With an introduction by Sheila Heti A unique love story and a classic work of philosophy, rooted in the mysterious workings of the human heart and mind. Perhaps it is true that we do not really exist until there is someone there to see us existing, we cannot properly speak until there is someone who can understand what we are saying in essence, we are not wholly alive until we are loved. A man and a woman meet over casual conversation on a flight from Paris to London, and so begins a love story — from first kiss to first argument, elation to heartbreak, and everything in between. Each stage of the relationship is illuminated with startling clarity, as de Botton explores emotions often felt but rarely understood. With the verve of a novelist and the insight of a philosopher, Alain de Botton uncovers the mysteries of the human heart. Essays In Love is an iconic book — one that should be read by anyone who has ever fallen in love.

First read this beautifully detailed pop-up book, then unfold it to transform it into a 3D farmyard landscape playmat, with stand-up cardboard animals and a tractor that you can move all around the farm! A unique and ingenious novelty book that folds away again in its own box.

The scent and smoke and sweat of a casino are nauseating at three in the morning.Cinema's longest-running franchise, James Bond made his debut in this 1953 novel by Ian Fleming. The unstoppable British agent is dispatched to the French casino Royale-les-Eaux, where he must bankrupt the dissolute and sadistic spy Le Chiffre, in the hope that this Russian pawn will beretiredby his paymasters. It will require more than luck, however; after a brutal night at the gaming tables, Bond finds himself dodging would-be assassins, fighting off torturers, and trying to save the life of his beautiful female counterpart, Vesper Lynd.

Take an imaginary journey as a young cabin boy on a pirate ship. Meet Blackbeard, Calico Jack, Mary Read, Anne Bonny, and Black Bart; climb into the crow's nest to fix the rigging, and learn about other tough jobs on board; help the pirates capture a treasure ship; and bury your booty on a desert island. This engaging history book is filled with pop-up features, flaps to open, and mini-booklets of information, presenting facts and trivia in a colorful scrapbook format for readers 6 to 10.

With all the panoramic sweep of his bestselling study The Victorians, A. N. Wilson relates the exhilarating story of the Elizabethan Age. It was a time of exceptional creativity, wealth creation and political expansion. It was also a period of English history more remarkable than any other for the technicolour personalities of its leading participants. Apart from the complex character of the Virgin Queen herself, we follow the story of Francis Drake and political intriguers like William Cecil and Francis Walsingham, so important to a monarch who often made a key strategy out of her indecisiveness. Favourites like Leicester and Essex skated very close to the edge as far as Elizabeth's affections were concerned, and Essex made a big mistake when he led a rebellion against the crown. There was a Renaissance during this period in the world of words, which included the all-round hero and literary genius, Sir Philip Sidney, playwright-spy Christopher Marlowe and that myriad-minded man, William Shakespeare. Life in Elizabethan England could be very harsh. Plague swept the land. And the poor received little assistance from the State. Thumbscrews and the rack could be the grim prelude to the executioner's block. But crucially, this was the age when modern Britain was born, and established independence from mainland Europe. After Sir Walter Raleigh established the colony of Virginia, English was destined to become the language of the great globe itself, and the foundations were laid not only of later British imperial power but also of American domination of the world. With The Elizabethans, Wilson reveals himself again as the master of the definitive, single-volume study.

From Newgate Prison to Covent Garden and from his childhood home in Camden to his place of burial in Westminster Abbey, 'A Pocket Guide To Dickens' London' traces the influence of the capital on the life and work of one of Britain's best-loved and well-known authors. Featuring over forty sites — places of worship and of business, streets and bridges — 'A Pocket Guide to Dickens' London' not only locates and illustrates locations from works such as Great Expectations and Little Dorrit but demonstrates how the architecture and landscape of the city influenced Dickens' work throughout his life. Each site is illustrated with substantial quotations from Dickens' own writing about the city he loved. With this book in their pockets, visitors to London in 2012, two hundred years after Dickens' birth, will be able to slip away from the Olympic Games and explore parts of London they might otherwise never see. And the residents of London who think they know the city will be surprised by the Dickens connections to be found around every corner.

On the day after Halloween, in the year 1327, four children slip away from the cathedral city of Kingsbridge. They are a thief, a bully, a boy genius and a girl who wants to be a doctor. In the forest they see two men killed. As adults, their lives will be braided together by ambition, love, greed and revenge. They will see prosperity and famine, plague and war. One boy will travel the world but come home in the end; the other will be a powerful, corrupt nobleman. One girl will defy the might of the medieval church; the other will pursue an impossible love. And always they will live under the long shadow of the unexplained killing they witnessed on that fateful childhood day. Ken Follett's masterful epic The Pillars of the Earth enchanted millions of readers with its compelling drama of war, passion and family conflict set around the building of a cathedral. Now World Without End takes readers back to medieval Kingsbridge two centuries later, as the men, women and children of the city once again grapple with the devastating sweep of historical change.

The updated and revised edition of America's favorite cookbook, plus a bonus section of food gifts for year-round giving The Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book has been an American favorite since 1930, selling 40 million copies through fourteen editions. This new food gifts edition includes the complete 15th Edition as well as inspiring projects for creating personalized food gifts that are sure to charm friends and family. Each of the projects shown includes two recipes perfectly suited to tuck inside each package idea, making this the perfect book for gift-givers who love to cook. — Contains 30 new creative package ideas that are easy and fun to create. — Showcases projects that use easy-to-find materials and include step-by-step instructions for success. — Provides how-to photos for recipes and craft ideas that require more description for success. — Includes 60 new recipes for projects, including cookies and bars, breads, cupcakes, jams, jellies, casseroles, soups, and much more. — Features the entire 15th Edition of the New Cook Book.

Quentin Blake's Magical Tales is a wonderful collection of more than a dozen tales of magical fun from all over the globe. Retold in wonderful detail by long-time Quentin Blake collaborator John Yeoman, these stories sparkle with enchantment, adventure and beautifully imagined far away places.

One of the great American iconoclasts holds forth on politics, war, books and writers, and his personal life in a series of conversations — including his last publishedinterview. During his long career Kurt Vonnegut won international praise for his novels, plays, and essays. In this new anthology of conversations with Vonnegut — which collectsinterviews from throughout his career — we learn much about what drove Vonnegut to write and how he viewed his work at the end. From Kurt Vonnegut's LastInterview Is there another book in you, by chance? No. Look, I'm 84 years old. Writers of fiction have usually done their best work bythe time they're 45. Chess masters are through when they're 35, and so are baseball players. There are plenty of other people writing. Let them do it. So what's theold man's game, then? My country is in ruins. So I'm a fish in a poisoned fishbowl. I'm mostly just heartsick about this. There should have been hope. This shouldhave been a great country. But we are despised all over the world now. I was hoping to build a country and add to its literature. That's why I served in World War II, and that's why I wrotebooks. When someone reads one of your books, what would you like them to take from the experience? Well, I'd like the guy — or the girl, ofcourse — to put the book down and think, This is the greatest man who ever lived.

Timed to coincide with the release of the third and final series of the award-winning Downton Abbey, which has attracted audiences of more than 10 million viewers. This Brief Guidecelebrates the Victorian and Edwardian eras that marked the golden age of the English countryhouse: a time when opulence and formality attained a level that would never be matched again. Author Michael Paterson skillfully and entertainingly explores the myths and realities of thisvanished world, both upstairs and down.

«New York Times Bestseller * Los Angeles Times Bestseller * Washington Post Bestseller * San Francisco Chronicle Bestseller * Chicago Tribune Bestseller «A story to make you believe in the soul-sustaining power of fiction.»—Los Angeles Times Book Review After the sinking of a cargo ship, a solitary lifeboat remains bobbing on the wild blue Pacific. The only survivors from the wreck are a sixteen-year-old boy named Pi, a hyena, a wounded zebra, an orangutan—and a 450-pound royal bengal tiger. The scene is set for one of the most extraordinary and beloved works of fiction in recent years. Universally acclaimed upon publication, Life of Pi is a modern classic.»

«In his second novel, from 1959, Kurt Vonnegut revealed his true gifts as a science fiction writer. «The spareness hits you first,» wrote William Deresiewicz in a 2012 retrospective on Vonnegut. «The first page contains 14 paragraphs, none of them longer than two sentences, some of them as short as five words. It's like he's placing pieces on a game board-so, and so, and so.» Vonnegut gives us the bizarre, entangled lives of Malachi Constant, the richest man in 22nd-century America; Winston Niles Rumfoord, a now-disembodied human who knows everything that has happened or will happen; and a robot from Trafalmadore, millions of years old, who needs a spare part for his flying saucer.»

«From the bestselling author of Labyrinth and Sepulchre comes an absorbing new adventure, steeped in the haunting secrets of the Languedoc. Summer, 1942. A spirited and courageous young woman, Sandrine, finds herself drawn into the world of the Resistance in Carcassonne under German occupation. Her network — code named Citadel' is made up of ordinary women who risk everything to fight the sinister battles raging the the shadows around them. As the war reaches its violent and bloody conclusion, Sandrine's fate is tied up with that of three very different men. But who is the real enemy? Who is the real threat. And who is the true guardian of the ancient secrets that for generation have drawn people to the foothills of the Pyrenean mountain. This is the story of Citadel — an epic of passion, loyalty, courage and betrayal. Kate Mosse is the author of three works of non-fiction, three plays and five previous novels, including the number one bestsellers, Labyrinth, Sepulchre and the Winter Ghosts. Her novels have been translated into thirty-seven languages.»

Rendering the horror of a zombie apocalypse in the restrained language of Pride and Prejudice — as well as in the gruesome paintings of Robert Parada — this wall calendar carries forth the humor of Seth Grahame-Smith's dead-on sendup of Jane Austen's comedy of manners. A different calamity is depicted for each month.

A passenger train hurtling through the night. An unwed teenage mother headed to Moscow to seek a new life. A cruel-hearted soldier looking furtively, forcibly, for sex. An infant disappearing without a trace. So begins Martin Cruz Smith's masterful Three Stations, a suspenseful, intricately constructed novel featuring Investigator Arkady Renko. For the last three decades, beginning with the trailblazing Gorky Park, Renko (and Smith) have captivated readers with detective tales set in Russia. Renko is the ironic, brilliantly observant cop who finds solutions to heinous crimes when other lawmen refuse to even acknowledge that crimes have occurred. He uses his biting humor and intuitive leaps to fight not only wrongdoers but the corrupt state apparatus as well. In Three Stations, Renko's skills are put to their most severe test. Though he has been technically suspended from the prosecutor's office for once again turning up unpleasant truths, he strives to solve a last case: the death of an elegant young woman whose body is found in a construction trailer on the perimeter of Moscow's main rail hub. It looks like a simple drug overdose to everyone — except to Renko, whose examination of the crime scene turns up some inexplicable clues, most notably an invitation to Russia's premier charity ball, the billionaires' Nijinksy Fair. Thus a sordid death becomes interwoven with the lifestyles of Moscow's rich and famous, many of whom are clinging to their cash in the face of Putin's crackdown on the very oligarchs who placed him in power. Renko uncovers a web of death, money, madness and a kidnapping that threatens the woman he is coming to love and the lives of children he is desperate to protect. In Three Stations, Smith produces a complex and haunting vision of an emergent Russia's secret underclass of street urchins, greedy thugs and a bureaucracy still paralyzed by power and fear.

This bountiful collection of more than fifty tales by one of Ireland s liveliest and most popular writers offers holiday charm and Gaelic humor by the Christmas stockingful. Drawing on the rich folk culture of County Kerry, John B. Keane brings new life to old customs in his portrayals of not-so-ordinary country people during the Christmas season. Keane revisits the Christmases celebrated by characters like Dotie Tupper and Johnny Naile, the doughty Canon Doyle and deaf Canon Cornelius Coodle, the amiable spendthrift Aenias Mackson, and Hiccups O Reilly, who disappears one Christmas Eve for seven years. Keane bears delightful witness to the trials and triumphs of the inhabitants of County Kerry, Ireland.

Today everyone knows Mickey Mouse as the cheerful ambassador of all things Disney. But back in the 1930s, Mickey gained fame as a rough-and-tumble, two-fisted epic hero — an adventurous scrapper matching wits with mobsters, kidnappers, spies, and even (gulp!) city slickers! And Mickey's greatest feats of derring-do took place in his daily comic strip, written and drawn by one of the greatest cartoonists of the 20th century — Floyd Gottfredson. For its first quarter-century, Gottfredson's Mickey Mouse was a rip-roaring serial: the most popular cartoon-based comic of its time, a trendsetting adventure continuity aimed at both kids and grown-ups, and the foundation on which all later Disney comics grew — including the adventures of Donald Duck and Uncle Scrooge by Gottfredson's Disney colleague Carl Barks. Glimpses of Floyd Gottfredson's masterpiece have been reprinted over the years, most famously in Bill Blackbeard's classic Smithsonian Collection of Newspaper Comics. But the whole strip has never been comprehensively collected in English — until now! Fantagraphics Books is proud to bring this classic Disney creation to a 21st century audience in its entirety, starting from the strip's 1930 launch. Relive Mickey's race to a gold mine with Pegleg Pete hot on his heels; Mickey's life on the lam after being framed for bank robbery; even Mickey's ringside battle with a hulking heavyweight champ! The premiere volume features a dozen different adventures starring Mickey, his gal Minnie and her uncle Mortimer, his pals Horace Horsecollar and Butch, the villainous Pegleg Pete, and the mysterious and shrouded Fox. Gottfredson's vibrant visual storytelling has never been more beautifully reproduced; we promise the best reprinting the strip has ever seen, with each daily lovingly restored from Disney's original negatives and proof sheets. Death Valley also includes more than 50 pages of fascinating supplementary features, including rare behind-the-scenes art and vintage publicity material from the first two years of the strip. Critics, scholars, seasoned Disney archivists, and fellow cartoonists provide commentary and historical essays on the strip's creation and execution. Walt Disney often said that his studio's success all started with a Mouse — Walt himself wrote the Mickey Mouse strip before turning it over to the able hands of Gottfredson — and today Mickey is among the world's most recognizable icons. Now it's time to rediscover the wild, unforgettable personality behind the icon: Floyd Gottfredson's Mickey Mouse.

Today everyone knows Mickey Mouse as the cheerful ambassador of all things Disney. But back in the 1930s, Mickey gained fame as a rough-and-tumble, two-fisted epic hero an adventurous scrapper matching wits with mobsters, kidnappers, spies, and even (gulp!) city slickers! And Mickey s greatest feats of derring-do took place in his daily comic strip, written and drawn by one of the greatest cartoonists of the 20th century Floyd Gottfredson. For its first quarter-century, Gottfredson's Mickey Mouse was a rip-roaring serial: the most popular cartoon-based comic of its time, a trend setting adventure continuity aimed at both kids and grown-ups, and the foundation on whichall later Disney comics grew including the adventures of Donald Duck and Uncle Scrooge by Gottfredson's Disney colleague Carl Barks.Glimpses of Floyd Gottfredson's masterpiece have been reprinted over the years, most famously in Bill Blackbeard's classic Smithsonian Collection of Newspaper Comics. But the whole strip has never been comprehensively collected in English until now! Fantagraphics Books is proud to bring this classic Disney creation to a 21st century audience in its entirety, starting from the strip s 1930 launch. Relive Mickey's race to a gold mine with Pegleg Pete hot on his heels; Mickey's life on the lam after being framed for bank robbery; even Mickey's ringside battle with a hulking heavy weight champ! The premiere volume features a dozen different adventures starring Mickey, his gal Minnie and her uncle Mortimer, his pals Horace Horse collar and Butch, the villainous Pegleg Pete, and the mysterious and shrouded Fox. Gottfredson's vibrant visual storytelling has never been more beautifully reproduced; we promise the best reprinting the strip has ever seen, with each daily lovingly restored from Disney's original negatives and proof sheets. Death Valley also includes more than 50 pages of fascinating supplementary features, including rare behind-the-scenes art and vintage publicity material from the first two years of the strip. Critics, scholars, seasoned Disney archivists, and fellow cartoonists provide commentary and historical essays on the strip's creation and execution.Walt Disney often said that his studio s success all started with a Mouse Walt himself wrote the Mickey Mouses trip before turning it over to the able hands of Gottfredson and today Mickey is among the world s most recognizable icons. Now it s time to rediscover the wild, unforgettable personality behind the icon: Floyd Gottfredson's Mickey Mouse.

Aurelio Zen of Rome's elite Criminalpol is back, but nobody's supposed to know it. After months in hospital recovering from a bomb attack on his car, he is lying low under a false name at a beach resort on the Tuscan coast, waiting to testify in an imminent anti-Mafia trial. Zen has clear instructions: to sit back and enjoy the classic Italian beach holiday — relaxing in the sun, eating seafood and engaging in a little mild flirtation with the attractive woman sitting under the next umbrella. But Zen is getting restless, and as an alarming number of people are dropping dead around him, it seems just a matter of time before the Mafia manages to finish the job it bungled months before on a lonely Sicilian road. Abruptly, the pleasant monotony of beach life is cut short as Zen finds himself transported to a remote and strange world far from home... and wherever he goes, trouble follows.