, and, ultimately, for killing. Aided by a beautiful young psychologist and a pair of bickering career criminals, Parker becomes the bait in a trap set in the humid bayous of Louisiana, a trap that threatens the lives of everyone in its reach. Driven by visions of the dead and the voice of an old black psychic who met a terrible end, Parker must seek a final, brutal confrontation with a murderer who has moved beyond all notions of humanity, who has set out to create a hell on earth: the serial killer known only as the Traveling Man.

In the tradition of classic American detective fiction, Every Dead Thing is a tense, richly plotted thriller, filled with memorable characters and gripping action. It is also a profoundly moving novel, concerned with the nature of loyalty, love, and forgiveness. Lyrical and terrifying, it is an ambitious debut, triumphantly realized.

The Hours is a daring and deeply affecting novel inspired by the life and work of Virginia Woolf. It presents a passionate, profound, and haunting story of love and inheritance, hope and despair.

Exiled in Richmond in the 1920s, taken from her beloved Bloomsbury and lovingly watched over by her husband Leonard, Virginia Woolf struggles to tame her rebellious mind and make a start on her new novel.

In the brooding heat of 1940s Los Angeles, a young wife and mother yearns to escape the claustrophobia of suburban domesticity and read her precious copy of Mrs Dalloway.

In New York in the 1990s, Clarissa Vaughan steps out of her smart Greenwich Village apartment and goes shopping for flowers for the party she is giving in honor of her lifelong friend Richard, an award-winning poet whose mind and body are being ravaged by AIDS.

These are the characters in Michael Cunningham's exquisite and deeply moving novel, which takes Woolf's life and work as inspiration for a meditation on artistic behavior, failure, love, and madness. Moving effortlessly across the decades and between England and America, Cunningham's elegant, haunting prose explores the pain and trauma of creativity and the immutable relationship between writer and reader.

Anju is the daughter of an upper-caste Calcutta family; her cousin Sudha is the daughter of the black sheep of the family. Sudha is as beautiful, tenderhearted, and serious as Anju is plain, whip-smart, and defiant. Yet since the day they were born, Sudha and Anju have been bonded in ways even their mothers cannot comprehend.

The cousins' bond is shattered, however, when Sudha learns a dark family secret. Urged into arranged marriages, their lives take sudden, opposite turns: Sudha becomes the dutiful daughter-in-law of a rigid small-town household, while Anju goes to America with her new husband and learns to live her own life of secrets.

Then tragedy strikes them both, and the women discover that, despite the distance that has grown between them, they have only each other to turn to. Set in the two worlds of India and America, this is an exceptionally moving novel of love, friendship, and compelling courage.

Why would a talented young woman enter into a torrid affair with hunger, drugs, sex, and death? Through five lengthy hospital stays, endless therapy, and the loss of family, friends, jobs, and all sense of what it means to be "normal," Marya Hornbacher lovingly embraced her anorexia and bulimia—until a particularly horrifying bout with the disease in college put the romance of wasting away to rest forever. A vivid, honest, and emotionally wrenching memoir, Wasted is the story of one woman's travels to reality's darker side—and her decision to find her way back on her own terms.

Galápagos takes the reader back one million years, to A.D. 1986. A simple vacation cruise suddenly becomes an evolutionary journey. Thanks to an apocalypse, a small group of survivors stranded on the Galápagos Islands are about to become the progenitors of a brave, new, and totally different human race. In this inimitable novel, America’s master satirist looks at our world and shows us all that is sadly, madly awry—and all that is worth saving.

Lily's Crossing is a touching story set during the summer of 1944, a time when World War II has changed the lives of many. Every summer, Lily and her father spend their days at their family’s house in Rockaway, near the Atlantic Ocean. But this summer is different.

With her father called overseas and her best friend Margaret moving to a wartime factory town, Lily is left to navigate this new world with her grandmother. Enter Albert, a refugee from Hungary who has lost much of his family to the war. Together, Lily and Albert form a special friendship, sharing secrets and building trust.

However, the lies they've told could have serious consequences—especially one lie that may cost Albert his life. This beautifully woven narrative explores themes of friendship, trust, and the realities of war.

Slaughterhouse-Five, an American classic and one of the world's great antiwar books, centers on the infamous World War II firebombing of Dresden. Kurt Vonnegut Jr. describes the novel as a result of a twenty-three-year struggle to write a book about what he had witnessed as an American prisoner of war. The novel combines elements of historical fiction, science fiction, autobiography, and satire in the life story of Billy Pilgrim.

Billy, a barber's son turned draftee turned optometrist turned alien abductee, experiences the destruction of Dresden as a POW. Unlike Vonnegut, he also experiences time travel, or coming "unstuck in time." An instant bestseller, Slaughterhouse-Five established Kurt Vonnegut Jr. as a cult hero in American literature, a status that has only strengthened over time despite censorship challenges. The novel's political edginess, genre-bending inventiveness, frank violence, and transgressive wit have inspired generations of readers to see the world differently and speak out.

More than fifty years after its initial publication during the Vietnam War, Vonnegut's portrayal of political disillusionment, PTSD, and postwar anxiety remains darkly humorous and profoundly affecting, serving as an enduring beacon through our own era's uncertainties.

Inner Harbor is the third book in the sweeping Chesapeake Bay Saga, a tale about three brothers who unite in a time of need. They honor their father's wish to raise young Seth as their own, and with all the brothers home again, the Quinn family has never been so strong. But, in the months to come, their strength is tested once again.

Phillip Quinn has done everything to make his life seem perfect. With his career on the fast track and a condo overlooking the Harbor, his life on the street is firmly in the past. But one look at Seth, and he's reminded of the boy he once was.

Phillip intends to fulfill his father's dying request and considers Seth to be a duty. However, he never expected he would grow to love Seth, and soon his promise to his father becomes more than just an obligation. Seth's future as a Quinn seems assured—until a stranger arrives in town. She claims to be researching St. Christopher's for her new book, but the true objects of study are the Quinns. Her cool reserve intrigues Phillip, and he is determined to uncover her motives. But she holds a secret that has the power to threaten the life the brothers have made for Seth—a secret that could tear the family apart forever.

In her new trilogy, New York Times #1 Best Selling author, Nora Roberts returns to the lush, green hills of Ireland, where love is forever touched by magic. Here, the Gallagher siblings explore the depth of their fiery hearts.

Determined to reevaluate her life, Jude Murray flees America to take refuge in Faerie Hill Cottage, immersing herself in the study of Irish folklore and discovering hope for the future in the magic of the past.

Finally back home in Ireland after years of traveling, Aidan Gallagher possesses an uncommon understanding of his country's haunting myths. Although he's devoted to managing the family pub, a hint of wildness still glints in his stormy eyes—and in Jude, he sees a woman who can both soothe his heart and stir his blood. Together, they begin to share the legends of the land, while creating a passionate history of their own.

Una invasión sin nombre avanza sobre las Tierras Fértiles. Jamás una catástrofe llega sin anunciarse, pero ¿quiénes serán aquellos capaces de percibir las innumerables pero intangibles señales que la preceden? ¿Y qué harán con ese conocimiento? Lo podrían transformar en amor o en poder. Los hombres de guerra y de conocimiento, los artistas y los Brujos deberán enfrentarla o aceptar el exterminio de su tiempo.

Será la guerra entre el Bien y el Mal y en medio de ambos, estarán las traiciones, los celos, las valentías, la plena lealtad de un amigo, la inocencia de una niña. Una guerra frente a la que ningún ser vivo podrá permanecer indiferente, ni los hombres en la tierra, ni los pájaros en el cielo, ni los árboles que unen ambos mundos.

Con LA SAGA DE LOS CONFINES Liliana Bodoc irrumpió en el panorama literario cosechando una enorme cantidad de lectores apasionados y el favor de la crítica

The exciting tales of Harry Potter, the young wizard-in-training, have taken the world by storm, and fans just can't get enough of the magical world of Hogwarts and beyond. If you buy one of the Harry Potter books, we guarantee you'll want the next...and the next...and the next -- so why not have them all, right at your fingertips? With the Harry Potter Hardcover Box Set (Books 1-4), you can get all four Harry Potter books delivered to your doorstep at once.

The Harry Potter Hardcover Box Set (Books 1-4) includes hardcover editions of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. The books come snugly packed in a sturdy cardboard slipcase, beautifully decorated with memorable scenes from the books.

So buy the set, and not even a pesky Locomotor Mortis spell cast by the evil Lord Voldemort (oooops, sorry -- He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named) can get in the way of your enjoying all of the mystery, adventure, intrigue, and, of course, magic that Muggles around the world can't seem to get enough of. Hold on tight -- it's going to be a wild ride!

In 1975, Annie Dillard took up residence on an island in Puget Sound in a wooded room furnished with "one enormous window, one cat, one spider, and one person." For the next two years, she asked herself questions about time, reality, sacrifice, death, and the will of God.

In Holy the Firm, she writes about a moth consumed in a candle flame, about a seven-year-old girl burned in an airplane accident, and about a baptism on a cold beach. But behind the moving curtain of what she calls "the hard things—rock mountain and salt sea," she sees, sometimes far off and sometimes as close by as a veil or air, the power play of holy fire.

This is a profound book about the natural world—both its beauty and its cruelty—that Annie Dillard, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author, knows so well.

There's Lone, the simpleton who can hear other people's thoughts and make a man blow his brains out just by looking at him. There's Janie, who moves things without touching them, and there are the teleporting twins, who can travel ten feet or ten miles. There's Baby, who invented an antigravity engine while still in the cradle, and Gerry, who has everything it takes to run the world except for a conscience.

Separately, they are talented freaks. Together, they compose a single organism that may represent the next step in evolution, and the final chapter in the history of the human race.

In this genre-bending novel, one of the great imaginers of the twentieth century tells a story as mind-blowing as any controlled substance and as affecting as a glimpse into a stranger's soul. For as the protagonists of More Than Human struggle to find who they are and whether they are meant to help humanity or destroy it, Theodore Sturgeon explores questions of power and morality, individuality and belonging, with suspense, pathos, and a lyricism rarely seen in science fiction.

From the author of the beloved classic Where the Red Fern Grows comes a timeless adventure about a boy who discovers a tree full of monkeys. The last thing fourteen-year-old Jay Berry Lee expects to find while trekking through the Ozark Mountains of Oklahoma is a tree full of monkeys. But then Jay learns from his grandpa that the monkeys have escaped from a traveling circus, and there’s a big reward for the person who finds and returns them. His family could really use the money, so Jay sets off, determined to catch them.

But by the end of the summer, Jay will have learned a lot more than he bargained for—and not just about monkeys. From the beloved author of Where the Red Fern Grows comes another memorable adventure novel filled with heart, humor, and excitement.

Polgara the Sorceress soars above a world of warriors, kings, and priests. As the daughter of Belgarath and the shape-shifter Poledra, she has fought wars, plotted palace coups, and wielded her powerful magic for three thousand years.

Now, Polgara looks back at her magnificent life, in this fitting crown jewel to the saga that is the Eddings' Belgariad and Mallorean cycles.

Her hair, streaked white by her father's first touch, and her mind, guided by a mother she will not see again for centuries, Polgara begins life in her Uncle Beldin's tower. In the prehistorical, magical Tree that stands in the middle of the Vale, she first learns the reaches of her powers. There she assumes the bird shapes that will serve her on her adventures.

Polgara starts on the path toward her destiny as Duchess of Erat, shepherdess of the cause of good, adversary of Torak the One-Eyed Dragon God, and guardian of the world's last, best hope: the heir to the Rivan throne.

Here is the legendary life story of a woman of wit, passion, and complex emotions, a woman born of two majestic parents who could not have been more unlike one another. Ordained to make peace and make war, to gain love and lose love, Polgara lives out her family's rich prophecy in the ceaseless struggle between the Light and the Dark.

Polgara is the epic culmination of a magnificent saga, and a fitting farewell to a world which, once experienced, will never be forgotten.

Fat? Chunky? Less than svelte? So what! In this hilarious and eye-opening book, fat and proud activist/zinester Marilyn Wann takes on America's biggest fear—worse than the fear of public speaking or nuclear weapons—our fear of fat.

Statistics tell us that about a third of Americans are fat, and common sense adds that just about everyone, fat or thin, male or female, has worried about their appearance. FAT!SO? weighs in with a more attractive alternative: feeling good about yourself at any weight—and having the style and attitude to back it up.

Internationally recognized as a fat-positive spokesperson, Wann has learned that you can be absolutely happy, healthy, and successful...and fat. With its hilarious and insightful blend of essays, quizzes, facts, and reporting, FAT!SO? proves that you can be out-and-out fabulous at any size.

MasterSinger Merelan and Harper Petiron were a brilliant and devoted couple. Merelan was the most outstanding soprano ever heard on Pern, and was often the only one who could master Petiron's technically accomplished compositions. When, after a long and difficult birth, Robinton was born to them, it should have been the culmination of a unique partnership.

But Petiron, almost from the first day, had no time for his son, refusing to see the incredible talent the boy possessed, ignoring his achievements and maintaining a strict and disapproving vigilance over him at all times. Carefully, secretly, the Harper Hall took over, training the greatest talent Pern had ever seen - a talent that was more than just musical, for Robinton was able to talk to the dragons of Pern.

As constant sadness beset his personal life, so a startling career sent him like a meteor through the Holds and Weyrs of Pern until, as MasterHarper, he became part of the great plan to rescue Lessa from the brutal rule of Holder Fax - Lessa, who was to be the saviour of the dragons of Pern.

Il Virginian era un piroscafo. Negli anni tra le due guerre faceva la spola tra Europa e America, con il suo carico di miliardari, di emigranti e di gente qualsiasi. Dicono che sul Virginian si esibisse ogni sera un pianista straordinario, dalla tecnica strabiliante, capace di suonare una musica mai sentita prima, meravigliosa. Dicono che la sua storia fosse pazzesca, che fosse nato su quella nave e che da lì non fosse mai sceso. Dicono che nessuno sapesse il perché.

A Guerra pelos Sete Reinos continua sem tréguas ou misericórdia. Com um golpe negro mágico, Stannis afastou do seu caminho o irmão rival Renly, e agora nada o impede de conquistar Porto Real, pela força, com a sua frota. Mas Tyrion, eleito a Mão do Rei, tem outros planos e, embora todos o subestimem pela aparência, prepara com sangue frio a defesa da cidade e a confrontação com Stannis numa batalha que se adivinha sanguinária.

No Norte, Winterfell encontra-se à beira do perigo e é alvo da cobiça dos Greyjoy, mas Bran nada consegue ver para além dos estranhos sonhos que o atormentam de noite e dia. Para lá da muralha, Jon oferece-se para acompanhar um grupo de batedores enviado para encontrar os selvagens, enquanto a principal força da Patrulha da Noite se fortifica junto às montanhas. Se quer sobreviver, Jon terá que aprender a ser tão cruel como a terra assombrada habitada pelos selvagens.

Mais uma vez, George R. R. Martin consegue manter-nos agarrados até à última página. Personagens que amamos são mortas sem dó nem piedade, personagens que odiamos conseguem conquistar o nosso coração. De Arya a Sansa, de Robb a Daenerys, todos terão um papel fulcral neste fabuloso quarto volume de As Crónicas de Gelo e Fogo.

The Sword of Truth, Boxed Set I, Books 1-3 includes Wizard's First Rule, Stone of Tears, and Blood of the Fold.

Book 1: Wizard's First Rule
In the aftermath of the brutal murder of his father, a mysterious woman, Kahlan Amnell, appears in Richard Cypher's forest sanctuary seeking help... and more. His world, his very beliefs, are shattered when ancient debts come due with thundering violence. In a dark age, it takes courage to live, and more than mere courage to challenge those who hold dominion. Richard and Kahlan must take up that challenge or become the next victims. Beyond awaits a bewitching land where even the best of their hearts could betray them. Yet, Richard fears nothing so much as what secrets his sword might reveal about his own soul.

Book 2: Stone of Tears
Kahlan has at last gained the one goal she had always thought was beyond her grasp... love. Against all odds, the ancient bonds of secret oaths, and the dark talents of men long dead, Richard has won her heart. Amid sudden and disastrous events, Richard's life is called due to satisfy those treacherous oaths. To save his life, Kahlan must forsake Richard's love and cast him into the chains of slavery, knowing there could be no sin worse than such a betrayal.

Book 3: Blood of the Fold
In a world as rich and real as our own, Richard Rahl and Kahlan Amnell stand against the ancient forces which besiege the New World—forces so terrible that when last they threatened, they could only be withstood by sealing off the Old World from whence they came. Now the barrier has been breached, and the New World is again beset by their evil power. War and treachery plague the world, and only Richard and Kahlan can save it from an armageddon of unimaginable savagery and destruction.

Entre la narrativa detectivesca, la novela «de carretera», el relato biográfico y la crónica, Los detectives salvajes está considerada por la crítica y el público de todo el mundo como una de las mejores y más originales ficciones escritas en las últimas décadas.

Dos jóvenes poetas latinoamericanos, Arturo Belano y Ulises Lima, emprenden una aventura que transcurrirá durante varias décadas y cruzará distintos países. Símbolo de la rebeldía y la necesidad de ruptura con la realidad establecida, sus vidas representan los anhelos de toda una generación. La búsqueda en 1975 de la misteriosa escritora mexicana Cesárea Tinajero, desaparecida y olvidada en los años posteriores a la revolución, sirve de inicio a un viaje sin descanso marcado por el amor, la muerte, el deseo de libertad, el humor y la literatura.

En esta novela está esbozado, como si de un juego de cajas chinas se tratara, todo el deslumbrante universo literario y personal de Roberto Bolaño.

The setting is Atlanta, Georgia — a racially mixed, late-century boomtown full of fresh wealth and wily politicians. The protagonist, Charles Croker, once a college football star, is now a late-middle-aged Atlanta conglomerate king whose outsize ego has at last hit up against reality.

Charlie has a 29,000-acre quail-shooting plantation, a young and demanding second wife, and a half-empty office complex with a staggering load of debt.

Meanwhile, Conrad Hensley, an idealistic young father of two, is laid off from his job at the Croker Global Foods warehouse near Oakland and finds himself spiraling into the lower depths of the American legal system.

Back in Atlanta, when star Georgia Tech running back Fareek “the Canon” Fanon, a homegrown product of the city’s slums, is accused of date-raping the daughter of a pillar of the white establishment, upscale black lawyer Roger White II is asked to represent Fanon and help keep the city’s delicate racial balance from blowing sky-high.

Networks of illegal Asian immigrants crisscrossing the continent, daily life behind bars, shady real estate syndicates — Wolfe shows us contemporary America with all the verve, wit, and insight that have made him our most admired novelist. Charlie Croker’s deliverance from his tribulations provides an unforgettable denouement to this hilarious and telling novel — Tom Wolfe’s most outstanding achievement to date.

The dying Empire's most cunning and ruthless warlord—Grand Admiral Thrawn—has taken command of the remnants of the Imperial fleet and launched a massive campaign aimed at the New Republic's destruction.

Meanwhile, Han and Lando Calrissian race against time to find proof of treason inside the highest Republic Council—only to discover instead a ghostly fleet of warships that could bring doom to their friends and victory to their enemies.

Yet most dangerous of all is a new Dark Jedi, risen from the ashes of a shrouded past, consumed by bitterness… and scheming to corrupt Luke Skywalker to the Dark Side.

It is a time of renewal, five years after the destruction of the Death Star and the defeat of Darth Vader and the Empire. But with the war seemingly won, strains are beginning to show in the Rebel Alliance. New challenges to galactic peace have arisen. And Luke Skywalker hears a voice from his past. A voice with a warning. Beware the dark side…

The Rebel Alliance has destroyed the Death Star, defeated Darth Vader and the Emperor, and driven the remnants of the old Imperial Starfleet back into barely a quarter of the territory that they once controlled. Leia and Han are married, are expecting Jedi twins, and have shouldered heavy burdens in the government of the new Republic. And Luke Skywalker is the first in a hoped-for new line of Jedi Knights.

But thousands of light years away, where a few skirmishes are still taking place, the last of the Emperor's warlords has taken command of the remains of the Imperial fleet. He has made two vital discoveries that could destroy the fragile new Republic—built with such cost to the Rebel Alliance. The tale that emerges is a towering epic of action, invention, mystery, and spectacle on a galactic scale—in short, a story that is worthy of the name Star Wars.

The thrilling prequel to Redwall. The clever and greedy wildcat Tsarmina becomes ruler of all Mossflower Woods and is determined to govern the peaceful woodlanders with an iron paw. The brave mouse Martin and quick-talking mouse thief Gonff meet in the depths of Kotir Castle's dungeon. The two escape and resolve to end Tsarmina's tyrannical rule. Joined by Kinny the mole, Martin and Gonff set off on a dangerous quest for Salamandastron, where they are convinced that their only hope, Boar the Fighter, still lives.

Under the streets of London there's a world most people could never even dream of. A city of monsters and saints, murderers and angels, knights in armour and pale girls in black velvet. Neverwhere is the London of the people who have fallen between the cracks.

Strange destinies lie in wait in London Below - a world that seems eerily familiar. But a world that is utterly bizarre, peopled by unearthly characters such as the Angel called Islington, the girl named Door, and the Earl who holds Court on a tube train.

Now a single act of kindness has catapulted young businessman Richard Mayhew out of his safe and predictable life - and into the realms of Neverwhere. Richard is about to find out more than he ever wanted to know about this other London. Which is a pity. Because Richard just wants to go home...

Nearly two years before his powerful Communist Manifesto, Marx (1818—1883) co-wrote The German Ideology in 1845 with friend and collaborator Friedrich Engels, expounding a new political worldview, including positions on materialism, labor, production, alienation, the expansion of capitalism, class conflict, revolution, and eventually communism.

They chart the course of "true" socialism based on G. W.F. Hegel's dialectic, while criticizing the ideas of Bruno Bauer, Max Stirner and Ludwig Feuerbach. Marx expanded his criticism of the latter in his now famous Theses on Feuerbach, found after Marx's death and published by Engels in 1888.

Introduction to the Critique of Political Economy, also found among the posthumous papers of Marx, is a fragment of an introduction to his main works. Combining these three works, this volume is essential for an understanding of Marxism.

In 1920s London, Virginia Woolf is fighting against her rebellious spirit as she attempts to make a start on her new novel. A young wife and mother, broiling in a suburb of 1940s Los Angeles, yearns to escape and read her precious copy of Mrs Dalloway. And Clarissa Vaughan steps out of her smart Greenwich village apartment in 1990s New York to buy flowers for a party she is hosting for a dying friend.

The Hours recasts the classic story of Woolf's Mrs Dalloway in a startling new light. Moving effortlessly across the decades and between England and America, this exquisite novel intertwines the worlds of three unforgettable women.

Birds of America is a long-awaited collection of twelve stories by the acclaimed author Lorrie Moore. Known for her characteristic wit and piercing intelligence, Moore unfolds a series of portraits of the lost and unsettled of America, infused with a trademark humor that fuels each story with pathos and understanding.

From the opening story, "Willing", about a second-rate movie actress in her thirties who has moved back to Chicago, where she makes a seedy motel room her home and becomes involved with a mechanic who has no idea of who she is as a human being, Birds of America unfolds a startlingly brilliant series of portraits of the unhinged, the lost, the unsettled of our America.

In the story "Which Is More Than I Can Say About Some People", a woman newly separated from her husband embarks on a long-planned trip through Ireland with her mother. When they set out on an expedition to kiss the Blarney Stone, the image of wisdom and success that her mother has always put forth slips away to reveal the panicky woman she really is.

In "Charades", a family game at Christmas is transformed into a hilarious and insightful revelation of crumbling family ties. Meanwhile, "Community Life" depicts a shy, almost reclusive librarian, Transylvania-born and Vermont-bred, who moves in with her boyfriend, the local anarchist in a small university town, and all hell breaks loose.

In "Four Calling Birds, Three French Hens", a woman who goes through the stages of grief as she mourns the death of her cat (Anger, Denial, Bargaining, Häagen Dazs, Rage) is seen by her friends as really mourning other issues: the impending death of her parents, the son she never had, Bosnia.

In what may be her most stunning book yet, Lorrie Moore explores the personal and the universal, the idiosyncratic and the mundane, with all the wit, brio, and verve that have made her one of the best storytellers of our time.

Jessica is based on the inspiring true story of a young girl's fight for justice against tremendous odds. A tomboy, Jessica is the pride of her father, as they work together on the struggling family farm. One quiet day, the peace of the bush is devastated by a terrible murder. Only Jessica is able to save the killer from the lynch mob – but will justice prevail in the courts?

Nine months later, a baby is born... with Jessica determined to guard the secret of the father's identity. The rivalry of Jessica and her beautiful sister for the love of the same man will echo throughout their lives – until finally the truth must be told.

Set in the harsh Australian bush against the outbreak of World War I, this novel is heartbreaking in its innocence, and shattering in its brutality.