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.

Brain Droppings is a collection of original humor pieces by the beloved comic George Carlin. Filled with thoughts, musings, questions, lists, beliefs, curiosities, monologues, assertions, assumptions, and other verbal ordeals, this book is infectiously funny.

Included are two timeless monologues, "A Place for Your Stuff" and "Baseball-Football." Readers will get an inside look into Carlin's mind, and they won't be disappointed by what they find:

• I buy stamps by mail. It works OK until I run out of stamps.
• What year did Jesus Christ think it was?
• A tree: first you chop it down, then you chop it up.
• Have you ever noticed the lawyer is always smiling more than the client?
• I put a dollar in one of those change machines. Nothing changed.
• If you ever have chicken at lunch and chicken at dinner, do you ever wonder if the two chickens knew each other?

Carlin demolishes everyday values and yet leaves you laughing out loud.

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.

Wonderfully funny and also deeply touching, I Am One of You Forever is the story of a young boy's coming of age. Set in the hills and hollows of western North Carolina in the years around World War II, it tells of ten-year-old Jess and his family—father, mother, grandmother, foster brother, and an odd assortment of other relatives—who usher Jess into the adult world, with all its attendant joys and sorrows, knowledge and mystery.

Jess's father is feisty, restless, and fun-loving. His mother is straitlaced and serious but accepts with grace and good humor the antics of the men of the family, a trait she learned from her own mother. Johnson Gibbs is the orphaned teenager who comes to live with them on their mountain farm. Life on the laurel-covered mountain is isolated and at times difficult, but for Jess it is made rich and remarkable through his relationship with his father and, especially, Johnson Gibbs.

Visiting the farm from time to time is a gallery of eccentric relatives who are surely among the most memorable creations in recent fiction. Uncle Luden is a womanizer who left the mountains years ago for a job in California that "paid actual cash money." Uncle Gurton has a spooky way of appearing and disappearing without ever seeming to enter or exit, but it is his flowing beard, which he has apparently never trimmed and which he keeps tucked inside his overalls, that is of most fascination to Jess.

Uncle Zeno is a storyteller. With the words "That puts me in mind of..." everyone around knows that he is about to launch into another of his endless tales. Uncle Runkin, who always brings his handmade coffin to sleep in whenever he visits, spends his time carving intricate designs into the coffin and trying to find just the right epitaph for his tombstone. Aunt Samantha Barefoot stops by for a brief spell, too. A country singer and cousin to Jess's grandmother, she is a woman of uncensored speech (Jess learns a lot from her) and honest emotions.

Chappell tells the story of all of these characters in a series of chapters that range from fantasy and near farce to pathos. As notable for its lyrical descriptions of the rural settings as for its finely honed vernacular dialogue, I Am One of You Forever shows us a world full of wit and wisdom and the sadness at the heart of things. As one would expect from a poet like Fred Chappell, every line offers its own pleasures and satisfactions.

Widely hailed as one of the finest humorists of the twentieth century, James Thurber looks back at his own life growing up in Columbus, Ohio, with the same humor and sharp wit that defined his famous sketches and writings.

In My Life and Hard Times, first published in 1933, he recounts the delightful chaos and frustrations of family, boyhood, youth, odd dogs, recalcitrant machinery, and the foibles of human nature.