Originally subtitled "An Adventurous Education, 1935-1946",this book is a key volume in Kerouac's lifework, the series ofautobiographical novels he referred to as The Legend of Duluoz. Awonderfully unassuming look back at the origins of his career--aprehistory of the Beat era, written from the perspective of thepsychedelic '60s.

The hilarious and well-traveled Sloane Crosley, author of the New York Times bestseller I Was Told There’d Be Cake , helms this collection of the genre’s gems.

Once upon a time people described Ray Bradbury as aparticularly gifted writer of science fiction. Today he seems morelike a magical realist, a small-town American cousin to Borges andGarcia Marquez. A writer whose vision of the world is so intensethat the objects in it sometimes levitate or glow with otherworldlyauras. Who but Bradbury could imagine the playroom in whichchildren's fantasies become real enough to kill? The beautifulwhite suit that turns six down-and-out Chicanos into their idealselves? Only Bradbury could make us identify with a man who livesin terror of his own skeleton. And if a generic science fictionwriter might describe a spaceship landing on Mars, only Bradburycan tell us how the Martians see it-and the and dreamlike visitorsfrom Planet Earth.

The Celestine Prophecy is one of the most widely read books ofour times. It s insights have proven to strike deep and universalchords. Now those insights have inspired this breathtakinglyhandsome illustrated book. Grounding her poetic story in the tenetsfound in James Redfield s remarkable work, Dee Lillegard tells thestory of Celestine, a young boy, who "finds his path but loses hisway" while wandering in the woods. How he uses the insights that hefinds on his journey to find his way back to the safety of his ownhome and bed is the core of this intriguing tale. Magnificentillustrations by Dean Morrissey not only depict the action but helpreaders understand the meaning of the song of then is a new andenriching treatment of James Redfield s themes that can beunderstood and relished by perceptive readers of all ages.

You know the authors’ names. You recognize the title. You'veprobably used this book yourself. And now The Elements of Style–themost widely read and employed English style manual–is available ina specially bound 50th Anniversary Edition that offers the title'svast audience an opportunity to own a more durable and elegantlybound edition of this time-tested classic. Offering the same content as the Fourth Edition, revised in 1999,the new casebound 50th Anniversary Edition includes a briefoverview of the book's illustrious history. Used extensively byindividual writers as well as high school and college students ofwriting, it has conveyed the principles of English style tomillions of readers. This new deluxe edition makes the perfect giftfor writers of any age and ability level.

THE ANIMAL DIALOGUES tells of Craig Childs' own chillingexperiences among the grizzlies of the Arctic, sharks off the coastof British Columbia and in the turquoise waters of Central America,jaguars in the bush of northern Mexico, mountain lions, elk,Bighorn Sheep, and others. More than chilling, however, thesestories are lyrical, enchanting, and reach beyond what one commonlyassumes an "animal story" is or should be. THE ANIMAL DIALOGUES isa book about another world that exists alongside our own, an entirerealm of languages and interactions that humans rarely get thechance to witness.

NATIONAL BESTSELLER "A LIVING, POWERFULLY PHYSICAL WORK . . .UPDIKE IS A SUPERBLY SKILLFUL WRITER.""-The Wall StreetJournal""WHAT A PIECE OF WORK IS UPDIKE Our own king of eruditionhas gone back to the Hamlet story to imagine its inception: itsoffstage pre-story, when Claudius fell in love with his brother'squeen and that first dastardly deed in the garden was set inmotion. Wickedly replete with allusions, weaving the history ofideas with the lustier possibilities of adulterous coupling. . . .There is something delightful about following Updike down thispath, seeing his sentiments and sympathies unfold.""-The BostonGlobe""WITTY . . . FRESH AND MOVING . . . Engrossing enough on itsown terms to stand independently of Shakespeare's play."-"Time" "UPDIKE] HAS MANAGED TO CREATE IN GERTRUDE A GENUINELY COMPELLINGCHARACTER, a woman who is, by turns, vulnerable and outspoken,daring and naive. . . . One of his most sympathetic and persuasivefemale characters.""-The New York Times""BRILLIANT.""-NewRepublic"

Decline and Fall (1928) was Evelyn Waugh's immenselysuccessful first novel, and it displays not only all of itsauthor's customary satiric genius and flair for unearthing theridiculous in human nature, but also a youthful willingness totrain those weapons on any and every thing in his path. In thisfractured picaresque comedy of the hapless Paul Pennyfeatherstumbling from one disaster to another, Waugh manages the delicioustask of skewering every aspect of the society in which helived. With an Introduction by Frank Kermode

From the moment these two legendary players took the court onopposing sides, they engaged in a fierce physical and psychologicalbattle. In Celtic green was Larry Bird, the hick from French Lick,with laser-beam focus, relentless determination, and a deadly jumpshot, a player who demanded excellence from everyone around him andwhose caustic wit left opponents quaking in their high-tops. MagicJohnson was Mr. Showtime, a magnetic personality with all the rightmoves. Young, indomitable, he was a pied piper in purple and gold.And he burned with an inextinguishable desire to win. Their uncommonly competitive relationship came to symbolize themost thrilling rivalry in the NBA—East vs. West, physical vs.finesse, old school vs. Showtime, even white vs. black. Each pushedthe other to greatness, and together Bird and Johnson collectedeight NBA Championships and six MVP awards, helping to save afloundering NBA. At the start they were bitter rivals, but alongthe way they became lifelong friends.

"While a single short story may have a difficult time raisingenough noise on its own to be heard over the din of civilization,short stories in bulk can have the effect of swarming bees,blocking out sound and sun and becoming the only thing you canthink about," writes Ann Patchett in her introduction to The BestAmerican Short Stories 2006. This vibrant, varied sampler of theAmerican literary scene revels in life's little absurdities,captures timely personal and cultural challenges, and ultimatelyshares subtle insight and compassion. In "The View from CastleRock," the short story master Alice Munro imagines a fictionalaccount of her Scottish ancestors' emigration to Canada in 1818.Nathan Englander's cast of young characters in "How We Avenged theBlums" confronts a bully dubbed "The Anti-Semite" to both comic andtragic ends. In "Refresh, Refresh," Benjamin Percy gives aforceful, heart-wrenching look at a young man's choices when hisfather -- along with most of the men in his small town -- isdeployed to Ir

The set, boxed in a lavish silver metallic, features The Best American Travel Writing 2006, edited by Tim Cahill; The Best American Spiritual Writing 2006, introduced by Peter J. Gomes; and, like the first set, The Best American Short Stories 2006, edited by Ann Patchett.

A REVEALING AND DRAMATIC LOOK AT THE INSIDE OF THE AMERICAN SPACE PROGRAM FROM ONE OF ITS PIONEERS. This is the astronaut story never before told--about the fear, love, and sacrifice demanded of the few men who dared to reach beyond the heavens for the biggest prize of all: the Moon.

Narrated by a fifteen-year-old girl with a ruthless regard fortruth, The Last Life is a beautifully told novel of lies andghosts, love and honor. Set in colonial Algeria, and in the southof France and New England, it is the tale of the LaBasse family,whose quiet integrity is shattered by the shots from agrandfather's rifle. As their world suddenly begins to crumble,long-hidden shame emerges: a son abandoned by the family before hewas even born, a mother whose identity is not what she has claimed,a father whose act of defiance brings Hotel Bellevue-the familybusiness-to its knees. Messud skillfully and inexorably describeshow the stories we tell ourselves, and the lies to which we cling,can turn on us in a moment. It is a work of stunning power from awriter to watch.

In this classic novel Richard Yates, hailed as a preeminentchronicler of the American condition and author of the acclaimed"Revolutionary Road, " weaves a masterful, unflinching tale of twofamilies brought together by chance, desperation, and desire. EvanShepard was born with good looks, bad luck, and a love for the openro But it was on one such drive, with his father from rural LongIsland into lower Manhattan, that Evan's life would be changedforever. When their car breaks down on a Greenwich Village street,Evan's father presses a random doorbell, looking for a telephone.Within hours, two families--sharing equally complex and addledhistories--will come together. There will be flirtation. There willbe a marriage. There will be a child, a new home... But as Evanmoves further into the uncharted land of manhood, as the women andmen around him come into focus, he faces roads not taken and ajourney not made--in Richard Yates' haunting exploration of humanrestlessness, family secrets, and a future shaped by them b

Written during 1951-52, this novel was an underground legendby the time it was finally published in 1972. Written in anexperimental form, Kerouac created the ultimate account of hisvoyages with Neal Cassady, which he captured in a different formfor On the Road.

As soon as it first appeared in 1953, this gem by the greatSaul Bellow was hailed as an American classic. Bold, expansive, andkeenly humorous, "The Adventures of Augie March" blends streetlanguage with literary elegance to tell the story of a poor Chicagoboy growing up during the Great Depression. A aborn recruit, aAugie makes himself available for hire by plungers, schemers, risktakers, and operators, compiling a record of choices that isato saythe leasta eccentric.

Every Thursday morning for two years in the Islamic Republicof Iran, Azar Nafisi, a bold and inspired teacher, secretlygathered seven of her most committed female students to readforbidden Western classics. Some came from conservative andreligious families, others were progressive and secular; some hadspent time in jail. They were shy and uncomfortable at first,unaccustomed to being asked to speak their minds, but soon theyremoved their veils and began to speak more freely–their storiesintertwining with the novels they were reading by Jane Austen, F.Scott Fitzgerald, Henry James, and Vladimir Nabokov. As Islamicmorality squads staged arbitrary raids in Tehran, asfundamentalists seized hold of the universities and a blind censorstifled artistic expression, the women in Nafisi’s living roomspoke not only of the books they were reading but also aboutthemselves, their dreams and disappointments. Azar Nafisi’s luminous masterwork gives us a rare glimpse, fromthe inside, of women’s lives in rev

Pigs might not fly but they are strangely altered. So, forthat matter, are wolves and racoons. A man, once named Jimmy, livesin a tree, wrapped in old bedsheets, now calls himself Snowman. Thevoice of Oryx, the woman he loved, teasingly haunts him. And thegreen-eyed Children of Crake are, for some reason, hisresponsibility. 'In Jimmy, Atwood has created a great character: atragic-comic artist of the future, part buffoon, part Orpheus. Anadman who's a sad man; a jealous lover who's in perpetual mourning;a fantasist who can only remember the past' - Independent 'Grippingand remarkably imagined' - London Review of Books