«'What we all need', said Larry, 'is sunshine... a country where we can grow'. 'Yes, dear, that would be nice', agreed Mother, not really listening. 'I had a letter from George this morning — he says Corfu's wonderful. Why don't we pack up and go to Greece?'. 'Very well, dear, if you like', said Mother unguardedly. Escaping the ills of the British climate, the Durrell family — acne-ridden Margo, gun-toting Leslie, bookworm Lawrence and budding naturalist Gerry, along with their long suffering mother and Roger the dog — take off for the island of Corfu. But the Durrells find that, reluctantly, they must share their various villas with a menagerie of local fauna — among them scorpions, geckos, toads, bats and butterflies. Recounted with immense humour and charm, «My Family and Other Animals» is a wonderful account of a rare, magical childhood.»

«How did George Eliot's love life affect her prose? Why did Kafka write at three in the morning? In what ways is Barack Obama like Eliza Doolittle? Can you be over-dressed for the Oscars? What is Italian Feminism? If Roland Barthes killed the Author, can Nabokov revive him? What does 'soulful' mean? Is Date Movie the worst film ever made? A collection of essays that brims over with personality and warmth, «Changing My Mind» is journalism at its most expansive, intelligent and funny — a gift to readers and writers both. Within its covers an essay is more than a column of opinions: it's a space in which to think freely.»

An English couple, Perry and Gail, are taking an off-peak holiday on the Caribbean island of Antigua. By seeming chance they bump into a Russian millionaire called Dima who owns a peninsula and a diamond-encrusted gold watch. He also has a tattoo on his right thumb, and wants a game of tennis. What else he wants propels the young lovers on a tortuous journey through Paris to a safe house in the Swiss Alps, to the murkiest cloisters of the City of London and its unholy alliance with Britains Intelligence Establishment.

Enter a vanished and unjust world: Jackson, Mississippi, 1962. Where black maids raise white children, but aren't trusted not to steal the silver... There's Aibileen, raising her seventeenth white child and nursing the hurt caused by her own son's tragic death; Minny, whose cooking is nearly as sassy as her tongue; and, white Miss Skeeter, home from College, who wants to know why her beloved maid has disappeared. Skeeter, Aibileen and Minny. No one would believe they'd be friends; fewer still would tolerate it. But as each woman finds the courage to cross boundaries, they come to depend and rely upon one another. Each is in a search of a truth. And together they have an extraordinary story to tell...

«During the winter of 1972, a woman spends a single night with a young Chilean poet before he departs New York, leaving her his desk. It is the only time they ever meet. Two years later, he is arrested by Pinochet's secret police and never seen again. Across the ocean, in the leafy suburbs of London, a man caring for his dying wife discovers a lock of hair among her papers that unravels a terrible secret. In Jerusalem, an antiques dealer has spent a lifetime reassembling his father's study, plundered by the Nazis from Budapest in 1944; now only one item remains to be found. Connecting these lives is a desk of many drawers that exerts a power over those who possess it or give it away. And as the narrators of «Great House» make their confessions, this desk comes finally to stand for all that has been taken from them, and all that binds them to what has disappeared. «Great House» is a story haunted by questions: What do we pass on to our children and how do they absorb our dreams and losses? How do we respond to disappearance, destruction, and change? Nicole Krauss has written a soaring, powerful novel about memory struggling to create a meaningful permanence in the face of inevitable loss.»

This is the latest Kay Scarpetta novel from #1 New York Times bestselling author Patricia Cornwell. In this fast-paced story, we travel back to the beginning of Scarpettas professional career when she enlisted in the Air Force to pay off her medical school debt. Now, more than twenty years later, her secret military ties have brought her back to Dover Air Force Base, and she is confronted with a case that could ruin her both professionally and personally.

The dog from Goodnight Dog is back, and he keeps drawing shapes in the wrong places, like triangle wheels on a truck. Will he ever get it right?

A thirteen-year-old Welsh boy enters a man's world in the mining pits...An American law student rejected in love finds a surprising new career in Woodrow Wilson's White House....A housekeeper for the aristocratic Fitzherberts takes a fateful step above her station, while Lady Maud Fitzherbert herself crosses deep into forbidden territory when, she falls in love with a German spy... And two orphaned Russian brothers embark on radically different paths when their plan to emigrate to America falls afoul of war, conscription, and revolution. From the dirt and danger of a coal mine to the glittering chandeliers of a palace, from the corridors of power to the bedrooms of the mighty, Fall of Giants takes us into the inextricably entangled fates of five families — and into a century that we thought we knew, but that now will never seem the same again...

In the latest in the New York Times bestselling series, Eve Dallas tracks down those who break the law-including the ones sworn to uphold it.

Seventeen-year-old David Balfour's villainous uncle has him kidnapped in order to steal his inheritance. David escapes only to fall into the dangerous company of rebels who are resisting British redcoats in the Scottish highlands.

At a crossroads in her life, Lucy Jarrett returns home from Japan, only to find herself haunted by her father's unresolved death a decade ago. Late one night, as she paces the hallways of her family's rambling lakeside house, she discovers a collection of objects that first appear to be useless curiosities, but soon reveal a deeper and more complex family past. Kim Edwards is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of THE MEMORY KEEPER'S DAUGHTER.

«In this richly diverse collection of essays, Joseph Brodsky casts a reflective eye on his experiences of early life in Russia and exile in America. With dazzling erudition, he explores subjects as varied as the dynamic of poetry, the nature of history and the plight of the emigre writer. There is also the humorous tale of a disastrous trip to Brazil, advice to students, a homage to Marcus Aurelius and studies of Robert Frost, Thomas Hardy, Horace and others. The second volume of essays following «Less Than One», this collection includes Brodsky's 1987 Nobel Lecture, 'Uncommon Visage'.»

After serving in Iraq, David returns home to find his widowed father remarried. Jobless and injured, David doesn't have much Christmas cheer. He realizes that he needs to heal not only his body but his heart as well... Meanwhile, Lillian Warwick's daughters and her old friend Dr. Ezra Elliot are concerned about Lillian living on her own. When the tables turn and Ezra needs help, they find they value each other beyond just friendship...

After igniting a firestorm of debate across the nation, Amy Chua's daring, conversation-changing memoir is now in paperback. At once provocative and laugh-out-loud funny, Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother set off a global parenting debate with its story of one mother's journey in strict parenting. Amy Chua argues that Western parenting tries to respect and nurture children's individuality, while Chinese parents typically believe that arming children with skills, strong work habits, and inner confidence prepares them best for the future. Achingly honest and profoundly challenging, Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother chronicles Chua's iron-willed decision to raise her daughters, Sophia and Lulu, the Chinese way-and the remarkable, sometimes heartbreaking results her choice inspires.