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';A series character worth watching for,' small-town Canadian police chief Reid Bennett and his dog tackle big city crime (Los Angeles Times). Reid Bennett hits the mean streets of Toronto again. Because of his expertise, he (and his German shepherd, Sam, of course) is asked to bring in the vermin that has been bludgeoning nighttime security guards. And he makes the collar as advertised. So the police department asks him to stay on the case and find out who has been ordering these beatings. Reid has got to get down to business and sift through the long list of suspects. But he gets a little too involved . . . the culprits start looking for him, or at least he thinks they are. Reid must get to the bottom of this case quickly, before he becomes the next victim.

Police chief Reid Bennett';the most savvy cop currently in the genre'and his dog track cold-hearted kidnappers in a Canadian crime thriller (Library Journal). Reid Bennett, the newest addition to the Murphy's Harbour, Ontario, police department, has embarked on his second case. During the Ice Festival, there is a sudden blackout and the Queen of the Ice Festival disappears; in fact she has been kidnapped! Members of a feminist anti pageant group are suspected, but Reid suspects something fishy. He must expose the organizer of the kidnappingand try not to get himself killed.

This gripping crime thriller pits ';the most savvy cop currently in the genre' and his police dog against a band of mercenaries (Library Journal). Reid Bennett, police chief of tiny Murphy's Harbour in Canada, is looking forward to a month's vacation. He plans to spend time with his girlfriend, Freda, and he might even get to go fishing with his dog, Sam. But then Norma Michaels, the wife of a rich businessman, turns up with a $25,000 offer: Find her twenty year old son, Jason. He has run off with some mercenaries to train for overseas service and she is afraid she has lost him forever. Even though he is of age, she wants him found, and she will pay handsomely. The mercenaries call themselves Freedom for Hire, and their leader is a cashiered sergeant from the British paratroopers who now styles himself Colonel George Dunphy. He was court martialed for brutality, forced out of the service, and stands ready to brutalize a bunch of young men while stealing their pay. Since people like Dunphy annoy Reid, he decides to take the jobdespite the minor risk of a few ex SAS men with automatic weaponsbut he is more worried that the boy will not want to come home when he is found. There are lots of questions to be answered when he and his German shepherd head north on the hunt for a few good (or maybe bad) men.

Dirty money draws Canadian police chief Reid Bennett and his dog south of the border, where they come up against racism, the moband murder. Canadian police chief Reid Bennett is back with his faithful dog Sam by his side. This time, the case takes them across the border to Chambers, Vermont, where an old buddy needs Reid's help. Doug Ford, a black policeman in the all white town, has been charged with murdering the attractive bookkeeper of a local ski resort. Only Reid believes Doug's story that he and the woman were working together to investigate an entrenched money laundering conspiracy. But as new bodies pile up and the mafia rears its ugly head, things start to fall in line with Doug's story. Can Reid untangle the mystery before more blood gets shed? He will have to act fastan unseen hand seems willing to stop at nothing to keep its secrets safe.

This ';inside account captures the energyand the madnessof the software giant's race to develop a critical new program. ... Gripping' (Fortune Magazine).Showstopperis the dramatic, inside story of the creation of Windows NT, told byWall Street Journalreporter G. Pascal Zachary. Driven by the legendary David Cutler, a picked band of software engineers sacrifices almost everything in their lives to build a new, stable, operating system aimed at giving Microsoft a platform for growth through the next decade of development in the computing business. Comparable in many ways to the Pulitzer Prizewinning bookThe Soul of a New Machineby Tracy Kidder,Showstoppergets deep inside the process of software development, the lives and motivations of coders and the pressure to succeed coupled with the drive for originality and perfection that can pull a diverse team together to create a program consisting of many hundreds of thousands of lines of code.

A wife and mother grapples with love and loss in World War IIera Hollywood, in a New York Timesbestselling author's emotional tour de force. For two decades, Elizabeth Herlong has been a devoted Hollywood wife, supporting her husband as he built an empire in the budding motion picture industry. But far from the bright glamour of her current life, World War II rages in Europe, forcing Elizabeth to remember her past, awakening feelings and longings she thought she would never experience again. Most of all, she fears for her eldest son, who turns eighteen in less than a year and will have to enlist in the army. Then one night, Elizabeth's husband introduces her to a German screenwriter he's been working with. Erich Kessler is a disabled veteran of World War I attempting to make a new life for himself. Something in his face stirs Elizabeth's heartsetting her on a journey of discovery about the meaning of true love and the things that war cannot destroy. Made into a film starring Claudette Colbert, Orson Welles, and Natalie Wood, this is a novel of a woman haunted by the shadows of war both past and present, from the New York Timesbestselling author of JubileeTrail, Deep Summer, and other acclaimed novels.

The first novel by Newbery Awardwinning author Nancy Willard: A stunning story of magic and miracles, and a testament to the enduring power of faith and loveBen and Willie Harkissian are twin brothers (think Cain and Abel, Jacob and Esau) growing up in Ann Arbor, Michigan, on the eve of World War II. A baseball launched into the October sky sets in motion a series of events that transforms many lives. Ben leaves for the front and faces deathfiguratively as well as literally. Left behind is Clare Bishop, who has been paralyzed from the waist down. But in exchange she receives some very special gifts. She can see the future, be at one with animals, and chat with Death. Willie Harkissian remains in Michigan as well, though his relationship with his brother will never be the same.A love story interrupted by war, this is also a novel about discovering the ordinary in the extraordinary and finding the miraculous in everyday life.

Selections from Nancy Willard's acclaimed volumes of poetry and proseThis diverse collection features some of Nancy Willard's most critically lauded poetryincluding works from her Newbery Medalwinning volume,A Visit to William Blake's Innas well as her short fiction and four unconventional essays on writing.Hens, children, magic bottles, and the moon are just some of the characters running through the luminous musings gathered here. ';How to Stuff a Pepper' becomes a heady discourse on the thoughts and sleeping habits of peppers. ';The Doctrine of the Leather-Stocking Jesus' and ';The Hucklebone of a Saint' are tales about the power of superstition to shape our lives. Other stories showcase favorite Willard themes about God, religion, and the magic and mysticism in everyday lifeand the ancestors, guardians, saints, and spirits who, in Willard's words, come back ';once in a while to keep an eye on us, the living.'A paean to the power of storytelling,A Nancy Willard Readeris an essential volume for poetry and fiction lovers.

From the award-winning author ofMinor Characterscomes a haunting novel about the persistence of love and the sustaining and destabilizing power of memoriesIn the vibrant downtown Manhattan art world of the 1960s, where men and women collide in ';lucky and unlucky convergences,' a series of love affairs has left Joanna Gold, a young photographer, feeling numbed. Then, at yet another party, a painter named Tom Murphy walks up to her. ';Why do you hang back?' he asks.Rather than another brief collision, their relationship is the profound and ecstatic love each had longed to find. But it's undermined by Tom's harrowing pasthis fatherless childhood, his wartime experiences, and most of all, the loss of the two children he left behind in Florida, along with the powerful red, white, and black paintings he will never set eyes on again. Tom, both tender and volatile, draws Joanna into the unwinnable struggle against the forces that drive him toward death.Once again, Joyce Johnson brings to life a mythic bohemian world where art is everything and life is as full of intensity and risk as the bold sweep of a painter's brush across a canvas.A New York Times Notable BookExcerpted in theNew YorkerandHarper's Magazine

The award-winning author ofMinor Characterswrites with delicious transparency about a love that cannot be harnessed and a woman who refuses to be deceivedIn the great wave of husband-leaving ushered in by the Sexual Revolution, Molly Held frees herself from her cold, flagrantly unfaithful husband after their final quarrel turns violent. With her five-year-old son, she lights out for an Upper West Side apartment and the new life she hopes to find with Conrad Schwartzbergthe charismatic radical lawyer who has recently become her lover. Having escaped from a desert, she lands in a swamp.While Conrad radiates positive energy, he is unable to tell Mollyor anyone who loves himthe truth. No longer the wronged wife, Molly now finds herself the Other Woman. She is sharing Conrad with Roberta, another refugee from marriagewith Conrad's movements between the two of them disguised by his suspiciously frequent out-of-town engagements.Roberta either knows nothing or prefers to look the other way, but Molly's maddening capacity for double vision takes over her mind. What saves her from herself is her well-developed sense of irony, which never fails heror the reader.

Paul Monette's uproarious, sexy novel takes us deep into the glamorous world of vintage Los AngelesPerched on top of a hill in the oldest part of Bel Air, Crook House is the grand mansion that gilded Hollywood dreams are made of. It seemed like the perfect place for the exhausted and neurotic Rita to take time away from her life and catch up with her old friend Peter and his lover, Nick. What she didn't count on was her friends' emotional baggage, not to mention the suspicious tales of a buried treasure underneath the house.This second novel from Paul Monette puts a tender focus on the ways in which money and time can distort relationships, while also demonstrating how the ties between friends can endureand even grow strongerno matter what the distance or history. As Rita, Nick, and Peter get closer to unraveling the mystery buried underneath Crook House, they begin to learn that what they are searching for could be the key to their very survival.This ebook features an illustrated biography of Paul Monette including rare images and never-before-seen documents from the Paul Monette papers of the UCLA Library Special Collections.

College friends Lucy and Katherine reunite as adultsand build a new friendship as changed womenKatherine shows up at Lucy's Manhattan doorstep having run away from the marriage altar. Lucy isn't thrilled to see her former sorority sisterher own life as a children's book illustrator is complicated enough, especially as she may be falling out of love with her boyfriend. Along with Lucy's oddball best friend, Julia, the women tackle the complicated challenge of being young, lost, and in search of life in New York City.Something Blueis a heartfelt but never sentimental modern classic, capturing three women on the verge of the future, still figuring out the past, and trying to solve the present all at once. A novel that addresses friendship, ambition, and love head on,Something Blueand its three heroines head in surprising directions in their search for meaning.

The powerful story of an unlikely friendship and a doctor's re-education on the battlefields of the Vietnam WarFresh out of medical school and planning to enter academia, David pragmatically applies to serve in the US Army, thinking he would rather work in a stateside military hospital than get drafted. But when he gets reassigned to Southeast Asia, he suddenly finds himself on a base in Vietnam. He joins a civilian aid mission on a supposedly secure plateau, and spends his days dispensing pills to villagers. As David comes to terms with the unexpected factors that brought him to Vietnam, he must adjust to many more twists and turnsamong them his relationship with his driver, Tom, a young, rough-hewn Southerner whose reticence feels unnervingly like indifference.Gradually, however, David sees that there's far more to Tom than he initially thought. As their friendship grows, David also realizes that his fellow doctors and the troops on base hold widely diverging opinions about the war and its objectives. As it becomes clear that their base is located on a key strategic routethe notorious Ho Chi Minh Trailand thus a vulnerable target, it's only a matter of time before battles break out . . .

In Grand Master of crime fiction Dorothy Salisbury Davis's second Mrs. Norris novel, which theNew York Timeshailed as ';tensely perplexing,' the crime-solving Scottish housekeeper helps crack the case of a serial lady-killer As housekeeper to James Jarvis's recently deceased father, a retired major general of the US Army, Mrs. Norris has raised Jimmie since boyhood. Now the Wall Street lawyer faces a challenging case. The son of one of the firm's old blue-blood clients has been slapped with a paternity suit. But Teddy Adkins swears he never slept with the woman. Meanwhile, Mrs. Norris is miffed when her gentleman friend Jasper Tully, the widowed chief investigator for the Manhattan DA's office, cancels one dinner date after another because a real estate magnate has been found strangled in the bedroom of her Upper East Side apartment. Jewelry was stolen, but there are no signs of a break-in. Tully's investigation turns up a trail of strangulations that extends all the way to the Midwest. As Mrs. Norris pursues her own unorthodox investigation, she uncovers a shocking link between the cases that threatens her very life.A Gentleman Called, a finalist for the Mystery Writers of America's Edgar Award, is the second novel in Dorothy Salisbury Davis's Mrs. Norris Mysteries, which also includeDeath of an Old Sinner,Old Sinners Never Die, and ';Mrs. Norris Observes,' a short story in the collectionTales for a Stormy Night.A Gentleman Called is the 2nd book in the Mrs. Norris Mysteries, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.

Grand Master of crime fiction Dorothy Salisbury Davis brings back the beguiling character Major General Ransom Jarvis in this third Mrs. Norris Mystery, a prequel, which immerses the redoubtable crime-solving Scottish housekeeper in a murder investigation in the nation's capital With a new president in the White House, Major General Ransom Jarvis suspects that his retirement from the US Army is imminent. But at Washington's annual invitation-only Beaux Arts Ball, the decorated soldier becomes an unwitting pawn in a far-reaching conspiracy. It begins when Ransom meets Virginia Allan, a beautiful blonde with secrets. And there is something decidedly shady about Frenchman Leo Montaigne. As Ransom starts to uncover damning intel about DC's most powerful movers and shakers, the town is suddenly rocked by murder. Now Ransom's son, Jimmie, a freshman congressman, and his housekeeper, Mrs. Norris, are risking their necks as they conduct their own fact-finding mission in a city rife with patriots, spies, and deadly political wannabes.Old Sinners Never Dieis the third novel in Dorothy Salisbury Davis's Mrs. Norris Mysteries, which also includeDeath of an Old Sinner;A Gentleman Called, a finalist for the Mystery Writers of America's Edgar Award; and ';Mrs. Norris Observes,' a short story in the collectionTales for a Stormy Night.Old Sinners Never Die is the 3rd book in the Mrs. Norris Mysteries, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.

A Grand Master of crime fiction, Dorothy Salisbury Davis introduces the redoubtable crime-solving Scottish housekeeper Mrs. Norris in this thrilling tale of family secrets and murder General Ransom Jarvis is writing his memoirs about a distinguished career that spanned five continents and three wars. Along the way, he stumbles upon a scandal about a philandering ancestorAmerica's ambassador to England who went on to become president of the United States. But a very clear and present danger embroils the irascible retired general in a deepening quagmire of deceit, fraud, and murder. Enter Mrs. Norris, the housekeeper who has been almost a mother to Ransom's son since he was a boy. Jimmie is currently running for governor of New York and enjoying his budding relationship with sculptor Helene Joyce. A sudden death changes everything, plunging Jimmie and Mrs. Norris into a bizarre case headed up by Jasper Tully, chief investigator for the Manhattan district attorney's office. With more lives at stake, the trio follows lead after lead into a web of crime that only the canny housekeeper can clean up in the nick of time.Death of an Old Sinneris the first novel in Dorothy Salisbury Davis's Mrs. Norris Mysteries, which also includeA Gentleman Called, a finalist for the Mystery Writers of America's Edgar Award;Old Sinners Never Die; and ';Mrs. Norris Observes,' a short story in the collectionTales for a Stormy Night.Death of an Old Sinner is the 1st book in the Mrs. Norris Mysteries, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.

The acclaimed author ofTo Sir, With Loverecalls his lifelong struggle against ignorance and racism while sharing a train ride with a bigoted white neighborOn a commuter train traveling from New Canaan, Connecticut, to New York's Grand Central Station, a well-heeled white suburbanite reluctantly takes the only available seat and eventually strikes up a conversation with the black man sitting next to him. The white businessman's verbal barrage of insensitive questions and offensive remarks incites a rage in his black neighbor that can barely be suppressed. But the offended rider is E. R. Braithwaiteformer Royal Air Force pilot, Cambridge graduate, schoolteacher, social worker, diplomat, and bestselling authorand he has triumphed over prejudice and hatred throughout his truly extraordinary life and multifaceted career.Against the backdrop of a short railway commute, E. R. Braithwaite powerfully recounts a personal history of remarkable accomplishments in the face of bigotry and hatred. Part memoir, part treatise on racial intolerance and oppression, and the ignorance that engenders them,Reluctant Neighborsis the unforgettable story of one man's continuous struggle against injustice and his unwavering dedication to the pursuit of human dignity.

In London, racial hatred leads to a mugging, a murder, and a mystery in a powerful novel of intolerance, loss, and self-discovery by the bestselling author ofTo Sir, With LoveIdentical twins Jack and Dave Bennett enjoy nothing better than a rowdy night out in Londonlistening to hot jazz, hoisting a few pints, flirting with girls . . . and then finishing off the evening by roughing up a stranger. But one night they ambush the wrong victim, a young black man who fights back. Suddenly bottles break and a knife is drawn, and when it's over, Jack stumbles home aloneonly to awaken the next morning to discover his brother's bed empty and policemen at the door.The police are investigating a fatal car accident that left two people dead, their bodies burned beyond recognition. One of the dead was apparently the car's owner, a young black doctor, but the only clue to the second corpse's identity is a knife engraved with Dave Bennett's name and address. And no words are spoken of a man found slain in an alley on the other side of town. With his life brutally upended, Jack finds that his search for answers is drawing him closer to the dead doctor's beautiful sister, Michelle, and causing him to question everything he's ever believed about race, justice, family, and the violent urban world around him.

Acclaimed author E. R. Braithwaite (To Sir, With Love) chronicles the brutality, oppression, and courage he witnessed as a black man granted ';Honorary White' status during a six-week visit to apartheid South AfricaAs a black man living in a white-dominated world, author E. R. Braithwaite was painfully aware of the multitude of injustices suffered by people of color and he wrote powerfully and poignantly about racial discrimination in his acclaimed novels and nonfiction works. So it came as a complete surprise when, in 1973, the longstanding ban on his books was lifted by the South African government, a ruling body of minority whites that brutally oppressed the black majority through apartheid laws. Applying for a visaand secretly hoping to be refusedhe was granted the official status of ';Honorary White' for the length of his stay. As such, Braithwaite would be afforded some of the freedoms that South Africa's black population was denied, yet would nonetheless be considered inferior by the white establishment.WithHonorary White, Braithwaite bears witness to a dark and troubling time, relating with grave honesty and power the shocking abuses, inequities, and horrors he observed and experienced firsthand during his six-week stay in a criminal nation. His book is a personal testament to the savagery of apartheid and to the courage of those who refused to be broken by it.

E. R. Braithwaite, the acclaimed author ofTo Sir, With Love, poignantly recounts his time as a social worker dedicated to London's abandoned minority childrenDespite his Cambridge education and a sterling record with the British Royal Air Force during World War II, E. R. Braithwaite, a black man, was unable to find employment as an engineer in post-war London. Instead he accepted a position as a teacher in a tough East End school and wrote of his experiences in his classic bestsellerTo Sir, With Love. Nine years later, Braithwaite once again found himself assuming an unfamiliar professional role as a social worker charged with finding homes for London's orphaned, abused, or abandoned ';coloured' children. While he lacked formal training, Braithwaite possessed qualities essential for the job: compassion, determination, and a deep, abiding understanding and love for the helpless, lost, and disregarded.InPaid Servant, E. R. Braithwaite shares his experiences in London's Department of Child Welfare, focusing on the case of his four-year-old client Roddy, a bright, handsome mulatto boy who was rejected for adoption by both black and white families because he was not their ';own kind.' Everywhere he turned, Braithwaite encountered racial prejudice. But he was willing to fight for what he believed in, and he believed in Roddy. Writing with great power, warmth, and a deep belief in human dignity and worth, Braithwaite offers a heartbreaking yet hopeful look into a society's attempt to care for its youngest, most vulnerable citizens.

A little girl and an extraordinary teddy bear share the secrets of a wondrous, sometimes puzzling world in this charming children's tale that celebrates diversity, from the acclaimed author of the schoolroom classicTo Sir, With LoveLisbeth has a new best friend, her toy bear, Billingsly, who has one perfectly formed ear that is ideal for hearing what goes on in the world around him. But with his left ear, which is misshapen, he listens to Lisbeth alone. When she speaks into Billingsly's crinkled ear, Billingsly speaks back, though he'll talk to no one but Lisbeth because adults would never listen to him the way she does, and other children tend to shun him because he is different. When Lisbeth is in school, Billingsly enjoys adventures from his perch on the windowsill in her bedroom with animals roaming the outside world and magical creatures like the Tooth Fairy and the other bear in the mirror. But his greatest adventures take place when he is in Lisbeth's arms, for nothing is more magical than a little girl's love.Filled with wit and wonder,Billingslyis the tale of an extraordinary friendship that is sure to enchant children of all ages, and adults who are young at heart.

From the bestselling author ofTo Sir, With Lovecomes the moving personal memoir of a westernized black man who journeys to Africa in search of his roots and discovers a vibrant and extraordinary society on the verge of monumental changeIn the early 1960s acclaimed British Guianese author E. R. Braithwaite embarked on a pilgrimage to the West African countries of Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, and across Sierra Leone just as the emerging nation was preparing to declare its independence. What Braithwaite discovered was a world vastly different from the staid, firmly established British society in which he had spent most of his life. In a place as foreign to him as the dark side of the moon, he was overcome by colorful sights, sounds, and smells that vividly reawakened lost memories from his childhood. Entering the intimate circles of the local intelligentsia, Braithwaite was able to view these newly evolving African societies from the inside, struck by their mixtures of passion and navete, their political obsessions and technological indifference. The author discovered a world that fascinated, excited, and, in some cases, deeply troubled himand in the process he discovered himself.E. R. Braithwaite'sA Kind of Homecomingis at once an enthralling personal journey and an eye-opening chronicle of a time of great change on the African continent that helps us to better understand the West Africa of today.

A ';wildly entertaining homage to the best '60s Heinlein juveniles,' from a multiple Nebula finalist (Publishers Weekly). Jak Jinnaka's teenage life in the thirty-sixth century has been nothing but funignoring school, partying outrageously with his beautiful girlfriend, Sesh, and spending his uncle Sib's huge fortune. But then, while they are out for a wild night of post-graduation clubbing, Sesh is kidnapped by the dangerous, enigmatic Duke of Uranium. Bruised and battered, Jak wakes up to a whole new reality. Sweet, superficial Sesh is actually Princess Shyf of Greenworld, daughter of the rulers of a powerful faraway spaceport. Kind and slightly dotty old Uncle Sib is a legendary spymaster. And Jak's whole life has been preparation for the world of espionage ... Now, his maiden mission is to rescue his girlfriend from one of the most powerful aristocrats in the solar systemor is it? The world Uncle Sib has plunged him into has wheels within every wheel and hidden forces in every shadow, in this action-packed tale by the acclaimed author of Directive 51 and the Timeline Wars series. ';Rollicking space opera with outlaws, space travel, kidnappings, rescues, chases, and the abrupt coming of age of the protagonist.' Science Fiction Chronicle ';Barnes plays with old-fashioned space opera in this far-future SF adventure. ... This is a fun romp.' Locus

This epic novel of a wide-eyed missionary and a rebellious woman thrust into China's Communist revolution is ';an excellent read, panoramic in scope' (Financial Times). In 1931, young English-born missionary Jakob Kellner brings all the crusading passion of his untried Christian faith to a China racked by famine and bloody civil war. He burns to save the world's largest nation from Communism. But when he is swept along on the cold, unforgiving Long March, Jakob becomes entangled with Mei-ling, a beautiful and fervent revolutionary. Soon, powerful new emotions challenge and reshape his faithand entrap him forever in the vast country's tortured destiny. Once held hostage by Red Guards in Peking for more than two years, author Anthony Grey traces the path of China's Communist party from its covert inception through purge and revolution. He crafts a portrait of China as a land of great beauty and harshnessof triumph and tragedyin a sweeping narrative, rich in historical and cultural revelations.

Winner of the National Jewish Book Award: A novel of a Polish king and a rebellious rabbi, ';full of sudden delights and mocking humor' (The New York Times). The Polish monarch has outlawed a portion of the Jewish funeral rite, and none of the community's lawyers, judges, or scholars will come forward to defend the custom before the crown. Only one man dares challenge the sovereign: the spindly old Rabbi Eliezer of Rimanov, whose eccentric habits conceal the mind of a dreamer and the curiosity of a child. The rabbi is reduced to laughter at the sight of the king, for the country's ruler is but a boyand Rabbi Eliezer knows how to speak to youngsters. They make a bet: If the rabbi can convince him that there is more to the universe than meets the eye, the funeral rite will be restored. To make his case, Eliezer launches into the story of Judah ben Simon, a tale of such majesty and wonder that it promises to make a dreamer out of all who hear it, changing them forevermore.Judah the Pious is a lively, early novel set in seventeenth-century Poland by one of today's most accomplished writers, a National Book Award finalist and the New York Timesbestselling author of Lovers at the Chameleon Club, Paris 1932; A Changed Man; and Reading Like a Writer.

An ';irresistibly readable' pair of novellas skewering Americans abroadby the New York Timesbestselling author and National Book Award finalist(The New York Times Book Review). ';In a style that is bold, witty, richly detailed, and suffused with a wry subtlety,' Francine Prose offers penetrating portraits of Americans in Europe who have brought all their baggageego, ambition, sexual desirewith them (Elle). Guided Tours of Hell When the insecure (and rightfully so) playwright Landau travels from New York to Prague to read at the first annual Kafka conference, he's certain this is his chance to prove himselfand his work. But he quickly finds himself upstaged by Jiri Krakauer, a charismatic Holocaust survivor whose claim to fame is a long-ago death-camp love affair with Kafka's sister. On a group tour to the camp-turned-tourist-attraction, Landau sets out to prove that Krakauer is lyingwith unexpected results. Three Pigs in Five Days Ambitious young journalist Nina has been stranded in Paris by her editor and sometimes boyfriend, Leo. When he finally shows up, playfully suggesting a romantic tour of the catacombs, prisons, and shadows of the City of Light, the bloom begins to come off the rose for the infatuated Ninawho must ask herself how much of herself she is willing to sacrifice for love.

Eleven ';impeccably crafted, painfully hilarious' tales of innocence lost and families in search of connection from the New York Timesbestselling author (San Francisco Chronicle). A reluctant trophy wife on her Italian honeymoon; a young woman in love with her sister's dead boyfriend; a lonely puppeteer flirting with the hostess of a children's party; a teenage girl traveling to Paris with her father and, unexpectedly, his young girlfriend. Francine Prose's characters inhabit a world of rich emotion and startling clarity, searching for connection in a world full of surprise and humor; they travel, love, break up, and start again. Even their animal companionsa gecko rescued from a wild party, a dog who bites a bride, a hamster who dies unexpectedly and sends a family on a journey to give it a proper funeralshine with the emotional complexity and sly satire that make Prose's work such a joy to experience. In this collection, the New York Timesbestselling author and National Book Award finalist demonstrates the craft, humor, and piercing human insight that make her, in the words of Gary Shteyngart ';one of a handful of truly indispensable American writers.'

The New York Timesbestselling author takes on New Agers as one woman searches for meaning in this ';brilliantly satiric but... sweet-natured' novel (Publishers Weekly). Thirty-year-old Martha is stagnating in a demeaning, woefully underpaid job as a fact-checker at frothy fashion magazine Mode and an unhappy relationship with an unrepentant jerk. But she stumbles upon an unlikely new circle of friends when she interrupts a goddess-worshipping ceremony on Fire Island and ends up rescuing its accident-prone leader, Isis Moonwagon, from the waves. From the steel skyscrapers of Manhattan to a sweat lodge in the Arizona desert, Martha chases fulfillment and self-actualization in the company of this group of opinionated, bumbling women, but the revelations she receives are not necessarily what she expected. ';Prose's satiric vision could not be more sharply focused here, and her powers of observation and deadpan humor never falter' as she sends up the New Age movement and its over-earnest adherents (The Miami Herald).

This tale of a family in Little Italy is ';a minor miracle... documenting the madness and the grace of God in everyday life' (Newsweek). On a 1950s September night so hot that the devout Catholics of Little Italy wonder if New York City has slipped into hell, the butcher Joseph Santangelo invites his friends to play pinochle. At the end of a long, sweaty, boozy evening, his friend Lino Falconetti, addled by wine and heat, bets the hand of his daughter, Catherineand Santangelo wins. Santangelo's modern new wife clashes immediately with his superstitious, fiercely protective mother. But years later, it is Catherine who is horrified when the daughter they raise turns out to have more in common with the old world than the new. From a New York Timesbestselling author, this story of two generations of an Italian-American family is imaginative, evocative, funny, and warmand was made into an acclaimed film directed by Nancy Savoca, starring Tracey Ullman, Vincent D'Onofrio, and Lili Taylor.

';Reading [this book] is like driving down the road with a companion who is so smart and funny and insightful that her conversation transforms the landscape' (Jane Smiley, Pulitzer Prizewinning author of A Thousand Acres). The twelve ';meticulously observed' stories of Women and Children First showcase New York Timesbestselling author and National Book Award finalist Francine Prose at her finestoffering a glimpse into the lives of men and women searching for connection and meaning in a world that often seems pre-programmed for absurdity (The New York Times). An adult daughter struggling to understand her father's newfound Hasidic faith, an alcoholic trying to improve himself by fasting, a housewife enrolled in the New Consciousness Academy, a French literature professor who's begun to fear Madame Bovary, and a young woman seeking direction from a Tibetan master in the company of neurotic, overeager followersthese are the achingly, hilariously real people who inhabit these ';wise and witty' stories (Minneapolis Star-Tribune).