Chestertonians and other readers will rejoice in the republication of this long-unavailable book of delights. Featuring the author's early work as well as previously unpublished material, this volume abounds in fairy stories, comic verses, and satirical ballads. Best of all, it features a treasury of Chesterton's distinctive colour and black-and-white illustrations. This is a reprint of the Sheed & Ward, New York, 1938 edition.

Ranging from the 10th to the 20th centuries, these ghostly tales mix the eerie, the terrifying, and the madly comic. Enhanced by the author's 30 illustrations of Irish homes and castles, 22 short stories feature The headless Rider of Castle Sheela, Mrs O'Moyne and the Fatal Slap, The Harpies of The Ghostly Catch, and more. This book is a reprint of the Creative Age, New York, 1947 edition.

When we first meet Charlie he is about to embark on a compelling but dangerous journey from retardation to genius. He has only a vague understanding of what will happen, but he is aware that knowledge and the ability to write are of paramount importance.

Following on from the huge success of the 44 Scotland Street series, Alexander McCall Smith 'moved house' to London's Pimlico and into his brand new daily novel, Corduroy Mansions. The building itself — described in a guide to the architecture of the area as 'a building of no interest whatsoever' — is believed to have been built as an asylum, or possibly a school, or maybe it was a mansion block — nobody is very sure. In fact, nothing of its history is known, although it does have some nice Arts and Craft features. At the moment it is inhabited by an assortment of characters — including amongst others a literary agent, a wine merchant, one accountant, possibly the first ever nasty Liberal Democrat MP and his long-suffering PA, and a small dog in his prime. At least one character is on a voyage of self-discovery, which has taken him to Cheltenham so far. Although Corduroy Mansions is a nickname, it is now recognized by the Post Office.

St Cedd's Church fete had been held in the grounds of Martingale manor house for generations. As if organizing stalls, as well as presiding over luncheon, the bishop and the tea tent, were not enough for Mrs Maxie on that mellow July afternoon, she also had to contend with the news of her son's sudden engagement to her new parlour maid, the sly single mother, Sally Jupp. On the following morning Martingale and the whole village are shocked by the discovery of Sally Jupp's body. Investigating the violent death at the manor house, Detective Chief Inspector Adam Dalgliesh is embroiled in the complicated passions beneath the calm surface of English village life.

From the authors of the bestselling The Daring Book for Girls, an all-new double-the-fun, double-the-adventure guidebook of stories, activities, facts, and games for daring girls everywhere.

In her most accomplished novel, Barbara Kingsolver takes us on an epic journey from the Mexico City of artists Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo to the America of Pearl Harbor, FDR, and J. Edgar Hoover. The Lacuna is a poignant story of a man pulled between two nations as they invent their modern identities. Born in the United States, reared in a series of provisional households in Mexico — from a coastal island jungle to 1930s Mexico City — Harrison Shepherd finds precarious shelter but no sense of home on his thrilling odyssey. Life is whatever he learns from housekeepers who put him to work in the kitchen, errands he runs in the streets, and one fateful day, by mixing plaster for famed Mexican muralist Diego Rivera. He discovers a passion for Aztec history and meets the exotic, imperious artist Frida Kahlo, who will become his lifelong friend. When he goes to work for Lev Trotsky, an exiled political leader fighting for his life, Shepherd inadvertently casts his lot with art and revolution, newspaper headlines and howling gossip, and a risk of terrible violence. Meanwhile, to the north, the United States will soon be caught up in the internationalist goodwill of World War II. There in the land of his birth, Shepherd believes he might remake himself in America's hopeful image and claim a voice of his own. He finds support from an unlikely kindred soul, his stenographer, Mrs. Brown, who will be far more valuable to her employer than he could ever know. Through darkening years, political winds continue to toss him between north and south in a plot that turns many times on the unspeakable breach — the lacuna — between truth and public presumption. With deeply compelling characters, a vivid sense of place, and a clear grasp of how history and public opinion can shape a life, Barbara Kingsolver has created an unforgettable portrait of the artist — and of art itself. The Lacuna is a rich and daring work of literature, establishing its author as one of the most provocative and important of her time.

A true masterpiece of book design and illustration for beginning readers, this collection pairs well-known nursery tales with uniquely beautiful period illustrations that look as fresh and vital today as they did six decades ago, when the book was first published in Great Britain. Never before published in the United States, My First Nursery Book features four beloved stories: Who Killed Cock Robin?, The Gingerbread Man, Three Little Pigs, and The Three Bears. Franciszka Themerson, a Polish avant-garde artist and filmmaker who turned to childrens book illustration as a refugee in London in the 1940s, is regarded as one of the great talents in classic childrens book illustration.Finally, American children can experience and enjoy this remarkable volume, filled with stunning illustrations that will bring a new audience to Themersons genius.

In the 60s, Elizabeth Taylor's affair with the married Richard Burton knocked John Glenn's orbit of the moon off front pages nationwide. Yet, despite all the gossip, the larger-than-life personality and influence of this very human woman has never been captured. William Mann, praised by Gore Vidal, Patricia Bosworth, and Gerald Clarke for Kate, uses untapped sources and conversations to show how she ignited the sexual revolution with her on- and off-screen passions, helped kick down the studio system by taking control of her own career, and practically invented the big business of celebrity star-making. With unputdownable storytelling he tells the full truth without losing Taylor's magic, daring, or wit. Readers will feel they are sitting next to Taylor as she rises at MGM, survives a marriage engineered for publicity, feuds with Hedda Hopper and Mr. Mayer, wins Oscars, endures tragedy, juggles Eddie Fisher, Richard Burton and her country's conservative values. But it is the private Elizabeth that will surprise — a woman of heart and loyalty, who defends underdogs, a savvy professional whose anger at the studio's treatment of her led to a lifelong battle against that very system. All the Elizabeth's are here, finally reconciled and seen against the exciting years of her greatest spirit, beauty, and influence. Swathed in mink, staring us down with her lavender eyes, disposing of husbands but keeping the diamonds, here is Elizabeth Taylor as she was meant to be, leading her epic life on her own terms, playing the game of supreme stardom at which she remains, to this day, unmatched.

A chilling and vividly rendered ghost story set in postwar Britain, by the bestselling and award-winning author of The Night Watch and Fingersmith. Sarah Watersas trilogy of Victorian novels Tipping the Velvet, Affinity, and Fingersmith earned her legions of fans around the world, a number of awards, and a reputation as one of todayas most gifted historical novelists. With her most recent book, The Night Watch, Waters turned to the 1940s and delivered a tender and intricate novel of relationships that brought her the greatest success she has achieved so far. With The Little Stranger, Waters revisits the fertile setting of Britain in the 1940saand gives us a sinister tale of a haunted house, brimming with the rich atmosphere and psychological complexity that have become hallmarks of Watersas work. The Little Stranger follows the strange adventures of Dr. Faraday, the son of a maid who has built a life of quiet respectability as a country doctor. One dusty postwar summer in his home of rural Warwickshire, he is called to a patient at Hundreds Hall. Home to the Ayres family for more than two centuries, the Georgian house, once grand and handsome, is now in declineaits masonry crumbling, its gardens choked with weeds, the clock in its stable yard permanently fixed at twenty to nine. But are the Ayreses haunted by something more ominous than a dying way of life? Little does Dr. Faraday know how closely, and how terrifyingly, their story is about to become entwined with his. Abundantly atmospheric and elegantly told, The Little Stranger is Sarah Watersas most thrilling and ambitious novel yet.

Literature's most famous romantic hero opens his diary: it's intimate, dramatic, deeply passionate, and sometimes downright shocking. Have you ever wondered what Mr. Darcy was really thinking? Find out his secrets in this captivating novel of love, pride, passion, and, of course, prejudice. Mr. Darcy's intimate diary reveals his entanglements with women, his dangerous friendship with Lord Byron, his daily life in Georgian London, his mercurial mood swings calmed only by fisticuffs at Jackson's-and, most importantly, his vain struggle to conquer his longing for Elizabeth Bennet.

Morais pens this comprehensive biography of one of the world's most popular and widely-read novelists Paulo Coelho, author of The Alchemist.

«Mirror-image twins Julia and Valentina seem to be going nowhere in life, in this second novel from the author of The Time Traveler's Wife, until a packet arrives at their Chicago home. Their aunt Elspeth — their mother's twin, whom they never knew — has died and left them her London flat. Once there, the girls find their aunt's obsessive-compulsive neighbor Martin, who writes crossword puzzles, and her grief-stricken lover Robert, who is writing a history of next-door Highgate Cemetery. Then they meet Elpseth herself, now a disembodied spirit, and find that she is still very much a part of the living world. Audrey Niffenegger's deliciously gothic ghost tale is full of obsessive and possessive loves, exchanged lives and traded souls. «The endurance of love animates this gothic story set in and around Highgate Cemetery, in London. When Elspeth Noblin dies of cancer, she leaves her estate, including an apartment overlooking the graveyard, to the twin daughters of her twin sister, from whom she has been estranged for twenty years... Audrey Niffenegger has a knack for taking the romantic into the realm of creepiness, and she constructs a taut mystery around the secrets to be found in Elspeth's diaries and the lengths to which she will go to reunite with her younger lover. It's no small achievement that the revelations are both organic and completely unexpected».»

Donna Leon's eighteen novels have won her countless fans, heaps of critical acclaim, and a place among the top ranks of international crime writers. Through the warm-hearted, perceptive, and principled Commissario Guido Brunetti, Leon's best-selling books have explored Venice in all its aspects: history, tourism, high culture, food, family, but also violent crime and political corruption. In About Face, Leon returns to one of her signature subjects: the environment, which has reached a crisis in Italy. Incinerators across the south of Italy are at full capacity, burning who-knows-what and releasing unacceptable levels of dangerous air pollutants, while in Naples, enormous garbage piles grow in the streets. In Venice, with the polluted waters of the canals and a major chemical complex across the lagoon, the issue is never far from the fore. Environmental concerns become significant in Brunetti's work when an investigator from the Carabiniere, looking into the illegal hauling of garbage, asks for a favor. But the investigator is not the only one with a special request. His father-in-law needs help and a mysterious woman comes into the picture. Brunetti soon finds himself in the middle of an investigation into murder and corruption more dangerous than anything he's seen before.

Though considerably toned down for readers 7 to 10, this visual treatment of Bram Stoker's 1897 novel Dracula remains largely true to the original story, with journal entries, clippings, and news articles augmenting the action and sidebars with helpful techniques for how to spot, capture, and kill a vampire. Solicitor Jonathan Harker is menaced in Transylvania by his new client, Count Dracula; the Count makes his way to England and turns Lucy Westenra into a vampire; and Mina Harker, Dracula's next victim, wavers between her vampire and human self before helping Jonathan and Van Helsing kill the Count. The book includes several practical inserted elements, including a travel guide to Transylvania (with hilarious ads for products like neck protectors), a pullout map of Dracula's castle, and a pop-out horde of bloodthirsty rats, as well as a playable board game of the race to Dracula's castle.

«This ingenious debut of Rory Clements' historical series introduces John Shakespeare, Will's older brother and an intelligencer for Elizabeth I's spymaster Sir John Walsingham. In a burnt-out house, one of the queen's aristocratic cousins is found murdered, her flesh marked with profane symbols. At the same time, a plot to assassinate Sir Francis Drake is discovered, which, if it succeeds, would leave the country vulnerable to the Spanish Armada. Shadowed by his rival, the Queen's chief torturer, who employs his own methods of terror, Shakespeare begins to piece together a complex conspiracy whose implications are almost too horrific to contemplate. «There is a great deal going on in this novel... A beautiful and highborn young woman, a cousin of the queen, is found tortured to death, in a manner that suggests a Catholic killer. Another woman's beloved infant is kidnapped and a deformed infant left in its place. We glimpse England's 'first ever state funeral for a nonroyal', that of the beloved soldier and poet Sir Philip Sidney: 'Seven hundred official mourners followed the cortege as it wove slowly through the streets of London from Aldgate to St Paul's'. Shakespeare encounters a witch and falls in love with a beautiful Catholic, not a good career move. Clements, a former London journalist, shows us not only great lords and ladies in his first novel but also whores and cutthroats. We meet the delightfully named prostitutes Starling Day and Parsimony Field and the brave soldier Boltfoot Cooper. Do those names recall some in Shakespeare? The author does have Shakespeare on his mind, in that his hero has a younger brother named William, an actor. The handsome and resourceful Will appears only briefly in Martyr, but given that the novel is presented as the first of a series, we can expect to see more of the brothers Shakespeare. On the basis of this outing, they will be welcome».»

«The Dashwood sisters are evicted from their childhood home and sent to live on a mysterious island full of savage creatures and dark secrets. While sensible Elinor falls in love with Edward Ferrars, her romantic sister Marianne is courted by both the handsome Willoughby and the hideous man-monster Colonel Brandon. Following the massive success of «Pride Prejudice and Zombies», and the impressive pre-pub sales of «Sense and Sensibility» and «Sea Monsters», this title lets the suspense build as we discover what new monster mayhem will descend upon us this Spring.»

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies features the original text of Jane Austen's beloved novel with all-new scenes of bone crunching zombie action.

With Tigger as their guide, youngsters are sure to relish an adventure featuring letters, numbers, animals, shapes, opposites, and more on pages packed with surprises hidden under flaps. Full color.

On a hot summer afternoon in 1972, three teenagers drove into an unfamiliar neighborhood and six lives were altered forever. Thirty five years later, one survivor of that day reaches out to another, opening a door that could lead to salvation. But another survivor is now out of prison, looking for reparation in any form he can find it. THE TURNAROUND takes us on a journey from the rock-and-soul streets of the '70s to the changing neighborhoods of D.C. today, from the diners and auto garages of the city to the inside of Walter Reed Army Medical Hospital, where wounded men and women have returned to the world in a time of war. A novel of fathers and sons, wives and husbands, loss, victory and violent redemption, THE TURNAROUND is another compelling, highly charged novel from George Pelecanos, the best crime novelist in America.