Interspersed with charts, graphs, and various crossword puzzles, A Book of Evil Marauders, Purple Blobs, and Some Other Things... features some of today's best authors spinning new tales ranging from the spooky to the strange. George Saunders tells the story of a father who takes caution to dangerous extremes in Lars Farf, Excessively Fearful Father and Husband. In ACES by Phone, a small boy finds a cellphone that lets him listen in on the thoughts of dogs, and in Small Country, Nick Hornby introduces a country too small for a postal system but, unfortunately for one bookish boy, just big enough for a football team. Each story features full-color illustrations by artists including Barry Blitt, Lane Smith, David Heatley, and Marcel Dzama. The collection includes previously unpublished children's stories from Jonathan Safran Foer (Everything is Illuminated), Nick Hornby (High Fidelity), Neil Gaiman (Sandman), George Saunders (CivilWarLand in Bad Decline), Kelly Link (Stranger Than Fiction), and Jon Scieskza (Stinky Cheese Man). The dust jacket folds into a unique aerogram, which factors into a special contest involving a story written partly by Lemony Snicket, partly by thousands of children.

Join Arthur Dent, earthling, jerk, kneebiter and time-traveler; sexy space cadet Trillian; mad alien Ford Prefect; unflappable Slartibartfast; two-headed, three-armed ex-head Honcho of the Universe Zaphod Beeblebrox... and learn to fly. Is it the end? With Douglas Adams it's always up in the air!

«The Washington Post Book World Facing annihilation at the hands of the warlike Vogons is a curious time to have a craving for tea. It could only happen to the cosmically displaced Arthur Dent and his curious comrades in arms as they hurtle across space powered by pure improbability — and desperately in search of a place to eat. Among Arthur's motley shipmates are Ford Prefect, a longtime friend and expert contributor to the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy; Zaphod Beeblebrox, the three-armed, two-headed ex-president of the galaxy; Tricia McMillan, a fellow Earth refugee who's gone native (her name is Trillian now); and Marvin, the moody android who suffers nothing and no one very gladly. Their destination? The ultimate hot spot for an evening of apocalyptic entertainment and fine dining, where the food (literally) speaks for itself. Will they make it? The answer: hard to say. But bear in mind that the Hitchhiker's Guide deleted the term «Future Perfect» from its pages, since it was discovered not to be! «What's such fun is how amusing the galaxy looks through Adams' sardonically silly eyes.»

Back on Earth with nothing more to show for his long, strange trip through time and space than a ratty towel and a plastic shopping bag, Arthur Dent is ready to believe that the past eight years were all just a figment of his stressed-out imagination. But a gift-wrapped fishbowl with a cryptic inscription, the mysterious disappearance of Earth's dolphins, and the discovery of his battered copy of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy all conspire to give Arthur the sneaking suspicion that something otherworldly is indeed going on... God only knows what it all means. And fortunately, He left behind a Final Message of explanation. But since it's light-years away from Earth, on a star surrounded by souvenir booths, finding out what it is will mean hitching a ride to the far reaches of space aboard a UFO with a giant robot. But what else is new?

Architect Irving J. Gill (1870 — 1936) is widely considered the first and preeminent architect of the Modernist era. In her groundbreaking work, Five California Architects, Esther McCoy asserts that, along with Bernard Maybeck, Charles and Henry Greene, and R.M. Schindler, Gill is one of California's most important architects. As one of the most influential architects of the late nineteenth to early twentieth century, Gill is said to have been so far in advance of his time that there was yet no discussion of Modernism — it simply had not emerged as a movement or a consciousness. Gill followed no one, choosing instead to lead a paradigm shift from crafts construction to machinic building, particularly in light of the development and evolution of concrete as a material of choice. This book is a must-own for any serious fan of Gill, California architecture, modernism, and turn-of-the-century development in building. Marvin Rand has been published in numerous books and magazines throughout the world and has been showcased in major exhibitions. He is the author of Green & Greene (Gibbs Smith, 2005). He lives in Marina del Rey, California.

What made Chekhov tick? What served as a source of creative inspiration in his life? In answering these questions, Russian scholar Rosamund Bartlett focuses on the writer’s intimate relationship with the places where he lived and traveled—Taganrog and the southern Russian steppes, Moscow, Petersburg, Siberia, the French Riviera, and Yalta. By looking at his life through the prism of these landscapes, it is possible to gain a far greater insight into one of the most enigmatic writers who ever lived. Chekhov: Scenes from a Life restores the humor and warmth to a man too often seen as merely melancholic, and reminds us why many consider him to be the greatest short-story writer of all time.

Two magicians shall appear in England. The first shall fear me; the second shall long to behold me The year is 1806. England is beleaguered by the long war with Napoleon, and centuries have passed since practical magicians faded into the nation's past. But scholars of this glorious history discover that one remains: the reclusive Mr Norrell whose displays of magic send a thrill through the country. Proceeding to London, he raises a beautiful woman from the dead and summons an army of ghostly ships to terrify the French. Yet the cautious, fussy Norrell is challenged by the emergence of another magician: the brilliant novice Jonathan Strange. Young, handsome and daring, Strange is the very opposite of Norrell. So begins a dangerous battle between these two great men which overwhelms the one between England and France. And their own obsessions and secret dabblings with the dark arts are going to cause more trouble than they can imagine.

A colour encyclopedia providing an authoritative overview of the Japanese garden flora.

This is the new thriller from the internationally bestselling author of the Kurt Wallander mysteries.

Precious Ramotswe, that cheerful Botswanan private investigator of 'traditional build', is well-known to millions across the world through the best-selling No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency series. Those who have been following her exploits in five previously published novels will soon be able to savour the next instalment, in which, as usual, circumstances are never as straightforward as they seem and events take a more than unexpected turn. Precious Ramotswe, is now married to Mr J.L.B. Matekoni, of Tlokweng Road Speedy Motors. The Agency is busy, but Mma Ramotswe cannot ignore the plea which is made to her by a woman who comes to her with a tale of particular misfortune. Unfortunately, her attempts to help are interrupted by a close encounter between her tiny white van and a bicycle, and by a spectacular disagreement between her assistant, Mma Makutsi, and one of the apprentices at the garage. This apprentice has found a fancy girlfriend who drives a large silver Mercedes-Benz. How can he be rescued from his folly? And as for Mma Makutsi, she has found a dancing class, and a man who may not be able to dance very well but who admires her greatly. And all of this happens against a background of quiet sessions of bush tea, and of a land that stretches out forever under mile upon mile of empty sky.

In this alternate history, Pulitzer Prize winner Roth considers what it would be like for his Newark family — and for a million such families all over the country — during the menacing years of a Charles Lindbergh presidency, when American citizens who happened to be Jews would have every reason to expect the worst.

Paul Kemp has moved from New York to the steamy heat of Puerto Rico to work at the Daily News. He starts hanging out at Al's Backyard, a local den selling booze and hamburgers to vagrant journalists who are mostly crazy drunks on the verge of quitting. Then he meets Yeamon, whose delectable girlfriend has Kemp stewing in his own lust. But the idle tension that builds up in places where men sweat twenty-four hours a day is reaching a violent breaking point.

Twain's two most famous creations, Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, are reunited for a high-spirited and engaging tale of mystery and murder in deepest Arkansas. When Tom and Huck are invited to stay on Tom's uncle's farm in Arkansas, they jump at the opportunity to escape the tedium of a long winter at home. A chance encounter on a steamboat downriver, though, leads to a complex plot of diamond heists, mistaken identity and murder, involving the two boys in a bigger adventure than even they had in mind. Huck's typical bemused and timid observation provides a poignant contrast to Tom's frenetic ingenuity, as the mystery begins tortuously to unravel, and it is in these two wryly affectionate portrayals that Twain breathes life and warmth into his charming and unjustly neglected story.

«The Constant Gardener» is a magnificent exploration of the new world order by one of the most compelling and elegant storytellers of our time. The novel opens in northern Kenya with the gruesome murder of Tessa Quayle — young, beautiful, and dearly beloved to husband Justin. When Justin sets out on a personal odyssey to uncover the mystery of her death, what he finds could make him not only a suspect among his own colleagues, but a target for Tessa's killers as well. A master chronicler of the betrayals of ordinary people caught in political conflict, John le Carre portrays the dark side of unbridled capitalism as only he can. In «The Constant Gardener» he tells a compelling, complex story of a man elevated through tragedy, as Justin Quayle — amateur gardener, aging widower, and ineffectual bureaucrat — discovers his own natural resources and the extraordinary courage of the woman he barely had time to love.»

Timothy Brights doesn't exactly live up to his name. Brought up to regard copious flows of money as his birthright, he can't understand why the funds have been cut off, nor why friends he recruited as Lloyds' Names no longer want to talk to him. When gambling fails, Timothy turns to embezzlement, but it's the lesser offence of helping himself to some strangely aromatic tobacco that propels him up the motorway and into bed with the Chief Constable's wife. The Chief Constable has just survived charges of bribery and perjury and is not too concerned that his efforts to dispose of Timothy involve false imprisonment, breaking and entering, and a spot of GBH. It is only when the Chief tries to frame his old adversary, the upright Miss Midden, hat things begin to go seriously wrong as his underhand ploy opens up the way to spectacular mayhem.

Now in paperback: Alice Sebold's luminous first novel — one of the most celebrated literary debuts of recent seasons — that builds out of a family's grief the most hopeful and joyful of stories.

A dictionary written to help the high-school student succeed. 100,000 entries. More than 1,000 revised illustrations. Abundant word history, synonym paragraphs, and examples sentences.

In February 1917, the centuries-old empire of the Czars collapses. Eight months later, revolutionaries under Lenin's leadership, take power. Few would have gambled on this government of inexperienced militants against a force of armed counter-revolutionaries sustained by the West. But mobilization of the people, the power of the Red Army and political police, the experience gained during the war and, not least, Lenin's skill in directing the new political economy, allow the Bolsheviks to strengthen their hold.

Decorated with Edward Gorey's unicycling puss in a rugby jersey, this little blue address book is pretty on the outside, handy on the inside, with 112 pages and space for over 400 names, home addresses, e-mail addresses, and phone numbers. The page edges are alphabetically indexed (additional cats appear within), while the smart red wire binding lets the book lie flat (or even fold back), and the thoughtful elastic band keeps the whole arrangement neatly closed. It measures about 4 x 5 inches.