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Delta Wedding: The Robber Bridegroom / Delta Wedding / The Ponder Heart / Losing Battles / The Optimist's Daughter (Hbj Book Ser. #1)
by Eudora WeltyWith a new introduction from Anne Tyler. From one our most treasured American writers, Delta Wedding is a vivid and charming portrait of a large southern family, the Fairchilds, who live on a plantation in the Mississippi delta. The story, set in 1923, is exquisitely woven from the ordinary events of family life, centered around the visit of a young relative, Laura McRaven, and the family&’s preparations for her cousin Dabney&’s wedding.
The American Heritage Dictionary Of Idioms, Second Edition: American English Idiomatic Expressions & Phrases
by Christine AmmerSenior moment. Think outside the box. Idioms like these can't be understood just from the words that make them up. The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms explores the meanings of idioms, including phrasal verbs such as kick back, proverbs such as too many cooks spoil the broth, interjections such as tough beans, and figures of speech such as elephant in the room. Since the publication of the first edition 15 years ago, author Christine Ammer has made extensive revisions that reflect new historical scholarship and changes in the English language. This second edition defines over 10,000 idiomatic expressions in greater detail than any other dictionary available today. English language learners will find this dictionary especially useful.
Ghost Huntress Book 1: The Awakening (The Ghost Huntress #1)
by Marley GibsonGet out your tape recorders, crystals, and extra batteries—you&’re about to go where our world meets the spirit world.Psychic Kids, Paranormal State, Haunting Evidence—these and countless other television shows are making believers out of millions of people: Ghosts exist, and they&’re living right beside us. For centuries, individuals have been trying to prove the existence of ghosts. But without hard evidence, it&’s been difficult to make the case. But now as science and technology have progressed, ghost hunters have been able to use scientific means, along with more traditional psychic tools, to make their case. Photographs, video recordings, and sound recordings are all producing some amazing results.In this new series, Ghost Huntress, meet Kendall Moorehead, a seemingly typical teen. When her family moves from Chicago to the small historical town of Radisson, Georgia, her psychic abilities awaken. She&’s hearing, feeling, and seeing things that seem unbelievable at first, but with the help of the town psychic, Kendall is able to come to terms with her newly emerging gift. So, together with her new BFF, Celia, Kendall forms a ghost hunting team. They&’ve got all the latest technology. They&’ve got Kendall for their psychic. Now they&’re going to clean up Radisson of its less savory spirits.The story is fiction. The science is real. Welcome to a new reality.
All The Light There Was: A Novel
by Nancy KricorianAll the Light There Was is the story of an Armenian family’s struggle to survive the Nazi occupation of Paris in the 1940s—a lyrical, finely wrought tale of loyalty, love, and the many faces of resistance.On the day the Nazis march down the rue de Belleville, fourteen-year-old Maral Pegorian is living with her family in Paris; like many other Armenians who survived the genocide in their homeland, they have come to Paris to build a new life. The adults immediately set about gathering food and provisions, bracing for the deprivation they know all too well. But the children—Maral, her brother Missak, and their close friend Zaven—are spurred to action of another sort, finding secret and not-so-secret ways to resist their oppressors. Only when Zaven flees with his brother Barkev to avoid conscription does Maral realize that the Occupation is not simply a temporary outrage to be endured. After many fraught months, just one brother returns, changing the contours of Maral’s world completely. Like Tatiana de Rosnay’s Sarah’s Key and Jenna Blum’s Those Who Save Us, All the Light There Was is an unforgettable portrait of lives caught in the crosswinds of history.
The Goldilocks Enigma: Why Is the Universe Just Right for Life?
by Paul DaviesThe Goldilocks Enigma is Paul Davies’s eagerly awaited return to cosmology, the successor to his critically acclaimed bestseller The Mind of God. Here he tackles all the "big questions," including the biggest of them all: Why does the universe seem so well adapted for life? In his characteristically clear and elegant style, Davies shows how recent scientific discoveries point to a perplexing fact: many different aspects of the cosmos, from the properties of the humble carbon atom to the speed of light, seem tailor-made to produce life. A radical new theory says it’s because our universe is just one of an infinite number of universes, each one slightly different. Our universe is bio-friendly by accident -- we just happened to win the cosmic jackpot. While this "multiverse" theory is compelling, it has bizarre implications, such as the existence of infinite copies of each of us and Matrix-like simulated universes. And it still leaves a lot unexplained. Davies believes there’s a more satisfying solution to the problem of existence: the observations we make today could help shape the nature of reality in the remote past. If this is true, then life -- and, ultimately, consciousness -- aren’t just incidental byproducts of nature, but central players in the evolution of the universe. Whether he’s elucidating dark matter or dark energy, M-theory or the multiverse, Davies brings the leading edge of science into sharp focus, provoking us to think about the cosmos and our place within it in new and thrilling ways.
Time Reborn: From the Crisis in Physics to the Future of the Universe
by Lee SmolinOne of our foremost thinkers and public intellectuals offers a radical new view of the nature of time, and explores its implications for everything from physics and cosmology to economics and climate change.What is time? It’s the sort of question we rarely ask because it seems so obvious. And yet, to a physicist, time is simply a human construct and an illusion: if you could somehow get outside the universe and observe it from there, you would see that every moment has always existed and always will. Lee Smolin disagrees, and in Time Reborn he lays out the case why. Developments in physics and cosmology point toward the reality of time and the openness of the future. Smolin’s groundbreaking theory postulates that physical laws can evolve over time and the future is not yet determined. Newton’s fundamental laws may not remain so fundamental. Time Reborn serves as a popular primer and investigation of time, both what it is and how the true nature of it impacts our world. "...at once entertaining, thought-provoking, fabulously ambitious and fabulously speculative."??—??New York Times Book Review"He challenges not only Einstein’s relativity, but also the very notion of natural laws as immutable truths."??—??Economist “One of the essential books of the twenty-first century . . . Smolin provides a much-needed dose of clarity about time, with implications that go far beyond physics to economics, politics, and personal philosophy.”??—??Jaron Lanier, author of You Are Not a Gadget
Jane Fonda: The Private Life of a Public Woman
by Patricia Bosworth“An irresistible biography of the accomplished, controversial actress whose roles on screen and off helped define a generation. Whether you love Jane Fonda or abhor her, Jane Fonda is a detailed and generous exploration not only of the contradictory world Fonda grew up in but of the many people who shaped her.” —Jeannette Walls, author of The Glass Castle Patricia Bosworth has gone beyond the image of an American superwoman to reveal a Jane Fonda more powerful and vulnerable than ever expected. Fonda emerged from a heartbreaking Hollywood family drama to become a ’60s onscreen ingénue and then an Oscar-winning actress. At the top of her game she risked all, rising up against the Vietnam War and shocking the world with a trip to Hanoi. While becoming one of Hollywood’s most committed feminists, she financed her husband Tom Hayden’s political career in the ’80s with exercise videos that began a fitness craze and brought in millions of dollars. Just as interesting is Fonda’s next turn, as a Stepford Wife of the Gulfstream set, marrying Ted Turner and seemingly walking away from her ideals and her career. Fonda’s multilevel story is a blend of the deep insecurity, magnetism, bravery, and determination that has fueled her inspiring and occasionally infuriating public life. “The definitive portrait of a woman conflicted, torn between ferocious ambition, family, and feminist causes.” —Gail Sheehy, author of Passages “The Private Life does Jane Fonda the service of making us remember why she was relevant in the first place: the movies. Bosworth’s thorough account of this wild, uniquely twentieth-century Hollywood life makes Jane Fonda the actress even more intriguing.” —San Francisco Chronicle
Spark: How to Lead Yourself and Others to Greater Success
by Sean Lynch Angie Morgan Courtney LynchFrom the team behind the corporate leadership consulting firm Lead Star??—??three leadership experts with military backgrounds??—??comes the New York Times bestseller Spark, “a myth-destroying book that will make you rethink both the theory and practice of leadership” (Daniel H. Pink).Leadership is not about job titles??—??it’s about action and behavior. “Sparks” are the doers, thinkers, innovators, and key influencers who are catalysts for personal and organizational change. But these extraordinary individuals aren’t defined by the place they hold on an organizational chart??—??they are defined by their actions, commitment, and will. Leadership experts Angie Morgan, Courtney Lynch, and Sean Lynch show how you can become a Spark by cultivating seven key leadership behaviors. Grounded in the latest research on leadership development, this fresh, accessible road map is packed with real-world stories from inside companies like Facebook, Google, and Boston Scientific, and from the authors’ own high-stakes, challenging experiences serving in the US Armed Forces. With Spark as a blueprint, anyone can become a catalyst for change, and any organization can identify and develop Sparks.Featuring a Foreword by Frederick W. Smith, founder, chairman and CEO of FedEx
A Writer's Diary: Being Extracts From The Diary Of Virginia Woolf (Persephone Bks. #Vol. 98)
by Virginia WoolfAn invaluable guide to the art and mind of Virginia Woolf, drawn from the personal record she kept over a period of twenty-seven years.Included are entries that refer to her own writing, and those that are relevant to the raw material of her work; and, finally, comments on the books she was reading. The first entry included here is dated 1918 and the last, three weeks before her death in 1941. Between these points of time unfolds the private world??—??the anguish, the triumph, the creative vision??—??of one of the great writers of the twentieth century. “A Writer’s Diary . . . is Virginia Woolf . . . The whole vibrates with the ups-and-downs of a passionate relationship . . . in the intensities, variations, alarms and excursions, panics and exaltations of her relationship to her art.”??—??New York Times Book ReviewEdited and with a Preface by Leonard Woolf.
Thin For Life: 10 Keys to Success from People Who Have Lost Weight and Kept It Off
by Anne M. Fletcher M.S., R.D.In this new edition of the acclaimed bestseller, award-winning nutritionist Anne M. Fletcher incorporates exciting recent scientific research to show that permanent weight loss is far easier than is commonly believed. Whether you want to lose 10 pounds or 100, Thin for Life will help you master your weight problem by sharing the techniques of the real experts -- hundreds of women and men who have lost weight for good.
Letters To A Young Doctor
by Richard SelzerHighly candid, insightful, and unexpectedly humorous essays on both the brutality and the beauty of the profession in which saving and losing lives is all in a day’s work. A timeless collection by the “best of the writing surgeons” (Chicago Tribune). With a Preface written by the Author especially for this edition.
Beyond Religion: Ethics for a Whole World
by H.H. Dalai LamaAn unprecedented literary event: a beloved world religious leader proposes a way to lead an ethical, happy, and spiritual life beyond religion and offers a program of mental training for cultivating key human values. Over twenty years ago, in his best-selling Ethics for a New Millennium, His Holiness the Dalai Lama first proposed an approach to ethics based on universal rather than religious principles. In Beyond Religion, the Dalai Lama, at his most compassionate and outspoken, elaborates and deepens his vision for the nonreligious way. Transcending the mere “religion wars,” he outlines a system of ethics for our shared world, one that gives full respect to religion. With the highest level of spiritual and intellectual authority, the Dalai Lama makes a stirring appeal for what he calls a “third way,” a path to an ethical and happy life and to a global human community based on understanding and mutual respect. Beyond Religion is an essential statement from the Dalai Lama, a blueprint for all those who may choose not to identify with a religious tradition, yet still yearn for a life of spiritual fulfillment as they work for a better world.
Illuminations: A Novel of Hildegard von Bingen
by Mary SharrattThe unforgettable story of how Hildegard of Bingen, Benedictine abbess and polymath, triumphed against impossible odds to become the greatest woman of her age. Hildegard experienced mystic visions from a very young age. Offered by her noble family to the Church at the age of eight, she lived for years in forced silence. But through the study of books and herbs, through music and the kinship of her sisters, Hildegard found her way from a life of submission to a calling that celebrated the divine glories all around us. An outspoken critic of political and ecclesiastical corruption, she courted controversy and nearly died an excommunicant. Her courage and originality of thought continue to inspire today.In this brilliantly researched and insightful novel, Mary Sharratt combines fiction, history, and Hildegardian philosophy into a moving portrait of a woman willing to risk everything for what she believed, a triumphant exploration of the life she might well have lived.
Half The Way Home: A Memoir of Father and Son
by Adam HochschildFrom the author of the best-selling King Leopold's Ghost, this haunting and deeply honest memoir tells of Adam Hochschild's conflicted relationship with his father, the head of a multinational mining corporation. The author lyrically evokes his privileged childhood on an Adirondack estate, a colorful uncle who was a pioneer aviator and fighter ace, and his first explorations of the larger world he encountered as he came of age in the tumultuous 1960s. But above all this is a story of a father and his only son and of the unexpected peace finally made between them.
Ordeal By Hunger: The Story of the Donner Party
by George R. StewartAward-winning author George R. Stewart's history of the Donner Party is “compulsive reading ??—?? a wonderful account, both scholarly and gripping, of horrifying episode in the history of the west" (Pulitzer Prize-winner Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.)The tragedy of the Donner party constitutes one of the most amazing stories of the American West. In 1846 eighty-seven people ??—?? men, women, and children ??—?? set out for California, persuaded to attempt a new overland route. After struggling across the desert, losing many oxen, and nearly dying of thirst, they reached the very summit of the Sierras, only to be trapped by blinding snow and bitter storms. Many perished; some survived by resorting to cannibalism; all were subjected to unbearable suffering. Incorporating the diaries of the survivors and other contemporary documents, George R. Stewart wrote the definitive history of that ill-fated band of pioneers. Ordeal by Hunger: The Story of the Donner Party is an astonishing account of what human beings may endure and achieve in the final press of circumstance.
Paris Twilight: A Novel
by Russ RymerA moody, sumptuous debut novel set in 1990s Paris Matilde Anselm, professor of cardiac anesthesiology, arrives in Paris from New York to be part of a surgery team in the winter of 1990, as manifestations against the First Gulf War are raging in the streets. Even as her concerns mount over the shadowy protocols surrounding the planned heart transplant, and even as she falls in love with the Arab diplomat in charge of those protocols, a surprise inheritance—a mysterious Paris apartment and a trove of love letters from the Spanish Civil War, bequeathed to her by a stranger—sweep her through a hidden Paris and into the labyrinth of her own buried past. As the diplomat and the apartment reluctantly reveal their secrets, the tragedies they unearth open a further mystery, the enigma that has haunted Matilde’s life. In the end she is left devastated, liberated, and, for the very first time, herself. Paris Twilight grapples with the meaning of love, the sin of suicide, and the mystery of family in a masterful fiction debut, a dizzying tale of personal transformation.
The Weirdo (Penguin Joint Venture Readers Ser.)
by Theodore TaylorChip Clewt, known simply as the weirdo, lives like a hermit in the Powhatan Swamp, a National Wildlife Refuge that is at the center of a heated controversy between local hunters and environmentalists. A hunting ban on the Powhatan is about to expire. The environmentalists want to protect the wildlife; the hunters are oiling their guns. Then someone completely unexpected comes forward to spearhead the conservation effort--the weirdo.Includes a reader's guide.
Five Myths About Nuclear Weapons
by Ward WilsonAn explosive rethinking of the power and purpose of nuclear weapons—and a call for radical action Nuclear weapons have always been a serious but seemingly insoluble problem: while they&’re obviously dangerous, they are also, apparently, necessary. This groundbreaking study shows why five central arguments promoting nuclear weapons are, in essence, myths. It is a myth: • that nuclear weapons necessarily shock and awe opponents, including Japan at the end of World War II • that nuclear deterrence is reliable in a crisis • that destruction wins wars • that the bomb has kept the peace for sixty-five years • and that we can&’t put the nuclear genie back in the bottle Drawing on new information and the latest historical research, Wilson poses a fundamental challenge to the myths on which nuclear weapons policy is currently built. Using pragmatic arguments and an unemotional, clear-eyed insistence on the truth, he arrives at a surprising conclusion: nuclear weapons are enormously dangerous, but don&’t appear to be terribly useful. In that case, he asks, why would we want to keep them? This book will be widely read and discussed by everyone who cares about war, peace, foreign policy, and security in the twenty-first century.
The Beauty Of The Beastly: New Views on the Nature of Life
by Natalie AngierNatalie Angier knows all that scientists know - and sometimes more - about the power of symmetry in sexual relations, about the brutal courting habits of dolphins, about the grand deceit of orchids, about the impact of female and male preferences on evolution. She knows how scientists go about their work, and she describes their ways, their visions, and their arguments. Perhaps most poignantly, she understands the complexities and the sad necessity of death. "The beauty of the natural world lies in the details, and most of those details are not the stuff of calendar art," she points out. Few writers have ever covered so many facets of biology so evocatively in one book. The Beauty of the Beastly tells us how the genius of the biological universe resides in its details and proves why, according to Timothy Ferris, author of the acclaimed Coming of Age in the Milky Way, Angier is "one of the strongest and wittiest science writers in the world today."
Travel Writing: A Novel
by Peter FerryPete Ferry, our narrator, teaches high school English in the wealthy Chicago suburb of Lake Forest and moonlights as a travel writer. On his way home after work one evening he witnesses a car accident that kills a beautiful woman named Lisa Kim. But was it an accident? Could Pete have prevented it? And did it actually happen, or is this just an elaborate tale he concocts to impart the power of story to his teenage students? Why can’t he stop thinking about Lisa Kim? And what might his obsession with her mean to his relationship with his girlfriend, Lydia? With humor, tenderness, and suspense, Travel Writing takes readers on fascinating journeys, both geographical and psychological, and delves into the notion that the line between fact and fiction is often negotiable.
How Lucky: A Novel
by Will Leitch2022 Edgar Award Nominee for Best Novel“A fantastic novel. . . . You are going to like this a lot.”—Stephen King“What’s more thrilling than a fictional character speaking to us in a voice we haven’t heard before, a voice so authentic and immediate—think Huck Finn, Holden Caulfield, Mattie Ross—that we suspect it must’ve been there all along, that we somehow managed to miss it? Daniel, the protagonist of Will Leitch’s smart, funny, heartbreaking new novel How Lucky, is just such a voice, and I’m not sure it will ever completely leave my head, or that I want it to.”—Richard RussoFor readers of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time and Nothing to See Here, a first novel as suspenseful and funny as it is moving, the unforgettable story of a fiercely resilient young man living with a physical disability, and his efforts to solve a mystery unfolding right outside his door. Daniel leads a rich life in the university town of Athens, Georgia. He’s got a couple close friends, a steady paycheck working for a regional airline, and of course, for a few glorious days each Fall, college football tailgates. He considers himself to be a mostly lucky guy—despite the fact that he’s suffered from a debilitating disease since he was a small child, one that has left him unable to speak or to move without a wheelchair. Largely confined to his home, Daniel spends the hours he’s not online communicating with irate air travelers observing his neighborhood from his front porch. One young woman passes by so frequently that spotting her out the window has almost become part of his daily routine. Until the day he’s almost sure he sees her being kidnapped...
Fire Will Fall
by Carol Plum-UcciShadowStrike poisoned the water of Trinity Falls two months ago. Now the Trinity Four, the teens most affected by the poison, have been isolated in a remote mansion under twenty-four-hour medical care while scientists on four continents rush to discover a cure. Meanwhile, U.S. operatives scour the world for the bioterrorists responsible for this heinous crime, as two teen virtual spies, also infected, hunt for the criminals on the Internet. The danger remains real—for ShadowStrike has every reason to pursue the Trinity Four, and their evil plan will unleash a new designer virus that’s even deadlier than the first.
The Incredibles
by Disney PressRead along with Disney and follow the story of the Incredibles, a family of undercover superheroes! When Bob Parr, a.k.a. Mr. Incredible, gets called out of retirement for a top secret mission, his family of superheroes including his wife Helen (a.k.a Elastigirl), and his children Violet, Dash, and Jack-Jack need to ban together to rescue the world from total destruction. Follow along with word-for-word narration to find out if this Super family can overcome the wicked plot of Syndrome!
Doctor Strange: Attack of the Doubt Demons
by Liz MarshamRead along with Marvel! By the Hoary Hosts of Hoggish! When Doctor Strange discovers that doubt demons have enchanted a school playground, it's up to him to dispel the evil forces! With the help of the powerful Eye of Agamotto, Doctor Strange can see into the demon's alternate dimension. They've entrapped the children by playing on their doubts, Doctor Strange must act fast to battle the doubt demons before he starts doubting HIMSELF!
National Geographic Kids Chapters: And More True Stories of Animals Behaving Badly (NGK Chapters)
by Aline Alexander NewmanThese bunnies may look adorable, but there's more than meets the eye! In Rascally Rabbits!, meet some rabbits that cause nothing but trouble, a rescue pup who will eat ANYTHING, and a sneaky bear with a taste for treats. Readers won't stop laughing as they read these hilarious—and completely true!—stories. Filled with engaging photos, fast facts, and fascinating sidebars, readers won't want to put this book down.